1993 Topps Bret Barberie

Today's card is a card from the 1993 Topps Marlins set. Bret Barberie got a card in the 1992 Topps set, and the '94 set, but was left off of the '93 one. I don't see why. He was a prospect, even played on the '88 USA Olympic team and got a card in the '88 Topps Traded set. He was selected in the Expansion Draft, and most of the selections got cards in the '93 Topps or '93 Topps Traded set. By the time the '93 Traded set would come out, Bret staked his name in Marlins history by getting their first ever hit, so there are tons of reasons why he should've got a card in the 1993 set, 

I'm going to try to give all of the players selected in the 1992 and 1997 Expansion Drafts cards, probably giving more priority to the Devil Rays, but I'll eventually get all of them done.

This will be the last post I do for a week or so. I'm either working or at doctor appointments the next few days, then I'm going on a cruise on Friday, so while I won't be posting, I'm going to be having a great time relaxing as long as I get through a few days of work. Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

2001 Topps Yadier Molina/Chase Utley Draft Pick

Today's card is one of those cards that I kind of got to cherry-pick 2 good players and put them on the card. In 2001, Topps put 2 random players on draft pick cards, as they had since 1997. This practice (along with the fact that they didn't specify 'First Round Pick') will allow me to pair up some real superstars on customs draft cards from '97-'01.

Molina has been a fixture with the Cardinals for the last decade. Good enough to probably be inducted in the Cardinals Hall of Fame, and perhaps in MLBs if he puts up another 5-10 years of solid numbers. If he can get close to 2500 hits and wins a few more Gold Gloves, I think he could be a lock.

Utley has put up some good numbers in Philly until injuries hit him. After the cheap takeout slide he did in last years' playoffs, I lost a good deal of respect for him, but he had the best numbers out of the candidates I had, so I stuck him next to Molina on the card.

If you have any ideas for custom Draft Pick cards from the '97-'01 sets, or any other ideas for cards, feel free to let me know. Thanks for checking out my latest card.
-Jeremy

1994 Topps Draft Pick Derrek Lee

Topps for some reason left Derrek Lee off of their Draft Picks subset in the 1994 Topps set. Lee was featured in just about all of the other sets that year that included draft picks (Bowman, Collector's Choice, Pinnacle, Score, and Upper Deck), but was left off of good ol' Topps. His first Topps card would come in the 1996 on a 1B Prospects card, and he would get many other Topps cards throughout his career (besides a sunset card), but I would've figured that Topps would've got him in the '94 set.

This card was pretty simple to make, and now that I have the template made for it, I will probably make many more draft cards from '94. The good thing about just about all of the draft pick cards that Topps made after 1991 is that they don't have 'First Round' listed on them, so you can make a rookie card for anyone who got drafted and signed that year. I could theoretically make an Albert Pujols Draft Pick card from 1999 Topps and combine him with the biggest name that didn't get a card in that set, and have a card with 2 mega superstars on it that would never have been possible because card companies would've never paired the two, but now with customs becoming more prevalent, things like that are possible.

It's been busy, busy, busy around here, and I haven't made many non-1992 Topps cards lately, but I am about 1/4th of the way done with the backs of all of the coach cards in that set, and after that it should be smooth sailing. I'm hoping to be done with that set in a few months, and hopefully after that, I can make some more customs for this blog (including the previously mentioned 1994 Topps Draft Pick cards and the '99 Pujols.

Thanks for checking out my latest card.
-Jeremy

1995 Topps Rich Gossage

Tops gave Rich "Goose" Gossage his final Topps card in the 1992 set. Gossage played his final season in 1994. He was not the closer he once was, but still was a valuable player, so it's strange to see that Toops didn't include him in a set from '93-'95, not even in a Traded set.

Cards that never Were did a 1991 Topps Traded card of Goose to fill in one of the holes in Gossage's Topps run. I have the 1993 and 1994 Gossage cards on my list of cards to make, but if everything goes well, I may not have as much free time to make cards in the coming months/years as I have had, but it will be worth it I think. I'll eventually make Rich's missing Topps cards, if not in the coming months, than certainly in the years to come if I keep this blog going, and there is nothing right now saying that I won't, just might be a slower pace of posting and making cards.

Thanks to checking out my latest custom.
-Jeremy

1994 Topps Traded Update Lenny Randle

Lenny Randle played in the Majors from 1971 until 1982. I didn't really know much about him until the MLB Network had a documentary about him that I saw. Turns out, he is quite the interesting character. He is most famous for trying to blow on a baseball to make it go foul when he was playing 3B for the Mariners. He also became known for punching Rangers manager Frank Lucchesi during a 1977 Spring Training game.  He was famously at the plate when the power went out at Shea Stadium during a blackout in 1977, and the documentary also said he was an amateur comedian. 

In 1983, he became the first MLB player to play baseball in Italy, where he set many records, and then in 1989 and 1990, he played in the Senior Professional Baseball Association. In early 1995 when the Major League players were on strike, he signed with the California Angels as a replacement player. He missed his chance on returning to MLB when the strike ended that spring. 

Topps didn't have to make cards of replacement players because nobody ever played, but I always wondered what would have happened if Topps released a 1994 Topps Traded "Update" set in early 1995 with the replacement players in it.  We would've got cards of Randle, Oil Can Boyd, Pedro Borbon, Guillermo Hernandez, and others. 

This Randle card was a doozie. The only picture I could find of Randle in an Angels uniform was from Lenny's website, but it was in black and white. I ended up using it and trying to blend a lot of the colors on the uniform after I tried colorizing it, and then inserting his face from a different color picture in it. It looks a little suspect, but it's better than some of the crap airbrushed stuff we've seen from Topps before. 

Hope you enjoyed the latest card in my custom set.  Thanks for reading.

-Jeremy

1990 Topps Kent Tekulve

Kent Tekulve pitched from 1974-1989. He is most famous for his submarine-style delivery, his trademark sunglasses, and his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the '70's. He has Topps cards for most years that he played, however he is missing cards from the Flagship brand in the 1975, 1989, and 1990 sets (he did get a 1989 Traded card).

Kent set many records for innings pitched by a reliever, games pitched by a reliever, and similar records. He saved 3 games in the 1979 World Series for the Pirates, and was an All-Star in 1980. While probably not quite a Hall of Famer, he certainly should be remembered as a quality pitcher, and perhaps be considered to have his number retired by the Pirates.

This card, as with most 1990 Topps customs I've done, was pretty simple to make, and would've made a nice sunset card. Thanks for checking out my latest custom.
-Jeremy

Design or first hits?

I usually blog about customs, but from time to time, I am going to start doing more posts about cards from my collection. In the last month, I bought 3 regular packs and 1 jumbo pack of '16 Donruss from Target and Wal-Mart. I've noticed that the set has been getting a lot of hate from bloggers lately. While I'll have to say that these cards would look so much better with logos and stuff, I really like what I've seen from the 4 packs I've got so far. The Rookies cards look amazing. The Prospect ones do as well, and while the base design is what it is, I think it is entirely different than the last 2 offerings of Donruss, quite to the contrary of most of the blogosphere. I think I'll be buying more '16 Donruss because I like the design, but mainly because of the insert cards I got out of my packs. These are some (not all) of the hits I got in my 4 packs. 

I was particularly impressed with the numbered cards. That Peraza card looks sweet! Wish they could've used that design for the base set. With all that being said, that kind of leads me to a question. 

I am the type of collector who will buy a few packs of most of the products in retail when they are released. I'll typically buy more of the Flagship Brand, especially series 1. If I like the cards, I will buy more packs as the budget allows, until I start to notice I'm close to completing the set, until I start getting a ton of doubles, or until something newer comes out. I'll typically do this with Series 1, Heritage (not so much), Bowman (maybe a few packs), Series 2, Update, Donruss, and every once in a while Chrome. I may be forgetting a release or two, but when you are on a budget and you don't have an LCS nearby, these are the main brands you see in retail stores. I think as a collector that some of what draws us to the product are not only the design of the cards, but also what you pull from those first few packs (maybe even more than the design). 

I remember in 2008, I was living in Montgomery, Alabama. We had a LCS, but it was more of a comic store, so I would usually get most of my cards from the local Wal-Mart and Target. Target usually had the better selection. I bought a few packs of '08 Upper Deck Piece of History, and in one of the first packs, I got a Mike Myers (actor) relic card. The base card design was blah, but I liked the hit I got, so a few weeks later, I bought a few more packs. I pulled a dual jersey card of Felix Hernandez/Carlos Zambrano. This time I noticed the packs either were thicker (containing a relic), or smaller (without one). I went one more time and bought 5 packs, each one being a thicker one. This was towards the end of the box. In these packs, I got a George Clooney relic, and a Justin Verlander jersey card, as well as 3 decoy cards. I would've probably never bought the last 2 sets of packs if not for the nice hit I got in the first packs I got. 

For some sets, the design does help. I bought a ton of cards last year because the Topps design was amazing. This years set is crap in my opinion, and the only thing that kept me buying packs as long as I did was trying to get Jacob deGrom's card (finally did after like 3 blasters). 

It makes me wonder if the amount of packs we buy of a product has more to do with the inserts we get from those first few packs. There have probably been tons of sets that I've just stopped buying packs of just because I didn't get any decent cards in the first few packs (2006 Allen/Ginter is one I can think of off of the top of my head. I'll admit that I've bought a ton of 2010 Bowman trying to get a Bryce Harper card even though the design was boring and I never pulled anything from the 4 blasters I bought, but most of the time, I buy packs of a set and continue buying because I like the cards I get. 

I just wanted to leave you guys with a few questions. 

1. Do you buy more packs of a product because of the inserts/hits/players you pulled in the first few packs?

2. Have you stopped buying a product because you didn't pull anything and then the product turns out to be something amazing?

3. Does the design have more to do with it?

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy