To∙ny Gw∙nn

I wanted to do a quick post today.  I bought a hanger box of 2015 today.  And this was easily the highlight for me.

I've always been a big Tony Gwynn fan.  He was never an Angel obviously, but I pulled his rookie card out of packs of Donruss and Fleer.  So I bought the Topps version almost 30 years ago, and I've had a Gwynn PC ever since. This is a good looking card.  I'm not sure what the concept is behind ar∙che∙types, but whatever.  I'm guessing the image has been used a number of times, because it looks very familiar.  But it captures a young Gwynn pretty well. 

Another I like about the card is on the back.

Topps referenced Gwynn's famous "5.5 hole".  Perfect.

But notice the top left corner of the back.  The hanger box was full of dinged corners.  Nice QC there Topps.  While I'm complaining, I got 64 base cards and 36 of them were dupes.  I've got barely half the set, and I'm already at the point of diminishing returns.  I have nice stack of dupes though, so if anybody needs something specific...

R.I.P.

Happy Anthony Keith Day!

And Happy Birthday Tony Gwynn!!

All the way to my mailbox

Now I'm re-using title ideas.

I recently posted about a couple packages I received on the same day, but I also got another package a day or two later.  Marcus from all the way to the backstop contacted me and offered to send me cards for my 2014 Topps base set.  He even threw in the "Don't worry about sending anything in return" line (although I do have a smattering of things to send back).  If anybody out there has a stack of doubles and a want list, let me know.

In addition to all the 2014s he sent me, he also included some other gems.

I've sent off all the "Power Players" I've pulled, but this one I'm keeping.  I'm unwittingly creating a Richards rainbow (interestingly no base card):

There were some Trouts:

I had the red bullseye parallel of the "2012 AL ROY" card, but not the base card.  That 2012 Bowman looks an awful lot like his 2014 Topps base card.

There were some retro unis:

That Vaughn is yet another new to me set from the era when I wasn't collecting cards.  Ryan there is #3 in my Angels Frankenset.

But Marcus didn't just send me Angels.

Anthony Keith (what?  I said I read the backs of cards...including 80's Donruss) is one of my longest standing PCs.  These cards are pretty sharp looking with the green marble border.

But there were more Padres

Two stars I can cross of my 1979 want list.

And then there was this:

This thing is outstanding.  And totally new to me.  Ironic that a card from a haircutting franchise shows (almost) no actual hair on the card.  From the perforations I'm guessing that it was either attached to other players, or maybe more advertising?
(Update 3/5: I just now realized that it opens at the perforation.  Duh.)

Thanks again Marcus.

Anthony Keith

I just went to the mailbox, and what a bunch of goodies in there today.  I got a Ted Williams card for that PC from eBay.  John dropped two more PWEs on me, and P-town Tom sent me a box.  But I wanted to put up a quick post on the other envelope I got today.  I won

these two cards on Listia for 100 credits.  1986 and 1987 Topps mini leaders.  I've been a fan of Gwynn's pretty much since I pulled his rookie cards out of packs of Fleer and Donruss back in 1983.  I went to the card store the next year and bought the Topps rookie.  He thus became one of my first player collections.  So these were good additions to the Gwynn PC.  But the thing that caught my eye was when I turned the cards over:

Apparently Gwynn lost 7 pounds in 1986.  Ummmm, as I said I'm a big Gwynn fan, always will be.  The guy is a class act all the way.  But I'm not so sure Gwynn ever lost weight.  At least that's the way I seem to remember it.