Jonny Gomes collectors' thread

[LWMM]

Finally got around to organizing purchases from the last few years. Here are some of the 2002s: four Bowman's Best base autos, three Bowman Chrome refractors (45/500; 143/500; 466/500), and a Topps Pristine R uncirculated refractor 60/149. The latter has a broken case, but 60 was his jersey number at the time.

 

[LWMM]

Another 2002 Bowman's Best, as well as two 2003 Bowman Signs of the Future base autos and two 2003 Topps Chrome Traded Uncirculated X-Fractors (19/25 & 20/25).

 

[LWMM]

A few more 2002 cards, all from Topps Pristine. One of the ones on the left (2002 Topps Pristine C refractors /1999) is serial numbered 1998/1999. Guess who also owns 0002/1999? So close...

 

[LWMM]

On to 2004, and with it the 2004 Topps Traded magenta printing plate. Always rare to pick up a 1/1 these days; they probably come less than one a year. Even more rare to pick up one from so long ago. 2004 was the first year Gomes had pack-issued 1/1s (in 2002–03 he had eight printing plates issued by Just Minors, all of which I have). I have 4 of the 17 2004 1/1s; somehow I also have 9 of the 14 from 2005, despite not starting collecting in earnest until the following year.

 

[LWMM]

This card technically comprises parts of two cards. The 2004 Fleer Authentix Ticket to the Majors set was numbered /999, and included parallels numbered to /100, /25, and /5. Then there was the autograph booster—a perforated four-times-signed card that could be torn apart and inserted into the others. I have a couple of the boosters (50 were made, I believe), but never had the courage to rip one up. Thankfully, someone else did.



No idea what happened to the other three from that booster. For the sake of it, here's the full set:

 

[LWMM]

2004 Skybox LE Gold Proofs 36/150. This one features a circa-2004/05 IP autograph from Gomes. His signature soon thereafter got shorter—by now it's basically JGS—so it's nice to have a contemporaneous signature on this one.

 

[LWMM]

Here's one of Gomes's older brother, Joey Gomes. I didn't start collecting him until later, so probably missed a few 1/1s when they were first issued. The seller of this one said he picked it up when it came out because he wanted a printing plate, but then it just sat in a box for years.

Anyone else think that this looks more cyan than yellow?

 

[Dilferules]

Yeah I think Topps mixed up the stickers, that does not look like any yellow plate I have.

 

[LWMM]

One of many side projects related to Gomes is to acquire copies of his cards with contemporaneous signatures (e.g., a 2002 card with a 2002-style signature, and so on). Mostly base cards (since that's what's mostly available signed), but parallels are fun to find.

Here are three recent pickups from 2002: the Bowman Gold parallel, and two minor-league issues. Gomes changed his signature around the time of the 2003 Arizona Fall League, so there was a a limited window for this style of signature. Meanwhile, the Bowman Gold is a parallel, and I haven't seen many signed minor-league issues for sale (perhaps because auto seekers tend to focus on major issues, and/or because those who get team/minor-league sets signed tend to be fans who aren't looking to sell). I'd like to replace them with blue signatures at some point, but very happy to add them for now.

 

[LWMM]

Bump in case anyone has anything to share.

 

[LWMM]

17-year-old autographed 1/1 that hasn't appeared before? Go ahead, twist my arm. The magenta is the new one; the yellow, I bought close to release. The base and black /40 are also pictured.

Gomes has 16 autographed 1/1s, of which I own eight. There are three others from this set: the other printing plates, and a red parallel.

 

[heavy_hitter]

Did you expect the plate to go that high?

 

[LWMM]

Did you expect the plate to go that high?

There were three big bids, though I'm not sure if any of us thought it would go that high, or simply thought "this is a big number, there's no way anyone else matches." The other two were from big Gomes guys. I haven't seen one of them in quite some time, and actually didn't realize who it was until typing up this post---thought it must have been a set collector or something at first. The other sometimes shows up for premium cards. Below that, there were two underbidders at $26 and $30. That's about where I'd have expected it to go if the others hadn't showed up.

 

[heavy_hitter]

Do the other Gomes collectors have any of the non 1/1s you need?

And how many of the Gomes 1/1s do you know the other collectors have?

Sorry, I'm fascinated by player collectors.

 

[LWMM]

Do the other Gomes collectors have any of the non 1/1s you need?

And how many of the Gomes 1/1s do you know the other collectors have?

Sorry, I'm fascinated by player collectors.

Not at all, HH—I suspect that most player collectors, like me, are all too happy to have an opportunity to wax on about their collections.

I don't think any of the other player collectors have any of the non-1/1s that I don't. If memory serves, a Red Sox collector won the the acetate /10 card that I'm missing, and there are some stamped buyback cards that were never checklisted and therefore difficult to figure out, but that's about it. At this point, most of the cards are stupidly hard to find (e.g., the Heritage black/blue backs), and/or might not exist. There are a few cards that I've removed from my checklist because of evidence they don't exist (e.g., these and these). But, as you can probably tell from those links, I like to have substantial evidence before doing so—hence why a few cards remain on the list despite doubts that they exist.

One of the other Gomes collectors has at least 10 1/1s. He also uses Onionring9's site, and you can see them here. Together with the 135 1/1s I have, that puts us at 145/305 of total Gomes 1/1s—almost at 50%.

 

[LWMM]

An early spring training jersey of Gomes, or possibly of his brother Joey. This was probably worn in 2002 or 2003. Jonny Gomes wore #60 for his first two years in the majors (2003 and 2004), before switching to #31 in 2005. There are Gomes jerseys with both #60 and #61, however, and cards show both brothers wearing a similar style jersey (see example below). One guess is that they were both invited to the same spring training, and (being brothers and all) wore consecutive numbers. If that's what happened, it seems more likely that this is a Joey Gomes jersey, given that Jonny Gomes ended up wearing #60 in the majors.

All that is to say that there's some guesswork involved. If anyone has any tips for determining spring training rosters and numbers from back then, I'd appreciate it!

 

[LWMM]

Gomes played with the Nationals for the latter half of 2011. This is the "patriotic" alternate jersey from that year, which seems to have been intended for days such as Memorial Day, July 4, and September 11 (see here). I've found at least one photo of him wearing this style of jersey (likely the same one), from August 16 of that year.

 

[LWMM]

Gomes has a few Japanese cards from his brief stint with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2016. Curiously, however, I didn't discover these cards, which are from 2022, until very recently. I bought of the base cards earlier this year, then Mudflap found one of the autos on eBay with a BIN, and immediately hit it. I emailed the seller to ask if he had another; he said one was incoming from a consigner, which he listed shortly thereafter (with a higher BIN).

I'm still not entirely sure what these are, let alone why they didn't show up until two years after the fact or why the same seller seems to have listed all of them. But—as the saying goes—hit BIN first, ask questions later.

 

[LWMM]

Having hit the BIN and gotten around to asking some questions, it looks like the set was released in February 2023. There are a number listed on Japanese sites; presumably the reason the ones on eBay all seem to come from one seller is that he's the only person marketing them there.

There also appear to be a number of parallels. In full:

• Base
• Foil signature
• Foil signature gold /5
• Foil signature holo /1
• Auto silver /61
• Auto gold /9
• Auto black gold /5
• Auto holo /1

These are now all incoming except for the /5 auto and the 1/1s. The 1/1s is listed online as having sold on a Japanese site for all of $4.80, though I'm not sure when it was sold.

 

[LWMM]

Like the two above, this jersey was picked up over the last few months. This one is from 2003 or 2004, the two years when Gomes wore #60 for the (then) Devil Rays; he changed to #31 in 2005. He played in a limited number of games both years, 2003 mostly on the road and 2004 all at home, so I would guess that this is more likely from 2004.

I'm very partial to Gomes items from this era, since it's from the period when I was growing up and watching him play at AAA Durham. Whatever the player, too, it's fun to see things from their early days, where the items tend to be more unique (playing with a team for only part of a season, for example, or switching jersey numbers) and hard to find. I also have a gray road #60 jersey which my dad bought as a birthday present close to two decades ago; in some senses this completes the set.

That's it for jerseys for now, although there's a recent bat pickup that I'm intending on posting also.