Happy Halloween

A Killer Collection On Cardboard

This year for Halloween I am focusing on a collection of art cards that I found on eBay earlier this year. I don’t remember the name of the artist who made them, and it isn’t listed on the cards, but the description said that the set was designed to look like something you would find on sale at Captain Spaulding’s Museum of Monsters and Madman gift shop. 

The six-card set covers real four killers and two fictional killers.

S. Quentin Quail (AKA Dr. Satan)

Albert Fish

Ed Gein

Lizzie Borden

Texas Chainsaw Murders- The character Leatherface in the movie is based on the real Ed Gein

Jack the Ripper

What's The Matter Kid, Don't You Like Clowns?

A little Halloween love today with a metal Captain Spaulding card from the artist Chris Thorne. This is the second metal card I have from Thorne, I posted earlier this year about the Darth Maul card that he included as a freebie when I purchased this card.

The card is signed on the back with silver paint ink and he did a little skull doodle in the upper right corner with the silver paint.

True Madness

In September I posted about a seller with 0 feedback selling a GAI graded Sweet Caporal pack with a Honus Wagner card showing. The pack sold for $3000.02. Two days later he sold an ungraded sealed pack with Honus Wagner showing for $550.00 and three days after that he sold an opened Sweet Caporal pack with a Sovereign (WTF?) Honus Wagner (insinuated that it came from the pack) for $178.05. In less than a week he made almost $4,000 and I’ve been watching the guy since and he still has no feedback, which seems odd.

If you look at the original auction for the opened pack with the Honus Wagner, the description was just copied from the GAI graded pack auction but if you look at the third picture you see the back of the Wagner and at the bottom it says reprint, so a buyer spent a lot of money for an opened pack of cigarettes and a reprint card.

None of this is as bad as this seller. The guy has three Honus Wagner T-206 cards (Two Piedmont and a Polar Bear) ranging from $40k through $90k and in the description says he is selling it as a reprint but may be real. Ignore his 3 negs saying he is selling fake/reprints. 

The other that was on my radar, the 1909 T-206 Honus Wagner graded PRO 2, that sold for $1,850 on September 13^th was relisted a week later at $1,7000, then $999 and it finally sold last week with an accepted offer of $500.

Hey Moe! Knuck Knuck Knuck

This is my attempt at a 5 minute post so I decided to keep it as minimal as possible. Now the 5 minutes does not include research, which was another 6 minutes getting everything ready.

 

The cards are from the 2005 Breygent Three Stooges release and are film cells from Three Stooges clips. The smaller strip is from their silent movie’s days and the other is from their 1939 film "Yes, We Have No Bonanza"

I am pretty bummed that Breygent has since shut down, they made some of the neatest entertainment cards.

Monday Question Day- Shipping Options?

Today is question day:

You are searching for a card and find two listed, same condition, listed the same exact way and same price, but one is $7 plus $3 shipping while the other is $10 with free shipping. Which would you buy?

I would go with the one that is $7 plus shipping because I would expect the seller to send the card(s) in a bubble mailer because I paid for the shipping while I wouldn’t know what to expect from the free shipping seller. The other day on Twitter I saw a collector post a mail day where they received the card in a paper towel folded around the card with the address and stamp. Who the hell does that?

The Art Gallery- 2005 Inkworks Family Guy Season Two Chris Griffin Imagine

This month’s Art Gallery Display comes from the artist John Czop, or just Czop as he is known to many fans. For about 6-8 years Czop was probably the most famous of sketch card artists. You go back to the sets that when sketch cards first making an appearance in Topps, Fleer and Rittenhouse sets and his cards have always been the top sellers. He has not appeared in any recent sets, I think he has mainly turned towards working on comic books.

The card is from the 2005 Inkworks Family Guy Season Two release and is one of the earlier sketch cards sets. The card depicts Chris using John Lennon’s style and I love it. It is one of my more simplistic card but this one was done intentionally so there is added appeal.

Why Oh Why? Butl 1 /50

I picked up my first laundry tag off a seller on eBay the other day for a reasonable $8.99 plus shipping and received it yesterday. The card is a 2009 Panini National Treasures Rookie Colossal Prime Materials Laundry Tags Deon Butler card. I am super stoked. 

When I get a card, I inspect it for damage and sadly found some on this card and while I am bummed and considered returning it but, in the end, I decided to keep the card because the damage is only visible at an angle. 

A bungling dealer decided to write out a tag on top of the card leaving an impression on the card face. I have seen this happen quite a few times and it still surprises me that there are sellers out there that don’t think. Remember, top loaders and one-touch mags save card lives.

I highlighted the letters and number that was written across the card face. Yes Butler's name and the serial number are written upside down from each other which means the seller rotated the card to do more damage.

I won’t get in to the fact that Panini states “Game-Used” on the front, but on the back, it says the jersey was from the Rookie Premier and that it was “Event-Used”. I posted about it on Twitter and tagged Panini. I know with this card being 9-years old I am sure this discussion has been brought up before, but I am late to the game.

Monday Question Day- Outside Of Sports?

Today is question day:

Have you ever wanted, or purchased, a card of a player because of something they did outside of their specific sport?

With me it is Bob Uecker, I got a kick out of him on Mr. Belvedere and then his character on Major League is one of the best in the movie. I have always wanted his 1962 Topps RC. When I first got back in to the hobby I wanted to pick one up but never did. I find it hard to pay the price his RCs go for because I keep quoting him from Major League so I will probably just pick up his 1963 Topps, which to me is more appealing plus I can find a decent copy of his ‘63 for under $10 shipped.

Lets Face It

If there is a unique memorabilia card, I want it. The stranger it is, the more I have to have it and it doesn’t matter what sport. Most sports I will try to find one of a player or team that I like but in cases like NASCAR I will take anyone if the relic is cool.

Last year I picked up two face mask cards, both from 2003. The Koren Robinson is from the 2003 Donruss Elite Masks of Steel insert and the Marcus Trufant is from the 2003 Leaf Rookies & Stars Masks release. 

These pieces are from the Rookie Premier, so they aren’t game used, but I don’t have a problem with that. There are several Leaf face mask sets between 2001-2007 and most are rookies with the pieces coming from the premier and those that are game used, like John Elway, are significantly higher in price.

Vintage Card Of The Month: 1960 Fleer Sam Salerno

This month’s VCoM is from the 1960 Fleer Football release, but there is more too it besides being vintage. Let me introduce you to one of the most error filled cards that I have ever seen, this 1960 Fleer Sam Salerno. The comedy of errors:

Miscut- Top to bottom

Miscut- Left to right

Miscut- Diamond cut

Yellow color bomb on the front

Missing the black printing plate on the front

Wrong back

Monday Question Day- The Next Musical Release?

If Panini does another music related set, who would you want to see?

For me it would be a very easy decision, I would love to see a Red Hot Chili Peppers set. There have been four bands in my life that I influenced me in one way or another; Nirvana, Sublime, Linkin Park and RHCP and I would love to see them all immortalized on cardboard but I think that the Red Hot Chili Peppers would have the most appeal with non-sports collectors.

The Art Gallery- 2013 Cryptozoic Archer Seasons 1-4 Sterling Belcher

This month’s Art Gallery Display comes from the artist Jason Durden, thank you for the correction Greg. 

The card is from the 2013 Cryptozoic Archer Seasons 1-4 release and depicts Sterling Archer with a twist. In season 4 of Archer, Sterling has amnesia and ends up working in Bob’s Burgers restaurant with the joke being that both Archer and Bob are voiced by H. Jon Benjamin. This card shows Archer with his mustache appearing like Bob Belcher. If you haven’t seen Archer or Bob’s Burgers, you are missing two great shows.

I was able to pick up this beauty not long ago to add to the collection. The man himself, H. Jon Benjamin. The autograph is from this year's Allen & Ginter release.

So You Don't Have To Experiment #6- Flooded Cards

This month, so you don’t have to, I placed graded cards under water to see how they would fair. I placed 8 graded cards in a pail and held the cards down with rocks and left them there for a week. I cracked the cases for each card and recorded it all.

There were 2 Beckett (BGS), 5 PSA and an SGC. In the end 6 of the 8 cases protected the cards from the water while the other two, a PSA and the SGC, failed. After I finished the video I cracked the final two PSA cases and neither had water damage.

Monday Question Day- Sports Movies On Cards?

What sports movie would you like to see a trading company highlight in a set? 

We have seen Bull Durham done by STAR, Bad News Bears by Panini, Space Jam by Upper Deck and both Major League and The Sandlot by Topps over the years among others but what movie really deserves the cardboard treatment?

There are so many options and there are plenty that can carry an insert set but to keep my list limited I am going with The Longest Yard (1974), Caddyshack, Talladega Nights and Whip It!