In the PunkRockPaint chat room, several conversations have focused on my reliable witnesses. The following quotes are taken directly from the boards:
"He probably gave Dayf a stack of Chipper cards and Rod a pile of Padres autos to lie for him."
"I still have'nt (sic) seen teh (sic) card. They are porbably (sic) lieing (sic) for the publisity (sic)."
"If they don't show us the card, I am calling bulls#*t!"
Like I said before people... You're gonna have to pay to see it, just like everybody else.
One message on the boards caught my attention. Dave from Tribecards had the following observation:
"His witnesses are beyond reproach; his Gwynn collection is world class; his research for his blog is top notch... I just wish I could see the card."
Well, Dave, flattery gets you nowhere. On this blog, flattery gets you a sneek peek. I sent the evidence to Dave, and he returned this statement:
When I was first asked to serve as a 'reliable witness,' I have to admit, I was skeptical. After all, it is well-known that PRP has a knack for creating cards with amazing detail and accuracy.
I reviewed the card in question (one 1978 Tony Gwynn 'error' card), encased within the PSA garding sleeve. I suggested that PRP suppply a photo of himself holding said card. In the meantime, I contacted a friend of mine at PSAP in regards to this card.
My connection, who shall remain nameless under the guidelines of the ECWPA (Error Card Witness Protection Act), requested some time to research and verify. The following is what I received:
"Dave, you are NOT going to believe this! This is totally legit, man! I checked with internal records, and sure enough, the card number and serial number match the 1978 Topps Tony Gwynn error card! I had never seen the card before, and the owner of that puppy is one lucky guy!"
I, therefore, have no choice but to unequivocally hereby witness that this is, in fact, an amazing specimen of one 1978 Topps Tony Gwynn error card!
Dave,
Thanks for your kind words and all the gifts of cards you shower on your readers.
PRP
Friday, February 6, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Witness Statement #2
This comes from Rod Richards of Padrographs:
After viewing the card in Mr. Peterson's possession I can verify its authenticity. On the back is a small roller mark on the lower left corner. This is the card that I pulled from a pack, which I purchased at a 7-11 in Escondido, when my ship pulled into San Diego. I kept the card in the pages of a book by Pat Conroy, until I decided to buy a house. I sold my card to a gentleman in Rancho Santa Fe and was able to purchase a small home in Portland, OR. I used to show this card to a select few other Padres collectors. I did some research into the identity of the young lady on the card and found out that at the time of the photo she was a 21 year graduate student at San Diego State, who did what she did to win a $500 bet. I talked to her last week and she is doing fine, wondering how something she did in a moment could make something so valuable. Punk Rock Paint is extremely lucky to have this card, it is good to know that the card is in the hands of a true fan of Tony Gwynn.
Authors note:
Thank you, Rod. I am blessed to have it in my collection. And thank you for the offer to get the card autographed, but I will have to pass. Last time I showed it to Tony, he offered to trade me his 1980 NL MVP award for the card. I was shocked that he did not own one! He said he hadn't seen one since the early '80s. He thought at the time that the card was one of the many forgeries. He confided in me that, to that very day, he still remembered the look on the crew-cut, young man's face when he refused to sign the card. That heart-broken look is the reason he never turns down an autograph request.
I guess that young sailor was you, Rod. It really is a small world.
After viewing the card in Mr. Peterson's possession I can verify its authenticity. On the back is a small roller mark on the lower left corner. This is the card that I pulled from a pack, which I purchased at a 7-11 in Escondido, when my ship pulled into San Diego. I kept the card in the pages of a book by Pat Conroy, until I decided to buy a house. I sold my card to a gentleman in Rancho Santa Fe and was able to purchase a small home in Portland, OR. I used to show this card to a select few other Padres collectors. I did some research into the identity of the young lady on the card and found out that at the time of the photo she was a 21 year graduate student at San Diego State, who did what she did to win a $500 bet. I talked to her last week and she is doing fine, wondering how something she did in a moment could make something so valuable. Punk Rock Paint is extremely lucky to have this card, it is good to know that the card is in the hands of a true fan of Tony Gwynn.
Authors note:
Thank you, Rod. I am blessed to have it in my collection. And thank you for the offer to get the card autographed, but I will have to pass. Last time I showed it to Tony, he offered to trade me his 1980 NL MVP award for the card. I was shocked that he did not own one! He said he hadn't seen one since the early '80s. He thought at the time that the card was one of the many forgeries. He confided in me that, to that very day, he still remembered the look on the crew-cut, young man's face when he refused to sign the card. That heart-broken look is the reason he never turns down an autograph request.
I guess that young sailor was you, Rod. It really is a small world.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Witness Statement #1
From Dayf at Cardboard Junkie:
Ok. I got the e-mail and checked out the scan. Now, there are a bunch of fakes of this card floating around the hobby, but this one is legit. I've only seen one copy of this card in person. There's an old guy at the flea market near me who's been collecting cards since he was a kid in Brooklyn in the '50s. His shop is like a museum, there's every kind of card there going back to to tobacco cards, old SIGNED Goudeys, piles of Topps from the '50s and '60s, even a healthy collection of bizarre '90s inserts. This guy has seen everything. He also happens to have a MASSIVE collection of old porn in the shop. Cards and porn. The guy makes a lot of money. One time be bought a stash of old Playboys from a lady whose husband had recently passed. I say bought, but it was more like "Just take 'em and get them out of myhouse". Well, inside the issue with the Pete Rose interview was this card, tucked right next to the Vargas Girl. He let me take a good look at it and then I checked out the card too.
A lot of the fakes are easy to spot. Inexperienced forgers use a blond girl, put her up too high so you can see everything, some even performed a little "surgical enhancement". This one at least has the right gal streaking in the background. You can tell that this is the original error card by the dot pattern. On the original card the pattern looks smooth and everything blends together. The copy is taken directly from the card image, but the reproduction wasn't perfect and there's a slight moire pattern if you look closely at the girl. Very,very closely. Experts have been known to examine the card for up to an hour before giving it a stamp of approval. Now, PSA grading has their problems, but this is one of the premier error cards in the industryand if they graded it, I'm positive they were extremely thorough. This is the real deal, brother. Congrats on having a fantastic cap to yourTony Gwynn collection!
Ok. I got the e-mail and checked out the scan. Now, there are a bunch of fakes of this card floating around the hobby, but this one is legit. I've only seen one copy of this card in person. There's an old guy at the flea market near me who's been collecting cards since he was a kid in Brooklyn in the '50s. His shop is like a museum, there's every kind of card there going back to to tobacco cards, old SIGNED Goudeys, piles of Topps from the '50s and '60s, even a healthy collection of bizarre '90s inserts. This guy has seen everything. He also happens to have a MASSIVE collection of old porn in the shop. Cards and porn. The guy makes a lot of money. One time be bought a stash of old Playboys from a lady whose husband had recently passed. I say bought, but it was more like "Just take 'em and get them out of myhouse". Well, inside the issue with the Pete Rose interview was this card, tucked right next to the Vargas Girl. He let me take a good look at it and then I checked out the card too.
A lot of the fakes are easy to spot. Inexperienced forgers use a blond girl, put her up too high so you can see everything, some even performed a little "surgical enhancement". This one at least has the right gal streaking in the background. You can tell that this is the original error card by the dot pattern. On the original card the pattern looks smooth and everything blends together. The copy is taken directly from the card image, but the reproduction wasn't perfect and there's a slight moire pattern if you look closely at the girl. Very,very closely. Experts have been known to examine the card for up to an hour before giving it a stamp of approval. Now, PSA grading has their problems, but this is one of the premier error cards in the industryand if they graded it, I'm positive they were extremely thorough. This is the real deal, brother. Congrats on having a fantastic cap to yourTony Gwynn collection!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Error cards...
There has been some question as to the veracity of my last post.
First of all, the history of Tony Gwynn's 39 years in the Major Leagues is not something I would ever attempt to hyperbolize about. The statistics don't lie!
Secondly, one reader stated that card #200 from the 1978 set is Reggie Jackson. DUH!!! Of course it is... now!!! For those of you that can't remember the story of card #200, let me refresh your memory:
When the controversy settled down after the "Nudie" Gwynn card was pulled from circulation, Topps went into damage control mode. The Reggie Jackson card was moved from card #77 (a number of honor for the newly crowned "Mr. October"). The vacated #77 was filled by Ed Kirkpatrick. Ed finished his 16 year career splitting time with Pittsburgh, Texas, and Milwaukee in 1977. Please try doing some research before bashing me in the comments.
I pulled this picture from checkoutmycards.com a few months ago. I don't own the original checklist. The card was substantially discounted, but I couldn't see spending $2,800 on a checklist card.
Lastly, for any of you that don't believe that I actually own one of the error cards. I am willing to show a scan of the slabbed card to TWO reliable witnesses. Please send a brief card collecting resume to travis@punkrockpaint.com with the subject line "1978 Gwynn error". I will notify the winners within the week. Witnesses will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement and provide a brief statement (which will be posted on this blog) upon viewing the card.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tony Gwynn - a History (Part 8)...
The Tony Gwynn Error card from the 1978 Topps set is perhaps the most coveted of all error cards ever produced. The first day that packs arrived in stores, Topps received hundreds of calls from angry mothers wondering why there was a naked lady on a baseball card!
The incriminations, reprints, and apologies soon followed. According to a Topps press release issued the next day, the photo was inserted into the production run by "a disgruntled former employee". Topps promised that the error would be corrected immediately and "tainted" cards would be pulled from the shelves.
An estimated 12,000 error cards were printed, of which only 2,500 were shipped to stores. Internal documents (released by the Topps corporation after the Forstmann Little & Company leveraged buyout in 1984) show that Topps managed to recover 2,492 of the cards. The offer for complete sets of 1978 baseball and football cards was too much for all but the most lickerish old men to refuse.
The incriminations, reprints, and apologies soon followed. According to a Topps press release issued the next day, the photo was inserted into the production run by "a disgruntled former employee". Topps promised that the error would be corrected immediately and "tainted" cards would be pulled from the shelves.
An estimated 12,000 error cards were printed, of which only 2,500 were shipped to stores. Internal documents (released by the Topps corporation after the Forstmann Little & Company leveraged buyout in 1984) show that Topps managed to recover 2,492 of the cards. The offer for complete sets of 1978 baseball and football cards was too much for all but the most lickerish old men to refuse.
1978 Topps - Tony Gwynn #200 CORR
Back in '86, I sold my entire collection (minus the Padres) to obtain the error version at an estate sale in Rancho Santa Fe. Times sure have changed. Of the five known copies, only one has come up for auction since 1990. The sale price of $1.4 million (less buyer's premium) set a record for a single, ungraded card at Sotheby's in 1993. Several collectors of high end baseball cards have a bounty out for the card.
In 2004, I was offered a small island near Vanuatu for my copy of the card. It was tempting, but the humidity would have wreaked havoc on my collection.
What's that? You want to see the error card? Well, sorry. You'll have to pay, just like everyone else. The nationwide tour of Major League ballparks begins at the All-Star Game, July 19th in St. Louis. Tickets for the exhibition start at only $89. (Does not include admission to the game)
Monday, January 26, 2009
Tony Gwynn - a History (Part 7)... CONTEST!!!
With only 16 days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training, it seems like the perfect time for a little trivia...
1976 was a special year for the United States of America, and a special season for Tony Gwynn. He won the National League MVP award unanimously. Randy Jones won the Cy Young Award for the Padres after winning 22 games. The bicentennial brought a heck of a season to San Diego. I would like to honor one of the Padres greatest seasons with one of the greatest trivia contests of all time! 76 trivia questions in honor of the '76 season. The winner will receive A MAJOR AWARD!!!
1. Since the 1976 season, how many times have players from the same team won both the MVP and Cy Young awards in the same season?
2. How many games did Randy Jones win before the all star break in his Cy Young award winning 1976 season?
3. How many bases did Tony Gwynn steal in 1976?
4. How many RBI did Tony have at the all star break in 1976?
5. Who finished in second place in the NL MVP voting in 1976?
6. What player is featured on the "cardtoon" on the back of Tony Gwynn's 1977 baseball card?
7-76. What is the caption for the "cardtoon"?
You didn't think that I really had 76 questions?
1976 was a special year for the United States of America, and a special season for Tony Gwynn. He won the National League MVP award unanimously. Randy Jones won the Cy Young Award for the Padres after winning 22 games. The bicentennial brought a heck of a season to San Diego. I would like to honor one of the Padres greatest seasons with one of the greatest trivia contests of all time! 76 trivia questions in honor of the '76 season. The winner will receive A MAJOR AWARD!!!1976 Topps - Tony Gwynn #350
1. Since the 1976 season, how many times have players from the same team won both the MVP and Cy Young awards in the same season?
2. How many games did Randy Jones win before the all star break in his Cy Young award winning 1976 season?
3. How many bases did Tony Gwynn steal in 1976?
4. How many RBI did Tony have at the all star break in 1976?
5. Who finished in second place in the NL MVP voting in 1976?
6. What player is featured on the "cardtoon" on the back of Tony Gwynn's 1977 baseball card?
7-76. What is the caption for the "cardtoon"?
You didn't think that I really had 76 questions?
(Hint: This isn't the "cardtoon" on Tony's card)
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
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