The Shape of Things to Come: the Griffeys of 1996 SPx

I’m doing this set because I wanted to do an “easy one.” As easy sets go, this one isn’t quite as easy as it used to be, but it’s also not two dozen cards deep which is a step in the direction of easy that I can appreciate.

There was one big marketing gimmick at play here that will always be is the first thing I think about when I think about 1996 SPx (apart from that distinct shape). Do you remember what it was?

See it on the bottom left there? It's tiny...

That’s right – ONE CARD PER PACK. Uno. Singular. You might expect your average collector might shy away from such a thing as they perhaps wouldn’t get the value they are used to getting out of literally any other pack you could buy, but what happened was the total opposite. I remember them being a big hit, at least with the card kids at my school. Heck, even I bought a few packs. It was overwhelming curiosity that got to me. You can chalk that up to marketing.

So let’s define “simple” here. We have a small, 60-card base set with a single parallel, a 10-card insert with no parallels, and a pair of one-card tribute inserts each with an autographed parallel. That makes a “master set,” that being one of every version of every card available (not counting samples and printing errors), of 134 cards. That’s tiny by any standard, particularly in the mid-90’s (still not the smallest, though - 1997 UD3 clocks in at only 94 total cards, and there may be others I’m not even thinking about). Most sets beat that total many times over with just base cards.

But where this set lacks complexity it more than makes up for that with brutality. The ten-card insert was one per box, and the relatively easy Gold parallel was 1:7, so right off the bat you had to crack 18 boxes just for a shot at the complete parallel and hope to pull the complete insert checklist along the way.

Piazza's Commemorative, I GUESS.

Then there’s the Commemorative inserts with checklists consisting of just a single card each (they are, indeed, two distinct inserts) seeded at 1:75 for the Griffey and 1:95 for the Piazza. It’s likely you would find at least one of each in those 18 boxes.

The 1:2000 autographed versions are another story. You’d need 84 boxes to guarantee a pull. Luckily for our master set builder it would seem that the stated odds are for each card as opposed to one or the other, so those 2000 boxes may actually give you one of each (unless I’m grossly misinterpreting the odds which has happened before).

If you decide to go for the master set here, 24-pack boxes of this stuff go for around $150 (uh, when I wrote this), just shy of double original retail. It’s significantly cheaper to land most of these in the aftermarket. But let’s face it: no one is building the master set. The enduring prizes of 1996 SPx are the Commemorative autos, and the aftermarket for these things is crazy right now.

I really did want this one to be simple.

1996 SPx #55 Promo

When I hold this promo in my hand I do two things. First, I run my finger along the rounded corners at the top of the card, and who on Earth wouldn't? Feels good.

The other thing I do is try to imagine who the intended audience of this promo card was, that being someone who had never seen this design before (meaning not someone who’s been familiar with it for 25 years). The purpose of a sample, after all, is to generate excitement. To say “Look at THIS thing, my dude. Pretty effin wild, huh? Yeah, we know. We made it. So how many cases can we put you down for?” I assume never was a sample more effective than here. It was just such a departure from what we’d all come to expect from baseball cards – it really must have been something to see these for the first time.

I remember my first pack of 1996 SPx. I was impressed, sure; but also I pulled Paul Wilson, and I wanted my $3.49 back. Take a look at the checklist and find me a player you wanted to pull less than Paul Wilson. There’s maybe one or two. My second pack was Jason Kendall. Seven dollars for Mets and Pirates. Ugh. Nothing against either of these fellows, but mojo this was not.

All the promos are of the gold parallel which we will look at in a moment. There are no silver-foiled base promos to be found.

1996 SPx #55

Every card, be it 1:1 or 1:2000, had this exact same die-cutting, probably to prevent pack-searchers. Also all of them had silver metallic foil accents on the back, team-colored holofoil borders on the front, and all the hologram you can handle. That’s that 1-card-per-pack “insert quality” shining through.

1996 SPx #55 Gold

The 1:7 golds are different only in foil color. In addition to the metallic foil on the back being gold where the base cards are silver, these also have gold hologram logos and nameplates on the front. Apparently some of the regular base cards made it out with gold foil accents due to a printing error, but I’ve never seen one and wouldn't pay too much of a premium for one if I did. Sometimes unintentional variations in the printing are just that. If you have one, though, send me a scan for the blog.

1996 SPx Bound For Glory #1

I’m going to tell you a boring story about how I got this card (feel free to skip this part if you’re only in this for the card stuff). My sister’s friends Natalie and Robin needed help moving (that’s right, it’s a moving story. Yee-haw), and as I had worked in the warehouse of a furniture store since I was 13 (I think I was 16 by this point) I was pretty handy with a hand truck (I’m still quite proud of my hand truck skills). So I ended up helping with the grunt work as 16-year-old boys are often expected to do.

Sometime afterwards Natalie handed me a small stack of cards in top loaders and told me something along the lines of “Hey, I got you these for helping us move” like it was super not a big deal. To my absolute shock the cards she gave me were three Griffey cards: the base, Bound For Glory insert, and Commemorative card from 1996 SPx.

TO THIS VERY DAY this remains the most stunningly on-the-nose perfect payment for anything I’ve ever done in my life ever. I remember being so surprised not at the fact that she wanted to give me something for helping but at how hard she hit the nail on the head with what she chose to get for me. I mean, I think she was mildly aware I collected cards, specifically Griffey, but also how did she know which ones I would want or even where to buy them? These weren’t packs: it was MOST of the complete run of ’96 SPx Griffeys ALREADY IN TOP LOADERS. I assume that being the awkward teen I was that I probably couldn’t even properly express my gratitude at the time. I probably said something like “durrr these are cool thanks dude.”

Now that I think about it I have to wonder if Natalie was a card collector and we just never had a real conversation about it because who else but a card collector could know what an incredible gift this was for a 16 year old boy who would grow up to spend ten years of his life writing a Griffey card blog? Would it be weird if I called her and said, “Hey, Natalie, it’s T.J. Yeah, haven’t seen you in a couple decades, but remember when you gave me those baseball cards 25 years ago for helping you move? I just wanted to say thank you again because that was incredibly thoughtful. Like, impossibly thoughtful. Like, suspiciously thoughtful. C-can you see inside my head?” Yeah, everybody wants a call like that out of the blue.

So, Natalie, if you are reading this, you let me know if you ever need help moving again. For real. I am there. Also here’s the address of the nearest card shop. Tell him The Junior Junkie sent you. He knows what I like.

These were 1:24, by the way. Got off-track there a little, but yeah. 1:24.

1996 SPx Ken Griffey, Jr. Commemorative #KG1

No one can tell me Upper Deck doesn't know how to put together a freakin' baseball card. This is some cardboard engineer's opus, and I want to shake his hand. They are available on COMC for two bucks a pop. TWO. Part of me wants to go there and buy every single one just to teach the universe a lesson.

Junior’s Commemorative cards were seeded at 1:75 or just shy of one in three boxes. Piazza’s card was 1:95 or about 1:4 boxes. I don’t know exactly why the Piazza is scarcer, but it’s not that big a difference.

The card itself is absolutely the best design of all 134 distinct 1996 SPx cards. That blue border with the pinstripes and the classy font are just beautiful. Piazza’s card is…well, it’s not as good. Obviously.

1996 SPx Ken Griffey, Jr. Commemorative #KG1A Autograph

The fact that this insert is 1:2000 and that there is only one card in the insert (again, the Piazza auto is listed with its own separate and distinct insertion ratio) effectively makes it a 1:2000 card. This is different from other autographed inserts with astronomical odds such as, say, the 1997 UD3 auto which is a 4-card set seeded at 1:1500 which was for a general insert pull and not a specific player.

The sticker doesn’t mean anything. Why did they even bother? Was it just to say I'm BAD? 'Cuz I already know that.

Hologram surfaces are not often kind to ink. The 1997 SPx Bound for Glory auto, for example, has spots right in the autograph where the ink could find no purchase, and it makes for a sloppy signature if you look hard enough. That was not the case here. Pretty much all of these that I’ve seen look smooth as butter.

I felt like I was overspending when I paid $150 for this one a few years back, but in 2021 (when I wrote this sentence) prices 15-20 times that would not be unreasonable, it seems. Of course I will never sell. I am holding on to this one until I can someday show it to Natalie.

Ready for another story? A kid down the street from me owned this card. Like, back when we were kids and nobody owned anything this cool. He didn’t even pull it – his dad just up and bought it for him. And he was so indifferent about it. I was kind of obsessed with this fact – that this amazing card that I wanted so badly was sitting in the little white house just a few doors down from me, not being appreciated enough. Used to drive me nuts. I guess that’s entitlement for ya.

Top 30 Griffey Acquisitions of 2021 Part 3: The Top Ten

There were years when I added thousands of new Griffeys to the collection. As the years went by, thousands became hundreds. This year I probably added less than 200.

I tend to spend a lot more when I’m actively making posts as I prefer to have the real cards to scan. That used to require I spend a few bucks to land a particularly troublesome insert or parallel every now and then, and "troublesome" used to mean five or ten bucks. Now it means $40-$100. Hence, fewer grey whale Griffey gets in general.

My collecting strategy nowadays can be summed up in one word: opportunism. There is still the occasional card I feel like I can’t live without, and I still overpay here and there to get it; but for the most part I wait out the deals and scoop them up as they come. There’s not a whole lot left on my want list that I’m super passionate about save a small handful I would happily go into a little debt for if the price is right.

One difference this year I knew would start happening eventually: 40% of this year’s Top 30 came out AFTER 2019, a shift towards modern releases that is unparalleled in the annals of this list. One reason for that is the fact that I already have most of the ‘90’s cards I really want, and a much bigger reason is the fact that those ‘90’s cards I do still want are significantly higher now. And let’s not discount the fact that the new releases have also been really cool lately.

Still, I am really proud of the list this year. I tend to forget all the great cards I managed to pick up, so this list is a nice little reminder to myself that when it comes to Griffey-gettin', I still (kinda) got it.

#10

2020 Topps Allen & Ginter #17 Mini Stained Glass #/25

Man, oh, man am I ever glad stained glass is back. There has never been a single one that wasn’t amazing, and Griffeys doubly so. You're bound to spend more on a similarly-numbered sticker auto, but why would anyone do that? 

#9

1991 Arena Holograms #2 Autograph #/2500 (w/ COA)

Yeah, buddy! I actually got my hands on a pre-2000 Griffey autograph this year! It’s not a major brand or anything, but it is on the list of officially-released pre-2000 autos (which I seem to remember was at 59 cards last I looked at it). Plus it’s on-card. That’s the case for just about every early auto, but by today’s standards it’s a huge selling point.

#8

2020 Leaf In The Game Used Sports Decade vs. Decade #DD-03 Blue #/35 (w/ Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Mike Piazza, Stan Musial, Yogi Berra, Barry Bonds, Tony Gwynn)

Bonds is on it, so that’s a bummer, but it’s the ONLY bummer. Everything else is goddamn magical. This is one of those “wow factor” cards with massive cross-generational appeal even to the non-collector. It’s also one of very few cards I bothered to show my Dad when I landed it.

#7

1999 Topps Chrome Record Numbers #RN4 Refractor

People sure like their refractors. I mean, they always did, but now they’re like $UPER into them. Practically all the Griffey Topps Chrome refractors from the ‘90’s are all well into white whale territory, and a lot of those are just a little bit off-center which is a blessing for guys like me who want to buy them for reasonable sums of money.

Of course not all of those ‘90’s Chrome cards are created equal. This insert looks particularly good with refraction given the fun fireworks background. Personally I think that lends it an extra layer of desirability. There are rarer ‘90’s Topps Chrome refractors, but very few are as attractive as this. Some of the rarest ones are even kinda ugly.

#6

2021 Leaf Lumber Mt. Crush More (w/ Edgar, Buhner, Arod) Green #/4, Bronze #/35

Leaf has been a mainstay in the Top 30 list these last few years, even landing the top spot in 2019; so it should be no surprise once again to see so many here. I’m a Leaf apologist, and I knew the moment I saw this card online that a) it would be mine and b) it wouldn’t cost TOO much because it’s Leaf. I actually ended up with five or six different cards from this set because it’s a cool idea with a great design.

#5

1997 Leaf Statistical Standouts #3 #/1000

Yet another Leaf. There’s only a handful of ‘90’s inserts on this year’s list (which is normally filled with them) as that seems to be where the demand has been going – and rightfully so. Gone are the days of landing dozens of new-to-me ‘90’s inserts, particularly those with 1:hundreds insertion ratios. This particular card was the last of the iconic Statistical Standouts inserts I needed. Is it finally time to start those Insert Design Timelines I've been talking about for years?

#4

2021 Topps Gallery Gallery of Heroes #GOH-12

Man, oh, man, am I ever happy to have a new Gallery of Heroes Griffey in 2021. This set dropped on December 20th, so it’s as new as Griffeys get. Now that I think about it, this is the most recently-released Griffey ever to make a Top 30 list in any given year. It’s also an absolutely indispensable get of Griffeydom.

There is an unspoken truth among Griffey collectors that there are simply not enough Griffey GOH cards in the world. We got an unbroken run from 1997-2000 (plus a jumbo of the ’98 card), a glaring Griffey omission from the 2013 Archives GOH throwback insert, and at long last this beauty. Not trying to discount the new guy, of course. This design has it all – texturing, bright colors, die-cutting. It fits right in to the GOH design timeline and, in its own way, even stands out as the return to form it is. Just a well-executed insert from every angle. Nice work and everything, Topps, but the fact remains, the world needs more of them.

Please allow me to reiterate that the awesomeness of stained glass Griffeys cannot be overstated. They are, quite possibly, the greatest thing ever to happen in all of human history – better than a child’s laughter, better than the indomitable human spirit, better than late-90’s Yasmine Bleeth – and Gallery of Heroes is the standard-setter. Sure, stained glass Griffey cards started their comeback in mini form in recent Ginter sets, but it’ll always be a Gallery insert to me. That said, how it didn’t make an appearance in 2020 Topps Gallery is beyond me.

I am calling for drastic measures. The time has come for a new brand: “2022 Topps Ken Griffey, Jr. Gallery of Heroes” – nothing but Griffey GOH cards. It doesn’t have to be crazy – maybe a 100-card base set, all stained glass, of course, using throwback designs and also-ran concepts from previous years, complete with colored parallels, refractors, autographs – the works. Serial-number all the base cards to 50 with a limited stated run of, oh, 1200 five-card mini-boxes? That should leave room for fun stuff like inserts, printing plates, a handful of real glass 1-of-1’s. Stuff like that. Online-exclusive distribution limited to one per verified Topps account. Everybody gets one. Am I being unreasonable?

Now these are apparently a case-hit, but I don’t know how many boxes are in a case. What I do know is they were seeded at 1:337 packs or 1:16.85 boxes. With its 25-card checklist, that puts the guaranteed Griffey pull at 1:421.25 boxes at a cost of $29,487.50 retail before sales tax. Several of the #/250 inserts in 2021 Gallery are seeded at the exact same ratio, 1:337; so I’m guessing 250 is likely in the ballpark in terms of production figures per card. Don’t quote me on that. Actually, forget I said anything.

#3

2019 Panini National Treasures Treasured Materials Signatures Button Relic Autograph #TMS-KG Holo Silver #/3

If the button wasn’t on there, this would probably not have cracked the top 3. It WOULD, however, have cracked the top 10 as it is a beautiful card with a simple but elegant design and, above all, an honest-to-goodness on-card signature. Those can be hard to come by even in “high-end” products.

#2

1999 Upper Deck Challengers For 70 Swinging For the Fences Autograph #JR

TWO! I got two pre-2000 Griffey autographs this year! I assumed my days of landing a couple of these a year were over given the current market. It seems they’re all $800 and up nowadays, but this one was actually pretty reasonable. I figured I better grab it while I had the chance (something I didn’t do with NUMEROUS other pre-2000 autos and now I’m kicking myself).

Of course these are not quite as well-known as, say, the 1998 SP Authentic Chirography or the 1997 Upper Deck UD3 Superb Signatures. But I have both of those other cards, and I can tell you that this one cost me almost $100 more than those other two put together.

Okay, #1 time. You've seen this one before, but it's got a brand new look.

#1

1989 Topps Traded #41T Tiffany (slabbed PSA 10)

Okay, so first and foremost I already had this card which gives it the dubious honor of being the first card to make the Top Ten twice. I got it way back in 2014 when I ranked it at #4 on the Top 30 list. This year as anyone else who submitted cards to PSA knows, it was a whole thing. They held my cards for 10 months, and when this particular one came up a 10 grade PSA charged me an extra $200 to get it back (what is that about, anyway?).

BUT, an acquisition is an acquisition, and this one happened in 2021. The card alone is great, but the slab is the really important bit here. It’s the part that transforms what was already fantastic and desirable rookie into a true monster of Griffeydom. As of this writing, PSA 10’s of this card have a population of 330 or 16% of the total quantity graded by PSA. Most of these come straight from sealed boxes (mine did), so I imagine the only issue PSA could find with that other 84% is centering or a corner ding here or there. But not on mine, baby!

This card "gemming" as they put it was all kind of funny to me, primarily because it cost me $100 for the complete set just a few years ago. That and when I first pulled it I thought it was a hair off-center. Apparently I don’t know a thing about grading because PSA thinks this thing is just right.

When I got my grading report I started pulling sold listings on all the 10's as prices on those tend to be wack-a-doodle. At the time this one was selling consistently over 4k, immediately putting it way up on the list of my most valuable Griffeys. I haven't checked it since, and I'll continue to not do so because I don't want to be tempted to sell. Then again, four G's is a lot of Funyuns.

Of course this card had stirred something in me, and now I want ALL the Griffey rookies in gem grades. There was a time when I would have written "Maybe next year" in this spot, but NO. No, not next year or even the one after that. Not unless I slip and fall in a Wal-Mart or something. Times are tough.

________________________________________________________________

Welp, that's the list. Believe it or not I actually have five new blog posts ready to go up, and I've even started putting together a sixth. I think making this list every year is one of the few things keeping in the card-blogging game - I tend to enjoy a period of proclivity toward the blog around this time each year, and I believe you are reading the reason. 

Then again, wrangling a baby on the cusp of toddlerdom is a full-time job, so no promises on when those'll be up. That is unless a horrible new Covid variant sends me home for another three months. What are we up to now? Pi? Rho? I am out of the loop. Whatever it is, if that happens I promise to go back to my once-a-week post grind.

Thanks for reading, and stay safe, y'all.

The Top 30 Griffey Acquisitions of 2021 Part 2: 11-20

Well, cards are officially back. Prices are right back to where they were before the “crash” and often much higher, there are new collectors everywhere as well as old collectors made new again, and there's money – so much money – coming into the market as a whole. It’s weird how niche this all used to feel.

I am hoping that as the card companies try to keep up with demand they don’t usher in a new era of overproduction. It’s clear from all the new releases popping up what seems like every week that Topps is cashing in on their exclusivity license while they still have it. And yesterday it was announced that the soon-to-be-exclusive MLB and Player's Union license holder Fanatics acquired Topps for like eleventy billion dollerzz or whatever; so relax, fellow enthusiasts - Topps Bunt may just stick around.

With all that’s going on I’m still trying to stay excited about the future of cardboard, but there are times when I feel a bit overwhelmed. The last time I felt that way was back in 1998 when I stopped collecting cards altogether. I guess I’m more excited than bothered to see so many new Griffeys. It seems the card companies have gotten wise to who is buying up all their product - or at least that segment of the market that isn’t flipping blasters – so they’ll keep giving us new cards of our retired childhood favorites to chase. There’s just SO MANY. That said, there are not nearly enough new Bryan Clutterbuck cards. What up with that?

OK, back to it...

20. 1996 Ultra Season Crowns Acetate Custom

Ultra was one of the few brands you could find retail card boxes of at our local pharmacy in the mid-90’s, so I opened a lot of it. I remember pulling a few of these lovely acetate Season Crowns, including those of Randy Johnson and Edgar Martinez. I knew that with enough patience and allowance money, eventually I would eventually land the Griffey. It was months later that I got ahold of a Beckett and learned that THERE IS NO GRIFFEY. What. One of the coolest insert designs I’d ever seen (up to that point) and there is no Griffey? It really got to me.

Of course that didn’t stop my buddy Chris from setting things right and making from scratch his own custom 1996 Ultra Season Crowns acetate Griffey. The weird thing is I never mentioned the little rectangular hole in my heart that this insert's Griffey-lackin' made so many years ago. He just up and decided to make it happen. It was already in the prototype stage when I learned about it. And is that a focus tongue I see? I’ve always been a huge fan of customs, and this is way up there on my short list of my favorites.  Well done, Chris.

19. 2021 Leaf Lumber Kings Bat Rack Three #/25 (w/ Martinez, Buhner)

Leaf are the unsung heroes of concept, design, and execution. It seems like every year they are all over this list, and I continue to be surprised at how reasonably priced they can be. Player photos or not, the fact remains that if this was a Topps card, I probably couldn’t afford it.

18. All the Topps Finest Base Refractors - 2001 #90 #/1999, 2004 #53, 2005 #66 #/399, 2006 #19 #/399

The theme of the 2021 Top 30 list (and the 2020 one while we’re on the subject) may as well have been “cards I should have gotten back when they were cheaper.” Gem grades, what seem like common parallels, and just about every kind of refractor all fall into this category.

One night in mid-2021 as prices continued to rise I sat at my computer and racked my brain, trying to figure out which Griffeys I needed that I should pick up now before they go any higher. I thought, what is everybody chasing right now? Refractors. My mind immediately went to Finest, so I perused the Beast and made a note of every Finest base refractor I didn’t have. I then set about picking them off one-by-one. These four were the last of them I needed.

A big thanks, by the way, to the 1996 Beckett Ken Griffey, Jr. Tribute checklist for forcing me to grab all the early refractors before the great cardboard scramble of 2020. I’m happy to say my Finest base refractor quest is done, albeit for probably a few bucks more than if I had done it back in 2018 like I should have.

17. All the 2021 Topps Project 70

I am a Project 70 slut. I was the same with Project 2020, and I will be again for Project Whatever-is-Next-Year. I have no excuse. The cards are insanely cool, and the occasional foil popping up only sweetened the deal (four!). I even shelled out a few extra bucks for a “companion card” featuring the mom-who-got-scared from the Fresh Prince intro showing off a sweet pair of Nike Junior Freshwaters. Not to mention Snoop Dogg and Alex Pardee made the checklist as artists this year. These continue to be loads of fun even for folks who don’t collect cards.

16. 1996 Select En Fuego #1

I was never actively chasing this one which is probably why it took me so long to get one. It’s even from my own personal wheelhouse of active collecting (1995-1998). I have no excuse. The En Fuego insert did show up again in the all-chromium 2013 Select reboot, but it never looked quite as good as it did in the original Dufex.

15. 1997 Studio #16 Gold Press Proof #/500

Not to disparage this lovely thing, but there is a simple truth that I’ve said before and that remains true to this day: the silver looks better. Of course there are a whole lot more of the silver than there are of the gold, and this one does look more expensive (it is).

14. 1997 Collector’s Choice You Crash the Game Upgraded Exchange Card #CG28

This is the “upgraded” (foilboard) exchange card the winners received. They’re not terribly rare as two out of Junior’s three contest cards this year were winners. The guy even managed to hit three home runs within the span of dates of just one of his contest cards. 1997 was a big year for owners of Griffey You Crash the Game cards.

13. 1997 Pinnacle Mint #1 Gold

2021 was a massive year for Griffeys made in 1997 which make up nearly a third of the top half of this year’s Top 30 list. I've always been vaguely aware of this particular parallel but never got around to picking one up (I was always more focused on the metal coins). Now that I have one I do wonder what took me so long. It’s a lovely mix of Dufex and foil that few cards can claim. These were seeded at 1:48 or one per three boxes, the same ratio as the 24kt gold-plated coins.

12. 2010 Topps Silk Collection #S35 #/50

While writing my post about 2010 Topps I became enamored enough with these silk cards to add them to my eBay saved searches. Weeks later one popped up for a not-unreasonable sum. It’s a unique idea, and as it was Junior’s sunset card, every version feels a bit more special. It’s hard to blame Josiah for grabbing almost the entire canonical run (and then some).

11. All the 2021 Topps Short Prints - Series 1 #247 (SP, SSP w/ Ken, Sr.), Series 2 #506 (SP backwards cap, SSP in dugout), Update #US5 (SP smiling, SSP cheering in dugout)

In terms of dollars spent this was the most expensive spot on the list this year. By a lot. A whole lot. Topps - guys, gals, folks, seriously - please stop putting such great photos on your SP’s so I don’t feel quite as compelled to overpay for them.

Okay, ten spots to go. Thanks for reading.

The Top 30 Griffey Acquisitions of 2021 Part 1: 21-30

So this is the part where I usually give a recap of my collecting year. Well, the biggest news on the collecting and blogging front is that I don’t have much time for collecting and blogging.

As my eldest son grows up, so do his hobbies; and we’ve reached a point when some of them are actually pretty appealing to me. For example, one day he came home from school raving about Beyblades, and now we grab every new Takara Tomy and Hasbro Pro release on the market because Beyblade is fun as hell.

Then there's Hot Wheels – I mean, what little boy/grown-ass adult doesn’t love Hot Wheels? They released a video game this year, and we play it every single day. It won’t be too long before he’s beating me mercilessly.

My favorite so far has been Cub Scouts. I’m teaching him the ins and outs of camping and hiking, and we are getting ready to build his first pinewood derby car. And they just asked me to be Assistant Cubmaster which I accepted, assuming my patience with other peoples' kiddos holds out.

Nearly all the in-between time I have outside of these is spent keeping his 19-month-old little brother alive and out of trouble.

All that said, I continue to beaver away in the shadows, quietly – VERY quietly – amassing Griffey cards. It does happen, and somehow I was still able to scrap together more than 30 new Griffeys this year. And rank them! It’s Top 30 time.

But seriously – if you have kids, or even if you don't, look into Beyblade.

30. My PSA submission

Before 2020 I was not a big grading guy, but after 2020 I feel like we are all a little more versed in precisely what a slab can do. I am putting this at the back of the list because technically none of these cards are new acquisitions; but darn it, some of them sure feel new. That PSA slab hits different…

I submitted 37 cards in August 2020, and they finally came back to me in June 2021. I am not going to show them all, but these are just a few favorites. That Finest sample cost me a mere $20 on eBay because the seller didn’t know what that little stamp on the back meant. The Sega CardGen is a true POP 1 as mine was the first ever submitted for grading. I had to give a detailed card description on the submission form and everything. The Out of This World is #/5, the 89 UD throwback is the “Reverse Negative” variant, and the rest are just plain ol’ 10’s which is a pretty remarkable thing all on its own.

There are dozens more I had graded that I would love to talk your ear off about, but we have a lot of other Griffeys to look at here. I will say that there’s one more that stood head-and-shoulders above the rest. You’ll see that one soon enough…

29. 2021 All Eras Sports 1989 Topps Gum Reprint

I ended up grabbing a few things from All Eras Sports this year, but this is the one that stands out. This is not a food-issue card, it’s simply….food. Griffeyfood. I have several Griffey items that could potentially attract ants, but this one is unique among those as it’s printed directly onto the edible bit as opposed to on the packaging. And it’s the ’89 Topps rookie image, no less. A novel idea that is all but certain NOT to catch on.

28. 2021 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup #50 & #50 Hall of Fame Image Variation

Yet another online exclusive product from Topps who you can’t really fault for striking while the iron is hot. I don’t remember the last product they offered that didn’t sell out without hours and sometimes even minutes. It’s a real seller’s market.

With so many of these online-exclusive products to pick from, you have to be a little choosy about those you want to go after. In this case the ’87 Topps “woody” design won me over. The word is it'll also feature prominently in the 2022 flagship set, so something to look forward to.

27. 2020 Topps Rip #38 #/99 (ripped), Mini #M-38 #/50, Mini Photo Variation Gimmick #M-38 /11

Topps took a tip from 1998 Zenith (you know, the one that helped doom Pinnacle brands to bankruptcy) and made a whole brand out of rip cards. Of course they did it a little differently: First, they introduced it at a time when everyone was clamoring for their products regardless of how hare-brained. Second, they sold it via direct-marketing through their website meaning practically zero advertising and distribution costs. And third they did it long enough after that Zenith product that even some collectors don’t remember it.

This is one of the more shameless lumping-together of multiple cards in one spot I've done, but I really do like them. The concept I could take or leave, but the cards themselves look great. That base card may be my favorite of the year, and that photo variation is apparently limited to just 11 copies per player (or so I’ve read).

26. New cameos! 1998 SPx Finite Edgar Martinez #132 (Spectrum, Radiance, Base), 1998 Donruss Damion Easley #182, 1994 Score Chris Bosio #316

I’m a little surprised we are still finding these things - and from the ‘90’s no less. I can only assume there are two dozen more just waiting for the right pair of eyes to spot them. The Edgars, Easley, and Bosio are all new to the list, and the Sandy Alomar AP, while not new to the list, is one I’ve been after for a long time and finally tracked down own a week before putting this list together.

25. 2021 Stadium Club Insta-Vision #IVC-KG

Topps got some real mileage out of that photo. This is one of those inserts that, in my opinion, can do no wrong. Of course there are a bunch of colored parallels and fancy-shamncy versions, but even the lowly base version - which is still a case hit, btw - is great enough for this list. Please make more forever.

24. 2002 Playoff Piece of the Game Materials Base Relic #POG-43 Silver #/100

What do you look for in a base relic? Clean, white, virgin vinyl with nary a mark or scar or puncture hole from an errant cleat? Of course not. Just look at this thing. It’s a mess! And the game it's from is referenced right there on the front. Relics from this era are a dime a dozen, so I fall hard and quick for those that look like they were destroyed by baseball happening around them. Cool name plate.

23. KAAAAAAAAHHHNNNNN'S!

A deep love of cards from the Kahn's Wiener Company is just one of my many dirty little collecting secrets. At first glance they appear to be just another oddball food-issue, but the secret to Kahn's is on the back. You can get a peek at one here, but I'm saving the rest of these for a proper post. Kahn's deserves no less.

You Kahn's connoisseurs (all...four of you I'm guessing? Five?) may notice I am missing the 2000 card, but relax - it's on its way as my first pickup of 2022. I overpaid a lot, too. And the 2005 card I already had, but I wanted to include it here because I just love seeing them all together. I have never, ever seen a 2007 Kahn's card of anybody, and frankly I would be very surprised to learn they don't exist. Time will tell...

22. 2010 Topps Heritage Chrome #C148 Refractor #/561

Just a gorgeous send-up of the 1961 Topps design made modern, and in Junior’s sunset season, no less.

21. 2007 Fleer Soaring Stars #SS-KG

It’s a SPACE CARD. That’s it. It’s just that simple. Space cards get a pass right on up the list. Most space cards are high-gloss with plenty of built-in sparkle and shine. As was the case with nearly all Fleer cards produced under Upper Deck ownership, this one is matte with high-quality printing and plenty of color. For the record, Upper Deck-era Fleer does not get enough attention in general.

Nothing too crazy yet, but some nice ones coming up. Stay tuned...!