You’ve NEVER Seen a Baseball Card Like This Before … Mystery Cabinet FULL of Secrets!

[mouschi]

This is a long one, boys and girls! If you like watching videos, check this out on my youtube channel.

A while ago on my podcast, I asked my audience what was the ULTIMATE card for their favorite player. We came to the conclusion that there is probably no clear cut winning among many player collectors these days. Some may pick a PSA 10 rookie while others may pick a bat barrel. Still others may select a 98 Crusade Red of their favorite player, or a Superfractor. While the rarities and parallels they pump out these days may feel repetitive, there's no denying beautiful cards are being pushed out monthly.

Over the past few months, I found myself in the middle of wanting to create the most elaborate, crazy Jose Canseco card ever to exist. Something that was wildly different from what is being produced these days, and something that could stick out in my collection. A true conversation piece loaded with fun, excitement, intrigue, mystery, and interactivity. (Was that too many adjectives? Keep reading!) I've created a lot of wild custom cards for my collection utilizing player-worn Canseco jerseys from that time my family hung out with him at his house. In a couple of weeks, that fun trip will have been 7 years ago.

Here are a few player-worn patch cards I've created for my collection this past year ...



In the past, some of my customs have even made it inside Beckett Monthly Magazine from that time I was featured on the cover with Jose.





While all of that was a blast, and I'm happy with the pieces I've created, this new project is wildly different. In fact, it is wildly different from anything I've ever seen.

Over the past few months, I've poured more time and effort into this project than any I've ever worked on before. It has been a playground for me to fulfill bucket list items, and push the boundaries of what a baseball card is. The height and width are similar to a cabinet card, while the thickness is more similar to the crazy cleat cards you'll see from time to time. It may not be the thickest or biggest card ever made, but calling it a "card" is a stretch! I've fallen in love with displaying pieces, and have taken a liking to cards that are much larger than standard sizing.

I'd like to introduce you to: The Mystery Cabinet.

(PSSST ... this is probably better as a video. If you would prefer that, hop on over to my youtube channel.)

So, what caused me to begin this project?

Canseco has only had 3 Allen & Ginter signed mini buybacks surface (so far), and while I'm not big into buybacks, I have been fortunate enough to acquire all three - all of which are 1/1s. They certainly won't be the last made, but it is neat having the first three that have surfaced. I love how they had the minis stamped and signed. They are extremely aesthetically pleasing to me.



The holders? Not so much. And that is where we begin our journey!

This project started off as being a display piece for my 1/1 A&G trio, because they just looked super awkward in their holders. As mentioned above, I'm all about displaying, so this just wouldn't do. The cards I add to my collection are not typically box dwellers. When I cracked open Photoshop back in February, I didn't realize I was about to embark in something that would keep me up all hours of the night, and work out my brain like no other!

Here is what I came up with:



I wanted the design to be nature vs technology - Victorian and steampunk. It seems to match my favorite player perfectly. As you can see, it says "Fully Loaded with Secrets and Surprises", and has "1 of 1 of 1 of 1 of..." all around the center portion. This gives clues to the fact that this isn't just something pretty to sit on my shelf. I love intrigue, mystery, interactivity, etc. so that's what I went for. There is an even mix of matte artwork with holographic foil to contrast the two styles.

The height and width of my (*cough* shameless plug *cough*) book, Confessions of a Baseball Card Addict are identical to the Mystery Cabinet. My book isn't nearly as thick, though.

Oh, and that wasn't the front. That was the back. This is the front ...



The front showcases three sliding doors. Can you guess what is behind the doors? That's right ... the minis!

It took a LONG time for me to figure out - and build - the mechanics to go inside this card just to make the sliding doors work smoothly.









I had some room to play with in the upper right. You can see the cabinet seems to have some "depth", as holographic purple foil gears appear to be just beneath the surface making everything work. A "real" gear was added.





But that's not it. Not by a long shot.

As the days flew by during this project, I kept coming up with new ideas. Each one was met in my head with "Nah, that's ridiculous. I can't do that. It would be way too hard, and probably won't turn out, anyway." But each time, I worked hard to figure them out.

The first idea I had was to have some sort of a "surprise" card inside the Mystery Cabinet. I started thinking about rip cards, but how I didn't want this to be destroyed. After thinking about it quite a bit, my first thought was ... what about a magnet? Is there a strong yet pliable enough type of magnet that I can line the "frames" of the card with to hold it together, but allow me to pull it apart if I wanted?

I researched, and purchased a number of them to try tests on. Like many things in this project, it had me up until 2am many times running test after test. After a while, I figured it out! The question was this: What should I hide inside?

Have you ever seen a house with a secret room? I think secret compartments are the coolest thing ever, and like I said before - I didn't want this to be a pretty piece that just sits on my shelf.

One of the things to do on my bucket list was to design my own mini card set. I love Allen & Ginter, but wanted to give it my own style. Since the subject is (as always) my favorite player, this is what I came up with:



Jose played for 7 teams, but signed at one point or another with 9 teams, so I decided to do a 9 card set.



I'm very happy with how they turned out, but the question quickly became - how do I "hide" them in the Mystery Cabinet?

Right behind the back of the card, there is a secret compartment that is covered by holographic purple gears. Pulling that up reveals them.





As with everything else in the Mystery Cabinet, not all is as it seems. To the naked eye, each mini looks like just a mini, but it is not. A little force shows what's behind each one ...

a black mini parallel!



That's not all ... force pushing a bit more shows another parallel - a red!



There are many ways you can display these ... either all white, black, red ... or mix.





We are not done with our journey yet! I wanted to do something extra fun with these minis.

Let's move to the front of the Mystery Cabinet again, and pull off the front face.



Puzzle pieces!

Let's have some fun and build this together. We'll use the purple holofoil sections and fasten them to a couple of the magnetic frames of the Mystery Cabinet ...





Before we attach them, it should be noted that the purple centerpiece can be separated into two, revealing a couple more puzzle pieces, and yet another surprise that we'll get to later ...







After a minute, they are put together!



As you can see below, the two puzzles look like a huge booklet - the binding pieces were hidden in the first secret compartment to allow these puzzles to stand up, and be attached to each other. My office is filled with large transformers - I LOVE the fact that these robots can turn into one thing from another - we just did that with this Mystery Cabinet! It is fun to think that we can build something larger than the Mystery Cabinet itself using nothing but pieces from inside the Mystery Cabinet.

Oh, and the front and back can now be displayed as separate pieces as well.



The puzzle isn't just a puzzle. It is a display board. That's right! You can display whatever mini set you would like directly on the puzzles!

The white set ...



Black set ...



and red set ...



You can even mix & match! The cool thing about these minis, is that they too are magnetized, so you can have a few hanging off the sides - I love that you can display these outside the conventional rectangular shapes of the puzzle booklet.



As you can see, I also designed some fun steampunk elements, and mixed them in with A's / baseball. It is obvious that young Jose's moustache needed some big league help, so threw in a big league moustache - a moustache on steroids, if you will.

What if I told you they weren't just thrown in there? Check it out ... Jose can actually *wear* the hat and moustache.







If you recall, he had a ball bounce off his head for a home run in one game, so I decided to create something to protect my favorite player from that happening again. The glove artwork is the same one utilized in the mini set - I love how the glove goes beyond the puzzle display border at the top!





So, is there anything else? Heck yes, there is!

The puzzle pieces were covering something - a card. Not just any card. A rip card. I just HAD to include one of these in my project, because I love a good mystery.





As you can see, Jose is wearing the steampunk hat, and there are actual gears that match the one on the front of this Mystery Cabinet.



This isn't a rip card like you've ever seen before, though.

It doesn't include one card. It includes an entire parallel set!

I first thought about including an entire refractor set inside ...



But instead opted for something way, way, way crazier.

Let's take a look!

First, it is important to note that I've utilized a magnet system as well that allows you to "peel and reveal", or "slide and unhide" the contents. That way, no damage is done to the card.





The contents of this rip card ... err. .. "peel card(?)" probably took the longest amount of time for me to create out of everything else in this project, as it utilizes several different technologies. It required a ton of thought, planning, and testing.

One of the things I love about Allen & Ginter are the various types of materials used. Silk, metal, etc. I LOVE it all. Each mini in this rip card utilizes a different material.

To begin with, we have the Angels - it is a card that was made on actual canvas.



This didn't make it into the Mystery Cabinet, but I had fun creating this just because.



Next up is the Yankees - a silk card.



The White Sox? Actual leather!



I like to call the Expos parallel Dragon Scale. It shifts color a bit from pink/gold to pinkish when you move it around.



For the flagship card of the set, I created the A's "Gold Dust" parallel. It sparkles quite nicely in the light!



For the Rangers, we have something that may be a bit off-putting for some folks, but is definitely unique: A card made out of REAL snake skin!



Here is an alternate I created - I was conflicted as to which to utilize, so ... why not both? I call this one a diamond diffractor - it utilizes a couple different technologies which I'm proud of how it turned out! This isn't in the Mystery Cabinet - just an alternate!



The Red Sox card is truly a fun one - I call it the radioactive parallel. Here's why ...







It glows so nicely - I LOVE it!

Next up? Blue Jays. I had it in my mind to a blue jeans blue jays card - so this is a denim parallel. Yeah, real, honest to goodness denim. It was literally taken from a pair of my wife's old pants! (Don't worry ... I asked permission before cutting them up, first!)





Last but not least is my favorite of the set (this or the denim one, that is!) I called it the X-Rayfractor. It is reminiscent of sportflics from the 80s, but with holographic foil. What makes it stand out even further is the 3d modeling system used to create a skeleton, hence the x-ray look. It took FOREVER, but I seriously can't get enough of looking at it!







Remember recessed area with holographic purple foil that housed the real gear on the front of the card? That gear isn't just for show. It is a pull tab. Check out what it pulls out! Three extra parallels of the Secret Bonus flagship card.







While I love displaying them popping out of the edge like that, let's take a closer look at each one ...

The metal ...



The Superfractor ...



and the wood ...



Since I wanted the Mystery Cabinet to incorporate virtually all of the things I loved about the hobby, I figured it would be a crime to not include wood, metal, and superfractor parallels. Just for fun, here is what the front of the Mystery Cabinet looks like with the three additional parallels instead of the 1/1 buybacks ...



As I mentioned before, in the middle of the Mystery Cabinet was what may have appeared as one solid piece of holographic gear foil cardstock. It is actually something that can be split into two. The two parts were used as backing for the puzzles, but they also hid yet another mystery!



I like to call this section "The Elements". This display shows an outlay of four "printer's proofs" that can be setup and displayed using one of the Mystery Cabinet's frames.



In the same secret compartment is the actual set of four printer's proofs ...



As you can see, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black are all represented. Wanna see something cool? Check this out!

(CONTINUED IN NEXT POST)