Buyback Franken-set: Baseball Card Breakdown Edition

Tonight's Buyback Franken-set post comes courtesy of Gavin, writer of the great blog Baseball Card Breakdown and Twitter's king of baseball card-related GIFs.  The batch I'm posting tonight actually came in a PWE from Gavin many months ago, I'm just embarrassingly far behind in proper trade posts.

Of course Gavin, being the custom card creating wizard that he is, included one of his very own works along with the buybacks.  Love this one, a perfect blend of my two favorite sports with Yaz featured on the 1988-89 OPC/Topps hockey "push pin" design.  A really cool card, even if Gavin did include an extra 'e' in Yastrzemski's last name (I'm not being a jerk in pointing that out by the way, as Gavin mentioned this himself a while back).

This one's even got a proper card back, as most of the customs I've received from Gavin over time do.

Alright, on with it!

1988 Topps #568 - Chris Brown

I received 9 buybacks in the PWE, beginning with this '88 Topps Chris Brown.  Brown was impressive enough in his rookie season of 1985 to garner a few Rookie of the Year votes, and was named a National League All-Star the following season.  He declined fairly rapidly after that though, and played his final MLB games only five years later.

This is my first #568 buyback, so it makes the franken-set binder by default.  Just one question...what the hell is Chris wearing under his uniform there?  A black garbage bag?

1988 Topps #536 - John Morris

John Morris appeared in just 20 games for the Cardinals in 1988, but hit a respectable .289.  I'm curious as to why he didn't get more at-bats that year.  Injury maybe?  No time to look it up.  In any event he makes the franken-set binder as my first #536 buyback, and Gavin is 2-for-2 to start this post!

1987 Topps #730 - Eric Show

Always love getting a buyback with a card number that's a multiple of ten, given that those tended to be reserved for star players for many years there and thus tend to be more difficult to find in buyback form.  Eric Show was a solid pitcher for what was generally a very, very bad Padres team throughout the '80s.  He makes the binder as well, as I'd yet to acquire a #730 buyback.

1989 Topps #449 - Carmelo Martinez

Noticing a pattern?  Most of these buybacks feature Padres.  Not all that surprising given that Padres cards seem to gravitate to Gavin.  1989 was Carmelo Martinez's final season in San Diego, and it was certainly a forgettable one as he hit just .221 in 111 games with the club.  Once again though, this card fills and empty slot in the binder and gets me one step closer to franken-set completion!

1985 Topps #789 - Luis Salazar

Luis Salazar's tenure with the Padres actually wrapped up at the end of the 1984 season, he moved on to the White Sox for the 1985 campaign.  Love the uniform here.  And those sunglasses.  In what's becoming a trend for this post this is yet another new number for the project.  Feels especially significant that it's a nice high number, landing on the final page of the binder in fact.

1975 Topps #355 - Chris Cannizzaro

Holy air-brushing!  This is actually a "sunset card", as Chris Cannizzaro played the final 26 games of his Major League career with the Padres in '74.  For the first time in this batch we have a conflict as far as the franken-set is concerned...

...as Marty Barrett's 1990 Topps issue currently resides in slot 355.  You know what I'm going to do here, right?

Off to the dedicated 1990 Topps buyback binder for Marty, welcome to the franken-set Chris Cannizzaro.

1990 Topps #749 - Mark Parent

It's always a case of conflicting emotions when I get a new 1990 Topps buyback.  On the one hand I hope I don't yet have its number represented in the franken-set, since that's my primary buyback project.  On the other hand, I almost find myself hoping I do have another buyback already in its slot, allowing me to bump the '90 buyback to that set like I just did with the Marty Barrett.

Well, this is a case of the former.  As my first #749 buyback Mark Parent takes up residence in the franken-set binder, at least for now.

1990 Topps #525 - Wally Joyner

I think anyone who collected baseball cards in the late '80s remembers just how big a deal Wally Joyner was at the outset of his career.  I'd love to grab a buyback version of his '87 Topps Rookie Cup card at some point down the line.  As for this '90 Topps Joyner, it faces some competition for the franken-set...

...in this 1989 Chili Davis.  My bias in moving '90 Topps cards over to my other dedicated '90 Topps binder aside, I've always really liked the image (and photo cropping!) that Topps went with on Chili's 1989 flagship card.

Definitely sticking with Chili Davis in the franken-set, and shifting Wally over to the '90 Topps buyback binder.

1990 Topps #485 - John Candelaria

I've always liked this candid shot of pitcher John Candelaria in that incredibly blue Expos warm-up jacket.  John was nearing the end of his very lengthy MLB career in 1990, but you wouldn't know it based on that smile!  This is the last card in Gavin's shipment, and what do you know, it's yet another new number for the franken-set.

Gavin clearly looked over my buyback inventory before sending these, as he absolutely knocked it out of the park with 7 new numbers for the franken-set out of 9 total buybacks.  The two that had conflicts allowed me to, in both cases, shift another card over to my 1990 Topps buyback project as well.  That was quite literally about as successful a buyback PWE as you could have possibly assembled, thank you Gavin!!!

Franken-set Progress: 618/792 (78%)
1990 Topps Buyback Set: 78/792 (9%)
"Rejected" Buybacks: 480
Total Buybacks in Collection: 1,176