A little post-Christmas red & green

I hope everyone was able to have a safe and healthy Christmas. Mine was extremely quiet compared to what was planned. I was supposed to travel a few hours away to spend the holiday with my parents and siblings. However, a few tested positive for COVID-19 a few days prior, causing us to stay home and have a small little family Christmas. While it was nice and slow, I did miss being with my larger family.

As for the big day, I didn't get any cards for Christmas, although to be fair, I didn't ask for any either. There's just nothing out there I really want or care to open right now.

I haven't been buying or trading much the last few months. It's not uncommon for me lately to spend less than $10 a month on cards on Ebay. For example, in November I spent $6.66 total on cards on eBay, including shipping. It's kind of liberating.

However, in December my total jumped to $18.44, as I bought three cards during the month. Only one of them was a baseball card:

A nice 2012 Elite Extra autograph of Ty Hensley with green ink. This card is numbered 05/10, and set me back $7.88 including shipping. While I probably paid more on shipping than on the card, it was a Hensley I didn't have, which don't pop up much any more. Therefore, I'm likely to overspend, even if I'm the only market for such a card.

The green autograph looks nice against the red background, forming an inadvertent Christmas-colored card. This card brings me to 126 unique Hensley cards. I'll always pick up his cards when a new one arises.

It'll be quiet around here over the next few weeks, so I'll take this moment to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

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.

Tino on an '86

Tino Martinez is the subject of two different autographs in 2021. The first is a sticker autograph on the 70 Years of Baseball set. While I plan to pick it up at some point, I haven't yet.

The second is the one I've been focused on, which is the 35th Anniversary set, which features the 1986 Topps design and an on-card autograph.

I haven't managed to snag the unnumbered card yet, but I did pick up the red parallel version, which is actually pretty cool looking. It's numbered to 25.

While we all know that the red is supposed to be white, I like this spin on an old design. In fact, I'd love if Topps did this to their reprints more. Because we know they are going to run out reprints and former designs every single year.  And I like when they Chrome or Refractor old designs. The '52 Redux cards are boring, but the Chrome Refractory ones are not. 

In fact, I think they should consider color swaps quite a bit more. The red looks good, and so does the gold, from what I've seen.

I hope this is a trend that continues. Next year, we'll get 1987 Topps as the 35th design. I think we've all had enough of that. But the parallels have potential if they'd switch up the colors of the borders. And all white border, or a black border, on a 1987 could look very interesting. 

I don't mind reimagining some of these past designs. They've lost a bit of how sacred they are by Topps shoving them down our throats in multiple products per year. If you're going to repurpose, give us something new. Do some color or texture swaps.

Tino on an '86 looks cool. But Tino on an '86 with red looks even cooler.