Congratulations Darth Bader, Bellator's New Heavyweight Champion

Last night Ryan Bader won the Bellator Heavyweight Championship, making him the first champion in Bellator to hold belts in two different weight classes. 

I did not add much to my Ryan Bader collection last year, only six cards and two of those were with my COMC order. I did just purchase a Ryan Bader custom ticket stub relic card with a ticket from Bellator 199 but that is an ACEO.  With adding only six official cards to my collection I am now sitting at 152 unique Bader out of a possible 334 cards, this includes his #1/1 cards, putting me at 45.5% of his collection. If you remove the 105 #1/1 cards that I am missing (mostly printing plates from 2011 sets) I am now sitting at 66.3% of all Bader cards. 

I have not made any collecting goals for a couple of years, but I want to focus a bit more on my Bader collection. Most that I am missing are lower serial numbered parallels that don’t show up too often so I will have to really double down on my searches and hit up other options outside of eBay and COMC.

2011 Topps Finest UFC Fight Mat Jumbo Autographed Relic 

2011 Topps Finest UFC Flag Bearers. This is a four-card set, the letters spell out “USA” and the 4^th card is a US flag. I have seen the “U” and the flag cards show up but I was on the fence until now.

2011 Topps Moment of Truth Showdown Shots w/ Tito Ortiz Red parallel 

2011 Topps Moment of Truth Showdown Shots Dual Auto w/ Tito Ortiz

2015 Topps UFC Chronicles #78 Green parallel

2017 Topps UFC Knockout Fearless Fighter Autos

First Card Of The Year

The first card of the year for me is this 2010 Topps UFC Main Event The Ultimate Fighter Ryan Bader #TT-38 card. It is the Diamond parallel Topps Vault version. The Diamond parallel is a #1/1 so this is a #1/1 Topps Vault version of a #1/1 card, so odd. 

Countdown 'til Christmas With A Blue Flame Yule Log

I saw this pop up on eBay the other day and I had to get it. A 2017 Topps UFC Fire Ryan Bader Blue Flame Foil #12/25

My first Ryan Bader Christmas card

Not To Be Outdone

Last week I posted the 2005 Donruss Elite Steve Largent/Darrell Jackson cards where the serial numbers were put on in different directions. Apparently, Topps had a “Hold my beer” moment in 2013 with the Topps UFC Bloodlines release.

I am now adding my Ryan Bader collection to the Trading Card Database and you guessed it, Topps outdid Donruss. Each of the 2013 UFC Bloodlines base cards have four serial numbered parallels and three of the four are serial numbered on the front of the card beneath the UFC logo in the top corner while the fourth (Flag parallel) has the serial number on the back of the card.

C’mon Topps, don’t do this to a brother.

Anyone else come across a similar situation where a card company likes messing with collectors?

Trade Completed V- Boom...Boom...GASP!

A couple weeks back I sent a pair of 1933 Goudey baseball cards to Matt of Bob Walk The Plank. I felt that the two Pirates cards, Ray Kremer and Adam Comorosky, belong in the collection of a true Pittsburgh Pirates fan. I didn’t trade for anything specific, it was a blind trade, but he came strong with what he sent me.

Two cards from my Top 10 Wanted List:

A 2007 Donruss Madden Shaun Alexander game card.

This doesn’t seem like much but this card has been sitting on my Most Wanted List the longest, in fact, it is one of the original Top 10 cards. BOOM!

A 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot Contenders Autograph Ryan Bader.

This card has been on my list the second longest and was actually the first card to replace a card that I picked up. BOOM!

The third card is a 2014 Topps Five Star Silver Signature Edgar Martinez autograph.

In August Jon from A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts sent me my first Edgar relic card and now Matt hooked me up with my first Edgar autograph, and a killer card too. I love the black card and silver autograph, it looks amazing. GASP!

Bader Wins The Bellator Light-Heavyweight Championiship

Last Saturday night Ryan Bader had his first fight in Bellator MMA against Light-Heavyweight Champion Phil Davis for the belt, something that Bader never had the opportunity to do in the UFC. The fight went the full 5 rounds and went to the judges and in a split decision Ryan Bader became the new Bellator Light-Heavyweight Champion. It was a nail bitter until the end, it could have gone either way and I really thought Davis did enough to appear more active, though all of his takedown attempts were stuffed by Bader, and win over the judges but when the announcer said "And new champion..." I jumped out of my seat.

I have not picked up many Bader cards lately but I did grab this 2017 Topps Knockout Auto-Relic about a week ago. This is my 129^th Ryan Bader card (Not counting three Topps Vault cards) which puts my collection at 38.8% of all Bader cards.

Thank You Raz For The New Ryan Bader Additions

I want to thank Raz for his very welcomed care package last week that included a group of 2017 Ryan Bader cards that I did not have in my collection. Like my other PCs my Bader collection is on hold for now and with two Topps UFC releases this year I was falling behind on my collection.

The first two cards are from the 2017 Topps UFC Fire release, which was only available online. The set was not very large; only 50 base cards, 39 autographs and 20 Fired Up inserts. Each base card had 3 parallels in addition to the base cards and the autographs had 2 parallels in addition to the base auto.

The cards Raz sent are the base card and the Red-Hot Foil parallel #/142

The next two cards are from the 2017 Topps UFC Knockout release, which came out less than a month ago. Bader was removed from the checklist to this set because he signed with Bellator MMA in March but because most of the autographs are hard signed they had already been sent out and he signed and returned them so Topps decided to include his autograph and relic cards after all.

The first card is his Tier One autograph, these cards are amazing and right now this is one of my favorite Bader autographs that is in my collection. I just love the design of these cards and the parallels are even cooler with the card being black and signed in either copper, silver or gold ink. 

The second card is his Knockout Autographs. Topps tends to use the horizontal design with Knockout, which I like because it allows them to use images that are extended like this overhead strike from Bader’s fight against Rashad Evans. This is what his base card would have looked like if it were included in the set minus the autograph.

Again, thank you so much Raz, I really appreciate you taking the time to send me this package.

A Price Way Too High To Be Believed

Recently a rare Ryan Bader card showed up for auction, not super rare but it is #/25. The card is a 2009 Topps UFC Round 2 red autograph and this specific card is #14/25. This is only the second copy of this card that I have seen since I started collecting Ryan Bader six years ago (the last card sold in 2012) so it is not something that shows up every day.

While I knew that I would not be bidding on the card because doctor bills come first, I still watched the card. Recent low serial numbered Bader autographs have sold in the $25 range, which is what I expected of this card too. Like I said, this is a rarer card and it is from his first year in the UFC so I figured if there was a bidding war it could possibly end a little higher, but no higher than $35-38 range.

Before I went to bed it was at $47, which completely surprised me, and when I checked when I woke up I was floored to see it end at $255. That is seriously insane and I thought maybe shill bidding was involved but it does not appear to have happened. This was just a straight up bidding war that nobody wanted to walk away from until it was over. Someone paid $200+ over what this card is worth.

I have five Bader #1/1 cards and ten #/30 or less and the most I have paid was $26 plus shipping so I cannot understand what would drive a person to spend this much money on a card. This kind of price is what you would expect from top tier fighters like GSP, Rousey or McGregor not what you would expect to see from a mid-level Light Heavyweight fighter who has never gotten close enough to sniff a championship belt.

Ryan Bader To Bellator MMA

Yesterday Ryan Bader announced that he has signed with Bellator MMA after not being able to come to a deal with the UFC. Bader is 15-5 and has gone 7-1 over his last 8 fights but he was not being considered for a title fight so he went elsewhere.

His contract with Bellator is for 6 fights over two years and it is expected that his first fight may well be at Bellator’s next PPV in June for a title shot against Bellator Light Heavyweight Champion Phil Davis.

As a fan this means I will get to watch him fight more often because Bellator does not normally do PPV, this one in June is only their second pay per view fight. As a collector this means he will no longer have any cards with 2017 Topps UFC Fire possibly being his last official cards unless he is included in 2017 Topps UFC Chrome which comes out later this year.

Bader Nation Pickups

Besides Ken Griffey Jr and Jay Buhner I also collect MMA fighter Ryan Bader. He is my “homer” pick with him being a local guy. When I was living in the East Valley my son worked out at his gym, Power MMA, in Gilbert and even spent some time with Bader over the years. I worked out at a near-by LA Fitness and when I was at Power MMA he was never around so I never had the chance to meet him.

Ryan Bader currently has 306 total unique cards of which I have 110 of them giving me 36% of his total cards. What makes this a rough go is that of his 306 total cards 91 of them, 30%, are #1/1 cards including printing plates but not counting Topps Vault cards.

But I keep plugging away at his cards and if I can hit 200 unique Bader cards by the end of the year I will be happy. These were pickups late last year during COMC's Black Friday sale and most were base cards or parallels with upper print runs over #/100 so they are nothing special but these are a couple of the big wants for me.

2010 Topps UFC Main Event Tapout Bronze parallel #1/88 WowZZza a eBaYz OnE1 of OnE1 (damn I hate that term, even though I got this through COMC isn’t every card on eBay an eBay one of one?)

2011 Topps UFC Finest Jumbo Autograph-Relic

These cards never show up so this was pure luck to have one show up on COMC during their sale. I don’t mean never ever but this is the first one that I have seen anywhere in the 6 years that I have been collecting Ryan Bader cards so it is pretty rare to me.

2011 Topps UFC Finest Fight Mat Jumbo Relic

I already have one of these cards but it is just the plain blue mat so when I saw this multi-color beauty I just had to have it.

2016 Topps UFC Knockout Dual Relics

OK, I have tried to do some research and I am hitting a dead end due to Topps’ ambiguity used describing relics. I do not like that they create a card like this, specifically list UFC 192 and then say that the relics came from no specific event or fight. If you don’t notice the red arrows in the background you may not even realize whose relic is whose. 

The List Is Complete For Bader Nation

The other day when I had posted about some recent Ryan Bader pickups I brought up that I did not have a complete checklist of all of his cards. I suspected 300-400 total cards in his checklist. The last couple of days while I had free time I started to comb Topps checklists, Beckett, COMC, The Cardboard Connection, The Trading Card Database and Zistle and put together what I believe to be that complete Ryan Bader checklist and posted it here.

I was incorrect about his total cards, through the most recent Topps UFC release, he appears in 20 total sets, has a total of 248 cards (including parallels but not including Topps Vault parallels) and 70 unique cards. I have 80 Ryan Bader cards so that puts me 1/3 of the way but I don’t ever expect to have all of his cards because there are a number of #1/1 cards but I will collect what I can get my hands on.

The checklist is accessible at the top of the page.

Recent Ryan Bader Pickups

Some of the cooler Ryan Bader cards that I have picked up lately. I am currently at 80 unique Ryan Bader cards, I will soon need to go through and try to put together an all-encompassing Bader checklist so I know where I stand. His first cards appeared in 2009 so I don’t expect the checklist to be larger than 400 or 500 cards total including parallels and inserts.

 

I picked up a number of base cards through COMC and was able to get some nice deals on eBay on the more limited cards like the printing plate and the Topps Vaults. His cards are usually pretty fair in price so building a Ryan Bader pc is easy on the wallet.

 

Bader is scheduled to fight early next month at UFC Fight Night 93 in Germany against Ilir Latifi.

Ending With A Fighting Chance

During COMC’s Black Friday promotion, which included free shipping and scratch cards, I picked up a nice collection of cards for my Ryan Bader collection. These are Grey Whales that I just never purchased but finally gave in and added them. This was my last "big" purchase of 2015 not counting a couple of individual cards I picked up in December

Currently I am at 37 individual Ryan Bader cards, not a super collector by any means but Beckett only lists 288 total cards for Bader, with many of them being parallels, so I am sitting at 12.8% and climbing.

Bader is scheduled to fight Anthony Johnson at UFC on Fox 18 at the end of this month.

This group includes cards from 2010 through 2014