The Gallery Gallery

The 2018 edition of Gallery is the 11th release.  Sets came out from 1996 - 2003, 2005, and 2017-2018.  Sammy Sosa was included in each of the earlier years, and there were several players in the two recent sets.

Here's a look at the eleven year run of Gallery.

2018 Gallery Cubs

The 2018 version of Gallery was released a couple days ago.  The set has a checklist of 150 base cards and another 50 short prints. As it was last year, the only place you can buy it is at Walmart. 

I had an even dozen Cubs cards to chase.  I did seriously think about buy a couple boxes at Walmart.  But I did a little Ebay hunting and found a cheap Cubs base set.  That took care of eight of the twelve cards.  The four short prints came via Ebay and Sportlots.  In the end, by skipping the Walmart purchase  I saved money, avoided the frustration of not getting all the Cubs, and wasn't left with a stack of cards I didn't want or need.

Gallery's gimmick it cards that feature original paintings of the players.  There were four different artists responsible for Cubs cards, show I show the cards one artist at a time.

FIrst up is artist Carlos Cabaleiro, who had just this one card of Ernie Banks.

 

 

 

 

Dan Bergren created the artwork for five of the Cubs.

 

 

These three are the handiwork of Kris Penix.

 

 

Kevin Graham is the artist for the final three Cubs.

Do you have a favorite artist among the four?  Here is one from each of the four, from left to right, Cabaleiro, Bergren, Penix, and Graham.

I'm voting for Dan Bergren, the Baez card.  His work seems to be the most realistic looking, which is the style I prefer.

Living Set Javier Baez

Cub card #6 in the Living Set has arrived.

Baez was added a couple weeks ago.  The print run for his card is 4,499.  That put the run in the bottom third.  When the Living Set came out, print runs were in the 6000 - 8000 range.  In the last month, most cards haven't cracked the 5,000 mark.

Are the lower print runs due to the baseball season being over or are collectors losing interest in the Living Set.

Will the Living Set keep living or will Topps kill it?

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 16,120 Cubs cards from 135 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1979 TCMA The 50's #47 Dee Fondy  The ball in the glove looks nice, but his foot seems to have missed the bag!

1980s: 1985 Team Issued #15 Davey Lopes  Lopes had a fairly productive year as a 40-year-old in 1985.  He hit .284 and hit 11 homers in 99 games.  His most amazing stat, though, is the 47 bases he stole.  That's five more than Rickey Henderson stole when he was 40.  

1990s: 1994 Finest #286 Willie Banks When you combine the words Cubs, Finest, and Banks, it is not Willie that comes to mind!

2000s: 2002 Donruss #109 Corey Patterson Corey was showing some promise as a 22-year-old in 2002.  It was his first full big league season and he hit .253 with 14 homers.  

2010s: 2017 Heritage #60 Carl Edwards  Edwards has a very interesting look on his face.

Ernie Banks in Blue!!

2018 Topps Triple Threads, and the color is correct!

Really, The Last Topps Cub of 2018

Now I am really, truely, actually done.  I have in hand my final Topps 2018 Cub.  It is the Ernie Banks variation from Series Two.  It is card #384, making it the same number as Addison Russell's card.  Nice match by Topps with two Cubs shortstops.

While the number was a nice match, the color, once again, is not.  Remember how Topps messed up colorizing the blue circle on Ernie's Update variation.  Well that was nothing compared to what they did with the Series Two cards.

Yes, for some insane reason, Ernie is wearing a red jacket.  Red, the color of the Cardinals, on Mr. Cub.  Are the people at Topps so ignorant that no one thought to question the overwhelming red on a Cubs card?

Here is the original black and white picture.  It was taken at spring training.  The jacket would have to be blue, as it is on....

.... this Topps card...

...or this one...

or this one. 

Seriously, who thought that the jacket should be red??

Turkey Red for Turkey Day

The original Turkey Red set came out in 1911.  Topps released their own versions in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2014.  There are 56 Cubs cards in those eight sets.  Take a look at them and then go back to your own turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving!