4 (Plus 1) More from Sportlots

I have a love-hate relationship with Sportlots. I love the shear amount of random, cheap singles, but I hate searching for cards, trying to fill an order from the same seller after finding one that doesn't charge $99.99 for shipping to Canada. My search began looking for Redskins cards, but ending up with none. The big one was the above 2015 Gypsy Queen Madison Bumgarner. The short prints I need are all way overpriced on COMC, so I am starting to look elsewhere to complete the set, check card 350 off the list.

Coffee and Cards

Nothing says the start of hockey season like cards at Tim Horton's. As usual Upper Deck puts a nice looking product out through a chain of Canadian donut shops. The base cards are a nice foily embossed number that really pops. My want list was pretty small and nothing got checked off, the highlights being Trocheck showing off the Panthers very nice shield logo and under-rated jersey, my only goalie in Devan Dubnyk and some kid that plays for the Oilers.

Custom Card: 2017 Panini X/R Football - Jon Garland

Panini is doing some really nice things design wise, and once in a while a design really catches my eye and makes me wonder what it would look like as a baseball set. Panini X/R football came out recently and I really liked the design so as an exercise to keep my graphic design skills in use, I tries to recreate it. It's not perfect, but after playing with the layout, I still really like the design, I have said it before, but Topps is light years behind Panini in my eyes, especially with a lot of ugly 2017 sets, including the terrible flagship and the first looks at 2018 flagship are pretty rough as well.

Jon Garland would fit into the Short Term Stops if he actually had a Rockies card as he started 12 games in his last year in the majors, and this checks off another from my project of making customs of Rockies without cards.

A Fool and His Money (will buy Topps Now Cards)

Something about Topps Now does not sit well with me. I love what I call "Moment in time" card, and these are exactly that. 1997 Upper Deck did a great job of this with little notes as to what game to picture is from. But something about Topps Now seems greasy, like Topps is has a license to print money (and fully capitalize on the Aaron Judge phenomenon) and is taking advantage of collectors. Case in point, this was a 5 card set for $20 or 4 bucks a card. This set was limited to 78 copies, so it is low numbered, but 4 bucks a card is more than I like to spend, but spend I did. (I also bought the postseason set so I am a total hypocrite). One of the big reasons was the The Rockies don't mess with their jerseys, and these focus on a pretty big change, even if its for one weekend (and they do look like pajamas)

Not Your Regular Rookie Card Mailday

Near the top of the list of sets I will probably never finish is 2014 Upper Deck CFL. I finished the base and the 100-150 sport prints, but the 151-180 Rookies falling at 6 per box have been hard to find for a reasonable price. A recent online lot of 9 cards checked 4 off my list (I thought I needed more of them, but my collection is still in a post-zistle, office reno mess). The most interesting is the Chad Johnson, a 36 year old Rookie and veteran of 11 NFL seasons, Johnson played in 5 games, caught 7 passes including a touchdown, while struggling with injuries and not being a star anymore.

Group Break Result: 2016-17 Select Basketball

After not getting a hit in my last break, I got a $5 credit towards my next one. So with the credit burning a hole in my virtual wallet, I jumped in on a very cheap 6 box break of 2016 Select with Sacramento. There are lots of Kings cards with the three rookies and on-card autos, so why not?

Mexican Mailday

My quest for the Redskins 1977 Mexican team set has been going on for a long time, but I think this is the first mail-day actually from Mexico. Not a very exciting card, but I believe it is short printed, and pretty expensive normally, so I was pretty happy to get this copy for around $15 shipped, even if it isn't in the best shape. That just leaves the Redskins checklist and the team set is complete.

A big thanks to Angus who alerted me to this card on the last 1977 Mexican Eddie Brown card I posted, I might have missed this otherwise, Thanks for the tip!

Group Break Results: 2017 Unparalleled

I don't do group breaks very often, mostly because they are never with the gamble. Sometimes I forget this though and enter a group break just to remind myself how much they are not worth it. Here is my latest reminder in the form of 2017 Panini Unparalleled. I bough the Redskins in an 8 box half-case break, here is what I got.

Minor League Mail-day 2017

Something many people either forget or overlook, is how awesome and weird minor league baseball cards can be. Take the 2017 Albuquerque Isotopes set, all the cards have the players with mostly dogs, and a few cats I think. The Isotopes are the Rockies Triple-A team so I added Ryan Hanigan and Anthony Bemboom to my Rockies minor league card collection. I really hope Hanigan gets a Rockies card in 2017 Update, but if he doesn't, this is the next best thing. Sadly, Anthony Bemboom probably won't get a Rockies call-up, but he is in the lead for best Rockies MiLB name.

2017 Stadium Club - Rockies Custom Card Re-Do

I did this last year and I am doing it again this year. Basically this is what I would do if I had picked the images for 2017 Stadium Club. This started as I felt the Rockies photos were always a little boring, but more because I like doing customs and have a huge Rockies photo library I like to browse though. This is NOT meant to take a shot at Topps or to say they do a bad job, just a different look from someone who has no timeline, only one team to worry about and doesn't have to worry about photo copyrights.

First Rockies card gong numerically is D.J. LeMahieu, not my favorite photo, but different from the usual and definitely Stadium Club Worthy.