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Original artwork used on 1990 Upper Deck Roger Clemens card acquired

Posted in Collcting Clemens with tags , , , , on February 6, 2020 by Cardboard Icons

Sometime last summer one of my friends brought to my attention that Dave and Adam’s Card World was selling original artwork used to create some iconic Upper Deck cards from the early 1990s.

The pieces were used on the Heroes inserts and the team checklist subsets. Among the artwork available was that of Vernon Wells — renowned sports artist and father of the professional baseball player — who’d created a single piece that depicted Roger Clemens in two different poses. The image is one that I remember vividly from my youth as a collector of 1990 Upper Deck cards.

I first saw the piece on the Web site over the summer but did not buy it. Around that same time Ryan Cracknell of Beckett Media wrote about his acquisition of the Joe Montana “Football Heroes” piece, which is gorgeous.

I wanted the Clemens but really wasn’t in a position to acquire it. Then recently former Beckett Media editor Chris Olds, the one who first alerted me to the piece, told me the Clemens was now on sale, for 50% off. I toyed with the idea of owning it and even checked with Ryan about whether he ever regretted buying his Montana. (hint: He still loves it.)

So after about 12 hours of debate — and making a sale on eBay to free up some funds — I took the plunge and made the purchase using the profits from a thrift flip.

And no less than five days later the piece arrived, professionally framed as it likely had been so that the art work could hang in the Upper Deck offices.

I was excited to receive the piece and actually had my son record my unboxing because that’s what we do when we make big acquisitions for our personal collections. (https://youtu.be/7aRJ-12pRJc)

Thanks Chris for the heads up, and Ryan for offering insight.

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Collecting Clemens: A collector package from South Korea

Posted in Collcting Clemens, Mail Day on May 23, 2019 by Cardboard Icons

A few weeks ago, a person who recently came into my network of collectors put out on Twitter that he was looking for a Roger Clemens collector, so I raised my hand.

This collector is currently living and working in South Korea and said he had a bunch of Clemens stickers from the 1990s that he was looking to unload. The cost? Nothing. I offered to send something in exchange but he insisted, so I thanked him and sent him a mailing address.

That package arrived this week and from the moment the package was opened, it hit me right in the feels. The first item I saw in this package was the back of a 1988 Fleer Sticker, a set that is near and dear to my heart. In 1988, I only knew of ONE place that had these stickers, a 7-Eleven near my grandfather’s house and we only visited him once in a blue moon. So at best I may have opened three or four packs in my youth,

Sure, I’ve since acquired that Clemens sticker but every time I lay eyes on the black and white color back of these stickers I am transported to 1988 and a vision of seeing a box of these smashed — literally– under some toys near the register.

The 1988 Fleer sticker was just one item in this package that evoked feelings of nostalgia. Damn near everything in here reminded me of my early collecting days, when I often found myself debating whether or not to buy cards or stickers, after all, I treated them the same — they all got shoved into boxes or in those stiff, poor quality binder pages that used to crack and flake every time I flipped through my three-ring, O-Ring binder.

Here’s everything that was inside the package. And before I forget to say it, thank you, Dan, aka Korean Cardboard. (Edit: And thanks to Andrew for the assist, sorry I forgot to name you earlier.)

We’ll start with a 1987 Fleer Sticker. I never saw these during my youth, except when they were being sold at card shows.

The 1988 Panini sticker set is also one that hits home with me. These stickers and the album were given away when we signed up for Little League during that year. I would also buy packages of these whenever my mom took us grocery shopping. The Clemens is a classic to me for obvious reasons.

By 1991, I had pretty much moved away from the Panini sticker albums. But I still found myself buying packages of them from time to time just to vary the items that were coming into my collection. These stickers are pretty boring if you ask me — they’s skinnier and the design is bland. But, the did have stats right on the sicker, and not just printed in the album.

Know what’s funny? I never even saw Panini stickers in 1994 or 1996 in stores, yet here they are now in my hands. I have to say, I kind of dig the green borders and the larger stickers from 1994; the 1996 feels very 1996 — small and lazy.

I bought a TON of 1988 and 1989 Topps sticker back packs, these are the ones that felt like the UK Mini cards but had stickers affixed to the back. This package contained a bunch of these, as well as some O-Pee Chee versions. I’m happy to see these beauties again.

As for Topps stickers, I didn’t get down with those as much as the Panini ones, so these are a nice addition to the collection. Here are a some 1987s, including a dual-sticker and a foil All-Star.

All in all, this was a fun package to receive from over seas. Thanks again, Dan.

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COMC Mailday: Kershaws and Clemens galore

Posted in Collcting Clemens, Collecting Kershaw, Mail Day with tags , , , , , , , on May 9, 2019 by Cardboard Icons

I love being a player collector on COMC. Every day I’ll check the site and pick off cards I want and leave them in my account until I reach 100. At that point I’ll request shipment because when you ask for 100 cards to be delivered, COMC gives you a $5 bonus on the first day of the next month.

So the bonus effectively give me free shipping. And if you’ve ever dealt with COMC as a buyer, you know how Top-notch their packaging and fulfillment is.

Anyway, as usual, I filled by account with mostly Roger Clemens and Clayton Kershaw cards. And while most of it is ho-hum stuff I needed for my player collections, there are some neat pieces that I’ll show off here.

We’ll start with some Clemens stuff, move into some Kershaws, and then round out the post with some non-PC items.

I’m pretty sure I’ve written this somewhere, but when I was a kid I used to love my single 1985 Topps Roger Clemens Rookie Card so much that I actually put it into a Card Saver I and TAPED the holder to the inside pocket of my school binder. That way I could look at it at will, and I always knew where it was at. Fast forward some 30 years and I still fawn over the Clemens Topps Rookie And usually buy them when I find them cheap. This month I grabbed two from COMC when I found them near $2 each. Several others have since popped up but I’ve not bought another. Worth noting that when I place these two on top of each other, it’s clear that one of them was trimmed by some asshat who was hoping to turn it into a monster.

It sucks to see this, but I’m not upset… just part of this cards history, a reminder that people once cared enough about a Clemens to do such a thing.

Hey, Remember when Upper Deck produces upper tier baseball cards? Here are three reminders: A 1998 Amazing Greats DIE-CUT (/250), a 1997 SP SPX Force quad player hologram (/500), and a 2007 Exquisite Rookie Signature’s. Gorgeous stuff.

Here’s a few serial numbered cards, including a 2018 Topps Triple Threads parallel 21/99. Jersey number serial numbers are awesome.

I love the image on the 1991 Topps Roger Clemens Card; I really wish they turned that into a poster or even one of those folders. Anyway? Here are two Gypsy Queen minis from a few years ago, serial numbered /50 and /199. I showed these to my son the other day and he smiled and said he knew where else this picture was used. That made ME smile.

I still buy relic cards if they’re cheap enough or make me feel a certain way. All three of these checked one or both of those boxes.

And I’ll round out the Clemens highlights — like I said I have others that I won’t show here for the sake of tome — with a 1995 Collector’s Choice Gold Signature parallel and a 2004 Topps Chrome Refractor. I don’t have enough Clemens refractors.

***

We’ll kick off the Kershaw portion with a BGS 9 Mint 2006 Bowman Heritage Prospects Card. I love BGS and grabbed this for almost as much as it costs to slab a single card these days. That’s a win.

Speaking of early cards, here are two inexpensive early editions I didn’t already own: 2006 Just and 2008 Tri-Star Projections.

Remember what I saw about Clemens relics above? The same applies for Kershaw. I added 7 new relics to my collection, including these three Panini “National” Silver (I think) Pack patch cards, which I scored collectively for about the price of a blaster. I now own 3 of the 15 produced.

The other relics included a Topps Tribute jumbo size relic, a full size Ginter relic and another 2018 Topps Heritage relic. Also, a 2016 Panini National Treasures dual jumbo relic booklet featuring two plain game-worn swatches. It’s almost blasphemous these large swatches are so bland in a product so expensive, but hey …. I’ll take a booklet of MY guy /15 for under $15.

From real used relics to manufactured relics. Here is a Topps MVP medallion Card, which is a type of card that usually doesn’t move the needle for me because it’s big (as in thick) and relatively unimpressive, except this one was cheap and it bears Kershaw’s serial number on the back.

Lets go from big to little … as in minis. The Diamond Kings is /25, and of course that red border Ginter is /40. Love this stuff even if they are a pain to store sometimes.

Speaking of parallels. Sometimes it’s a pain to chase these things for your player collections. But when they’re all together they sure are cool to look at. Here are a few various parallels.

And serial numbered parallels are also fun. I knocked out a few /10, /25, /50, /100 and so on …

Also picked up a pair of photo variations from recent years. Here are 2013 Topps and 2019 Topps.

And let’s round out this Kershaw section with a pair of high-end Topps cards, 2010 Topps Sterling /250 and 2012 Topps Museum Collection /199.

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And lastly here are six cards that either I needed for a set, were so cheap I couldn’t pass or otherwise spoke to me.

That 2018 Topps On Demand Mike Trout reminded me of a dream I have which is to take a photo that winds up on a real baseball card; and that Todd Helton Playoff Absolute has a laundry tag in it. Couldn’t pass for under $10. The Arrieta Topps Update Rookie BGS 9.5 was a steal for under $2. That’s not a typo.

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eTopps Kershaw Rookie Card is a thing of beauty

Posted in Collcting Clemens, Collecting Kershaw, Misc. with tags , , , , , , , on March 19, 2019 by Cardboard Icons

Way back before Topps started The Living Set, the 150 Years of Baseball set, or any of the other on-demand sets that have been for sale on the company’s site, the company had a thing called eTopps — essentially the precursor to on demand cards.

I’ll admit I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination when it comes to this, due in large part that I really didn’t like the business model for eTopps so I didn’t spend a lot of time learning or dealing with it.

The basic idea was the cards were available for sale on the site for a set price, and were available until sold out or for a limited time. And to my understanding you could keep the cards on the site and trade them like stocks, or you could choose to have them delivered later.

That was way too complicated for me when the company started eTopps in 2001 and by 2008, the year of Kershaw’s rookie cards, I still hadn’t grown to love the idea of paying for single cards directly from the company.

The eTopps model continued for several more years but looks to have stopped just a few years ago, but some of the business model has morphed into what we now know as the on demand market.

The reason this comes to mind today is a recent addition to my collection — the 2008 eTopps Clayton Kershaw Rookie Card, serial numbered to 999 copies and encased in a plastic holder with a holographic sticker to ensure the card has not been removed. The card arrived over the weekend and once in hand it’s easy to see why anyone could have fallen in love with these cards. The question now is whether I leave it in this holder, remove it and put it in something else — due in part to the fact that it looks like the card is upside down based on my preference — or send it to BGS so it can be displayed with my other Kershaw rookies.

As for eTopps cards, This is the third eTopps card that I own, one of which is a Roger Clemens Card designed to look like 1984 Topps — That Card was one of the New were autographed during a special signing session at Topps.

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A slice of my childhood just arrived

Posted in Collcting Clemens with tags , , , , , on March 16, 2019 by Cardboard Icons

A few days ago I wrote about a recent purchase I made from the Topps Web site. In that piece I wrote about how I longed for the days of the Topps school folders designed to look like the cards of the year. I wrote about how I own(ed) a 1989 Topps Mark McGwire and a 1990 Topps Dave Stewart.

While writing that piece it dawned on me how cool it would have been to own a Roger Clemens from that era. Heck, I wasn’t even sure if one existed. The best I had in school was a generic folder I decorated with pictures of Roger Clemens action photos and other images I clipped from a magazine. (Fun note: One of the pictures is of Roger with his three kids, all of whom now have their own baseball cards.

I digress, when I finished that piece the other day, I decided to check eBay and lo and behold there was a 1988 Topps folder posted for sale. Three clicks later and the item was mine. The folder arrived today and it came with all the feels I thought it would These measures about 12×9 and have two pockets inside to hold loose pieces of paper.

In 1988 I would have used this for school, then used it during the summer to keep the notebook paper with which i wrote my stats from playing “Baseball” on Nintendo.

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