A little Bush and some Big Hurt

Happy for Reggie Bush getting his Heisman back. Got a small PC going for him because he’s a "local kid" for me; went to a rival high school in my district a few years after I graduated. Some highlights of what I've got:

In other news, the one "random card" in my COMC order (ie, not for a specific hobby project but just because I thought it was cool) was this die-cut Frank Thomas:

This was an example of "music on cards" I didn't have, and yeah I thought it was cool.

Frank Thomas CD collection is now up to a robust 2.25 discs. Actually that die-cut isn't quite a quarter of a CD. And they had to fudge the size:

Here lined up with a standard-sized CD.

In more Frank Thomas content, my rotating cardroom display is currently featuring my variety of his 1990 Topps card. Nothing here cost me over a buck! I don't have an original NNOF, but I do have the 2010 Topps "Cards Your Mom Threw Out" reprint in both standard and tough original back variation (...lucky cardshow finds).

But technically the rarest of the cards in this display is the "white border" card that no one else has:

Yeah ok, so it's just "cardart" I made by bleaching the borders for a year or two, and so therefore no "value" there, but I love it and consider it one of my top Big Hurt cards.

Here's another shot in late-afternoon sun where you can really check out the texture of the card. It's a little sloppy around the inner border, but man, it was a big sense of accomplishment when I finally got the last of the gnarly 90s border to finally disappear.  One could make a case that this is also a "partial NNOF" because of the "M" imperfection. LOL. 

Thanks for reading and follow your dreams.

Super Sunday surprise pack rip

In what I'm pretty sure is a first for me, I received football cards in the mail on Super Bowl Sunday. That's worth a quick post!

FedEx sent a driver to drop this 2022 Panini Mosaic football redemption replacement sparkle pack on my porch a few hours before kickoff. I don't do much rippin' these days, so it was a nice surprise to get a pack in the mail, even if I don't follow football much anymore.

2017 Panini Vertex Capstones Latavius Murray is what the redemption was originally for. Won this in a contest haul from Sport Card Collectors back in 2018. Dragged my feet a bit redeeming it (I'm not familiar with Latavius and I guess I was hoping to trade it away before it expired rather than deal with the hassle). Pretty sure the card was "live" already when I first got the redemption, as there were a few on eBay going for around $10. But Panini didn't bother sending me one. Eventually I remembered to update my address to the new house and went ahead and requested a replacement. Finally got something today, 2/12/23. Of course I'm just playing with house money, as I got the redemption as part of a lucky contest win, so it's all gravy.

Let's see what 3 cards I pulled from my redemption pack..

Red sparkle is the base, with the blue parallels being a little tougher. I don't think either Dameon Pierce or Luke Kuechly are big names, but the 3rd card was a household name.

The GOAT himself, Tom Brady. I know we're all sick of Tom Brady after he recently announced his retirement, but you gotta respect his accomplishments. Happy to add a snazzy card of his to my modest football card collection. I took a curious look on eBay to get an idea of what this was selling for, and all I could find was one new listing at $150 or best offer. Yeah, ok! Even if that asking price is a reach, I'd take the Brady any day over the common auto I was due. Thanks again to Matt from the (recently retired?) Sport Card Collectors blog for the contest win that keeps on giving.

Hope you all enjoy your day. Fingers crossed it's a great game, though I plan to be out shopping to take advantage of the thinned crowds.

Can I get a "Whoa Bundy!" Pt 2 (Applegate auto)

Since it's Super Bowl Sunday, I won't even bother asking if you're ready for some football. I'll just assume your football readiness is riding high and get on with this post that sort-of-but-not-really features football cards. (And if you don't get a chance to read till Monday, well I suppose it works as a Valentine's Day post, too, since it has a lovely lady in it.)

Scoring myself an "Ed O'Neill as Al Bundy" football card auto had been a hobby goal of mine for a long time that I was able to check off last year with a Leaf/Pro Set card.

Since then, I wanted to grow my card collection of the Married... With Children cast, so I recently picked up a Christina Applegate autograph. Prices on her auto cards can be a steep, but I snagged one relatively discounted thanks to it being a dual-auto stickergraph coupled with a lesser celebrity. But it works great with my idea making a custom overlay for it.

I went through a few ideas for the overlay. I started out just searching for a hot photo of Christina. But man, there's no shortage of attractive photos of her out there! Tough to pick a favorite. I had a few contenders saved-- and tentatively was just going to use a nice, later picture in a simple overlay with only the pic and auto window, but then got the notion to do it as a "Kelly Bundy" custom in the '89 Pro Set style to match the "Al Bundy" card. So then I had to find an era-appropriate pic, landing on this one. I figured the locker room setting kinda helps it work as a "football card" (though it's really just a high school hallway, I think.) 

Like with all my "custom overlays", I don't alter the original card at all (otherwise I'd call it a "custom cut auto"), rather just print out "clothes" for it, lol. Here it is undressed. I vaguely know the name Antonio Sabato Jr, a male model turned tv personality/actor more known for his political comments these days, and have no qualms covering him up here and will just thank him for helping this card sell for a good chunk less than a Christina Applegate autograph typically goes for.

She's been a celebrity crush of mine since back in the day. Still lookin' great in middle-age, too. Breast cancer survivor; respect. In addition to Married, I've enjoyed seeing her in many other things too, such as the Anchorman movies. Turns out we've got similar taste in music: It's a stretch for a celebrity connection but Christina and I "saw a concert together" once, both attending a Jane's Addiction show in LA in '97 [She has a quick cameo in the tour film].

And she's married to a musician I'm a big fan of: Martyn LeNoble, probably best remembered as the bassist for Porno For Pyros when they had an alt-rock hit with the song "Pets" in 1993.

Since I've got half the Bundy clan, I figure I'll now keep an eye out for a good price on autos of Katey Sagal and David Faustino to round out the family. They both seem to have a few options on the market, so shouldn't be too tough. Expect to eventually see a sequel or two to this post!

Here's my dog Ruby to close us out today. She just wanted everyone to know how good at tug-of-war she is.

Thanks for stopping by.

Can I get a "Whoa Bundy!" for my latest pickup?

Got one! I'd been keeping an eye out for an Ed O'Neill as Al Bundy football card for a few years now. Leaf recently put out a few in the old 1989 Pro Set design. I thought it looked pretty cool, and ponied up for one. 

Mine is #'d 42/99 (ooh, the Jackie Robinson eBay 1/1!) It's easily the most I've ever paid for a stickergraph-- I'm one of those guys who vastly prefers on-card signatures-- but in this instance, I'll let it slide.

I loved Married... with Children as a kid/teen back in the day and have recently been watching through the series again via Hulu with my wife. The whole running gag about Al Bundy being a former high school football star (including 4 touchdowns in one game!) is pretty great, and this card is right up my alley as someone who enjoys making customs along these lines. (See also my Perfect Strangers customs from a few years back.)

Ed O'Neill is known more recently for his role of Jay Pritchett on Modern Family, another show I like. This is the second auto card I've scored from the cast of that show, joining the Sarah Hyland ("Haley Dunphy") I picked up a year ago. Now I'm kinda curious who else from that show has certified autograph cards out there to track down.. but honestly I'm more likely to turn my focus on finding a Christina Applegate auto for a decent price.

Thanks for stopping by.

football cards from the card show

Ok, one last post to wrap up my haul from the June card show. These are a few football cards that caught my eye from the 7/$5 bins.

A pair of non-certified Reggie Bush autos, a guy I collect because he went to high school in the same district as me, a few years after I graduated. The card on the left jumps out at me as forged.. notice the two signatures are very different. The one on the right matches with the certified auto I picked up a while back, so I figure that's legit, or at least a decent forgery. The left card is from 2005, while the card on the right is from 2006, the year he was drafted. Maybe he had a different signature in 2005, and then the next year when he had to sign millions of cards and stickers, he adjusted to a quicker autograph..? But whatever, I didn't have either card in the PC, scribbled on or not, so I figured they were worth the 72 cents each.

The Marcus Mariota / Dorial Green-Beckham dual relic is kinda ruined by the boring plain white swatches, but is otherwise a cool looking card, #'d 43/50 on the back. The Cam Newton card caught my eye with a chunk of pigskin embedded in it. Nowhere on the card does it mention it, so I've gotta assume it's just a b.s. manufactured relic, not actual game-used memorabilia, which is kind of a bummer, but hey it was cheap. These are both up for trade if anyone wants either.

Junior Seau is a guy I still kinda like even though as a whole the Chargers are dead to me now. Couldn't pass up some cheap jersey cards.

This pair would be considered the same card on most checklists, but hey, different colored bits of fabric, I count them as different cards. Listed for over $7 on COMC, so they seem like a solid deal for me at a tenth of that.

Finally, a non-certified Emmitt Smith auto. I didn't put much faith in this one being legit, but figured it was still worth throwing on my stack just in case. From taking a quick look at his autos on eBay just now, this one isn't even close. Oh well.

Thanks for poppin' by.

The Angusening

Angus of Dawg Day Cards dropped a heck of a card package on me.

The heft of the package was a box of about 400 cards from 1979 Topps-- some good names, too-- taking me from around 30% complete all the way up to over 87% complete! Ninety-two cards left to go.

These '79s were a complete surprise. What I had expected from Angus were some of his spare Cleveland Browns cards...

I've been wanting to start a PC of hometown boy Brian Sipe for a while but had zero of his cards before this lot. I just learned that El Cajon won the Little League World Series in 1961 with a team featuring Brian. That's pretty cool. He then attended Grossmont High School, a district rival of mine, before attending my alma mater, San Diego State University. He went onto a solid NFL career with the Browns highlighted by being named MVP in 1980.

And Sipe isn't the only former Brown with ties to my hometown...

Touchdown Tommy Vardell is among the greatest athletes to have attended Granite Hills High School. He went onto become the star running back for Stanford before entering the NFL with Cleveland in 1992. Lots of great cards here... and here:

Seeing as I tend to focus on baseball Guys From Granite, I only had 9 or 10 Tommy Vardell cards before this generous lot from Angus more than tripled the PC!

He also sent along a bunch of Canadian Padres cards.

Some more baseball stuff, including a Reggie Jackson "SportsClix" miniature figure.

Here's a closer look at Reggie. He arrived broken off the base, but a little glue fixed him right up.

And for my Greatest Gavins minicollection, an OPC hockey card.

And we close out with a few more football cards highlighted by a sweet LaDainian Tomlinson red refractor. Also a Michael Sam auto and Marshall Faulk rookie.

Thanks a lot, Angus! I've got a couple Browns hits set aside for you and will keep an eye out for more at the next card show.

-   -  - - ---o

#CardMood pic.twitter.com/Mbsr6YZWt1

— Baseball Card Breakdown (@breakdowncards) February 1, 2019

I woke up with a tiny bit of a sniffle, and didn't have much on my plate at work today, so called in sick.

I successfully made it through another Dry January (no booze all month), and celebrated with a beer at lunch today.

I was a day late in celebrating Jackie Robinson's 100th birthday, but whipped up a nifty gif card today. I think this is one of my best, if I say so myself!

This helped me hit 1400 followers on Twitter today, which is pretty crazy.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

Card Show Cleanout!

December's Mall 205 card show was on the 1st of the month, which is considerate of them, keeping it as far away from Christmas as possible. It was a good one for me. In a rare move, I turned my pockets inside out and spent every last cent on my person to score one last big card. But we'll save that for later in the post.

I reluctantly decided recently that I want to try going to go for a full decade run of 70s Topps flagship, and so that means mainly 1970 and 1972 Topps to worry about (I've already completed '71 and '73). I got my foot in the door with this lot of minor stars and mid-numbers (looked for numbers over 400). Most of these were priced at 50¢, though the Woodie Fryman (high-number) and Teddy Ballgame up top were $2 and $4 respectively, but Lyle the dealer gave me a good rounded-down total.

Decent lot of '72s with minor stars and a bunch of mid-numbers, priced at 50¢ each with a few 25¢ too. Hopefully my setbuild will be into double-digits percent-complete after I add these in.

I already had the vast majority of '57s I checked against my list, but ended up with a trio of additions. The two on the right are from the toughest series, always rewarding to knock off.

More vintage set needs and upgrades. That Cookie Rojas card sure is a sweet double dip.

Just call this one Star Wars Episode IV because it's A New Hoyt for my PC! It's offcenter enough to where I wouldn't mind upgrading at some point, but the price was right to snag this '61 from the $4 box along with the '70 Ted Williams. Hell, the cheapest one on COMC right now is $40, so 90% off that price looks like a pretty sweet deal.

OPC and Kellogg's here, for the heck of it.

Picked a few oddballs out of Lyle's quarterbox. Gwynn Star, Greg Vaughn minor league, Kirby trio, and a pair of Glassos.

Harvey Haddix is a guy who when I come across while thumbing through "commons" I'll usually throw on my stack. Don Mossi is another classic character along those lines. And the Post Zimmer is a nice addition my PC of The Gerbil.

Lyle is probably the oldest regular dealer at the show, pushing 80 or so. I'm not normally much of a "social" guy when I'm digging for cards, especially with the younger, hit-driven dealers focused on the latest big rookie or whatever, but Lyle is a fun guy to chat with.

During my dig, he was jailbreaking a couple PSA graded Clemente cards out of their cases and was beaming with his results. I congratulated him on his efforts. "I just don't deal with that [graded] stuff," he says. He's old-school and I respect that.

Then he was going through some new stuff he recently scored and found an old b&w postcard from his neighborhood, and it really knocked him on his ass. "These are my family! Not blood-related, but still my family." It was sweet to see the old guy be so moved with finding a random postcard featuring a school football team from his small hometown.

As I was finishing up at his table, he pulled out a slabbed Mantle that was next on the jailbreaking block. But unlike the PSA cards, this one was slabbed by BVG, featuring a thicker case, harder to free a card from than the PSA cases. "Oh well, I've done enough for today. I'll deal with this one another day." And he put it in his case.

When I was done going through his boxes, I gave him the numbers and he worked out the math. I had probably about $75-priced worth of cards by he told me $50 would be good. I happily agreed and reaching for my wallet asked just out of curiosity, "What would you ask for that Mantle? ..to save you the trouble."

In my mind I'd probably be agreeable with $100 or less, even though I knew I didn't have that much on me and might have to scrabble. He looked it up in an old price guide and gave the card a once-over and after a moment said... "$80." I replied I could probably be good with that and dug out all the cash I had on me.. the rest of the money I had set aside for the card show, and anything else that was in my wallet, including my "emergency money" holed away in there. I came up with only $70 (in addition to the $50 already pulled out).. asked it that was ok with him.. and after a brief misunderstanding-- he initially thought I was offering $70 TOTAL for the Mantle plus the other stack of cards I had already picked out-- we shook on the deal.

.

.


.

Boom! I haven't added a new vintage Mantle base card to my PC in a few years. This is a very nice add, to be sure. I think this is my 2nd earliest Mick behind a beat-up '57. It's my first graded base card of his (also got a slabbed '65 League Leader). As I always say, I don't concern myself much with the grades, but I do appreciate the peace of mind knowing that the card is authenticated. This card could probably fetch around twice as much on eBay, so I'm pretty happy with the deal.

It's in excellent shape with really the only thing I can see keeping it down in "very good" territory is a minor crease in the upper right that serendipitously happens to run along the top of Yankee Stadium. You really couldn't ask for a better crease.

Clean back.
When I returned to the hobby a few years ago, I sort of made a collecting goal for myself to pick up a vintage Mantle each year, with an eventual goal of completing his flagship Topps/Bowman run (though the '52 Topps wouldn't be likely). Well, I've sort of fallen away from that goal, but this pickup helps me take another step forward. I've got a nice 4-year run going here now with 63, 64, 65, and 66. I also have 68 and 69, so hey, that's over half the decade of the 60s down! Maybe I'll finish off the 60s Topps Mantles in a few more years.

I think this is the biggest card show pickup for me of 2018, and will also fittingly stand as my last card show pickup of the year. Very happy with it.


But wait, this post isn't over.

Before my big haul at Lyle's table, I also dropped an Andrew Jackson at Bill's bins.

Most of what he had out was football. I stocked up on trade fodder for SCC (bunch of NY Giants) plus some other tradable teams (a few Browns for Angus, though sadly came up short with Redskins for GCA). And hey, that Barry Larkin refractor (1998 Donruss Collections - Prized Collections #PC20) is $11+ on COMC, so was a steal for what I paid for it. Maybe Nachos Grande or Dennis wants to call dibs on it?

I don't do much football these days, but if that's what's readily available, I'll take a look, and probably end up with a few cards for myself. Here we've got.. numbered Faulk/Warner, Ricky Williams rookie, Tom Brady oddball mini, Goff draft parallel, Namath rookie reprint.

Some older stuff too. Well, the Elway and Montana rookies are 2001 Archives reprints, but the rest are legit. These were 3 for a dollar.

After the vintage haul at Lyle's table, this modern baseball stuff from Bill isn't all that interesting, but still some decent cards here.

I tried to get a gif of these sweet lenticular Jerry Rice and Barry Sanders cards going buckwild in the window with the light going through them, but I didn't work, sorry to say. (The photo app on my phone has updated and no longer works the same way it once did.) Trust me when I say these things scramble like a piece of plastic possessed.

And a final football card that looks awesome in hand, this Ricky Williams card with the cool beaded background that glistens in the light.

That's my haul from the December 2018 card show. I'm pretty happy with it!
Thanks for reading.