I've been kind of in a custom making mode lately. Between making a few to put into trade packages and getting a little tired of working on nothing but checklists, I've kind of been wanting to make customs, so I decided to try my hand at making customs of 2 of the most important moments in Rays history that were largely ignored in the 2012 Topps regular set.
Most everyone knows the story about the 2011 season where the Red Sox were leading the Wild Card by a number of games but then collapsed (or the Rays got hot as I like to look at it), and the Rays won the Wild Card spot on the last day of the season. The Rays did their part during the final game by beating the Yankees. The big blows were a HR by Dan Johnson with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, and a walkoff HR by Evan Longoria in the bottom of the 12th. The plays didn't make it into Topps's set in 2012. They would've made nice cards to have as checklists instead of giving checklists to retiring guys like Mariano Rivera and giving them another card. Here is my version of a Dan Johnson Highlight card.
And here's the Longoria card.
Another example of Topps not giving the Rays any love. I would've loved to see them get a card in the 2009 set highlighting their 1st World Series win in Game 2 of the '08 World Series. The game got a card in the '09 Heritage set, but instead it showed Eric Bruntlett's Home Run in the Philles loss. Come on, Topps! Here is a card righting that wrong as well.
I really hope that everything opens up again soon and that the people in charge of making the decisions to open don't jump the gun either. I sure miss places like my card shop and such, but if everything opens too early, we will just be back where we started. While I'm waiting, I will still have fun things like trading, sorting cards, and making customs. I hope you can find things to pass the time too.
Stay safe.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy
Most everyone knows the story about the 2011 season where the Red Sox were leading the Wild Card by a number of games but then collapsed (or the Rays got hot as I like to look at it), and the Rays won the Wild Card spot on the last day of the season. The Rays did their part during the final game by beating the Yankees. The big blows were a HR by Dan Johnson with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, and a walkoff HR by Evan Longoria in the bottom of the 12th. The plays didn't make it into Topps's set in 2012. They would've made nice cards to have as checklists instead of giving checklists to retiring guys like Mariano Rivera and giving them another card. Here is my version of a Dan Johnson Highlight card.
Since this would've been Jackie Robinson Day, here is an old custom I did in the '98 Topps set highlighting the 1st Jackie Robinson Day in 1997.
This year is giving us a lot of 'what if?'s' and a number of unanswered questions. I figured I'd post some and see what everyone else thought.
1. How are you getting your card fix right now? Packs from retail places? eBay/COMC/other online places? Trading?
2. What do you think will happen with upcoming card releases like Bowman? Will they be pushed back?
Those are kind of the questions that deal with everything right now. These next ones kind of take on a worst case scenerio theme.
3. Let's say that the MLB season gets shortened pretty well in 2020 and everything is shut down through the All-Star Break. Will this affect future card releases like Series 2? Will 2021 card releases sell very well? People that were old enough to remember the 1994 strike (I was 11) tell me that '95 card sets didn't sell very well.
4. If the stay-at-home orders go on long enough, would it be enough to do some card shops in? I know we had a shop open up near me that isn't even a year old, and I can't really picture them being in a good position right now. They deal more with jerseys, replica rings and such, but they do have baseball cards. They had a good nickel box which I would've loved to spend a day digging through but haven't yet, and I just don't think they sold all of the things that weren't cards. This leads me to believe that they aren't going to be able to keep the doors open if they fall behind on the rent for very long.
I really hope that everything opens up again soon and that the people in charge of making the decisions to open don't jump the gun either. I sure miss places like my card shop and such, but if everything opens too early, we will just be back where we started. While I'm waiting, I will still have fun things like trading, sorting cards, and making customs. I hope you can find things to pass the time too.
Stay safe.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy
1. I've been watching on-line breaks a lot lately and reading the blogs of course. Crackin' Wax and Phil's Pulls are my favorites.
ReplyDelete2. I think most upcoming releases will be pushed back a bit and I think Topps has already announced some delays.
3. I think the card market is completely different than what is was back in 1995. There are so many on-line breakers looking to make a buck and so many buyers trying to jump on the next hot rookie. Heck, if the season is ultimately cancelled, we could have a HUGE rookie class in 2021.
4. This is the really sad one. So many small businesses, card shops and otherwise, will not come out of this.
Just my two cents. Stay safe!
1. I had a couple of blasters to open when this started, but they're gone now. Was thinking about picking up a blaster at Wal-Mart, but at my wife's insistence I've stopped even going food shopping now, relying only on deliveries and no-contact pickup. (I'm in New Jersey, so it's pretty bad here.) I've bought a few cards from eBay and gotten a few envelopes from Johnny's BFG and some of the free stuff posts. One of these days I may do a Cardbarrel shopping spree.
ReplyDelete2. If Topps can still get the cards printed--and that's a big if--then I think they'd still release them on time, even if there's no baseball.
3. I think the problems in the card market in 1995 were mostly because people were really angry with baseball (both the owners and players) because the season was cancelled. This is a very different situation because anyone reasonable would understand that this is not baseball's fault, and that indeed it was the responsible thing to do. There may be some decline in interest from the lack of new rookies, but not too bad.
4. Yeah, I think when we come out of this, a LOT of businesses are going to be negatively impacted. I've read that a lot of movie theaters may go out. A lot of consumer business is habit, and those habits are getting broken. Add in the likelihood that when these places first open, there will still be a risk of catching the disease, AND the fact that a lot of people will have less spending money, and there are going to be a lot of businesses hurt. I hope I'm wrong, or at least that it won't be as bad as I fear.
1. I've been cutting back on buying... and spending more time digging through boxes of stuff I've had sitting around for years. But when I do buy, it's usually on eBay. Although... tomorrow I'll be publishing a post about a purchase I made at an antique store.
ReplyDelete2. No idea. I don't usually keep track of new releases and I wasn't planning on buy a lot of 2020 products anyways.
3. I doubt that people will blame MLB for the shortened season. If anything, maybe collectors will buy a bunch of 2021 products to make up for lost time.
4. Sadly... I think it will hurt a lot of card shops. I hope it doesn't. But I know of at least two local restaurants that are very popular that are closing their doors permanently. Gotta imagine card shops are gonna get hit just as hard, maybe harder.