A really dumb Tino card

 As a player collector, sometimes I buy a card I'm not thrilled with, because it's one I don't have and "need." 

I've actually gotten a lot better about trying not to be a completist with Tino, and chasing every single card or parallel of his. If the price is right, of course I'll snag one I don't have. But I've all but stopped spending money on parallels of parallels or low-numbered cards if I'm content with similar ones that might not be as rare. Personal growth!

I didn't really stick to my guns on a recent purchase, although it didn't set me back much. Just a few bucks. And I haven't seen it pop up often, so I'm not really regretting what I paid. But boy is this a dumb card:

Yeah.

It's from 2012 Upper Deck SP Signature Edition. Upper Deck certainly didn't have an MLB license at this point. But oof, this is bad. I actually really dislike the "signature cards" that some TTM autograph seekers use, and this sort of feels like that.

And it's a sticker to boot.

The fact that this was shipped from Canada actually kept the price down. Have you noticed that? People bid a lot less when they see international shipping attached to a card.

So, this is a weird one. It's ugly and boring. But it's an autograph and a new card in my Tino collection. Card #1,102, in fact.

It's just not going to take a very prominent place in my collection.

Happy 53rd birthday, Tino Martinez

Today, my favorite baseball player of all time turns 53. I definitely feel old myself the older he gets. He's in legit "Old Timers Day Age." 

What's cool about Tino's birthday is that it's also the day he was traded from Seattle to NY. Dec, 1995. That happened on his 28th birthday. Almost half of his lifetime ago!

Tino went on to have a rough start in Pinstripes. He admitted to pressing and doing too much to try and replace Don Mattingly and win over the fans. Things started to turn around in late April, with a 15th-inning grand slam versus Baltimore. He ended the season batting .292 with 25 homers and 117 RBIs. Not bad numbers at all, but almost pedestrian in the mid '90s era with all the juice heads hitting 50 homers and driving in 150. 

I admired the way he played, even when slumping, and became an instant fan. I found a few of his Mariners cards already in my collection, and probably would have gotten a few Yankees cards later that year. I have a very nice 69 cards of him from 1996, although I'd say maybe half of him are actually as a Yankee.

This is my favorite 1996 card of his. It's a die cut, oversized issue from Upper Deck Authenticated celebrating the 1996 World Series Champion Yankees. I'm surprised he was the subject of the card, as opposed to Jeter or Bernie or O'Neill or Pettitte. 

Tino keeps getting older. So do I. But collecting his cards helps keep me connected to my childhood memories of him.

Free Break Spoils

Kerry over at Cards on Cards was kind enough run a free Bowman Mega Box group break. Such a generous thing to do, and I happily snagged the Yanks. I only landed one card in the break, but it was one of 2019 Yankees first rounder Anthony Volpe.

Look at the shine own that thing. I give Topps a lot of flack for the their uninspired card offerings and designs, but Refractors and X-Fractors and Mojo-fractors and anything else "-fractor" do hold up. The card is gorgeous.

I hate that Volpe lost a year of development. So many minor leaguers just starting their pro careers were robbed of important seasons. I'm sure he took part in many workouts, but it's a bummer when a young kid like this misses a whole year (or more!).

Kerry also busted some some Upper Deck Victory, and I came away with a Tino and a Bernie.

Thanks, Kerry!

An old-fashioned 1 for 1 trade

Most of my trades on TCDB have been 1-2 cards for 5-6 cards. It's something I've been trying to do to cut back on extra cards. Essentially, trade 4-5 cards for 1 I'd rather have.

It doesn't always work this way. Recently I completed a good old-fashioned 1 for 1 swap with user NetScans. What was even more fun was that it wasn't from a 2020 set like a lot of trades have been. I traded a Reggie Jackson 2015 Topps insert for a 1998 Tino I needed:

It's a really nice looking card from 1998 UD3. I thought I had it, but like the late 90s tend to do, sometimes it's impossible to tell what part of the set the card hails from.

This is one of the Power Corps Rainbow cards. Instead of having the same same number, like parallels now, it has a later number LATER in the set. Oy.

Anyways, glad to have it! Despite being confusing, it's a nice looking card.

Three I needed? I'll take it

As anyone who has a large player collection knows, it's hard to get a big lot of cards and find ones you've needed. I've bought large lots on eBay just hoping for one or two I needed.

Other bloggers are always well-intentioned and include cards of one's favorite player in trade packages, although in most instances it ends up being a dupe. I just sent PK Steinberg about 1,000 Kruks, and I'm sure he had them all.

Earlier this week, John of Johnny's Trading Spot sent me two team bags of Tino Martinez cards.  I certainly appreciated the package, and John included a note hoping that I might find a few I needed, knowing most would likely be dupes.

Well, I found three! I'd call that a success.

They were all from 2003 while Tino was with the Cardinals. Admittedly my Tino collection is a bit light from 2002-2004 while he was a Cardinal and Ray. I just haven't been too diligent with those years, but always willing to add them to my collection.

John, thanks for thinking of me, and for adding three new Tinos to my collection!

Branded

Recently, Fuji showed off his favorite relic card. Fuj, I'm going to steal your image:

I really like when Upper Deck used to brand a bat relic piece with a team logo. It added a nice looking element to an otherwise pretty boring piece of wood.

Recently, I picked up this Dave Winfield bat relic. I was emptying my COMC account of credits, and had around $2 left, and search for a "Yankee memorabilia card" to spend the remaining funds on. This one was probably the best of the bunch with was left, so I figured a card like this of a HOFer was worth it.

It may not be a press conference-used table cloth, but still a pretty cool card for a small price, and I do appreciate the extra step to make the relic look a little less bland.

Affordable group break results to start off July

Last month, Cardboard Collections held another Affordable Group Break. I joined and purchased the Yankees, of course. I was also assigned the Rockies as my random second team.

The boxes consisted of 2002 Upper Deck Diamond Collection and 2003 Upper Deck Forty Man. I gotta say, the results of the Forty Man were a lot of fun, and I'd love to see another set like this. It was essentially the same thing as Topps Total.

Part of why it's fun is because you get cards of guys like this:

Randoms!

It also landed me a Tino Martinez, which I wasn't expecting at all given he was a Cardinal during the time of these card issues.

The 2002 Diamond Collection cards are ones I don't recognize. Not sure I've ever seen these:

As for the Rockies, not much to write home about.

And while not part of the break, this was included too. Can't go wrong here!

Thanks for another great break, Colbey!

Taking a closer look

I feel like I've gotten a little jaded with my card collecting, especially when I get a new card in the mail. Notably, this is the case when I purchase a card on eBay. It doesn't apply as heavily with trade packages.

Often times, I open the envelope, make sure the card is in there, then stick the card away for filing. It takes about 5 seconds. That's not cool. Cards come in so frequently that I haven't been properly taking the time to enjoy them, from observing the photo, card design, and even pouring over the back.

I'm not sure when it got to the this point of being so lackadaisical with new cards, but I want to press the reset button and work harder to enjoy each new card that comes in.

I'll start with this one, a card I paid over a buck for on eBay because it's one I just hadn't seen before. From that, I can tell it doesn't pop up very frequently.  One is listed on COMC for $5.25 right now, so I gladly paid $.80 + $1.39 shipping to add a new Tino for just over $2.

This card is from 2001 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection, which was a small set with one autograph per year. Nowadays, base cards in those types of packs are thrown out, although I guess that could have been the case back then too seeing how rarely this card pops up.

On the whole, the card is nice, but not spectacular by any means. Decent, but not overly memorable design.

At first I liked the image. Good shot of Tino laughing. But then I noticed his blurry left hand, as he was obviously in movement. Historically, I don't think Upper Deck photography would usually allow for the blurry motion, even though it's not very apparent.

The back of the card is fine. Only three years worth of stats, but a nice write-up, including mentioning his World Series homer versus the D-Backs.

There you have it. No Earth-shattering analysis here, but still, I need to do a better job of looking at cards versus dismissing them so quickly.

Diamond, diamonds everywhere

Recently, my wife just celebrated a milestone birthday. Wanting to mark the occasion, I splurged on a pair of diamond stud earrings for her. It was definitely more than I tend to spend on any gift, but she means the world to me and I wanted to make this particular birthday a little more special.

As you probably know, diamonds are not cheap. But my Jeter autograph can wait.

To hold me over, I satisfied my diamond fix as well in the form of 1999 Upper Deck Black Diamond.

This is a “double diamond” parallel, so my wife and I both got a pair of diamonds, you might say. It is numbered to 3000.

In 1999, Upper Deck was spitting out sets at a ridiculous rate (I count 19 different), so some were pretty forgettable. While Black Diamond seemingly never caught fire, I think the made some decent looking cards. The problem is that between these, Ovation, HoloGRFX, Ionix, none really were overly memorable and meshed together a little bit, looking back.

Still, for a player collector, the 90s were an awesome time because of sheer quantity of sets from each manufacturer. Throw some parallels like this on top of that, and I’ll be chasing Tino cards forever.

And I’m ok with that.

The ol' pickoff play

Most of my 800+ Tino Martinez cards show him in a very similar pose, often following through on his swing. And I don’t blame the card companies – he had a really nice left swing. Little leg kick, quick bat, liked the high heat unlike most lefties who prefer the ball down and in. It was a nice swing.

However, I do tend to appreciate a few of the cards that have a different photo. In my 212-card lot I posted about earlier this week, both of these were included – the ‘ol throw-to-first pickoff play. 

The Upper Deck Vintage has Tsuyoshi Shinjo of the Mets scrambling to get back to the bag.

The ’97 Topps has Dave Martinez diving back into the bag.

Similar cards when side-by-side, but a nice alternative to the swing follow-through.

Basketball cards on cards

Kerry from Cards on Cards is one of the most generous bloggers out there. His mailings are always stuffed with cards he knows I’ll like. He must bust a ton of product too. Kerry, what are your secrets?!

I am the beneficiary of Kerry’s pack-busting in multiple ways. First, he sets aside Yankees for me. Second, he sets aside Knicks for me. I haven’t collected basketball cards since high school. I actually collected more basketball than baseball at that time, if you can believe that. However, I love getting Knicks cards now, not because of the guys on the team (since they suck), but it’s fun to see what products from other sports look like.

2016-17 Donruss used the same design as football and racing. Unlike baseball, they wisely used team colors on the cards. I thought this picture of Joakim Noah was hilarious, because that’s the exact same face all Knicks fans are making after his very forgettable first year in NY.

Ok, a card of a player I actually like. Porzingis is a stud. This is from Panini Complete, which I have no idea about. I assume it’s one of their lower end sets, sort of the Opening Day of NBA (keep me honest, hoops collectors). It’s a nice card though. Clean design. Simple, but nice.

I think I asked Kerry to set aside a Malachi Richardson card for me at some point. As a Syracuse alum, I appreciate getting cards of guys that wore the orange.  I’ll probably try and send this to Malachi TTM next season.

Some basketball cards look pretty cool horizontally, and this is definitely one. It allows for some great action shots. I love that NBA Hoops brand still exists, as those were a staple in my basketball-collecting days.

More Hoops, and another cool image. Swat Team! Get out of Kristaps’ face.

There have always been some cool Team USA basketball cards. I mean, these are pretty unforgettable from back in the day:

I like this Carmelo card a lot with the USA Basketball shield front and center.

While not new, these were some of the coolest cards of my childhood. While we all loved 1993 Upper Deck baseball, 1993-94 Upper Deck basketball were sweet too, and Skylights was a great, great subset. Love that the Twin Towers make an appearance here too.

I love the sampling of basketball. It’s so much fun to see what else is out there.

I have a Tino dealer named John

My good bud John from Johnny’s Trading Spot sent a nice contest package recently. John has an awesome knack for finding Tinos I don’t have. Outside of eBay, John has become my best Tino source.

I didn’t have either of these ones. I hadn’t even seen 2000 Topps Stars baseball. In fact, the blue is a parallel #’d to 299. I was so miffed by not knowing about this card, I immediately added the base card to a COMC order I was about to place. The second card is from the confusing UD Ionix set and is one of the Reciprocal cards. While I love ‘90s cards, I agree with many who say they can be quite confusing.

I found this card to be quite cool too, mostly because I remember participating in this contest to try and get my card design on a UD Choice card. I have to say, mine was better than this. Sorry, Alexandra.

I’m not sure what this Bernie Williams stamp card is, but I definitely hadn’t seen it. It’s from The Merrick Mint. Interesting.

There was no shortage of shiny cards either.

This was unique! John tucked a couple of old newspaper photos between a few cards.

One of my favorite inserts ever, but soooo easy to damage.

Giambi pre-production card!

And perhaps my favorite set ever, UD Masterpieces. This set is so great. If Upper Deck ever makes it’s way back to baseball, I’d love to see it bring back Collector’s Choice, Masterpieces, and a Heritage-like 1989 set.

John, always love our card packages. Thanks!