Damaged By My Own Mistake

Is there anything worse than damaging a card yourself due to lack of attention?

 

I recently picked up a rare Griffey card, a 2003 Topps Kanebo #3 card. These cards were created by Topps and are exactly like the 2002 (Gold border) and 2003 (Green border) Topps baseball cards but the backs are in Japanese and the Topps logo was removed from the card face on the 2003 cards. They were created for and distributed by Kanebo Foods in Japan.

I have never seen the cards before and was instantly grabbed, I have an affinity for the Japanese culture, I didn’t pay a ton but it was definitely more than a base 2003 Topps Griffey card. The card was perfect when I received it but after opening the package I grabbed an armful of stuff and headed up the stairs, the card began to slide off of the top of the pile I had in my arms so I put it between my teeth without even thinking. Needless to say I realized my mistake too late and I left two teeth marks across the edge of the card. It isn’t noticeable in the scan or even when you look at the card but if you hold it at an angle you notice the slight marks on the surface. I am so bummed.

 

 

Last week I picked up a 2002 Topps Kanebo Ichiro #16 and made sure not to damage it (LOL)

 

 



A Gaggle Of Buhners

While I was hanging out with Angus the other day at the LCS we spent quite a bit of time going through 5,000-ct boxes picking up some base cards. I was looking to add to my Jay Buhner collection as well as any cool Seahawks cards and after 2 hours of searching I think we may have made it through five or six boxes, out of probably close to 100 boxes in this place. I am kicking myself over not hitting this LCS years ago but I am rectifying that now and will be going there from now on.

I ended up grabbing 21 cards total, 14 Buhner cards and 7 Seahawks, and I didn’t even spend $4.50 so that was nice. I am going to spend some time updating my Buhner want list and head back to make a bigger dent on the list. I was able to replace a couple of ghost cards and even add a 1991 Topps Jay Buhner glow back to my collection.  

A Cardsphere Meet And Trade

Following my annual Sports Cards Super Bowl/All That Is Left this past February I got an email from Angus of Dawg Day Cards regarding a Danny Shelton autograph that I pulled that he was interested in trading for. We were looking to make a PWE trade but he let me know he would be in the Valley visiting family this week so we just decided to meet up at a local card shop to make the trade.

Angus is a great guy and he put together a superb trade package for me made up of all my favorites. He hit the all-important Ken Griffey Jr needs, with some awesome Canadian versions too, some University of Arizona products and to top it all off a 1979 Police Seattle Seahawks team set. We met before the shop opened and just talked for awhile and when the shop opened we spent a couple more hours just going through dime and quarter boxes before I had to head home for the kids but I really had a ton of fun. Meeting other collectors from the cardsphere is always a great experience.

Here is a nice selection of cards included in the trade from Angus.

Starting with the Griffey cards:

1990 Fleer “Printed In Canada” version #513

 

1991 O-Pee-Chee #392 All-Star

 

1995 Score Gold Rush parallel #437

 

1996 Collectors Choice #100 Promo

 

A group of Former University of Arizona players plus an Arizona Cardinal (Alex Okafor) autograph

 

The 1979 Police Seattle Seahawks Team Set. The cards are slightly larger than a standard base card and there are 16 cards on the checklist. On the back of each card is a football term along with some words of wisdom.

 

 

With the top 2 cards being Jim Zorn and Steve Largent

Calling All Ruth Collectors

If you are interested in owning a piece of Babe Ruth history and have around $1 million in disposable cash you are in luck. The catcher’s mitt dates back to 1912 when Ruth was playing catcher for his high school, St. Mary’s High School in Baltimore in 1912. He gave the glove to a kid who’s family has held on to the glove for over 100 years. In 1993 they loaned it to the Babe Ruth Museum where it has been on display for the past 23 years but the family has now decided it is time to sell the glove.

According to TMZ Sports the auction is being run by Goldin Auctions on April 30^th in New York City, the opening bid is $125,000 but is expected to top the $1 million mark easily.

There are some collectibles that I am ok with companies purchasing and cutting up to include as relics in cards. Anything modern is fine as long as it is not a milestone item, most items dating back in to the early 1900s is also ok within reason but once we start talking about a one-of-a-kind item like this mitt or Joe Jackson’s Black Betsy, these items need to remain complete and in a collection, even a museum is possible. I am really hoping this card goes to a collector or a museum and not in to the hands of card company.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

 

I hope you all are enjoying this time with your family and friends.

Returning From Vacation Mode

I just got back from an amazing trip, my girlfriend (who I have known since we were 12 years old and has been a huge supporter helping me heal from my divorce last year) asked me where I would like to go and I told her I miss the ocean ever since I left Seattle in 2008 I have not smelled the fresh salty ocean air so she set up a surprise trip to Fort Bragg, California, a small sea-side town about 3 hours north of San Francisco.

The town is a typical tourist town, though at this time of year it is virtually empty, so we were able to travel around and explore without throngs of people fighting at every step. We started with a brisk walk to the Pomo Bluffs and the view was amazing. It stormed most of Monday so the ocean was quite turbulent and waves were running about 8-10 feet high. After dinner we headed back to the Pomo Bluffs to watch the sun set as another storm cell moved in.

 

Tuesday she hit me with another surprise, a trip on the Skunk Train in to the redwood forest. When it comes to trains I am like Sheldon Cooper, I get quite excited. This was only my second train ride and I could not have asked for more beautiful scenery.

 

After the train ride we took time walking around the town and after dinner we headed out to Glass Beach to watch the sun set. There were plenty of clouds and it was insanely windy but it made for another stunning sunset. When the sun dropped below the horizon the sky looked like a pastel drawing.

 

The Seahawks South Of The Border

One of the cards that I have been hunting is the 1977 Topps Mexican Steve Largent card, it is actually on my White Whales list. In 1977 Topps was attempting to extend their football line beyond the border and released a set in Mexico that was exactly like the set released in the U.S. except in Spanish. The above left card is the base version and the above right card is the Mexican release.

The packs only contained 2 cards and a stick of gum, which means a good portion of the cards out there have some sort of gum stain (as mine does on the front) so these are very condition sensitive cards. Many of the cards are rather cheap outside of the top players like Bradshaw, OJ Simpson and Steve Largent’s rookie card.

While my search for a reasonable priced Largent RC from the Mexican set has been unfulfilled I have happily added another Seahawks rookie, Jim Zorn, from the set to my collection.

Jim Zorn is not as popular as Steve Largent but he was the Seahawks first quarterback and was the starting QB for 9 seasons before being replaced by Dave Krieg in 1984. After retiring in 1987 he coached a couple of years in college before moving to the NFL where he has been a QB coach for 5 teams plus two disastrous seasons as the Washington Redskins head coach.

The 1977 Topps Mexican football cards are not always apparent at first considering that some of the team names and positions are the same in English and Spanish but when you flip the card over it is all in Spanish. I also noticed that the Mexican card is a flimsier cardboard, almost a sticker like cardboard stock, but the ink is brighter.

The Art Gallery: 2015 Island Dreams Dark Side Of The Island Zombies

This month’s Art Gallery display comes from Dan Gorman a graphic artist who has worked in the comic industry for a while and has sketch cards included in many of the major releases like Topps, Upper Deck, Rittenhouse, Cryptozoic, Leaf and a number of smaller card companies too.   

This specific card is from 2015 Island Dreams Dark Side Of The Island and is a group of zombies emerging from the water. This is part of my recent zombie phase that I have been in and I knew I had to have it.

I am a big fan of the Island Dreams sets, each year the set is based on a theme and the sketch artists are allowed to freely interpret the theme themselves. In 2015 the theme was "Dark Side Of the Island" so there were plenty of monsters, voodoo, witch doctors, etc. The 2016 theme is "Girls of the Island" so expect lots of girls in bikinis, some sketch card subject matter that you will find on previous Island Dreams sketch cards include pirates, sea creatures, super heroes, surfers and a special theme last year was "Prohibition Pretties". They have even included treasure cards which contain a coin from a sunken treasure find.

Some day I have been working on some sketch cards hoping to better my talent, I would like to submit some portfolio pieces in hopes of becoming an artist for one of their future sets.