Thursday, September 10, 2015

Baseball Card Breakdown customizes my collection with some GLOW IN THE DARK-itude

So I've been going pretty nutso with these COMC trades.  

Yet when I realized recently that Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown (aka awesome glow in the dark custom maker) was looking for cards I could probably find on COMC...I decided to dive even deeper down the rabbit hole.  I offered him a bunch of cards for his set from COMC for a few customs (Seneca, Peña, Choo, maybe Jose Lopez if he was feeling gracious).  He agreed, I sent my side, and then he sent his side...and wow it was even better than I anticipated!

The coup de grace was finding all the extras he added in.  There were a few, all custom, and I think the best one was his custom card of Samuel Deduno's cup card:
I never even suggested such a custom because I hadn't considered such a thing, but when I pulled this out of the package my jaw definitely dropped - it's a beauty to behold.  It's so sparkly in the background, the name bar glows in the dark (I tried to take pictures but they sucked so you'll just have to believe me on this), AND it's even a mini.  It's basically the perfect custom.

Here's the back, and it kind of summarizes what a lot of the other backs look like:
Love the 1/1-ness, love the auto, love that he added the set name (TAKE A HINT TOPPS AMIRITE?).  A fine addition to a lovely front of the card.

He sent another mini as well, and this one cracked me up.  It's a Mike James mini!  Which Mike James?  Well you decide:
It could either be all the Mikes James encompassed into one, or the 4th Mike James with just one card to his name from some NFL set, OR a random, non-athletic Mike James to represent the everyman version of Mike James in my set.  Or another thing all together.  Regardless, I love this custom for what it is and what it could be (and the border is really shiny in the dark!)

The third and final throw-in was not a glow in the dark card, but rather one of the custom magnets that Gavin created a while back.  I know these are in short supply so I was pretty thankful he threw one in for my Griffey PC, especially since it's the RC photo version which was definitely my fave:
Now I'm just debating if I want to stick it to one of my cabinets at school or if I want to keep it in my office at home!  Right now the office wins, as I just put up these metal shelves over my desk and it fits pretty perfectly there, but it may move around in time.

Four cards left, all glow in the dark sketchiness, and all awesome.  I love how Choo is kind of floating in the ether on this card - it's weirdly calming yet also brings me back to weird late 80's horror/sci-fi films (Oh, and the glow in the dark part is HIS HEAD!  HOW COOL!):
Isn't it kinda groovy?  I think it especially reminds me of the sky at the end of Hellraiser 2 - obviously a different hue, but still kinda cloudly and mystical:
I could see Choo and Ashley Laurence teaming up to take down Dr. Channard!

Gavin also threw in Jose Lopez in his Rockies garb, which is cool since I don't think he ever had a Rockies card:
Technically his 2011 Heritage card says Rockies, but the photo is an offseason one.  So unless I've just never seen it, Lopez doesn't have a Rockies card, or a Marlins card, or an Indians card, or a White Sox card.  He moved around a lot in his last two years in MLB.  So I'm glad to have one of those teams covered now with this awesome card!

I'm pretty obsessed with the Brayan Peña sketch card that Gavin made for this grouping.  The blocking the plate image is pretty fantastic and really pops (I mean look at the shading on the helmet!) and the highlighting around him is really cool too.  Even the font for the name ties in with the card nicely...it's a pretty fantastic custom IMHO:
Peña has always had some pretty cool shots on his cards, being a catcher and all, but so far most of his Reds cards have been more hitting and less action.  So it's awesome to have a Reds custom where he's playing some solid defense!

Last but not least, we have the obvious prize of the package - Gavin's take on Seneca Wallace as a San Francisco 49er:
Definitely very awesome - I love the big glow in the dark border, and it's pretty cool to have my first official sketch card of Seneca too (everything to date has been something created digitally rather than drawn, which has been cool, but variety is the spice of life!).  This also gives me three cards of Seneca as a 49er now, which is so cool since it it wasn't for customs it'd just be Seahawks for days in my collection.

I added the back of this one too because it also has the glow in the dark border:
So it glows pretty amazingly from both sides, which is very cool.

Thanks for the fantastic customs Gavin!  My Seneca Wallace collection (and a crap ton of my other collections) are way better now for having them!

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