2015 Seattle Mariners 5" x 8" Photo Cards

Behold the latest addition to my Hendu collection!

     The Mariners have been pretty good about producing these over-sized photos for their yearly fanfest events, much like the Orioles, Rangers and Astros still do.  And as most teams do, the checklist is a mixture of current and former players and announcers, which is great for collectors of players who aren't getting any love from the big trading card companies.  This is the only way I ever see new cards of Dave Henderson, Roberto Kelly and Hensley Meulens, so I'm grateful.  I'd been watching this one for while, hoping the price would drop, but finally just snagged it to be done with the waiting.  As is often the case, it is very difficult to find clean copies of these cards without autographs.

     Below are the cards I have seen cross eBay this year, organized by uniform number where available.  This list almost matches the 2015 Mariners FanFest autograh appearance lineup exactly, so it is possible only individuals who were scheduled to appear had cards produced.

10 Dave Valle
16 Austin Jackson
32 Taijuan Walker
33 J.A. Happ
42 Dave Henderson
54 Tom Wilhelmsen
65 James Paxton
NNO John Hicks
NNO Alex Jackson
NNO Patrick Kivlehan
NNO DJ Peterson
NNO Stefan Romero
NNO Dave Sims (broadcaster)
NNO Carson Smith
NNO Chris Taylor

    Here is the list of those scheduled to appear back on 24 & 25 January 2015 for FanFest:

Current Stars
Nelson Cruz
Charlie Furbush
J.A. Happ
Austin Jackson
James Paxton
Fernando Rodney
Taijuan Walker
Tom Wilhelmson
Mike Zunino

Mariners Legends
Jay Buhner
Julio Cruz
Dave Henderson
Dave Valle
Dan Wilson
Mariner Moose

Future Stars
John Hicks
Alex Jackson
Patrick Kivlehan
D.J. Peterson

Other Special Guests
Lloyd McClendon
Jack Zduriencik

Mariners Broadcasters
Mike Blowers
Aaron Goldsmith
Rick Rizzs
Dave Sims

The following cards are similar in design, but lack the position at the bottom of the card, there is just a thin blue stripe.  I'm not sure of these are also 2015 issues.

Aaron Goldsmith (broadcaster)
James Jones
Dominic Leone

2000 Upper Deck Hitter's Club Autographs DW

     Major score on eBay last week and it finally hit the mailbox today. Thanks to a poorly labeled auction ("1967 NY YANKEES signed DAVE WINFIELD upper deck authent"; it was included in a scan with a 1967 Topps card that was a separate auction), I managed to snag this nugget for just under $5!

     As I've probably mentioned a time or two in the past, I'm not the world's biggest autograph hound, but even I couldn't pass this one up. And after missing several other autographed cards in the past week (I held to my $10 max, but some people still got really good deals thanks to my restraint) I was really surprised to win this one, even with the poorly chosen title. This is #805 in my collection out of the possible 1930 different Dave Winfield cards deemed worthy of recognition by Beckett.

     Oddly, the seller found it necessary to include his own certificate of  authenticity, as if that provided on the reverse of the card, printed there by the manufacturer, weren't assurance enough.  Though, considering the credibility of the gentleman who's name is found on the back of the card, perhaps it was warranted.  As the U-2 folks say, "In God We Trust.  All Others We Monitor." Thanks, Mr. Zippo!

     Once I build up enough credit in my CheckOutMyCards account, I'll pull the trigger to ship the 7 I have waiting in my account there, but until they're in my hands and in my Winfield binder, they're not officially part of my collection. So #806-812 are "to be announced" to quote TV Guide.