Window Shopping, Non-Sports Edition

While finalizing my current COMC order (and doing some Challenges to pay for said order) I've come across some interesting cards. At least three to five times per session I'll hit 'add to watch list' and wait for a price to pop up. Usually the prices are more than I want to pay, and I remove them. This first card is no exception. However it did pique my curiosity, as I am unfamiliar with non-sports issues and why they cost so much.

I'm not a Comic Book Guy at all but I instantly recognized Melissa Benoist as Supergirl on this single. Melissa is one of my favorite famous women even though I'm scarcely familiar with her work. That won't stop me from capturing her cardboard though! (I honestly don't watch much sports anymore, either.) 

 I had no idea what X Crisis was but I added it to my list. A few days later the price popped up: $10.23 on sale. Huh? What? ... Why?

Again, I know next to nothing about non-sports. This is apparently a promo card for a set called Crisis on Infinite Earths released by Cryptozoic czX in 2020. If you thought it was tough to find baseball cards during the pandemic...

[Upon further review it appears the promo card was released in '20 but the set itself was delayed until this year - since it is listed as a 2022 issue.] 

A Supergirl trading card set was released in 2018, and I was able to pick up a couple base cards of Melissa as both Kara Danvers and her alter ego:

These were less than a dollar each in winter '18-19. The prices are kinda all over the place now ($50 for a base card?!?)  As for the Infinite Earths issue, it appears to be a high-end product along the lines of Topps Museum Collection or Triple Threads:

Definitely not busting anything that expensive, sports or non-sports. But I thought I'd search the secondary market for some interesting singles. That's where I found another pricing anomaly.

COMC has dual and triple relic cards of Melissa available from $50 to $72.25. That's a lot higher than a memorabilia card of a sports star, but those have been on the market for 20+ years and even deceased legends have had their jerseys and equipment cut up so many times that the supply far exceeds demand.

The anomaly is in the non-relic low-numbered STR PWR inserts. Both of those are priced higher than the wardrobe relics. And before you can say "different sellers, different prices"..the relics and inserts are all owned by the same seller. I'm trusting their judgement since we've established I don't know sh!t.

Since each of those $400 boxes promises one on-card autograph (and actors sign far fewer trading cards than athletes do) you would assume that a Melissa Benoist auto is the big prize and sells for a lot of coin.

But.. would you believe they've sold for well over four figures?!? Granted this one is a dual auto Melissa shares with a personalized signature from Brandon Routh. And this one is a 1/1 sketch card.

She's alone on this next single. It's numbered to 100 and chipped a tiny bit at the bottom. This one can't be a thousand bucks.. can it?

Nah. This one sold for $1,400. And this is why I don't collect non-sports products. If prices were comparable to baseball or hockey products I'd have her and Anna Kendrick and Kristen Bell and Jennifer Lawrence in my collection a dozen times over. (Kristen's auto is actually affordable by comparison.)

There is another actress in this set that I sort-of like. I'd kept my eye on Katherine McNamara a few years ago, when she was an orange-haired rising star (a "prospect" if you will.)

I even watched her show Shadowhunters for a while. My former manager G (whom I miss as much as Office Girl) was a big fan of the show Arrow and mentioned that Kat was in that, too. "She's a badass." G said.

Unfortunately for me there was no trading card release for the Shawdowhunters series and the only Arrow trading cards pre-dated her character's inclusion in that show. 

But! This Crisis On Infinite Earths set includes Mia Smoak somehow (don't ask me how the multiverse works.) Four years ago I'd been on the hunt for a Katherine auto, thinking she'd be just well-known enough to have an autographed trading card but not so famous that it would blow out my budget:

Put your money where your mouth is, big boy. Because our KitKat's got an on-card auto now.

Oh for frick's sake! Nevermind.

Kat doesn't have any wardrobe relics in the set, and her serial-numbered STR PWR insert is more expensive than Melissa's. Plus she's got an eye mask on and it's not the best photo. I'd buy it for a buck or two, maybe. And since it was well over a buck or two -- in the neighborhood of a high-grade Juan Soto rookie card -- it appeared that I would go home empty-handed. No new Melissa Benoist cards and no Kat McNamara cards would fit in my budget.

That is, until I scrolled through all Crisis singles and found... a base card!

This was not labeled under McNamara or Mia. Like any super premium sports card sets the base cards seem to be an afterthought. I've mentioned how much I enjoy picking up cheap singles from Panini Immaculate Collection on COMC and eBay, since I'll never be able to afford a box. Same principle applies here.

It took me over an hour to earn enough challenge credit for this card but I found a way to add Kat to my collection (and I even had a little left over for a cheapo hockey card.) Oh, and Melissa Benoist is on the back:

Bonus! 😊

Thanks for reading, and Happy Easter!

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Taking a break / random 311 post

I thought I'd take a little break from the baseball research with an impromptu post of random things. 

It's 3/11! What's your favorite 311 song? I think mine is either "Beautiful Disaster" or "Don't Stay Home". Their cover of The Cure's "Love song" is pretty good, too. A lot of my high school friends listened to 311 but I didn't get into them until much later.

Have you seen any good movies lately? I was finally able to get out to the local video store (aka the library) earlier this month. Couldn't find any new releases that were interesting so we rented Long Shot (which I had wanted to see for a while) and Why Him? 
 
Long Shot was really funny. I enjoyed that one a lot. Why Him? was good, too. The actress who plays James Franco's girlfriend looked familiar to me - sort of like Isla Fisher, or Emma Roberts. My wife was the one who searched Google/IMDB for Zoey Deutch because she's usually good at recognizing people in movies/TV shows.. and the reason she looked familiar is because she's Lea Thompson's daughter. 

Zoey starred in the film adaptation of Before I Fall, which I have sitting on my bookshelf. I'm not certain I've read it, but if I have it was at least four or five years ago when I was immersing myself in Young Adult fiction. 
 

Sometimes I feel like I've outgrown all the books, movies, and TV shows I used to enjoy. Then again..my manager (who is a dozen years older than I am) was talking to one of the guys about Arrow. They're both big fans and I've never seen it. They were talking about the ending, and the characters they liked..and she said she likes Mia because "Mia is a badass."

Mia is played by Katherine McNamara. That sweet little thing is a badass now? Where does the time go?

 

Speaking of lovely ladies who can sing.. you may have noticed the picture on my right sidebar changed. I went down a bit of a wormhole earlier this week because a Carole King song came on at work.. and my mind immediately went to Melissa Benoist.

Goddamn that woman is talented. Y'know, Glee never interested me at all but I might have to give it a chance some time. I've seen Pitch Perfect at least twice. It's pretty much the same thing, right?

It's the weirdest thing. I rarely - almost never - have any interest in female singers. Some of them might be nice to look at but their music doesn't appeal to me. Except Lynn Gunn of Pvris. She frickin rocks:

That said, nearly every actress and entertainer I've liked over the past few years can also sing. I think I made a playlist of them all in a  post some years back, so I won't repeat myself here. I know Kristen Bell was on that list...

One other thing we watched recently was the fourth season of Veronica Mars. I might have to share my thoughts on that in a separate post - not that anyone cares, lol.

Do you have a favorite singer or actress at the moment? Any Veronica Mars fans reading this? Let me know if I should bother with a recap post in April :)



Switching back to sports.. I completed my 102nd trade on TCDB earlier this week, which was supposed to be a one-for-one with user terrbear5951. I offered up my extra Ryan Zimmerman manupatch for a Satchel Paige MLB Debut coin. When Teresa checked her collection she realized that the Paige was no longer there and asked me to pick a replacement. I didn't mind at all since she had a lot of things I needed. I made a list and asked her to send whatever was fair. This is what I received:

All the Boston guys were on my list. The Ultra Jordan was too, but I wasn't expecting a graded copy. No idea why she sent the 1994-95 Ultra cards, I'd asked for 1993-94 Ultra singles. But that's okay. I think this was a fair return - though I'm not sure what to do with the MJ now.

I don't want to get into a whole big discussion over the Coronavirus, but it would be a shame if Joe Thornton played his last home game in an empty arena. I'm not sure how much he has left in the tank but I'd really like to see him come back next year and take one last run at a Stanley Cup - with anyone but Pittsburgh. Or Carolina. Or the Rangers. Or Winnipeg. Or St Louis. Or...damn there's a lot of NHL teams I don't like.



Anyway, that's all the random thoughts I have for now. Its' been fun to free-write a little bit. The All-Time Teams series will resume this weekend. I'm working hard to complete it before the season starts in 15 days. Also, at the conclusion of the series - and a "Free Stuff Friday" exclusive for those of you who have commented on the series. (There will be cards to claim from all sports, not just baseball.)



Thanks for reading this randomness!




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Pretty Girls from Gavin

A few weeks ago Gavin offered up some surplus customs for trade. I was happy to take a few off his hands.. but what I really wanted were original Baseball Card Breakdown creations.

I had received a "Pretty Girls" mini in a previous trade package and was hoping he could whip up a few of my favorites. The Allen & Ginter set is a nice one, but I never really sought them out due to their size (I can never find Ultra-pro pages that fit non-traditional cards.)

Gavin indicated that this template was kind of a tough one anyhow, and so I tried to make his work a little easier. I made a list of six famous ladies I like, e-mailed him a few pictures to choose from, and gave him one design element request for these Pretty Girls cards:

fairly basic, borderless design...but with "Pretty Girls" written in ribbon/cursive at the top left and the first name written in the same style

Naturally, I went with Jennifer Lawrence as card #1. Around this time last year I spent actual money on Hunger Games cards just to have her in my collection. (retailers like Dave and Adam's are practically giving those cards away.)

This is not a new picture of Jennifer (I miss her long locks) but it is my favorite of all-time. I'm thrilled that Gavin chose it for the front photo.

The card backs feature a second photo...

Gavin wrote the text on all of these. I had thought about writing some myself but his reputation and knowledge speaks for itself. Also, these are in Card Savers because I didn't want to smudge the ink; Gav warned me about it and I didn't take the cards out of the sleeves, but a tiny bit of text did start to smudge (on other cards, not this one.)

Kristen Bell is a mutual favorite of ours. I have a couple Kristen cards in my collection but Gavin has a much, much better one.

Here's a look at the back. As is the case with Jennifer, I've seen all of the films/shows mentioned.

 

If you've heard of Katherine McNamara before, there's at least a 65% chance it's because of this blog. I adore this young actress (and she's quite a good signer, too.)

The photo Gavin chose for the back is probably my favorite. I really hope that Shadowhunters helps her land some more significant film/TV roles in the future.

Batting cleanup in this set is Supergirl star Melissa Benoist.

She's another multi-talented actress who can sing better than most chart-topping pop stars. Glee never interested me, but I wouldn't say no to seeing her perform as Carole King in the Broadway hit Beautiful.

Melissa is featured in the Cryptozoic Supergirl trading card set (no autographs though). I picked up one card on COMC and might grab some more before the end of the month.

When I made my request for six custom cards (eight, counting some MusiCards you'll see in a future post) I told Gavin that he didn't have to make all six, if he was too busy or I was asking for too much of him (I've got a complex, what can I say?) The first four would have been fine with me, but he had no problem fulfilling my entire order. And so, we have card number five...

Here's another under-the-radar actress that might make you say "Who?"

Britt Robertson first caught my attention in Under The Dome..and then I forgot about her (I haven't seen her in anything mentioned in this text) until I heard about a film called Ask Me Anything, where she plays...a blogger. I really want to see that someday - if I can ever find it. I'd also like to get my hands on one of these Under The Dome autographed cards. They're not cheap though.

Until then, I'll try to catch Britt in the Shonda Rhimes legal drama For The People.

Rounding out the "original six" we have my dream girl Anna Kendrick..

...and by "dream girl" I mean that she has literally appeared in my dreams. This photo was featured in that dream journal post, wherein I alluded to a potential card connection.

I hadn't noticed until this card, but Gavin used different colors for each name. The black really pops here, and it matches this photo perfectly. I read a preview page of Scrappy Little Nobody and I'm making a mental note to read the whole thing. (now that I've just typed it out, it's not a mental note..)


As I said, I offered to trim this list down to four. Gavin's response was to suggest I add three more to the list, so I'd have enough to fill a 9-pocket page. Sounds good to me!

In the seven spot I chose yet another talented signer, Victoria Justice. She's been featured on this blog - and on a trading card - before. 

I don't care what anyone says, Victoria is the most talented and strikingly beautiful Nickelodeon alum ever..and this is coming from a guy who straight-up obsessed over Amanda Bynes back in the day.

So... when Gavin gave me the option to choose three more Pretty Girls subjects, I had to think a little bit. This time last year Taryn Southern would have been right at the top of the list - which is why I commissioned Corky to produce a 4-card set of Southern singles.

Did I need another custom card of her? I suppose not. But I'm very happy to add this one to my collection. I didn't have a lot of photos to choose from, but this outdated close-up looks fantastic. Taryn has one of the most perfect faces I've ever seen. That smile..my god.

The back features another classic pic. Oh hey, I just though of an idea..what if Taryn and Victoria played partners in a police or courtroom drama? It would be called Southern Justice..lol. No mention of her latest album I Am A.I. but Corky's cards covered that.

The ninth and final card in the set is someone who has just recently landed on my radar. College sports fans probably know Laura Rutledge better than I do; I've only seen her a few times on SportsCenter and Get Up. (Didn't realize they were the same person at first. But when I did...)

Gavin appears to be more familiar with her work, possibly due to her San Diego connections?

She's a beauty queen and a sports personality. Who's the lucky bastard that got to wife her up?

That would be former Rockies and Red Sox infielder Josh Rutledge. Now I have husband and wife in my collection.

Gavin, thank you very much for these fantastic customs! I'm thrilled to add them to my growing custom card stash.

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Guilty Pleasures

Last week Blowout Cards had a 4th of July special with discounted prices on all kinds of products. I've been dying to bust open some packs/boxes, so I did some window shopping. There was a whole row of old school basketball boxes, from as far back as 1992-93. 2018 Topps baseball was available at a reasonable price, and the best deal might have been a 72-card hanger box of 2012 Topps Football ..for $1.76!

All of that caught my eye, but not as much as a pre-order product: 2018 Cryptozic Supergirl cards.

Scheduled to hit stores next week

As some of you know, I've got a side PC of Women on Cards. It would be ideal to place them in my collection based on their abilities in sports or entertainment (even politics) and I do so whenever possible. But...sometimes I like adding cards of attractive women because they're attractive women. I feel a little guilty about that - hence the title of this post.

So, here's the thing...I don't watch Supergirl. I've seen a few minutes of it here and there, because I happen to think that Melissa Benoist is incredibly cute. But I'm not a superhero guy. Never got into DC Comics or Marvel or any of that. The lady at the local comic book shop knows me as the guy who comes in once a month to buy four packs of penny sleeves (75 cents each!), a pack of Topps baseball (the only sports cards they sell), and a Mountain Dew.

But..if I see this item on my next visit to Little Shop Of Comics...do I buy it?

No, of course not. That would be silly. A pack or two..maybe. And even then I'd feel guilty because I could have used that $6 or so to buy baseball cards. 
 
Having said that, I always get excited when I see a celebrity I like on a trading card. It doesn't happen often.

Jennifer Lawrence appears a dozen times in the Hunger Games card set(s) as Katniss Everdeen. I mentioned those in a previous post. Zero guilt here. My wife knows I'm a big J-Law fan, though lately I've had a hard time reminding myself why. Old loyalties die hard I s'pose. If anything, the 'guilty pleasure' here is the fact that I enjoy teen/YA stories.

Kristen Bell is another longtime fave. Wifey rolled her eyes when I first started watching Veronica Mars - she saw right through my excuse. But a few weeks later, we were both fans of the show and Kristen. It was her idea to go see the Veronica Mars movie in theaters, and she probably watches more of Kristen's late-night interviews than I do.

I don't feel guilty for picking out these promo cards on COMC, and I doubt it would be an issue if I plunked down $25 or so on an autographed K-Bell card...which I don't have to worry about, since they sell for about five times that! 

Taryn Southern might have appeared on American Idol cards had she made it farther in the competition. But then she probably wouldn't have done musical comedy on YouTube and I wouldn't have had any interest in her. I didn't feel guilty about asking Corky to make custom Taryn cards for me..sending them to her TTM wasn't a great feeling, though.

I don't consider Taryn a guilty pleasure - for two reasons. One, because she is/was genuinely funny (and I love funny women.) And two, even though she is probably the closest anyone has ever come to my idea of an absolutely perfect woman.. she doesn't produce interesting content anymore. She's all about science and technology and gadgets that will accelerate the downfall of civilization. Plus she's engaged to a gazillionaire who built a fortune on such things. Bye, Felicia.

Aaaand now we're back to guilty pleasures. Allow me to explain how I became a (casual) Katherine McNamara fan. I was writing a young adult novel a couple years ago when I found a discussion topic called "Make Your Mock Cast" or something similar. I didn't know any teen actors but I knew what my characters looked like. And my female protagonist looked a lot like Kat. So I went with it. I browsed her IMDB page, saved a couple pics in a "Mock cast" folder (along with some male actors such as Logan Lerman and Alex Pettyfer) and that was that.

Until she did Shadowhunters. I decided to check her out in the first episode. It wasn't my thing - too supernatural I s'pose. So I didn't watch another episode.. until an article on ESPNW caught my eye. It discussed her training for the show. Is that the same girl? I thought. She looks buff!

I'm a huge fan of gingers anyway (Molly Quinn comes to mind) and now that Kat was a little more grown-up I decided to give Shadowhunters a second chance. And I dig it.

Wifey watched a minute of the first episode with me, after I explained why I wanted to see it. She knew Kat was on my radar a bit - for creative purposes only - and she, too, dismissed Shadowhunters as too weird. 

I never told her I started watching it again. I feel guilty about that. (Btw, Shadowhunters and Supergirl were on at the same time during the spring.)

One more thing...there is a trading card set for Shadowhunters:The Mortal Instruments.

The movie version. No disrespect to Lily Collins but I'm not chasing these any time soon. If the TV series gets its own card set however...I'm going to buy a box. I'm going to chase a KatMac auto, and I'm going to tell my wife it was a box of Stadium Club baseball ;-)



Do you watch any "guilty pleasure" TV shows? Do you have any "guilty pleasure" cards in your collection? Share with the group - we're all friends here!


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