Custom Set Pages

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Probably the last post of the year

Today, I wanted to highlight a few nice cards I recieved during the last month or so but have neglected to post because of the craziness that is called the winter holidays in retail. 

About a month ago, Greg at Night Owl Cards held his epic 10th anniversary giveaway, and I was lucky enough to have this Donruss Kyle Seager jersey card slip to my pick, so I happily scooped it up, and he quickly shipped it to me, along with a nice Anthony Banda card from the 2018 Archives set. 

 I may have written about it before, but I have been going to Rays games at Tropicana Field since their first season in 1998, and have probably been to 50 games, maybe even closer to 100. This past June 10 was the first time taking my son Kyler to a Rays game at the Trop, and it wajs really special. I went in early to get autographs, and my wife watched Kyler from the comfort of the air conditioned car as he napped. He woke up midway through batting practice, and woke in time to help me get an autograph from Kyle Seager.
 Someone standing in front of us who knew Seager from Seattle took my card and handed it to him, and he signed it and handed it back (I had my son my arms, and it made getting cards out of my box that was sitting on the top of the dugout pretty difficult). I think if I hadn't had Kyler with me, that the guy would've just ignored us, so I'm thankful he helped out. So now, the Seager autograph, Seager relic from Night Owl, and the Tropicana Field card that I wrote the date of the game and all of the people who went with us on, are all sitting in Kyler's card album, which is a 90-card album, and almost getting full.
 Here is myself, Kyler, and my wife after the game.

A few weeks after getting the Seager and Banda cards, I held a contest, and Fuji from The Chronicles of Fuji was one of the winners. I sent him 3 customs of A's players, and even though he didn't need to send anything back, as I repeat, he WON a contest!!, he went above and beyond, and decided to send me 2 jersey cards of former Rays Johnny Gomes, and BJ Upton.
I was stoked to get both of them, as I remember seeing both Johnny and BJ in 2003 play for the Orlando Rays, and got their autographs that year, and since they are my first jersey cards of the pair. It is always a nice thing to get Rays cards, but even more special when you weren't even expecting them in the first place. Thank you so much, Fuji!

I hope to make some more trades this next year and add to more bloggers collections, as well as fill up some holes in my Rays collection. I recently ordered some cards from COMC of some missing Topps Rays, and will try to get them shipped out soon. I have been following the Rays since day 1, but my Rays only take up 2 binders, and if I were to enter all of my Rays cards on TCDB, I am probably missing Rays from about 95% of all of the sets they are in.

Wes from Area 40 is in the midst of his epic pack/box break, and there's a chance I will have some more Rays cards when it is all said and done. It looks like he has already pulled some good cards, and I don't think he has posted the half of what he as pulled, and it isn't even over yet. Even if you haven't signed up for any teams in the break, I would just check it out for the once in a lifetime experience of seeing that many packs opened at one time. I would probably pay to watch a live feed.

Lastly, as far as customs go, I am working on the 1984 Topps set still. I'm getting closer to the end of the NL, and am having a friend help out with the AL, and that should be finished towards the late winter/early spring of 2019. Now that the holidays are (basically) over with, I should be able to get back into the swing of things, and after '84 is done, I will work on the '93 project I started on, as well as getting the checklists from 1970-1982 finished. Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Thursday, December 6, 2018

How I print my cards and my Ugly Sweater card

In the past few weeks, I have been working on an order that someone on another website placed of around 400 Cincinnati Reds cards. I don't generally get too many people ordering customs from me, or orders that big, but I was happy to take this one on, and it got me to thinking about writing a post on how I print my customs for those who were interested and wanted to do so themselves.

First off, I just want to make the disclaimer that I use MS Paint to make my customs, and that I use an HP Envy 4512 printer (it's probably so old that they don't make them anymore, right?), so if you use a differen printer or photo editing program or a combination of both, that you may not get the same results. With that being said, let's get started.

I usually start making a card from a template I have already made, usually a nice pic of a card from TradingCardDB.com or a similar site, which is the same size as a card (2.5 inches wide by 3.5 inches tall). After I get the card made, I save it (usually as a .png file). The individual files look something like this:
After a number of times messing around, I finally figured out the way to get the most cards to fit on a sheet of paper. I figure there is a way to fit 8-9 on a page, but right now, I can get 6 on a page. I have made an MS Paint file that I use to add 6 cards before printing. You should be able to right click, and save it as a .png file and use it as well.
As you can see, it has the lines already drawn for you, all you have to do is copy your normal sized card, zoom in, paste it into one of the blank areas, and perhaps do a little re-sizing before going on to the next card. After you have got all 6 cards, in, you are ready to print.

I normally just plug my laptop into the printer with a USB cable, and click print on MS Paint, and then my printer does its job. I should note that it prints on the bottom side of the paper. This is helpful if you want to make double-sided cards. I was able at one point to do it by printing on one side of the paper and then turning it over, but I don't know if I messed something up or what, but it no longer works for me and is too much of a headache. I have found, however, that if you buy sticker paper that is the size of a whole sheet of paper, you can print your front on cardstock, or whatever kind of paper, and then print the back on sticker paper, cut each card front and back out, and then attach the back to the front, do a little fine-tuning with the cutting, and then you have a nice front-and-back custom.
Just be aware of what side of the paper your printer prints on when you print on the sticker paper.

Once you have printed the 6-card page, you should get a sheet looking something like this:
Well, something like the sheet, except with better color. This sheet came out just as my color ink ran out, and instead of '98 Topps cards, the last cards on the right look like '98 Topps Opening Day cards with a more silver border.
After you have a 6-card sheet printed, all you need to do is cut them out. I tend to use a scissors, but I think a paper cutter could do wonders. I did read a post by Mark of Battlin' Bucs where he warned against using a cheap paper cutter. The post also is about how he prints his customs, so check that out if you would like another perspective.

Once your cards are cut out, that's about it. You can add them to your collection. I would like to add that the higher quality photo (and template), the better chance that the card will look like it goes along with your other cards. I tend to settle a little, but I have noticed that I will be flipping through my binders and sometimes can't tell a custom that's settled in a page with regular ones.


Recently, Peter from Baseball Every Night held a contest  where he wanted readers to submit their ugliest baseball card. The contest is open until December 15th, all you need to do is make a post with your ugliest card, and add your link to the comments of the post (which is the one I provided). First off, when I heard 'ugly', I knew it had to be a card of a Yankee. They do, after all, have the ugliest and rudest fans. Would it be a card of Jeter, Clemens, A-Roid, Pettite, Torre, Rivera, Posada?  So many to choose from. After I thought about it, it was an easy choice.
Image result for topps archives bob sheppard
Not to make fun of an older person (I will be there soon enough), but I literally have a good reason why I chose this card. 
From around 2004-2011, I was big-time into getting ttm autographs. I had recently pulled Bob Sheppard's card from the Fan Favorite's set (which I wish Topps would bring back instead of what Archives has turned into now). I saw on SportsCollectors.net that Sheppard signed ttm, so I sent the card to Sheppard, and he was nice enough to sign it and return it. Whenever I would go to baseball games to get autographs, I would usually bring a binder full of all of the players I needed signed from the teams I was seeing, and then fill the rest of the remaining area of the binder with recent autographed cards that I received. Well, I was going to the July 4th Lakeland Tigers game one year, and I had just got the Sheppard card signed, and I put it in my 'game binder'. Unlike most games, though, I ran into a few friends from work who were my age, and they ended up sitting with me. One of my friends, Val, noticed the Sheppard card in my binder, and remarked how ugly it was, particularly his bottom teeth. I realize that all of the Yankee fans think he is the greatest stadium PA guy ever, but come on, Topps, couldn't you get a better photo?

So there's my entry into the Ugly Sweater contest. Maybe someone can do a favor and print up a Sheppard customs with a better photo.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

A look at contest cards




My posts have been sporadic lately, but that doesn't mean I am not up to all things custom cards. I recently had a Reds fan ask if I could make close to 500 cards of Reds guys, so that has been taking up alot of my time lately. I haven't forgot about the contest I held a few weeks ago, and have made up all of the ones (I think) that were requested by the winners. I believe I still have a few guys who haven't responded to me who were winners, so if this is you, please comment, or shoot me an email at karensjer at g mail dot com. I believe I have the pictures up for the ones I did for Fuji, Gavin, Paul B, and one other reader. I will get these in the mail the next time I go to the post office.

Other than that, I have ordered some cards on COMC for my Favorite Player Collection, and I think I might wait until the Spring Sale and then get them shipped. I have been working on cards for the 1984 Topps set for a fantasy league that some friends are running, and I also entered Wes's huge group break at the Area 40 blog (turn away if you are an Auburn fan!). While Auburn got smoked in the Iron Bowl, I still believe in Gus, and he will get the team back on track in '19 (did you see some of those 'Bama-favored calls??).  Even though  Wes is a 'Bama fan, I think he is a nice guy to do all this, so it proves that not all bandwagon-type teams have crappy fans. 
Thanks for checking out my latest post. 
-Jeremy


Friday, November 2, 2018

Projects, projects.

Well, it has been kind of crazy at my house lately, with work picking up due to the holiday, church stuff, and a birthday for a 2-year old coming up next weekend. That leaves not much time for customs and cards.
So the contest officially ended, but I haven’t had time to make a post or pick winners. I haven’t ever used the randomizer site, and since it was only 2 over the original 5 that would be winners, I’m just going to let everyone that commented choose 3 cards off of my checklists. If you would please send me an email with your 3 cards and address, I will get the customs to you as soon as I have a chance to breathe. You can reach me at karensjer at g mail dot com.
With that being said, I have a few projects that have come up in the last 2 days that will probably take priority of my free time, but I promise, I will get customs to the winners eventually. The first project is a nice, unexpected order of every Reds custom that I have. That is close to 150 cards, and I am working on taking each individual card, putting it into a 6-card blank template, printing that, and then cutting them out. I’m hoping I can get that done during an off day after my sons party. My off day next week will be spent mowing the lawn and getting the house ready for the party.
The other project isn’t as urgent, but I need it done by February. I had a friend ask me to finish the 1984 Topps set for a sim baseball league he is doing, similar to what I did with the ‘83 set. I had planned on working on the ‘82 Topps checklist, but the deadline might push that back some. I hope to get the prize customs done between the 2 projects.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Working on '78 Topps and such

Just a reminder to anyone who cares, in my last post, I announced a contest where the prize is 3 custom cards off of my checklists. I will have up to 5 winners, and all you need to do to enter is leave a comment on the post.

I have been trying to work on making some checklists during my lunch break at work. Currently, I am working on the 1978 Topps checklist. I have finished the missing players for the entire National League, and am working on the American League now. The checklists aren't that hard, since Topps actually put most of the 40-man rosters on cards in the '70's. After the '78 checklist is finished, I will work on the '77 set, then '76, '75, and so on until the '70's are finished.

The templates are a work in progress. So far, I have '78's for the Braves and Tigers. I've found that Topps has made several designs for '70's sets on their custom page, but they aren't totally true to the original designs (only one color design, for instance), and just as a rule, if you are trying to help cross some cards off of my list by making them, I probably won't use any that have the Topps templates, unless they match the colors of the teams that are on the original cards. With that being said, I will try my best to make templates for the sets. I am working on putting my loose baseball cards into binders, and in a few months once that is done, I will have some free time available to make checklists and templates with.

Here is the link to the '78 set, along with the templates that I have, and just for a treat, here are the 2 '78's I've done so far. The Tigers ones are done by Giovanni from When Topps Had Balls.






Finally, here is a link to an awesome post that my friend Beny made with a list (and pictures!!!!) of most of the fonts from every Topps set from 1951 to the present. It is so awesome, and has allowed me and others to make customs that are almost spot-on to the real cards. Beny put a ton of work into the page, and I wish there was a Go Fund Me page or something to thank him for doing the font page.

Hope you enjoy the '78 page. Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Contest Post

I have done a lot of different types of posts on here (customs of a certain player, customs from a certain year, additions to my collection), but I have never done a contest. I have been fortunate enough to win a few contests on other blogs, so I decided to have one here. I don't know if many people will enter, but here is how I have decided to do everything.

1. I will have (up to) 5 contest winners.
2. In order to enter, all you need to do is comment on this post. The commenters will then be randomized once if I get more than 5, and the first 5 names after randomizing will be the winners.
3. I will leave this contest open for a week, so it will officially end on Wednesday, October 31, around 2 PM Eastern time (or whenever I can get on my laptop after I get home from work that day).
4. The winner(s) will get their choice of 3 custom cards made by myself, as long as they come off of one of the checklists I have on here. For convenience sake, I will list all of the completed checklists I have on this post, in order by year. Most of them are organized by team, so if you want to search for cards that way, it may be easier. I know not all years have complete checklists, and I apologize, but my contest, my rules.

Here are some of the completed checklists I have.

1979 Topps
1983 Topps & 1983 Topps Traded
1984 Topps
1985 Topps
1986 Topps
1987 Topps
1988 Topps
1989 Topps
1990 Topps
1991 Topps
1992 Topps
1993 Topps
1994 Topps
1995 Topps
1996 Topps
1997 Topps
1998 Topps
1999 Topps
2000 Topps
2001 Topps
2016 Topps


As I mentioned before, I have some partial checklists up for the other sets, but the ones listed are complete and have every team on them.

Good luck! Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Monday, October 15, 2018

The 1998 Topps set is complete!!!


































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































After about a year of working, here are all of the missing card from the 1998 Topps set. The '98 set was one of my favorites. I was 15 in 1998, and I just never purchased that many packs of the set in 1998, I guess due to not having as much spending money as I wanted. If I remember correctly, Wal-Mart, where I went to get most of my card from, never really seemed to have '98 Topps, more Upper Deck and Collector's Choice. I still don't have many '98 Topps cards in my collection today, but I am probably closer to having 25% of the set now. You can say what you want about the set, but I have always thought it was a beautiful set, with the gold borders, frame-like things in the design, the team logo under the nameplate, and the interesting photos in the set. Combine that with some of the first cards of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and you have a winner in my book.
I am now going to start work on the 1993 Topps set. Along with the 1998 Topps set, this marks the 3rd set I have completed, including 1983 Topps (and 1983 Topps Traded), 1992 Topps, and 1994 Topps. The '93 set will give me a run of 3 years in a row completed, which naturally leaves me to work on the 1991 set after that.  Thanks to all of the people who have helped out making cards for this set with me (mainly Richard and Mark).
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy