One of Those $5 Card Cubes From CVS. You Know the Ones.

Oftentimes when I buy one of these repack cubes I bust it and forget it, but this one actually gave some pretty decent cardboard. I figured I should write about it.

This was the salesman card, that being what I call the card on the front that entices you into buying the whole cube. There was another with a Mickey Mantle reprint, but I liked this Upper Deck offering made specifically for The National just a little more.  Luckily for me this cube seemed to sense my desire for a Mantle:

I've never seen this silvery Topps guy, but it's pretty cool with its showcasing of his jersey number and that ball field background. Great name banner, too.

It's almost like the cube knew who was going to buy it. TWO perfectly solid Buhners in one repack? I already have 'em both, but I can't deny I got all excited.

Cool Smoltz. Never seen these before.

This looks like a regular Miggy, but the back tells another story...

#AL-15?  Where did this come from? There's also no foil on the front. Not sure what's going on here, but I'm sure it's nothing especially rare, am I right?  Anyway, love that picture.

The cube advertises that 1 in 4 contains a hit, and wouldn't you know it?

Yay! It's the now-retired Halladay in his Phillies uniform. I'd prefer a Blue Jays relic for Roy, but it's not a bad hit for one of these cubes. I'm not a huge A&G fan, but I do love their relic presentation.

Some nice vintage. I'm sure some snicker at my calling such recent cardboard "vintage," but...yeah.

The Parker is cool, and the Tiant autograph shot is better, but the Tekulve action shot takes the prize here. Dig the runner on second. You don't see shots like that anymore what with Panini not allowed to show logos and Topps cropping all the life out of their base cards.

I gotta tell ya, I am enamored with that scoreboard, especially after this past season. You guys have something special in KC.

A few stars were mixed in among the riff-raff. I really like that shot of McGwire combined with the red foil nameplate. Nice card, Pacific.

Here's a nice stack of Hall of Famers plus one broken bat.

Despite a few reasonably big names, Mr. Detwiler gets the award for best rookie card in this stack due to that excellent photo. Speaking of 2008 Upper Deck...

I want them to make cards again! Upper Deck gave us some of the best cards in this stupid cube. Give them a license, MLB! LET THEM PLAY!

Let's wrap this baby up with the best name in the bunch: Skeeter Barnes. It positively trips off the tongue.

I'm pretty happy with how this box went, though most of this is up for trade. Still, I might end up going back and grabbing that other cube with the Mantle reprint.

Wallet Card Dilemma

I went on a trip to New York recently to visit friends, and I brought with me a 1995 Pinnacle Griffey (the gum bubble one) in a screw case specifically to take pictures of it in cool places. And wouldn’t you know it? The one day we took a train into the city, I left it back at the house where I was staying. Sad panda.

I’m mentioning this here because of Wallet Card, the new craze that’s spreading around the blogsphere like wildfire. It’s a concoction of defgav from BaseballCard Breakdown, and its crazy fun-sounding.

Always having a card one’s person makes for a great opportunity to never miss a great cardboard photo op. But what card should I butt-rock? It should be a Griffey, obviously, but which one?

If I had my druthers, I would go with the 1989 Upper Deck #1 rookie, a universally-appreciated and recognized card with a street value somewhere between ten and fifteen bucks. That’s a lot for overproduction-era cardboard. Do I really have the nerve to damage an ’89 UD #1 by molding it to the curvature of my buttocks via wallet storage? Maybe that’s not such a good idea.

My next pick is the Donruss rookie, ol’ #33. It’s the one that got me into collecting Griffeys, and I have several dozen of them including a few that already have condition issues. There would be little sacrifice there.

The ’95 Pinnacle is a good option, too, given that it’s my Blogger avatar and a great photo of the Kid keepin’ it light. People love that card, and it’s available on COMC for a mere 45 cents. Such a deal.

You know what? I’m overthinking this.

Never compromise. 

Nerd Week Contest Results

Man, oh, man are you guys nerdy! And am I ever proud of ya.

Here's a link to the original contest, and a reminder that up for grabs today is a brand new and sealed Family Guy Star Wars Crossover Blu-ray as well as some other nerdy stuff and baseball cards and such.

Who wanted it most?

I am happy to report that the Nerd Council has convened in this, the year of our Lord 2015, and chosen one of the following six people as worthy of the mighty blu-ray disc of nerd-dom. Here, in no particular order, are the entries from those brave few:

JediJeff: Star Wars Supernerd

Jeff's entry is one of those things that people think of pretty quickly when they think of the modern nerd: the Star Wars guy. I can normally relate, too; but Jeff takes it to a whole other level with his massive collection of stuff and membership in a Chicago-area Star Wars fan collective. Groups like this exist in the fan communities of both Star Wars and Star Trek (where they refer to themselves as "ships"), and they typically do charity work, have parties, and apparently get a fair amount of drinking done.

Qui-Gon Gin and Tonic?

Embedded in one of Jeff's collective's blog posts is the picture that he has decided to submit for the contest, and here it is:

It's an extremely impressive collection of Star Wars stuff and things that would make George Lucas blush.  There are toys, games, figures, and do I see some retail standees?  This is the kind of photo that makes me wish we could have basements in New Orleans.  

Well done, Jeff.  Your blog handle carries a whole new weight with me.

CynicalBuddha: Supercollecting Baseball Card Nerd

Mr. CB decided to make us all drool over the former glory of his man-cave (now his baby son's bedroom).  Take a look:

The man is not only a card collecting beast, he's a master of organization.  Each set is boxed and filed appropriately with original box cutouts attached for easy reference. More boxes are labeled by team and player, and these puppies are stacked to the ceiling. Like, there's literally no more room for even one more long box on those shelves. And speaking of the shelves, is that a custom job?

My only question is: How did you use your scanner with all those balls on top of it? Or is that what the one on the desk is for?

There are more pictures of this room, the most card-related one being of the closet that holds many more reams of neatly filed cardboard.  It's a room I could easily spend hours in.

I hope you get your man cave back someday, CB.  Very impressive.

Defgav: Lego/Card Fusion Nerd

You may have seen Gavin's post that gave us a rare bit of Lego/Baseball Card fusion.  It's a match made in Heaven if you ask me, but he actually made it practical.  Here's an example of his handiwork:

I'm not gonna lie - I had a serious "Why didn't I think of that?" moment when I looked at his post. It's so simple, and yet so confoundedly nerderiffic. This seems like it should be a contest all its own: best Lego card display. I'm going to let you take the reins on that one, Gav.

Gavin's entry made it incredibly far among the brethren (and one lady) of the Nerd Council due to the ingenuity and fusion of two very nerdy concepts. Great stuff.

The Card Papoy: Books/Comics Salesnerd

Kevin's entry is simple and completely baddass. It's a single sheet of paper with an inscribed autograph from a very unlikely source.  Check it out:

"To Kevin - Stay off of drugs... Prince Paul 2003." For those of you who don't know, Prince Paul is an MC/producer who has worked with many famous hip-hop groups including De La Soul, Cypress Hill, and my absoulte favorite, MC Paul Barman (a college-educated white guy who fancies himself a rapper). This autograph of Kevin's was just so random and cool that I burst out laughing when I saw it. I never would have guessed...

I wonder how much he kept "off of drugs" when he was working with Cypress Hill?

Kevin also works in a bookstore in France where he sells American comic books. And it seems he's also a massive David Lynch fan which puts him in the category of film nerd as well. There are a lot of pistons firing in Kevin's nerd engine, that's for sure. 

For the record, my wife hates Mulholland Drive, as do most women I've met who have seen it. I'm not sure you want to date the kind of girl who likes that movie...

Lonestarr: Comic Illustrator/Creator/Nerd

Lonestarr, who has one of my favorite blogger handles of all time, submitted his work as an aspiring illustrator and creator of original comic characters.  Here's some of his work:

Nerd level: AWESOME. This is original work, created from scratch out of the very nerdy mind of lonestarr himself. He also used his talents for some excellent baseball-related sketches (that I totally want to buy from him):

Is it just me or do these not look completely amazing on the backs of old cardboard? Very impressive and super nerdy, bro. You've got talent.

The Prowling Cat: Business Card Nerd

We all collect different things, but there tends to be a market for everything we collect. That's not quite the case for Zenus of The Prowling Cat who collects something that cannot typically be bought - it must be given:

Business cards. I have never met another person who does this. I mean, they have to be out there, right? There's probably an online community of collectors with binders full of these things, but I've never seen them. Zenus is passionate about them, too.  Check out his Red Robin mural:

I never would have guessed, let alone come across enough Red Robin business cards to assemble it.

The great thing about collecting these is that they don't typically cost the owner anything at all, so people can be generous with them. It's a very unique collection and deserves recognition. Zenus, you also got extremely far in being considered the nerdiest entry. Excellent collection.

_______________________________________________________________________

Well, that's everyone.  I'm happy to say that the Nerd Council has gone over each and every entry very carefully; and after much deliberation, one of you proved to us that you are the most deserving of the mighty Family Guy Blu-ray of Antioch.

The nerdiest of all of you is.....















wait for it.....

Lonestarr!

Again, this was a tough choice. I had to enlist a number of my nerdiest friends to pour over all the entries and finally reach a decision, but it was lonestarr's originality, passion, and willingness to hang it all out there that won him this one. Well done, my friend. You are a seriously baddass nerd.

Please send your address to thejuniorjunkie at gmail dot com.

Thanks to everyone who played or even read these posts. It's been fun. And don't forget...

Stay nerdy, my friends.

Design Timeline: Leaf Limited

This Post is Part of an Ongoing Feature The Great Griffey Base Card Project.

When you think of Leaf Limited, what comes to mind? For me it’s foil. Shiny, unscannable, easily-damaged foil. The base cards of Leaf Limited, while beautiful, share a quality with sets like ’71 Topps in that it’s tough to find a mint specimen undinged by life as a cardboard rectangle. They’re just fragile.

You may or may not also think of lines which seem to be a major element in every one of their designs. That may sound a little vague since everything is made of lines, but Leaf Limited designs tend to gravitate towards clusters of horizontal lines that move together. The layouts were also very symmetrical in the first part of the timeline.

The last thing you may think of is an aesthetic that, while modern and sharp, still exudes beauty like a flat little four-cornered Faberge egg. The designs tend to be a little more forward-thinking than other brands that focus on a classic look for their high-end offerings, but Leaf Limited stays pretty.  That's not easy.

Here's every Leaf Limited design in order:

1994:

1994 Leaf Limited #66

Lots of precedents are being set this year, some of which stuck around towards the end of the timeline. One of my favorite things about Leaf Limited is that great cursive “L” in the logo which appeared in either metallic foil or holofoil on the first few sets. If you ask me, it never looked better than in these first three designs.

Another feature more striking in the beginning of the timeline is the prominently-featured parallel lines used to create a symmetrical focal point on the card. The lines would stay a major design theme for most of the timeline – the symmetry would not.

Lots of holofoil and that great big centered team logo are great accouterments to a strong debut base design. I’m also a fan of the thick border and nameplate font which we would see again in the ’96 set and also in ’95 Leaf flagship, a personal favorite.

1995:

1995 Leaf Limited #118

The most different of all the Leaf Limited designs, this base set is bathed in team color, shiny bits, and general character. The stately parallel lines and complete inundation in holofoil are the dominant characteristics this year. The gold foil logo is my favorite one in the timeline as is the great vertical team name in a kind of script I’ve never seen on another card before or since. I’m also a big proponent of the modern, tastefully-spaced nameplate. It doesn’t hurt that Griffey got an especially great photo for his base card this year. For all those reasons, when I hear someone say “Leaf Limited,” this is the card that springs to mind.

1996:

1996 Leaf Limited #11

More modern and less pretty than its predecessor, this one sports three entirely different kinds of foil. We’ve got holofoil up top and gold metallic foil below with the whole enchilada wrapped in silver foil card stock. While I prefer the brand logo from last year’s design, this one is presented nicely. There are much better uses for parallel lines than the vertical “prison” look, but those babies framed within the thick left and right side borders give an air of stateliness to the card. Plus they make it look taller. Kinda.

For most Donruss sets the break in the timeline happens after 1998, but this one is different. In 1997 someone made the call to nix Leaf Limited and rebrand it as a new-from-the-ground-up brand called Donruss Limited. The new set was so convoluted and weirdly-engineered that it failed after only two years. Why they made this move is a mystery to me, but I have to assume based on what they did release in lieu of another Leaf Limited that they were trying to create a whole new kind of set. They sure did, too, and less than two years later they filed for bankruptcy.

By the time 2001 rolled around a lot of Donruss brands were being resurrected by their new owners, Playoff, and for some reason Leaf Limited was one of them. They hadn’t existed for five years at this point. Why now? Why this one? It’s almost like Playoff was trying to undo the damage done with the introduction of Donruss Limited and get the brand back to where it was just before the downward spiral. Enough conjecture – here’s what Playoff did with Leaf Limited:

2001:

2001 Leaf Limited #11

My favorite design under the Playoff banner and the first asymmetrical design in the timeline, these puppies are bold. Check out the striking font and extensive team dual-coloration (it looks particularly cool on cards for the Astros and Diamondbacks). They also kept the parallel lines – seemingly the very same ones used in the ’95 design – and worked them into a fun new spiral shape around the logo. There seems to have been a lot of thought put into this year’s design, and it turned out solid. Well done, Playoff.

Despite a great effort in 2001, there was no Leaf Limited in 2002. I have no idea why. My guess is that they spent months creating the greatest card set of all time, and someone spilled coffee on the final proofs and the designers said, “Screw it. We’re not doing that all over again.” On we go to 2003:

2003:

2003 Leaf Limited #61 #/999

Ladies and gents, the first genuinely limited Leaf Limited set. All the base cards are serial numbered from here on out, so it's no longer just a fancy brand name. The lines are once again oriented around the logo here, but they are of a shorter, thicker variety like those found on traffic signs. The massive vertical nameplate feels like it was tacked on as an afterthought; and while this very blog uses a lot of Times New Roman in its title, I just don’t buy it on most baseball cards (I said most - '92 Studio rocks Times New Roman like a beast). It’s not a particularly ugly design, but it’s also not particularly memorable.

2004:

2004 Leaf Limited #81 #/749

This year we got a return to the symmetry of the 90’s designs. I really like the low-profile nameplate and team logo over a field of extreme-zoom team logo, but there’s one thing missing from the design this year: parallel lines. We get a few perpendicular lines splitting corners around the diamond-shaped logo, but that’s it. A staple of Leaf Limited design elements is gone forever.

Leaf doubled-up a lot of the checklist this year, so there are actually two Griffeys in the base set. The other is card #173. It is identical apart from the photo, blurb, and card number.  For the purposes of the Timeline I am only showing the first base card.

2005:

2005 Leaf Limited #102 #/699

They brought back the lines but the uniformity is lost. Now it leans more towards that lines-for-the-sake-of-lines thing that Upper Deck did so much. It’s a good-looking card, though, and not altogether out of place in the timeline; but the randomness of the lines is just not very Leaf Limited to me.  This has always been a set based on orderliness and symmetry.  Even when the symmetry was removed in the '01 design there was still a balance to the layout.  That's pretty much gone.  Still, this is cool card, and I love the simple, mid-mounted nameplate.

That is where the Leaf Limited timeline ends. Since then Panini has acquired Playoff and, therefore, Donruss and Leaf. We’ve seen them taking these defunct brands and running with them back into the collector card market in recent years, but among the first of their unlicensed offerings was a very bizarrely-dated (for baseball, anyway) 2011-12 Panini Limited set. They even kept the logo more or less the same though they used a more stylized “L.” There was no Griffey in that base set, but he did make it into a few inserts.

Hence the Limited name lives on under a different banner. Could this be the end of the Limited Timeline as well? Kinda. Three resurrections later I have little doubt we’ll see that cursive “L” grace some more logo-less cardboard in the near future, but it won’t be Leaf Limited.  Apart from that we have no word on the return of a brand featuring the words "Leaf" and "Limited" in any proximity to one another.

__________________________________________________________________________

Whether you like the designs or not, you have to respect that this brand did have a unique identity as the "modern beauty" of cardboard.  The design progression makes perfect sense, and the cards have just enough in common with one another from year to year to unify the timeline. The first few sets are great, too, particularly that beautifully-assembled ’95 design. I didn’t even show you the card backs. Those are a real treat, all gussied-up with holofoil and great layouts.

I should also mention that the quality of the printing stock only got better set-to-set.  Towards the end it's almost like plastic which I mean in a good way.  The quality was high.  Despite that, I still feel like I could damage the mirrored surface with a light thumb graze. 

All that being said, I don’t really have an emotional connection with any of these sets. Frankly, back in my collecting heyday I resented them for their exclusivity, price, and inclusion of innumerable impossible-to-find Griffeys. I’m still a little raw about it. Really, they could have retired the brand after the ’96 set and I wouldn’t feel any different.

Here again are all the Leaf Limited designs at once and in order:

2014: How'd I Do?

Someone find me this sweater!

Hi, there!  I hope everyone had a happy and productive holiday season.  Back to reality...

I set eight goals for myself in 2014. Of those eight, I hate to admit that I really only accomplished one. Let’s revisit:

1. Complete online catalog with links to posts that feature each card.

Did I do the thing? Hell yeah! Checkit: “This list will be called The Beast.”

2. Cut down on LCS visits and avoid repack boxes altogether.

Did I do the thing? More or less. I definitely bought fewer blind longboxes this year, but that’s not to say I didn’t buy any. Sometimes you get the itch. You’re driving home, knowing you’re going to have the house to yourself for the evening. You’ve already got a movie in mind, a bag full of Taco Bell, and the possibility of cards in the mail when you get there. On evenings like that it can be nice to grab a blind box or two to sort through on the couch post-burrito. So sue me…

3. Expand trading.

Did I do the thing? I don’t think I did. I’ve sent out a bunch of cards this year, but I can’t help feeling like I sent more last year. I don’t really keep close track of precisely what goes out – I mostly just make notes in a little book to the effect of “Send cards to The Prowling Cat” or the like. Then when I find I have a few hours to assemble said packages I do them all at once.

The problem is time. I haven’t had as much time to sit and blog let alone keep close tabs on sorting or trading. I don’t even have the down time at work I used to have to just bang out post after post leaving only the scanning to do when I get home. I’m making more money, but it really is at the cost of my free time.

Also I haven't kept up with trade posts as well as I used to, but I have a new system I'm working on that should help me keep up and not miss any. In the meantime it's possible a few fell through the cracks.  I have several trade posts currently in the works, but if anybody sent me cards and I never show them here on the blog, I'm sorry. Your pal The Junior Junkie is an unorganized mess.

One good thing: I’ve sent a ton of PWE’s. So many, in fact, that I’ve spent more on books of stamps this year than I ever have in my whole life. They’re just a lot easier.

4. Be more diligent about features.

Did I do the thing? No. I did manage to put together a few decent Design Timelines, though. I even introduced a new feature, Cavalcade of Keepers, which I love doing because they tend to be quick and easy. The problem there is that they are meant to be hold-overs between Griffey posts and I haven’t had time to do even those.

5. Support competition and diversity by using COMC and buying Panini.

Did I do the thing? Not really. I didn’t buy very much Panini. There just wasn’t much that really excited me. On the contrary, I bought more Topps this year than I ever have, including two boxes of Stadium Club, a box of Finest, flagship series one, and goodness knows how many packs.

I did, however, ramp up my COMC usage as the average scarcity of my Griffey needs has gone up.

6. Get a 1/1.

Did I do the thing? Ehhhhh….

This is a 1/1. It’s not a major brand – in fact it seems to have been printed specifically to sell on eBay as a 1/1. I guess it’s kind of a cop out. So can I say I got a 1/1? Yes. Do I believe I did? No.

I am happy to report that I got several autographs this year and also a bunch of key cards from this year and the 90’s. That's something.

7. Get rid of all these cards.

Did I do the thing? Psh. NO.

8. Make the time.

Yeah, right.

_____________________________________________________________________

So what did I do right this year?

I added PC's and started cataloging them.  

I got a more secure storage solution for my Griffey collection.

I landed some really sweet new Juniors.

Tiffany!

I sorted, added, purged, and sold several thousand Griffey cards:

The Adelanto Lot

I also kept organized, dabbled in set building for the first time, and managed to get (nearly) all my Griffey stuff into one photo:

Finally, I managed to keep the Griffey collection on track.  At the close of 2013 I had 6,841 total Griffeys, 2,596 of which were unique, and a duplicate ratio of 2.635.  Today, I am at 6,811 total, 3,569 unique, and a dupe ratio of 1.908. 

I gained and lost 4000 Griffeys to end up with exactly 30 fewer than I had 12 months ago, but I also added a whopping 973 new unique Griffeys.  That was a big swing.  This means the number of Griffeys I have only one of is now greater than the number for which I have duplicates.  Quality over quantity.

Without further ado, the obligatory end-of-post hot girl.  Here's to a great 2015!