Customs and Minor League Cards for Cubs Spring Training

Since I didn’t leave my house over the Super Bowl weekend, I had a pile up of mail on Monday. If you saw my Friday night tweets...let’s just say I indulged a bit too much.

Those tweets I speak of are the karaoke videos I posted. Several of our couples friends did date night...wives went to a fancy restaurant, while the husbands went to a local dive bar for a good ole fashioned fish fry. We then returned to my friend’s house for a night of karaoke.

Anyway, it gave me a double mail Monday, and that included a total of five packages that totaled more than 1,300 Cubs baseball cards.

Jeff in Michigan sent a PWE with six Cubs such as George Bell, Dave Smith, Danny Jackson, Andre Dawson, and Gary Scott.

Robert in New Jersey sent a package of 89 Cubs cards. This Mailday added another new Cub, a new 150 years shield from 2019 Topps of rookie Johnny Field. Field made his MLB debut in 2018 with the Tampa Bay Rays, and appeared later that season with the Minnesota Twins. He spent the 2019 campaign with the triple-A Iowa Cubs.

Let’s take a moment and study this image of Ernie Banks. Stadium Club, year and year, provides some of the best looking trading cards. This Banks is from the 2019 Stadium Club set.

Last year I deleted the Rookies App. I was incensed after losing nearly 200 created cards when the app kept freezing on me. I tried multiple times to refresh, but nothing worked. Even an email to Rookies customer service went over all troubleshooting methods I had used, and they said if that didn’t work I would have to delete the app and start over. Nothing would be saved. It was the final step, and sure enough nothing saved.

After a few months I downloaded the app to play around and just create mockups for online purposes, not to print. With Spring Training approaching I was looking for something to get signed by minor leaguers, other than baseballs. So, thanks to some awesome photos taken by @becsnyder, I created some custom cards and sent them off to the printer. A couple Cam Sanders cards. Sanders is my Cubs prospect sleeper.

This photo is just awesome. And it turned out great in baseball card form. Zac Taylor making a play at the wall for the South Bend Cubs. Zac even reached out asking how he could get one. I’ll be printing a bunch off and gifting them to him in a few weeks in Mesa.

Another Cubs prospect I have given customs in the past is Ethan Roberts. Some publications have him starting the 2020 season as a closer with the double-A Tennessee Smokies.

My Cubs prospect to break out in 2020 is Brennen Davis.

Another Mailday arrived with a handful of minor league cards I’ll be adding to my “to be autographed” pile came by surprise. Chad from Iowa is someone I have bought Cubs cards in the past through the Blowout Cards forums. He has given me some really good deals, and this package is simply awesome. He was looking to down size, and instead of donating the Cubs cards sent them my way. It came with a hoard of Kris Bryant cards.

And even a bunch of Javier Baez cards.

Some minor league Cubs that I’ll be taking to Arizona with me: Jose Albertos

And Oscar De La Cruz...

And...Brendon Little...

And Eddy Martinez...

and Justin Steele.

Chad also included a really sweet Brett Jackson autograph/relic from Topps Triple Threads numbered /99.

Additionally, there were a few in-person autographs including a Starlin Castro signed Gypsy Queen card.

Thanks to Michael at Rainman Sportscards I knocked off North Dakota early this year. I’ve never been to Williston, but North Dakota gets a bad rap. It’s a beautiful state and believe it or not, Fargo is an awesome city. And yes, the locals speak exactly like they do in the movie.

First thing I saw when I opened this box was a Kris Bryant Topps Heritage jersey relic. Sweet!

As a kid collector in 1989 and 1990 my PC varied. For baseball, the first PC was Cubs cards (of course!). I also collected manager cards as I loved the 1989 Topps manager cards. Then I began set collecting some non-sports sets like Batman, Dick Tracy, and WWF. The first set I remember building was 1990 Fleer (I also built the Topps set). One of the last cards I needed, ironically as a Cubs collector, was Shawon Dunston. I bought it from an older neighbor kid for 8 cents (because that’s what it “booked” for).

It’s always struck me as odd at all the different sizes Kellogg’s 3-D Superstars were. My favorite is probably the 1981 set because it’s standard card size...and I love them yellow borders.

The push to 500,000 Cubs cards is off to a great start in 2020. Despite not reaching the 400,000 milestone just ahead of the Cubs Convention in mid-January, I have made excellent progress through January and into February. The project is currently tracking to reach more than 533,000 cards by the end of the year.