30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

The Twilight Zone

You are about to read another blog post.  A post not only featuring cards and baseball players, but that of an autograph and an overpriced graded card too.  A journey into the hobby that has entertained me for over 60% of my lifetime.  Next stop: The Twilight Zone.

Our story begins with a rare eBay purchase by a collector who has been focusing more on saving money than spending it.  A collector who has decided to appreciate the cards he has hidden in boxes sitting in his office rather than chasing down more cards to add to those boxes.

That is... until the day his eBay Bucks certificate valued at $2.29 arrived... which he applied towards the purchase of this on-card autograph:

2020 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Autographs #FFA-BB

Okay.  Enough of writing in the third person.  I was trying to be creative and celebrate the fact that today is National Twilight Zone Day.  Instead... let's just focus on some baseball cards that have weird stories attached to the person pictured on the card.

There's nothing too weird about this Bochy autograph.  I've wanted one since I saw his name appear on the Fan Favorites autograph checklist last year.  The guy is a Bay Area legend who led the San Francisco Giants to three World Series titles.


The weird thing about him is he's often involved in hall of fame discussions (in this neck of the woods)... yet he's had a losing record during his twenty-five year managerial career.  If he does eventually receive the call, he'll only be the 3rd manager with a losing record in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  If you're interested in seeing who the other two guys are, click here.

Not strange enough for you?  Well... yesterday one of my co-workers and I were talking baseball when he mentioned the story of Jorge Posada urinating on his hands during Spring Training to toughen them up.

2011 Topps Chrome Refractor #84
 
If that's not weird to you, then you might as well stop reading this post... because that's about as peculiar as this post gets.

The guy who inspired my buddy's comment about Posada and the inspiration for this post is Jesus Luzardo...

2020 Topps Update #U-94

He's that pitcher people were making fun of a week or two ago for injuring himself while playing video games.  Gotta imagine he's going to take some heat from his teammates about this one for the rest of his career or at least until the next professional athlete suffers a video game injury.

When I heard the news, it reminded me about a trading card set produced a few years ago featuring bizarre sports injuries.

2013 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Autographs #FFA-KML

Kevin Mitchell made the checklist and was highlighted for straining his rib muscles while throwing up.  I don't hold it against him, because I'm the guy who threw out his back after sneezing.  Not a proud moment in my life.

Getting back to Luzardo, he was the Oakland A's top prospect back in 2018 and 2019.  Last year, he had a decent rookie season... and many fans including myself were hoping he'd fight for a chance to be the staff ace

For the time being... we'll just have to see how this injury (on his throwing hand) impacts his season/career.  In the meantime, I'll happily add his cards to my collection.

Thanks to Kerry over at Cards on Cards ... my Luzardo PC doubled in size overnight:



Back in early April, he sent me a box that contained a bunch of different Oakland A's base, inserts, and parallels from a wide variety of years:



I was pretty excited about the Luzardos, but the card that stood out the most was this Rickey Henderson insert:

2021 Topps 35th Anniversary Baseball #86B-80

As much as I've complained about Topps overusing past card designs... I really, really like this card.  Weird, right?

Thank you Kerry for this generous care package.  I'd also like to thank a pair of readersJames & Xavier.  Both of these guys reached out to me and shipped me packages.  There's also a package sitting in my office that was sent to me by John over at Johnny's Trading Spot.  It has already been opened, but hasn't been scanned.  It's on my blogging list of things to cover too.

The bad news is I haven't gotten around to writing them thank you posts.  The good news is that it'll get me to sit down and write.

I'd also like to thank Greg over at The Collective Mind for emailing me last week to let me know that he was coming to the Bay Area.  I'll let him provide the details around his trip, but it was cool to be able to hang out with him for a few hours and talk about cards and cars while checking out a card shop.

He brought me some "space" cards and paid for dinner... both of which were much appreciated.  I'll write up a proper post at some point, but for now this post has run its course.  However before I say goodbye and return to my hobby hibernation, I thought I'd share an astonishing card related story that involves one of my recent eBay sales:

2000 Topps Traded #T40

As I've mentioned before, I've decided to start listing some of my duplicates on eBay to take advantage of these crazy times in our hobby.  Well... two years ago, I purchased two graded copies of Miggy's Topps rookie card for an average price of $80 each... and decided to list one of them a few weeks ago.

Less than 48 hours later, it sold for the full asking price of $1,200... which totally blew my mind.  This is the only sale I've made where the buyer paid full price.  Definitely wacky and awesome at the same time.

Well that's it for today.  It was nice to sit down and hammer out a post.  I'm hoping to publish one or two more before summer break begins.  Until then enjoy some Golden Earring...


Happy Twilight Zone Day and sayonara!

23 comments:

Elliptical Man said...

Wow. $1,200 for a Miggy card is insane.

Serling was a bad ass.

Kevin Mitchell once got a late break on a fly ball so he reached out and caught it with his bare hand.

Bochy got tossed from the Padres' last game at Qualcomm. Good stuff.

Rod (Padrographs) said...

I too am putting stuff on ebay. my handle is captainamerica57. Let me know what yours is and I will look at the stuff.

Fuji said...

elliptical man - that mitchell play was awesome! pretty sure i've shared a clip of that highlight in a post before.

padrographs - hope business is good. my ebay seller id is sanjosefuji

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

Hey hey it's the San Jose Kid

defgav said...

Good to see another post from you. Congrats on the big sale. I think I'm gonna have to track down a copy of that Bochy auto since I doubt he'll be getting one in a Padres uniform (unless maybe a buyback).

Brett Alan said...

Congrats on that sale!

That bizarre injury set needs a card of Bob Ojeda cutting off the tip of his finger with hedge clippers. And also the Yoenis Céspedes boar attack, but that must have happened after the set was created. Maybe series 2? B^)

The Diamond King said...

Good stuff! I love that you got big bucks for the Cabrera, but it really puts a damper on my desire to get a copy of that for myself. Of course, non-graded would be a lot cheaper.

Fuji said...

johnnys trading spot - updated this post and included you.

defgav - it'd be cool to see him get one with the padres... since he is only one of two managers to take the padres to the world series

brett alan - i regret buying that set. if they do a second series, i won't make that mistake twice

the diamond king - yeah... as great of a career as cabrera has had, it's hard to justify spending that kind of money on his rookie card. but you're right an ungraded card will be cheaper. not sure if it'll be cheap though. best of luck

Matt said...

Welcome back! I seem to recall Moises Alou also would toughen up his hands in the same fashion...

Bo said...

Hope you're not getting hit too hard with the eBay shakeup. I hate that they took away the "era" category - no good way to search for vintage card now.

Remember when Cabrera got arrested for hitting his wife? Back before anyone in baseball cared about domestic violence. All conveniently forgotten now . . .

Jeremya1um said...

Glad for another post to see what you’ve been up to.
Can’t believe to see how much that Cabrera sold for. I guess that speaks to what grading can do. Glad to see a good guy like you turn a nice profit like that, and I hope it lands you some nice cards.

Peter K Steinberg said...

Holy smokes! That's some cash. That Bochy card is wonderful. Congrats on getting it.

Fuji said...

matt - i wonder how many other guys used that method. and if they ever shook fans hands or signed autographs with their urine hands

bo - didn't know about the ebay shakeup. i'm totally a newbie to selling. as for cabrera... i think fans have short memories sometimes

jeremya1um - i wish i could say that i've been using the money to buy new cards for my collection, but i think the plan is to help pay for a new car. haven't had one of those in 13 years (right about the time i returned to the hobby)

peter k steinberg - thanks. glad to finally cross that off my wishlist.

Steve at 1975BaseballCards.com said...

Your post is wacky and awesome at the same time :-) nice move on that sale!

Nick Vossbrink said...

Nice Bochy pickup. If I hadn't gotten him TTM I'd've been stalking that a bit. I do really like that Mitchell card and it's such a nice improvement over his horribly photoshopped 1988 card.

Jeff B - Wax Pack Wonders said...

Gotta put Bochy in the Hall.

Those 86 reprints are really cool. And I'm not always crazy about them either.

Those bizarre injuries cards are fun.

Fuji said...

steve at 1975baseballcards.com - thanks. hoping to move a few more cards this week, but i'm doing my best to play the patient game

nick vossbrink - mitchell's 1988 photo was definitely a downgrade from his 1987 action shot.

jeff b wax pack wonders - i hope he does make it. he's only one of ten managers with 3 or more world series titles. plus he took the padres there once too.

Jafronius said...

Congrats on that eBay sale! I believe Moises Alou also believed in the "relieving himself on his hands" trick. It made for quite the conversation on Chicago sports talk.

Fuji said...

jafronius - yeah... i read about that. i guess it's a more common thing than i originally thought. it's totally weird, but both guys were solid players, so if it ain't broke...

The Snorting Bull said...

I am glad to see you are back posting! Definitely missed reading your blog and seeing your posts pop back in my feed brought me some joy this week. That is quite the Ebay sale. The prices of cards have gotten crazy. I definitely need to spend some time sorting through my cards and finding dupes of stuff that will sell for huge amounts. I also love the Kevin Mitchell autograph. I remember when he broke out with the Giants in 1989. I went to a game at some point that year where they played the Cardinals. He hit one of the those home runs where the outfielder does not move, they just stand there. Only this was in Busch Stadium before they remodeled it. The ball did not carry well there and the center field 414 and the power allies were 380. Mitchell hit the ball off the batters eye in the centerfield. It was one of the more impressive non-McGwire home runs I saw in that stadium.

Fuji said...

the snorting bull - i'm not back to a regular posting schedule, but i did miss sitting down and writing... so hopefully no more month long droughts. i hope i can find a video of that home run on youtube. it sounds awesome. if you decide to sell your dupes, i wish you the best of luck. i only average about a sale a week, but it puts a little extra money in the account.

Matt said...

Quite the sale! Glad to see you back

Fuji said...

matt - thanks. haven't sold anything or listed anything new in a week, but maybe i'll find something today.