One of My Favorite Cards of the Year

After today's post, my next four will cover the four Black Friday boxes I just got. But before I get to those, I have got to do something that is now at least month overdue. That something is to give public thanks to Shawn (Corky) of Pack War fame.

Over a month ago now, on Halloween to be exact, Shawn did a post featuring a number of horror themed sketch cards that he had created. Within a day or two those same sketch cards were then put into a contest, which I then promptly entered. As per usual, the randomizer showed nothing but disdain for my name and put me at #6 out of the seven people entered. Normally that's a bad thing, but in this instance, even that mean ol' randomizer couldn't whammy away my hopes. You see, even though I was number six, I still got my number one choice...which was the sketch of Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth.

Look at that! Even after a month, I still can't get over how awesome that card is. I also still can't believe that none of the five people ahead of me chose it. The only thing I can figure, is that maybe none of them have seen the movie, which seems entirely possible because even though it was released in theatres nationally, it still seems to be somewhat of an unknown film to many. I guess it isn't too surprising that an R-rated fairy tale for adults that takes place during the tumultuous aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, that is then inter-spliced with Guillermo del Toro's lovecraftian imagery, wouldn't go over too well with the masses. I know when I saw it just a few days after it's release, there were only a handful of other people in the theatre, and that was at a time of day where it would have normally been packed.

 Part of the reason it took me so long to get around to doing this post was that I couldn't figure out a way to express how much I liked this card as it really is one of those times where saying "I really love this card", just doesn't seem like enough.
I thought about making a "top five cards gotten this year" list, but that wasn't working out so well. Why not, you ask? Take a look:

1. Card to be featured in future post
2. 1972-73 Topps Dr. J rookie
3. Pale Man sketch card
4. Card to be featured in future post
5. 1958 Topps Batting Foes Mantle/Aaron

You see what I mean? A top five list in which you can only see three out of the five seems kind of lame. So since I can't think of any more elaborate way to express my feelings for the card, I will just have to say that I like this much:

For anyone wondering, that's not actually me, it's just a good representation of how I feel about the card.

And since I still haven't added any want lists (I keep meaning to get to that), Shawn actually took the time to look through some of my older posts in an attempt to send along a few more things to keep the sketch card company. He could not have chosen two better cards, even if there had been some want lists to scour through.

It's hard to believe, but that is my first 1966 Topps Batman card. I have been a Batman fan for most of my life and have quite a of Batman paraphernalia , but for whatever reason I just haven't ever gotten around to working on any of the '66 sets.

But wait, there's more:

Also included was this 1966 Topps Red Bat buyback, which came from the 2013 Topps 75th Anniversary set. I was completely unaware that they had done buybacks for that set, otherwise I would have been seeking them out before now. So obviously this is (and was) my first non-sport buyback. Now the question is, do I attempt a non-sport buyback frankenset? It's tempting, very tempting. I guess I will have to see how difficult it will be to acquire more before I'm able to answer that question. Oh, and since I seem to have forgotten to mention it...this card is crazy awesome as well!

Thank you again, Shawn! This was an incredibly generous and well thought out envelope of cards, for which I was most grateful to receive.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.