I finally
found a 2002 Ultra Sue Bird RC for a reasonable price. Someone who was
selling the 2002 Ultra WNBA rookie SP cards (#101-120) for $39 and I wasn’t
going to pass it up. When Bird’s card alone sells for $40-60 for a raw copy, I
came out ahead on this purchase.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Bump It 8x10
I picked up the most unusual
item awhile back and it sat in my closet until recently when I was looking for
some 8x10s I had stored. It is a Fist Bump and Kiss Bump 8x10 autograph.
Ashlee Evans-Smith is a
character, she is part punker and part Conor McGregor and she makes some very
interesting Twitter posts that are always fun.
Topps has released fist bump
cards in both MMA and WWE, but they are always expensive, so I went a different
route. This was a custom piece that the guy had made to bring to one of the MMA
conventions, he has other fighters too but most I didn’t know. I am
disappointed that the background is pixelated, but it is a cool discussion
piece and will display nicely with the autographed MMA fighting gloves that I
have. Now if I just had a man cave where I could display my collection.
Monday, January 28, 2019
Monday Question Day- How Do You Protect Your Cards
Today is
question day:
Do you do anything special in
regard to storing your collection?
Since I
returned to collecting 1992/93 I have lived in two different environments. In
Arizona I deal with high heat, strong sun and dry air. In Washington (Seattle)
there was more moisture in the air and typically was colder overall compared to
the temps in Arizona.
I keep
most of my collection in a bedroom closet, this keeps everything out of the
light and relatively temperature controlled.
I have never
had environment damage to my cards, but l heard some horror stories from poor
storage. In Arizona I have heard of people storing their cards in the garage or
in a storage unit and everything dries out and cracks. Autographs disappear and
cards with glossy coatings bake together. In Seattle’s wet climate, mold
becomes a very real concern anywhere you have an exterior wall at or below
ground level because moisture seeps through
and mold grows.
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Congratulations Darth Bader, Bellator's New Heavyweight Champion
Last night
Ryan Bader won the Bellator Heavyweight Championship, making him the first
champion in Bellator to hold belts in two different weight classes.
I did not add much to my Ryan
Bader collection
last year, only six cards and two of those
were with my COMC order. I did just purchase a Ryan Bader custom ticket stub
relic card with a ticket from Bellator 199 but that is an ACEO. With adding only six official cards to my collection I am now
sitting at 152 unique Bader out of a possible 334 cards, this includes his #1/1
cards, putting me at 45.5% of his collection. If you remove the 105 #1/1 cards
that I am missing (mostly printing plates from 2011 sets) I am now sitting at 66.3%
of all Bader cards.
I have not made any collecting
goals for a couple of years, but I want to focus a bit more on my Bader
collection. Most that I am missing are lower serial numbered parallels that
don’t show up too often so I will have to really double down on my searches and
hit up other options outside of eBay and COMC.
2011 Topps Finest UFC Fight Mat
Jumbo Autographed Relic
2011 Topps Finest UFC Flag Bearers.
This is a four-card set, the letters spell out “USA” and the 4th
card is a US flag. I have seen the “U”
and the flag cards show up but I was on the fence until now.
2011 Topps Moment of Truth Showdown
Shots w/ Tito Ortiz Red parallel
2011 Topps Moment of Truth Showdown
Shots Dual Auto w/ Tito Ortiz
2015 Topps UFC Chronicles #78
Green parallel
2017 Topps UFC Knockout Fearless Fighter Autos
Friday, January 25, 2019
The Art Gallery 2.0 - 2013 Cult Stuff Civil War Chronicles Volume II Confederate Soldier
Welcome to The Art Gallery 2.0. I have so many sketch cards
that I have 11 The Art Gallery posts in my Drafts listing and I still have
sketch cards that I have scanned and waiting so for now, I figured why not
share art twice a month?
This sketch
card is from Michael Hannan, a visual artist from Tennessee, and was inserted in
the 2013 Cult Stuff Civil War Chronicles Volume II. Hannan has been creating
art since the early 70s and is no longer as active as he once was and has
basically retired.
When I was
younger I was interested in the Civil War and did a lot of reading. As I have gotten
older I am not interested as I once was but I do like Cult Stuff’s Civil War
releases and I was excited to come across this sketch card of a Confederate
soldier in full charge.
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Vintage Card Of The Month: 1933 Goudey Sport Kings Duke Kahanamoku
This month’s VCoM comes from one of the most amazing
sports sets ever, the 1933 Goudey Sport Kings Gum set. The 48-card set was
released throughout 1933 and 1934 in packs of Sport Kings gum by Goudey.
Goudey did an amazing job with an awesome checklist,
which was a complete necessity to get children to part with their pennies in
the midst of the Great Depression and included athletes from a large variety of sports.
Along with baseball, basketball, football and hockey there are also summer and
winter Olympians as well as a number of outdoor athletes. Some of the big names
are Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Red Grange, Jim Thorpe, Walter Hagen, Gene Tunney,
Johnny Weissmuller and Bobby Jones.
Now you may remember a couple of years ago where I
posted about purchasing a fake version of this card as part of a collection, last year I finally added a real one to my collection and I can tell you that
visually the cards are night and day and you can tell which is real. I am very
excited about adding this to my collection.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
You Do You Boo Boo!
Upper Deck can
not produce MLB licensed card, but they can lampoon their own baseball cards
from previous sets. In the 2019 Deadpool set, that comes out next week, Upper Deck
is recreating some of their iconic sports cards. I was already interested in the set, there is going to be glass and lenticular cards in the set, but I love these sports cards.
I have seen the checklist for the Sport Ball insert (I listed the checklist below), though not the images, and three cards are from 1989 Upper Deck baseball. If am really hoping Deadpool shows up as Ken Griffey Jr, if so that is one I am going to have to get one.
Here is the Sport Ball insert checklist for the 2019 Deadpool release. I am really surprised they don't have Michael Jordan's 1986-87 Fleer rookie.
SB1 1989 Upper Deck Baseball
SB2 1989 Upper Deck Baseball
SB3 1992 Upper Deck Basketball
SB4 1989 Fleer Baseball
SB5 1987 Fleer Baseball
SB6 1990-1991 Upper Deck Hockey
SB7 1991-1992 Upper Deck Hockey
SB8 1989 Upper Deck Baseball
SB9 1994 Collector’s Choice Baseball
SB10 1986 Fleer Baseball
SB11 1988 Fleer Baseball
SB12 1984 Fleer Baseball
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Edgar! Edgar! Edgar! Hall Of Fame!!!
The announcement
has been made and Edgar Martinez is the second Mariner to be elected to the MLB
Hall of Fame.
Edgar is one
of my mini-PCs, so I’ll share some of my favorite cards.
| A little chin music for one of the best pure hitters |
Monday, January 21, 2019
Prediction Cards And Monday Question Day
The die is cast, the teams have been selected and in 2 weeks we will see who will become the NFL Champion at Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta on February 3rd. The boxes for Sports Card Super Bowl IX are in my hand and I am ready to let the sports cards do the talking.
This year I went with three mega boxes; 2018 Panini Playoff, 2018 Panini Prizm and 2018 Panini Absolute. 19 packs, 140 cards (including 3 autos and 3 relics) will predict if the Patriots will add a sixth title or if the Rams will win their second. Find out 2/3/19 to see what the cards predict
Does anyone know the odds for both MLB and NFL having a Boston/LA matchup playing for the Championship? Will we see Celtics/Lakers and Bruins/Kings championship series in NBA and NHL?
I don't know, I am honestly wondering if anyone crunched the numbers.
This year I went with three mega boxes; 2018 Panini Playoff, 2018 Panini Prizm and 2018 Panini Absolute. 19 packs, 140 cards (including 3 autos and 3 relics) will predict if the Patriots will add a sixth title or if the Rams will win their second. Find out 2/3/19 to see what the cards predict
Since it is Monday Question Day, I will add a random question.
Does anyone know the odds for both MLB and NFL having a Boston/LA matchup playing for the Championship? Will we see Celtics/Lakers and Bruins/Kings championship series in NBA and NHL?
I don't know, I am honestly wondering if anyone crunched the numbers.
Thursday, January 17, 2019
First Card Of The Year
The first card of the year for me is this 2010 Topps UFC Main
Event The Ultimate Fighter Ryan Bader #TT-38 card. It is the Diamond parallel
Topps Vault version. The Diamond parallel is a #1/1 so this is a #1/1 Topps
Vault version of a #1/1 card, so odd.
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Too Many Variations
I know I am
late to the game on this one, but I have talked about my distaste for variations.
Did Topps really need to release a variation in the 2013 Chrome set of Prince Fielder’s
hair? Sadly, this isn’t even the first time I have talked Topps’s decision to
focus on hair on a baseball card, that distinction goes to 2017 Topps Now Bryce
Harper Epic Hair Flip BS.
This isn’t a
rant about hair, but un-needed variations, the hair/DNA cards are actually pretty cool.
Monday, January 14, 2019
Question Day- Ripped Off?
Today is
question day:
Have you ever been burned on a
purchase?
I have never had any major situations where I was scammed, partially because I am a skinflint and keep my purchases reasonable, but I have had two cases that cost me about $20 between them.
Many years ago I purchased a 1989 Score Troy Aikman rookie card. I
couple of years later I purchased a 1989 Score Deion Sanders rookie card and
when I compared the two the Aikman was an obvious counterfeit. Now you are
probably wondering why someone would fake a $5-8 card, it is because at one
time this was a card that would regularly sell over $50 and so I am guessing
this card had been floating around since the days of those higher values.
The
second would be a 1933 Sport Kings Duke Kahanamoku. It was part of a collection
of vintage cards that I picked up as one lot. The card got packed away because I was getting ready to move
and by the time I got a closer look and realized it was a bad counterfeit many
months had passed, and I was well past the time to get a refund. Since it was
part of a larger lot I don’t feel like I got ripped off, just a lesson learned. I had talked about this one back in 2016 after I realized the card was fake.
Thursday, January 10, 2019
The Art Gallery- 2005 Breygent John Wayne
This month’s Art Gallery display is from Chris
Henderson, who has an amazing talent with realistic images using just a pencil.
He does work in color too but there are certain sets where every sketch is done
in pencil and they are done well. Henderson has done a lot of work for
Breygent, and those are usually the sketch card sets done almost all in pencil
with minimal color. I believe this is because he is the only sketch card
artist for those sets so he has a lot of cards to do in a limited time and
pencil line sketches are easier to produce but don’t take that as they are not
quality art.
The card is from Breygent’s 2005 John Wayne set and
features the Duke in cowboy gear. When it came to John Wayne it was almost always a cowboy flick or a military
flick so all of the sketch cards that I have seen fit in those two genres.
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Would You Like A Sticker With Your Stickergraph?
Nobody likes
sticker autographs, not when on-card autographs are available. But Panini
decided to double down and add sticker autographs to stickers.
In the
2018-19 Panini Treble Soccer, a product that has a $225 SRP, includes hits that
are Panini World Cup Stickers (from previous sticker releases) embedded in to a
card with a sticker autograph. Not all the sticker/cards have stickergraphs,
some of the biggest names did sign on-sticker/card but that doesn’t excuse using
sticker autographs on any cards in a product like this.
Monday, January 7, 2019
Question Day- School Pride?
Today is
question day:
Do you collect players from your
school(s)?
I went to
an art college, no sports teams, but I spent my youth in Tucson, so I
collect University of Arizona players in their college uniform. I have begun to add some
players from my high school to my collection, quite a few went on to a college
/ semi-pro / professional career. I had done
a post this past November for John Beck, the first of my mini-PC of former
Mountain View Toros.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Deadpool Is Traveling Again
Last year Deadpool traveled
around America in the 2017 Fleer Ultra Marvel Spider-Man release, he sent me
post cards form Seattle and the Grand Canyon. This year he traveled around the
world in the 2018 Fleer Ultra X-Men release. Being the considerate guy that he is, he sent me postcards from his time
in Japan and China.
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
A Goal? Well Sorta
Happy New Year!
I’ve struggled with collecting modern cards, I
am not going to rehash the complaints collectors have with the newer sets but
just know that I am feeling the same way. It makes me sad that these thoughts
have even crossed my mind.
I wouldn’t say it is necessary
to “re-ignite” my feelings, just a re-direction. When I was a kid, I loved
ripping packs of Star Wars cards. I would go through my collection, add the
missing cards and trade dupes. I would then wrap a rubber band around the set
and place them in a shoe box. I want those feelings again, so I decided that
vintage Star Wars is where I am going to focus. As I typed out the set lists, I
started to feel better.
Nothing modern, no parallels and
for now, no inserts or stickers.
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