30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Cornerstone Combo Cards

When it comes to combination cards, card companies sometimes take a huge risk when deciding who to pair people up with.

1998 Stadium Club Co-Signers #CS14

I've seen plenty of cards like my Gwynn/Grudzielanek Co-Signers card that have left me scratching my head.  Sometimes it involves a veteran and young budding star that doesn't live up to collector's expectations.  Other times card companies just throw two athletes together and hope for the best.  Bottom line... not all combination cards are classics.

But when paired correctly... they can become really cool cornerstone cards for your collection.  Today's post features five of my favorite combo cards and it was inspired by a post I read last week on Sports Cards Ate My BrainSascards67 showed off some really nice combination autographs and relic cards.  The plan was to include him in my This Week in Blogging post, but it ran a tad bit long.  So I decided to make it a stand alone post.

I'm not going to bother trying to rank these cards, but I will say that this first card is one of my favorite cards in the collection:

1999 Stadium Club Co-Signers #CS4

I realize this isn't the first time I've shown off this card and I'd be lying if I told you it was the last time.  The fact that Chipper and Jeter each touched this card at some point gives me goosebumps.  I've always wondered who signed this card first.

The same question can be applied to this card:

2005 Sweet Spot Signatures Dual #SSD-PC

Actually, I'm pretty sure that Upper Deck just had the players sign these leather swatches the same way they have athletes sign the dreaded stickers), but I'll take this card over a sticker-graph any day of the week.

Next up is this black bordered beauty:

2002 UD Vintage Timeless Teams Bat Card #B-OF2

Okay.  I kinda wish Griffey was featured as a Seattle MarinerUpper Deck made the executive decision to have Rickey with the A's... even though he played with the Red Sox in 2002.  The could have done the same thing with Junior.

Nevertheless... I love this card.  It (supposedly) contains pieces of game used bat used by my two favorite baseball players, the Home Run King, and arguably the most popular player in our hobby during the 90's.

2004 UD Legends Timeless Teams
Team Terrific Game-Used Team Logo #TT-OA

I can only think of two booklets in my collection, but they're not even in the same league.  This awesome memorabilia card was a gift from Jim over at cards as i see them.  He actually has a few blogs and one of them is dedicated to his 2004 UD Legends Timeless Teams collection where I originally discovered these booklets.


This card has been one of the cornerstone pieces to my Oakland A's collection the past couple of years.  It features the players who were on the field when I first started attending games at the Oakland Coliseum back in the mid 70's.  And it was the first card that popped into my head when I was reading Sascards67's post.

I'll wrap things up with a memorabilia card featuring my two favorite football teams:

2007 Leaf Limited Matching Positions #MP-12

Steve Largent and Donald Driver each sit atop their franchise leaderboard in regards to receptions and receiving yards... and like Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones, and Tony Gwynn... both of these guys were loyal to one franchise.  That will always score bonus points in my book.

Well there you have it.  Five of my favorite combination autograph and memorabilia cardsWhat about you?

What are your favorite combination "hits" in your collection?

If "hits" aren't your thing, then...

What are your favorite combinations cards in your collection?

Well that's it for today.  Happy Tuesday and sayonara!


19th Hole

2011 Panini Americana Movie Posters Materials Combo #7

This is a bonus card scan of a combination relic.  Never seen this movie, but I'm familiar with three of the stars in the film.  Unlike most memorabilia cards, the swatches of clothing (supposedly) worn by Jerry Lewis and Donna Reed appear on the back of this card.

10 comments:

Elliptical Man said...

"the Home Run King, and arguably the most popular player in our hobby during the 90's."

I was out of the hobby for most of the '90s. So I have to ask if you're being serious or sarcastic. On the one hand, he was a tremendously talented player. On the other hand, he was kind of a jerk and he juiced.

I usually don't like combo cards so I don't have any combo hits and most of my combo cards are in my trade box.

I have a Panini Classics Eras card that has both Jaworski and Wentz. But it's just a card - no relic or auto.

I also have a Warren Moon card that has him as an Oiler on the front with a jersey swatch and as a Viking on the back with another jersey swatch.

acrackedbat said...

The Gwynn/Grudzielanek Co-Signers is one I pulled from a $10 box of Stadium Club I picked up at a show several years ago. It's the only Gwynn auto I own but am happy to have it. Those Timeless Teams - oh wow - those are nice cards. Timeless is one of my favorite sets anyway. I don't have any other combo autos and relics aren't a big part of my collection.

Fuji said...

elliptical man - lol... i was referring to griffey as arguably the most popular player in our hobby during the 90's. that warren moon relic sounds really awesome. i'd love to one day add a warren moon seahawks relic to my collection one day.

a cracked bat - that is one heck of a pull. you should check out jim's website. he has so many cool cards from that product. it's super pimress.

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

Oh...so jealous of that Jeter/Chipper card. Wowzers. I couldn't tell you what if any combination hit cards I have, or base cards either for that matter. But I do really really dig the previously mention awesomeness.

The Lost Collector said...

Early Co-Signers were great! I have one Tino, with Roberto Alomar. A bit of an odd pairing.

I have a Tino/Paul O'Neill Yankees combo relic that I like quite a bit.

shoeboxlegends said...

That Jeter/Chipper is a jaw-dropper Fuji, fantastic card! I don't think I really have many if any combo hits in my entire collection, I'll have to think about it...

gcrl said...

Glad you enjoy that a's card! I have a bunch of combos and one I really like is a bob welch and tommy john dual auto.

The Snorting Bull said...

I am not a huge fan of combo cards, but I can tolerate them if the players have some sort of connection. Probably my two favorites are a Co-Signers autograph of Larry Walker and Andres Galarraga, and a Panini with Willie McGee and Vince Coleman.

Steve at 1975BaseballCards.com said...

I like that Movie Materials card. But the Timeless Teams is superb. I would be super jealous if I didn't have one of those, so I'm only jealous that I don't have the one you shared :-) There's something about them that makes them greater than the sum of their parts. I also like the other cards from the set - of course focused on 1975.

Fuji said...

johnnys trading spot - the jeter/chipper might be the coolest autographed card sitting in my collection

the lost collector - that is an odd pairing. would have been cool to have a tino/paul co-signers card.

shoeboxlegends - thanks. after seeing some of the cards in your collection, i'll take that as a complement

gcrl - enjoy it? i love it. that welch/john dual sounds awesome. i just learned a few days ago that welch is the only pitcher to strike out gwynn 3x in a single game

the snorting bull - wow. kudos to panini for getting mcgee and coleman on the same card. neither have a ton of autographs

steve at 1975baseballcards.com - very well put. i should have used that line to describe those six guys in this post