COMC Shuffle #4

After a few unplanned days away from the blog (still been reading all of yours though, and commenting where I can), I'm back just in time for another COMC post. The ten cards in today's post don't seem to be quite as diverse as past weeks (IMO), but that's gonna happen from time to time, the shuffle button isn't perfect after all. But don't get me wrong, the cards that were selected are still good though, so don't go anywhere!


1961 Topps #16

I believe that I've spoken before about my semi-recent love for this Billy Muffett card, if I'm wrong, and I haven't, well, sometime last year I developed a minor obsession with this card. The "why" is still a mystery to me, but whatever the reason, it's still very much a thing, case in point...

... !!!!!!! It's a good thing that I'm counting duplicate purchases as one, otherwise dear reader's you'd be seeing these in separate posts, and I'm pretty sure that nobody but me, and maybe Mr. Muffett's relatives would want to see that.

1999-00 Ultimate Victory Ultimate Collection #17

Shawn Bradley used to be the butt of many a joke. Player's, as well as the folks who were calling the games, always made a big deal about him getting dunked on. I never understood that! He blocked a lot of shots during his career (even led the league one season). Sometimes when you attempt to block a shot, said attempt isn't successful, and you get dunked on, so what? At least he tried to block the shot! Would all of these people liked it more if he had saw someone coming down the lane, and just ducked out of the way, thereby conceiting the basket? Personally, I prefer the guy that goes for the block. Ducking out of the way is a really bad look.


1998-99 Topps Stadium Club Triumvirate - Luminescent #T16b

Not much to say about this one, other than it was cheap, and I didn't have it.


1933 Goudey #170

There doesn't seem to be a lot of info out there about Mr. McCurdy, his Wikipedia page is almost non-existent, and the SABR people seem to be dragging their heels (again), so that doesn't leave us with too many other options. I did notice that he passed away on my brother's birthday (different year though), which is mildly interesting, at least on a personal level.

Obligatory scan of the back.


2014 Panini Prizm Red, White, and Blue Prizms #105 (x2)

This my second favorite image (right behind Frank Gifford) from the 2014 Prizm set.


2014-15 Panini Prizm Blue and Green Mosaics #238 (x2)

I didn't realize until just a couple of months ago, how many people still collect Shawn Kemp, because of this, his cards carry a bit of a premium.


2018 Panini Classics Timeless Tributes Gold #134

I very much hope that Warren Moon doesn't ever stop getting new cards.


2012 Panini Black Friday Progressions - Magenta #4

Eli's coming! Or has he already came? I don't know where I'm going with this, but I swear that it wasn't supposed to sound so dirty, Three Dog Night gets me into more trouble...


2014 Panini Golden Age Historic Signatures #TDW

Wally freakin' Cleaver!!!!!!!!! This is why the Golden Age autos were, and still are, so great!


2015-16 Panini Prizm Ruby Wave Prizm #179

Look at all of that red! Is it just me, or does Dame look a lot like Russell Westbrook in this photo? That's not a compliment by the way.

That's ten cards, well, technically it was twenty one cards, but you know what I mean. These posts go by so fast. If I didn't need them for later-in-the-year card content so bad, I'd increase the number of randomized cards per post, but then July or August would roll around and I'd probably have no new cards to talk about -- so I guess I better keep it at ten per post :)


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U don't see that everyday

                                          
I don't know about anyone else, but it's not everyday that I come across someone who has an original (i.e. playing days) Johnny Unitas up for trade -- so when Greg, from The Collective Mind, mentioned semi-recently that he had acquired an extra '71 Topps Johnny U, and it was available for trade, well, I just had to act!

Since you're seeing, and hearing about, the card, obviously we were able to reach an agreement. Although I wouldn't describe the trade as a "trade", more like an exchange, as there was no formalness to it -- which I'm grateful to Greg for, because formal trades are not something that I particularly enjoy, too much stress!

I absolutely love this Unitas, especially that awkward smile of his... clearly not something that he did very often.

The 1971 Topps football set isn't one that I've paid a great a deal of attention to since my return to card collecting, I'm starting to think that this was an oversight on my part, as there seems to be quite a few photos worthy of my attention... like this Jack Snow! Awesome card (bad scan), I can see myself acquiring a few more copies of it at some point.

The package wasn't all vintage football, in fact most of it was...

... made up of...

... lots...

... and...

... lots...

... of 2005 Upper Deck Classics! I haven't seen this many of these at one time in quite a while. If you're familiar with Greg even in the slightest, you probably wouldn't be surprised to learn that they were all in order too, which certainly wasn't necessary, but it was a nice touch. Sorry for this crooked scan here, Jack Clark was flirting with some static electricity, I tried to keep those two kids apart, but after the third attempt failed I just let them be... hopefully they'll go on to live happily ever after!

Thank you again for the cards, Greg! And thanks for the easy "trade", your lack of formality was, and is, very much appreciated.


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COMC Shuffle #3

Hopefully everybody knows the deal by now, cards from COMC + picture program's shuffle button = blog post/series. Cool? Cool.


2013 Panini Cooperstown Green Crystal #82

I am now only one card away from completing this set. I've sort of, at least temporarily(?), lost interest in it, so the prospect of completing my first parallel set isn't nearly as exciting as it once was.


1962 Topps Mars Attacks! #41

I don't remember exactly when it was, but sometime last year the Challenges were open for what seemed like days on end, and I in turn, wasted quite a few hours of my life doing them (the same could be said about the last couple of years) -- the only bright side of this was that somebody went ahead and added around half a dozen original Mars Attacks! cards to the site right after this multiple day marathon of Challenges. All of the cards were in the good to very good range (if you look closely you can see a crease in the upper left hand corner), which is about the best I can hope for, as anything nicer means that they'll probably be out of my price range. These newly listed cards were priced surprisingly well, but I still went ahead and made offers on all of them, the seller ended up accepting all of said offers, so when all was said and done, I paid (in earned credit) about $6 apiece for all of 'em... this would be one of my favorite purchases from all of last year.

"Horror in Paris" has always been one of my favorite cards from the set, mostly because it's always reminded me, imagewise, of The Monster That Challenged the World.

As usual, I don't know if anyone cares, but here's the back (obviously).


2012 Topps Update Series Golden Moments #US123

After a year away from the game, Jamie Moyer returned to baseball in 2012. Signing with the Rockies, he went 2-5 in his 10 starts, before being released by the team. Having been a big fan of Jamie's for quite a number of years, I was a bit surprised that I never knew that he had made it into the 2012 Update set, so when I saw this card for 32 cents during the Black Friday sale, well, I just had to have it.


2013-14 Panini Prizm Red Prizms #237 (x3)

This is why I don't usually scan Prizm cards, they end up looking like hot poop! Love this card though, Manute is one of the guy's from the 2013 set that I'm collecting as many parallels (including doubles, triples, etc.) from as I can.


1949 Bowman #126

Al here was one of those "priced so cheap that I couldn't resist" kind of purchases, the kind that I'm trying to cut down on, but between the fantastic condition, and obscenely low price, I just couldn't not get it. The card, and the player, don't really fit into my collection anywhere, but Mr. Brazle was a member of the Cardinals team that bested the Red Sox in that '46 World Series that went seven games, so I guess that's something?


2018 Panini Classics Optichrome Timeless Tributes Gold #102 (x3)

Have I ever mentioned how much I love the retired portion of the 2018 Classics checklist? These gold chrome refractors Optichrome's are numbered to 65, I own five of the Dickerson's. As fun as it would be to try and chase them all (not a real possibility), I'd be content with just getting four more of them, that way I could have a whole pages worth.


2013 Panini Golden Age Playing Cards #7H

Not much to say about this one, it was cheap, and I needed it for my set... so here we are!


1957 Topps #43

Sometime last year I was reading something somewhere, which ended up leading me to read an article about Connie Johnson, who I had heard of, but never knew anything about. After learning of the success that he had had in the Negro Leagues, plus the character of the man himself, I decided to seek out some of his cards -- he only has four, so building a collection won't be terribly difficult. As of this writing, I'm only missing his '56 Topps rookie card.


2015-16 Panini Prizm Ruby Wave Prizm #198

Markel Brown isn't one of the Prizm guys that I'm collecting, I just really like the image, which in my opinion, is one of the better one's from the 2015 set.


2012 Panini Black Friday Progressions - Cyan #12

Today's final card is a pretty cool one, my first, and still only, Alex Ovechkin! I came across this card on the very day that it was added to the site, it started out at $10, which was a little high for me, so I put it in my watch list (fully expecting someone to buy it). Within just a couple of days it had dropped to $8, then one morning, about a week later, I checked the watch list to see if anything was on sale, and the card was down to $5???? I tell ya', I couldn't hit that buy it now button fast enough! I just couldn't believe that, much like the Kobe in last week's post, a card of such a big name - that is limited to just five copies - could be had for so little. It really show how uninterested most collector's are in these Progressions, oh well though, it just means that there's more for me :-)


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One Random Pack: 2015 Panini Prizm football rack pack

I have about two dozen different unopened packs laying around, and I'm in desperate need for an occasional fluff post, so why not create a fluff series to showcase some of these random packs, yes? No? Well, honestly I don't really care what anyone thinks about it, I'm just gonna go ahead and do it anyway. Besides, if you don't like it, I'm only going to do one every couple of weeks, so it's not like you're going to be besieged by them or anything.

First up will be the Prizm rack pack that I got for Christmas:

If you've ever opened a Prizm rack pack before, you probably already know how they're configured, if not though, they're made up of 3 retail packs (4 cards in each pack), and 1 "bonus" pack of the red, white, and blue parallels (3 cards in that pack).

I have never opened any packs of Prizm football before, so this should be fun... no matter how it turns out.


Pack #1

This first pack wasn't too bad, I mean I'm at least familiar with three out of the four players so that's something.

Andrew Luck insert: Can he be referred to as a bust yet?

Garrett Grayson: No idea? I see that he's from Vancouver, WA though, a place that I called home for a few years. Maybe that small connection is enough to warrant a small player collection... is what I thought before checking COMC! There are currently 367 different cards of his sitting on the site, and 85 that are sold out - why does a guy who has yet to play a single down in the NFL have over 450 different cards? Oh well, no Garrett Grayson collection for me.

Von Miller: He was pretty good, but his cards are meh to me.

Warren Moon: Now were talking! He's the kind of player that I want to find when opening a pack.

Keepers: Warren Moon.



Pack #2

Well, at least the first pack wasn't too bad :)


Dorial Green-Beckham: Here's a surprise... never heard of him! He apparently got stopped a couple of months ago with 8 pounds of pot, and then decided to resist arrest, me thinks that he won't be back in the NFL anytime soon.

Tamba Hali silver prizm: Never heard of him either. He retired not too long ago, finished his career with 89.5 sacks, not bad for 12 seasons.

Randall Cobb: I remember him from his time at UK.

Julio Jones: And I remember him from his time at Alabama.

Keepers: None.


Pack #3

Finally... some color!

David Johnson: I've seen his name in print before, but that's about it.

Cordarrelle Patterson red prizm: No clue?

Lawrence Taylor: Yes!!!! But why couldn't he be the red prizm?

Torrey Smith: Nope?

Keepers: LT.



RW&B pack

Could've been better.

Denzel Perryman: I have ever mentioned how much I dislike modern rookie cards?

T.Y. Hilton: Decent player, but today's receivers bore me, things have been made too easy for them.

Matt Forte: Saw him play quite a bit, he was fun to watch early on in his career.

Keepers: Matt Forte

Overall it certainly wasn't the best rack pack ever, but it was still fun to open, especially since it'll probably be the only one from the 2015 set that I ever get to open. And as you may have noticed, there aren't too many keepers, so if anyone sees something that tickles there nether regions, don't be shy about speaking up.

On a completely unrelated note:

The first sign of Spring was seen here this past Friday, taking the form of this 2 foot long (and some change) juvenile black rat snake, who came out to soak up some sun (saw him/her in almost the exact same spot again yesterday). This is a very good sign, as the warm weather can't get here soon enough, at least in my opinion that is!


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COMC Shuffle #2

Hey there, and welcome to the second edition of the new series that everyone's been talking about... what? You say that you haven't heard anyone talking about it? Well, it's entirely possible that I may have exaggerated a little, nonetheless, you're here, and I'm here, so let's do this!

On the off chance that you missed last week's inaugural post, and you don't feel like going back to see what's what, the concept is pretty simple, in that I'm just letting my picture program's shuffle feature decide which ten items from last year's COMC horde gets shown per post. See, simple!


1961-62 Fleer #32

A multiple time all-star, and multiple time champion (three with the Celtics), Willie's one of those great players that fans just don't seem to remember anymore, or worse, just don't care enough about to go read up on.

Don't know if anyone's interested, but here's the back anyway.



2014-15 Panini Prizm Yellow and Red Mosaic #64 (x2)

Collecting hall of famers is always fun, but collecting future hall of famers can be just as fun.


2018 Panini Classics Timeless Tributes Gold #133

Of all of the Classics parallels that I own - which really isn't that many - this Paul Hornung ranks up there amongst my favorites... so much yellow!


2012 Panini Black Friday Panini Collection Progressions - Magenta #BM

I'm working on a number of Progressions rainbows right now (I've even finished two), Biz is by far my favorite one that I've got going. I have 3 out of the 4, but the black is proving to be rather elusive, of course when there's only five copies out there, it isn't hard to imagine to why. I don't have a most wanted list or anything, but if I did, that black would be at the very top.


1999-00 Upper Deck HoloGrFX Maximum Jordan #MJ4

I've made my feelings known about MJ on this blog many times over the years (not a fan), but I do like 90's inserts, and HoloGrFX was, and still is, one of my favorite sets, so...

Upper Deck really went bonkers with the MJ insert sets, most of which are terribly uninteresting, but I am working on this one, in fact I now only need one more to complete the six-card set.


2013 Panini Golden Age Historic Signatures #JEH

Only two posts in to this series, and the shuffler already landed on the most expensive card from last year's haul. Whether it's big-time movies like The Bad News Bears or Watchmen (if you haven't seen the director's cut, watch that version), unfairly cancelled television series' like Human Target, or even all but forgotten cartoons like Gravedale High, Jackie Earle Haley never disappoints. Of all of the Bears signatures in the 2013 set, Jackie is the most pricey, not only because of everything else he's done, but also because of all the Bears signers, he signed the least amount of cards. And even though it was a bit higher than I would've liked to pay (or rather, use credit on), I'm still happy to say that I got it for less than the going rate on eBay.


2014-15 Panini Prizm Yellow and Red Mosaic #134

It seems like I've seen multiple discussions on Twitter in recent weeks about whether or not VC is hall worthy. If I was in charge of such things, he wouldn't make it (nothing personal, I just don't think that he's done enough), but I'm not, so he will be elected at some point (I'll put money on that).


2013-14 Panini Prizm Retail Green #235

I didn't used to notice the matching color parallels, but thanks to Chris and his collection of them, I now do - and dare I say, that I've actually gone out of my way a few times to look for them in the last year or two.


2013 Panini National Convention Progressions - Black #7

Without looking at my binder, I think this is my only progression from one of The National sets. I prefer the progressions from the Black Friday sets, but it was just too hard to pass up a Kobe card that has a print run of 5, for less than $5 (in credit).


2011 Topps Lineage Reprint Autographs #RA-CD

Love this autograph set, but like a lot of other things, it's been sort of pushed to a back burner. As for the player depicted, there doesn't seem to be whole hell of a lot of info out there about Chuck Diering, even the SABR people haven't done a piece on him yet - probably should have started working on that before he passed away back in 2012, hmm?

Another decent selection, if I don't say so myself. I can see that me and this shuffler are going to get along just fine :)


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Cups and cards

Back in January, early January to be exact, Andy, from Stadium Fantasium, ran a contest in conjunction with the Rose Bowl. And this wasn't just any contest, no, it was Andy's first blog contest... which is always cause for celebration!

The contest itself was one of those multi-tiered affairs, guess the halftime score, final score, etc., which meant that contestants could win multiple times. If memory serves I didn't fair too well, but since there wasn't a lot of entrants I apparently did enough to still win one of the prize packs. Even after a couple of months I still don't understand the lack of support that this contest received, I mean yes, it was a football contest, but the bulk of the prizes were of the baseball variety, so that should of appealed to the majority of the card bloggers? I'm in the mood to climb up on a soapbox here, but I won't, I will instead just say that hopefully a few more people will show up the next time Andy decides to have a contest.

Anyways, all the winners got a couple of commemorative cups, a game program, and their choice of two prizes (I think it was two for everyone?) from one of the more extensive prize lists that I can recall seeing.

Since I'm not one to pay too much attention to current happenings, I had no idea that commemorative cups were still being made for various events -- they seem like something most modern folks wouldn't care about anymore. But, I'm glad to find out that they are still being made, and apparently some of them, like this first cup, are being made with lenticular technology.

I tried to capture some of it's lenticularness on the backside, but that didn't work out too well. No matter though, because it amazing in person.

This second one is much more traditional, but still quite handsome. There was also Rose Bowl vase that was included, but I just couldn't get a decent picture of it, so it's here in spirit only.

It was nice to be able to add some new blood to my cup collection, and yes, I did just say that I have a collection of cups, of which probably 10-20 are still packed up, but the ones that I do have out and on display, can be seen (albeit with some bad glare) here...

... and here...

I don't know if American Gladiators would fall into the sports category or not, but if it doesn't, the cups from Andy then will be my only sport cups -- I'm pretty sure that I used to have a Fred McGriff Icee cup, but I don't know what happened to it.

Along with the cups, winners were also given some other paper ephemera, which came in the form of two different program-y type things.

This one is like a phone book, and it's got a breakdown of every single game from each of the two teams past season, which is kind of neat, but the real meat is towards the back of the book...

... History! Lots...

... and lots...

... of history! I can't imagine that too many people attending today's game would care too much about what happened 100 years ago, but I absolutely love it (much more interesting than the current games).

I mentioned at the top that winners got to pick out two prizes from a massive list of goodies, most of which was baseball related, but since baseball hasn't been doing too much for me as of late, I elected to go the football route instead. The above pack was listed as a 1993 Score cellophane pack, which, given the cellophane wrapper, I thought might be promotional pack of some sort, turns out...

... it's actually half of the 1993 Score Quarterback Club insert set. Andy had what was now obviously the second half of the set as well, but since I didn't know that that was what it was, I didn't end up selecting it. I'm still undecided as to whether or not I want to open it, on the one hand it's nice to have it contained like this, but on the other they would probably look better in a binder?

My second pick was a pack from a set that I had never heard of before, 1998 Collector's Edge 1st Place. As tempting as it's been, I still haven't opened up this one yet either, but I will, and the contents will be shown either here, or over on the APTBNL blog.

Thanks again for the contest, Andy! I really dig the cups, as well as the prizes that I was allowed to pick out. Now if you'd just add a few more things to your wantlist, maybe a certain someone (it's me) could send you a more tangible thank you of some sort :)


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