Trades Keep on Rollin' In: Now with More Night Owl!

When it trade rains, it trade pours I guess! I had been waiting on 12-15 trades to come in, and it seems like they've all come in between last Friday and this week, which rules, but makes my blog very trade post heavy. As long as the trades stay excellent and hit up a bunch of my needs like this one from everyone's favorite Night Owl, then that's alright with me!


My favorite card from the package was actually the first time that a blogger got me something off my random wants list - it's an Olmedo Saenz card from 2007 Topps:
As I told the Owl, I generally dislike the 2007 Topps set, but I think it works well with Saenz here in Dodger blue. I also like the sunhats behind Saenz in the stands...very dorky but very cool. And I love the fact that it's Saenz most of all - I mentioned a while back about how he almost single handedly won the second game I ever saw in person, so he holds a special place in my heart. Great dude that Olmedo Saenz!

That said, I still have his relic card as a random want on my random wants list. So if anyone has it, I'd love it! And in general, if you want to trade with me, my random wants page is a good place to start. It's often features more recent players/years than my player and set collections, and it's a pretty crazy assortment that changes all the time, so you never know when you'll have something I need! Check it out!


I guess this was just a trade for firsts in general, as Night Owl also sent me 5 cards for my cards featuring drinking cups collection. My favorite was the 1983 Fleer Al Oliver, which features 2 cups:
It's no 1998 UDCC Pat Meares, but 2 cups beats 1 cup, so I think it's cool!


I also like shots where the player is sort of hiding the cup from view, like this Pat Mahomes:


And finally (I'm only showing 3 cards but trust me that there were 5, check the page if you don't believe me!) , here's a non paper/gatorade cup, the Pepsi can behind Greg Brock on his 1988 Topps card:
I generally tend to collect either the green and orange gatorade cups and/or plain white Styrofoam cups, but really it's an all inclusive club. So send away!


Owl also sent me a bunch of 95 Topps I needed, but I figured I'd just show off one card, this sweet Cyberstats Derrick May:
Thanks for the stuff Night Owl! Great goodies as always!

Too Many Cards from Too Many Grandersons

Okay, there's no such thing as too many cards (try telling my girlfriend that, amirite fellas, amirite?), but Too Many Grandersons sent me a whole bunch in our trade recently. If all of his trade packages are this cool then I highly recommend trading with him, because I think I did quite well!

I'll start off with 1 of 2 cards I knew I was getting for sure in this trade, a 2010 Sweet Spot Josh Cribbs card from his time at Kent State:
TMG had just busted a box of Sweet Spot and pulled this card, so I asked if I could have it and he said sure. I LOVE it, for one because it's a fantastic card in general, but for two that it's a card of Josh Cribbs as a QB. He's now only an occasional QB, mostly in wildcat packages and the like, but it's cool that this card represents his quarterbacking past.


These next two cards I didn't expect, but they made me very, very, very happy since I kept almost picking them up and now they're finally mine. Ladies and gents, Toe Nash:
Dude dropped out of school in 7th or 8th grade, ended up playing in Latin America after years of farm work, tried out for major league teams, and was basically the cream of the crop as far as prospects went in 2001. The next Babe Ruth basically, better than Pujols, etc., etc.

Then he got arrested for a ton of stuff, his career derailed, and he never even sniffed organized baseball, let alone major league baseball, again. Sad tale of promise lost.

That said, the potential was great, and the name was potentially greater, so I've always wanted one of his cards. And now I have two. So cool!


This next card is A BEAUT, though its parallel-ness may look familiar to some of my longtime readers. This is a 1997 Fleer Ultra Platinum Medallion Edition card of Quinton McCracken. The cards in this set supposedly have a print run of 200, so it's a pretty rare/cool card:
I just LOVE how these cards look, the platinum is a nice touch. I may someday be tempted to collect this entire set just because it looks so nice. For now though, I'm happy to have two of the greatest names in the set, Quinton McCracken and Wonderful Monds. And yes, I am counting this card as a cup card. Technically I only count Styrofoam or plastic open cups and not water bottles, but this card rules, so I'll bend the rules. And I know that tarnishes my Hall of Cups...but so be it!


These next 4 cards are all autos/relics...gotta love them:
The Eck was for trade bait, as was the Floyd, whereas the Tabak and the Holmes were there more for great name-ness. I actually LOVE the Floyd, as I'm a huge fan of the 1997 Florida Marlins team and Floyd was a part of that. Plus it's got a stripe, which is also very nice! So thanks for the random throw in TMG, because it ended up being one of my favorite cards in the package hahaha.


These next 9 cards are really, really shiny. And serial #'d. Oooo:
The top 3 are all artist proof cards, including 2 Bubba Trammell cards. My favorite card of this bunch is the 2006 Bowman Chrome Xfractor Wladimir Balentien 125/299, a guy I thought would really take off but never did. I also really love the cosigners cards, especially the Chone Figgins/Gary Matthews card. And it's hard not to love the Taggert Bozied card, so getting a Chrome card of his was pretty sweet as well!

Thanks again for the tremendous cards Too Many Grandersons! I hope you like your Wolverines cards as much as I liked these ones!

Cloudy with a Chance of Kuntz, and other Cards from Hoopla Cards

I've been trying to complete my smaller player collections as much as possible lately, and so I made a few purchases from Beckett. This purchase, from Hoopla Sportscards, also featured the best Rusty Kuntz card I've ever seen. Behold:
He's like a Greek God or something in this image, and it looks AMAZING!


I got this package and a trade package (that'll be posted in a few days) on the same day, and both had a God Shammgod 97-98 Fleer card in them. The left one is the base from the trade, the right is the Tiffany Parallel from Hoopla:
I now have every single God Shammgod card available online. That puts me 5 short, so if you or anyone you know has any of the following cards:

1997 Scoreboard Rookies Varsity Club #VC16
1997-1998 Fleer Metal Universe Championship Precious Metal Gems #49 /50
1997-1998 Fleer Ultra Masterpieces #168 /1
1997-1998 Fleer Ultra Platinum Medallion #168 /150
or 1997-1998 Z-Force Super Rave #122 /50

Then please let me know! I need them for my master set!


I also picked up the last Wonderful Monds available online that I didn't already have, which is the non-gold parallel of a card I picked up a few weeks ago from Burbank:
Same deal with him, if you or anyone you know has:
1995 Durham Bulls Team Issue #22
1995 Upper Deck SP Top Prospects Promos #18
1998 New Haven Ravens Maritime Aquarium #19
1998 New Haven Ravens Multi-Ad #19

Then hit me up, I'll make it worth your while!


After those 3 cards, I picked up 3 more cards from my random wants list, since they were cheap and I liked them. This first card rules since it's Michael Bishop, but it's made especially awesome because the back discusses one of my favorite plays of all time:
Tony Simmons returns a squib kick to the Colt 44 yard line, leaving 4 seconds on the clock before half. Bishop comes in since he has a rocket arm, tosses a hail mary to the end zone on his first career pass attempt, and Simmons catches it for the score. And the Pats beat the Colts and win the game! Easily one of the top 10 sporting moments of my entire life.

A year later Brady was winning a championship...but I was a Michael Bishop fan long before I was a Tom Brady fan, and this play had a lot to do with that!


Another cool guy I like with a good game of his - Shantee Orr, Texans, with a three sack game in 2005. My brother and I loved this dude for some reason, and would make him our #1 pick in Madden just because we knew otherwise the other brother would pick him. He didn't amount to much, but I'm glad to finally have a card of his:


Last but not least, the sole reason I wanted to collect 1996 Fleer Metal Universe...the trippy Sammy Sosa Bubbles card:
I ended up coming to my senses and sticking with just one FMU year, 1997, which I find to be the most insane (I like trippy). But I needed to own this card someday and now I do...so I'm a happy Moose!

Thanks Hoopla for helping me make progress on some master sets and for bringing me some happy sporting memories!

Cool Cards from Cardboard Collections, Including the First Card My Girlfriend LOVED

I recently came into a silk Javy Vazquez card, /50, that I really didn't need. Problem was I was stuck with it since I bought it for someone who then stopped collecting Javy. Bummer!

Luckily, I know some Braves collectors, and they include Cardboard Collections! So I found some other Braves to send his way, looked through his trade bait list, and the trade was on. I think I did pretty well, especially since my girlfriend actually loved the first card out of this package.

That's right...LOVED IT! As in like near shrieking and demanding I scan it instantly so she could show it off on Facebook and stuff. Weird.

What card could do that? Well, my girlfriend comes from a Catholic family, and while she isn't religious herself, she did carry on some of her Mom's love of certain elements of the Catholic Church, like say...Popes. Specially Pope John Paul II, who was a decent guy for a Pope. Loved the guy. So when I saw that this card:
was on the Cardboard Collections trade bait list, I knew it had to be mine. And it was so worth it to see my girlfriend excited about cardboard for once! It's a pretty cool card as well!


Of course, some of the cards I chose were for me, since I'm still the true collector here hahaha. I actually picked up a few random relics of guys that probably would have someday joined my Random Cards I Want page. Now they don't have to since...I own them!

The first cool one is a 2010 Topps Peak Performance Jersey Piece of Kevin Youkilis:
YOUUUUUUK! I love that it's red (my first red jersey piece, and I think my first Red Sox jersey piece), and I'm happy to own a Youk jersey. Hate away Yankees fans (and many other baseball fans I guess), but I'm happy he's on my team!


My other jersey card is from another current Red Sox guy, though I liked him long before his Red Sox days. It's Bill Hall, circa his Brewers days:
Hall hit 35 homeruns in 2006 for the Brewers, and while that now seems a million years ago, he's still got some pop for a utility guy. Plus he pitched a scoreless inning this year, and I LOVE when position players pitch. So I'll take an off white jersey patch of Bill Hall any day!


Finally, I picked up two minis from 2010 A and G, which were The Parthenon and Judson Laipply. I liked them for their subjects, not that I collect minis or anything, and I would've showed their scan here, but I accidentally saved the other card I picked up over that scan, and I'm too lazy to rescan the minis. So instead you get the 2010 Topps Josh Cribbs base, which goes well with the Gold parallel I picked up a few days ago in another trade:
Ooo. Aah. All in all, a good trade I think. Took a silk and some Braves and turned it into 2 jersey cards of guys I like, a cool base card, a few minis, and my girlfriend's favorite card ever! Nice trading with your Cardboard Collections!

Big Sam, Big Sam Big Sam. Big Sam? Big Sam!

This 1988 Score card is totally ridiculous. It starts off pretty normal, what with a picture of Sam Horn and his stats and all that. Lower down the card though, things get insane:
"Big Sam, as the Fenway Park fans affectionately call him," is how the card starts. Cool, we know his nickname now, thanks Score!

But then, as if sucking up to Mr. Horn or something, Score uses the nickname again. And again. And again.

All told, the name "Big Sam" appears on this card back 4 times. Sam by itself, or Mr. Horn, or any other variation? Zero times.

It's a good nickname, and I'm glad Score shared the nickname with us, but I don't get why they couldn't vary up their titles afterward. Seems kind of like overkill to me!

Seneca Wallace gets the start at QB for the Browns today!

Obviously I wish Jake Delhomme a quick recovery, but I am happy he's inactive today, since that means Seneca Wallace gets to start at QB versus the Chiefs! Hopefully he can help bring the Browns a win and show the city of Cleveland (and Kansas City) what quarterbacking is all about!

Burbank Sportscards or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Wonderful Kuntz

If you're like me, you've trashed the name of Burbank Sportscards in the past. They have a lot of cards, and especially a lot of rare cards, but they all seem to cost an arm and a leg, so you stay away.

Well I had trashed and I had stayed away...until I decided to bolster a few of my more obscure collections. And the only card site that had the 2 God Shammgod cards I needed was one Burbank Sportscards. So I took the plunge, and spent about $20 with shipping on a bunch of Shammgods, Kuntzs, and Wonderful Monds. Only to get an e-mail a few days later from them indicating that one of the Shammgods, a Fleer Tiffany, wasn't available.

UGGGHH! Why would I purchase cards from you if you don't have the rare one I need as part of the package?

BUT Burbank threw in a twist. They felt bad that the Shammgod wasn't there, and so they offered me the choice of any other card on their website, up to a certain price point. I picked one card that was 95 cents over that price point that I really wanted, and threw in a Casey Fossum jersey card as a backup. Surprisingly (for me anyways), they said they would send the more expensive card. And wow, am I so glad they did, because it looks beautiful, and has easily become one of my favorite cards in my entire collection:
That's be a 1996 Fleer Ultra Golden Prospects Hobby Gold Medallion #14, Wonderful Terrific Monds. The non Gold Medallion version is probably nice (I don't own it), but the Gold Medallion version is TRANSLUCENT, and GOLD! I now have a Wonderful Monds translucent card, a short printed Monds card, and a Monds auto. I'm pretty sure I can die a happy, happy man.

So immediately, with that one email and one card, Burbank had swung me to their side. I was already wavering as I purchased cards, as the prices weren't as bad, considering the rarity, as I thought, and the selection was damn good. But the Golden Monds sealed the deal. Do I wish their cards were cheaper? Oh hell yes, of course. But I won't avoid them like the plague any longer...instead I'll just buy from them sparingly, and when I've saved up to do so.

But anyways, enough about my new found appreciation for Burbank. On to the other cards, starting with the 3 Monds backs that discuss his name, a first for any Monds cards of mine:
You'll probably have to click the image to see it more close up, but these backs are cool. The left card explains the complete history of the Monds name. The middle, GOLDEN BEAUTY card calls Monds' name "arguably the best name in all of sports." And the SP Top Prospects card on the right not only includes the "Terrific" middle name of Monds, but also mentions that Monds "name draws second looks." I love that some of Monds' card backs acknowledge the awesome that is his name, rather than ignoring it or showing "statistics." So cool.


Of course, there were other Monds in the package, so many in fact that I am now have 20 of his 26 cards, with only 2 of the remaining cards available online. Here's the fronts of the SP and New Horizons from above, along with 2 parallels and an Ultra base card:


I also picked up some Kuntz in this purchase. He's less exciting than Monds in card backs (they mention when he was drafted or that he played 3 sports in high school...woo hoo!), but also a player collection I treasure dearly. I now have 17 of his 27 cards with this purchase:
Ah, to finally understand Tiffany. I mean a few months ago, the difference between the two cards in the middle row on the right wouldn't have made sense. But yay, now it does!


I also found an error on Rusty's 1985 Fleer card, which is cool:
It says Rusty "walked 25 times in only 142 at-bats in '83." It appears the card company added Rusty's Twins BB and White Sox SO totals, because 12 + 6 does not equal 25, far as I know.


Last but not least, the only Shammgod I got in the deal since the Tiffany was missing. That's fine though, since this Shammgod is amazing:
So shiny! But the back is obviously cooler:
The scan does it no justice, but "of 399 RAVE" is printed on with one kind of print, and then it looks like "138" was printed after. This is my second serial #'d Shammgod card (he has 6 total and none of the other 4 are online), and 16th of 22 overall (only 1 of which is actually online at this point). So I'm glad it looks awesome, because it's probably one of my last new Shammgod cards for a while unless a super collector somewhere sells off his master set!

Thanks again Burbank for the great cards - you've really swayed me. I never thought I'd say that, but 15 cards I need for a touch over $20 is fine when they're a) awesome and b) pretty rare in some instances. So I'm a pretty happy Mooss.

The Second Baseball Game I Ever Attended - AKA Man I Have a Lousy Memory!

A while ago, back when I still wrote for Outside the Boxscore, I wrote a piece about wandering the internet and rediscovering the first baseball game I ever attended, a 7-6 Tigers win over the Twins in 1997. It was a great game, and I was happy to discover exactly what game it was!

Problem is, I attended a second game a few years later, and I hadn't been able to figure out (until today) exactly which one. I knew only a few things about the game (since I misplaced the stub):
1. It was the Athletics vs. the Orioles, in Baltimore.
2. Terrence Long, Frank Menechino, Olmedo Saenz, and Ramon Hernandez all started for the A's, and Mike Bordick and B.J. Surhoff started for the O's.
3. I thought Jason Johnson and Tim Hudson were the starting pitchers for their respective teams (though I wasn't 100% sure).

With some time to kill today, I searched the Baseball Reference box scores and found the game. It was a 4-0 A's win on May 27, 2000, so a little over 10 years ago, from when I was 13.

Now it's no wonder I remembered Hudson or Saenz - the A's would not have won without Hudson's 7.1 innings of 1 hit, shutout ball, nor without Saenz's first inning 2 RBI double into LF/CF.

What amazes me, however, is what I forgot about the game. Like, for example, the Orioles hitters from spots 4-7 in the lineup:
4 - Albert Belle
5 - Cal Ripken Jr.
6 - Harold Baines
7 - Will Clark

Those are 4 damn good hitters, and somehow I didn't remember seeing any of those 4. Now granted, they didn't do a lot to help me out - a combined 1 for 13 with 3 strikeouts isn't exactly memorable. But you'd think that at least one of those guys would have stuck in my mind just a little bit. Very weird.

Either way, I'm happy to now realize that I saw those guys play. But most of all I'm happy that my memory stands correct - Tim Hudson was absolutely dominant in that game, and Olmedo Saenz was the man, if only for a day.

Another Sort of Tribute: Brian McRae

A few days ago I paid tribute to Dave Stewart, which is probably at least semi-understood. Today I sort of pay tribute to Brian McRae. Why, you may ask? Well, to me growing up, he was sort of a mini Jr. Griffey, believe it or not.

He never hit as well as Griffey...at all. In fact, he only hit 103 homeruns over his entire career. But in my young mind, McRae had some of the defensive CF stylings of Griffey, some of that Griffey speed, and a little bit of that Griffey pop. And he just seemed like a cool guy with a lot of cool cards.

Now, the stats do not back me up. McRae's career TZ rating in CF was -24, which is far worse than Griffey's 4, and actually shows McRae as a below average fielder. The most homers McRae even had in a season was 21 in 1998, which along with his 79 RBI in that year, are both far lower than anything Griffey produced in his prime. And the most SB McRae ever had in a season was 37, which is fine, but clearly not as high as I expected.

That said, I don't remember the McRae that the stats show. The McRae I remember looked a lot more like this:
Focused and determined, ready to dominate the league, which he did in the 90's of my memory. Whether stats agree with that or not, I think this is a pretty cool card.

1990 Donruss Terry Steinbach

While digging through my A's cards, I noticed the card on the left, and then noticed it's twin on the right a few cards later:
I've noticed the face guard in baseball games before, but never on a baseball card. It's kind of crazy - does anyone know if Steinbach wore the guard for longer than a stretch of (assumedly) the 1989 season? Or maybe it was just during that season due to an injury or something? Beats me!

Fun fact: Steinbach caught two no hitters in his career, one from Dave Stewart and one from Eric Milton. Totally didn't remember that Milton even threw a no hitter, but that's very cool. As for Stewart, you saw my post yesterday haha. So...nuff said.

Dave Stewart 96 UDCC Tribute Card

Told you that Dave Stewart would show his face again on this blog. He may be making headlines this year for messing things up between the Dodgers and his client, Matt Kemp, but once upon a time he was a damn good pitcher. Never on a team that I liked or anything, but I remember hearing a ton of hype about Stewart growing up as a kid, and so I was always pretty impressed with him. Guess that happens when you win 20 games in 4 straight seasons, as well as being part of 3 World Series winners over your career.

Anyways, Tribute cards are cool, and I wanted to pay tribute to the awesomeness that Stewart represented when I was a little kid by showing his Tribute card from 1996 UDCC. So here it is:
Terrible final season for Stewart, with a 3-7 record and 6.89 ERA. But it did allow for this cool glove raise to the crowd, which was perfect for this card.
The card back points out how Stewart's career was often defined (and still is today) by his intensity on the mound, which is awesome. You just don't get enough B.A. pitchers these days, who can get a batter out mentally before they even throw a pitch. The card also mentions Stewart's 8-0 record in ALCS play, which is pretty damn impressive. Stewart was only 2-4 in the World Series, which likely contributed to the fact that his teams lost two world series against those three they won, but hey, not everyone's perfect. So sorry to any Dodgers fans who are sick of Matt Kemp's crazy agent, but remember that once upon a time, Dave Stewart was a pretty damn good/scary pitcher.

Randy Poffo, a Tale of a Two Sport Athlete (and Persistence)

I was looking up two sport athletes when I made my post about Pat White a few days ago, and the last guy on the list was a total surprise to me. His name was Randy Poffo, and he looked a little something like this back in High School:

(Image taken from http://www.leag1.com/Page.asp?n=13490&org=dgnboosters.org)

Poffo took part in a 200 athlete open tryout for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1971, and was the only player from that tryout signed to a contract. Proving the Cardinals right, Poffo raked in the rookie league for the Cardinals as an OF/DH from 1971 to 1973 before his baseball career took a terrible turn. Poffo suffered a major muscle tear and ligament seperation in his right arm. His career seemed all but over, and he was released by the Cardinals.

Against all odds, rather than retire, Poffo taught himself to throw left handed. The Cincinnati Reds showed interest, and he joined their Florida State League team in 1974. In 131 games of A ball, Poffo hit for a low average, but also had 9 HR and 66 RBI, both of which were among the league leaders (for reference, fellow league leader Eddie Murray had 12 HR and 63 RBI in the same league that year).

Poffo had some pop, but with low average and a terrible glove, Cincy released him at the end of the season. He was signed by the White Sox in 1975, but they released him in Spring Training. Sadly, that would be the end of Poffo's once promising baseball career, as he never played another game of organized baseball.

Luckily, Randy Poffo was able to find success in his second career, professional wrestling. Once on the scene for a few years, he dropped the Poffo part and gave himself a new last name for the stage. And that, my friends, is how Randy "Macho Man" Savage was born:

GSNHOF Nominee - Jorge Poo Tang

Screengrab taken from Mark6mauno's Flickr account.
Tang is the guy trying to score. Go figure.

If it feels like it's been forever since I posted a great name, then...well it has been forever it seems. At least months and months. If I'm going to bring this feature of the blog back, I've got to do it with style, with a really great name that could someday make the hall. Instead I went with Jorge Poo Tang, whose middle name helps make his name one of the greatest I've heard in a while.

Tang grew up in Venezuela, born 3 days after my girlfriend and about 6 months before myself. He made it to the Venezuelan Summer League in 2005, where he played for an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. He hit .294 with a .350 OBP, which isn't too shabby, but with only 14 XBH in 367 plate appearances (including 0 homeruns) and shoddy defense, the Reds let him go following the 2006 season.

But one man's trash is another man's treasure, as Tang quickly found out when he was scooped up by the Calgary Vipers in 2007. His average and OBP were almost identical to his VSL stats, but his slugging percentage over 2 seasons was .026 higher - it seemed that Jorge might have finally been finding his power stroke. With his defense still spotty though, and his game still mostly one dimensional, Tang was released at the end of 2008. Google searches haven't found a career beyond that 2008 season for Tang, so it looks as if he may be gone from professional baseball, unfortunate as that may be.

Gone but not forgotten though. The blog Tenprairiesticks has covered the Calgary Vipers for years, and apparently the head writer was a big fan of Tang (get your mind out of the gutter!). So much so that he wrote this touching tribute post after Tang was released from the team, which I think many of us can relate to. So kudos to Tenprairiesticks, for reminding me that guys with great sports names are people too. And further kudos to Tenprairiesticks for alerting me to the "Theo-Fleury-plays-baseball" gimmick, which I somehow missed a few years back.

Most kudos of all, however, to Jorge Poo Tang, because without his truly excellent name, I probably wouldn't be mentioning him on my blog. You're no Poony Poon, but I wish you the best of the luck in the GSNHOF Ballot Voting, whenever the next ballot takes place!

To see the best sports names of all time, visit the Truly Great Names page.
To see some good sports names that were voted out, visit the Good Names page.
To see the current voting ballot, visit the Ballot page.

This Card Rules: 1988 Score #108 Les Straker

Les Straker was the very first Venezuelan to pitch in the World Series when he started two games for the Twins in the 1987 Series (Games 3 and 6).

That's not too shabby for a guy with a two year career (due to injury). Won a championship ring, got one save, got one shutout, and appeared on this beautifully shot card:
I like the way he's centered, I love the back light, and I love the determination on Straker's face. It's a shame that injury derailed his promising career, but I'm glad that he got to excel at baseball's highest level before he headed out. And I'm thankful that Score put out this great card of Straker, because I wouldn't know any of this stuff without finding this card first!

Edit: And yeah, the cropping could have been better. But I don't mind it too much here.

Contest Winnings from Fuji

The Chronicles of Fuji recently held a contest where all you had to do was comment to win a ton of prizes. I was pulling for a 1 of 1 DeAndre Jordan to start up a 1 of 1 collection, but lost out in the end. Luckily I still was among the prize winners, and I ended up getting Fuji's Sports Card Bust Starter Kit, which was totally sweet!

Three intended busts in this package, starting with Curtis Enis:
I liked Curtis as a kid, because I loved crappy teams and the late 90's Bears were pretty crappy. Unfortunately Enis had to retire from the NFL at 24 due to a knee condition. His autograph is practically bigger than his career - two big swooping letters and a number thrown in for good measure. Very nice.


Next we have Shelden Williams, former Boston Celtic/Mr. Candace Parker:
Shelden's career highs in almost every major stat category came in his 2006-07 rookie season, so that shows you how much of a bust he's been so far. He's already joining his 5th team - maybe the 5th time will be the charm?


The third and final rookie/bust auto is that of Richard Jackman:
The guy has never really done much, but he did win a Stanley Cup with the Ducks in 2007. I'm also thinking I might have seen him play back when he was in the AHL with the Providence Bruins for a few games - but I might just remember him from the Boston sports page. Tough to tell.

Finally, Fuji threw in a Braylon Edwards Scorecard #/d 50/100:
The back of the card mentions how his 16 TD's in 2007 made him a franchise player. What it didn't foresee, however, is that Braylon would become allergic to footballs for a few years before being traded to the Jets. Sort of a bust in my book, but a nice card nonetheless.

Thanks for the winnings Fuji!

Gridiron Goodness from Too Many Grandersons - Anyone Wanna Trade?

I put in my Gridiron Code from Too Many Grandersons' contest the other day, and I ended up with Bill Lueck's 1976 Topps card, #439:
1976...yeah vintage! Don't know much about the guy though, even with the back:
Easily the oldest football card in my collection if I request it, but instead I'm going to once again play the Giveaway game. If you'll recall, when the MCG came out for baseball, I had 0 of the code cards, as I only bought one pack of 2010 Topps. Despite that, one blogger offered up a code, another offered a bunch of his crappy cards for my one decent card, and next thing you knew I was requesting delivery for 10 cards from Topps. I'd love to do something similar this time if anyone's interested. All I request is either something I'd like better than the Lueck, something older than the Lueck, or a couple of cards (let's say 3 or more) for the Lueck. In return I will offer trade after trade after trade, hopefully ending up with something like I had before (when I turned a 00's card into multiple 60's and 70's cards, as well as a few funny cards).

So if you're interested, please let me know! Otherwise I'll be offering a few trades otherwise (right now I'm hoping for a 1973 Fair Hooker) before deciding when I want to claim my cards!

NFL Cutdowns Begin - Many Lefty QB's Cut, Fantastic Name Also Cut

When I started this blog, the largest part of my inspiration was obviously great names. Another, side inspiration, however, was to compile an all-encompassing list of every left handed quarterback who ever played in the NFL. Why? Well, I asked that question one day, and then I realized a lot of people on Google asked the same question with non definitive/erroneous answers, and so I decided to set the record straight.

The current list is here, and 8 of those quarterbacks are active. However, after cut downs yesterday, only 4 left handed quarterbacks are even on a team. Matt Leinart, Chris Simms, and Pat White were all cut yesterday, joining the previously cut Tyler Palko in free agency. I'm sure Leinart and White will find another team, but Simms and Palko may be out of luck. Which would be a shame, because the only other current lefties are rookies Tim Tebow and Sean Canfield, the controversial Michael Vick, and ageless wonder back up Mark Brunell.

One name that was cut really caught my eye though - Kicker Swayze Waters. Is Swayze a common first name? I'd think not, but it's a pretty awesome name given the late, great actor. I hope Waters finds his way back onto a team somewhere - cause nobody puts Swayze in a corner!

1987 Topps Tiffany - Ahhh, Now I Think I Get It

I remember many months back when I received a 1987 Fleer Fred McGriff in a trade and was bummed since I already had it. Of course, my girlfriend noticed the glossiness, and I realized that it was a parallel...silly me.

On a similar note, I recently discovered the different between 1987 Topps and 1987 Topps Tiffany. Here's 3 cards from 1987...how many of you know which are which?
The answer?

Jones, of course, is a regular 1987. Cruz and Pryor are Tiffany.

The back shows this even better though:
Pryor and Cruz have those fancy traded looking backs, which made no sense to me as a young kid since they weren't traded cards but had different backs. Jones has the regular darker back, which is much less fancy but still cool.

And that's all I've got for this post. I'm sure 99% of you know the different between Tiffany and regular, and so this did nothing for you. But I wanted to post about something I learned...so there ya go!

3 New Ebay Senecas!

Quick one today - 3 new Senecas from an Ebay lot. I'm super busy, so the image is from that lot:
The new additions are the top left pristine #131 (/499), the top middle Flair (/500) and the left middle Chrome Draft Picks and Prospects. I have all the other cards from this auction, including the /500 Secret Weapon card in the top right, but this auction was so cheap that I just couldn't pass it up, doubles and all. Now I sit at 70 Seneca cards, 30 from my year end goal. I'm feeling pretty good about hitting that goal right now!

Have You Ever Met a Fellow SuperCollector? Because I Have!

I'm currently talking shop with a fellow Seneca Wallace Supercollector, formerly of the FCB forums. He has multiple Seneca 1/1 Printing Plates but isn't too crazy about them. I'm hoping to deal for some of those with rareiish Seneca's he needs (not 1 of 1's obviously), other nice cards, and maybe a little cash. We'll see how it goes!

How about all of you out there though? I know some bloggers collect the same guys as other bloggers (like me and CCC collecting McGriff), but have you ever met someone whose collecting focus is the same as yours? As in your #1 collection versus his #1 collection? If so, what did you do? I know Balk Four passed forward his Javy Vazquez collection when presented with a bigger collector...but what do you do when both collections are impressive?

Contest Winnings from BA Benny

I recently won a contest over at BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet, and I got the winnings the other day. Part of those winnings were a Strat-O-Matic computer game, which I cannot wait to try once I get a little more homework done. The rest of my winnings came in card form though - specifically 1995 Topps set help cards. 24 base cards and 8 Cyber Stats cards in all, all of which I needed!

I got both versions of Mark Grace in this trade, which was very cool because I've rarely seen a Base Card and its Cyber Stats version side by side. So here it is for you:
A little shinier on the left, especially in the name. Looks darker otherwise - that'd be the gleam in the light. Both awesome cards!


I also loved some of the notes on the back of these cards, as always. For instance, did you know that Dave Henderson was recruited by 100+ colleges? It's true:


Here's one for Heartbreaking Cards' "Everybody has a Record" segment. Did you know that B.J. Surhoff holds the record for most games played by someone known by their initials? Also true:


Finally, did you remember that the 1994 strike year, known to most as a wash year, featured a perfect game by Kenny Rogers? I knew that he had a perfect game, but forgot what year it occurred in. Luckily, 1995 Topps reminded me:


Of course, 1995 Topps can't be all card backs, so I figured I'd finish with a few fronts. Chuck Carr's card features one of the coolest card fronts of the set - check out that crazy amount of dirt on his uniform. Gotta love that.


And finally, this shot could also be considered for shot of the set. I give you Alex Diaz, airborne:
Awww yeah.

Thanks for the cards (and the contest) BA Benny! Set help is always appreciated, and it was great in contest winning form!

As an FYI for everyone else, I'm taking a slight break from entering contests (unless the winnings are really, really, really cool) for the time being. I won like 3 in a row and I figured I ought to let some other people get lucky for once. So if I don't enter your contest, no offense, just letting others feel the card love!