Hi all,
I recently picked up an amazing piece for my PC and quite possibly the most unique baseball card related item that I have come across.
The piece is the original 5x7 painting commissioned by Topps of Zack Greinke, for their 2018 Topps Gallery set. The art was created by the extremely talented Dan Bergren, whom I have had the pleasure of being able to chat with and actually ask some questions regarding the specific piece.
For sometime now, I have been very determined to find the best Zack Greinke card possible for my collection and looking into every set and year imaginable. In this time, I've also had a realization
that to me personally, there isn't much that seperates the parallels besides color and for me to pay an exorbanant ammount of money for a card because it is a gold refractor or serial numbered out of /500, or /10, I just can't justify it, especially when the base can often be found for a few dollars and the only difference is that it doesn't have a specific colored border or might not be a chrome stock. So I now find myself turning back to regualr base cards and find it to be more enjoyable and less stressful.
That is where this 5x7 piece comes in. It is about as unique as it gets! Not only is the piece a stunning hyperrealistic original art work but it is also featured as the image on Greinke's 2019 Topps Gallery card! As an added bonus, the 5x7 also comes with the cyan printing plate used to manufacture the card as well as an example of the card itself which happens to be the green /99 parallel.
The portrait piece brings me back to the early days of tobacco card issues of the early 20th century as well as the 1953 Topps issue when the cards featured original artwork of the players they depicted rather than a photo. Now don't get me wrong, I love baseball cards and there are many great issues and sets produced these days, however, in a day and age when a new card can be designed, edited and printed at warp speed, there is something refreshing to be found in this piece. As someone who dabbles in art myself, I can also fully appreciate the talent and detail that a piece like this commands, so this will without a doubt be a centerpiece of my small collection.
Attached is a link showing the timelapse on Dan's sketch of Trout:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=296849624258095
Enjoy!
Jake
