Griffey Frankenset Giveaway Results

Earlier this week I announced a contest which can be found here. And in case you haven't seen it, the inaugural post of the Great Griffey Frankenset has gone live here. This is the results post. Here goes:

Question 1: What is the only card number between 101-200 for which there is no Griffey in my collection?

First, I told you card #101 is not the answer, so that leaves numbers 102-200. Next I added a clue to this question in the hopes that someone would want the COMC credits enough to work it out. The clue was that I don't have a Griffey card with this number. The solution would be for you to go to The Beast where all my Griffeys are listed and use your web browser's "find on this page" function to search for card numbers starting with #102. Doing this, you would quickly find Griffey cards numbered 102-140. #141 would return no results. And that's your answer: 141. After that is an unbroken line of Griffeys all the way up to #202 (and yes, there is a #177!).

Congrats to lifetimetopps, Josh D., Jeff, and Greg Zakwin who all got the correct answer.

Question 2: What is the lowest-numbered Topps card in the set?

It wasn't on purpose, and Topps has more than a few cards in the set eventually, but none before #25, the first appearance of any Topps cardboard in the Frankenset. I honestly don't know how that happened.

Fun fact: there are a whopping FIVE Pacific cards in the Frankenset before the first Topps card. Even I think that's pretty nuts, and I made the thing.

The highest guess here was sure to win as I don't think anyone expected the first Topps card to be so far back in the set. The person with the correct answer to question 1 and the highest guess to question 2 was Greg Zakwin of Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle! Congratulations, Greg! One $5 COMC credit coming your way...

All Greg's

Now, for isht's and giggles:

Question 3: What is the high Beckett value of the first page of the Griffey Frankenset?

1. 1989 Upper Deck #1 - $40

2. 1997 E-X2000 Cut Above #2 - $250

3. 1994 Flair Hot Glove #3 - $15

4. 1990 Leaf Preview #4 - $40 (estimated)

5. 1997 Flair Showcase Diamond Cuts #5 - $25

6. 1989 Pacific Cards & Comics 1989 Rookies Superstars #6 - $10 (estimated)

7. 1998 E-X2001 Destination Cooperstown #7 - $200

8. 1990 Donruss Learning Series #8 - $5 (estimated)

9. 2000 Pacific Cramer's Choice Award #9 - $25

Total: $610

The contest was decided after question 2, so this part was really just for fun. The closest on this one was lifetimetopps with a guess of $150.

That's it! Thanks for playing, and check here every Friday for the foreseeable future for more of the Great Griffey Frankenset!

The Great Griffey Frankenset: Page 1

Welcome to the first of many Griffey Frankenset Fridays! This is a new feature I will try to keep going for as long as possible. Sadly it is not going to last forever - even a player as mass-produced card-wise as Griffey is just going to stop running out of card numbers eventually, but I'm willing to push this for as long as it will last. The highest-numbered Griffey card I'm aware of is #4900, and I don't foresee another set like 2008 Upper Deck Documentary ever happening again, so it's safe to assume it won't be going any further than that. Until then, prepare to see a lot of excellent, hand-picked Griffey cardboard.

 

If you're not familiar with the idea of a Frankenset, it is a customized set of cards properly sequenced by card number that all tie into a connecting theme. Some frankenset themes include whole teams, mini-collections, and even just generally great cards or photos. This is the first Frankenset I'm aware of that is made up of just one player: Ken Griffey, Jr., the man of a million cards. I took the liberty of including things like inserts, parallels, cameos, and oddballs for the sake of variety and because it's just more fun that way. Enjoy!

 

Here is page 1 of the Great Griffey Frankenset:

Completeness of page: 9/9 

Completeness of the Frankenset so far: 100%

Team distribution so far: Mariners: 9/9 (100%), Reds: 0/9 (0%), White Sox: 0/9 (0%)

Cards not listed in Beckett Magazine: 3/9, 33%

Approximate retail value of this page: $610

Page 1 notes: This was by far the toughest page to assemble due to the sheer quantities of Griffeys with card numbers below 10. We're talking decades worth of inserts, parallels, and premium base set cards that were taken into account for this page. As the Frankenset gets further along and the numbers get higher, the choices become fewer and fewer as do the number of truly spectacular cards. Page 32, for example, was a breeze. On the other hand, I can honestly say that no other page in this set was as difficult for me to choose cards for than this first one.

Page 1:

1. 1989 Upper Deck #1

I spent a lot of precious time compiling a list of all the amazing card #1's Junior has had in the last 26 years, but the measuring stick was always this card. I looked at each candidate and tried to decide whether the card I was looking at was good enough to take the place of the original Griffey #1. None measured up. This should be no surprise at all, really.

2. 1997 E-X2000 Cut Above #2

The only thing that I second-guesses about choosing this to be our #2 was whether I should actually brave sliding it into the binder page for the scan. Those pointy bits are a nightmare.

3. 1994 Flair Hot Glove #3

Not the rarest or most valuable #3 in Griffeydom, but certainly among the most famous and pretty early in the game for such intricate die-cutting.

4. 1990 Leaf Preview #4

This one was named the best Griffey card of 1990 by The Cardboard Connection, and having finally landed one this year, I'll take any opportunity to show it off.

5. 1997 Flair Showcase Diamond Cuts #5

Just a really cool example of over-the-top, fancy-schmancy, crazy town die-cut 90's cardboard.

6. 1989 Pacific Cards & Comics 1989 Rookies Superstars #6

The second rookie in the Frankenset, finding this card at a show a few months ago was a big surprise as I didn't even know Pacific was making cards of any kind in 1989 let alone a Griffey rookie. This is the most sought-after card from this set of rookies from that year, and it's a nice portrait.

[UPDATE: Pacific Cards & Comics is not the same as the Pacific Trading Card Company. This is a Broder card. See comments below for link. Still, nice photo, right?]

7. 1998 E-X2001 Destination Cooperstown #7

This insert seems to be more and more desirable every year. There are only around 100 of them floating around, but the fact that they aren't serial-numbered means it's taken serious collectors a while to catch on to the scarcity. It's a cute idea and a pretty well-executed card, too. Not pictured: the original string.

8. 1990 Donruss Learning Series #8

Far and away the least expensive card on the page, but notice how your eye is drawn right to it?

9. 2000 Pacific Cramer's Choice Award #9

These buggers are few and far between. In fact, the one you're looking at here is literally the only one I've ever come across in real life, but I knew what it was the instant I saw it because of that characteristic shape. Heck, I only recently found out who this Cramer guy even is, but I know I respect his choices.

Here's the back of that page:

Thanks for reading, and look for page 2 next Friday!

Free Baseball Card Money, Why Not?

Oh, is this yours?

If you have not yet posted a guess in the Great Griffey Frankenset $5 COMC credit giveaway, go now! It ends tonight (Thursday 10/15) at 5:00pm. Free money for cards, people! And if you're slick with the functions your Internet browser offers, you already have an advantage.

Just think of all the things you could buy...

Did I mention you can only spend the COMC credit on Griffeys?

Wallet Card Wednesday: Oktoberfest Edition

My wife made me a deal: I could either have a big blowout birthday house party (which is what we usually do), or she would buy me a Nintendo Wii U. I chose the Wii U. So instead we had a big birthday meet-up at the local Oktoberfest where we would not have to provide any of the food, beer, or cleanup we would at home.

My first beer of the night.

It's put on by our local German Culture center here in New Orleans which is called the Deutsches Haus. There's a ton of German food, dozens of imported German beers, liqueurs, pastries, roasted nuts, pretzels, all that. The focal point of the night, though, is the German music.

There's a large stage setup with lots of different musical acts playing everything from Schnitzelbank to the Chicken Dance to the theme from Hogan's Heroes, and then back to Schnitzelbank again. Everything else seems to be yodeling and/or polka of some sort, but it all sounds great after several Warsteiner Dunkels. The band here played a lot of German favorites as well as a few modern pop hits played with the popular, accordion-heavy Deutschland style that's so popular with the millennials.

This is one of my favorite New Orleans festivals (which is saying something). Plus with a bun in the oven, it's the last one I'll be able to cut loose at for at least a few years, so we did it up real big. Well, I did. She drove us home.

Thanks for reading!

A Big New Project and a Giveaway

All my blogging time has been taken up this past couple of weeks by a single massively time-consuming Griffey card project. It has involved a great deal of scanning, searching, and list making; and it’s time to come clean with what’s been keeping me away from the blogsphere: 

I’ve decided to build a Griffey-Only Frankenset. 

Page 1, camouflaged of course.

 

This started out as a joke. I was reading up on everyone’s different frankensets, and it hit me that the tremendous glut of Griffey cards that have been churned out over the past few decades probably means that there is a pretty sizeable Frankenset just waiting to be assembled. But a whole set of just one player? How far could this thing really go?
 

Out of curiosity and armed with the knowledge that there is definitely at least one Griffey card for every number from 1-100, I started searching for Griffey cards numbered 101 and up. My original goal was to get to 300. I included all inserts, letter prefixes, cameos, and even oddballs in the running. Here are the results: 

1-100: 100% (complete)

101-200: 99% (need one card)

201-300: 79% (need 21 cards) 

In all I found only 22 Griffeyless card numbers: 21 in the 200’s and only ONE in the 100’s. Overall, we’re at just shy of 93% complete. That's pretty impressive considering most Frankensets focus on a whole team or just generally great cards across all decades - not one dude limited to 27 years (give or take).

Yes it is scratched, but unused!

 

On an unrelated note, I happen to have a $5 COMC credit I can’t use (I already used one and this is an extra). It’s burning a hole in my card table, so let’s have a contest: the first person to guess the only card number between 100 and 200 for which there is no Griffey in my collection gets a PWE full of cards and the COMC credit. Because this mystery won’t be too difficult to solve for some, I am including two tiebreaker questions. First, what is the lowest-numbered Topps card in this Frankenset? And second, what is the high Beckett value of the first page of the Griffey Frankenset (the first nine cards)? I am looking for all answers to be closest without going over (Price is Right style). 

Simply comment below with your guess which should look something like this: 

101

5

$124.00 

(note: none of these answers are correct) 

Remember, since I personally chose the cards for this Frankenset and also included all inserts and parallels, that first page is going to be a doozy. Also, here’s a clue to figuring out that first answer: I’m not saying a Griffey does not exist with this card number, but I can tell you that I don’t have one and I have yet to track one down anywhere. At this time, I am unaware of any Griffey card with this number, but the search continues… 

The other numbers needed are: 

202, 207, 208, 209, 214, 217, 226, 234, 236, 252, 263, 266, 271, 276, 280, 281, 284, 288, 291, 293, 296

I'm putting page one of the Great Griffey Frankenset up on Friday. I'm giving everyone until Thursday at 5pm CST to submit answers so I'll have time to compile them and make a winner post before the Frankenset goes live. Good luck!

Thanks for reading

Wallet Card Wednesday: Birthday Edition

It's my birthday! Thomas is my name when I'm at work (I do this so that if I run into someone that knows me while out and about, I can tell whether they know me professionally or personally by what they call me and act accordingly), so of course that is what they had put on my cake.

I also had one of these. Well, half of one. The dog ate the rest.

Wooo! Birthday!

Wallet Card Wednesday: Wedding Fish Edition

I went to a wedding a few weeks back, and the place where they held the reception had a large pond in the back. There happened to be a few cane poles and some old tackle laying around, so I, being a beer or two deep at this point, decided to put together a basic rig (a small hook, a penny weight, and a bobber) and see if there was anything in there. I balled up little bits of bread as bait (perch love bread) and set the pole to work. Wouldn’t you know it?

I caught a fish at a wedding. It's one of the more redneck things I've done, but it's nice to know that Poseidon blesses this union. Poseidon and Aquaman.