Crikey Ink

I have talked about Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, on here before. When Dart released a set based on him in 2002, I picked a box and I was fortunate enough to pull the Danger-Ware relic cards for both Steve and Terri Irwin. I have always wanted to add their autographs to my collection but Steve’s autograph from the set is often in the $750-1,000 range and Terri’s auto can be found in the $55-60 range. Not bad, but more than I wanted to spend for an autograph.

I was fortunate enough to find one that was being offered for $38 BIN/BO because there is a crease in the card. We worked out a deal that we were both happy with. The crease isn’t bad, it isn’t even visible in the scan, but you can see it in hand if you are looking for it. This was a case where I am happy just to have the card, the condition is secondary.

Science Guy Signature

Sometimes you never know what you are going to come across online. I never knew Bill Nye had an autograph card in the 2009 Rittenhouse Stargate release, but now the Science Guy is in my collection.

This is my second autograph from the 2009 Stargate set, the other one is Danny Trejo, which I posted about a couple of years ago. 

Bump It 8x10

I picked up the most unusual item awhile back and it sat in my closet until recently when I was looking for some 8x10s I had stored. It is a Fist Bump and Kiss Bump 8x10 autograph. 

Ashlee Evans-Smith is a character, she is part punker and part Conor McGregor and she makes some very interesting Twitter posts that are always fun.  

Topps has released fist bump cards in both MMA and WWE, but they are always expensive, so I went a different route. This was a custom piece that the guy had made to bring to one of the MMA conventions, he has other fighters too but most I didn’t know. I am disappointed that the background is pixelated, but it is a cool discussion piece and will display nicely with the autographed MMA fighting gloves that I have. Now if I just had a man cave where I could display my collection.

A Cool Find While Organizing

Last night turned out to be productive for me. I made it about 1/3 of the way through my non-sports collection and that includes organizing three sets and listing my needs to complete the sets. I was able to get themes together (Simpsons, Star Wars, etc.) in one box and separated so when I collate those sets it is all together instead of me having to go through a bunch of different boxes and binders.

The best thing to happen was when I was collating the 1994 Cardz The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy cards. I bought the box a couple of years ago, ripped the pack and then put all the cards back in to the box. Last night as I was separating the cards I found out I had pulled a Douglas Adams autograph and didn’t even notice it because he signed the back of the cards, not the fronts. I posted about it on Twitter last night, this is easily one of my favorite found treasures ever.

The downside is that I was 4 cards short of a complete set and as insane as it is, one of the cards I am missing is #42 which is just a large 42 on the front. The card should have been a box topper in each box. In the book, and later movie, the number 42 is the answer to the meaning of life. It took the supercomputer Deep Thought 7.5 million years to determine that answer and this card should never be missing from a box. It is like opening a box of 2017 Upper Deck Clerks and not finding card #37, it just shouldn't happen. LOL

Blog Bat Around- All Autograph Team

This is my first time taking part in a Blog Bat Around and sadly, the one I decide to begin with I can not even complete. But, I have told myself each time I see one go around that I should join and I don’t so no more excuses.

Zippy got it started with an all-autograph team and I don’t have many options and as you can figure they are all Mariners too. I have autographs in other sports, but baseball is limited. I had a Randy Johnson autograph but I had sold it so I won’t count him on the team.

Catcher: Mike Zunino

First Base/DH: Edgar Martinez

Outfielders: Joe DiMaggio, Ken Griffey Jr. and Jay Buhner

Starting Pitchers: Amanda Whurlitzer (Bad News Bears)

Mascot: Mariner Moose

Forget The CPR, This Card Is Dead

I have a small Rashard Lewis collection and I am hoping to eventually complete a trilogy and add an autograph and I keep an eye out COMC and found this 2012-13 Panini Brilliance Marks of Brilliance autograph card. 

I am going to go out on a limb and say this card will never be fulfilled. This August it will be 5 years since the card was redeemed by COMC so I am willing to bet that Panini has just given up on ever producing the card. What is baffling being that 99% of the set is sticker autographs so I don’t know what the problem is here considering that Panini has include Lewis’ sticker-graphs in sets that have been released since 2012.

When purchasing a card being redeemed by COMC you are not sent the redemption card, they hold on to it. Only when they receive the redeemed card do they send it to you.  So basically, this redemption is in card limbo. 

Tatum O'Neal Is My Celebrity Crush

My first celebrity crush was Tatum O’Neal. The Bad News Bears came out in 1976, but I didn’t see it until I was around 7 or 8 years old (1979-80) but from that moment on I was sweet on her.

When Panini did the Bad News Bears cards for the 2013 Golden Age release I was hoping to come across one of her autographs but those are the most expensive of the Bad News Bears autographs. I started to look at other options, Panini included her autographs in their 2014 Golden Age and Leaf included her autographs in their 2015 Pop Century release and these run cheaper than the Bad News Bears auto so I picked up her 2015 Pop Century Star Power Metal Blue autograph last year.

I still hope to pick up her Bad News Bears autograph someday but I am very happy for now. It would have been cool if Panini did a variation for those cards where the actors signed as their characters, I think it would be neat to have an Amanda Whurlitzer autograph in my collection. 

Ack! Ack! Ack!

I kind of splurged a bit around my birthday last year and completed the autograph checklist from the 2013 Topps Mars Attacks! release. I was missing just the Frank Welker autograph, he did the voice for all of the Martians in the movie, really he just said “Ack Ack”.

The Welker signature has been united with the other movie autographs of Willie Garson, Brian Haley, O-Lan Jones and Pam Grier in a 9-card pocket page plus my two woodcut cards from the Mars Attacks! Occupation release.

Another Round Of Halloween Christmas Cards

A new addition to my Nightmare Before Christmas collection, a Chris Saranndon autograph. Saranndon, or Sarandon depending on who is writing about him, was the voice of Jack Skellington so this was a big find. In another cult favorite, The Princess Bride, he played the villainous Prince Humperdinck.

The 2001 NECA The Nightmare Before Christmas release included a couple of autographs. I have the Glenn Shadix autograph card. Shadix voiced the Mayor of Halloween Town and is probably best known for playing Ortho in Beetlejuice.

I believe there are two more autographs in the set but they are Tim Burton and Danny Elfman so I have no expectations of every being able to afford either card so I am satisfied with my Nightmare collection as it is.

A Big Find For My Machete Collection

I enjoy Danny Trejo’s work and Machete and Machete Kills are two of my top films. My collection includes the 2013 Chop Shop Machete set and some of the promo cards, a Machete film poster, a mini autographed Machete Kills film poster and I have an 8x10 autograph of Cheech Marin and an 8x10 autograph of the Avellan twins. I felt that all that I am missing from the movies are a Michelle Rodriguez autograph (I am waiting to find an 8x10 where she signs with “Shé”) and Lindsay Lohan’s Geekroom autograph card.

I have finally picked up the Lindsay Lohan autograph. The Lohan autograph cards were issued encased by Beckett and you will usually find them posted in the $100-200 range, though they normally sit at that price before eventually selling in the $70-90 range. I was fortunate enough to find one of the Sister Booth cards that someone broke out of the Beckett case and the seller had it up for $29.99/OBO, I offered $25 and it was accepted plus free shipping.

Buhner-graph

I don’t have many autographs in my Buhner collection, that really aren’t many to choose from because his career ended before autographs became common on checklists, so when I pick one up it is pretty big for me. The only card I purchased through eBay during the Black Friday weekend was a 2013 Panini Hometown Heroes autograph. This is only my second Buhner autograph so I am excited and it is on-card too.

When The Signer Says "Fake" It Is Fake

Last night I came across a tweet regarding a Damian Lilliard autographed photo on eBay, here is the auction link. What made this an interesting tweet is that it was being retweeted by Damian Lillard who said that, even though it was verified authentic by Beckett, the signature is a fake signature. When compared to other authenticated Lillard autographs it is very obvious that the one up for auction is not real.

TTM Requests Out But Not Forgotten

I have had some luck with TTM requests and I usually have custom cards in the works in case I decide to send out some requests. Last fall I sent out two packages but since I have moved and my ex-girlfriend sold her house and moved two weeks ago, I put in a change of address and she put in a change of address so I still have hope that if the cards were signed that the return packages will make it to me or her but it has been over 6 months so I am feeling a bit deflated.

I created cards for Kurt Russell and Sam J Jones. Kurt Russell is one of those easy to love actors who has made such a variety of movies that everyone can enjoy something that he has done. What a lot of people do not know is that Russell actually played minor league baseball in the California Angels organization. He made it to AA but he had started acting as a kid and ended up turning to Hollywood and gave up baseball, though he did return to play for his father's Portland Mavericks minor league team. He has no official cards but Dave Stewart (a disabled Vietnam vet) created a set with proceeds going to the Disabled American Veterans fund that depicts Kurt in his El Paso Sun Kings uniform, a card I do have in my collection. After watching the Battered Bastards of Baseball documentary about Kurt and his father I decided to make a card for Kurt with the Mavericks.

I used the 1977 Topps baseball design, which was Kurt's final year playing baseball. It was difficult finding any images of Kurt with the Mavericks and what I did find was in sepia tone so I ended up colorizing the image. The entire image was the color of the people in the background, so everything else was touched up by me. The problem with colorizing a sepia image is that colors don't come out natural. Using a black and white image would have been easier but I liked this shot so I worked with what I have. I used Mark Fidrych's back as the template and used Russell's actual stats and created the cartoon based on Kurt Russell's portrayal of a jungle boy on Gilligan's Island. I used matte photo paper when I printed the front and cardboard stock when printing the back. I sent five copies of the card asking that Kurt sign two and return them using the SASE and keep the other 3 for his friends/family.

Sam J Jones played Flash Gordon in the 1980 film and without going in to it I have a sentimental connection to the movie and I do have a small Flash Gordon collection. In the movie Flash is the NY Jets QB and gets abducted by Zarkov and ends up on Mongo where he leads a rebellion against the dictator Ming the Merciless. Jones does not appear in the movie wearing the Jets uniform but as part of the advertising blitz this image was released. There have been a couple of people that have used this image to create cards but I wanted to create my own for a TTM request.

I used the 1980 Topps football design and with the help of a reader, thank you Greg, I was able to get a detailed scan of the back of the actual NY Jets QB Richard Todd. I changed up the personal bio information using Sam J Jones info but I kept Todd's stats. Like Russell cards I used matte photo paper for the front and cardboard stock for the back and again I sent 5 cards asking two to be signed and returned and to keep the other 3 for friends/family.

If they do eventually make their way back to me I plan on keeping one signed copy of each and doing a contest for the other autographed copy of each card. I currently have two cards designed for one of my favorite actors as well as a series I am designing for a movie trilogy that I will be sending out soon.

Can Hit Roberto Duran, Can't Hit A Sticker

On Friday I wrote about the bleeding Leaf cards and while doing research for the post I came across this 2013 Leaf Sports Heroes Tommy The Hitman Hearns printing plate with a sticker auto that does not contain his entire signature. I looked in to his other Leaf autograph cards and half of the currently listed cards are as bad and those that aren’t as bad still have part of his signature missing.

I consider this a damaged product because the signature is not complete. It effects the appearance of the card and we already lost most on-card autographs should we be forced to accept sticker autographs with part of the signature missing?

I read a couple of blogs that cover Japanese cards and I have noticed that many of the sets that include autographs are signed on oversized stickers to accommodate Kanji characters. I would rather have a complete signature on a larger sticker than a cut off autograph on a small sticker, well I would rather have an on-card autograph but that is a given. 

I May Bleed For My Cards (I Don't Really) But I Don't Want My Cards Bleeding For Me

Have you ever seen a card or set that was just a mess and wondered why the company decided to continue with a similar follow up? Sure they get an “A” for effort and a bonus point for committing to something but occasionally you need to just call it a failure and move along.

Now this could be a description of a number of sets but today I am just talking about Leaf’s Trinity printing plate inscriptions released between 2013-2015. I came across a couple of bleeding signatures on COMC and started checking out eBay to see if this was just an isolated case but it appears to have happened often enough over three years that it is easy to find them.  

I did notice that most of the ones with the bleeding ink are on the Black or Yellow printing plates so the issue appears to be a mixture of the pen ink and printers ink for those plates. 

A perfect example showing the issue is obviously not something effecting the entire run are these 2014 Leaf Trinity Dalton Pompey where the Black plate his signature is bled away while the Magenta plate looks as if he just signed it.