My First Booklet Kelly Slater Style

Here is a follow up over three years in the making. In 2012 Upper Deck released the 2012 Upper Deck All-Time Greats Sports Edition release that had a limited checklist of only certifiable greats like Michael Jordan, Barry Sanders, Landon Donovan, Richard Petty, Hulk Hogan, Tiger Woods and Kelly Slater.

At that time I had even posted two of the cards that drew my interest, both Kelly Slater cards, and since I wasn’t keeping a “Wants” list at the time I filed both cards away in my mental filing cabinet and needless to say forgot. When I finally set up my Top 10 Wants list I added one of the cards to the list but in all honesty I forgot about the booklet card, which was actually the card I originally wanted.

In January by chance I came across some Kelly Slater cards and ended up doing some searches and was reminded of the booklet card. I found one for a reasonable price and snatched it up. This is my first booklet card ever and it is a thing of beauty, Upper Deck did an amazing job.

To add to my Kelly Slater collection I also picked up a 2015 Sportkings Vault Single Memorabilia Kelly Slater relic. Thank you to Sportkings/Leaf for doing what should be standard with relic cards and give specifics of where the relic came from originally, the back of the card states that this piece came from a pair of shorts that he wore in 2006 while surfing the North Shore.

A Pair Of Piper Pit Pickups

 

I have been on an old-school wrestling kick targeting some of the greatest to ever put on the tights. I will cover some of the other recent pickups later but this one is pretty special. This past July when Roddy Piper passed away unexpectedly the world was left without the Hot Rod and while he appeared in many sets over the past two decades his autographs were nowhere to be seen until Leaf released 2012 Leaf Originals. He has a couple of official Leaf and Topps autographs but when Leaf released 2015 Sportkings Vault and I saw Piper had both autographs and relics in the set I went on the hunt.

I picked up  his Sportkings Vault Single Memorabilia card and his Autograph card and I was so excited to get them in my hands. If I am not mistaken I believe his only relic cards are ones that were released in the 2009 Sportkings set and the re-released 2015 Sportkings Vault set.

Happy Landings!

I ended last week on a political note so today I am going in a different direction and taking aim at a White Whale.

In the 1970s every little boy knew the name Evel Knievel, a daredevil that influenced us greatly. He started in 1966 and made his final appearance in 1981 but in between broke every bone in his body while he made jumps over Caesar’s Palace famed fountains, Snake River Canyon, buses and even sharks.

One of the most popular toys of the day was the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle set and you were a real boss if you got the BMX bike for Christmas. Even grown up kids still have fond memories of their favorite Evel Knievel toy, even making it on to an episode of My Name Is Earl. Merchandising for his products took on an entity on themselves appearing in comic books, movies, television shows, commercials, advertisements, video games, trading cards and plenty of books. He is still popular enough to be included in recent checklists for both Topps and Panini. The Simpsons spoofed him with their character Lance Murdock

Which brings me to today’s post. One of my White Whales is the 2007 Sportkings Autograph Evel Knievel #A-EK card but I don’t have hundreds of dollars to spend on one of his autograph cards so I went in a bit of a different direction and instead picked up a 5x7 autograph picture he signed in red ink, now it isn’t same as having an on-card signature but I am calling it a fair exchange. To add to my EK collection I picked up a 2015 SportKings memorabilia card with a nice swatch of leather from one of his jackets.

 

I love when something as simple as an autograph and leather swatch can bring me back to those days in the 1970s when I was a kid living in New York and me and my brothers used to shoot our Evel Knievel bikes at each other down the hallway over the red shag carpet.