Some Additions From The Great War

One of my non-sports PC collections is World War I and my cards have made many appearances on my blog, mainly my Manfred von Richthofen vintage collection. Over the years I have added some very cool cards to my collection like an engineer’s uniform relic, a machine gun unit’s blanket relic, two different signal flag relics, sketch cards and a Ghosts of WWI 3D card by Upper Deck.

My latest two pickups are welcome additions to my collection and are both from 2014 releases. The first is the 2014 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Museum Collection German field uniform relic. These cards are amazing, they are thick and very heavy duty and the relic is quite large in comparison to regular relic hits.

I got this card at a discount because the edges on both the front and back are chipped badly but I don’t care, I don’t buy cards to be graded. 

The second card is from Cult Stuff, a British card company, and is from the Cult Stuff 1914 release. The set was released in 2014 as part of a respectful celebration of the centennial of the beginning of the Great War. The set was made up of a base set, some inserts, relic cards and sketch cards. This is a clipping relic card from The War Illustrated magazine, which was printed between 1914 and 1919, to keep people in England up to date on what was happening on the battlefields in Europe. This clipping is a picture of German soldiers setting up telegraph lines and it is damaged along the bottom left corner but when you consider this clipping is close to 100 years old I will let it slide.

The clipping is not inside the card or attached to the card, it is being held in place using postage stamp mounts on the four corners. I would have preferred a die-cut window placed in the card and the clipping beneath the window or at least some sort of acetate or plastic over it. I have the card in a penny sleeve in a binder so I feel it is safe where it is for now.

A Monster Attack

Last year I was able to track down a very reasonably priced 2014 Goodwin Champions Ghosts of WWI Monsters 3D card. I am a huge fan of lenticular cards and I just love what Upper Deck has done with them and I have been chasing a couple more of the cards with some luck. I have since added The Grim Reaper and Zombies with the Leprechaun and Headless Horsemen my next target cards.

One of the things that makes me laugh is the back stats; we find out that The Grim Reaper is 7’6” and weighs 310 pounds and we know that the zombies have 631,964 wins vs opponents.

The Video Game Card Connection

These are some very cool pickups of Sid Meier from the 2015 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions release.

One of my vices is getting some quiet time and playing video games. I am a big fan of RPG and Strategy/Tactics games; I enjoy the thought process that goes in to building up a character or leading a nation. Sid Meier is the master of strategy games going back to the origination of PC games when he founded MicroProse in 1982.

I have a nice collection of his games on my PC and iPad because they are great to just sit down and build a world when you need a one-hour break. Some of his biggest games that I love are Pirates, Ace Patrol and Railroad Tycoon but his big hit is the Civilization series. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI came out in October but the previous release Civilization V and its expansions have sold 8 million units and the series total is 33 million units sold over 25 years which puts it in to the Top 25 video game franchises ever.

Odd as it is I only need his #62 base card to complete the main portion of his cards, there are two limited minis (Leather mini #/15 and Gold Rainbow mini #1/1) and printing platers but I only plan on picking up the base with my next COMC order. Here is what I have so far:

Base design:

Canvas mini

Cloth mini Lady Luck back #25/50

Base shirt relic

Premium patch relic #10/15

Base autograph

Inscribed autograph #3/10

Goudey inserts

Base

Base shirt relic

Premium floppy disc relic #37/50

Initially all I wanted to pick up was the Inscribed Autograph card and the Premium floppy disc relic but the rest sort of fell in to place. What is cool is that the image that Upper Deck used of Meier shows him wearing the shirt that most likely was used for the relic and patch. The shirt he is wearing on the card shows the older Firaxis logo, the current logo is bolder and has thicker lines that resembles a hurricane, and the patch that I have would be from the bottom left corner as the circle starts to swoop upwards.

A Quick Peek At 2014 Goodwin Champions

In 2009 Upper Deck introduced their new Goodwin Champions Baseball set. The product was designed around the 1888 Goodwin Champions baseball set and while the product was a baseball set it contained some interesting additions like the popular Entomology cards (who doesn’t love bugs?) as well as Landmarks (cards containing pieces of well-known landmarks like a piece of the Golden Gate Bridge and sand from Omaha Beach) and DNA Hair Cut cards of famous Thoroughbred horses.

 

In 2010 Upper Deck lost their MLB license and a 2010 set was not released. The 2011 release went through growing pains as the product changed from a sports product to a historical/oddities type product. By the time that the 2012 release hit the shelves Upper Deck had complete the transition to a mixture of historical, sports and interesting elements. There were hand-painted art cards, museum collection pieces, manufactured patches and even pieces of meteorites. The theme for 2012 was the Civil War. The 2013 set followed suit with a Wild West theme and now in 2014 it will be World War I, one my favorite historical era.

 

This year there will be some big named athletes on the checklist like Tony Gwynn, Ken Griffey Jr, Lindsey Vonn and Joe Montana. There will be base cards, minis, parallels, relics and autographs. That is just the meat and potatoes of what to expect. There are plenty of side-dishes for collectors of all sorts.

 

There will be Origin of Species manufactured patches, Monster 3D cards, Art of the Ages painted cards and World War I Museum Collection cards.

 

I have been a fan of the Goodwin Champion releases, going back to the original baseball sets. Upper Deck took a tough punch when they lost their baseball license but they have done what they can with what they have. I know that there are plenty of collectors who are not big fans of non-sports cards in what originally was a sports card release but what they may not realize is that many of these old sets from the late 1800s were actually mixed releases.

 

Think about it this way, when the product comes out July 2^nd each box will run around $75 and you will pull 3 hits (auto, relic, manufactured patch, Museum Collection or painted cards), 10 mini cards and a fun break. According to Upper Deck’s Chris Carlin the autographs are all live there will not be any redemptions, a nice addition.

 

I look forward to the release, hopefully I can open a box this year.

A Look At The 2013 Goodwin Champions Museum Collection

With the release of Upper Deck’s 2013 Goodwin Champions many people turn their attention to the cool inserts that UD includes in the Museum Collection relics insert. Last year the Museum Collection theme was the Civil War, this year it is the Wild West and next year the theme is World War I (UD already has my attention).

 

Some of the Museum Collection relics have been inserted in to packs including a piece of a Money Bag, a Gambler’s Vest and Chuck-A-Luck Layout (a dice game). Currently there are roughly 20 auctions for these packed out relics and reasonable prices seem to be ranging around $30-40 each.

 

The larger relic cards are through redemption and according to Upper Deck’s blog these oversized cards are nearing completion and should be ready to ship soon. Many of the relics focus on the gambling aspect that was common in the towns of the old west but there are other relics like an arrowhead, pay dirt gold, wood from a stagecoach and a railcar, a rail spike, a calendar and a piece from Buffalo Bill’s chair.

 

 

Upper Deck Is Bringing The Masters To 2013 Goodwin Champions

Upper Deck is finishing up the final touches for the release of 2013 Goodwin Champions next month and as pieces are coming together they are posting up preview images. One of the hits in the release will be the hand painted “Art of the Ages” cards, a modern artist’s rendition of works from the masters like Leonardo Da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet on a 2 ½ x 3 ½ card sized canvas.

 

I minored in Fine Art while earning my Graphic Design degree and this is now one of my favorite Upper Deck inserts, I am glad that they decided to take a step away from the norm and go with something unexpected.

 

There will be around 300 “Art Of The Ages” cards, each a one of one card. A checklist has not been released so I do not know who the participating artists are or which masterpieces will be included.  With Vincent van Gogh’s “Self Portrait With A Straw Hat” being included in the preview images I am hoping to see at least one of his three “Nights” paintings, I am also hoping to see Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” and anything from Umberto Boccioni during his Futurism period.