30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Monday, August 31, 2020

Brighter and Better Days

A new week. Hopefully this one will be a little brighter.  To do my part, I figured I'd share this colorful card of Jackie Robinson:

2013 Topps Archives Gallery of Heroes #GH-JR

As most of you know, Major League Baseball honored Jackie this past Friday.   I'm one of those fans who found out after the fact, but I still wanted to honor the ballplayer who helped tear down the color barrier.  I also wanted to remember Chadwick Boseman, the forty-three year old actor who passed away on Friday.  I'll remember him for his role as Black Panther, but I'm sure most baseball fans remember him for his portrayal of Jackie in 42Rest in peace Mr. Boseman.

Okay.  Let's brighten things up with a pair of PWE's I received this past week.


First up was
another 9-pocket page from Julie over at A Cracked Bat.  I picked her pockets a few weeks ago, but can't remember which cards I actually picked.   Regardless... all nine of these cards fit my collection and will be given a loving home.

The card that stood out the most was this custom card created by When Topps Had Balls:

     
2020 @wthballs Baseball Series 1 #8

Gio is right up there among the elite custom card creators and recently decided to start printing and distributing them in packsJulie purchased a few and I'm very glad she was willing to send me this Rickey featured on a 1979 Topps card.

The other card that stood out was a remake of the 1983 Topps Tony Gwynn rookie card:

     
2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #127

My goal is to take a page out of Night Owl's book and create a 9-pocket page filled with different variations of Gwynn's famous rookie card.  I've been wanting to do this for awhile now, but thanks to Julie, I'm motivated to work on this project.

Next up was a PWE from The Diamond King that contained four phone cards from the 90's:

               

I must have
left a comment on one of his posts, because he remembered how much I enjoy and appreciate phone cards from the 90's.

For those of you who weren't collecting back in the 90's, phone cards made a brief appearance in our hobby thanks to companies like Classic and Topps.  They have sort of lost their appeal to most collectors over the past twenty years, but I will gladly adopt any unwanted phone cards out there.


Thank you Julie and Kevin for helping me kick this week off on brighter note.  Here's to brighter and better days.  Have a great week.  Happy Monday and sayonara!

16 comments:

The Diamond King said...

Glad you got them! And that Gallery of Heroes set (and the earlier ones from the 90's) are some of my all time favorites.

Commishbob said...

I hope your week is a great one.


I enjoyed Boreman as JR, his was an excellent portrayal. He was also very good in Marshall. It never did much at the box office (my wife and I were the only ones in the theater the weekend it opened as I recall) but it's well worth tracking down.

Peter K Steinberg said...

Happy Monday indeed! What great cards. I've never picked Julie's pockets.

Jeff B - Wax Pack Wonders said...

I also enjoy the phone cards. A quintessential 90s item.

The Snorting Bull said...

Love those Topps Gallery stained glass window cards. Used to love those in the late 1990s. I am not sure that Topps has found a consistent place for them in recent years, but they always look nice no matter what set they are attached to.

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

SWEET Jackie! Love that set. I wish I had 2 sets instead of none. Have a fantastic week.

Sean said...

That was really sad about Boseman, its amazing that almost all of his famous roles (except Jackie) were filmed while he was fighting stage 4 cancer. Its tragic, but also insanely inspiring.

Love the Rickey and Gwynn cards there!

Jongudmund said...

That Gwynn rookie card is so much better than his actual roilier card. (I've often said it's not a flattering card.)

I want to watch 42. I read Jackie Robinson's autobiography last year and his story is so inspiring.

Jongudmund said...

Roilier? That's an odd interpolation. I'm going to blame autocorrect!

Does anyone know why Tony Gwynn isn't wearing 19 on his Topps rookie card?

SumoMenkoMan said...

Sweet. I am a huge fan of Japanese phone cards and it appears that the trend worked its way over to the U.S. briefly. Cool PWEs.

The Lost Collector said...

I've never had a Gallery of Heroes but feel like I need one! I used to love phone cards back in the day! There were some cool signed ones.

CinciCuse Bill said...

CB - what a resume. Add Floyd Little to the list from The Express. RIP

Matt said...

That gallery of heroes card is beautiful! One of my favorite insert lines since teh 90s

shoeboxlegends said...

Beautiful Gallery of Heroes Jackie there Fuji!

acrackedbat said...

Gallery(s) are among the most dramatically gorgeous cards out there! Fuji, I have a bad headache this morning, completely forgetting I'd sent the Rickey custom. I saw this card and thought "who sent this to him when I have one set aside to mail?" Yep, gonna be a long day for me!

Fuji said...

the diamond king - thanks again for the phone cards. if i had more time on my hands, i'd make them more of a priority in the collection.

commishbob - i'll have to come back to this post and remember to add marshall to my watchlist.

peter k steinberg - she loads them up. it's well worth the peek and pick.

jeff b - yes. i feel like right now is the time to pick them up since you don't see too many collectors interested in them

the snorting bull - maybe topps should use the gallery of heroes as their next living set idea. i'd probably pick some up if they were in the $5 range

johnnys trading spot - i'd love to build this archives insert set, but singles still sell for more than i wanna pay. maybe one day they'll land in dollar bins and we both can build it

sean - wow. didn't know that. very inspirational, because whenever i saw him, he was always smiling

jongudmund - what? not a fan of him showing off his backside? lol

sumomenkoman - japanese phone cards? oh dang. another thing for me to collect ;D

the lost collector - i'm sure there are a bunch of yankees gallery of heroes for you to collect. i know for sure that there's at least one jeter from the original insert sets. i feel like i might still own a few of those signed phone cards. believe they were from a product called auto-phonex or something

cincicuse bill - wow. didn't realize he was in so many sports movies. another one that i haven't seen. maybe they'll release a cb sports dvd package. if so, i'll pick it up and binge watch them one saturday

sport card collectors - yeah... mine too. i believe i've reviewed at least one... if not two of the sets from back in the day

shoeboxlegends - thanks. i think it's the only one i own from the 2013 set... but i own a couple of the older sets

a cracked bat - hope you feel better julie. and thanks again for the awesome rickey... as well as the other cards i picked from your pockets.