Dufex Gone Bad - 2005 Donruss Zenith White Hot

About 99 percent of the time I love Dufex. It's got the right mix of warped shininess that screams 21st-century cardboard. Okay, maybe that's stretching it a lot but there's a definite "ooo, shiny" appeal to the technology.

Here's the ugly anomaly in my Dufex fanboy-ism: 2005 Donruss Zenith Red Hot.

 

That would be Ted Williams' image burning in Baseball Card Hell. The issue that I have here is pretty simple: red is bright, black and white photo is not, background is shiny. The result: Dufex purgatory.

Red Hot cards were inserted 1:16 packs with ten cards making up the set. The checklist doesn't really standout when you compare it with other small insert sets: Williams, Vladimir Guerrero, Johan Santana, Todd Helton, Alfonso Soriano, Aubrey Huff...

Aubrey Huff? Sure there's stars, but it's not a who's who, even back in 2005. But then the parallels tell the likely story. Yes, there's parallels to this ugly set. Random bat and jersey swatches were attached and serial numbered to anywhere from 25 to 300 copies.

But when a flame's orange, it can still get hotter. Bring on the 1:65-pack White Hot cards.

 

The background looks more "under the sea" to me than fire but I think it looks a little nicer. Still ugly but not Dufex purgatory bad. You know it's coming - memorabilia parallels. Yup, more bats and more jerseys.

So in case you were wondering, Dufex can be ugly. It can also be made uglier by lame parallels that are really just excuses to slap a jersey or bat slice onto a card.

Japanese School Girl Watch

One of the things I miss in Wired Magazine is their little column entitled "Japanese School Girl Watch." A couple paragraphs long, it would highlight a small piece of fun technology that was taking Japan by storm at the time. It seems to have disappeared from the pages of the awesome magazine, so I thought I'd pay tribute with something I picked up a little while back:

1997 New Pinnacle Artist's Proof 187. Denny Neagle (and friends) "East Meets West"

This card has so much going for it: player in casual snapshot outside of the ballpark, random people off the street, the universal sign of the rabbit shadow-puppet, DUFEX and cliche font choices to label parts of the world. This is the one Denny Neagle in my collection that is not for trade.