Outgoing Mail Day

My town has one full service post office and they only have three windows, usually only one manned, so I have a feeling if I were to walk in with this stack of outgoing mail there would be some very unhappy people waiting behind me so I decided to ship half of the stack today and the other half on Monday.

This isn’t everything, this is part eBay sales, trades and contest winners. I still have two more contest winner’s envelopes I need to get addresses for (JediJeff and Richard Nebe Jr.) plus I am waiting for some items for Jeff’s Door #3 prize.

Another Cavalcade Of Griffey Cards XI

I think one of the more unique cards to collect are test proof cards, cards that were printed out prior to the printing of the cards to be packed out to ensure everything is aligned and proper coloring. Most of the cards were destroyed, they were often incomplete so there was no reason to keep them around, but they are actually pretty easy to find.

Given they aren’t like a packed out card so some collectors may not like having them in their collection but I do. I find that having a collection that includes cards with blank backs, missing foil or text or are just cut to an odd size makes me feel like I have something different to offer with my collection.

A couple of recent pickups are from the 1999 Stadium Club Never Compromise insert set. The first card has a blank back and is missing the foil (top) while the second card is significantly oversized, blank back, no foil and with some of the printer’s codes along the bottom (Below).

Current 2000 Post Contest Update

Tom/The Angels In Order has selected the 1993 Ted Williams Buck Leonard autograph with the 1st pick

Captain Canuck has selected the Dave Prowse Darth Vader autograph with the 2nd pick.

Brett Alan has selected the 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Monte Irvin autograph with the 3rd pick.

JediJeff has selected the Door #3 gambler prize with the 4th pick.

Matt has selected the 1982 Fleer Cal Ripken Jr rookie card with the 5th pick.

I do not have Richard Nebe Jr.'s email address to let him know that he is getting the 2009-10 Panini National Treasure Mikan printing plate. If anyone has his email address or if Richard sees this, please contact me using the email address in the right column. 

The way that this draft will work is after I post the winners and the prizes the winners will be able to select which prize they would like. So, the first winner will select their prize, the second winner will select their prize from the remaining pool, winner three will select their prize from the remaining pools, winner four, five and six will continue the process. 

Now on to the winners:

First pick winner:

The Angels In Order 

Second pick winner:

Captain Canuck

Third pick winner:

Brett Alan

Fourth pick winner:

JediJeff

Fifth pick winner:

Matt from Diamond Jesters

Sixth pick winner:

Richard Nebe Jr.

The remaining prize:

2009-10 Panini National Treasures George Mikan Cyan Printing Plate

Winners Of My 2000 Post Contest

EDIT- Tom/The Angels In Order has selected the 1993 Ted Williams Buck Leonard autograph with the 1st pick

Captain Canuck has selected the Dave Prowse Darth Vader autograph with the 2nd pick.

I don't have Brett Alan's email address to contact him for the #3 pick, if anyone has it or if Brett sees this please send me an email using the link in the right column.

The prize winners have been selected and now is time for the draft. I have decided to include a total of 6 prizes, the first 4 I have already posted but I am adding a 2009-10 Panini National Treasures George Mikan Cyan Printing Plate and a “Door #3” prize, which is unknown.

The way that this draft will work is after I post the winners and the prizes the winners will be able to select which prize they would like. So, the first winner will select their prize, the second winner will select their prize from the remaining pool, winner three will select their prize from the remaining pools, winner four, five and six will continue the process. 

Now on to the winners:

First pick winner:

The Angels In Order (Sorry, I accidently called you Angels in the Outfield in the video)

Second pick winner:

Captain Canuck

Third pick winner:

Brett Alan

Fourth pick winner:

JediJeff

Fifth pick winner:

Matt from Diamond Jesters

Sixth pick winner:

Richard Nebe Jr.

The four remaining prizes:

1982 Fleer Cal Ripken Jr. rookie card

2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorite Monte Irvin

2009-10 Panini National Treasures George Mikan Cyan Printing Plate

Door #3 prize- This prize is unknown but will include at least 2 cards, may be autographs, relics, vintage, rookie cards, non-sports or other. The cards will be collectible (so no base cards, dupes or a dump of junk wax), but other than that you will have to be a gambler to find out. 

 I will reach out to each of the winners to let them know that they have won and we will then begin the draft. Once all winners have made their selection and I have gotten their address I will mail out the card in bubble mailers over the next week,

My 2,000 Post Contest Is Now Closed

Thank you all for joining my 2,000-post contest. There are 33 people who joined and I tonight I will be running the list through random.org and I will post the winners tomorrow.

The process will be the top sport on the first randomizer will select what they want from the prize pool, the first person on the second randomizer will select what they want from the remaining prizes and so on until all the prizes have been selected.

Last Day To Enter My #2000 Post Contest

My #2000 post contest ends tonight at 11:59 pm PST. If you have not posted that you are interested in taking part of the contest you can go to the original poste <HERE> and say you are interested in the comments section.


EDIT- 5:00 PM PST
We just hit 31 people signing up for the contest so here is another prize. If we get to 40 people signing up I will add another prize.

This David Prowse Darth Vader autograph is now part of the prize pool along with the 3 prizes I originally posted.

Wallet Card #6- Diamondbacks Game

Last night my daughter’s choir was part of a group of middle school choirs who sung the national anthem at the Diamondback’s game. She got in free and parents got tickets at half price (first level outfield bleachers) through the school.

The game was a barn burner of a game and ended with the Diamondbacks winning 13-11 and it seemed like everyone hit a homerun except for the one guy I wanted to see hit a homer, Giancarlo Stanton. There were 7 homeruns (3 Miami and 4 Arizona) with Miami’s Marcell Ozuna knocking two and Arizona’s Chris Iannetta also knocking two with one of those being a grand slam in the 6^th that put the D-Backs ahead 12-9. It was definitely an entertaining game that I got to enjoy with my baby girl.

Wallet card Griffey made a couple of appearances but because we were sitting in the outfield I didn't get the best pictures, here he is with Stanton at bat.

Here he is with Goldschmidt at bat

The Art Gallery- 2014 SBay Super Breaks President Gerald Ford

This month’s Art Gallery display comes from the amazing artist Jay Pangan III; who has worked with most of the major companies from Topps to Leaf, Cryptozoic and Unstoppable Cards. His work is amazing and I would say his work is up there with some of the best illustrators.

Pangan has a couple of different styles with his pencil sketches being the most common but I am a much bigger fan of his color work. The card is of President Ford and his wife Betty and is done in ink and colored pencil for the 2014 SBay Super Break release. SBay is best known for putting anything and everything in their high end boxes with some running well over $5,000 each. The sketch cards were just an extra card and was not included in the item count in each box.

I picked up the card because any time I can get a pretty cool President card for under $7 I am happy to include it in my collection.

Here It Is... Post #2,000 With A Contest!

It has taken 8 years, 3 months and 12 days but today is my 2,000th post on Pack War.

My first post was on June 6, 2009 and I started with a simple post about some ideas that I had for the blog, I honestly did not even consider the future of the blog. When I started I had been reading a couple of blogs regularly and I liked the way that collectors were interacting with each other and I wanted to be able to share my story too.

I hadn’t even realized I was this close to 2,000 posts until I was writing up a couple of Question Day posts that I save as drafts and looked over and saw I was at 1,991 published posts and I started wondering if I should just post #2,000 and not make a mention about it, just add it at the end of a regular post or should I do something special? I decided to do something, a giveaway. Nothing big but I wanted to make it special.

Here is what you need to do to be part of the giveaway:

1.      Post here by Sunday 9/24/17 at 11:59 pm PST 

That’s it

The prizes:

1982 Fleer Cal Ripken Jr. rookie card

1993 Ted Williams Buck Leonard autograph

2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Monte Irvin autograph

Awarding of the prizes:

When the contest closes on Sunday 9/24/17 at 11:59pm PST I will run the entire list through Random.org three times with the #1 person on each randomization winning a prize.

The person in the #1 position on the first randomization gets first choice

The person in the #1 position on the second randomization gets the second choice

The person in the #1 position on the third randomization gets the remaining card

Additional:

If it reaches 50 people joining I will add at least 2 additional prizes in which case I will follow the same rules with the awarding of the prizes but with two additional randomizations with the person in the #1 position on each of those randomizations being the winner of a prize.

I close with thanking everyone who has visited Pack War and read my posts. I really do appreciate it.

What Sets Have Jumped The Shark?

Forty years ago on September 20, 1977 during the 5^th season of Happy Days in the episode Hollywood: Part 3, Fonzie jumped a shark during a water skiing competition. The episode did extremely well but many years later during a discussion of television shows on the decline, some college students at the University of Michigan, including John Hein, brought up this specific episode as the one where Happy Days was no longer original and fresh.

The term “jump the shark” was born as a description of when something popular begins to no longer be popular. Typically, the expression is used for television or movie sequels but can be used in describing almost anything in pop culture, among other things collecting too. 

I know today is not a normal question day but what sets would you say jumped the shark? This isn’t limited to modern sets but any set/series/product ever made. 

I know there are more, but the only one coming to mind is 2011 Topps Triple Threads when they created manufactured relics for John Henry, Leif Ericson and Pecos Bill. Not only did that bring attention to Topps rehashing Triple Threads designs over and over but unleashed manufactured relics as a “hit” in products.

Another Cavalcade Of Griffey Cards X

Before companies took variations to the extreme you had to have a keen eye to catch the differences and in 1991 Donruss did some slight differences with the borders for the factory sets. Packed out cards had one border and factory sets had a different border, the cards were the same otherwise.

You wouldn’t think that a card that costs a quarter could cause so much frustration to a buyer. The biggest problem is that most sellers don’t notice the difference and don’t list the card as a factory set/border variation card or even worse are the sellers that just grab an image and toss it up assuming all the cards are the same.

Monday Question Day- Feedback Feedback?

Today is question day:

If you use eBay, when do you leave feedback as buyer and as seller?

A simple question today, I am just wondering what other people do in regards to feedback on eBay. As the seller I leave feedback as soon as the buyer pays and as a buyer I leave feedback after I get the item and have a chance to look at it closely.

Wow, That Is A Lot Of Art

There is a web site called Sketch Collectors.com that allows you to load up your sketch card collection for others to see. I had joined the site a while back but never added anything until recently.

I scanned in all of my cards, the fronts only, researched all of the artists and posted them all on the site. When I was done I found that I have 99 sketch cards, I never sat down to count so I figured it would be somewhere around 50 cards or so. This makes sketch cards my fourth largest PC behind Griffey, Bader & Buhner.

I haven’t purchased a sketch card in many months so I am not sure when card #100 will enter my collection but I will make sure to post the accomplishment when it happens.

Since I didn’t know I had 99 cards I wasn’t paying attention to the order that I picked up the cards but this is one of my last couple of cards, an ACEO from Buckshot. I like his style and this Joker is just badass. His official sketch cards tend to run $25 or more so I am fine with getting a personal sketch card. I am guessing this was a commission card and seeing that he has his MySpace listed I will say it was probably a decade or more ago that this card was done.

Injections In My Spine Or A Manufactured Relic, I Got Both For You Today

This morning I started another series of spinal cortisone injections and I am in a lot of pain so today is a one-card post. Each series is three rounds of injections over a five-week period, so I got one round today and will go back in two weeks and then the final round will be two weeks after that. Each round is 3-5 individual injections, today was three injections. This is my 6^th series in a little over 3 years with a spinal surgery in the summer of 2015 so this has become a part of my life that while temporarily painful gives me some relief from the spinal degeneration pain for a couple of weeks afterwards.

The card of the day

I am not a fan of most manufactured relics and I keep away from them usually but when it comes to Griffey I will often open my mind when building a collection. I picked this up in July and it is pretty cool, the card is extremely heavy because the medallion is metal and I like that so I decided to add manufactured relics to my Griffey Want List.

Another Cavalcade Of Griffey Cards IX

Normally I don’t consider buying custom cards that I can make but this one is an exception. The card is the cover of the PS4 The Show 17 game but it is a refractor so I thought it was cool. While I could make a card sized cover of the game I have never made a refractor custom card, I haven’t even tried yet, so that is how I ended up with this one in my collection. Eventually I would like to pick up one of the code cards too, I don’t play the game so if I ever come across a used code card I would be happy.

Some Buyers Leave Me With Questions Instead Of Money

A bit of a rant today.

I have cards listed on COMC and I keep up with the pricing, changing them about once a week depending on the market. I have a 2015 Contenders autograph card listed at $1.15, there is only one card cheaper. I got an offer last night of .63 cents, I countered with .85 cents, probably more than fair and considering I paid .60 cents to have it processed by COMC so I was being reasonable. The guy came back with .63 cents again.

Who they hell does that? I mean come up a penny or two but to come back with the same offer I just countered what did he expect? Needless to say I just declined it outright, I probably should have come back with $1.25 just to be an ass.

We Will Always Honor Your Memory

It has been 16 years and the world has changed greatly since 9/11/01 but one thing will never pass and that is the respectful memory of those who lost their lives that day and the families that have been affected.

The Future Of My Collection

With having quite a few medical bills (I am digging out of this hole slowly) I have cut my collecting purchases to a minimum and it has led me to re-evaluate my collection. Over the past few years I have made some changes, both large and small, and I have found that eliminating some of the things I collected made life easier. Since I began the blog in 2009 I have stopped working on set building, cut out a large portion of my non-discretionary purchases, stopped buying boxes/blasters/packs, donated a couple thousand cards and decided to set up primary and secondary collecting goals to keep my collection focused.

I think one thing that has helped greatly was that I set up a Want List in a Word document and if a card is not on that list I normally don’t purchase it. The list is fluid and does change, often, when I purchase a card or find a new card with the occasionally deduction. This list has helped me stay focused on my primary and secondary collections, which have also changed over the year.

The last few days I have been considering the future of my collection, it has been on my mind the last few months really. I had started “secret” PCs, these are personal collections I have not posted much about for whatever reason. For example, my Mariner Moose collection, I picked up a card or two here and there and before I realized it I had became a super collector purely by accident. Over the last year I had started PCing the 2013 Chrome Marshawn Lynch rainbow, Sheamus and Becky Lynch (Irish wrestlers), UFC Conor McGregor (Irish fighter), comic characters Rocket Raccoon, Ant-Man and Radioactive Man (The Simpsons guy).

I just sat down and whittled down my Want List and removed many of those secret PC collections. I will keep what I already have in binders or whatever is currently sitting in my COMC account but I removed any cards from the list that I was on the fence about. It felt good to delete card after card, shortening my list.

My primary PC is now only three athletes; Ken Griffey Jr., Jay Buhner and Ryan Bader in addition to Manfred von Richthofen and sketch cards. Vintage cards (sports and non-sports), movie/comic autographs & relics, Mariner Moose and Rocket Raccoon are all secondary and everything else on my Want List is now “only if it is real cheap” type of cards. This means Steve Largent, Steve Kerr, Randy Couture, Seattle teams and University of Arizona team cards become a third level of collecting.

My Wants List is sitting at 2,049 cards but 1,517 are my Griffey wants, 172 Buhner wants and 93 Ryan Bader wants. So out of that 2,049 total cards 1,782 cards are for my PC guys so I think I have gotten the list under control. Plus with Bader moving to Bellator MMA Topps will not be including him in any future UFC releases which helps keep my list limited to just his past cards. 

In the future, I would also like to work out some trades to clear out some of the cards I have sitting in 5,000-ct boxes. I have roughly 20,000 cards in my collection and probably 15,000 are players, teams and sets that I do not collect. I am selling what I can on eBay and I also just sent my first submission to COMC so that clears out some cards but I have plenty more to go.

Since I can not close a post this long without showing something on cardboard here you go, a recent Griffey pickup:

Vintage Card Of The Month: 1948 Topps Magic Billy The Kid

This month’s VCoM comes from one of Topps earliest oddball sets, the 1948 Topps Magic release. The 1948 set was made up of 252 cards from sports and non-sports categories and were quite unique in the fact that the card fronts were blank and you got to “develop” the card yourself in a similar fashion to Polaroid film.

After you opened your pack of Hocus Bubble Gum you took your tiny, stamp sized card and dipped it in water. You then laid the wrapper across the blank front of the card, pressed for 10 seconds and then lifted and voila the card had a picture.

This Billy the Kid card is card #7 on the category “S” checklist, which is the Figures of the Wild West portion of the set. Each category was given a letter or number designation and then the cards were numbered based upon that specific checklist. Category “A” checklist was basketball players, category “B” was football players and this ran through Category “T" for general sports athletes. You never knew who you got until you opened the pack but some of the big names in the set were Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Charles Lindberg, George Patton and this guy Billy the Kid.

These cards are very condition sensitive with many of the images fading over the years but my card is very bold and the details are very clear. I really am not a fan of mini cards and these cards are not much bigger than a US stamp but I will make an exception from time to time and this is one of those exceptions.

A One Card Simpsons Post

A one card post today, a Simpsons glow-in-the-dark card. I always enjoy adding new Simpsons cards to my collection and even better when they glow. I believe there are four different glow-in-the-dark cards in the 1993 Skybox Simpsons set and this one I picked up for under $1 plus shipping.

Monday Question Day- $$$?

Today is question day:

What is the most money you ever spent for a card?

Mine was in either late 2006 or early 2007 when I bought my White Whale 1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig #92 for just under $1,200. Sadly, this is the same White Whale that I sold earlier this year to help with medical bills.

A Custom Seven Samurai Set

One of my favorite movies is Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. The movie was made in 1954 and takes place in 1586 in a small farming village that is plagued by bandits.  The farmers meet Kambei, a ronin, and they ask him for help with the bandits and eventually agrees. He collects together a group of six other ronin and spoiler, they defeat the bandits but four of the samurai die during the ensuing battles.

Kurosawa’s is considered one of the top directors and his films are so popular that script writers and directors have emulated his success many times over the past 60+ years. If the plot seems familiar then you have probably seen The Magnificent Seven or Battle Beyond The Stars. If not, then maybe Pixar A Bug’s Life? George Lucas said he even based the original Star Wars trilogy on three of Kurosawa’s movies and there are similarities between Seven Samurai and A New Hope, seven unassuming characters (Luke, Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO and R2-D2) meet up to fight the Empire.

This set is a custom set that I found from a guy in the U.K. and in all it cost less than $10 for the set including shipping. The cards are pretty lightweight cardboard stock but I think he did a nice job with the front design and a nice write up on the card backs.