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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Prop 1

I've had a long day so this will be a short post. My "hunger strike" from posting until COMC decided to ship the order I requested in July was untenable; I won't see those cards until Black Friday at the earliest. Newer purchases have kept me occupied in the meantime, but that will likely halt for a while.

My latest acquisition kinda tapped out the remaining funds for the ol' card hobby. (Notice I didn't say sports card hobby...)

I've had my eye on a wardrobe swatch of my favorite actress, Jennifer Lawrence, for about a year. J-Law is underrepresented in my collection relative to my favorite athletes. The only cards I have are this "Pretty Girls" custom:

..and the bland Hunger Games set. Leaf has produced over three dozen cards with her wardrobe relics - but not her likeness - since 2017. I've kicked the tires on some multi-actor relic cards but what I really wanted was a Prop Century piece. These are mega-swatches and I'm not sure how many were produced but they don't pop up often anymore.

An eBay seller had one listed recently for $35 or best offer. I had about $30 left from my last wave of sales and submitted an offer of $25. The seller declined. I offered $30. Declined again. Turns out, he(she?) did me a huge favor. Because less than one week after being stingy with his plain Prop Century relic this popped up:

This is the Gold Spectrum Holofoil version numbered one of one.I exceeded my budget just a bit to acquire this card. From the photo in the listing I thought it would be a pocket of a shirt or jeans but it feels like a swatch of leggings.

What are the odds that this single would surface three years after its initial release at the exact time I had been in the market for the base relic?

They certainly were, Katniss. They certainly were.

Here's a look at the back.

It's a bummer that Leaf couldn't slap a small photo of Jennifer somewhere on here. The 2020 edition also features pieces of her clothing.

I might pick up one of these someday, since it commemorates her Oscar win. But it's not a great looking card and not really a priority now that I have a 1 of 1 wardrobe relic. 

Anyway, the election is tomorrow and I'm trying not to destroy myself with anxiety. I certainly have my favorite candidate(s) but above all I just hope that all of the votes are counted in an orderly fashion and that the winner of the presidential race is clear and uncontested. But this is 2020, so... 

 

See you on the other side...

Thanks for reading!



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Connecticut Cards: a Pre-war legend and a lefty HOFer

I picked up a handful of cards on COMC this summer to accompany my All-Time Teams series (which will resume shortly) and this manu-patch of the Connecticut state flag was part of that order. This is from 2019 Goodwin Champions, a product I have never had any interest in purchasing. That said, there are some very cool hits in that set. 

these would look better without the map relics

The flag patches are much more affordable than the autos or space relics (at least Tier 1 flags like CT anyway.) I paid $1.57 for my copy three months ago but there are over a dozen state flags available for less than that today, including New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts.. and Connecticut :/


My Connecticut Collection branched out even further with another non-sports single. Even though I have greatly expanded my non-sports collection in recent years I still struggle to justify spending more than a dollar or two on a single card unless it's something like this.
 
Then I approached it from a different angle: Let's say you see a card of a legendary baseball player from the 1930's. It's not a Goudey or Play Ball single, more like a Cracker Jack or tobacco card, but it's definitely pre-war and legit. It's in excellent shape and it's a very famous name. A legend.

Would you pay $2.65 for such a card if it was Joe DiMaggio? Of course you would. 

That's how I talked myself into spending exactly that for this 1935 Gallaher Portrait Tobacco card of first-ballot Hall of Famer Katharine Hepburn:

I have no idea what this card is "worth" but there's a COMC seller asking over $40 for a PSA 4. My copy is slightly off-center and some of the ink is smudged (especially on the back) and I think it has better eye appeal than the graded copy. 

My mother and I watched a couple of her films back in the day, including The Philadelphia Story and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. Hepburn lived in Old Saybrook, a lovely little shore town that I've visited a couple times. After she died in 2004 we drove near her property - which was secluded but not extravagant. That just wasn't her style.

[Here's something I learned while writing this post - Katharine won four Academy Awards and did not attend any of them to accept her statuette.]

This next card wasn't a recent COMC purchase. In fact I can't even recall how or when I acquired it. 

Last summer I picked up a Jerry Rice rookie card for my birthday and decided to build the rest of the 1986 Topps football set around it. Once I get the Howie Long single currently sitting in my COMC inventory, I will be two cards away from completion: Walter Payton and Steve Young.

   
Young attended high school in Greenwich, CT and lived there when his rookie card was released. It wouldn't surprise me if he still lives in the state since he works for ESPN.

I haven't been all that picky about condition for my 1986 set, aside from the key cards. I passed on a pair of Young RCs in a very affordable eBay auction. Kinda regret that in hindsight. For now, this 2012 Topps reprint insert will keep the spot warm:

Steve Young is one of the greatest athletes with Connecticut ties. Aside from that, he was obviously a left-handed passer. It seemed like that was more common when I was a kid - in addition to Young there was Boomer Esiason, Todd Marinovich, Scott Mitchell, and Mark Brunell a little later. In the 2000s the only one I can think of is Michael Vick. [edit: there's one on the way] 


I'm planning just one more post about Connecticut Cards, unless I pick up something really unique. However my next post will feature another New England icon...


Thanks for reading!


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Stranger Stuff

I ordered more stuff from Blowout Cards around my birthday, mostly because I was out of penny sleeves. Of course I ordered some cards, too. 

Earlier this year I saw a blaster box of Stranger Things cards at Target. I didn't buy them because $20 seemed just a little steep and/or I was being cheap. In the meanwhile, my wife and I finished watching season 2 and watched all of season 3. Andso I added this blaster to my cart for just $12.

This summer she did something she hasn't done in fifteen years. She started a collection!

If these don't stick to our fridge I will freak

We stopped into a Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins on our way home from the Silversun Pickups show. The Stranger Things promo was still up, which was a pleasant surprise. She had grabbed the last sheet of magnets in a previous visit but that BR didn't have the special edition Funko figure.

I was shocked that she paid $20 for this thing, though they apparently sell for twice that on eBay. I've also tried to entice her to visit the comic book shop I used to frequent because I know they have Funko there (and penny sleeves, and packs of Topps baseball..)

Back to the blaster..each box contains ten packs of seven cards plus a commemorative patch card.

My wife opened this last and declared this a Steve (hot) box. Looks like it broke the tie:

 The top two are Scenes Stickers, the bottom two are Character Cards...

...and these are Character Stickers. D was baffled by this - why are there two sets of stickers? I will never understand non-sports sets myself, but then I'm sure a non-sports collector would wonder why we stick-and-ball fans need fifteen versions of the same card.

As proof of my lack of experience in and understanding of non-sports sets.. I posted the hits first. I wouldn't do that for a sports card set. Anyway, here's a sampling of the base set:

Nearly all of the cards are horizontal. This is not ideal for nine-pocket storage. Or maybe I'm just not thinking like a non-sports collector.

Of the 58 base cards in the box, only seven were right-side up. 

Lots of Eleven in this set, natch. I hope the Duffer brothers reveal more about her origin story in season 4.

I thought there would be more cards of the boys. The lack of Dustin in this box is a bit of a bummer.

A surprising amount of Nancy/Steve/Jonathan. I'm bewildered by her.

Throwback to when Steve was a douche. He might be my favorite character now #dadSteve

Believe it or not, I have owned a Winona Ryder card before. However this Dracula character card (also made by Topps) is long gone from my collection.  

We stick together because we're stronger together.

Topps did an excellent job with this set.100 cards is a good size and the backs describe each scene with just the right amount of detail. I sure hope they keep this up for their Season 2 and 3 sets. While I've been very disappointed in the quality and inconsistency of non-sports sets by other companies (NECA especially) Topps knows what they're doing. 

I haven't seen blasters of ST2 yet (Blowout had hobby boxes for $50+) but I'm hoping there's some kind of continuity with the design. Also I have to find someone with the 42 ST1 singles we're missing...



Do you have a favorite Stranger Things character? Least favorite? 




Thanks for reading!


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Stranger Things

Sports are unpredictable*. That's why we love them.


*except the NFL

Three weeks ago we saw highly-favored Duke lose in the NCAA Tournament. Not the championship, or even the Final Four, but the Elite Eight--and they barely made it that far.

The NHL's top-seeded Tampa Bay Lightning were swept in the first round, as were the always-dangerous Pittsburgh Penguins. Two of the top three seeds out West, Calgary and San Jose, are one loss away from first-round elimination.

Even the NBA playoffs have seen some surprises so far; the Golden State Warriors actually lost a game to the L.A. Clippers - the biggest playoff underdog ever while the second-seeded Denver Nuggets are down 2-1 in their series. Oh, and Tiger Woods won a golf tournament. woo.

All of this is strange, but it still has an "any given Sunday" feel to it. The greatest teams in sports can have one bad game or one bad week. It happens. One bad month, for a defending World Series champion returning a near-identical roster, is truly bizarre.

I keep waiting for the Boston Red Sox to snap out of this slumber and start winning... but it hasn't happened yet. Roughly 20 games into the 2019 the Red Sox are the second-worst team in baseball, behind only the Marlins. Kansas City has a better record, so does Baltimore. Tampa Bay has the league's best record, and they're running away with the AL East.

Yes, my Sox are suck right now. But I still love collecting Boston-based baseball cards - and Kerry included a bunch of them in his Guilt Free Basketball Card mailer:

Classic Clark, Pink(?) Porcello, and some early Pacific issues. The 2004 Red Sox were certainly an Elite team...

..the 2019 version? Not so much. These were my first 2019 baseball cards; I bought two packs of Opening Day shortly after opening Kerry's mailer.

 Heritage and Ginter, including a David Price relic. Thanks again, Kerry!

Many of these have been added to my box of Sox hits, which is now overflowing! It's also the last box of baseball cards I've yet to catalog on TCDB. I'm going to try and finish all of my non-hockey this weekend.. which includes a smattering of non-sports cards.

My wife and I have been watching Stranger Things recently, and as of tonight we'll be all caught up on the first two seasons. I've seen blaster boxes of Stranger Things cards in Target (and a Jim Hopper relic on COMC) but I haven't been tempted to buy any yet. I like that Topps uses the old-school card stock - which makes sense since the show takes place in 1984 - and it shouldn't cost too much to put together a complete set.

That said, I'm weird about buying non-sports cards. As much as I loved The Hunger Games quad-rilogy, I only bought the cards because they were heavily discounted - and they were still a big disappointment.

Also I don't feel the need to have any specific Stranger Things scenes or characters represented in my collection. The only character that stands out to me is Eleven, and I'm not about to chase a piece of clothing worn by a pre-teen actor. (Wouldn't mind a Winona Ryder relic though.)

Have you watched Stranger Things? What strange sports story interests you the most?


Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend, and a Happy Easter! 


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