I Have Some Thank Yous to Pass Out

My blogging frequency has flat lined.  I have found my life pulling me in several different directions and I won't bore you with the details.  My collecting hasn't stalled but the blogging has.  I haven't decided to pull the plug on the blog, however I suspect I am going to need some sort of jolt or resuscitation every so often to produce some posts.

The jolt I needed to produce a post today was some guilt over not thanking some generous people who have sent me unsolicited cards over the past few months.  I love getting packages in the mail and each of these put a smile on my face.

First up was a nice stack of cards from blogger Tom from The Angels, In Order.   I took a little bit of a like to the Angels when I was living in Southern California that survived a bit even after the f*%#ing Rally Monkey during the 2002 World Series.  I am a fan of a number of former Angels like Rod Carew, Reggie Jackson, JT Snow, Bobby Grich, Tim Salmon and Wally Joyner so it is fun checking out there cards when they pop up on his blog.

Here are highlights from what Tom sent:

These were all needs and very much appreciated.

Next up some cards from Marc at Remember the Astrodome.  I am bummed I never made it to the Astrodome, it was a dream of mine as a kid.  I addition to Astros, Marc collects quite a few different players as well so I feel a bit of a kinship.  Here are some highlights from what he sent my way:

Great stuff and tons of variety.  Particularly like the Score Gold Rush cards.  I have been on a bit of Score kick lately.

The final cards to show today are from Dennis at Too Many Verlanders.  In addition to his Tigers collection, Dennis collects guys from the University of Michigan.  I have been looking to add some of my USC Trojans as of late, I think Dennis and I have fairly similar collection approaches.  Here is what he sent my way in the latest package:

It was a Trojan heavy group and all were needs.  The Kyle Moore auto was only his 2nd card I had in my collection and inspired me to seek out the rest of his cards and I am close to a complete run (9 of 11 non 1/1s).

Thanks to all of you for the packages.  I still have more to share and hope to reengage soon!

Go Trojans!

Tonight my Alma Mater, USC, is taking on  Ohio State in Cotton Bowl.  This is a pretty good match up with my #8 Trojans going against the #5 Ohio State.  I believe this is the 2nd time the Trojans have gone to the Cotton Bowl - I remember a pretty big victory over Texas Tech not long after I graduated.  This is actually a pretty typical Rose Bowl match up with the Pac 10 (now 12) champ playing against the Big 10 champ.  These teams have matched up in the Rose Bowl 7 times (USC holds a 4-3 advantage) and 22 times overall (USC holds a 12-9-1 advantage).  I have been wearing my replica jersey all day and have my boys pumped up to watch the game.

I am usually a pretty big rah-rah guy but I don't have a great feeling about tonight.  USC has only lost twice this year but it hasn't been that good of a season.  The defense has been consistent in a "bend but don't break too often" fashion, they seem to give up a couple big plays each game.  The offense has been consistently inconsistent. They will have drives where they are unstoppable then drives where they make stupid penalties or have questionable play calling.  I am by no means a football expert but the offensive play calling isn't good.  They preach balance and too often go with play calls to balance out the attack instead of just riding what works.  They have a great QB in Sam Darnold but he has struggled at time, when he is rolling pass the heck out of the ball.  They have a great RB in Ronald Jones, feed him the ball over and over when the running game is clicking.  The root of the offensive problems, in addition to the play calling, really comes down to offensive line play. My worry tonight is that the Buckeyes with Urban Meyer will devise a game plan to exploit the offensive line.

I thought I would share a pair of Trojan cards from one of last year's starts, Adoree Jackson, with a nice little story.

So I won the autographed card in an eBay auction, thought it was a nice looking card of the 1st round draft choice.  I love it when the photos still feature the Cardinal and Gold.  I would never pay a premium for numbering like 100/100 but it is kind of cool when it works out that way.  The price was reasonable and I was pretty excited.

I was a little surprised and definitely bummed out when the top card was the one that showed up in my mail box.  Again some quirking numbering being 01/25 (first vs. last in the print run) but where was my auto.  I logged on and checked eBay then dropped a note to the seller. I was expecting some back and forth with him wanting the card I had back but nope he told me to keep it and he would send the right one.  Within just 2-3 days I had the second card in hand and was pretty darn happy with the twofer.

If you have no skin in the game, put out some good vibes for my Trojans.  Fight On!

A Ten Year Quest is Complete

I have been collecting USC Trojan football players since around 2004 or 2005, about 5-6 years prior to starting my Giants collection.  USC had a great run around that time and it ended up producing a pretty large number of pro players. It made busting boxes fun and I was always on the lookout for the newest draft picks.

There have been a few players that have become bigger targets of my collection.  On such player was Ryan Kalil.  Kalil was a great offensive lineman for the Trojans and was drafted by the Panthers in 2007.  He was immediately inserted into the starting lineup and has made a couple of Pro Bowls.  When his first cards came out in the Sage releases I made a decision to try and "super collect" Kalil. My goal was to track down all his cards, including 1/1s.  I was thinking with him being an o-lineman, competition would be light.  Unfortunately once he became Pro Bowl material some of his cards got outside of my price range.

I have a saved eBay search still for Ryan Kalil 1/1 cards and a little while back a new one popped up.  I made a bid and ended up winning this card.

This is a Magenta Printing Plate from 2007 Sage Hit DECADEnce.  The card is a Playmakers insert.  When I got the card, it looked a little familiar and when I cataloged it on my spreadsheet I got pretty excited.  I went to my box of USC hits, pulled out 3 other plates and boom!

I am now the proud owner of a complete set of 1/1 printing plates, all picked up at different times over the past 10 years.  This is a first for me and maybe a last - who knows.

I also thought I would share this other sweet Kalil card out of 2016 Donruss Signature.  Another low numbered (1/5) card added to the USC and Kalil collection.  I may not ever acquire every Ryan Kalil card but my collection is shaping up quite nice.

COMC Delivers Some Giants and Trojans

Next up from my April COMC order are a few Giants and a nice grouping of USC Trojans - right in time for college football season.

The Giants are not very well represented in this order.  It is a little surprising as I bought most of these cards during Spring Training when my hopes were high for the team.  Well that has changed a bit but on to sunnier topics.

How about a pair of cards from the Home Run King!  I think I did a search for Bonds cards starting with the lowest priced and found this Electric Diamond parallel.  The SI for Kids was a search after I saw one for sale for a crazy price.  I knew I didn't have it, hopped on COMC and brought it home for under a buck.

The only other Giants from this order are this trio of Donruss Signature Series base cards.  These were released in Donruss' 2001 comeback year.  Each of them is numbered to 800 and this finished off my team set of 6.  There is also an auto of Pedro Feliz /330 that is numbered as part of the base set but I never consider the autos part of the team set.  My collection - my rules.

Now into a great batch of card from my USC Trojans:

Back in 2015 Panini put out cards for a few select college program, USC was included.  They were available in blaster boxes at a couple of retailers on line.  I bought a couple boxes and really liked the set. It was heavily football dominated but had a few basketball and baseball cards as well.  I had 2 disappointments - 1) the set didn't include hoops player and my former neighbor Harold Miner and 2) the two blasters didn't give me a complete set.  I searched everywhere for single and could only find a select few on COMC.  After a few months I picked up another blaster and still came up 5 cards short (with a huge stack of dups).  Luckily someone else must have bought a blaster or two and sent them into COMC as they came available and I swooped them up to finish off my set.

I picked up one of these football helmet, shiny die-cut cards and loved it.  The stock is nice and thick, the players are wearing their USC unis, the helmets look great - almost perfect cards.  I went it and got these 3 additional cards as well.  I also did a search from some cheap autos and picked up the two Tre Maddens - I don't limit myself to Trojan cards in their college unis but usually prefer them.

Finally I went on a Charles White, former Heisman Trophy winner, shopping spree.  Charles has had quite a few release in the past several years and I hadn't kept up.  It is hard for me to choose my favorite from this group of 9 inserts and parallels but I would probably go with the All-Americans insert in the middle.  Two pics, one without a helmet, to go with the US Flag background speaks to the patriot in me.

The final CW cards are these two autos.  The Rose Bowl card is cool but the UD Black is the star of this package.  It is just a beautiful card with a perfect silver signature - makes you miss Upper Deck doesn't it?

COMC Vintage and Hits - March

First off - Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there.  I wrote this post on Saturday and will be off the grid for most of the day spending time with my wife and kids.

Time to finish up my March COMC delivery with a mix of vintage card and hits.  These two types of cards are on the opposite end of the spectrum but I don't want to draw this out any longer.

First up are some vintage San Francisco 49ers:

Some cool cards here from the 1960 and 1970 Topps sets.  My energy in going after the vintage 49ers has been strong of late but I was looking to mix up my purchase a bit and found these vintage beauties at very reasonable prices.  I really like the design of the 1960 set and now have 4/10 49ers.  This is a team set I would like to go after based on the aesthetics.  These 6 1970s matched with the 2 I already have get me to 8/10 49ers.  I am not as big of a fan of the design but my new closeness to finishing off the set will make this one a target as well.

Next up are 8 cards for my 1971 Topps set.  Since these acquisitions I have been aggressively seeking out the last few cards I need to finish it off and I hope to have a celebration post in the not too distant future.  No huge names here but a outside of the Sal Campisi card, I really enjoy the photos on all these cards.

Now moving on to the hits portion of the post.  I liked watching Josh Shaw play DB for the Trojans and found a quad of his auto cards on the cheap.  I really like the shiny one with the Go Trojans inscription.  I also like the fact he is wearing his USC uni in all the photos.  You may recall a story about Shaw in which he lied about how he injured his ankles saying it was rescuing a drowning a kid instead of an odd escape from his girlfriend's apartment balcony.  Not the greatest character but he went to my school :-)  The final card is a 2010 Topps Chrome parallel, not exactly a hit.  I was going for the Trojan rainbow back in 2010 which was a pretty daunting feat with 14 different players each having 8 cards (I wasn't going after the 1/1s).  This Damian Williams orange completed that color and I also have the base cards complete. Still missing 1 refractor, 6 x-fractors, 8 purples, 7 blues, 11 gold and 13 reds.  Kind of a crazy goal to shoot for back then but decided to at least finish off one of the colors.

Now for some Giant hits.  I was able to pick up all 3 of the Giant Topps Chrome autos for under $2 each.  The lack of value in these hits is the primary reason I haven't gone after any hobby boxes of Topps Chrome in a few years.  The odds are so long to getting a card that makes it worth while.  I now pick up a few packs of retail to get my pack busting fix then seek out any Giants I decide to go after.  The Williamson Diamond Kings card was really cheap as well and is a nice dual relic with an auto.  Pretty solid design on that card with the nice Giants orange in the background.

My final two cards are an auto relic of perennial Giants prospect Kyle Crick and a Heritage relic of The Freak, Tim Lincecum.  It doesn't look like Crick is going to pan out but I could resist picking up this card.  I am planning on putting together a checklist/want list of the Giants Clubhouse Collection relics so this was a nice addition.

I have one more COMC order that I had delivered after this one (my Christmas scratch off free shipping wins made it easy to do) and will probably get another delivery as well soon to finish off the 1971 Topps set - I cannot wait until Black Friday to get those last cards in my hand.

Hoping to Bring Some Much Needed Luck to my USC Trojans

It hasn't been an easy few years being a USC Trojan fan.  Between coaching changes, legal issues, unfair sanctions and unfulfilled expectations there seems to be new disappointments almost every week.  I went to the USC vs. UW game about 10 days ago and poor play mixed with some very questionable coaching led to an unexpected loss and apparently led our Head Coach to drink which resulted in a suspension then firing.  Coach Sark had proven to be a good recruiter but the team hadn't put it together on the field so this Trojan fan isn't upset about his exit.

Now we find ourselves at 3-2, out of the rankings and with an interim coach facing the Fighting Irish tonight at 4:30 PST.  This is a game I typically don't miss but I have a wedding to attend tonight so I will tape it and hopefully bury my head in the sand, keep the score a mystery and stay up late after the wedding to watch.  I am fully expecting disappointment once again but a guy can dream.

In order to try and do something the bring the Trojans some luck I thought I would post some  Trojan pick ups to see if the appearance of some of their past stars will inspire them.  It also will help clear out my scan folder a bit as I have quite a few.

 This is a 1/1 Autographed printing plate of former SC TE Anthony McCoy.  I dabbled with Supercollecting McCoy early on and was able to get a few 1/1s on the cheap but then someone else with some deep pockets started outbidding me.  I still stay on the lookout but it is rare for me to get one of his limited print run cards these days.

 Cushing is a beast, I remember him just blowing up offenses during his days at USC. This dual jersey/hat relic is numbered 49/50, a very nice pick up.

 This is my most recent pick up in this group, a bid board win for $3.  I believe I saw that Buck Allen may be in line for some significant playing time with the Ravens over the next couple weeks. I hope he can take advantage of it.  This is numbered 50/100 - since it is the middle one printed does that make it an eBay 1/1 :-)

 Galippo only had about 15 non-1/1 cards produced and I have 4 of them including this blue version of his Leaf Draft card.  I seem to recall he had some injury challenges in college and it doesn't look like he made it to an NFL roster.  He was signed by the Colts as an undrafted free agent in 2010 and was there for a couple of months during the off season and was cut.  He currently is a color guy for high school football.

 One of my favorite Trojans of all time.  RIP Junior.

 This guy has a ton of cards for someone who really didn't do a ton as an NFL player.  He was the #1 RB recruit coming to USC and leaving his home town LSU Tigers behind.  He was hailed as the next Reggie Bush but didn't ever live up to those expectations and was involved in some controversy a couple of times including being banned by the team in his final bowl game.

 I couple of sweet looking cards of defensive star Lawrence Jackson.  He was great at USC and had an up and down 5 year NFL career with the Lions and Seahawks.  I worked with his mom during his time at USC and after being drafted and that connection always leads to a little extra excitement when I pick up his cards.

 I little while ago I did a quick search to see how LenDale White's cards were faring when it came to resell price.  I was reminiscing about the 2006 card collecting season when Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart joined White in most card products.  LenDale's cards sold for quite a bit back then but I was able to pick up one of his more desirable rookie autos for a pretty low price.

 Marc's claim to fame was being the son of former Rams and 49ers star Wendell Tyler.  He was solid at SC but never made it into an NFL game.

Mark Sanchez's career so far is fairly well chronicled.  His cards were super hot after he was drafted and I was lucky enough to pull a couple autos out of box breaks.  I of course held on to them despite some pretty hefty offers from fellow Trojan fans in Orange County.  In hindsight I probably should have sold high and looked at reacquiring them now but I will never forget the excitement of pulling a manupatch auto out of Prestige in a 3 pack purchase.

 Lee only had 3 catches this year as he battles injuries.  I like this card in large part due to the 3 different jersey pieces used in the card - I love it when card companies take this type of care.

 Similar to LenDale White and Mark Sanchez, Matt Leinart's cards have come down a ton since he was the #10 overall pick.  I know his pro career didn't meet expectations but I have yet to see a college QB that was better.  His is a collection I wouldn't mind beefing up with some additional card pick ups.

 I got this card in a Sportlots auction, it wasn't too much but I do remember a little bit of a bidding war.  It looks and feels like a Superfractor but has no numbering.  There should be a 1/1 on there but it doesn't exist.  This is either an error card or some card that Topps released after the fact. I just got it because it is cool.

 I think Leaf did a nice job with this set and I am so glad there are so many cards with players in their college uniform.  This card scanned nice and shiny and is that way in person as well.

 Not a ton to say about Rhett, a solid TE.  He didn't think he was going to be drafted and went in the 4th round to the Vikings and he still plays for them.

 Going old school here, remember when a card serial numbered to 2815 was rare?  I was surprised I didn't already have this card of the former USC signal caller.

 Similar to Anthony McCoy, I shortly dabbled with supercollection All-Pro Center Ryan Kalil.  He is a stud offensive lineman but ultimately my collecting interests went in a different direction.  I had an old Kalil 1/1 search in eBay and came across this for a low price so I decided to pick it up.

Finally a nice dual jersey of CB Terrell Thomas. I really enjoy the Threads cards from 2008 (I have the auto version of LoJack above), this card looks great. Thomas had a pretty solid NFL career as well but has some injury woes.

All right, I am finished.  I doubt many, if any, made it this far but I am hoping the presence of this post helps my team rally against Notre Dame later today. Fight On!

Trade Post - Sportscards From The Dollar Store

Once again I got a little behind on some trade posts.  The good news (if you can all it that) is that I haven't made too many trades or gotten too many packages so it won't take long to remedy being behind.

Time to share some great cards from my friend from the neighboring North, Douglas of Sportscards From The Dollar Store.  This isn't the first time we have exchanged cardboard and I always appreciate that he can make up for that dreaded USPS cost to ship to Canada by including some great cards in his packages.  This trade started off with me seeing a couple cards from a Gypsy Queen break, shooting Douglas a note and a trade with much more cards being completed.

In addition to the Gyspy Queen cards, this package hit on both of my USC collections. Here are some of the highlights:

I recently updated my USC checklist but outside of a few base LCS pick ups, I haven't done much to enhance my Trojan football collection.  This group of cards filled in some nice wholes in my checklist with some fairly recent releases.  The Reggie Bush card reminds me of how hot he was and how everyone wanted to pull his cards back in 2006.  Might be a good time for me to bargain hunt and fill in some gaps from early in his career as I am guessing prices are quite a bit lower.  I am hopeful that Reggie can add something to the 49er offense to help them do better than the 4-6 win projections I have seen.

 Here are 5 more USC football cards, all of Green Bay LB Clay Matthews.  The top 4 are all different variations with the same photo while the bottom card shows Clay doing what he does best - hitting the QB.  I am a big Matthews fan despite my distaste for the Packers.  However this year I have them in my 3 team fantasy game so I will be cheering for them.

While it is a lesser collection with the cards all fitting in a 300 count box (as opposed to the 4 3000-count boxes with base/inserts and the 3 large top loader boxes with hit for USC Football), I still like picking up some USC basketball players.  This package, and this scan, show some of the more recent stars that came out of USC to play in the NBA.  A buddy I work with knows DeMar DeRozen really well but if I was going to go after a player collection in addition to my Harold Miner collection, I think it would be Taj Gibson.  I like his toughness and how hard he plays.

 There were of course some Giants in this trade package, here are some of my favs.  I had intended on picking up the Panda October Heroes cards a bunch of times and kept forgetting to seal the deal so that was a great pickup.  I also wasn't real diligent on my minor league release checklists so these knocked some cards off and inspired me to update the checklist.

 And here aer the 2 cards that started it all from 2015 Gypsy Queen.  Gary Brown is all over Topps releases this year even though he was released prior to the start of the season by the Giants but I still go after his cards - I collect all Giants.  The Mays Bronze Framed card is a thing of beauty.

Another great trade, thanks for the great assortment of cards and hitting on so many parts of my collection Douglas!