One Card Post- Steve Kerr Vs. Gary Payton

This Steve Kerr-Gary Payton 2009-10 Upper Deck Dual Materials relic card has been a gray whale of mine for a number of years that I finally picked up. The card has two of my favorite guards to ever play the game and both Kerr and Payton are mini-PCs for me so a double win.

Well That's Just Odd

I came across the most unique issue the other day while scanning in cards to add to TCDB, my 2011 ITG Griffey memorabilia card would not scan properly. It is the strangest thing, but when the card scans one of the bottom corners comes out disproportionately no matter where on my scanner bed the card sat.

The card is a standard relic card, so it isn’t thicker or shaped any differently than other relic cards, and I have scanned at least one hundred cards over the last few days and this is the only one that has this result. I added the red stroke so you can see where the card edges should be located.

Do Or Do Not, There Is Not Try, Babe Ruth Immortals?

This month Leaf will be releasing 2017 Leaf Babe Ruth Immortal Collection set but unlike last year’s Leaf Babe Ruth Collection this set is a high-end product that will include 6 cards per box; 2 Babe Ruth bat relics (one NY and one Boston), 2 Yankee Stadium Seat relics and 2 base cards. Additionally, there is a chance of pulling a bat barrel, bat knob or cut signature card too. There are only 175 cases released (10 boxes per case) and the boxes will run $160 each and are due out the end of this month. 

I, well my wife (now ex), pulled a Babe Ruth bat card out of 2001 SP Legendary Cuts so even if I had the $160 to spend I don't think I would buy a box since I already have a Ruth bat card. Sadly I think this is just going to flood the Ruth bat relic market and cards from this set will be significantly cheaper than Ruth bats from other sets.

On the BO Forum people have been going back and forth about the product with it being pretty much 50-50 with people supporting the product versus people against the product. The biggest argument being that those who are against the release of the product don’t like the idea of Babe Ruth bats being cut up.

Where do you stand?

They See Me Rolling

Growing up I remember skating with friends, me with my ugly ass old school wood long board and they with their new, light-weight skateboards with tricked out decks, trucks and wheels and the boards loaded up with bad-ass stickers from guys like Tony Alva and companies like Santa Cruz. We would watch videos of Tony Hawk, who was just a few years older than us, and try to replicate everything he did usually ending up more humorous than awesome.

 

I have grown up and no longer skate, but my son has carried on the tradition, but that doesn’t mean that I have forgotten those days. I have had a short list of Tony Hawk cards that I have been watching, mainly relics, and when this 2004 Donruss card showed up I had to have it. I may have paid a little more than I should have but this card rarely shows up any more so I am good with paying what I did.

The Zombie Apocalypse

When The Walking Dead started in 2010 I watched the first couple of episodes and then I kind of forgot about it. By the time the second season came around I wasn’t in a zombie mood and wrote the show off.

Earlier this year I pulled it up on Netflix and decided to binge watch and I have since been hooked. I am starting Season 4 and one night I began looking at the cards for the show and came across some very cool ones. I am a big fan of the shadowbox cards so I went for the one with the walker eating a deer leg. With the relic card I wanted one that showed some sort of staining and I wanted it to be from a specific walker, not one of the generic “Walker Horde” cards.

A Cavalcade Of Griffey Cards VI

Today I decided to go with a bit of mystery. The card is from the 2000 Just 2K Mystery Gamers. These cards from Just 2K were a bit of an oddity, relics cards like this one were inserted in to packs but you didn't know who they were from until you read the hints on the back. This one was pretty easy to figure out... Gee the #1 pick in the 1987 MLB Draft out of Moeller High School and playing for the Mariners? Eazy peezy but there were a couple that you had to do some real research in to figuring out who was the player.

Even though it is listed as a "Mystery", Just 2K did state that the card was used by the Griffey in a game during the 1989 season, making it more credible than the "Guarantee" included on relic cards today.

Another Griffey Milestone

I hit another milestone with my Griffey collection when I got unique card #700, I am actually at card #725 following a generous package from Ryan of This Card Is Cool (more on that later), but this card is one that has been a grey whale for me and when I realized I was getting close to card #700 I finally picked it up.

The card is from 2009 Upper Deck Baseball release and celebrates Griffey’s 600^th homerun on June 9, 2008 against the Marlins. The bat piece is not from the bat that he used to hit #600 but it is a nice sized chip from a game used bat.

May The Fo(rce)urth Be With You V

Arrived has it...

 

 

Today is the unofficial National Star Wars Day, May 4. In honor of this day I offer a trilogy of Star Wars relics that I have picked up over the past few months, all from Episode VI Return of the Jedi.

 

The first two cards are from the 2013 Topps Jedi Legacy release. The relics are an Ewok’s fur and part of Jabba’s Sail Barge sail.

There are three different relics in the release, the third being Chewbacca’s fur but those are still well outside of my comfort range in price. Each of the three relics have multiple character versions with some selling for more than other, for example the Slave Leia Jabba Sail card sells for more than the rest just like the Wicket Ewok Fur sells for more than the other Ewoks and so on.

The third relic is from this year’s very cool 2015 Topps Star Wars Masterwork release, a Scout Trooper Shield Bunker Panel. Like the other relics there are multiple characters and two different sections of the structure are used; Inner Panel and Frame. The main character cards run higher in price and I have seen a couple of cards with screw holes that sold at a premium.

 

 

Happy Star Wars Day and May the Fo(rce)urth be with you!

Some Pickups For My Farscape Collection

This post is an amalgamation of multiple write ups that I started but never completed over the past few months. I figured it would be easier to keep it organized as one universal post that covers all of my Farscape additions.

The most recent Farscape pickup is an on-card autograph of Gigi Edgley, who plays my second favorite character Chiana. The card is from the Season 3 release, specifically the Losing Time episode. In the episode two energy creatures enter Moya, the ship, and one of the creatures takes over Chiana. At one point there is a small energy burst, which is where this scene comes from.

 

The character Chiana was actually supposed to die in the first season but the producers felt that Gigi Edgley worked so well with the actors and crew that they decided to keep her on full time as a primary character and re-wrote the episode (Durka Returns) so she didn’t die. With her character being a main character her autographs and relics were also includes in each of the releases but like Virginia Hey’s character Zhaan they cost more than the fringe and support actor’s cards. Here autographs usually run around $25 and her relics around $8-10. I picked up this IP autograph from a very reputable dealer for a little over $10 so I got a nice deal. Personally I like some of the aftermarket autographs when compared to the autographs in to packs.

Sticking with Chiana, I finally found one of her costume cards for a reasonable price ($8.95 shipped). I was able to add #CC9 from 2001 Rittenhouse Farscape Season 2 release to my growing Farscape collection. She still has three more costume cards I am looking to eventually add.

Also finally making it in to my Farscape collection is a Wayne Pygram  cards, an IP autograph from the same dealer that I bought the Gigi Edgley autograph from plus two Scorpius relics, the Scorpius variant Harvey relic card and the base Scorpius relic. The Harvey character came about after a chip was inserted in to John’s brain while he was in the Aurora Chair. After the chip was inserted John would hallucinate and see images of Scorpius, when he figured they were just hallucinations he called the character Harvey after the invisible rabbit in the James Stewart movie of the same name. The character often showed up wearing this shirt, among other odd costumes, so the variant relic cards are made up of relics from this shirt.

I am still looking to add the missing Zhaan relic card (#C10), Chiana’s three additional costume cards and any of the main characters official autographs. After that I want to hunt down the Revenging Angel Animation Cels (R1-18), a Pilot autograph and a Moya relic card. I guess you could say I am a bit of a Farscape fan, I loved the show.

Back To The Farscape Project

Since I picked up the four Farscape cards from the closing comic book shop I have added a couple more cards to my collection.

 

The first is another card from my favorite character, a Zhaan costume card #CC13 from Rittenhouse Season Two release. So far I have three of the four Zhaan costume cards released, I am only missing #C10. This one is actually my least favorite of her costume cards because it depicts her while she was “budding”. The Delvians are vegetarians though when they are starving their bodies crave meat and they begin to grow buds on their bodies. The flowers release a pollen that causes other species to become paralyzed which allows the Delvians to feed on them.

 

The other pickups are a collection of 6 promo cards that were unintended releases, similar to the AU promo cards. The cards are numbered SF1-6 and are made up of the main characters John Crichton, Aeryn Sun, Ka D’Argo, Zotoh Zhaan, Bialar Crais and Chiana. What is cool is that Virginia Hey autographed the Zhaan card, her character.

A Presidential Oddball Of Sorts

I came across a card that I was pretty excited to see, an American Heroes Gerald Ford relic from Tri City Sports Poland (or TCSP) . These cards are from TCSP’s Five Year Anniversary promotion and they were randomly inserted in to various boxes of TCSP product during 2013. I know that the company has had customer service problems and many of their cards are pretty poorly designed but I really like the American Heroes design.

 

The release is made up of three subsets; Relics (#/100), Autograph-Relics (#/2) and Autographs (#1/1). The checklist contains 4 Presidents (Nixon, Ford, Carter and Regan), 2 actors (DeNiro & Pacino) plus Bruce Springsteen and John Gotti.

 

The card is thick and a heavy plastic, almost feeling like a heavy duty credit card. The back has a write up about Ford during his 3 years as President along with the TCSP hologram and the card numbering to #/100, mine is #87/100.

 

Most of the cards from this set start at $19.99 and run up to $40 but when I came across this card it had a starting bid of only $1.99. I am wondering if the seller set the price incorrectly by accident and that they really intended to type in $19.99. I won the card for $3.25 plus another $2.50 for shipping.

 

I am looking to add the other three Presidents to my collection as well as Al Pacino as long as I can find them all for reasonable prices. I expect to pay more for Regan and the actors but hopefully I can pick up Tricky Dick and Carter for less than $10 each.

 

I have since added a Robert DeNiro relic for $3.22 shipped.

Farscape Comic Card Pickups

One thing that collectors have gotten used to over the past decade has been the closing of card stores at an alarming rate. The same can be said about comic book shops, they are closing just as quick due to the availability of most collectibles online. Occasionally this can work out in our favor, though still disappointing none-the-less.

Not long ago I heard that a local comic book shop was closing and they were discounting much of their stock so I headed up to take a look. I am looking for 2 issues of Mars Attacks Judge Dredd and was hoping to find them pretty cheap. While I didn’t find the Mars Attacks books I did find some cheap Farscape cards.

 

Farscape is one of my favorite shows, even though it has been off the air for 11 years. During the shows 4 seasons and follow up Peacekeeper Wars mini-series Rittenhouse released 6 different sets. One set for each season plus “Through The Wormhole” (a set covering all four seasons) and a lenticular set called Farscape In Motion. Throughout the 6 sets there were costume cards, autographs and sketch cards.

 

I picked up two costume cards, an autograph and a sketch card and in all I spent $16.95 (including tax). Normally costume cards and autographs run $8 and up with the main characters selling for a premium and sketch cards are usually well over $25, so I found an amazing deal.

 

My favorite Farscape character is Zotoh Zhaan a Delvian priestess or Pa’u, played by Virginia Hey. The Delvians are blue, peaceful plant creatures. They are very Buddhist-like so her character spoke to me. The two costume cards I picked up are C3, from Season One, and CC12, from Season Two.

 

The autograph card and sketch card are of Rygel, the deposed leader of the Hynerian Empire. Rygel’s character could best be described as a child. Everything he saw was his, everything you saw was his and everything he hasn’t seen is his. He was just an egotistical little guy who moved around on a floating sled and was voiced by Jonathan Hardy.

I picked up a couple of other Farscape cards recently, more about them later, and I am still looking to add a couple more relic and autograph cards. I am focusing mainly on Chiana and Scorpious, my second favorite character and one of the main bad guys, respectively, plus any sketch cards I can find for a reasonable price.