Monday Question Day- Bigger Sets=Better Sets?

Would you want to see massive sets like Topps Moments & Milestones, Upper Deck 40-Man or Upper Deck Documentary again?

I did get caught up in the 2007 Topps Moments & Milestones release, which had a whopping 12,475 base cards and that isn’t counting the three parallels (Black, Red & Printing Plates). I think I learned my lesson and I keep away from those cards now, the same with High Tek. I can see the reason for these sets but as a PC collector I am fine with them not being on the calendar.

Bad Decisions Come With Consequences

Former Seattle Seahawks back-up QB Trevone Boykin has resorted to selling his personal items on Twitter to make money since his contract was terminated by the Seahawks following a domestic assault charge this past spring when he was accused of breaking the jaw of his girlfriend during a dispute. This was his fourth time being arrested since 2015 so there doesn’t seem to be any future for him in the NFL.

Boykin has made immature choices during his college years hut the Seahawks gave him a chance signing him out of college as an undrafted free agent following the 2016 NFL Draft. During the 2016 season he played in 5 games but was demoted to the practice squad for the 2017 season. 

I picked up this 2016 Leaf Metal Draft Armed & Dangerous red parallel #3/5 for $1.25 on COMC in January 2017 and I tried to flip it during the Black Friday sale but when there was no interest I added it to my shipment. A great looking card but a shitty person, a waste of $1.25 in my eyes.

The Art Gallery- 2015 Upper Deck Marvel Fleer Retro Rocket Racoon

This month’s Art Gallery is from J.D. Hill, also known as James Hill, and is Rocket Raccoon, one of my mini PCs. Hill has done quite a bit of work for Upper Deck and Breygent and his style is very reminiscent of the typical comic book art and that is what I love about this card. This card came from the 2015 Upper Deck Marvel Fleer Retro release.

I very rarely read comic books growing up and when I did they were usually Star Wars books so when it comes to Rocket Raccoon I was a late bloomer and my interest is based on the movie character. I love the character in the Guardian of the Galaxy movies, voiced by Bradley Cooper, because he is a little bad ass bastard who only cares about himself and his partner in crime Groot.

Vintage Card Of The Month: 1937 Bulgaria Sport / Sorte Nr. Manfred von Richthofen

This month’s VCoM is another Manfred von Richthofen German tobacco card from 1937. You probably are tired of seeing this exact card but trust me they are different. This card is from packs of Bulgaria Sport / Sorte Nr. 16 cigarettes.

OK, it is basically the same card over and over but think about these cards as being similar to the 1909-1911 T206 cards, they were inserted in to various cigarette packs and they each have their own brand on the back with the copy otherwise being the same. If you are wondering, there are 7 total backs and this is my fourth.

Monday Question Day- Team Logos?

Which team(s) have your favorite logo(s)? Which official team logos, past, present or future, are some of your favorites?

I have always liked the Seattle Seahawks logos over the years.

The NY Islanders too, probably because I was born on Long Island and the Islanders were the first professional sports team I ever saw. I will probably get shit for this, but I even loved the Islanders Gorton’s Fisherman logo in the mid-90s.

A couple of logos that I liked but had no connection too; LA Kings when they were purple & gold (pre-Gretzky era), original Vancouver Grizzlies and the current Minnesota Timberwolves

The greatest logo ever…The ABA’s Denver Nuggets with the old prospector. OK, not the greatest but one of the funniest.

A Killer Pacific Largent Set

In 1989 Pacific released a 110-card Steve Largent set that covered his entire life through 1989, including his childhood. The set is made up of 85 base cards and then a 25-card subset that is a 5x5 (25 cards) puzzle card.

I had no intention of picking up the set one by one because I have no LCS, there are no shows near me and the only way would be grabbing them off eBay or COMC and I didn’t feel like paying .50 cents to $1.00 per card. That was until I found a seller who was selling the set with an opening bid of .99 cents plus $5.15 shipping. The kicker is that the COA on the side of the case is signed by Largent and I have seen enough Steve Largent autographs to know that I am 100% confident this is real. 

I tossed up a bid of $4.85 and waited for the countdown. Nobody else bid and I won it for the $6.14 shipped and I am so excited. I got the cards yesterday, so I had to build the puzzle card first thing. This puzzle card is the largest card I now own and if I had a man cave I would frame it for the wall. This 110-card Pacific set nearly doubled my Steve Largent collection from 120 unique cards to 230 unique cards.

Can We Will A Company To Do A Set?

Right now, Topps is the only company making MMA cards, they own the UFC license and they have done a stellar job. But, there is more to MMA than UFC, with one competitor being Bellator MMA.

My point is, I would love to see other options for MMA cards. Ryan Bader, my favorite fighter and a PC for me, is currently with Bellator and hasn’t appeared on cardboard since he left the UFC last year.  There are other fighters jumping ship from UFC too, sure some are in the twilight of their careers, but some left because of lack of opportunity to fight higher ranked opponents, money squabbles or just looking for another option. 

While I was watching Bellator 203 this past weekend, I started to think how much I would love to see Leaf, who has released MMA sets previously, come in and get the Bellator license. Look at what Leaf had done with those early sets (2010 Leaf MMA Champions autograph above) and imagine what they could do now. If they were to put out a Leaf Metal Bellator set focused on only a base set and one or two autograph inserts they could make a killing.

Right now, former UFC fighters Ryan Bader and Rory MacDonald are the Light-Heavyweight and Welterweight Champs (respectively). The Women’s Flyweight Champion is Ilima-Lei MacFarlane, she is 8-0-0, scrappy and more charismatic than Ronda Rousey. What I am saying is that the talent is there and while the younger fighters may not be able to carry a set there are fighters like Royce Gracie and Tito Ortiz that are on the roster; plus announcer Big John McCarthy, referee Herb Dean and cutman extraordinaire Stitch Duran all work with Bellator.

Blog Bat Around: Pick Only 5

Last week Daniel from It’s Like Having My Own Card Shop blogged about what would his collection be like if he whittled it down to collecting only five players, sets or collections. A couple of people have followed suit in posting similar collection ideas and it got me thinking.

For me it seems a bit easier because I have begun to limit my collection already to keep it more focused and more interesting to me. As a collector it can be too easy to become overwhelmed, I have been there myself, so now I feel limited is what I want and what I need. Here is my selection of the five “focuses” I would keep if given a limit.

1.      Ken Griffey Jr

2.      Jay Buhner
3.      Star Wars related
4.      Manfred von Richthofen (Red Baron) / WWI related
5.      Sketch cards

While it was easier because my collection is smaller that doesn’t mean it wasn’t difficult. Gone would be my Ryan Bader collection, Steve Largent, Gary Payton and Allen Iverson. So long Edgar Martinez, Sue Bird and all my Seattle team cards. Phoenix Suns, Steve Kerr and the other University of Arizona athletes, happy trails in to the Arizona sunset. Family Guy and The Simpsons would be cancelled, and Mars Attacks would return to Mars. It was a difficult choice, but I feel good about it.

Monday Question Day- Uniform Changes?

How do you feel about major uniform changes?

There have not been many major uniform changes in the four main professional leagues lately, the most recent being the Seahawks in 2012. Many of the recent changes have fans even asking if there was really a change outside of a slight color change or different font. 

When it comes to changes I am rather conservative, but I am willing to come around to some drastic changes like the Seahawks. I am a change it all or change nothing type of guy.

Topps Big League A Money Grab? Tell Me It Cant Be True!!!

When I saw Topps Big League before it was released, I thought it was a neat idea. Sure it is another set released in an already crowded release schedule, but it was a different design than the flagship and there is a really cool Ichiro base card in the set that I want to add to my Mariners collection. 

That was before I knew about the error variation SSPPPPPSSPSPSPSP cards. WTF? There are errors that happen every year, I understand that. There have been sets that were more error than correct (looking at you Pro Set) and from time to time it is ok to have cards like reverse negative to add to the chase, which is also included in the Big League set's error list, but Topps went WAY OVERBOARD with Big League to the point of moronic variations that are neither error nor collectible to most people but intentional changes to get people to buy more product to complete the set.

Bryce Harper. The error is a different colored arm band. How the fuck is that an error? Errors are unintentional mistakes, not a designer going in and changing the color of an arm band. Anyone remember the "Sparkle" BS variations? I guess at least Topps didn't say the sparkles were errors.

Rosario and Lindor. Upside down? OK, I bet it happens but when it does the whole sheet is upside down and the image is not cropped to fit. 

Mike Trout: The people in the dugout disappeared in the error card. Really? Another stupid choice. I didn't realize that changes made in Photoshop constituted an error. But we have to consider that Topps also added George Bush and Mickey Mantle to a Derek Jeter card in 2007 so add, remove, same thing right?

Giancarlo Stanton: Pictures from two different games. How is this an error? Variation, sure…why not… Topps has turned variations in to a nightmare for a collector but not an error?



Thank you Topps, may I have another?

via GIPHY

So You Don't Have To Experiment- Restoring A Sketch Card

 Last night I played Devil’s Advocate and so you don’t have to, I retouched a damaged sketch card. The card is one of my favorite Star Wars characters Salacious Crumb, I really like a lot of the alien creatures in the series, and it was drawn by the artist Amy Pronovost.

I chose this card to retouch for two reasons, a character I like, and it was damaged. I saw a similar card last year and that is what got me thinking about doing this from my So You Don’t Have To serial. Obviously, some sort of roller went across the surface, I am guessing during sorting or pack out since it is almost the same type of smudging I saw on the other card so it has happened more than once. 

So you don’t have to, I went through and attempted to clean up the damage and reline where possible. I did not add or remove any lines, I followed (as best as possible) Amy’s original line work and only wanted to make it presentable again. In my eyes, the card has been altered (by machinery and me) and I will not let this card leave my collection. 

I will not be restoring any of Vincent van Gogh's paintings soon but the finalized card, below, is presentable as the original artist intended it to be. More work could be done on minute details, like the text at the top, but I was beginning to remove some of the original background color on the card so I stopped. 

Monday Question Day- Collecting In Cycles?

Do you ever collect your PC players in a cycle?

I work on a player or two at a time. For example, I will work on picking up Jay Buhner cards and when I whittled down my Buhner wants I will move on to Allen Iverson and then on to another player and so on.

One Ichiro!

The first year of Topps Now I picked up all of the Mariners’ cards but last year and the current season I have not added any addition on-demand cards to my collection. When I saw the Topps Living Set Ichiro card I made the decision to pick it up, and it is a great card.

Happy 4th Of July

Happy 4th of July to all and I hope that you have a wonderful and safe holiday.

Light It Up!

I believe it was this past March that I saw the Fat Pack guys highlighting an unannounced insert from the 2017-18 Upper Deck Synergy Hockey release called Color Shift. The cards change to a green-blue hue when under sunlight, otherwise the background and border are an off-white. Now I have only seen two cards change color and they were both the green-blue hue but I am not sure if all of the cards are the same color. It would be neat if they change to team colors.

I was excited to see the Islanders’ captain, John Tavares (Who is now dead to me after spurning the Islanders for Toronto), was included on the list and I was able to find one at a little over $12 shipped.

Monday Question Day- Serial Numbering Changes?

Does it bother you when a company changes up their parallel colors and serial numbering?

It drives me crazy when one year there is a color, let’s say black for this argument, that is #/25 and red is #1/1 and then a year or two later black is now #1/1 and red is #/149. I recently was adding a Pop Century set in to TCDB where most of the set had red as #/10 and gold #1/1 but in one of the inserts (in the same set) gold was #/25 and red was #1/1.