Looking back through Rose(Bowl)-colored glasses

If one were to ask me how I feel about the month of January, I'd probably be a little leery over answering such a seemingly inane question, but after I got past my initial suspicions, I'd let whoever it is know that in general, I'm not big fan of it!

January means colder weather, much less sunlight, longer nights, and all of the good tidings and cheer that come from the Christmas season are abandoned, and everyone goes back to being their normal butth*le selves. Oh, and did I mention the cold, yeah, I really dislike being cold.

All of that being said, the last two January's have brought one thing that I do like (a lot!), and dare I say, look forward to, this being Andy's (Stadium Fantasium) annual Rose Bowl contest -- aka, my favorite blog contest.

Between being tiered, so that someone can win upwards of three different times/prizes, to the large list of prizes that the winners get to choose from, and to the fact that there can be multiple winners, there's really nothing that a body can't not like about this contest.

Being so fond of it, you've probably guessed by now that I entered again this year, and since I'm here talking about it, you've also probably guessed that I won something. If you did guess and/or assume both of those things, good for you, you're gonna go far with that gift of yours. Anyway, yes I did enter, and yes I did win something, in fact I won two somethings!

It's been a few months now, so the details have gotten a little fuzzy, but I do know that I came in second place for the second year in a row, falling once again to my "arch-nemesis", Fuji, who's taken home the gold for the last two years.

As per usual, there was a great list of prizes to choose from, but there was one in particular that I had been eyeing since this year's contest was announced, that being...

... the lot that contained this fantastic 1960 Topps Cleveland Browns team card! There are more than a few recognizable names in here, but the two that standout the most are those of Jim Brown and Bobby Mitchell. It's not everyday that I get to add a new Jim Brown card (and I do consider this to be a Jim Brown card) to the collection, so no complaints from me.

Included with the Jim Brown, was a 1993 Score Quarterback Club pack (on the left), which contained the following:

Not a bad group, eh? Don't ask me what was going on with Jim Harbaugh though, looks like he was trying to get away from the scan.

The second prize that I selected was also a lot (most of the prizes are), that had the second pack that you saw above in it, which was some sort of sampler pack(?):

There were three different sets represented in the pack, all of which were new to me. Three of these have a mirrored finish, which means that they weren't going to scan good, no matter what I did! I was only familiar with one of these guys, but it's always fun to be able to open up a pack of something.

As fun as opening pack is, the real reason that I chose this prize was because of it's lot mate...

Does anything scream late 80's/early 90's card collecting more than mini-boxed sets (that's mini-boxes BTW, not mini-cards, although those certainly were indicative of the era as well)? I knew of at least two cards in here that I really wanted, and had never owned before, so it was kind of an easy pick.

Here are just a few of the highlights. Had I known that Steve Young was in here too, I would've said that there were three cards that I really wanted, but as such, the two that I referred to, were the Sanders and Atwater rookies. It's really neat to own this Barry Sanders after all of these years, it's one of those cards that I wanted as a kid, but seems to have been much more expensive back then.

As much as I love this contest, I do have one complaint, and that's in regards to the low turnout that occurred the last two years. I get that it's a football contest, and most of the blog-o-sphere is the "baseball or bust" or sort, but most of the prizes are baseball related, so it shouldn't be that hard to rattle off three guesses and hope for the best, especially too since by doing so, you're also supporting an endeavor of one of your own. Heck, even someone like me, who hasn't watched a current sporting event in almost five years (I do read recaps and occasionally watch highlights though), is able to show up and pull a couple of guesses out of my backside... it's not that hard!

Many thanks once again to Andy, not only for the contest itself, but also for all of the generous prizes that are offered up. Things are still sort of sketchy right now, so who knows if there'll even be a Rose Bowl next year, but knowing what comes with Rose Bowl season, I'm certainly hoping that one will be held.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

The sickest of hits

Before I get going here, I need to confess a couple of things.

First, this post marks the first (and possibly the last) time that I have ever used the term, "sick hit(s)" (or hitz).

And Secondly, I still don't technically know what qualifies as a "sick hit", I used to think that it applied to any auto/relic, but now I'm sort of under the impression that the term is only used for 1/1's, star-player auto's, etc.

I don't know if it was because I hadn't been to show since last September, or if it was because Jim (my favorite seller at these shows, most of what you've already seen came from him), just had more things of interest to me, but either way I ended up buying a lot more auto's and relics than I normally do. Jim always has at least two 3200 ct boxes of "hits", it's these boxes that all the reseller's descend upon first, mostly because his prices are so low. Most of the time, the boxes are nearly cleaned out by the time I get there, and that's usually less than an hour after the show opens.

This show was no different, in that the vulture's had already picked over those boxes, but unlike usual, I was pleasantly surprised to find a few scraps still left on the carcass. Now that I think of it, I suppose the cards that I did get, could be considered the ones that had been deemed to have no resell value by all the flippers... but that's okay, as I was able to find some really fun stuff for myself, as well as other's (those will not be shown of course).

So no matter how the term is supposed to be used, the following is my interpretation of what a "sick hit" is:


2001 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Game-Used Bases Level 1

Even though you can't see it from the side, you'll just have to take my word for it when I say that is one beefy card! I feel like I'm going to be saying "I had never seen these before" on like 3/4 of the cards in this post, so I'll just say it once here, and in less I mention otherwise, you can just assume that it applies to almost everything else being shown.

I always like seeing game-used base relics on the other blogs, so when I saw this one, and it's price of only $2, I had to have it. After I got home, I looked up the date of the game that this piece of base was used in, turns out it's from game 2 of the 2000 NLCS, which the Mets ended up winning 6-5. And as most folks will remember, the Mets ended up winning the series, advancing to play (and eventually lose to) the Yankees in the World Series. Going back to Game 2 though, according to Baseball Reference, Mark McGwire's only plate appearance came as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the 8th, where he was intentionally walked. Timo Perez on the other hand, was in the starting line-up that game, finishing 1 for 5 (a single in the 8th).

This looks like it was a very fun relic set, and one that I wouldn't be opposed to getting more cards from.



2016 Panini Black Gold Collegiate Quad Materials

As an Oregon fan (I'm also an Oregon State fan, can you say anomaly?), this card was a bit of a no-brainer. This quartet represents part of the Ducks team that lost to Ohio State in the 2014 National Title game. As far as NFL experience goes, Bralon Addison still hasn't made past the practice squads, Byron Marshall has seen only minimal action with Philadelphia and Washington, DeForest Buckner has started 25 games over the last two seasons with San Francisco, and of course Marcus Mariota has been Tennessee's starting (when he's healthy) quarterback for the last three season's now. Marcus is also, statistically speaking, the best quarterback to ever come out of Oregon. He also won the Heisman in 2014.

As great as this card is, I don't know if getting it for $3 was worth the hassle that I went through to try and get a decent image for this post. The scans were atrocious, and the picture above was the best I could come up with after like 30 something attempts, and even then you can still see the phone's shadow over Mariota.


2013 Topps Museum Collection Four-Player Quad Relic Gold

I don't know if all of these guys can technically be called a bust yet, so I'll just say that, as of now, I don't think they've lived up to their respective expectations. This appears to be one of those tiered relic sets, with the gold being the second of the three tiers. I really only bought this one because I liked all the different colored patch bits. I can't help but wonder how much this card would've went for back in 2013? Probably a lot more than the $3 that I paid for it, that's for sure.


2009 and 2016 Topps A&G Framed Mini Relics

At the time of it's purchase, I had fully intended to send the Kershaw out to someone else, but by the next day, I decided to be selfish and keep it for me. I don't have a lot of these framed mini relics, but I sure do like them, well depending who the swatch is from of course. These two set me back five bucks (three for Ichiro and two for Kershaw), which didn't seem too bad.



2014 Panini Absolute Tools of the Trade Complete Rookies

I don't know anything about Andre Williams, but once again I just really liked all these jersey bits (especially the grey chunk), so for two bucks I might as well grab it. If I ever decide that I no longer like it, I think I know a good home to send it to.


2004 Playoff Prestige Connections - Materials #'d to /250

Without even trying, I have somehow acquired a bit of a "game-used bats from pitcher's" collection over the last couple of years. I feel like this first one that I have intentionally bought, even then, it to might end up going out to someone else at some point. Oh, and this was another $2 card.


2001 Topps Archives Reprint Stadium Seat Relics

This is a relic set that I have contemplated trying to put together on multiple occasions, as I like the whole "shavings from stadium seats" concept. The only thing that has stopped me from collecting this set is that -- other than the Golden Age stuff -- I generally don't want to pay too much for a relic card, and Brown, Starr, and Unitas usually sell in the $10-20 range... although after getting this Johnny U for the paltry of $2, it's now a little more tempting to try and chase the set.


2004 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Tools of the Trade Green Six Materials #'d 16/25

Another Tools of the Trade, this time of the baseball variety. I absolutely (no pun intended) fell in love with this card upon first sight, I mean just look at all those different kinds of relics (the glove is my favorite)! From what I have been able to gather, these six material cards seem to be rather rare, as the only ones that I can find for sale anywhere, are on COMC, where there's currently three listed (and only one in the sold section), other than that, there are none to be found. I'd like to say that I wouldn't mind finding a few more of these, but it seems highly unlikely that I ever will. Definitely one of my favorite three dollar purchases in a while (well, at least until the next post).

I remember seeing Carlos Lee play, but I didn't remember anything specific about him, so I was kind of surprised to see that he hit 17 grand slams during his 13-year career, which places him in a three-way tie with Jimmie Foxx and Ted Williams for seventh on the all-time list.



2008 SAGE Autographs Gold level

And here we've got another former Duck, and a pretty darn good one at that. When J Stew left Oregon after his junior year, he did so as the school's second leading rusher of all-time (he has since dropped to 5th). Drafted by the Panther's, he played ten seasons for them before being released earlier this year. He currently holds fourteen franchise records, including being Carolina's all-time leading rusher. At almost 31 years old now, he's considered aged by running back standards, so it will be interesting to see if he gets picked up by anyone else before next season.



2000-01 Fleer Genuine Northern Flights

I'm not a huge Vince Carter fan, and that's not to say that I have anything against him either, it's just that his style of play never really appealed to me. That being said, these Northern Flights were only $2 apiece, and it's only a five-card relic set, so it seemed like this would be a relatively easy set to complete. As a quick aside, seeing that Vince is now in his 20th season makes me feel really old :(


1999 Fleer Sports Illustrated Autograph Collection

An on-card auto from a Hall of Famer for only $2! Sure, where do I sign up at? I have been a big fan of the Sports Illustrated autograph's for a while now, but somehow this the only one that I have managed to acquire, which is probably because I never see them at shows, and I never think to look for them online. Jim actually had another one of these too, but that one looked like the pen had been running on E, so I just left it there for someone else (although I'd be very surprised if someone else did actually buy it).


2001 Donruss Classics Benchmarks

According to the BaseballCardPedia, 2001 Donruss Classics was one of the first sets to successfully integrate player's from the past with the then current stars. It was also one of the first sets to include relics from the stars of the past as well. While not a star of the past (at the time), Tony Gwynn was obviously a pretty big name at the time, and while technically not a relic specific to Tony Gwynn, this seems like it was a fairly unique (a first?) idea for the time... and one that certainly appealed to me, so for two buck I added it to my growing stack.


I really like the sets that used to show you what your relic was coming from.


1998 Press Pass Autographs

This certainly isn't one of those "saving the best card for last" kind of posts, Al's only being shown last because he was bought from a different seller. I got this card from the same fifty cent box as a couple of the Archives Reserve's shown that were shown in the shiny stuff post, it was really only because I needed one more card to make it an even $3. Al's certainly not a future hall of famer, but he wasn't no scrub either, so I figured for fifty cents, why not?

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