Sunday, January 17, 2021

Some firsts

I thought cutting back to two posts a week would help me with posting more consistently. If the first two weeks of the year are any sort of an indicator though, my plan seems to be having the opposite effect, as I've only managed to finish two posts up to this point.

For what it's worth, I did start three posts last week, with every intention of finishing them, but I guess it just wasn't in the cards (pun intended) for me to do so. Some of it was my fault for allowing myself to be distracted by other non-blog things, namely reading (I finished my fourth book of the year already), TCDB stuff, and doing challenges on COMC (my credit is low, and lots of good things are being added to the site again). Then there was the stuff that I didn't much control over, migraine on Tuesday, and not quite migraine-level headaches on Wednesday and Thursday (it was just one of those weeks), all three of which made computering difficult, and not very desirable. There was also the snow that came at the beginning of the week, and now the snow that has arrived in time to close out the week, which doesn't physically prevent me from blogging, but does have a profoundly adverse affect on my mood, thus making me not want to write anything, or at least not anything that someone would want to read.

There were some high spots though, I worked out a couple of more trades on the TCDB, including a slightly bigger one. I made up the $15 in credit that I spent on COMC last weekend (really good sale on newly added vintage non-sport cards) by doing the challenges. With things starting to move on the site again, I'm thinking we might get a Spring Cleaning sale, and if so, I want to have some play money in place before it starts. The best thing to occur though came on Thursday, that being the arrival of a very unexpected package from, Dennis, he of Too Many Verlanders fame. Not only was the gesture itself a wonderful surprise, but the cards were pretty good too, a few of which were firsts for me.

Jamie Moyer has relic cards? This was news to me! Not that I'm overly surprised mind you, I mean anybody who's played in the last twenty years or so, probably has a dozen plus relics out there, I just hadn't ever looked to see what he had available. Now that I have, I can say that I'm a bit surprised that he doesn't have more. 2004 Upper Deck Awesome Honors Jersey is not a set that I had heard of/seen before. There appears to be two different versions, Gold and Silver, as well as an Update set that has a completely different checklist. As far as Jamie goes, the silver version has white fabric, and the gold contains a dark blue swatch. The gold are not serial numbered, but are supposedly limited to 165 copies of each. I don't usually seek out the relics, but this one is pretty neat, and was a first for me. It's probably silly, but now I kind of want the silver, if only because I could then say that I was able to complete my first relic rainbow.

Moving onto another first, my first Pro Magnet. I've seen these plenty of times online (always scanned as poorly as this one), but had never encountered one in person before. They're much shinier than I had imagined, and just better looking in general than I would've thought. I need more!

I haven't acquired any new Tim Brown cards for quite awhile now (at least a year), Dennis didn't know this (nor did anyone else), but thanks to him I can no longer say that. Oh, and for the record, this is the first card from 1999's Collector's Edge 1st Place that I've ever owned.

Colbey did a Litho-Cel break a few months back that I kind of regret not getting in on, as I can't really afford to get a box anymore, and had always kind of wanted to open one. Participating in that break might've helped with that some. I know that Dennis took a chance on it, but don't know if this card came from that opening or not. I do own one other card from this set, one of the Cels, but it's just a random one that I found in a dime box a few years back, and isn't of someone that I collect, so... I guess I could say that this my first Litho-Cel of someone that I collect, eh?

Coming out of college, I guess it wasn't too much of stretch to think that Ricky Williams might be a "Future Legend", but things don't always go according to plan, they certainly didn't with Ricky's NFL career. Still a fun insert though, my first from this set.

Upon first sight, I thought this was my first football Triumvirate, but once I loaded the scan into the post I remembered that I already had one of Herman Moore, which after a brief search I found sitting in a scan folder waiting to be posted about, so while this Terrell isn't my first football Triumvirate, it is the first one that I've ever shown here on the blog. I don't care who's featured on the card, I absolutely adore these. A lot of 90's stuff has really gone up since the Rona got going, but a lot of great football inserts from that era, like these, are still quite affordable. Some day I'd like to complete one of these trifectas, I have 2 out of 3 on a couple of basketball ones, but have been too forgetful to remember to look up who I need to complete them. In case anyone's curious, John Elway and Shannon Sharpe make up the rest of this particular trio.

Many thanks to Dennis for this wonderful surprise, it brought some joy to an overall not-so-great week. And even though he said that these were belated Christmas cards, last Christmas already feels like it was months ago, so I'm gonna choose to go ahead and just think of these as early 2021 Christmas cards :)


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

22 comments:

  1. I like doing COMC challenges too. It's fun to be able to partially fund my COMC purchases.

    Sorry to hear about your migraines. I have my migraines occasionally, and though they're not too severe, they're very irritating.

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    1. They've completely funded my COMC purchases for the last 6+ years now.

      I was besieged by them when I was your age, 3-4 a week was commonplace, and they were always doozies. I'm glad to hear that yours aren't as bad, and I pray that they stay that way.

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  2. Ugh, I hope you don't have to deal with migraines again for a while, Jon, that sucks! Glad you liked your cards (the non-magnet Tim Browns were indeed from Colbey's breaks). And I haven't really done the COMC challenges in a while but that's awesome that you built up that much credit!

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    1. If only you could be right! And thanks then for passing along some of your break spoils, as it was nice to add some new Tim Brown's. As for getting credit from the Challenges goes, I've earned quite a bit over the years, much more than I'd ever admit to doing.

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  3. He did manage over 10,000 rushing yards. Only one All-Pro season though.

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  4. Never seen a Lithi-Cel or Triumvirate before. Very cool!

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  5. Sorry to hear about the migraine. One of my friends suffers from them and when one comes along the only thing she can do is take her meds, lie down, and close her eyes. Hope you don't have to deal with anymore anytime soon.

    As for the cards... I like seeing relics of guys like Moyer. That guy kept going and going and going.

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    1. They're not as frequent as they used to be, but I'm sure that plenty more will find me before my time is done. I've always been envious of the folks who can lay down with a migraine, as that's one of the worst things I can do for mine.

      Something that he and the Energizer Bunny had in common :)

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  6. I haven’t heard of the COMC Challenge. Sounds fun though. Sucks about the headaches. Hope things start to level out for you with posts!

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    1. They're not really that fun, but if you need or want some extra play money for the site, the challenges provide a good way to get it. I sure wish the posting would level out that too, as two a week should not be that hard.

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  7. Migraines suck, hope you feel better. Back in 1996 when the Leaf Signature Autographs came out, I bought a few packs from a local card shop in St. Louis. I was so irked off to pull a Jaime Moyer autograph. He was on the Cardinals a few years before and was horrible. I kept the card, filed it away in the box. He had a great second half of his career. That Leaf Signature seems a little better now.

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    1. They've been a long-time nemesis of mine, and will likely continue to be so. And I don't think anybody could've predicted how good of a career he would eventually have back in 1996. It was a good thing that you hung onto that card, I can imagine a lot of people at the time didn't.

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  8. Makes me wonder if Topps Wacky Packages ever featured "MyGrains"--the breakfast cereal that has to be eaten in a dark quiet room. Don't eat that stuff.

    Congrats on picking up some great cards from the Great Dennis.

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    1. If they haven't, they should! It also sounds like they should look into hiring you to create cards for future Wacky Packages sets :)

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  9. Do you actively collect Tim Brown? I found one or two the other day I've been meaning to post as trade bait.

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    1. I do, but for some reason I only ever get cards of his from shows. I'm not sure why exactly, unless it's because no one cares about him anymore (at least not here), and cool inserts/parallels can usually be had for next to nothing at shows. Whatever the reason though, I haven't been to a show in over a year, meaning that I haven't added anything new to that collection in over a year, which is why these cards from Dennis were so appreciated.

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  10. I'm happy you're posting, no matter how often. "MyGrains" that some funny stuff! Topppps will most certainly steal the idea. I battle them occasionally, usually start in my eyes. Hate that for you. Lying down is all that helps me.

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    1. If it makes you feel any better, I hate it too. But after dealing with them for over 25 years now, I've pretty much accepted them as just the way it is.

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