Barter trade with a former Topps employee

I recently swapped a pair of CDs for a box of various cards. I love those rare times when I can swing a barter trade, as they just seem more special or whatever than a purchase or straight cards-for-cards deal.

The story of this one is a guy on a FB group for an old band I like was looking to buy some bootleg live CDs he owned back in the day. His popup profile thing said he worked as a designer at Topps, which got my attention so I reached out about the possibility of a cards-for-CDs swap. Turns out he was no longer at Topps, and that they were "crazy stingy" during most of his tenure, but he had a small box of hits from pack rips a decade ago before things got too bad at the company. He shared blurry overview photos of the cards, and nothing jumped out at me in particular (sadly no Ohtani or Judge autos to choose from), but there were a few nice cards and a good variety of stuff I could have fun sorting through, with plenty of stuff that would slide nicely into my collection. Since he wasn't too attached to the cards and I wasn't too attached to the couple of rare CDs I had from his wantlist, we were able to work out a deal where I got the whole lot of cards.

Kicking off with these big three. There were a few baseball autos in the lot, but funny enough the best of them is a mascot. Clark's 2016 Opening Day auto is especially neato considering that was the year the Cubs finally broke the curse. The Abe Vigoda ginter relic is pretty great too, for those of us old enough to remember him (or at least his funny later appearances on Conan). But the Sting relic/auto #'d 26/50 might be the top card of the lot. I'm not even a big wrestling guy, but I know he's a good name to pull there.

Highlights from the several relics, including a couple pinstripes. The former Topps guy I traded with is a Mets fan, so that might explain why they have more representation in the lot than other teams. (Yankees and Dodgers were both conspicuously absent.)

I'll show the rest of the baseball stuff at the end, but now strap in for some Star Warin'.

A pair of sketch cards with cool original artwork of fan favorites from the classic trilogy: the rancor and Boba Fett. Love these.

 
Figured I should show the backs in case anyone is interested in the artists, though I'm not going to take a stab at deciphering the names. I thought it was funny to see a stickergraph on the back of a sketch card, but I suppose since it's a Chrome product, they wanted to throw a plasticy border on it so it could count as a Chrome card (because of course Chrome surface wouldn't work for most types of sketching.) Pretty sure it's my first embedded sketch like that.

Some parallel/insert SW stuff. The Luke Skywalker is /50 on the back.
 

A couple manurelics, including a numbered Han Solo, plus a pair of "authentic film cel relic" cards that you can hold up to the light...

..to peep a still from space. Neat!

This trio of Star Wars autos aren't big names but still cool to add. Ralph Brown had a minor role in The Phantom Menace (with Alien³ and Wayne's World 2 among his other credits), with Phil Eason also working on Episode I. Turns out Yaddle is a female of the same green species as Yoda and Baby Yoda. Eason (d. 2021) also did puppetry work on Little Shop of Horrors (1986) and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). Rajia Baroudi was a voice on a couple episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. (Yours if you want it, Zippy!) She's done lots of other voice acting over the years and appeared on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers back in the day. That card is a parallel numbered /10 on the back, so that's cool. Oh, and Lady Yoda is /25.

 

Walking Dead hits don't do much for me, never having watched the show, but still cool to beef up my non-sport collection or possibly use as trade bait (Specifically, I would love to get that creepy zombie sketch card out of my house! lol). Katelyn Nacon and Corey Brill (#'d 10/10) are the autos. The dual relic (#'d 10/50) confused me because those people look familiar but it's the characters' names, not giving the actors' real names anywhere on the card. But I looked them up and the guy is Steven Yeun (most familiar to me from season one of Beef) and the lady is Lauren Cohan (who I've seen pop up in various TV shows over the years). Sonequa Martin-Green is less familiar to me, but she played a main character on the show Star Trek: Discovery and was on a couple episodes of New Girl.
 

Some more solid pro wrestling cards.

UFC. I don't know any of these guys, but I looked up the Frank Mir 10/10 red parallel, and there's one on COMC for $50, for whatever that's worth (Less than $50, one would assume). Like with the Walking Dead cards, I'd be down to trade these burly dudes for cards that better suited my interests, and may eventually put them on my TCDB for-tradelist.

Michelle Waterson here will probably stick in my collection, however, because she's kinda cute and has a cool looking signature.
 

We're getting close to the end now, with this group of misc. cards, including a Candace Parker commemorative flag patch (numbered to 19/99), a layered Emmitt Smith card (075/194), and a James Taylor "First Pitch" orange refractor. My face lit up when I noticed the serial number...

Christmas Card! I've seen fire and I've seen rain, but I never thought I'd see a James Taylor card among my 12/25's. There were 2 or 3 other /25 cards in the lot.. and I've always got my fingers crossed for lucky #12 in the run, but rarely score them organically like this.

And the rest! A few PC guys in here. The Luke Weaver RC auto might be ok if it wasn't from that ugly-ass Topps Gallery set. Brandon Finnegan is the one non-blue ink auto (17/25). A couple Yadi's. Abe Vigoda base card to go along with the relic from before. Clive Walford is the Raiders auto at the bottom. 

So yeah, this was a pretty sweet lot that I got for not much effort on my part. Not like I've listened to those CDs in years (and have them ripped to a hard drive for when I do want to hear them), but I can appreciate the guy's quest and glad I could help him out.. especially since it resulted in a nice boost to my card collection. Also neat to do a trade with somebody who worked at Topps.

Oh, and the same day I got this package, I also received my haul from The Collector's anniversary celebration extravaganza, so that's another fun "rip" on deck. I'll try to post about that stuff on his blog's special day (8/21), per his request.

Suddenly COMC

My previous COMC order took about half a year to arrive, and so I stayed away from the site for a while after that. But as other collectors had been sharing stories of quicker turnaround times in recent weeks, I figured I'd make a return. I spent a few days picking up cards, then requested shipment on 11/7, and the cards were shipped by the end of the month (11/29). I figured I'd get ahead of the Black Friday orders, and from what I heard, the sale was disappointing this year so I didn't miss out on much.

I've got 3 or 4 posts to write covering the package from COMC, but for today, just a few cards featuring strong women. Most of these I picked up for my problematically-named "girlie card" minicollection. Maybe I should rechristen this minicollection of mine "Women on Cardboard"? In fact, yeah, I think with this post I'll retire the "girlie card" label I've used on the blog since 2013 (a vague Married With Children reference) and start using the label "Women on Cardboard" from here on out. You know, gotta get with the times. Like the Cleveland Guardians and whatnot. lol

Leading off is the most expensive card of the COMC shipment..

There are a few pro wrestlers I like to collect despite not actually watching any wrestling beyond a short clip online once in a blue moon. Toni Storm is the latest addition to the short list of wrestlers I collect. After a frustrating experience attempting to trade for an auto of hers, I said screw it and bought one. Turned out the best deal at the time on eBay was a COMC listing, which along with a couple other cards in the same boat inspired me to do an order on the COMC site again to save a little money. But yeah, I thought this one looked pretty cool and I liked that the signature was on-card. And it's an earlier "1st Bowman"-equivalent one; she doesn't look much like that anymore these days.

Toni Storm 💥#WWE #Smackdown #RoyalRumble pic.twitter.com/dcRTh5bWmF

— WWEPPorn™ (@WWEPPorn) December 2, 2021

My interest in soccer doesn't move the needle at all, but Alex Morgan always seemed pretty cool. Figured I'd pick up some representative cards of hers for my collection.

Daenerys Targaryen there is my first Game of Thrones card, I'm pretty sure, despite loving the show (hell, I'm even in the minority who really liked the last season and final episode). Emilia Clarke autos are still pretty pricey, but this cheap base card will do for now.

The other 2 cards were picked up for my glow-in-the-dark minicollection. Welp, I took a chance on the card labeled "1999 Skybox Star Trek Voyager: Closer to Home - Interstellar Species Glow - Green"... but, sad trombone, it doesn't glow in the dark. Still kinda neat; purposely askew here to show its translucence. Denied entry into my Girlie Card Women on Cardboard collection, so it's available for trade. (Jeri Ryan without all the crap glued to her face? Then it'd be a keeper.)

The other card is a glowing insert from a set for an Image comic book called Avengelyne. I try to at least be a "type collector" when it comes to glow-in-the-dark cards, rather than super-collect them. I know I'll never be able to get every glowing card, but at least one card from each particular release of glowing cards is a more reasonable goal. And I didn't have any of those Avengelyne cards yet. This was the coolest looking of the 2 or 3 that COMC had available.

That'll wrap up this post. Have a great weekend, everybody.

Rod Rams Cool Cards into my Collection

A few days ago I posted about at a ton of great cards Zippy dropped on me, now it's time to tackle the other big card gifting I was on the receiving end of in January, this one handed to me in person by Padrographs Rod at the latest card show. February's card show is coming up this weekend, so I'd better get this post finished now before I fall further behind!

Plus I've got a motherload of (MST3K) cards scheduled to be delivered to the office on today that I'm very excited about. (Like "the pinnacle of my collecting life is nigh" levels of excited.) Update: it's in-hand! Will wait until tonight to bust it open.

Though my posting frequency has been down so far this year, between the monthly card show, Kenny, Rod, and online purchases, it's already been a very plentiful year for cards. They've been coming in faster than I can get them sorted and filed away, as often is the case, making me feel like I'm barely keeping afloat in a flood of cardboard. But I love cards so I suppose it's a good problem to have. Reminds me of that one simpsons gag...

Yes, I have too many cards, and yes, I want more.

[I'm not buying any 2020 Topps Series 1, at least, but keep me in mind if you pull any Lux, Tatis, Soto, or photo variations with powder blue Expos unis.]

But onto the cards from Rod! Again, there are a lot of them, so this post is going to be mostly like this.. photos of stacks of cards with some highlights on top and maybe some quick commentary from me. I believe most of these cards are from teams Rod was looking to clear out of his trade box (that went unclaimed in his pleas to find takers). So, as I would be digging through the cards, there'd be a cache of a hundred or so Orioles cards, for example, followed by maybe a hundred Rangers, etc. Maybe a third of the cards were "keepers" for me, with the other two-thirds headed toward my trade box.. perhaps to be one day thinned out on someone else, repeating the cycle.

Oh man, there were a lot of Astros cards in there, presenting me with a dilemma. I (used to?) collect several current Astros, but after all the cheating ugliness, they've quietly been removed from my wantlist. I guess I'll wait and see how the season plays out before I decide to officially break up these PCs or perhaps forgive-n-forget. I guess they're sorta paused for now. If cards fall into my lap like this, I'll sort them into PCs, but I'm not going to actively work to build them. (Hey JediJeff, that doesn't mean you're off the hook for that Correa relic you've owed me since 2018.. lol)

AL ROY Yordan Alvarez seems to have gotten through the scandal relatively unscathed since he wasn't around until his call-up last June. But if he falters to start the season, expect to see his card prices nosedive. Still though, excited to find these two.

And howbout the Polar Bear himself? I previously only had a card or two of Pete Alonso in my collection, so I'm very happy to score this RC lot of the reigning NL ROY. Seems like a good dude.. I should probably officially add his name to my list of guys I collect.

The Young Stud train keeps rolling with this terrific bunch of Juan Soto cards. This probably doubles my Childish Bambino PC. Love it!

Some unopened packs! I'll probably leave that 1987 cello hanger as-is and file it away with my Hendu PC.

Nick Margevicius is a guy Rod specifically collects, so I've got to give even extra thanks to him for gifting me this one. He knew this particular auto would be a hit with me...

Christmas Card!

Some great misc. stuff here. A few old cards that I'll need to check against my vintage wantlists.
That 1993 Pinnacle Cooperstown Card (Dwight Gooden) appears to be a new set I need to add to my umbrella collecting goal of early 90s black gold. Seems to be a 30-card box set that also has Dufex and promo variations of all 30 cards (rare/expensive).
The Garbage Pail Kids are from a set focusing on musicians, so that's kinda cool. Maybe I can work them into my music blog at some point.
The Sandlot sneaks into the action with a still-sealed set anniversary cards plus a few Archives inserts. Sweet!

Many autographs!

Many Hall of Famers.

Bunches of Beltre plus some other fan favorites.

There was a decent chunk of wrestling cards, mostly of the female variety. Lots of lovely ladies here, with my Alexa Bliss PC in particular getting several nice additions.

And some more cards I found interesting.

Wow, some more Juan Soto cards I missed before. Very cool.

And we'll close it out with this. Any old Beavers baseball would be kinda neat to get, but what makes this one even better...

It glows in the dark!! Awesome.
Now I've got both a glowing bat and ball.. just need a glowing glove and I'll be all set for some midnight baseball! :)

Rod, you're the best! I'm forever in your debt. As always please let me know if I can ever help you out with any cards, customs, or photoshop work. Thanks again!

A John Cena Christmas (card)

I've got a handful of new Christmas Cards to feature on the blog here if I can find the time as we ramp up to 12/25.

The first one is probably the biggest of the bunch.

For someone who never really watches wrestling, I've got a respectable little collection of wrestling cards. It mostly consists of pretty ladies such as AJ Lee and Alexa Bliss (though if you want to split hairs, those are more like a subcollection of my Girlie Cards minicollection, not stored with my other wrestling cards). But I have a few cards of male wrestlers too.

This John Cena 2016 Topps WWE Heritage autograph I recently picked up becomes my top wrestling card, at least as far as the men go.

He doesn't have the most visually pleasing signature, but at least it's big and bold (and on-card here).

My feelings towards the 1986 Topps Baseball design are a little conflicted. I've always thought it was one of the uglier flagship designs of the era, though not without its sentimental charm. For some reason, I really like modern parallels of the '86 design with colored borders, and I've got at least a couple other '86-style blue borders in my collection. The blue goes nicely with the signature, though the red from the top text and the orange and green from John's shirt clash a bit with the blue and make this card kind of ugly in an endearing way. I bet it would have looked better with "SUPERSTAR" in white.

But yeah, it looked good to me and the price was fair, so I was thinking of maybe buying it. Then when I saw the serial number on the back, I knew it was the right fit for my collection..

12/25!

As I say, I don't really watch wrestling, but I've seen John Cena enough in movies and on talk shows that I've become a fan of his. Seems like a good dude. Smart, down to earth, good sense of humor, does a lot of great charity work (His 600+ wishes granted ranks first all-time in Make-A-Wish Foundation history).

But what really won me over was when I saw this YouTube video a couple years back of a beautiful piano recital of "Where Is My Mind?", a song by the Pixies, one of my favorite bands. Being able to play piano like that on top of everything else he does damn near makes him a renaissance man. I don't know if I'd go as far as to use the term "man crush", but I'm impressed enough to start a little PC of the guy, the first active/modern male wrestler ever added to my wantlist. This is my first card of him, so if any of you have John Cena cards for trade, I'd likely be up for them.

Currently the top male wrestler in my collection by quantity is Sgt. Slaughter, PC pictured above. I've been a fan of his since a kid in the 80s when I was all about G.I. Joe and he was one of the very few "real people" to get his own GI Joe action figure. I recently followed a Classic GI Joe Twitter account, and it's been a blast from the past to see pictures of those old toys and comic books. The other day I "liked" a tweet from them regarding Sgt. Slaughter and a short while later I had a nice surprise...

Woo! Always a thrill to be followed by a celebrity you grew up admiring (see also Bill Madlock for me). With around 6k people he's following, it's not exactly an elite group, but still very cool.

Other than what's pictured in this post, I've got 3 or 4 cards of Andre The Giant and a couple Hulk Hogan, but I think that's about the extent of my card collection of male wrestlers. I wouldn't mind adding some Roddy Piper and Randy Savage cards at some point, too.
Thanks for stopping by.

card show bonus box from Rod

Always nice to bump into Rod at the monthly card show; And when he surprises me with a box of cards.. even better! Let's check out what this one's got in store.

I love shiny, numbered cards. That orange Wil Myers is #'d a scant 7/25... wow!

Hot rookies representing!

Some hits and inserts. Tanaka relic, pink Giancarlo, Big Hurt rookie reprint, and a couple Twins. That /25 Sano may come in handy if I ever attempt hammering out another trade with his Twitter supercollector.

More 2018 stuff. This is my first look at '18 Gallery in-hand. Although in my eyes this product is just a step above Panini Triple Play-- unless they're vintage or 1/1 sketchcards, I have very little interest in drawn/painted baseball cards-- I will give Topps credit on the solid design this year.

More good stuff from the box I can use.

Half dozen certified autos! Some familiar Padres From The Past for me here. Rymer Liriano didn't make it out of AAA this past season (Angles and Brewers systems), but did crank 20 homers, so maybe he'll stick around a while longer. Dane Phillips was a 2nd round pick in 2012 that didn't pan out and seems to have been out of baseball this year. Ben Davis was another highly touted Padres catcher who didn't live up to expectations, but at least he made the show and saw action in 7 MLB seasons.

A trio of signed customs! Always nice when there are extra Padrographs that Rod can share with me.

The backs look good too. I know firsthand that making custom backs can be a pain (they usually take like twice as long as the fronts if you include stats n' such), so I appreciate it when anyone takes the time to not just leave a custom as a blank-back.

I'm sure there are a few needs for me here in this nice Gwynn lot.

Rounding out the surprise box from Rod was a big stack of WWE divas. Some keepers for my "girlie card" minicollection here, including a pair of Alexa Blisses and rookie cards of Liv Morgan and Ronda Rousey.

Huge thanks, Rod! I'm in your debt, per usual, so please don't hesitate to let me know if I can help you out with anything.. cards, customs, photoshop work, whatever!