Happy New Year

Happy New Year

I hope the upcoming year brings health and happiness for you and your family.

I will end the year with a card that I got during the COMC Spring Cleaning sale. It is my third laundry tag, but first one from basketball. The X-Man has always been one of my favorites, playing for both the Suns and the Sonics, so I was excited to pick this one up.

One Step Closer

I am one card closer to completing my 2013 Topps Chrome Marhawn Lynch rainbow. Beastmode returned to Seattle and like a Festivus miracle, this red parallel #/25 card shows up in my saved search on eBay. I clicked the BIN button quicker than Santa sliding down the chimney. I overpaid for this card, but in the 3 years I have been working on this rainbow I have seen the red parallel show up twice and both times is was part of a complete rainbow for sale. I didn’t want to miss out. I am down to just needing the gold parallel.

Merry Christmas To All And Happy Hanukah

Merry Christmas to all and Happy Hanukah 

Here are the goodies that came in my 2019 Attic Krampus Part 2 pack. Three metal cards; #1 Jaime Hitchcock, #2 Lindsey Greyling and #3 Kevin P West.

The sketch card is from Jaime Hitchcock, I love this one.

I had actually forgotten, but I did have a Christmas card I could have posted, this Cameron Johnson Christmas sweater that I picked up shortly after 2019-20 Hoops Holiday was released.

Countdown 'til Christmas Krampus Style Part 2

Last year I supported the 2018 Krampus set by Attic Card on Kickstarter, this year they did a smaller set and was only a 31-day support period and I supported them again and I just received the cards. I was a little bummed because I didn’t have anything to post on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day like I have in the past. I didn’t have anything with a holiday vibe until I got my 2019 Krampus Part 2 pack.

If you aren’t up on your European folklore, Krampus is punisher of bad children. He travels around punishing bad children by some severe measures like spanking, chaining them up, eating them or tossing them in a sack. In some tales he travels with good ole Saint Nick during the Feast of St. Nicholas. Unlike Santa and his cold milk, Krampus is offered Schnapps so he has that going for him.

I will start with the 9 base cards and tomorrow you will get to see the goodies. 

Ripped Some Boxes Of 2019 Parkside Big3

I picked up an early Christmas present for myself when Parkside Cards had a sale where all their products were 50% off for 48 hours a little over a week ago. If you haven’t heard of them, they are a small card company out of California, but they have already picked up both the MLL (Major League Lacrosse), which Upper Deck had at one point, and the Big3 licenses.

I love the Big3 so when I found out I was excited and was going back and forth on buying a box, but when they had their sale, I ended up purchasing 2 boxes hoping to put together the set. After all the packs were ripped, I was 1 card short in the base set; #87 Qyntel Woods. The Big3 cards are showing up on COMC already so I will be able to pick up the missing card soon. 

The set contains 100 cards, which includes all 77 of the Big3 players, all 12 coaches plus a couple of subsets. There are 10 inserts, a relic set, and an autograph set plus 17 Rookie Buybacks. I have listed the checklists on the TCDB but I have found a couple of errors with the checklist numbering on a couple of inserts from the listing that I used so I am trying to get it all fixed.

I ended up 1 card short on the base set but got cards from 9 of the 10 inserts as well as 2 relics. The cards I wanted mostly were anything connected to Gary Payton, who is the coach of the 3 Headed Monsters, and Rashard Lewis, captain of the 3 Headed Monsters. In case you are wondering, the 3 Headed Monsters are my favorite team and I would be lying if I told you it wasn’t because of the Sonics connection.

My favorite inserts are the Nicknames and Simplicity. During some of the games players will wear nicknames jerseys, so Rashard Lewis’ jersey says “Sweet Lew” Glen Davis is “Big Baby” and so forth. I didn’t pull the Rashard Lewis Nickname card, so that goes on the Wants List.

Simplicity is self-explanatory, I just dig the cards. They are all line drawings with the player’s first name on various background colors. Again, I didn't pull Rashard Lewis.

I pulled a relic in each box, Reggie Evans and Will McDonald. The Evans card is among the top patches that I have ever pulled. So a really cool patch from a player on my favorite team, this was a winner.

Monday Question Day- End A PC?

Today is question day:

Have you ever ended a player/team collection?

The only collection that I don’t have an end point in mind would be my Griffey collection. My other PC collections (Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez, Steve Largent, Allen Iverson, Gary Payton, Ryan Bader and Sue Bird) I have a list of wants and when I complete those lists I am done with that collection baring any cool new releases.

There have been a couple of athletes over the years that I stopped collecting, like Dan Majerle, Shaun Alexander and Keith Tkachuk. Not for any real reason, just lost interest.

Toro Pride- Todd Shell

Another former Mountain View Toro that I picked up during last year's COMC’s Black Friday sale, Todd Shell.

Todd spent 4 seasons with the San Francisco 49ers but because he was a linebacker, he didn’t appear in any major releases, so this 1986 McDonald’s Play & Win game card was my only option as far as I know. Mountain View opened in 1976 but because of the high school rules at the time a new school had to play two years of a non-varsity schedule before being playoff eligible, well Todd was on the 1978 team that went undefeated and won the Arizona AAA State Title the first year the team was eligible. He played college ball at BYU before being drafted by the 49ers in 1984 and was part of the Super Bowl XIX winning team.

This is another personal connection, as a football powerhouse team in Arizona we trained year-round and during the summer of 1989 Todd was my linebackers’ coach, so I worked one on one with him often.

Buhner Book

Last February I picked up a 1988 Donruss New York Yankees Team Collection booklet that had an early Buhner card. I decided to leave the pages intact instead of cutting out the Buhner card and figured I would chase down a card that had already been cut out. Even though the cards in the guide are the exact cards that were packed out in 1988 Donruss packs people were selling the one from the Team Collection booklet for more. I ended up finding a damaged sheet on COMC that had the Buhner card, so I picked it up. The damage was along the bottom of the sheet, so the bottom row of Roberto Kelly, Rafael Santana and Steve Shields had a huge crease running along it but Buhner was in the top row, so all is good.

I have a slide paper cutter so I was able to cut along the border nicely, though I did leave a slight extra white at the bottom border so I can tell the difference at a quick glance which of the Donruss #545 came from the Team Collection booklet and which was packed out.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

I am thankful for my family, my friends and all the collectors/readers that I have met over the years.

The Art Gallery- 2010 Breygent Woodstock Rock Posters John Lennon

This month’s Art Gallery display is from Jeremy Treece, an artist out of Detroit who has done work for Upper Deck, Topps, Cryptozoic and Breygent among others. I would call his style super hero-esq because he commonly uses squared off heads that you will often see on Superman or Wolverine. 

This card is from the 2010 Breygent Woodstock Posters release, is one of their oversized sketch cards at 3x5.  The subject for this set is Woodstock-era musicians and this card is John Lennon during his hippie days and one of his most thought-provoking songs “Imagine”. There are a couple of draws for me to this card; first John Lennon was amazing and second the grunge style design, I fell in love with the style during art school and it calls to me.

Vintage Card Of The Month- 1910 T51 Murad State University Of North Dakota

This month’s Vintage Card of the Month is the State University of North Dakota football card from the 1910 T51 Murad College Series. This is the 3^rd card from the set that I have picked up, this one was part of last year's COMC Black Friday package. 

The set is made up of 150 cards plus 75 variations, so there are plenty of cards to choose from and all types of sports are depicted, though I am mostly interested in the cards showing baseball, basketball, football and hockey. The basketball cards are not as common, only four schools (Luther, Northwestern, Williams and Xavier).

This card is in rough shape, the colors are still bright, and the back is unmarked, other than the packer’s stamp, but there are some unfortunately placed scratches across the front and a chip out of the right border to go with the soft corners.

Monday Question Day- Damaging?

Today is question day:

How have you damaged your own cards?

For me, it is ding corners. The ding corner is most likely to get damaged in your collection when organizing. My ding corner is the bottom left corner of the card. When I put a card in to a penny sleeve I slide the right corner in first and over the years I ended up chipping or dinging a few left bottom corners.

Happy Birthday Kid

 Happy 50^th to the man with the sweetest swing, Ken Griffey Jr.

Monday Question Day- Display Options?

Today is question day:

Do you display your cards?

I have a small collection of cards, around 35, that I display on two sets of shelves that in a previous life were my CD storage shelves. I also have some Funko Pop! Figures and SGA pieces. Everything else is in binders or 5,000-ct boxes.

Padre, Shé And The Twins 8x10

I have made some significant additions to my Machete autograph collections. Last year I picked up three 8x10 autographs; Cheech Marin, Michele Rodriguez and the Avellan twins (Electra and Elise). Not long ago I created some custom Danny Trejo cards that I planned to send TTM but I have been procrastinating, I really need to get them sent out.

Three Race Cars In My Pocket

From about 1998 through 2010-ish I was a regular racing collector. I continued to pick up the occasional NASCAR blaster for a few more years but I only watch a race or two each season now, so I am no longer an active collector. But because racing sets include some of the coolest relics, I still will pick up a couple of cards a year.  

In last year’s COMC Black Friday order I had three NASCAR cards. A 1998 Upper Deck Road To The Cup- Winning Material Dale Jarrett piston ring/fire suit dual relic. This card was a gift for my son, he is a total gear head and loves the piston ring in a card.

A 2013 Press Pass Redline- Muscle Car Memorabilia Jeff Burton sheet metal relic

A 2009 Wheels Main Event- Stop & Go Pit Sign Scott Speed sign relic.