Blog Bat Around, Mystery RAK, and a Franchise Farewell

Our resident Diamond Jester Matt started a Blog Bat Around last week, giving us all the opportunity to discuss our greatest pack-pulled cards. I was reluctant to list mine because I've sold many of them so long ago that I don't even have a saved scan, but here's my top ten anyhow:

honorable mention - Grant Fuhr 2005-06 The Cup Scripted Swatch patch/auto

In terms of value, this would rank as one of my all-time top-ten pack pulls. However, I'm calling it an 'honorable mention' because it was the best card I pulled from a tin of The Cup, which I was lucky enough to purchase for a mere $450 in 2006. At that price you'd better pull at least one $100 card lol.

10. Carson Palmer 2003 Finest RC Auto #d/399

There was a mini-box of 2003 Finest in my Christmas stocking courtesy of my mom. Autographs were one per box IIRC, and I somehow pulled the #1 overall pick. I sold it for about $150 shortly after.

9. Chris Osgood 1988-99 Upper Deck Game Jersey

This was my first memorabilia hit, way back when jersey cards were tough pulls (1:288 hobby packs per TCDB). Even a semi-star like Osgood sold for well over $100 on an upstart auction site called eBay. It was a nightmare transaction; I sold it to a guy in Nova Scotia who had to send a wire transfer to my girlfriend. I don't have a scan of the card but I think I still have her note, "here's the $140 from that weirdo in NS :P "

8. Eli Manning 2004 Topps Chrome RC Refractor

Bought a bunch of 2004 Topps Chrome at Target in a futile attempt at completing the set. I pulled Larry Fitzgerald and Philip Rivers but gave up when I couldn't land a Big Ben RC. It didn't help the set build that my Manning was a refractor - but I was able to sell it for about $80 well before he won two Super Bowls. (They sell for $200+ these days.)

7. Mario Lemieux 2000-01 Upper Deck Return to Excellence jersey #d/66

Upper Deck made a special set of Lemieux relics where every card was hand-numbered to 66 and inserted into various late-season products. This was my first major superstar swatch pull, and likely my first with a print run under 100. I sold this one in another disastrous eBay transaction that made me want to leave the site forever (I managed to stay away for about a year.)

6. Aaron Judge 2017 Topps Heritage RC photo variation

5. Carlos Correa 2017 Topps Heritage Real One Auto red ink #d 19/68

Now we're getting to more recent pulls, where I actually have scanned evidence. The recent release of 2024 Topps Heritage reminded me of the 5-box break I revealed in the early years of this blog. Judge (which I later submitted to PSA) and Correa basically covered the price of that break.

4. Mike Trout 2011 Bowman Chrome RC

I never pulled a Topps Traded Trout RC despite buying several packs and hangers, yet I got this Bowman Chrome RC from a blaster box purchased during a Dave & Adam's Black Friday sale. This and my all-time greatest pack-pulled hit were submitted to BGS via COMC. I got more money for this card, because I was smart enough to sell it at peak value (unlike the top two...)

3. Marian Gaborik 2005-06 Black Diamond Gemography Onyx Auto 1/1

Once the lockout ended and the much-hyped Crosby/Ovechkin rookie class hit shelves, I gobbled up all the cards I could. Even though I was a poor college student living in a cruddy apartment I managed to buy one hobby box of Black Diamond. The quad diamond SPs (one per box) were more interesting to me, but it was cool to pull an autograph. Only when I sorted the cards by number did I notice the serial numbering on the back. It was my first (and only) one of one pull. I sold it in yet another nightmare eBay transaction.

2. Connor McDavid 2015-16 Upper Deck Young Guns RC

Pulled the big kahuna out of a retail blaster at Target and squealed with glee. I sold it a few months after, for a very good reason: COMC had gem mint copies for rock-bottom prices. An almost free upgrade to a slabbed copy was one of the few smart decisions I made with an all-time top ten pull.

1. Aaron Judge 2013 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor Auto #d/50

I've told the story here before but if you're new to the blog, here it is... back in my prospecting days I would buy one Jumbo box of Bowman Draft every Black Friday or Christmas. One of the jumbo packs had some gold shine and when I saw the card I was... nonplussed. Aaron Judge? Okay. It's a Yankee, so that's something. Wow, this kid is huge. Let's see how he did last year.. oh, he was injured. Great.

Once he climbed up the ladder and made it to the Bronx I sent this to COMC for grading, along with a few others:

If I'd sold it after his record-breaking rookie season, or his American League-record 62 home run season, I 'd have had enough cash to buy a car - even after feeBay took their 22%. But I did not sell it at the right time. I sold it when I was making minimum wage and there was a family matter that drained the budget. Another major family issue is gathering steam, but I'm in a better financial position to weather the storm. Which is good, because if I let another 20k card slip though my fingers at less than full value, I'd...

Moving on... it seems that a wave of mystery PWEs has been circulating, with few clues other than "TCDB" and a Hartford postmark. This kind stranger sent six Packers and six Devils over this way (no Whalers though?)

I don't watch Pat McAfee; is A.J. Hawk as bland as everyone says? Or would anyone look like an NPC compared to Patty McCaffeine?

The three best ever Devils are represented here, along with the second-best goalie in Cory Schneider. Mystery person, if you're reading this... thank you!

Last night the Arizona Coyotes closed out their 28th - and final - season in Arizona with a 5-2 win over the Oilers. As someone who lost my hometown hockey team as a teenager, I felt a kinship with the Coyotes. That franchise had somehow survived so many awful decisions from ownership and management -- and just when it seemed like they were on the right track, they couldn't secure an arena. It was Atlanta all over again, and it sucks.

I could write a whole essay on this topic, but I'll spare you my thoughts on the matter except to say that when any franchise has to relocate it's heartbreaking. What that fan base lacked in raw numbers they made up for in resiliency. Who among us would stand by a team through two decades of incompetence, relocation rumors, and scores of insults from snickering, gatekeeping out-of-towners who claim that their favorite team shouldn't exist? Congrats, bullies. You got your wish. The Coyotes are no more.

But! There is an arrangement being discussed to possibly bring them back. If the now-former owner can secure a building within five years, the Coyotes may one day rise from the ashes like... some type of bird.

That said, the players definitely deserve to play for a team with stable ownership and a permanent home. I'd be interested to see how far this young squad can go in the coming years. Good luck in Salt Lake, boys.

Thanks for the memories... even though they weren't so great.

Thanks for reading!




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Things I Like That You Don't (and vice versa)

Dime box Nick started a Blog Bat Around of Ten Things You Like That I Don't Like, and I thought I'd put my own spin on it with a list of Things I Like That You Don't Like. However, I couldn't come up with ten things for either list, so here's five and five:

Things I Like (That You Don't Like)

1968 Topps Baseball

Aaaah! Not the burlaps! I love this set more than any flagship issue of the 1960s. It's not the best design in the world and the cards are not all the same shade of beige, which is a little aggravating. But when I was a young collector in the late 1980's-early 1990s these were the oldest singles that were attainable and affordable at my local card shops. It's the source of a lot of great memories (despite the fact that I wasn't born until long after it was released) and it's the reason I was so excited about 2017 Topps Heritage.

Graded Cards

I know, I know. It's a scam. Grading companies play favorites. Cards aren't meant to be locked up in plastic prisons. The premiums people pay for slabbed singles could go toward buying lots of (other) cards, and far too many trimmed/altered cards have passed through PSA undetected. All legitimate gripes. Yet I can't get enough graded cards in my collection. If I'm going to spend more than $5 on a vintage card I want the peace of mind that comes with appraisal and authentication. I want it to be in the best shape possible. In some cases I'd rather have a near-mint non-star than a well-loved legend.

Thick Base Cards

In my opinion, there are way too many "high-end" products with 1-6 cards per box priced at hundreds of dollars a pop. And what are you likely to pull? A plain one-color relic, an autographed card you could buy for about $10, and two numbered base cards that often sell for less than the cost of a one-touch holder. COMC is overflowing with these discarded non-hits, and I've accumulated almost enough of them to fill a monster box. Immaculate is my preferred brand but I'm happy to snatch up any big base card from a high-end set, especially at a dollar or less.

A lot of things I like might not be super popular but I know at least a couple people who enjoy them. For example, hockey is widely considered to be the fourth major sport (in the U.S. anyway) while some sports fans and media types don't consider it a major sport at all. Hip-hop and pop music dominate the airwaves and download charts, but some of my favorite rock bands have large, loyal followings and still sneak into the Billboard Top Ten once in a while. And then there's...

Coldplay

Coldplay are probably one of the three most successful rock-adjacent acts of the 21st century. They've had some incredible songs, from "Yellow" and "The Scientist" to "Fix You", "Viva La Vida", and "Life In Technicolor". And for some reason they are disliked almost as much as Nickelback. They were supposed to be the half-time headliner at the Super Bowl - until the image-obsessed NFL responded to criticism for selecting a vanilla soft-rock band by overshadowing them with Bruno Mars (who I like) and Beyonce (who I don't.)

I like Coldplay a lot. They're not one of my top-five favorites, and I'm not really into their new stuff. But chances are I like them more than most people you know - rock fans or not.

Young Adult Fiction

For a long time nearly all of my books were about sports. And then after graduating college I started reading John Green novels, which led me to a few other Young Adult authors and series. I'm looking forward to the day when I can read these books to my daughters - or discuss the stories with them after they've read a few on their own. I just heard about a YA series called The Loop and bookmarked it. In fact, if I ever follow through on my empty threat to take a blogging break it will be to catch up on reading some books including Turtles All the Way Down (which I still haven't finished..)

Things I Don't Like (That You Likely Like)

Oddballs

Nearly every card blogger I know loves oddball cards. I'm a huge fan of 1961 Golden Press. The Conlon Collection sets are great. And I've got an entire mini-album for box toppers and oversized cards like these Perez-Steele Great Moments jumbos. But most oddball sets do not interest me. Everyone seems to love the Kellogg's 3-D Super Stars. Those things curl and crack! And how many mini-sets did Topps, Fleer, and even Score produce back in the day? Too many if you ask me.

Call me boring if you want, but when I'm dime box diving I almost always pick singles from traditional, mainstream sets. There's more than enough of them to keep me satisfied.

Upper Deck Hockey Cards

If you're a fan/collector who disregards hockey, you're not missing much with Upper Deck. All they've done for the past four years is devalue some of their most popular sets by selling 'digital' packs through ePack and allowing singles to be transferred to COMC. It's great for buyers (I guess) but it turns a huge chunk of their product line into one big race to the bottom. The latest culprit is Synergy - a product that looked interesting to me until a slew of serial numbered singles started popping up on COMC for under 50 cents!

Also, Upper Deck keeps recycling the same old designs. This is the 30th anniversary of their first hockey set. How did they celebrate? With a 30-card insert set recycling all of their past designs. Topps does that, too - but at least they use more than three players in Archives. I used to try and complete every flagship UD set, including the short-printed Young Guns rookies, until they started hiding "update" cards in SP Authentic. (And don't get me started on the overpriced SP Authentic line. Bowman Chrome baseball is a much better value!)

Michael Jordan

I've always gravitated toward the underdog, the underrated, the overlooked. I love small-market franchises and Cinderella stories. I have nothing against greatness. There are plenty of legendary players who never gambled obsessively, never hustled their own teammates, never turned their Hall of Fame speech inward to stroke their own ego, never treated their family like an afterthought, never used their clout to keep a rival (who beat him twice) off an Olympic team, and never got so much favorable treatment from referees that the rule book was practically rewritten to accommodate only him. 

I don't like the Yankees or the Cowboys or the Patriots, but a lot of people don't. I don't like Tom Brady or Alex Rodriguez or Barry Bonds, but a lot of people don't. I really do not like Michael Jordan - and everyone seems to worship the guy.

College Sports

I've always enjoyed watching the NFL Draft, and I watched the NBA Draft even when I wasn't watching the NBA. Nine times out of ten I didn't know anything about the drafted player's college career - because I have never been a fan of college sports. Bowl games never interested me. There were a few years where I followed UConn basketball and filled out an NCAA Tournament bracket despite the fact that I knew next to nothing about any other team (I picked Kansas to win it all far too many times.) I have no school ties, and I'm not a gambler. Is it exciting when a 15 seed upsets a 2 seed? Sure. But unless you have a vested interest in one of those particular schools you are rooting for a number.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

There are 24 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I have not seen any of them - not even the one that my friend Brandon actually appeared in (as an easter egg). None of the kids in my neighborhood read comics. No one in my family read comics. I just wasn't a comic book guy. So when the Marvel movies started blowing up I sat them out. I saw a couple of X-Men movies because Jennifer Lawrence was in them. I'm not quite there with Brie Larson. Heck, I haven't even watched an entire season of Supergirl - and I adore Melissa Benoist.

One of the guys I work with was trying to sell our former co-worker on the MCU. She'd seen Black Panther and maybe one other movie. He explained that they're all connected and that if you see one you'll want to know that character's origin story and so on. I'm afraid he's right. What if I watched Captain Marvel and it led me to another one (and another and another)? Two dozen movies and counting -- who has that kind of time? I've got blogs to read.

On that note..let's see your list! :-) Post them up or link them in comments and I'll make the rounds this weekend. 

Thanks for reading, and happy Easter!





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My 100,000th card!!

It's finally here - the 100,000th card in my collection!

Can you guess what it is? Here are some hints:


It is a baseball card.
 




Of a Hall of Famer..


 



In his "sunset" season..





Give up? It's the one and only..








 ...Phil Niekro:

Just kidding! This is not my 100,000th card (I'm still stuck on 98,000 or so.) This is my entry in Matt's April Fools Day Bat-Around prank. By the way..

Did you know that Matt Batts

never..

ever...

ever bats?

This is true: Matt Batts played 546 games over ten seasons and didn't get to bat once.

April Fool! Obviously Matt Batts was allowed to bat, I just thought it was interesting that he was never shown holding a bat on any of his Topps or Bowman cards.



Thanks for reading!



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Blog Bat Around and a Big Trade

I'm going to try and cover as much as I can on this blog until the end of the month (when I officially start my 9 to 5 schedule) so get ready for some multi-topic posts of various length. 

 

Night Owl started a thought exercise that became a Blog Bat Around topic, prompting bloggers to write down the first player that comes to mind for every team in the league. I've only seen baseball done so far, so I did three lists: baseball, hockey, and football. (I'm saving my basketball list for an NBA-only post.) 

I did this Sporcle style, writing my answer as quickly as possible without more than three seconds of thought. Here are the results:

baseball
arizona - l gonzalez
atlanta - maddux
baltimore - ripken
boston - betts
chi cubs - sandberg
chi sox - f thomas
cleveland - thome
cincinnati - joe morgan
colorado - helton
detroit - kaline
houston - bagwell
kansas city - brett
la angels - trout
la dodgers - kershaw
miami - yelich
milwaukee - yelich*, yount
minnesota - puckett
montreal - walker
ny mets - g carter**
ny yankees - jeter
oakland - eckersley
philly - utley
pittsburgh - mccutchen
st. louis - musial
san diego - gwynn
san fran - bonds
seattle - griffey
tampa - price
texas - will clark
toronto - joe carter
washington - harper

*It's kind of a cheat that Yelich played for Miami and Milwaukee, so he was still on my mind when I tried to think of a Brewer. The next Brewer that came to mind was Robin Yount, so I added both names.

**A similar thing happened with Gary Carter; I purposely didn't use "The Kid" as my Expo because Night Owl did so..but then I got to the Mets and his name was still in my head.

Dennis Eckersley and David Price both came to mind because the MLB Network's documentary on Eck aired today. I credit/blame Brian for the McCutchen influence. 

I cannot explain Will Clark. 

Here's my hockey list:

anaheim - Getzlaf
arizona - oel
atlanta - kovalchuk
boston - chara
buffalo - eichel
calgary - macinnis, iginla*
carolina - francis
chicago - roenick
colorado - sakic
columbus - bobrovsky
dallas - seguin
detroit - chelios
edmonton - gretzky
florida - luongo
los angeles - kopitar
minnesota - koivu
montreal - price
nashville - subban
new jersey - brodeur
ny islanders - trottier
ny rangers - messier
ottawa - karlsson
philly - clarke
pittsburgh - crosby
san jose - marleau
st. louis - pronger
tampa - stamkos
toronto - sundin
vancouver - bure
vegas - w karlsson
washington - ovechkin
winnipeg - laine
winnipeg - hawerchuk
quebec - sakic
hartford - burke

Arizona's "oel" is Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Ottawa's Karlsson is Erik; Vegas's is William.

Al MacInnis and Jarome Iginla entered my brain at almost the exact same second.

So many great players in Red Wings history and Chris Chelios popped into my head first. Shrug..at least he's a Hall of Famer. 

Minnesota's Mikko Koivu beat Zach Parise by a split second. I didn't want that jerkface in my head anyhow.  

Here's my NFL list. It's... not good. Too quarterback-heavy. And then after about ten teams I consciously tried not to think of a QB - which skewed the results. Regardless, here they are:

arizona - palmer
atlanta - ryan
baltimore - flacco
buffalo - flutie
carolina - newton
chicago - singletary
cincinnati - esiason
cleveland - jim brown*
dallas - aikman
denver - von miller**
detroit - b sanders
green bay - favre
houston - watt
houston - campbell
indy - manning
jacksonville - fournette**
kansas city - okoye***
la rams - dickerson
la chargers - brees
miami - marino
minnesota - cunningham
new orleans - brees
new england - brady
ny giants - e manning
ny jets - adams
oakland - lynch
philly - kelce
pittsburgh - big ben
san fran - montana
seattle - russ wilson
tampa - nickerson
tennesee - e george
washington - kerrigan

*Exhibit A. The actual first Brown in my head was Bernie Kosar. But it's embarrassing to slight the great Mr. Brown.

**John Elway was the first Bronco that came to mind. And Blake Bortles was the first Jaguar (I blame The Good Place)

***All this QB bias and the Chiefs are in the AFC title game and yet Patrick Mahomes was not the first Chief I thought of. Travis Kelce is in a McDonald's commercial FFS. But no, I thought of a guy who hasn't played in 25 years. I told you this list was a joke. 


Now..let's discuss some cards, shall we? I've been working on a blockbuster trade with Gavin since he pulled a Dustin Pedroia patch card out of his Christmas/Birthday box break.

Initially I didn't think I had enough to offer him for such a high-end hit. I'd just sent him some cards two months ago in exchange for a custom card project and I don't have the cash to gamble on high-end products like Museum Collection. But I couldn't let this Dustin Pedroia patch go without making an offer of three vintage cards. Gavin passed...kinda.

I made him an offer of a more modern trade stack, and he accepted that. But he wanted to keep (two of) the vintage cards in play. So I added them to the trade..and he added this:

Gavin had pulled this Jason Varitek auto from a previous Christmas/Birthday break. I tried to acquire it at the time, but was unsuccessful. To Gav's credit he remembered my interest in the 'Tek auto and offered it up for the vintage cards. I quickly accepted. 

Additionally, I won a Luis Tiant Topps Retired auto in his Christmas Day contest. It was quite a fluke; I had only checked into Blogger to see if Wes had started his Megabreak.

Here's "El Tiante" side-by-side with a 2004 Topps Retired auto I already had (possibly from a trade with Gavin?) I did not have a Jason Varitek autograph in my collection; it's only the third autographed card of a 2004 Red Sox player in my collection (joining David Ortiz and Nomar Garciaparra - who obviously didn't finish the season with the Sox.)

he also added a hand-drawn Pedey

Gavin, thanks for another fantastic trade! 


Enjoy the NFL games everyone. Go Chiefs! Go...Christian Okoye, lol.

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Blog Skate Around - My All-Autographed Hockey Team

It's been 86 degrees all week here in Jersey, my internet connection has been slow and unreliable, and I'm watching more NBA playoff games than NHL. If I don't get this post out now, I'm not sure if I ever will.

Here's my lineup of hockey autographs. Since this isn't an official "Blog Bat Around" there aren't any rules as to how many players/what positions are needed, so I just went with a standard NHL roster - plus a couple of extras.

Goalies

 

Martin Brodeur gets the start, obviously. Henrik Lundqvist will wear the baseball hat.

NHL rosters only carry two goalies, but Olympic rosters have three. I think we can squeeze in a third-stringer here.

Defense Pair #1

 

If this were an actual team I might split up these Hall of Fame defensemen. But for purposes of this post they're my top two.

Defense Pair #2

 

Hedman and Jones are two of the best blue liners in the game today. 

Defense Pair #3

 

Not your typical third-pair. Ozolinsh and OEL are both excellent puck-movers.

1st Line Forwards

 

I could put Jarome Iginla on this line instead of Jagr and call it the "No Cup" line, or something snarky.

2nd Line Forwards

 

Stamkos and Iginla could probably play on any line, but I wanted a playmaker like Thornton centering two of the all-time greats.

3rd Line Forwards

 

If only I had a Boom Boom Geoffrion or Guy LaFleur auto, eh?

4th Line Forwards

 

The "BAP" line..because I have way too many Be A Player cards. I do like the 05-06 set though.

Healthy Scratches
 

I had to fit these guys in somewhere. Now all we need a seventh defenseman... and some more Devils.

That'll do. Marty brought Ken Daneyko and Patrik Elias with him.

Do you have an all-autographed hockey team? Let me know in comments - or join the Blog Skate Around!


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