Cards for Customs, Part 1
October 13th, 2011 by slangon
Many, many moons ago, I had shown some cards that I got from Chris of Project ’62 in exchange for doing a custom Hornsby relic card that turned into an entire custom set. An unexpected bonus of that deal was that after he showed the final product on his blog, some other folks saw it and offered some more awesome cards in exchange for customs. Tim, from the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame, sent me a one card that I needed for my ’73 Topps set in exchange for some customs of dudes with awesome monikers.
Another reader of Chris’ blog, Michael, had gotten in touch with me about swapping some cards for customs. This particular job was a little more complicated than Tim’s, hence the fact that I’m only getting around to posting the cards (and other stuff) that Michael sent me now. Initially, he asked me if I wouldn’t mind just sending him a copy of the same set of 1929 Cubs that I had made for Chris. I felt a little bit funny about doing that just because Chris had given me some really awesome cards to make him some customs, so I didn’t want to just start reproducing those cards all nilly willy. I also felt like if Michael was going to give me even more cards in exchange for some customs, I should probably put a little bit more work into it than just reproducing a set that I had already done. I suggested to Michael that I would be perfectly happy to make a whole new custom set, which he gladly agreed to. He settled on another Pennant Winning Cubs team, the 1938 squad.
Almost before I even got started on the new set, he sent me a couple of boxes of stuff, and everything blew my mind so much that I felt like I really needed to put the pedal to the metal and come up with something extra awesome. In the end, I think he was happy, and I was more than blown away by what he sent. Over the next few days, I’ll share all that mind blowing-ness, starting with some more recent cards.
First up is this Topps Chrome Refractor of Mets pitching prospect Jenrry Mejia, and before you ask, Michael did not send me a scratched to hell copy of this card. It’s just a combination of me being too lazy to take the card out of the top loader and too lazy to clean my scanner bed. Plus I still haven’t quite figured out how to best scan Chrome cards to make them look as cool as I’ve seen on some other blogs. Anyway, Mejia didn’t have too much luck during the brief time he spent with the Mets, but I guess when your roster is so short you have to bring up a 20 year old pitcher, those things happen. His bad luck did not end there, either. After starting 2011 with the AAA Buffalo Bisons with a nice 2.86 ERA, he blew out his elbow and underwent Tommy John surgery. Hopefully the next time I see him in a major league game he’ll be a little healthier and more seasoned.
When Mike and I were hammering out the details of this little exchange, he asked me who my favorite current Met was, to which I relied “It’s a toss-up between Jose Reyes and Ike Davis.” Mike went and sent me shiny Ike Davis rookie cards. That seemingly innocuous question will also show up later, in a very big way. Speaking of big ways, I’m really hoping that Ike comes back next year fully recovered from bumping into David Wright and contributes in a big way.
Rounding out the modern cards is this 2011 Topps Heritage David Wright card, which I think is a short print. You know it’s funny, I made a very clear decision not to collect much of this years Heritage, mainly because I wasn’t too keen on the ’62 design. It has really grown on me though. Not to the point where I want to go out and buy much 2011 Heritage, but to the point where I’ve been going out of my way to pick up cards from 1962.
So there you go. 4 pretty cool cards of a couple of modern day Mets. We’re just getting warmed up, though, so stay tuned.
Just a heads up, you might have a couple of Micky Mantle swatches headed your way for a couple of more customs. Start brewing your creative juices, I’m looking for something truly 1 of 1 for mine! Just not sure what yet.