Bela Lugosi On Cardboard

Over the last four years I have been posting custom horror related cards on Halloween night, it began as part of Thorzul’s Nightmare on Cardboard contest but after I won in 2012 I decided not to sit back in 2013 and just be a spectator for the contest.

 

I still felt the itch to make some spooky cards even though I was not going to enter them in the contest just to keep up posting on Halloween night. I ended up designing cards based around one of my favorites shows Ghost Adventures. This year I decided to go with one of the best, and original, horror film villain in Bela Lugosi.

Lugosi began acting while a teenager in Hungary prior to WWI. Following the war he made his way to the U.S. where he started acting in plays before landing the lead role in the movie Dracula in 1931. For the next twenty years it seemed like every horror flick had either Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff in the leading role but by the 1950s things had cooled off for both actors.

 

In the early 1950s Lugosi had health problems and was in and out of drug rehab he eventually met the very unique Ed Wood who cast Bela in many of his low-budget films like Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 From Outer Space (possibly the worst movie ever made).

 

I decided to make each Bela Lugosi character correspond with a card design that was released the same year as the movie.

 

1931 Dracula

The Count Dracula card is based on the 1931 W517 Babe Ruth card

 

1932 White Zombie

The Murder Legendre card is based on the 1932 U.S. Caramel Babe Ruth card. I actually had to colorize Bela’s character because it was originally B&W and the card illustrations are color.

 

1939 The Son of Frankenstein

The Ygor card is based on the 1939 Play Ball Ted Williams card

 

1948 Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein

The Dracula Is Watching card is based on the 1948 Leaf Pirate Cards layout. This is another one where I colorized every element in this card and then added filters to look like an illustration.

 

1959 Plan 9 From Outer Space

The Ghoul Man card is based on the 1959 Topps Hank Aaron card. This image was originally colorized in the 1950s so it was pretty bland and washed out so I brightened up the colors to a more lifelike color palette.

 

 

I had a lot of fun with this set and I had wanted to do more but it took me about 4-4.5 hours to colorize the three images that I altered and put everything together. Fortunately these early card designs  are quite basic so building the template took only a few minutes to complete.

 

 

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

 

 

 

The Best Of The Best

With the Giants and Royals battling down to the final out of the final game it got me thinking about who is considered the best all-time player to come out of each club’s history. I don't own any of these cards, they were courtesy of the Google machine.

 

The Royals have been around for 45 years, established in 1969, and there have been a number of solid players who wore the powder blue over the years but I think no matter how you slice it George Brett will always be considered the Saint of Kansas City.

 

 

During his 20 years in KC he batted .305 with 3,154 hits, 317 HR and 1596 RBIs. Toss in 13 All-Star appearances, an AL MVP in 1980, ALCS MVP in 1985, World Championship in 1985 to go with his Gold Glove and 3 Batting Titles. Since his retirement he had his number retired and been elected to the Hall of Fame on his first ballot selection.

 

The Giants have been around since 1883, 129 years, initially as the New York Gothams before changing to the New York Giants in 1886. The team moved to San Francisco in 1958. The team has always been considered a contender making an appearance in the World Series 23 times and winning 7 titles.

 

This definitely made it more difficult to come down to a single “best” player. Looking at the all-time best Giants and you can build an All-Star team just from the Orange and Black. Barry Bonds*, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, Orlando Cepeda, Gaylord Perry, Will Clark, Monte Irvin and even someone modern like Tim Lincecum could make an argument for being one of the best on the team.

 

I decided to go with Co-Greatest Giants and I am guessing most people will agree with me. First I decided to drop Mr. “*” for obvious reasons, some day steroids/HGH may be accepted in to the sports world and when that day comes he can bask in his achievements but until then I think the only way he should be allowed in to the Hall of Fame is if he purchases a ticket like Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson.

 

I selected Willie Mays and Christy Matthewson as my Co-Greatest Giants.

Willie Mays spent 21 years with the Giants between New York and San Francisco, during that time he was a 24x All-Star, he won a World Series Championship in 1954, he won 2 MVP Awards, NL ROY and he won 12 Gold Glove Awards. His number has since been retired by the Giants and he was a first ballot Hall of Fame selection in 1979. The “Say Hey Kid’ deserves to be on anyone’s “Greatest” lists, Giants or otherwise.

 

 

Christy Matthewson played his first game with the New York Giants in 1900 and over the next 17 years he won 373 games with an amazing 2.12 ERA. During his time in NY he won a World Series (1905) and later another one as the Giants pitching coach in 1921, he was the Pitching Triple Crown winner twice, he also was a 4x NL Wins Champion, 5x NL ERA Champion and 5x NL Strikeout Champion and he also threw 2 no-hitters. His jersey was retired (As “NY” because they didn’t have number) by the Giants and he was a first ballot Hall of Fame selection during the inaugural Hall of Fame selection in 1936 along with Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth  and Walter Johnson.

And as I post this Salvador Perez pops up to the 3rd Base foul line and Pablo Sandoval grabs it for the final out and the World Series Championship goes to the San Francisco Giants.

Good Guys Boston Bruins

Too often the public hears about the negative elements connected to sports, either the athletes themselves committing crimes or the teams/management screwing over the players and fans. The public rarely hears about the positive decisions that are made daily.

 

Each year the Boston Bruins make a trip to Boston’s Children’s Hospital to visit kids and bring a little cheer to their lives. People may not realize but events like this brighten the day of the children as well as their parents. To add some cheer the Bruins players dressed up as characters from Disney’s Frozen, though quite peculiar versions of the characters. They even sung "Let It Go" at times.

 

I know what these families are going through, when my son was young he spent weeks at a time in Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma and when he was 7 months old the Seattle Seahawks cheerleaders came to visit for Halloween. It is these types of visits that help families, some may even say it is therapeutic, at least to ease the mind.

 

The players; Kevin Miller (Kristoff), Dougie Hamilton (Elsa), Matt Fraser (Anna), Seth Griffith (Hans), Matt Bartkowski (Sven) and Torrey Krug (Olaf)

Can You Be Elite Without Proving It?

Apparently Jay Cutler is an elite QB, well at least according to Bears’ GM Phil Emery, something that does not sit very well with the legendary Bears’ linebacker Brian Urlacher. In January the Bears signed Cutler to a 7-year $126.7 million contract making him the highest paid QB this season for which he has responded with a 3-5 record. The other day Urlacher stated that Cutler is "Elite in salary only".

 

Emery responded by pointing out that Cutler is 59-53 lifetime (60-54 counting playoff games) and that alone should put him on the list of “Elite” quarterbacks. While his 60 wins puts him at the #14 rank of wins by active QBs, which is a nice position, it also puts him in the neighborhood of players like Carson Palmer, Matt Ryan, Michael Vick, Alex Smith and Matt Schaub. This particular neighborhood is a nice place to be but none of these guys own a Super Bowl Champion ring and I think that most people will agree that at least one Super Bowl Championship is required to be considered a top flight quarterback.

 

Personally I am with Urlacher on this one, Cutler is a decent quarterback who excels when he has solid producers around him but he can also loss a game on his own and he is nowhere near guys like Payton Manning, Brady, Brees, Roethlisberger or Rodgers. He is 31 years old and with a 7-year contract extension he has time to prove his worth but normally elite QBs show their ability early and get better with age where Cutler has not shown this type of growth and some may even say his best years are behind him.

 

This is a case where a GM and coach are trying to convince people (and themselves) that they didn't make a mistake with the contract extension in January. They can take to the media and say all they want but with this much money tied up, including $54 million guaranteed, over the next few years the team is going to have trouble bringing in talent and keep under the salary cap.

Chase Away The Bad Luck

Today the Seahawks travel to Charlotte to take on the 3-3-1 Panthers and look to end the current 2 game losing streak. The last time Seattle lost three games in a row was 2011. So to do my part I am offering up a Simpsonized version of Marshawn Lynch in hopes of making the football gods laugh and remove the bad juju that has funked the team over the past two weeks.

The artist is Adrien Noterdaem, a Belgian illustrator who has a wonderful style and has recently begun Simpsonizing athletes and actors (including some NFL players),

Bazooka Griffey

In my continued effort to build up my Ken Griffey Jr. collection occasionally I find myself in the occasional dilemma when it comes to price. With Griffey being one of the most popular baseball players of the past 25 years it is no wonder that even now after his retirement his cards still demand a premium over other cards in the set. From time to time I hunt down a card that is teetering on the edge of my self-imposed max price so I continue to watch and wait for a deal to appear.

 

The wait and see attitude has helped me not only pick up the Griffey card but sometimes even an additional bonus. A couple of times I have added a complete subset/insert set for roughly the same price. Which is how I ended up with the 22-card 1990 Bazooka set.

 

The set was made up of a collection of established players like Robin Yount, Rickey Henderson and Tony Gwynn plus younger prospects like Griffey, Jim Abbott and Gary Sheffield as well as some “Never were” players who filled out the checklist.

A Two-Fisted Shamrock

One of my favorite early MMA fighters is Ken Shamrock. He fought between 1993 and 2010 and made appearances in Pancrase, Pride and UFC with a couple of late career fights in local venues like King of the Ring, Impact and Cage Rage. He was UFC’s first Superfight Champion, a title that has since been replaced with UFC Heavyweight Champion.

 

Sadly he spent a couple of years at the end of the 1990s wasting his talent wrestling in the WWF, years that he later tried to make up when he returned to MMA in 2000 and fought well past his prime. When he left for the WWF in 1997 he was 23-5-2 but after he came back in 2000 he went 5-10-0 over the next 10 years. It was during this time that he got cut by UFC and tested positive for steroids following a fight with Wargods. When he finally retired in 2010 he ended his career with an overall 28-15-2 record spanning 17 years.

 

The card comes from the 2014 TCSP Finest MMA release and the relic is from a warm up t-shirt. Like other Tri City Sports PL cards it is a heavy plastic, almost credit card like, so it holds up well.

Who Takes It All?

Tonight begins the 110th World Series between the Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants. The underdog Royals are back to the Fall Classic after a 29 year absence while the Giants are looking to add another championship banner to the rafters, which would be their 3rd title in five years.

I have never been a collector of either team and the best card I have ever pulled between the two teams has been a 2007 Ultra Alex Gordon Lucky 13 autograph so I am not pulling either way but just watching for the entertainment of the top two teams clashing for the title.

The Art Gallery: 2013 Island Dreams Batman

This month’s Art Gallery comes the 2013 Island Dreams release. I am a big fan of Island Dreams, besides the large variety of sketch cards the money raised from selling the sets goes to the Family Assistance Fund for the Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois. I do not have a connection with this hospital but I do know the hardships that families face when a child requires extended treatment. My son was very sick as an infant, nearly dying three times before the age of two. My wife and I spent many trying months at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma, Washington while our son was hospitalized and we met parents who were having difficulty due to their child’s illness. We now make annual donations to local children's hospitals (I usually include sports and comic cards too) so any charity that donates to children’s hospitals will always get my attention as a collector.

 

When Island Dreams was created by Marty Kuklinski in 2011 his intent was for the sets to be island themed. The sets have includes a small base set in the past, 2012 had 15 cards and 2013 had 6 cards, though the focus is the sketch cards. Most sketches are island or water related but the artists are able to go with what interests them and that would be the case here.

 

Tom Kelly is a comic book artist so logically his interest is super heroes and that is what his cards reflect. The main focus is the Batman silhouette over a blacked out moon. The trailing cape and the bat logo on his chest stand out beautifully. What is not obvious is the Batman outline in the background. This was such a cool addition. Some of the other cards that Kelly submitted for the 2013 Island Dreams set include Catwoman, Punisher and Superman.

 

I don't remember what I paid but it was on the lower end in comparison to other Batman sketch cards, though not "officially" licensed it still is a wonderful addition to my superheroes sketch card collection.

 

 

Vintage Card Of The Month: 1948 Leaf Pirates Captain Augur

This month’s VCoM is my second card from the 1948 Leaf Pirates release. These cards are beautifully illustrated using extensive detailing and bright colors. Because Leaf used Ben-Day dot printing you can see the small colored dots that were used in the coloring process giving the cards a comic book like appearance.

 

When it comes to Captain Auger there is not a whole lot of information, he was a British pirate in the early 1700s. In 1718 the Bahamas Governor Woodes Rogers tried to clear the area of pirates so he offered a pardon to any pirates who “gave up their ways” and Captain Auger accepted the pardon and became a merchant/trader. Auger eventually returned to his evil ways and was captured in New Providence, Bahamas. He was tried and hung in December 1718.

The card is your typical “filler” card, there is a crease and some paper loss on the front of the card. The worst offender is some sort of substance on the front that looks like maybe glue or liquid was spilled, at least it isn’t sticky.

It's Gotta Be The Shoes!

There have been shoe relics inserted in to cards before but they were far a few between, definitely not enough to change the market and because the relics were often smaller in size it is possible that some collectors may not have even realized they were included in sets.

 

Panini has caught the attention of the collector’s with the inclusion of Sneak Peek jumbo shoe relics in the 2013-14 Panini Immaculate Basketball release. Low end cards are selling for $500, if you can call that low end pricing, but most are selling for thousands. When Immaculate was first released there were some Sneak Peek cards topping $10,000 but that has seemed to level out as more hit the market. With each card being either 1/1 or #/2 every single card is unique and no two are the same.

 

Next month we will see 2013-14 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Basketball hitting shelves and with a similar price point and pack out as Immaculate there will be some competition for Panini. Upper Deck is kicking back at Panini (pun intended) with their version of a jumbo shoe relic called Signature Kicks.

 

To add some additional value to their cards UD will be adding an on-card autograph to each shoe card and with a checklist that includes Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Julius Erving you know that every card will be a winner.

 

I am not putting down Panini’s Sneak Peek cards, they are original and a well-designed card. The thing here is that the Panini shoe cards and Upper Deck shoe cards are similar but I wouldn’t say it is a straight apple to apple comparison but more of a Honeycrisp apple to a Gala apple, they are both great in their own ways.

 

Now on to today’s question;

Which shoe relic card do you choose?

A) Panini Immaculate Sneak Peek

B) Upper Deck Exquisite Signature Kicks

Rollin With Kid 'N Play

 

In 1988 the world was introduced to Kid ‘n Play when their 2 Hype album was released. This was time Rap was starting to hit mainstream and MTV actually played music. Groups like Kid ‘n Play were seen as producing fun and energetic music, even parents were getting down with the kick step (with horrible results). The next logical step was the ultimate of medium, the full-length movie. In March 1990 Christopher Reid and Christopher Martin showed up on the silver screen in House Party, a hilarious movie about some good kids trying to hold a party and having to deal with bullies, cops and their own parents. We met Robin Harris (who sadly died of a heart attack one week after the movie released at the age of 39), Martin Lawrence, Tisha Campbell and Full Force. The movie was rated highly and did very well eventually leading to 4 horrible sequels.

 

I was a Kid ‘n Play fan prior to the movie and when it came out I went the first day. One of my first dates with my now ex-wife was to the movie when we started dating. Between the initial release and Dollar Theaters I saw this movie 6-8 times before it finally came out on VHS. 

 

It seemed like a logical decision for me when Leaf released a Co-Stars dual autograph of Kid ‘n Play in this year’s Pop Century release. What is cool is that they actually signed “Kid” and “Play” but because they signed so large their signatures are off of the sticker (bummer). It seems to be a common problem with this version of the card so I ended up picking up the card for $9.56 shipped. After purchasing the Co-Stars autograph I looked to see if there are individual autograph cards and found a Christopher Reid autograph from the 2010 Razor Pop Century preview release. I like that he signed his name with “Kid” too. This card ran me $7.48 shipped. When you consider the dual signature normally runs well over $20 and the single signed card runs $12 or more I think I made out pretty well.

 

Annnd We're done...

A quick follow up to yesterday’s post. After I posted on the blog I sent him one last message letting him know that I had left negative feedback and why I left it. Surprisingly he responded rather quickly with his explanation

“Every single one looked the same. I have been out of town a lot and have a ton of emails coming in. I was under the impression you were returning the card as you said you were and once it was received back you would get a refund.”

 

I had to respond to him regarding this. I pointed out that he had multiple Suzy Hotrod autographs for sale with each auction having a different autograph and the crappy autograph was cheaper. And asked how the picture was posted to his auction if he didn’t have that specific card. I also pointed out that I had cancelled the return on Saturday and had even emailed him after I cancelled the return explaining why I decided to keep the card (It would be stupid to pay to return the card to get my money back and just go and buy another card that looked exactly the same) and that I only wanted the card he posted.

 

I don’t expect him to respond, I caught him in a lit about them all looking the same, plus he obviously did read through his emails if he knew that I had requested a return/refund. I am done with this seller, nothing he can say will change the way that this unfolded and I definitely will not be purchasing anything from him in the future. Though I wouldn’t be surprised to see him posting the Suzy Hotrod autograph for sale at a higher price before to long.

A Bad eBay Experience

On September 26th I came across one of those opportunity purchases, this was actually my first opportunity purchase this year, and even though I set a goal of cutting these types of purchase out completely I didn’t listen to my inner voice.

 

While searching through some Allen & Ginter’s autographs a recommendation for various Goodwin Champions autographs appeared so I decided to take a look. One of the suggestions was a 2013 Suzy Hotrod autograph and for some unknown reason I found myself interested. I used to watch roller derby all the time but it just doesn’t show up on television anymore but to be honest if it was on T.V. I would watch every chance I could. It is just the ultimate sport; roller skates, physical assaults and a scoring system that nobody seems to understand.

 

So I got caught up in finding out about Suzy Hotrod and once I was that deep I just had to buy an autograph and of course once you buy an autograph you have to add a relic too. I looked through the autographs and Suzy Hotrod has a rather messy autograph so when I came across this solid signature I hit the BIN for $4.99 plus $2.95 shipping. The price was about a dollar more than what most of her autographs were selling for at the time, the same seller had one of her regular signatures for $3.49 BIN but I wanted the better looking autograph.

 

Next up was the relic. There are base relics and multi-colored relic cards so I decided to go with a dual-colored piece from one of her red Gotham Girls traveling team jerseys. This one was $2.99 plus $2.95 shipping. At the time this was about average for her relic cards so I felt I got a good price.

 

After I purchased the cards I realized they were from the same seller so I emailed him to ask if he would be willing to combine shipping for both cards. His response to me was essentially “Tough” and that once items are paid for he cannot combine shipping, which is B.S. because I did it just a couple of weeks ago and it was a situation where he didn’t want to take the extra 30 seconds and it meant an additional $2.45 in his pocket. But, none-the-less I can accept this because I did pay for them separately and life goes on.

 

Days go by and the tracking number is not showing that it was even shipped and I was a bit concerned. It finally shipped on October 3^rd, seven days after I paid. OK, I am now wondering if the seller was just being a jerk and making me wait because I asked for combined shipping.

 

I get the cards on October 6^th and I open the relic card first and it looked good, I opened the autograph card envelope and notice the autograph is Hotrod’s regular crappy autograph and not the beautiful autograph that I purchased. I double checked the auction to make sure that the description didn’t say something like “You will not receive the card pictured” but nothing like that so I emailed the seller explaining the mistake. When you email a seller regarding an issue a case is automatically opened through eBay so I figured it would get the seller’s attention. I sent a follow up email with a picture of the card I received to show the difference between autographs. I waited and wasn’t surprised when he didn’t respond so three days later I expanded the claim to get eBay involved. They attempted to contact him and they didn’t get a response so they offered me the option to return the card and get a refund using the aBay Buyer Protection or keep the card. I emailed the seller one last time hoping it was just a mistake that he seriously missed, and waited until Sunday before cancelling the refund option and just leave negative feedback.

 

The card on the left is the card that was pictured in the auction and the card on the right is the card I actually received. What led me to purchase this card was because the signature lines were separated and she actually wrote "#55" where she normally signs "Hotrod#55" all together and the "55" usually looks like anything but "55"

 

 

In the end I decided to keep the card instead of accepting a refund and buying a new one because for some reason Suzy Hotrod’s autographs have doubled in price in just two weeks, even her relics have jumped 50% too.

 

I am really disappointed, the autograph on the card I purchased is very unique compared to her standard autograph. It got me thinking about what happened and I figured it was one of four reasons from the seller. When considering the options I am betting on is either #2 or #4.

 

 

1. He used an image he found on the internet for the auction not realizing there was a difference. But this one seems less likely because he was selling another Hotrod autograph with the crappy signature for less money so he obviously knew there was a difference.

2. He accidently switched the packaging and sent the nice autograph to the other buyer. This seems like a possibility and he wasn’t responding out of embarrassment knowing he couldn’t get the other card back from the other buyer to correct the mistake.

 

3. He didn’t send me the card to be a jerk because I asked for combined shipping. This is a possibility but most people are not this vindictive, especially when you consider this guy has over 17,000 feedback with 99.9% positive. If he got upset and jerked over everyone who had any sort of after sale request I am sure his feedback would be much lower.

 

4. He saw the rapid price increase in the week before he sent out the card and decided to hold the better looking autograph figuring he could get a significant premium over what I paid so he sent out the crappy autograph and is ignoring my/eBay’s messages expecting negative feedback anyway.

Tyson- Peck & Snyder Style

In 2012 Leaf filed for a trademark for two names “Peck & Snyder” and “Maxx”. Leading collectors in to the belief that Leaf would be producing baseball cards under the Peck & Snyder name and racing cards under the Maxx name.

 

Following the Civil War the Peck & Snyder Sporting Goods was founded (1866), at the time Base Ball was considered part of the country’s healing process and Peck & Snyder did what they could to ensure that the athletes were equipped properly.

 

In order to get the company name out to the public in 1869 they began producing advertisement cards with Base Ball team pictures on the back, teams like Cincinnati Red Stockings, New York Mutuals, Chicago White Stockings and Philadelphia Athletics. These became the first baseball cards as we know them today. Later tobacco companies like Old Judge and Allen & Ginter followed suit in the late 1800s. By 1895 the Peck & Snyder Sporting Goods company was purchased by their friend A.G. Spaulding and became a part of collecting lore.

 

This is what the original 1869 Peck & Snyder Cincinnati Red Stockings front and back looks like.

Now in 2014 Leaf is working on a modern Peck & Snyder set, which will be a multi-sport set. To get things going they have released a 45-card preview set which are being sent to dealers and there are only 250 preview sets being printed, though the cards are not numbered. The cards are based on the original 1869 advertisement cards, they are 3 5/16 x 2 3/8 in size, with an advertisement on the back (Seen below). The images are sepia in color and the images have been “antiqued” to appear old. Some of the athletes includes on the checklist; Johnny Manziel, Andrew Wiggins, Blake Bortles, Hulk Hogan, Shaq, Gordie Howe, Larry Bird, Frank Thomas and Kris Bryant.

 

I picked up the Mike Tyson card for $3.08, most cards run $2.50 to $5.00 each. The cards are really cool and I may eventually pick up the Hulk Hogan card but there are no other players that I collect. This is the back of the Tyson card.

A Presidential Oddball Of Sorts

I came across a card that I was pretty excited to see, an American Heroes Gerald Ford relic from Tri City Sports Poland (or TCSP) . These cards are from TCSP’s Five Year Anniversary promotion and they were randomly inserted in to various boxes of TCSP product during 2013. I know that the company has had customer service problems and many of their cards are pretty poorly designed but I really like the American Heroes design.

 

The release is made up of three subsets; Relics (#/100), Autograph-Relics (#/2) and Autographs (#1/1). The checklist contains 4 Presidents (Nixon, Ford, Carter and Regan), 2 actors (DeNiro & Pacino) plus Bruce Springsteen and John Gotti.

 

The card is thick and a heavy plastic, almost feeling like a heavy duty credit card. The back has a write up about Ford during his 3 years as President along with the TCSP hologram and the card numbering to #/100, mine is #87/100.

 

Most of the cards from this set start at $19.99 and run up to $40 but when I came across this card it had a starting bid of only $1.99. I am wondering if the seller set the price incorrectly by accident and that they really intended to type in $19.99. I won the card for $3.25 plus another $2.50 for shipping.

 

I am looking to add the other three Presidents to my collection as well as Al Pacino as long as I can find them all for reasonable prices. I expect to pay more for Regan and the actors but hopefully I can pick up Tricky Dick and Carter for less than $10 each.

 

I have since added a Robert DeNiro relic for $3.22 shipped.

A Touch Of Flag Class

One of the cards that had made my Most Wanted list was the 1956 Topps Flags of the World Tibet #52. As a Buddhist I feel a connection to Tibet and it’s nearly 1,400 years of Buddhism history.

 

I have been hunting for this card for a while, it isn’t that the price is too high (usually running around $6-10) I just am always looking for a better deal. The deal finally showed up in a 3-card lot. For $6.99 shipped I was able to pick up the Tibet flag but also the Burma flag and the Pakistan flag.

 

The cards are beautifully illustrated with the flag waving over locations or events that represent the country. For example the Burma card depicts an elephant being used for logging, which has been a tradition in Burma (now known as Myanmar). Some interesting illustrations include South Korea with a combat scene, the Philippines with Douglas McArthur and Cuba with cigar rolling. The back of the cards list some facts about the country along with pronunciations of common terms. There are also some noticeably missing cards of communist countries like East Germany, Romania and North Korea plus the Soviet Union is listed as Russia.

 

Back to the reason I purchased this lot, the Tibet flag. The Tibetan flag was designed in the early 1900s and includes quite a few components, which all have a unique meaning. While many of the flags in the set are accurate the Tibetan flag is more of a representation of the actual flag and I am willing to bet that this has to do with Tibet being an isolated nation and without access to the Google machine it was much more difficult for the artist to find complete and correct information. I have included an image of the Tibetan flag and you can see that the flag is not really orange with some blue bands, a white section and some squiggly lines.

I originally thought that the cards were minis where they are in fact larger than standard sports cards. Here is a 2013 Topps Update Mike Zunino card stacked on top of one of the 1956 Topps Flag cards. They don’t fit a binder so I have to figure the best way to display the card. Here are the backs of the cards too.

 

Box Break: 2013-14 Panini Immaculate Basketball

First I would like to thank Tracy Hackler and Panini for holding the contest, otherwise I would have never had the opportunity to open such a top-end box of cards. The box comes in a cool tin, with sleeve, and inside is a velvet-like inner pack which holds the gold colored box.

Each box contains one numbered base card and 5 numbered hits made up of autographs, patches and relics. Some of the top hits are 1/1 Logoman autograph patches, booklet cards, Insignia patches and Game-used Nameplate Nobility patches but the top of the heap, be all-get all hits are the Sneak Peek shoe relics. These Sneak Peek relics contain a large sneaker swatch  of star players like Kyrie Irving, Shaq, LeBron James and Kobe with the cards all numbered to either 1/1 or #/2 and even the cheapest cards are running a couple of hundred with most selling well over $1,000.

One thing to remember though is that these boxes are high-risk/high-reward. If you are lucky you can make out big but if you don’t have a four-leaf clover growing out of your butt you will have buyer’s remorse. Don’t get me wrong I don’t want to seem ungrateful, this was a unique experience, and I pulled cards from my two favorite teams but if I paid for the box I would have been disappointed.

 

First up is the Joakim Noah base card Gold Parallel #/10

 

A Kendrick Perkins jumbo relic #/75 from my least favorite team, the OKC Stolen Sonics

 

A Bill Sharman autograph #/99

The card has chipping along the green bottom

 

A Michael Kidd-Gilchrist Sole Of The Game shoe relic #/35

 

A Gary Payton Scorers Club autograph #/49

This card is very cool with the gold auto on black paper

 

Finally, an Alex Len Rookie Patch Autograph redemption

 

I collect Suns and Sonics so I got two cards for my collection, including the amazing Payton autograph. I also got a shoe card, just not the kind I was hoping to pull. So there you go…