Is a White Whale a White Whale if you used to own it?

Long time readers of the blog know that my collection has often featured a lot of moving pieces.  I had sets and guys I collected, but was collecting on the budget of a 20-25 year old, so I was constantly selling or trading cards to acquire other things given limited cashflow.  Mike Schmidt rookie I had since I was a kid?  Traded for customs.  Amazing triple patch of Expos starters?  Sold for rent money.  Nothing was untouchable basically.

Fred McGriff was (And remains) my favorite baseball player, so I had a fairly decent collection of his cards.  But at some point I decided I needed a little spending cash, and I sold the bulk of that collection to a dude in Bloomington, Indiana.  I kept a bunch of key cards that I really enjoyed, but quickly realized I was missing one.  Not an autograph, not a relic, but a parallel card from the late 90's.  I kinda wanted to track it down, as I figured it wouldn't be too difficult.

Problem was, I couldn't remember the exact card.  I knew it was late 90's and shiny, and I thought it had a PP in the card number.  It also had a red wax like stamp in the bottom corner.  I googled around a bit, and figured out the set it was from (1998 Score Artist's Proof, PP91), but couldn't find any versions of the card to buy.  So I set aside the dreams of ever getting this card for a while, but did have some dudes on Blowout make me a Seneca Wallace custom based on that 1998 Score set to whet my appetite a bit.

That must've been like 2010 or 2011.  Now, in 2022, the card came in mind so I went on Ebay and found several copies of the card.  Purchased it and a similar version, and the card is finally mine again.  YESSSSS!

I bought the Platinum Team parallel as well, because it's similar, but I like being able to showcase just how shiny and awesome the Artist's Proof card is.  So below they're side by side.  Artist's Proof on the left, Platinum Team on the right:

Here's a better angle for the shine:

Still looks as great when I'm 35 as it did when I was 12...such a cool card!

Also, I forgot to take a picture of the back, so I had to borrow the below image from COMC...but how good are these stats on the back?

A nice chunky bit of career stats and decent little writeup are just the tip of this iceberg.  The left side of the back is everything though.  Splits for six major stat categories AND fielding statistics?  WHAAAAAAT?  

Clearly one of the best parallel cards of all time.

As an addendum, here's a side by side of the McGriff and the Seneca custom.  Obviously the Seneca is the base version as opposed to the Artist's Proof version, but it's still pretty groovy and really well done.

Another plate? And a state of the blog post

So I posted a few plates in December, including my first ever Thaddeus Lewis printing plate.  

Would you believe that just a few months later...I picked up my SECOND Thaddeus Lewis plate?  It's pretty nuts...but it's true!

First a yellow, now a magenta, and I'm now 50% of the way to completing this Sage Hit plate set.  Wild how card collecting progress goes sometimes!

As far as the state of the blog, I'm clearly in that sweet spot of posting like 5-10 times a year.  You know, peak blogger stuff.  I am hoping next time I post, however, to post some of my VHS collection as requested in a comment.  I've definitely picked up more VHS lately but I've also picked up some random memorabilia as well, so maybe that memorabilia will end up here as well.  Just more pictures of stuff I think is cool I guess - just as the blog always was!

Anyways, stay happy and healthy and I'll be back at some point in 2022!

Christmas Cards!

I was updating my autograph page around Christmas, and realized I had a few favorite players whose autographs weren't yet in my collection.  So I asked for and received several autos - let's check those out!

This first one is kind of an obscure guys (Unless you play a lot of fantasy basketball where blocks and steals are important) in Robert Covington:

My family does a yearly league, and Covington generally is decently rostered since blocks and steals are so hard to come by and Roco is so good at getting both.  He's a high energy player and I've always loved his play style, so it's cool to finally add an autograph of his to my collection!

Next up is a more well known baller, Ricky Rubio:

Rubio has moved around a lot since leaving Spain for the NBA in 2009.  He's always good for some assists and steals, and I was pretty pumped when he joined my local Cavaliers this year and he was performing pretty well until he tore his ACL a few weeks ago, ending his season.  I'm hoping he'll stick around Cleveland so I get a chance to watch him play, but knowing him he'll move elsewhere once the season's done, bringing his veteran leadership wherever he goes.

Card #3 moves to football, with current Dolphins backup Jacoby Brissett:

I always thought he was a cool player as a backup for the Patriots, and then Brissett moved on to the Colts and did some okay quarterbacking there when their starting QB was injured.  He's moved to a backup role since, but I still track his career a bit, so I liked adding this gold sharpie auto to the collection.

The final Christmas card is a nice auto of a guy I love (But who is somewhat controversial) in Josh Gordon:

You're probably somewhat aware of Gordon - he was an absolute beast of a WR for the Browns for a few years, and then fell out of the league due to drug and alcohol issues.  He's since had stints with the Seahawks and Patriots and is actually currently an active member of the Kansas City Chiefs, where he caught a touchdown this year.  A lot of people look at him as an example of how NFLers are bad dudes and get too many chances, but I look at him as an example of how addiction is like hell to overcome for many people even with all the support and resources in the world by your side.  I'm never going to stop rooting for Josh Gordon, so I'm definitely psyched to finally have an autograph of his in my collection!

The last two cards here are cards I actually purchased around Christmas rather than received from others.  The first was sort of purchased for me thought - around Christmas some parents get little gifts for teachers, and I got a few Amazon gift cards that I turned around and spent on this Josh Cribbs rookie autograph:

I used to PC Josh Cribbs and may again someday, as he remains one of my favorite NFL players of all time.  The guy was an absolute GOATED kick returner and wasn't too bad as a receiver, running back, or wildcat option either.  Nowadays he does local TV stuff with his wife and just overall seems like a really good dude.  Definitely a great autograph to add to the collection!

The final card of this post is a true PC one, and excitedly yet ANOTHER PC printing plate.  This time it's one of J.R. Redmond that popped up on Ebay super cheaply right before Christmas:

I was willing to bid pretty high since I didn't have a J.R. Redmond 1/1 yet, but didn't really have to as this magenta plate shipped for less than $11.  That means I now have 1/1s of almost every guy I PC - someday I'll reach that goal!

Feel free to follow me on Twitch if you want more random content in your life!

 Evening everyone!  It dawned on me that I mention my gaming happens now and then, but that I never formally linked this blog to my Twitch account.  I've been streaming off and on for like two years and tend to be on a few times a week, so if you're into gaming at all feel free to give me a follow and check me out when I'm playing!

My brothers and I mainly play Sea of Thieves at the moment, but we've also played Overwatch, NHL 2021, PUBG, Halo, Fortnite, Rubber Bandits, and really anything else that tickles our fancy at the moment.  I also used to stream a ton of Friday the 13th back when I was in a competitive league, so you'll see all sorts of clips from those days as well.

I'll likely add a link to some of my favorite clips on the blog at some point, but for now enjoy me asking our league manager his favorite WWF wrestlers in the middle of a league match!

https://www.twitch.tv/spastikmooss/clip/SucculentTiredStarShazBotstix-8fnAxUwN4xIVSsQa?filter=clips&range=all&sort=time

Plates and Patches courtesy of Ebay and COMC

I continue to dip my toes back into the card world little by little.  If I'm being honest, it's likely mostly because of my renewed love for VHS that arose during the beginning of the pandemic.  I've been buying more VHS on EBay as I find cool stuff I like, and that's led to me looking for cards on COMC and Ebay more like I used to back in the day.  Hooray for physical media!

Anywho, one very cool aspect of getting more serious about my collections after taking some time away is the fact that some rare cards popped up for me to find.

Seneca Wallace cards?

Well...no.  When you have as close to 100% of a collection as I do, new cards appear pretty rarely.  But I did find a Rod Smart printing plate finally on COMC.  Here it is in all its yellow, bordered glory:

And staying on COMC, I was also able to pick up a yellow Thaddeus Lewis plate:

Two plates of guys I never had plates of before - how cool is that?  I might have to take a hiatus more often if that's the result!

With long sought cards coming in, I decided to also finally bite on an auto/relic of a guy I'd been seeking for years - Samkon Gado.  He's a pretty random running back from the early 00's who I remember as a Packer, and his autos have always been kind of expensive so I always passed.  But a BIN/BO hit just right and I grabbed this cool auto/relic of his:

Since retiring, Gado has gotten a medical degree and is working on improving healthcare in his native Nigeria.  Pretty remarkable guy, and makes me feel good about springing for a card of his finally.

The rest of the cards in this post were sitting in my COMC inventory, so I finally had them shipped when I shipped the printing plates.  The first is a really nice autograph of another former RB.  This guy's a little more well known - Jamal Anderson:

It feels like on-card autos are so hard to find these days, so when you find a crisp on-card auto of a legend it's hard to say no.  Nice to finally have a Dirty Bird auto in the collection.

I also grabbed a few Jaguar patches - longtime readers know I LOVE those patches:

I think the Leftwich one is especially nice - any time the Jaguar eye gets into the logo it's so dang cool.

Another random logo patch was this Bishop Sankey/Austin Seferian-Jenkins dual jersey card.  It's more like a helmet decal than a patch, but I dig it!

And finally, just two jersey cards I found neat of two colorful characters of NFL past, Pacman Jones and Ricky Williams:

I almost sold the Williams, but it's hard to part with a four color patch of such a cool cat.  Glad to have it in the collection!