Recent Pickups

So with the NASCAR season starting this last couple weekends I've been on a bit of a bender picking up some new cards. This first one is from my local card shop where after I pulled the previously mentioned Danica Patrick the owner ripped the other two boxes of 2010 Showcase. A really nice looking autograph and firesuit card numbered to 25.


Kasey is currently driving for Red Bull Racing for the year and will join Hendrick Motorsports at the beginning of next year. I also picked up a handful of base cards that he had of some of my favorite drivers.

The rest of these cards are all e-bay wins. First the two that came in the mail today....


Yeah so they kinda look similar don't they. I actually didn't mean to win them both but as Smoke is my favorite current driver I'm not going to complain a whole lot! The top card is firesuit/sheet metal/shoe numbered 26/45 while the bottom one is shoe/firesuit/sheet metal numbered 20/25. Lastly are two cards to add to my Darrell Waltrip collection.


First a Press Pass Legends Family Relics dual sheet metal card of Darrell and baby brother Michael. Second an autographed firesuit Showcase card numbered 24/25. I was thrilled to get the Showcase card as is looks great next to the sheet metal version I already have. Now I have to watch for any other versions on this card to try and pick up. Thanks for reading and ciao!

Diamonds

This afternoon while wondering around one of the local Targets I picked up another blaster of 2011 Topps to see what I could find. Out of this I pulled four of the Diamond Giveaway cards. I know it's a rehash of the Million Card from last year but I think it's fun to see what Topps has to offer. One of the interesting add-ons this year of course is the Diamond Dig. For each card you unlock you get to dig a spot on a baseball field to collect rings and for each different ring you work your way up a ladder that offers prizes up to a 60th anniversary ring. SO after unlocking my four cards today, the best of which was a 1967 John Buzhardt, I went to the ball field and dug my four spots. On the fourth dig this showed up

TOPPS 60TH ANNIVERSARY
COMMEMORATIVE SET
AN EXCLUSIVE 60TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION COMPLETE SET

HOLY FRAK I just won a prize from Topps!! Now what I wonder is 1. How much will the shipping be and 2. is this the shiny foil set Dayf is trying to put together by Hand? From the note listed in the prize section I won't be able to even think about getting this until August 15th so I guess I have some time to figure it all out! I wonder what other prizes are out there to be dug up? Ciao!

Recent Stuff

So as I mentioned earlier this morning I was able to stop by my favorite card shop and pick up a couple boxes. The first was a box of the new Playoff Contenders. I had seen some nice autos come out and I really like the design of the base cards. My box yielded five autographs: three of the sticker version and two on-card. Sticker wise I pulled Antonio Brown, Devin McCourty and Derrick Morgan. For on-card I found a Marcus Easley and Eric Decker. Not sure if either one is a variation or not but still pleased with both pulls. I also pulled the Suh rookie I showed before, that was numbered 9/99 and an Otis Anderson Super Bowl Ticket numbered 3/100.




The other box I picked up is something I've been wanting to try for a long time but needed some extra cash to be able to afford. Well with my tax return coming in I was finally able to buy a box of Press Pass Showcase racing. I've always liked NASCAR and there are some amazing cards to be pulled from this. Three packs and three hits. Pack number one gave me an autograph and sheet metal card of a driver that is in the top ten of all-time winners, Former driver of the #2 Miller Genuine Draft Pontiac Rusty Wallace.

The scan doesn't show it very well but the sheet metal piece, even though it's all white, is really dirty and scuffed and the autograph is most defiantly on-card! Numbered 5/45 this was a great way to start a box. Next pack was super heavy and led me to think I had another sheet metal piece and I wasn't wrong. I pulled a jumbo piece of the #42 Target car driven by Juan Pablo Montoya that includes part of a sponsor sticker and is numbered 12/45.


The last pack wasn't as heavy and I wasn't sure what it was going to yield. As I peeled back the top couple cards I got to the one clear card in each pack and could see part of the hit behind it. That small piece was colored bright green and my heart started racing just a bit. See each six box half-case promises to have one autograph or race-used card of a certain NASCAR rookie and I was hoping beyond hope that I might get lucky. Well ladies and gentlemen here it is.....


That's right I pulled a triple race-used card of Miss Danica Patrick! Sheet metal, tire and fire-suit. With my scanner the green doesn't show up very well but it's much brighter than this is showing. The tire piece is cool as it appears to have the number 5 and a rubber "hair" on it and the dual colored sheet metal is a plus. I really like this product and may have to save up for a couple more boxes. I have three other Showcase cards coming in the mail that I won off E-bay and I'll show those when they get here.

I also picked up off E-bay part of a Battlestar Galactica collection that a seller was getting rid of. The best this I got were six of the Shelter Poster cards. These came six or so boxes and are the only numbered cards to be included in the sets. So for the cost of just over one box I actually got the complete sets for seasons 3 and 4.

I also got the complete insert set of the Razor mini-series for less then $10

The last couple cards I got were an autograph of Leah Cairns who played pilot Margaret "Racetrack" Edmonson and a costume card of Sharon "Boomer" Valerii. The costume card gives me all of the variations of the Boomer cards from all five sets. So all in all it's been a pretty good couple weeks card wise for me after not liking anything new and kinda getting down on the hobby it's nice to find some cards I actually like. I'll hopefully be back later in the week with the rest of my E-bay wins but until then....... ciao

P&P (Plug and a Preview)

Discovered a new blog through several contest plugs tonite called Crinkly Wrappers and he's holding a great contest for some free Topps cards. Head on over and get in on the fun!

Also went to the card shop today and picked up two boxes. Here's a one card preview of one of the boxes..... I'll post the rest of my pulls in the next couple days. Ciao for now!

Group Break Winnings and a Couple Mail Days

As many of you know Dennis over at Too Many Grandersons did a second case of 2008 Razor Letterman and I was able to join this time. I love the way he does this break as he opened everything and then we drafted the cards we wanted. We pulled some really nice cards including a 1/1. My draft spot was in the middle of the group and the first card I choose was Eric Hosmer "R" numbered 17/20. I also was able to pick up a Chris Carpenter, Ryan Flaherty, Pedro Alvarez and Roger Kieschnick and one other card that I can't remember I think it was a Tiger. We then went into a trading session where I was able to use some of the previous Letterman cards I had gotten to work out a trade for two Aaron Crow cards to add to my collection. Dennis also threw in an extra auto for me of Jared Mitchell from Bowman Sterling which was a great touch. Thanks again to him for having a great break!


I also helped out artist Brandon Kenney in a huge project he had going called Art for Smarts to help him raise money for his schooling. Brandon was raffling off spots for several prizes and each spot also included a sketch card of his random choosing. The raffle was done over a month ago and I ended up winning a 4x6 Legends & Lore artist proof with one of the four spots I bought. Brandon has been working hard to finish all the different sketch cards and mine finally came in the mail yesterday. I was lucky enough to get Legolas from The Lord of the Rings, Jayne Cobb from Firefly, Darth Maul from Star Wars and a full color Batman. Thanks again to Brandon for all his hard work!


The last thing I received in the mail this week was a PSC by Tim Proctor of my favorite girl Boomer/Athena from Battlestar Galactica. I commissioned this card a couple months ago and Tim finally had time to get it done and out to me. And let me say I don't mind the wait!! I know he was hard at work on several projects including Star Wars Galaxy 6 and the wait was well worth it. What a beautiful card I've added to my collection.....


Hope everyone has a GREAT Super Bowl weekend!

Recent Additions

Hey all still around but haven't had much to write about recently. I can honestly say that in the last month I've only opened one blaster box of cards. NOTHING has been interesting to me at all when it comes to new releases. What I'm going to show today is a few new sketch pick-ups and some really cool swag from Steve at 5finity.

So back during the March of Dimes donation period 5finity not only offered The Female Persuasion dual sketch pack but let it be known that if we wanted to donate directly to his MoD account he would send some sweet swag depending on the amount donated. So I sent in my amount and waited. The good/bad thing is the donations were more then Steve expected and he ran out of the original pages for the Betty & Veronica to give and had to ask for more which delayed some of us getting our packages. Me being towards the end of the alphabet I was one who had to wait. Not a big deal to me but I did contact Steve to see when I needed to start watching the mail. Steve wrote me back apologizing for the delay and added that there would be a few extra things since I had to wait so long. So a few weeks ago this HUGE flat package shows up leaning against my door. I got it inside and carefully opened it up and here is what awaited me inside.........

Two pages of original art from Betty & Veronica
A limited edition (1/10) print from Zom-B-Com
Two copies of Zombies vs. Cheerleaders #1 (covers A and C)
Three copies of Zombies vs. Cheerleaders Geektacular #1 (covers A, B and C)
One copy of Zombies vs. Cheerleaders #2 (cover E limited to 200)
All signed by Steven Frank!
One sketch pack of Hack/Slash that was a sketch of Cassie by Daniel Campos
One sketch from Moonstone Maximum by Anthony Hochrein
Promo cards from several 5finity releases

I was also in a group break over at Too Many Grandersons for a case of 2010 Elite Extra Edition. We got to pick our first team and then drafted two others. I wasn't able to make the live break but I picked the Cubs and had the White Sox and the Twins but somehow only ended up with ONE auto!!!! However this got worked out in the end with the teams that weren't taken and the auto's that were pulled for them. I ended up with seven total auto's of guys I've never heard of. I'm not a big prospector except for Royals' players and I know some of the guys for the Iowa Cubs of course. I haven't scanned these guys in but I got Josh Harrison (Cubs), Kolbrin Vitek, Raymond Fuentes (Red Sox), Adrian Sanchez (Nationals), Hayden Simpson (Cubs), Josh Rutledge (Rockies) and Chevez Clarke (Angels). Plus I got almost the complete base set and a nice stack of inserts. If you ever want to get in a great break Dennis does a fantastic job.

I also just bought a couple more Sadlittle produced cards off the Scoundrel Art site. Both cards are by Remy "Eisu" Mokhtar. The first is the Grim Reaper from Dreamers of Darkness

and the second is a Bathtub Angel from the Rantz Angels set


There are a few things coming out in the next couple months that have caught my eye but most of them fall in the non-sports area. I'll try to update here more often and maybe get into some of my cards that I've had since before I started the blog. Hope everyone has a great Championship weekend and as a Vikings fan this kills me to say but..... Go Pack! Until next time.......

Fun Video

Ran across this on the Extra Mustard page at Sports Illustrated and had to share. Neat video on how Wilson makes every football for the NFL and for retail stores.