27 June 2014

Frankly Friday: Reflecting on a Rainbow or Joy of a Complete Rainbow

2005 UD Reflections Dual Sig Frank Howard and Nick Johnson RED

Wow its hard to believe that this card is almost 10 years old, and even still that it has been six or seven years since I got the "base" version of this card and before I managed to get this variant to complete this sort of mini-rainbow. So in 2005 Upper Deck released a sub-set of these Dual Signatures for the Reflections set. Some of them are two HOFers together and others like this one are an older time player and a modern player some of the combinations have no reasonable connection whatsoever. Maybe they connected players by position, but most of the combinations are head scratchers. This card is sort of the "same" team it is technically not the same team but the same City. The combination of Frank Howard Washington Senators and Nick Johnson Washington Nationals. In September of last year I mentioned my acquisition of the Blue variant. Two of my favorite Washington Players both retired now. Here is the final card from this three card mini-rainbow the serial numbered to 99 RED variant. I got it via Ebay (17 May 2014) for $14.99 + $2.25 shipping. The most I've paid for one of the trio. I've seen each one especially the Blue and Red ones for much much more.
 
2005 Upper Deck Reflections Dual Signature Series RED: 
FHNJ Frank Howard Senators and Nick Johnson Nationals
blue sharpie on sticker #d 12/99

Here are all three together via a mash-up collage. I had scanned each one previously but have never scanned them together so I had to do some "photoshopping" (I used MSPaint) to put the trio together. I think I made them a tiny bit too long lengthwise.


20 June 2014

Frankly Friday: 1968 Hondo

1968 Topps Baseball Frank Howard

This is one of those cards that I am surprised I didn't have, ditto for the '64 (that excuse is he was a Dodger then) and '69 Hondos (still need to pick those up). I am sure at one time I did have it but don't know how it could have walked away from my collection. It must have happened sometime during the 1970s or '80s when I wasn't looking. Anyway I have at least one copy of it now.

The card came via Ebay ($3.33 + $1.95 shipping) in a PWE. The seller must have gotten a kick out of my screen-name since the 8.5" x 11" page the card was taped to with white masking tape, in a typical sending a card in a PWE way, had the following note:

 "Thank you Capt. Kirk Enjoy! Live Long + Prosper! :)" 
Yes it was complete with the underscore on my handle and the smiley face smilie. A real smilie not the colon and right parenthesis. Oh and then the feedback on Ebay said

"Capt Kirk is USS Enterprise Capt for a good reason! A+++++++ Thank You!"

Touching, I don't know if I should be flattered, embarrassed or annoyed. Maybe I should change my name to Fred, or better yet Frank. You don't want anymore background noise you just wanna see the card. OK here it is:

1968 Topps Baseball 320 Frank Howard Senators
(Front and Back)

Edit: Oh I should have mentioned the card was safely sent in toploader/penny sleeve so it wasn't directly taped to the paper/letter.