Padrographs Contest Winnings!

Rod from Padrographs had a contest a little while ago which gave away quite a few things, including some Padrographs! There were 6 prizes, but for some reason only 4 people entered, so I already had a good chance. I finished second but ended up with my top prize pick - about 30 autographs of Padres past and present (appropriate timing for Dinged Corners post, don'tchathink?)!

My first thought was that there might be a Fred McGriff auto - and there wasn't. But let me tell you...this prize was way better than any one McGriff. I'm going to show my top 13, awesome to awesome-est, mostly because of time constraints. But just remember...as awesome as these 13 cards are, there are like (at least) 17 more than I didn't show.

And please do check out the bottom of this post, even if you just scan the pictures. The last few autos are insanely generous of Rod!

First this Juan Melo auto. This card just makes me so happy...what a great little smile there.

Now a little double picture - Scott Linebrink and Adam Hyzdu. Linebrink I like from his ChiSox days, and Hyzdu from his RedSox days. And I also like that Hyzdu signed in yellow - way to fight the blue/black establishment!

1969 Topps, signed by Larry Colton. This ties for my second oldest card, so I'm pretty happy anyways, but it's especially awesome signed!

1989 Upper Deck Dickie Thon. This card is awesome on so many levels - the name, the signature placement, the late 80's hair - all so good.

Oh yeah, Rod also threw in some non TTM stuff, aka the stuff you pull from packages. This Tristar Kyler (sp?) Burke...

this Leaf Eric Young (the speed king!)...

and this Donruss Studio Brian Lawrence, #'d to 250. All very cool, the Young is my fave of these three.

Okay, so those cards are rule. But here are my top 5:
5. Archi Cianfrocco - You guys know I love weird names. Does it get much better than this one (well, I think it does, but wait til further down this list).

4. D'Angelo Jiminez - A player I used to really like, I think because he left the Yankees, which is the same reason why I kind of like David Wells, and maybe why I like Fred McGriff too. If Derek Jeter became a Pittsburgh Pirate tomorrow would I become a fan - maybe...just maybe.

3. Okay, Yankee pondering aside...Jake Peavy!
My jaw dropped when I saw this card. It's a rookie, it's signed...I mean does it really get any better than this. I'm sad that Peavy had to leave the Padres, but I still think he's a great pitcher, and when he comes back from injury he will knock 'em down once again. Needless to say, I love this card.

2. Tony Gwynn - What a nice card, and a beautiful signature by Tony. If you had told me four months ago that I would have a card collecting blog and a Tony Gwynn autograph, I would have laughed. But hey, weird stuff happens, and this card RULES!

So how could it get any better than that right? Well...I do love a Great Name, as illustrated by Archi above. So you know I must've been pretty excited when I saw this card (excuse the glare)
That's right: Taggert Bozied. I've never heard of the guy before, and his real name is Robert, but his nickname is "Tagg," which is awesome. I'm actually shocked to see that he's spent every year since 2003 in AAA (with th Padres, Mets, Cardinals, Marlins, and now Pirates) but that he has yet to see any MLB service time. In the Marlins AAA in 2008 Tagg hit .306/.382/.589 with 26 homeruns and 80 rbi as a 1B/OF. Isn't that enough for a call up? A .281/.350/.494 career minor league line is not too shabby - someone please give the guy a shot!

So there you have it - just some of the amazing autos that I got from Rod's giveaway. Rod, thank you so very very very very much - these cards are awesome and you're wicked generous to have given them to me!

More Browns Backup QB Goodness - Thad Lewis from Ebay

Right before I found the Jarrett Brown auto from my last post, I was able to purchase a Thaddeus Lewis auto very cheap on Ebay as well.  I'll get to the awesome card, but first I wanted to show off how the seller packaged it - by surrounding it with older base (yay!):

I love when sellers use cards as cardboard.  The Andre Dawson easily takes the cake here, but Tim Flannery also stands out as a former favorite of the blog Padrographs.  Good stuff.

But let's get to that auto - it's a real beaut:

This one here is the Mirror Gold edition of Lewis' Leaf Certified auto.  As is typical, Leaf numbered this to just 25 copies, as you can see on the back:

A gorgeous card for sure, and a huge get for my collection, especially at like $2 shipped.  Guess that's why it pays to collect backups and never weres!

So why do I collect Thaddeus Lewis?  Well like Jarrett Brown, he's got the backup QB/past competition with Seneca Wallace thing going.  Differently, he actually won a competition with Seneca Wallace, ending up one of four quarterbacks who saw game action for the 2012 squad.  Brandon Weeden started the first 15 games of the year, but when he was hurt in Week 17 and nothing counted, the Browns turned to "The Champ" (his actual nickname - too cool!) to battle the Steelers.  And while Thad did not win out that day, he showed enough ability to finish with a QB rating of 83.3, which actually bested Weeden's season mark.  Very impressive.

In typical Browns fashion, they still let him go, and the next season Lewis was in Buffalo backing up E.J. Manuel.  He ended up getting 5 starts in Buffalo (he went 2-3) with 4 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.  The rest of the numbers weren't pretty, but Lewis still seemed the better QB given he had a better completion %, more yards per attempt, more yards per completion, and fewer interceptions per pass than Manuel.  But Buffalo, like Cleveland, let him go as well.

Last season Lewis sat on the free agency wire with Seneca Wallace, but when the Texans were decimated by QB injuries, they picked Lewis up.  He proceeded to play in 6 games but accumulate no stats, and once again, a team let him go.

But now, and very excitedly for me, Lewis' career has come full circle.  The Browns, with Johnny Football on the mend, Connor Shaw unproven, and Josh McCown fluky, signed Lewis in the offseason to join their QB ranks.  There's now a very good chance he sticks around as backup QB and, if that happens, and even better chance he sees some playing time behind McCown.  So part of my desire to collect Lewis is to once again have a scrappy backup QB to actively root for every Sunday like I used to with Seneca Wallace.  Hopefully Lewis plays well enough that he earns it and, if he does, may he never let go of that starter's spot!

The Coin Shop Revisited: Okay, it's actually not a terrible card store

Anytime anyone mentions going to their great "LCS," or local card shop, I've gotten a little jealous. The closest shop to me currently is a good 10 minutes south, and up until today I was pretty sure that it sucked.

Now, don't get me wrong, as I didn't simply judge a store by its outsides. Way back in October, before I was a focused collector, and before I really knew what I was looking at, I went in and browsed. There were some singles under glass, but they were expensive as hell. There were packs of 1990 Score and NFL Street...cheap crap to me. And there were little packs the guy threw together and charged a dollar for - which had unappealing cards on the fronts and backs. So I didn't like the store, and didn't care to go back.

Upon second glance today though, I was much happier. Still mostly singles under glass, but they were decently priced. Still crappy wax on the counter, but some of it interested me. And most of all, still crappy dollar packs, but one of them had an auto on top. Needless to say, I was sold. I spent $2.68 after taxes, and my return consisted of three main elements:


1. The crappy dollar pack with the autograph on top, which was a '97 Donruss Signature Series Rafael Medina :
Nice looking card, and I'm glad to have it for just a buck! Maybe it'll go to Padrographs, or maybe it'll stay with me - either way not a bad investment, even if Medina did only play 2 years of major league baseball, finishing with a career 5.96 ERA.

The rest of the pack was kind of cool too, even if it was all 90-92 Upper Deck, so I'll show off a few cards. I love these first two cards - Jim Rice looking like a boss and Andy Van Slyke chillin' out with some serious five o'clock shadow:
I also really liked this Bill Doran card, which I think I've seen before on other blogs:
Avoiding the break up attempt of a hall of famer - not too shabby Bill!


2. A David Carr card that I found under glass. It was the only player collection card that the guy had, and it's a little beat up on the edges, but it's serial #'d 354/500, and I'm happy to have it as well:
Oooo...Emerald.


3. And finally, my last $0.68 (well really 50 cents, 18 cents was tax) went to two packs of 1995 Panini Casper cards:
Normally I'm not one to buy random Panini stickers, but I loved the Casper movie as a kid (Bill Pullman, Christina Ricci, and Dewon Sawa...OH MY!), and so I had to take a look at these things. After opening the packs I realized that this would have been a great post for A Pack to be Named Later - maybe someday I'll buy a quarter pack of The Mask or Pocahontas versions. For now though, just the Caspers, so let me show you a few of the stickers I got!

First thing I should mention is that the stickers are basically the movie, ordered by sequence. Not exactly (that's a lot of frames), but #1 is a shot near the beginning of the movie, #156 is a shot near the end of the movie, and everything in between is plot from...in between. For instance, here are stickers #54 and 58:
Nothing on the backs, aside from number and encouragement to collect them all. These fronts show off the sequential-ness well though. The top card shows Casper in his housekeeping ways, always picking up the droppings on the other ghosts. 4 cards later Christina Ricci comes in all badass with her vacuum and chews out the ghosts. Man...when I was 10 she was such a babe.

Card #21 is a favorite scene of mine - it's when Ricci goes to lay on her pillow and realizes it's Casper. Wackiness ensues:


And finally, card #83 depicts Mr. President himself, Bill Pullman. Great, great actor:
I think I did okay for $2.68, and I'm now a fan of the Coin Shop (though I'd still prefer something better). So I've adjusted the ratings for them on my Card Shops I've Personally Visited Page, and I'd potentially recommend a visit to the store if you're ever in my area!

On a side note, I'm now tempted (obviously) to collect the 95 Panini Casper series, as well as the 95 Fleer Ultra series (at least the Prismatic Foil portion). So now the decisions - a) Do I collect the sets? And b) Do I buy them pack by pack for a quarter, or do I buy a massive Ebay lot online (for instance, I could get 150 packs of 6 cards a piece on Ebay for like $11). I'm leaning towards not collecting the set right now...but if I find a cheap sticker book, all bets are off...