About a new Nick Swisher baseball card of mine that’s simply one of a kind …

In late October, Nick Swisher took on the challenge of an appearance on Yahoo! Sports’ Old Baseball Cards video series with the goal of potentially finding one of his dad’s cards in a pack from back in 1983.

That pack wasn’t his — and he’d have to pull off a trade with host Mike Oz if it happened — but what this high-energy video did do was bring me out of hibernation.

It’s been a busy few years picking up treasures but they’ve all gone un-documented here where they should be seen but that all changed when my newest piece arrived today — a total surprise that genuinely confused me at first.

First, before you read another word, watch the video above …

I haven’t been a very good Swishfan lately …

I’ll be revamping the site soon with all kinds of new additions to the stash since my last update long, long ago … heck, I just added a sweet game-used jersey just yesterday.

But, until then, check out the news of today by clicking here. 

Seeing pink: My latest addition to The Swish Stash

Newest addition to The Swish Stash is a foul ball from a BCA game on May 12, 2013. During the top of the second inning it was fouled back to the screen off Detroit’s Rick Porcello at Comerica Park. Pink stitches and pink stamping on ball, of course.

My latest pick-up …

My latest pick-up made via a trade was a game-used Atlanta Braves jersey worn on Aug. 15, 2015 — the night Swisher hit his first home run as a member of the team and No. 242 for his career. It’s MLB Authenticated and cost a lot less — a lot less — than you might think. Some high-end boxes of sports cards cost more.

Even cooler? Here’s a shot of Swisher watching the homer leave Turner Field.

Changing things up here … please ignore the mess

I’ll be trying a new look here once I get back into the swing of things … so consider this a test.

I probably gave 110 high-fives today

… well, that’s kinda low for me but I’m going to do better tomorrow.

A few Swishers from my Instagram

Well, I didn’t post here much in 2013 … but I did tweet plenty o SwishPics over on Instagram (@chrisolds2013 there, @chrisolds2009 on Twitter) and here’s some of the proof.

Swish’s first Indians card is here

The first baseball card sets of 2013 have arrived and that means it’s time for the first card of Nick Swisher in a Cleveland Indians uniform.

The set? Why, it’s 2013 Topps Heritage — a modern-day remake of the 1964 Topps set. I’ve pulled just two from packs so far — it’s obviously a Photoshop job (I give it three Swishes out of five), but it’ll do for now since the ol’ airbrush wasn’t uncommon back in the day.

Do you have a Swisher item I might want? Contact me on Twitter,@chrisolds2009.

Been too long … looking back at a cool 1/1

 

Way back in Beckett Baseball No. 42, I profiled sketch card artist Paul Lempa who paints his sketch cards with immaculate detail. It was a fun story that I enjoyed — but not as much as some of his work. Well after the story appeared in the mag, a Nick Swisher one-of-a-kind painted sketch card showed up in my mailbox. The scan does it no justice as the texture on this one is just as interesting as the painting itself. (Let’s hope I can post more this year … )

Do you have a Swisher item I might want? Contact me on Twitter,@chrisolds2009.

One of my favorite Nick Swisher game-used Relics …

 

There are a lot of game-used Relic cards out there — and plenty for Nick Swisher just like most guys these days — but this set, these Allen & Ginter minis, are among my annual favorites.

This is Swish’s 2006 Allen & Ginter Relic, which has a piece of a game-used jersey embedded into the framed mini. I have plenty of them — and I’ll always pick up more of them when the price is right.

The first Ginter set will always be a favorite of many but the Relics have actually improved in little ways the last few years. So far, I have them all when it comes to Swisher.

Do you have a Swisher item I might want? Contact me on Twitter, @chrisolds2009.

Yankee Effect means I end up paying more for Nick Swishers …

When a player becomes a New York Yankee, a lot changes — and it’s got nothing to do with long hair (read the link … he had a great reason), beards, Hollywood wives, etc.

It’s got everything to do with deep-pocketed fans of, hands down, the most-successful baseball team in the world.

Nick Swisher being a New York Yankee means I end up paying more for his key cards — if I can land them at all.

One such example? This 2009 SP Authentic Signatures card is a short-print — and it’s one of just a few Yankees autographs. But it’s also just one of the many stickers he’s signed for a few years now — just like plenty of cheaper autographs out there. I got sick of missing out on the card — the few times it came up for sale — and I had to pony up to land it for the cost of about 4-5 other Swish autographs.

It’s the pinstripes. Guaranteed.

But this Beckett.com forum post is pretty entertaining, though.

Do you have a Swisher item I might want? Contact me on Twitter, @chrisolds2009.

Swish in my work: Orlando Sentinel Spring Training preview

I often found a way to have my profession — journalism — cross paths with my hobby before my current job made that meshing permanent. Here’s one where Nick Swisher had a prominent place in one project almost entirely by accident.

In late 2006 during a lull one night while working the copy desk at the Orlando Sentinel, I hopped on eBay to see what Swisher stuff I could find. I found the game-used bat you see at the bottom of the above image — firewood, really — for $50 Buy it Now. At that point, I didn’t have a game-used bat — just a signed pro stock bat — so the credit card couldn’t come out of the wallet fast enough.

In the auction listing, the seller noted that it was from a game on July 23, 2006, in Detroit. On a whim — after it was bought, of course — I checked Getty Images to see if I could research anything from that game. What did I find? An exact photo of the bat being used. You can’t beat that when it comes to authentication. (At higher resolution on this photo and one more from the play, you can match specs of pine tar on the bat in the photos to those on my firewood.)

A few months later — for the newspaper’s 2007 Spring Training preview special section — the combo was the centerpiece of an infographic about the life of a baseball bat from forest to death (and beyond as a game-used baseball card). I pitched that idea for information and aesthetic for the entire section with this exact item in mind.

I wrote, researched and gathered the info for the spread while one of our designers, Adam Shiver, pulled it all together. You’ll see a few other baseball-card related items on the entire package.

Click on the image above to read the story of the Swisher bat — and see the full doubletruck infographic from the newspaper after the jump.

Do you have a Swisher item I might want? Contact me on Twitter, @chrisolds2009.

Well, I’m halfway there on the Nick Swisher 2007 Allen & Ginter “EXT” printing plate rainbow …

The Allen & Ginter line launched by Topps in 2006 is, hands down, my favorite brand of the last decade, and that’s reflected in my Nick Swisher collection to a degree.

I don’t own each and every version of all of his Ginter minis — in fact, it’s kind of embarrassing how many I don’t own — but I always have put a lot more emphasis on rarer cards than I do parallels. And, of course, I collect on a relative budget, too. I’d rather overpay for a rarer card like this than a Bazooka parallel where there are plenty more copies to be found … someday.

Swish has a pair of cards in the 2007 Allen & Ginter set — got those, of course — but the standard mini’s printing plates have eluded me. I have zero of the four 1/1s there. However, the Swisher “EXT” card — an “extended” mini found only in Rip Cards — has plates, too, and I own two of the four.

I didn’t scan the backs of my plates — so I don’t know which plate is which. But I think I own the Cyan and Magenta plates because his name is not visible here (would be seen on the Black) and neither card appears light like a Yellow plate might read.

Do you have any other Ginter Swisher plates? They’re very high on my list of wants — and one in particular is one reason why SwishFan.com exists. I’m on the hunt — and I’ll write about that in the future.

Do you have a Swisher item I might want? Contact me on Twitter, @chrisolds2009.

You can see both of my plates after the jump.

Swish doesn’t have too many Chicago White Sox autographs …

There’s not too much overly special going on with this 2009 Inkredible Nick Swisher card … but it’s a great design for a sticker autograph and a solid photo and simple design.

I actually like this one a lot, and, as a plus, it’s one of not many signed cards showing Swish as a member of the Chicago White Sox.

That’s about that for this one.

Do you have a Swisher item I might want? Contact me on Twitter, @chrisolds2009.

I thought I overpaid, but … I guess not

Very few of my Nick Swisher baseball cards have been picked up at card shows — it’s like finding a needle in a haystack if you’re looking for looking for rarer cards like this 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Stamp card.

Only 10 copies exist, and when I spotted one by complete accident in a dealer’s case recently at a show in Arlington, Texas, it had a $30 pricetag on it. That’s quite high for my Swisher Buying Standards™ — but I was with someone who knew the dealer and asked him whether he’d cut me a deal.

Peer pressure got me a bit of a discount, but not much. I thought I overpaid but I knew that none of the other nine copies had shown up on eBay in a couple weeks of collecors ripping GQ. I figured I’d never see one again.

As it turns out, I didn’t overpay at all as the first copy to arrive on eBay went for $66 — well beyond what I paid.

After all, I wouldn’t pay too much because even though it’s a rare card it’s just a parallel card and a loosely defined “Relic.” (Each player in the set has a card featuring a stamp from his home state or country.)

Gotta love those deep-pocketed Yankees fans.

Do you have a Swisher item I might want? Contact me on Twitter, @chrisolds2009.

Nick Swisher’s only full Logoman card (that I know of) so far …

I’m not the first owner of this Nick Swisher card, but I intend to be the last one.

It’s his only game-used memorabilia card that includes a full Logoman MLB logo from the back of his jersey, and it’s from the 2006 Ultimate Collection set. It hit the auction block a few years ago with a pricetag and timing that translated into one thing for me owning it: “No way.”

But It eventually found its way to me when the collector decided to part with most of the Swishes in his stash, selling at a loss, and now it’s mine. It’s not without some minor flaws — a sticker auto with the ink running off and the crooked authentication sticker — but it’s my priciest Swish.

It’s a 1/1 card that also has a Logoman and autograph of Rich Harden, another former A’s player, on the back.

Do you have a Swisher item I might want? Contact me on Twitter, @chrisolds2009.

There are plenty of Nick Swisher game-used baseball bat cards, but there are just two bat knob cards in existence …

Topps has produced more than a few Nick Swisher game-used baseball bat cards since the first one arrived in 2004 Bowman Draft, but Swish has just two bat knob cards made by any card company.

Each is a 1/1 autographed knob card found in 2009 Topps Unique, a one-shot product that had some high-end thrills found inside its packs.

The two knob cards in Unique have different card numbers — and I am not sure whether one that I lost on eBay is the other card or whether I won this one during its second time on the block. Neither card had much distinguishing features on the knob, unlike most Swisher gamers, which typically have had “BLS” (Swisher’s grandmother’s initials) or some other message on them.

Do you have a Swisher item I might want? Contact me on Twitter, @chrisolds2009.

Nick Swisher’s first MLB (& Chrome) cards: 2002 Bowman Draft

Nick Swisher’s first MLB cards arrived in the 2002 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects product and the best card to land in that one is his Gold Refractor.

Limited to just 50 serial-numbered copies, this unsigned Rookie Card may not seem so special these days — where all of the rare versions come with actual autographs — but it’s the best one. Unfortunately, I own only 1/25th of the entire press run … I need more!

The “Chrome Rainbow” in 2002 included a standard Chrome, Refractor, X-Fractor and the Gold Refractor. Thankfully, this is one I have completed — not sure if I can say that for any other years with all the SuperFractors and printing plates to be chased. (The standard Bowman card lineup will be posted separately later on.)

You can see each version after the jump.

Do you have a Swisher item I might want? Contact me on Twitter, @chrisolds2009.

My first Nick Swisher certified autograph was …

My first Nick Swisher autograph was this one, which was in the 2004 USA Baseball 25th Anniversary set. I found the card in a set I bought at a hobby shop called What’s on Second in San Antonio, Texas.

While it came out two years after his first Bowman cards, it was his first certified autograph ever made.

The card also came in black-, red- and green-ink versions. I own them all except for the green — only two of those exist. You can see all three versions of the card that I have after the jump.

Do you have a Swisher item I might want? Contact me on Twitter, @chrisolds2009.

SwishFan.com … the beginning

Here is where, from time to time, I will post images and brief descriptions of the Nick Swisher cards and memorabilia in my collection. Over time, my goal to have everything in the stash documented right here.

Do you have a Swisher item I might want? Contact me on Twitter, @chrisolds2009.