Horizontal Gems from the Dumpster

I'm still thinking about horizontal cards. How classic they are. How different.

What if this sideways format was the norm?

Are there any Pokemon cards laid out the long way? I doubt it, but what an opportunity. Same goes for Magic the Gathering. Just imagine panorama'd mana.

I wonder why these classic gaming cards as well as modern sports cards, for the most part, ignore the innovative opportunity to go horizontal.

I picked up a Blaster box of 2024-25 Donruss basketball last weekend. The Rated Rookie stamp always gets me. Plus I've yet to pull a Victor Wembanyama card from a pack. If there was ever a fit for a broadside it'd be the Vic-ster at full wingspan.

I was drawn to cards in this set that featured straight-down angles on rim attackers. Base issues of Andrew Nembhard and Scoot Henderson isolated in the paint amidst snow flurries were my two favorites out of 90.

There were zero horizontal cards.

A week prior my friend surprised me with a more interesting box of cards, an Asics shoebox full that he had found at the dump.

When I texted him to express my jubilation, he wrote back "Jackpot right?"

Indeed. What fun shuffling through, piling up cards that caught my eye.

Of the 50 I set aside (from over 500) 18 were horizontal, including seven of the top ten.

It's easy to see why the three vertical cards rank.

The Chicken from 1983 Donruss. A sentence on the back invites collectors to mail the card in for the mascot to personally autograph.

2003 Upper Deck Keys to the City, Carlos Delgado and Vince Carter. I don't come across multi-sport cards very often. Gold line work and lettering surrounds these two show-stoppers in Toronto jerseys. Once I determine if this edition is from a basketball or baseball set, it could be a fun insert to chase.

The third is one of those priceless youth baseball cards of the local kid whose discarded collection had found its way to me.

Here's the seven horizontal cards that were resurrected, in descending order.

7. 2000 Pacific Crown Royal Peter Warrick stood out for its uncommon die cut silver coronet. Two uncommon design features deserves a crown.

6. Priest Holmes won some fantasy football leagues back in the day. Seeing a big scripted "Holmes" stamped in red and silver across #31 took me back. The centered close-up of the Chiefs bell cow making a house call (2006 Fleer Ultra) spoke to me.

5. Similarly 2003 Upper Deck Emmitt Smith Superpowers insert returned me to drafting the aging legend a few rounds early during his twilight. There's two side by side photos taken at Cardinals training camp of the all-time leader in rushing yards and touchdowns. Unlike modern unliscened cards that have the logos brushed out, the blank all-white helmet adds to the appeal.

4. 1990 Fleer dual card of Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Bonds is one collectors will recognize. Yellow border with black lines, smiling sluggers posing together at a spring game.

3rd overall is a Scott Stevens 1991/92 Upper Deck. Horizontal cards allow for better action shots. In this one the Blues Captain swoops around his own goal to backhand the puck away, a hard-skating LA King in close pursuit.

2nd goes to Adrian Peterson featured on a 2008 Upper Deck Masterpeices. Like Holmes, the Viking back who holds the record for most rushing yards in a single game (296) is center card. AP plants for a hard cut as one Charger chases and two others look on in awe. It's a thicker, textured card with gold trim.

Nomar Garciaparra 2003 Topps was my favorite rescued card.

Wide white border. 'Red Sox' in silver and a silver mini image matching the photo of the player that got me into watching baseball, ranging glove-up toward second base. Red wristband on elbow, batting gloves he fussed with in the batter's box dangling out his back pocket. And behind him, blue and green color bars (the outfield's wall and grass). Road gray uniform. I fill in Yankee Stadium. The card wouldn't be the same if it were the standard vertical arrangement. If it weren't horizontal, I doubt it would be my runaway #1.

After looking through the entire box, I felt like I do after opening my last pack (wanting to open more packs).

To the basement I spelunked to mine up one of several unsorted boxes I've accrued over the last four years.

More groovy horizontals jumped out.

David Cone 1992 Pinnacle Grips is a half and half card. The ace who started the only game I've attended at Yankee stadium (the start after his perfect game) in Mets home pinestripes on the left. A hand holding a baseball, eggwhite-bright, against a black background on the right. You wouldn't think the back of the card could contend with the front. But then you read Cone's insightful quote about throwing a hook - "Make sure you're pitching arm is fully extended, not bent; and make sure the ball position is toward the tips of the fingers and not down in the palm of a hand."

Vladimir Guerroro 1992 Topps features the cannon-armed, barehanded hitting Expos outfielder lying stomach-down on the grass, grinning as he holds a mitted ball right up to the camera. Cotton candy clouds we could shape into baseball figurines fill in the gold frame.

After that box I went through my slabs. I'm up to 33 in total.

Only one features a horizontal card. This oddity Beckett 9 happens to be Manny Ramirez. The 1992 Bowman photo pushes the gestalt of this eccentric item over the top. The sweet-swinging slugger in a green and white striped shirt, is leaning on a rail, eying the camera as if it's a clothing ad. An old stone church towers above.

I like the look and display of sideways slabs, but I wonder if grading companies would ever design an adjusted holder with the label on the top or bottom.

I wonder if card companies will utilize the horizontal layout much in the coming years. Prioritize it even.

Analyzing those cards from the dump, I counted at least a dozen different companies designing sets. Such a wide variety.

Modern cards of today, produced by fewer companies, feel homogenized.

I wonder, say two decades from now, what it might feel like for a hobbyist to discover a thrown-out shoebox filled with cards from the last five years.

Jackpot? Will they take the cards home? Spend time with them? Get lost in their nostalgic aesthetics?

It's cool to consider how a box of 20-year old cards found at the dump helped clarify my golden memories as a sports fan who collected cards.

And from a certain angle, if I squint, it might afford me a glimpse into the hobby's unfathomable future.