Saturday, June 21, 2014

More Crazy Ebay Lots bring more Quads!

So the other day two auctions came up for Heads Up Quads cards that I needed.  Only they weren't your typical one card auction, they each were groups of four cards from the set starting at $20 each.  In one I needed three cards, in the other, two, and then one card was an upgrade.  I figured I could sell the other two plus the upgraded card to make back some of the cost, so I bid on both (paid about $46 total).

Made $10 back quick on one card, and then made another $10 on the other two.  So in the end, I paid like $26 for 5 cards I needed and an upgrade.  Nice!

I figured I'll show off the upgrade part first.  It's the Vikings quad I posted before, but in this version Michael Bennett has a patch:
I really like it, nice two color on good fabric, perfect.

Now onto one of the new quads.  This one has a lot of star power as it's a quarterback quad card featuring four of the eras best:
First we have Michael Vick, who is of course still playing.  He went from game changing dynamo and the face of Madden 2004 to dog fighter/prisoner to redemptive Eagles QB and now to Jets backup QB.  It has certainly been a wild ride, but few QBs have done it as well as Vick.

Steve McNair was the third overall pick in the 1995 draft (behind Ki-Jana Carter and Tony Boselli) and he was quite the rushing QB as well.  He was fantastic over 11 years in Houston/Tennessee, leading the team to the Super Bowl which they lost by about half a yard.  McNair then spent the last two years of his career in Baltimore before retiring, dying several years later in a much publicized murder-suicide.

Daunte Culpepper has been mentioned here before, but suffice it to say his career sort of mirrors Vick's.  Fantastic start...then everything kind of dissolves into a journeyman-esque career.  Still great, but weird.

Mark Brunell was most recently a Jets backup QB just like Michael Vick is now.  Before that he was in a bunch of different places, starting as a 1993 5th round draft pick in Green Bay whom Jacksonville traded 3rd and 5th round picks for a year later (that's how you do the Ryan Mallett thing New England!).  He was then the face of the Jaguars franchise for the next 9 years, with 144 touchdowns to just 86 interceptions.  Eventually he got older and had some injury issues, and Brunell ended up in Washington where he manned the helm for three years.  But that was the last meaningful playing time of Brunell's career.  He spent 2008-2011 as a backup with just one start over two years with the Saints and two years with the Jets.  Overall a fantastic career though - Brunell finished 28th overall in passer rating, which is some pretty impressive stuff!

Who wins the card? If Vick or Culpepper didn't have the stops and starts in their careers, there's a chance this card would be theirs.  But as is, the truly elite careers belong to Brunell and McNair.  And really you can't go wrong either way, both were really impressive for a long time and both are probably quite underrated given the skill they displayed.  So I'm calling this one a tie - McNair and Brunell both win the card.

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