Custom Card: 2003 Topps Nick Hundley

I knew it had been a while since I posted a custom, but I didn't realize that July was the last one. 2003 has been a design that I have tried and scrapped more times than I care to admit, it's the foil, it just doesn't seem to ever look right. I always kind of liked 2003, it's like a moderned up 1983 in a way, and the blue looks good for the Rockies. This time I felt like it was close enough to post, even though the font doesn't totally match.

Nick Hundley comes into 2015 as the Rockies main catcher after Wilin Rosario terribled himself out of the job. I was hoping Hundley would be included in Heritage this year, but this custom will have to do for now.

Acetate Appreciation: 1996 Leaf Studio - Stained Glass Stars

The stained glass look is a pretty obvious use of clear cards and has been done a few times, but this might be my favorite so far. Inserted into packs of 1996 Leaf Studio, the checklist is a little limited with only 12 cards from 7 teams, including 3 Indians, but the design is outstanding. The die-cut is limited to the top, meaning they still fit in pages and penny sleeves and the design is simple enough not to get messy. Scans really do not to justice to how nice these are in person.

Thoughts on Topps changes for 2015

Topps recently announced some changes to the baseball line-up for the 2015 season, nothing really huge to most people, but the fact they discontinued one of the few brand I really liked in Bowman Platinum was pretty disappointing, so I am just going to over what changed and what I think as a collector.

Say good-bye to Bowman Platinum - Debuting in 2010, for me Bowman Platinum has consistently been the best Bowman brand as far as design goes (other than maybe Inception), and I personally thought that 2014 was the best of the bunch. While I never broke a tone of Platinum, I always picked up singles and participated in a few breaks. Where Platinum suffered is the fact that few people care about prospect auto's other than Bowman Chrome and Draft making the box never worth the price-point.

Zistle Trade #39

I generally try and stay away from small trades just because of the cost of International shipping, but the odd time a fellow Canuck and I can set up a PWE that doesn't have to cross the border. TBJC had some extra 1987 OPC Blue Jays that came my way, I seem to be making a little progress on this set, which is a little surprising. Also surprising is Willie Upshaw making his second appearance of 2015 on this blog.

A "Highly Subjective" Trade

Sometimes you never what you are are going to get in trade package, this trade with "Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary" was one of them. Starting with the Canseco above, of a the very few cards showing a position player pitching, and one of the more famous incidents with Jose wrecking his arm throwing knuckleballs.

Zistle Trade #38

More zistle.com trades, this time trade #5 (I think) with hpennington22, the majority of the package was 2012 Prestige, a set that I am chipping away at slowly, rather than scan a bunch of base, here are 3 short printed rookie cards, one of the few times you will see Dallas or Philly pictured here.