COMC Nov 2019

Another glorious COMC mailday with a good amount of mailbox submissions. My new obsession, Panini Super Bowl Signatures. Starting in 2015 these were inserted in products, often unannounced, and continuing into 2019, all sharing the same design and all on-card. The Mark Rypien is new for 2019 and one of my favorite cards of the year, Mike Alstott was probably my favorite non-Redskin going back to his Purdue days, so picking on an on-card of a Hall of Fame fullback is a nice add. The Charles Mann is from 2015 and knocks my Washington needs down to two.

Football Frankenset, Mid November 2019

028 - 2008 UD Masterpieces - Dwight Clark

"The Catch", what more needs to be said.

041 - 1995 Ultra - Curtis Conway

Another reminder at how awful the NFL is treating the 100th Anniversary season compared to the 75th.

051 - 2013 Prizm - Kevin Kolb

A zero year card of the often injured Kevin Kolb, after playing for Eagles and Cardinals, signed with the Bills in 2013, but missed the entire season with a concussion and was forced to retire.

074 - 2018 Absolute - Teddy Bridgewater

Another zero year QB, Bridgewater was signed by the Jets in 2018, but was traded to the Saints before the start of the season as the Jets went with Sam Darnold.

082 - 2019 Elite - Antonio Brown

The Antonio Brown saga not only brought a good amount of entertainment, but also a large amount of zero year cards.

112 - 1994 Collector's Edge - John Offerdahl

When you think of Miami and Dallas, you don't really think of snow games, unless you remember this 1993 Thanksgiving game. Also bonus points for the 1990's era neck guard on the shoulder pads.

146 - 1991 Pro Set WLAF - John Layfield

I love adding weird teams, and the San Antonio Riders of the World League are pretty weird. John Layfield might not be a well known name, but he did go on to pretty big success as JBL and Bradshaw in the WWE.

263 - 2008 Bowman - Leodis McKelvin

The red "Standing Buffalo" throwback, by far my favorite of the Buffalo uniforms, and one of the few still in play with a simple decal swap.

My Yearly "Buying Things I Think Are Dumb" Post

Hey, remember when I bought the Rockies Player's Weekend sets from Topps Now and didn't like it, it happened in 2017 and in 2018. I did it again, and I don't like it again. Prepare yourselves for a proper "Old Man Yells At Cloud" post. Ugly uniforms, lame nicknames and bad player selection, here we come. Starting with Nolan Arenado, the guy is on a Hall of Fame track and the best we can do is "Nado"? That is not a nickname, it is your last name missing some letters.

TCDB Trade #62

Another trade, more hockey heavy content. A new Cam Neely bringing me to 220 which tops the TCDB leaderboard, and a Byron Dafoe with a beauty of a mask card.

Creating my structure now I shall reign in 2014 Topps Parallels

A trade with $30 a week habit, sending some older hockey to their new home in Florida in return for some newer hockey, starting with a great Rask card, sporting an alternate jersey in an anthem shot, a new Cam Neely that I was shocked I didn't already have, and a parallel of another Cam, this one not quite as accomplished. 

Note to self: Group Breaks are a huge waste of money and I am dumb for buying into them.

The title pretty much sums it up. Nothing against breakers, if you can make a job out of opening cards and take all time to sort, package and ship, great, I admire that, but as a buyer it is a huge gamble, and huge gambles usually turn out to be a huge waste. Every break I have entered has been this way and this was no exception. This time the allure of 2019 Upper Deck Artifacts was too strong, tempted by a checklist with Pastrnak autos (which I don't think even exist), Aurums in Red & Gold as well as the usual Bruins big hits in Saint Robert and Saint Patrice. No such luck. A 10 box case produced 4 Bruins cards with the above probably being the best, a non-numbered, regular relic of Tuukka Rask. Even though the card says "Lord Stanley's Legacy Relics" there is no mention of this being using in the Cup final (it probably wasn't), and if it was, it was one in which the Bruins lost, so, yay.

Cleaning out the Hockey Heavy Scan Folder

A combination of trades and parts of a few Sportlots orders that got scanned and never posted, until now. Starting off with a couple Bruins goalies, Jeff Hackett still in his Montreal gear, then with Bruins stuff and Peter Skudra on his only Bruins card.

Football Frankenset Aug/Sept 2019 Adds

077 - 2001 Ultra - Jon Ritchie

Great shot of a fullback clearing the hole, bonus points for dirt baseball infield and a card design that lets the photo be the star.

Remember Ray Bourque? He's back... in pog form!

Cleaning out the scan folder and combining a few trades. Why was a Ray Bourque pog on my wantlist? The answer being at some point I picked up Bruins pogs from the 1994-95 set, but was missing 4 from the team set, now I only need 3.

COMC Frankenset Adds

005 - 2011 Certified - Tom Brady

The classic Patriot Pat throwbacks looking good on a cool red foil-y card

Check Out Everything Else (Summer 2019)

The last of my COMC package, with somewhat of a big pickup, my first Superfractor, no idea who Shawn Bowman is, but he played for team Canada and it only cost me $16.25 so there you go.

Check Out My Rockies: Summer 2019

The continuing saga of my most recent COMC package, staring Nolan Arenado and starting off with a case hit from Diamond Kings and starting a theme of Panini stuff.

RLC Custom Card Project: Daniel Castro

The Player: Backup utility infielders are like the middle relievers of the position players, high turnover, low usage and very little cardboard love. Daniel Castro fits into this category, called up due to injury he played in 18 games with Rockies in 2018, starting 13 and hitting .174 with an OPS+ of 12.

The Card: While 1992 Upper Deck was pretty forgettable, 1992 Upper Deck football has had pretty good look. Team colors worked in subtly on the bottom strip with a cracked granite main design and lots of room for the photo, nothing mind blowing but a pretty solid flagship card.

The Project: The Project: Rockies Legacy Collection custom project to make digital cards of Rockies players who never had one issued.

Football Frankenset - July 2019 Pickups

029 - 1998 Skybox Premium - Dwayne Rudd

There have been some tough choices so far, this was not one of them, I really doubt anything will displace Dwayne Rudd with an actual Vikings helmet.

Check Out My Redskins (July 2019)

By far, my most exciting packages are from COMC. Months of collecting all wrapped into one big parcel to open, scan and sort. I have been going for quality over quantity, so not a lot in terms of volume but some really nice stuff, including the 2 above Super Bowl Signatures. These two of Gary Clark and Darrell Green put me up to 5 out of 8 Redskins, with the search continuing for Charles Mann (a cheap one at at least), Joe Theismann and John Riggins.

Hide Your Cat For This Trade

I'm going to bury the lead a little here and start with a couple Rockies, a super shiny Saberhagen and a Zero-Year Rudy Seanez who would pitch in 544 MLB games, but none with Colorado.

Johnny Boychuk: Bruins Stanley Cup Auto

Two things here, yes this project is still not done, and yes, I am still very upset I didn't get to add to checklist this year. Who wanted to buy a bunch of 2019 Stanley Cup Champion Bruins cards anyway?

Johnny Boychuk never did get a certified auto in a Bruins uniform, so this one with a giant Bruins logo and an Avs jersey will have to do. Not an expensive card, but one that really hasn't shown up very often, and finally something I can remove from my saved searches.

Good things comes in 3's

Unfortunately due to high International shipping costs I have to turn down a trade every so often, sometimes it is just not worth even a PWE for a couple junk wax cards both ways, but this 3 card trade was totally for it. One of my favorite parallels, the 2014 Topps Red Hot Foil, or Raining Blood parallel of a pre-beard Charlie Blackmon.

Football Frankenset - June Pickups

Only 4 adds this month (next month will be better) so I will add some that I already had before the project began. 

025 - 1996 Pinnacle - Jerry Rice:

The second Jerry Rice card so far, reminding us all how great Pinnacle was in the 90's. You hardly so inserts this cool anymore, let alone base cards

A Rare Blogger Trade

A rare fellow blogger trade, with a little help from TCDB, with $30 a week habit. Starting off with some more Bruins from my recent run on hockey. A faux-throwback Brandon Carlo rookie and an actual throwback from 2001 Topps. I still find it super weird Jason Allison was the Bruins leading scorer for a few years.

Something I Vowed Not Do (Ghost of Zistle forgive me)

(alternate post title "I Sold My Soul For Baseball Cards)

It has been a long time, 3 years or so, since the Beckett takeover and death knell of Zistle, (for some reason the lights are still on over there and some brave souls are still adding content, although nothing newer than 2017). I wrote a long post about that, so I won't go over it again other than Zistle was awesome, it was killed for no good reason (the reason being a larger company killing a smaller competing company instead of trying to improve themselves), and nothing that exists now is even close to as clean, elegant and user friendly. So began my boycott of Beckett. It wasn't really hard, their website is garbage and there are enough checklist sites that info is pretty easy to find without them. But one thing brought me back, 2011 Gypsy Queen mini photo variations. They were bought through the marketplace, so I imagine Beckett gets a taste, but I couldn't help myself. The above 3 put me at 30/100 of my favorite set I will never finish.

RLC Custom Card Project: Brooks Pounders

The Player: Aside from having a very cool name, Brooks Pounders is the kind of player this project is meant for, a journeyman middle reliever with much more time in the minors than the majors. Pounders appeared in a career high 14 games with the Rockies in 2018, with a 7.63 ERA, which was actually the best of his career. He is currently with the Indians Triple-A team and to date has a 3-2 record in 38 career MLB games with the Royals, Angels and Rockies from 2016-2018.

The Card: An original design that took a few forms before this one, I have to say I am pretty happy with it will be using it again as well as a horizontal version.

The Project: The Project: Rockies Legacy Collection custom project to make digital cards of Rockies players who never had one issued.

Football Frankenset - May Pickups

004 - 1998 Bowman - Takeo Spikes: 

Not sure if a linebacker flying through the uprights is still worth 3 points. This card also gets bonus points for the tiny kitty logo in the upper left, and bonus bonus points for the name Takeo Spikes.

Cards from Cards on Cards

Some "Guilt-free" basketball from Cards on Cards. NBA has been put on the back-burner due to budgetary concerns, so getting some new basketball was a welcome surprise. Starting off with De'Aaron Fox, and Prestige rookie card and Panini Status which I love for the old Skybox vibes.

Harder To Find Than It Should Have Been

Sometimes randomly searching for something that you have randomly searched for 100 times pays off. I have no idea how many times I have searched every site I can think of for this, and it finally popped up on Sportlots, for $1.25 and cheap shipping ($1.75 for 4 cards), no hesitation, sold. Still not sure why a card numbered to 999 was so hard to find, but I was very happy to add Stubby Clapp's (80 grade name by the way) only Team Canada Cardboard appearance to the collection.

TCDB Trade 44(ish?) (w/ Frankenset Adds)

 A pretty cool trade pack with some variety. Starting with some Gypsy Queen SP set help, with these being one per box there are a little more expensive to pick up, so if I can trade for them it makes my life easier.

(I was going to title this post "I know I suck at coming up with witty post titles", but it seemed a little long.)

NFL Frankenset start from Sportlots

New Project, Football Frankenset, full of throwback jerseys, bad weather cards, kicker, punters, offensive lineman and other random weirdness. Posted in the order I get them more often than in numerical order.

001 - 2005 UD Legends - Charley Taylor

I am making a point of not flooding this with Redskins cards, but I couldn't resist this one. Great vintage photo, single bar facemask, and my favorite uni combo, burgundy tops with gold pants. Also Hall of Famer and a photo that can be tracked back to Super Bowl VII.

008 - 2013 Topps - Antonio Brown

Decent photo, great player and the crazy "bumblebee" throwbacks make for an easy selection. Also a Redskins cameo from Cedric Williams.

015 - 1998 Playoff Prestige Retail - Gilbert Brown

This is what a football player is supposed to look like, what a monster.

030 - 2012 Topps Prime - Aaron Rodgers

What I am calling the "Golden Age of Throwbacks", back when the NFL allowed alternate helmets, the fuax-leather with the Green Bay 1929 Throwbacks.

031 - 2010 Topps Prime - Darrelle Revis

More throwback goodness with one of my favorites, the Jets from when they were The Titans of New York , awesome jerseys, awesome name.

040 - 2008 UD First Edition - Jason Witten

Balancing the Redskins bias with some Cowboys, a helmet-less Jason Witten completing the play against the Eagles. Helmet-less action shots are a no-brainer entry here.

043 - 2002 Prestige - Ryan Leaf

Remember when Ryan Leaf was with the Cowboys? Neither did I, but he started 3 games, going 0-3 with Dallas in 2001 in a season that also saw Quincy Carter, Anthony Wright and Clint Stoerner start games for them.

045 - 2010 Rookies and Stars - Knowshon Moreno

I believe this is the only card to feature these 1960 Broncos throwbacks, they were only worn once, and that is shame because they are something else, highlighted by the vertical striped socks.

059 - 1995 Metal - Anthony Miller

A callback to the 1962-1966 AFL jerseys with a sweet bucking bronco logo on the orange helmet. Also on an overproduction favorite of mine, 1995 Fleer Metal.

061 - 2013 Rookies & Stars - Tim Tebow

A rare "zero year" NFL card, after spending 2012 with the Jets, Tebow signed with the Patriots for the 2013 pre-season, but was cut before the season started.

066 - 2008 Stadium Club - Chris Cooley

More Redskins bias, just a nice Stadium Club shot of a serious spike with the crowd in the background and the Redskins 75th anniversary patch on the jersey.

076 - 2008 Donruss Classics - Kevin Curtis

Maybe the worst throwback uni's in history going back to a 1934 design that was based on the Philadelphia city flag, which itself is based of the Swedish flag.

210 - 2013 Topps - Rob Gronkowski

Gronk in the classic "Patriot Pat" uni that was worn from 1961-1992, and as a throwback in 1994, 2002 and from 2009-2012. Sadly, another causality of the "one shell" rule.

231 - 2011 Topps - Danny Woodhead

A better shot of "Patriot Pat".

381 - 1994 Ultra - Leonard Russell

Another appearance of the bucking bronco AFL throwback.

557 - 1994 Stadium Club - Kevin Greene

1994 was the NFL's 75th anniversary, and featured some beauty throwback, including the Steelers throwing back to the 1993 Pittsburgh Pirates looking like a weird soccer uniform. 

563 - 1994 Stadium Club - Bryce Paup

The Packers 1994 offering, based off the 1937-1948 jerseys with a crazy yellow helmet.