30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Saturday, November 17, 2018

Gratifying Grotesqueness

When ugly Christmas sweaters started making a comeback a few years ago... I went all in and purchased several to wear for the holidays.  They're just one more way to make the holiday season more festive and they're usually good for one or two conversation starters.

Right now... Peter over at Baseball Every Night is using them for a contest over on his blog.  

The challenge?  Show off your favorite ugliest baseball card.  Maybe it's the ugliest card design you've ever seen.  Perhaps there's a card in you collection that's in such poor condition that you feel it's literally disgusting.  Or maybe you have a card featuring one of those hideous futuristic "Turn Ahead the Clock" jerseys from 1999.  It's up to you to define "ugly".

I had a few different ideas pop into my head, but I settled on this card:


Not sure what the heck this is?  Here, let me rotate it and give you a different view:


Still unsure?  Well it's a headless Kurt Suzuki Vancouver Canadians autographed card that's been chopped up and turned into a one of a kind cut signature by a company that may or may not have conducted business in their parent's garage.


This card is seriously an eye sore just like one of the ugly Christmas sweaters sitting in my closet waiting to be worn in a few weeks.  And just like those Christmas sweaters... this card is treasured and loved.


It's hands down the ugliest Kurt Suzuki card in my collection, but I still love it.  In fact in three days, it'll mark the 5 year anniversary of me spending $3.98 (99¢ + $2.99 shipping) of my hard earned money to add this card to my collection.

Happy Anniversary Headless Kurt!  I love ya!

What about you...

Do you have a favorite ugly card?

If so, head over to Baseball Every Night and enter Peter's contestThe prize will be partially dependent on the number of entries he receives, however he guarantees that he'll spend at least $35.

Honestly... the true prize will be reading everyone's response posts.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

12 comments:

P-town Tom said...

"one of a kind cut signature by a company that may or may not have conducted business in their parent's garage." Nice one!

Peter K Steinberg said...

This is a very special kind of ugly and exemplifies what I was hoping for in this contest. Thank you so much for submitting!!

Nick Vossbrink said...

Holy moly that's not just ugly it's infuriatingly ugly.

Zippy Zappy said...

This reminds me of an absolutely terrible "dual-auto" of Mike Trout and Bryce Harper where some morons just put a sticker autograph of Mike Trout onto an index card, and on the reverse side was a cut up sticker autograph of Bryce Harper from a 2012 Topps insert (the cheapest Harper auto on the market at the time). What made it even more funnier is that it was officially graded (and encased) by an authenticator and sold by TriStar, remember them?

As for my favorite fugly card it's definitely Mat Latos' 2012 Opening Day card. Everything about that card is so terrible that it's actually wonderful. The card equivalent of Tommy Wiseau's "The Room".

GCA said...

Those hacked and re-framed autos are the most ridiculous things ever marketed. Don't hack up other cards to feature the auto. Just use autos with plain backgrouds. Idiots.

night owl said...

These kinds of cards should be filed under only one word and it's not "ugly," it's "stupid."

Matt said...

That is one ugly card

Jon said...

It's a good thing that Peter is going to be picking the winner at random, because if he was choosing by sheer ugliness alone, I think we'd already have ourselves a winner.

The Lost Collector said...

Hmmm, I have to think about this. I do hate 2010 Upper Deck, so maybe something from that. But I gotta give it more thought before entering Peter's contest!

SumoMenkoMan said...

Wow, that card is really weird. Glad you took it off the market. Ha!

Big Tone said...

Yeah,thats pretty ugly.I think any 1990 Fleer card would have a good chance at winning this contest.Put a crease in it and its a wrap.

Fuji said...

p-town tom - thanks. definitely my favorite sentence in this post ;)

peter k steinberg - thanks for the contest! looking forward to reading everyone's submissions

nick vossbrink - lol. can you believe that i actually went out of my way to buy it?

zippy zappy - to ruin trout and harper autographs takes thing to a whole new level. that's just stupid. as for the latos, i looked it up and can't figure out the fugliness.

gca - agree 100%

night owl - lol. can't it be both?

sport card collectors - yes it is.

jon - lol. i'll take that as a compliment.

the lost collector - give it your best shot! i look forward to reading/seeing your submission

sumomenkoman - gotta take one for the team every now and then

big tone - your homework assignment is to research the ugliest 1990 fleer card ;)