You'll Die Laughing!

Here is part two of my Halloween contribution to the blogosphere.

This lot of 1973 Topps You'll Die Laughing came from the same seller as The Addams Family cards from the previous post. These were gotten for a pretty good price as well, which was probably due to the fact that they were not described very well and had blurry pictures. So I ended up with over half the set and some doubles for around $18.

Here is a small sampling of the lot:

The backs are comprised of jokes and other bits of wisdom.

One of the joke backs:

And one of the more philosophical of the bunch:

Happy Halloween everyone!

They're creepy and they're kooky...

Make no bones about it, I love Halloween. Whether we're talking about horror movies (especially of the older variety), television specials, music, candy, costumes, or decorations. I say bring it all on, the more the merrier scarier.

So this post and the next one will be Halloween themed (sort of).

The cards showcased here are from the bottom of one of my now quickly diminishing stacks that I mentioned here. This group of card is from the 1964 Donruss "The Addams Family" set. I think this lot was one of my better purchases this year. The lot of 18 broken down, was a little less then $1.50 a card, which is quite a bit cheaper than they normally sell for in this condition.

And one of the puzzle backs:

Be sure to tune in Saturday for another spooktacular installment.

What are the odds?

During the NBA playoffs earlier this year I thought I would treat myself to a box of cards. Not that the playoffs made me want to buy something, they just happened to be in progress when this event took place.

I knew I wanted something late 90's-ish. The only problem is basketball boxes from that time period tend to be a bit pricey. After some quick searching I ended up with a box of 1999-00 Topps Gallery, that if I remember correctly cost around $45 on Ebay.

I should also probably mention up front that this box was pretty unremarkable, content-wise, save for the two cards that are being featured here.

So for those unfamiliar with the set there was a parallel set called "Player's Private Issue" that were serial numbered to 250. And remember this is before half the cards in every box were serial numbered. The odds of getting the PPI cards was 1:17 packs, so I beat the odds by pulling 2 out of 24 packs.

Ok, enough with the build-up. Take a look at the pictures below and see if anything jumps out at you:

And the back

Notice any similarities? At first I thought it was interesting that I got parallels of both the John Stockton cards in the set. And then to realize that they were both #'d 208/250, well that was just plain weird. I'm not particularly good at math, but I'm guessing the odds of that happening have to be somewhat staggering. If anyone can figure out the numbers I would love to know.

Someone stole the stats!

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely love blank back cards. I don't know why, but I do.

I'm primarily a set collector with some autographs on the side. But I also have a separate collection slowly being built consisting of blank backs and to a lesser extent, blank fronts.

I think part of the reason why I like them so much is the fact that in the world before Ebay I had never laid eyes upon one. Growing up I never saw any at card shops and I certainly never pulled any from a pack, and I have opened a lot of packs/boxes over the years. So when I finally did see one, it was love at first sight.

So here are two recent additions to my collection.

                             1979-80 Topps Charlie Scott blank back

I don't have very many basketball blank backs, mostly due to the fact that they don't seem to be very common. It almost seems like Topps was more careful when printing basketball and football cards than they were with baseball. The card has a bit of a punky corner but considering the scarcity I didn't think it mattered all that much. This is now the second oldest one I have on the basketball side. In case you're curious the oldest is a 1972-73 Topps Dick Van Arsdale.

                              1987 Topps Group of 50 blank backs

This wasn't a star studded lot ,and since I think everyone has seen their fair share of cards from this set I will just show off a couple of the biggies from this group.

I was very surprised that I actually won this lot, as I usually bid on and lose out on just about every decent sized lot that comes up on Ebay. I think I paid around $10.00 for this group, which I thought was pretty low.

And on the flipside (pun?) I don't really care for blank back promos and I really dislike the intentionally created blanks that I have seen from some of the newer sets.

Thanks for taking a look.

Two new autographs

These two cards were supposed to be in the second to last post, but thanks to a wonky internet connection and some impatience on my part they had to wait.

So now they get to be featured in this quick follow-up.

2014 Cryptozoic Adventure Time Autographs Erik Estrada

Adventure Time is one of three current television shows that I watch. And being a big fan of the show, naturally I would want to collect the cards. I have the complete base set (and a lot of doubles in case anyone is interested) and am trying to complete the insert sets. I'm also slowly working on the autographs and I suppose the sketches too (pricey!). So I was very happy to add this one to the collection via Ebay for $3.99 with free shipping.

As far as Erik Estrada goes, I  really can't call myself a fan. CHiPs was on before I was born and when I was growing up it wasn't one of the seemingly endless amount of shows I watched in syndication. Although he was on an episode of Kolchak, which is my favorite show of all time, so I might have wanted his autograph just for that reason alone.

2001 Inkworks Smallville season 1 Autographs Joe Morton

I hate to admit it. But I did watch Smallville, and stuck with it way too long (6th or 7th season). Every time I was ready to finally give up on it, they would have an amazing episode where they would make you think the series is going to turn around and head in the right direction. But just when it would look like things were picking up they would always go right back to the same bulljive as before. I have no regrets about not seeing it through.

I really wanted this card solely because of Joe Morton's portrayal of the unfortunate Miles Dyson in T2. Simple as that! I think the total for this card was around $5.00 on Ebay. Hopefully these were worth the couple of days wait.

Also I wanted to mention if you follow the link below:
 http://baseballcardbreakdown.blogspot.com/2015/10/big-600th-post-contest-spectacular.html a fellow called Gavin is having very fun sounding contest in which part of the prize is a custom made card by him of your choosing. For someone like me who is computer challenged (in case you didn't notice by looking at the very lame appearance of this blog) it seems mind boggling to me that people are capable of creating their own cards. So go check it out!