TTM Success

After having some luck with TTM autograph requests this year I decided to continue with some of my favorite actors and this includes Mel Brooks.

I was first introduced to Mel Brooks when my parents took us to see History Of The World: Part I in the theater. Sure the movie was a bit over my 9-year old head but the jokes that I did get made me laugh and created a Mel Brooks fan for life. Over the years with movies like Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men In Tights I began to appreciate Mel's humor and looked back to his older movies like Blazing Saddles and shorts like The 2000 Year Old Man.

I came across a TTM autograph website and saw that Mr. Brooks does respond to autograph requests but that it is usually in the form of an 8x10 but I took a chance and created 3 custom cards (including the backs) similar to the Randy Couture card that I got back signed not long ago. These are the digital versions of the cards I sent.

I sent the cards and waited, it took about 3 weeks and I got a large envelope from Brooksfilms and honestly did not put it together in my mind until I opened it. Inside was a black and white signed 8x10 along with a business envelope. Inside the business envelope was my SASE and three cards, which were not signed.

I love the photo, I am a bit bummed because I would have loved to have his signature on the cards and be able to put them in to a binder but the photo is hanging prominently in my workspace near my Dalai Lama signature.

COMC Pickups

Yesterday I posted about a Ryan Bader parallel card that I have been tracking when I was pointed to COMC. I picked up that card along with a nice collection of other PC cards for my Bader and Buhner collections, plus other Griffey cards but I will cover those later.

 

Jay Buhner:

1989 Topps The Rookies.

1989 Score

 

1991 Topps Desert Shield

1992 Upper Deck Denny’s Grand Slam

1993 Finest

 

Ryan Bader

2011 Moment Of Truth

2011 Moment Of Truth Independence Edition

 

2011 Title Shot

My favorite two cards are the 1991 Topps Desert Shield Jay Buhner that goes with my Griffey Desert Shield card and the 2011 Topps UFC Moment Of Truth Independence Edition. The Independence Edition cards were in packs released for the 2011 UFC Fan Expo in Las Vegas.

The Nickname That I Have Been Chasing

 

Last month I had posted about my decision to hold up on purchasing anything for my Ryan Bader personal collection until I could find his 2010 Topps UFC Nickname parallel. It was frustrating because they came around so infrequently on aBay and I just felt like this was the next card that I just had to have for my Bader pc.

After I posted about my frustration a fellow blogger came to my rescue. Raz from The Raz Card Blog pointed me in the direction of one of these cards that was available on COMC. I have never purchased anything on COMC so I hadn’t realized that it could be a useful tool for collectors. I purchased some credits and made an offer, which was accepted by the seller, and actually paid less than what the previous Bader nickname card had sold for on eBay.

Thank you Raz, I appreciate your help and I have now added a number of Griffey. Buhner and Bader cards to my COMC inventory. This Bader nickname parallel came in this afternoon with a number of other cards that I will cover soon.

What If? A Cubs Interference

In February when pitchers and catchers reported to camp I posted a Yankees Triple Threads What If? At the time I hinted to a Cubs What If? Triple Threads card saying I would post it later. Now that the Cubs are playing the Pirates tonight in the Wild Card game it is time for me to release my Cubs What If? interference call card.

I Would Put A Sad Emoji Here If I Could

It is a disappointment when your favorite team loses but I think it is a bigger disappointment when your team wins due to a questionable interpretation on a rule by the Back Judge. This is the Seahawks Fail Mary screw up (against Green Bay in 2012) all over again. At least that call was made by a replacement ref.

The Seahawks had some flashes of brilliance in the 3^rd and early-4^th quarters but the entire first half and end of the game were dismal. On a positive side the Seahawks finally scored a touchdown in the first half of a game, four games in to the season.

The Eagles May Now Be The NFL Circus Team

For a couple of years I had written a What Could Go Wrong segment about the New York Jets quagmire, which I enjoyed because the Jets really were a circus with the poor decisions that were made by Coach Ryan and GM Idzik. Now that both Ryan and Idzik are gone and only QB Geno Smith remains, though not playing, and the Jets are a very respectable 3-1 losing only to the team that I have decided will be taking over the role as the cluster f#ck team of my new series of What Could Go Wrong, the Eagles.

Now I turn my attention to the 1-3 Eagles. After Chip Kelly was named Head of Player Personnel following last season people, both for and against Kelly, were waiting to see what he would do. There is no question he turned the University of Oregon in to a perennial winner but there is still the question whether that will translate over to the NFL.

After a number of offseason player changes it does not seem that things are going in the right direction.

He released some solid players, traded away a good QB for an average QB and signed DeMarco Murray but is not utilizing him. Depending on how the season goes I may make the Eagles my What Could Go Wrong team.

Machete Kills With A Signature

My newest addition to my Machete collection, an 11x17 movie poster from Machete Kills signed by Danny Trejo (Top center) along with the director Robert Rodriguez (Right side) and actors Tom Savini (Bottom center) and Jorge Jimenez (Left side). The poster is sitting above my computer next to my full size Machete movie poster.

 

I am still in the market for some solo Danny Trejo autographs, specifically his autograph from the 2005 Rittenhouse Stargate Atlantis release, plus I would love something from Machete dual signed by Trejo and Michelle Rodriguez because she always adds the inscription "SHE" (her character form the movie). This poster is easily among my favorite pickups of the year.

Would You Could You?

Just a random question today.

Have you ever considered selling off a player collection to start collecting a different player? How about selling off your entire collection?

 

I have a little over 500 Ken Griffey Jr. cards and I am sure if I was to sell them off (not that I am planning to sell them) I could most likely purchase every Jay Buhner card available and still have money left over to work on my Steve Largent collection.

This image came from Google images, it is not my stack of Griffey cards. My OCD would never allow me to drop the cards in a haphazard way even for a photo op.

An Australian Homer Single Card Post

Today is a single card post.

 

In February 1995 Bart made a long-distance collect call to Australia to see if the water went down the drain clockwise or counter-clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. This leads the Simpsons family on a journey to the Land Down Under so Bart can make an apology and a punishment of a “Booting” in what many rate as one of the Top 10 Simpsons episodes.

The following year Tempo cards, an Australia card company, worked with Fox to release 1996 Tempo The Simpsons Down Under a set based entirely on the episode. Since the product was released only in Australia it didn’t do extremely well in the U.S. but you can still find cards from the set with a complete 100-card base set running $15-20.

My favorite cards from the set are the “Homer As” chase cards which depict Homer as various famous Australians. The card that I most wanted, I actually thought I had it listed on my Top 10 Wanted list (but I was mistaken), is the Homer As Mad Max. After seeing the cards on the internet I initially thought that the cards had a canvas type texture but with the card now in hand I see that it is just a standard glossy coating but I am still happy.

The back includes a write up about the character, since Mad Max is fictional the write up is loosely based on Mel Gibson’s character Maximillian Rockatansky in the original Mad Max trilogy. In place of the trusty sawed-off double barrel shotgun that Max carriers, Homer carries a Squishee-shooter but otherwise they are quite similar. The cards are each #/7000 with mine being #5581/7000.

 

Other characters included in the 7-card Homer As chase card set; an Indigenous Australian, Capt. James Cook, Burke & Willis, Ned Kelly, Dame Edna and Crocodile Dundee.

The Art Gallery: 2012 Unstoppable Cards Night Of The Living Dead Bill

This month’s Art Gallery display is from the 2012 Unstoppable Cards Night of the Living Dead release. The artist is Adam Talley, a comic book artist and illustrator. He has cards included in Marvel sets, DC sets, Star Wars sets, Mars Attacks and smaller oddball sets like Night of the Living Dead and Titanic.

What caught my attention, besides the cartoonish work (which I like), is the subject. This is Bill, the first zombie we see in the movie. He is in my favorite scene, which I talked about in an earlier Art Gallery card of my other Night of the Living Dead sketch card.

Bill here attacks Barbra but her brother Johnny jumps the zombie and while scuffling Johnny falls and slams his head against a grave stone and dies. We later see Johnny, as a zombie, trying to break in to the farm house. But, we can track back every zombie in every movie since 1968 to this one zombie, Bill. He is the dead man who started the destruction of the zed.

I picked up this card for a couple of dollars from the same seller from my other NotLD sketch card, so he bundled the shipping together for another $1. This is one of my favorite sketch sets.