Paging SpastikMooss

Yo dawg, look what I finally got around to finishing for you. 😉

Seneca Wallace & MLB Superstar Fred McGriff..

Cross another one off the list…

The Harrowing Adventures of a Nerd Week Contest Winner!

A winner is me..

The prize for winning The Junior Junkie’s Nerd Week Contest arrived yesterday, and I nearly paid for it with my life!  That’s an exaggeration, but the box was huge (over $18 to ship!), and I was on my way out, so I stupidly decided to carry it over to the parents’ place with me.  Conditions were also way worse than I was expecting, and my main shoes are super old generic Shape-Ups types with no traction left on them.

Basically, it was a recipe for disaster, and, long story short, disaster indeed struck.  I ended up crashing and burning pretty bad on hidden ice patch close to halfway between here and there.  I hit the back of my head on the sidewalk, but I popped back up pretty quickly without difficulty, no wooziness or anything that would indicate being concussed.  A couple of folks I had passed a short ways back quickly came to my assistance helped me get my bearings and everything I dropped.  Very grateful to them for that.

The pain was mostly gone within a couple of blocks of continuing on my way, and any lingering head pain has minimal and infrequent, though I will get checked out if the random, brief little twinges of discomfort persist.  I finally managed to make it over to the parents’ place without further incident, and after getting cleaned up, I was finally ready to cut the tape and dig into the box!

The box in question..

And so I dug, and dug, and dug some more!  There was a LOT more in there than the DVD.  Are you ready to be as blown away by the thought and effort and generosity that went into this amazing prize package as we (the parents were very impressed too) were?

The note..

Here’s the handwritten note TJ sent, congratulating me and running down the contents.

The original prize..

Of course, the DVD was in there.  Say what you will about Family Guy in general, but the Star Wars specials are always straight up inspired.  Gonna enjoy this. 🙂

Are you ready for some football?!

I’m taking this back to the parents’ place next time I’m over, because it is small and plushy and can safely be thrown around over there during the rare lulls when we aren’t skewering anything and everything on TV MST3K-style or talking about generally geeky and/or nerdy things when dad, my little brother, and me are all there at the same time.

Original art by Jason Goad..

I love art.  I am an artist (allegedly), after all.  But I can’t afford much original art beyond relatively cheap sketch cards very often, so this is was a super awesome thing to find in the box!  It’s a fantastic piece and I absolutely love it! 😀

A trio of CDs..

Styx and The Who will definitely get some airplay around here, and I’m not quite as down on Dane Cook as most, so I’ll be giving that a listen at some point as well.

Under the CDs, you can sorta see the corner of one of the pair of monstrously huge Pinnacle screwdown holders.  I swear I took a picture of them along with everything else, but I can’t find it.  Anyway, they are so ridiculously thick and heavy that they might legitimately be able to stop a bullet.

St. Joseph’s Prosperity Bean..

I didn’t know what this was because I’m a lazy millennial, but mom seemed to recognize it and thought it was pretty cool.  I read a little bit about them when I got back to my place.  Very interesting, and I will be keeping it on me.

Mardi Gras beads!

I’ve always wanted to go to Mardi Gras (because I’m sure my antisocial arse being around hundreds of thousands of loud, crazy, drunk people for an extended period of time would go just peachy), but thanks to TJ, a little bit Mardi Gras has come to the frozen wastes of the Midwest.  He notes they’re the real deal in the above letter, so I can’t help but wonder what he had to do to acquire them…

Anyway, I’m just glad he sent beads and not the terrifying New Orleans Pelicans King Cake Baby.

The last thing you see before you die..

There aren’t enough NOPE gifs in the world… My apologies for the impending nightmares, ladies and gentlemen.  We should probably just move on with a quickness.

Various Asian candies..

There were four different things in pouches, and my trying them out went badly.  I definitely haven’t acquired these tastes yet.  The Lychee was the best in a walk, and it kinda tasted like accidentally getting fruit-scented soap in your mouth.  But the experience was still worth the while and very much-appreciated.

You know, we’ve gotten this far and haven’t even made it to the cards yet!

Ah, there we go..

But they were there, and they were many.  I tore off the old shipping labels on the outer boxes before I took the pictures, just to be safe.

So many cards!

The top box had tons of Ryne Sandbergs, Mark Graces, and a random assortment of other Cubbies.  The bottom had miscellaneous non-sport stuff and some unopened junkwax era packs, most of which I will be drawing on the backs of at later dates.  Twas also home to the blue and silver beads.

The completely full box was bananas, with large amounts of 2012 Panini Golden Age, 2011 Panini Americana, and 2012 Topps Summer Olympics, as well as some Goodwin Champions, Allen & Ginter inserts, more random non-sport and entertainment cards,  and the occasional hockey card.

The big pack sittling in the middle of everything is a pack of 1986 Donruss All-Stars, which may be posted on A Pack to be Named Later at some point, and the rest will get a post of their own here once I’ve scanned some of them.

Since around half of the set was there, I’m definitely going to chase the Summer Olympics set now.  The other big stacks didn’t have enough for me to justify it, but I’m keeping a Single Page of both Goodwin Champions and Golden Age, as well as the vintage-ish Star Wars cards, and probably a fair amount of other things.

My canvas..

Finally, this card not part of the prize package.  This card is for a commission.  On the back of this 1989 Topps Traded Ken Griffey Sr. card, I will be drawing Ken Griffey Jr. from his RC, the very next card in the same set.  I loved the idea and will get to work on it as soon as my body stops being so creaky and achy.

For this commission I was paid $12, and even the money was worth mentioning.  Check it out!

$2 bill!

Yes, that is a two-dollar bill.  I’m pretty sure haven’t seen one of those since back in the late-1990s when I got one back as change at one of the last card shows held at the local mall.

The flipside..

Easily the coolest looking piece of US currency that still spends.

There you have it.  This has to be in the running for the single greatest card blog prize package ever made.  The amount of time, thought, effort, and money that must have went into this making it possible boggles the mind.  I know TJ puts a ton of effort into his collection and his posts, so maybe it comes as no surprise he’d go all-out on a prize package, but I am still beyond honored and humbled to be its recipient.

Thank you, TJ!  And thanks to everyone for stopping by!

It was worth the pain…

 

Bob Walk The Plank Trade

I’m not over losing Ernie, and probably won’t be anytime soon.  But all you can really do for the departed is keep on living.  The show must go on, as it were.  So I’m back today with a trade post.  I’ve found a few new trading partners since my return and subsequent frequent bumming around the ol’ blogosphere.  Thus is the arrival of my first cards from a trade enacted after the start of 2015, courtesy of Bob Walk The Plank.  Let’s see what we’ve got!

Shiny minis & die-cuts! Me gusta!

First up, the two I’m for sure keeping.  Love the Dual-ing Die-Cuts from this past year’s BowChro.  I have conflicting emotions about the minis, but they do make for a nice cheap blingy addition to a Single Page collection (more on that and the rest of the new look happening here in my next post).

Miscellaneous Cubbie hits (and a prospect)..

Finally some random Cubs.  The McNeil prospect will definitely make the miscellaneous binder, and Daryle Ward has a good shot as well.  Fuld and Prior (much as I like the card) will probably be sent along to others for things that are a better fit for my collection, but they’re much appreciated all the same.  I’m still waiting for something on COMC that will be arriving in my February shipment, but I’ll be sure to send back a nice array of Pirates & things in return once it’s here. 🙂

I’m not sure what my Blogger blogroll status is at the moment, but if anyone is getting this, thanks for stopping by!

The Road to WrestleMania has begun!

Chavez Ravining Trade

Today, we have the second of the trades from the tale end of 2014, this a much smaller swap with Chavez Ravining.  USPS ate my tracking code, but he assured me the cards I sent arrived.  So let us have a looksie at what came in return, shall we?

Yelich & Darvish GQ White Frames, Bowman Keenan Allen relic, Future Stars Nomah gold /99..

Like I said, just a small trade.  Sweet cards though.  I think this Yelich is good enough for my Single page collection of him.  Darvish is a full player collection now, so I just outright needed that one.  The Keenan Allen is meant for someone else, but heck if I can remember who it is at the moment.  Nomar is from the infamous disaster that is the 2007 UD Future Stars.  Shame it was so poorly conceived, because the parallels and inserts & stuff look fantastic.

Guess that’s it for this one.  Thanks for stopping by!

Play on, playa!

Pack War Trade

At the end of 2014 I sent out close to 1.5 lbs of cards to Pack War.  I’d been desperate to move some of that stuff for ages, and fortunately it seemed to have found its mark quite well.  So now, I present the return.

Valor & Triple Threads..

Valor looks great.  I dunno about Marshall & courage going together, but that parallel is #’ed /399.  I like the way the Triple Threads kind of pop out of an actual background.

Chrome RCs, crazy shiny TD, ’98 StarQuest..

For real though, even with the protector, you can see your own reflection in the silver parts of that wonderful Terrell Davis insert.  Unless you’re a vampire, in which case… *runs away*

…

…

…

*cautiously returns* Is… Is the vampire dude gone?  Okay… *deep breath*  Where was I?  Oh yeah.

I’m happy to have some of the year’s best rookies in Watkins, Bortles, & Beckham Jr.  I don’t chase RCs from any other sport near as hard as baseball, but I do like getting them when I can. 😉

Then we have these StarQuest.  But they are no ordinary StarQuest, oh no!  For when you flip them over, you reveal…

Tadaaaaahhhh!

…They are also RookQuest!  Two of the finest to ever lace ’em up at that.  Such connections they have.  Can you imagine if they had put Ryan Leaf and Yatil Green on the back of Elway & Rice?  That would’ve been embarrassing.  And now Peyton and his giant forehead of doom is playing for ol’ horseface.  Even better.  I’m not high I swear.  MOVING ON.

‘Nique Jamfest Artist Proof..

Here’s the lone basketball card in the package, and the obligatory “doesn’t scan well/looks way better in person” card, a Pinnacle Jamfest Artist Proof of Dominique Wilkins.

Baseball Rookies!

Like I said, I’m always down for RCs of baseball stars, even when I have more than one, ala Mr. Posey here.  I have three of him now: Flagship Topps, Bowman Platinum, and this here A&G.  Or, and speaking of being high, in Ricky Williams’ case, baseball RCs of football stars.  Alleged egotistical weirdo Alex Rodriguez and 2005 World Series MVP Jermaine Dye round out the rookie card scan.

Ichiros, Big Hurts, & Rynos (oh my)..

Coming down the home stretch, starting with a pair of low numbered (but not really) black parallels of Ichiro Suzuki from the infamous disaster that was Topps Moments & Milestones.  I like to think of it as the Showgirls of card sets, because I imagine its existence had to have ruined a few careers.  Next up a pair each of north and south side’s most recently retired Hall of Famers, including a nifty Jiffy Pop disk that’s just sliiiightly too big for its own good.

You’d think his lack of depth perception would cause problems playing baseball, and you’d be right!

And that’s all for this trade.  Thanks, Shawn!  Hope we can do it again sometime.  And *points at screen and winks cheekily* thank YOU for stopping by.

It was fun.  Oh my…

A PWE in the Night

Changing it up from the burgeoning string of sketch card posts, I got a PWE from surefire first ballot Hall of Fame card blogger, real life sports journalist, and 1975 Topps Mini enthusiast Night Owl during those 10 dark days I went without a functioning computer.  I claimed these four cards from his lone pack of Topps Update, and here they be.

George Springer hot pack!

Some great looking cards there.  Outside of a very nice run of Donruss Series 2 fat packs I ought to post about if I’m back from outer space to stay for awhile, I bought precious little current stuff this year.  The little bit of 2014 Topps to cross through my collection was actually rather nice though.  Here we have a Springer RC and one of those rad ’89 Topps Remix minis, King Felix yucking it up with MLB Network (I’m going with Intentional Talk as my guess as to who is on the other end of the tin can and string), and Topps meanspiritedly calling Jose Abreu a turd.

I keed, I keed… The back says on April 25th, 2014 against the Tampa Bay Rays, he became only the second rookie ever to hit a walk-off grand slam in the month of April, following in the footsteps of Ron Lolich of the Cleveland Indians in 1973.

 Ting!

Shot Taken

The Orange Goblin..

Finally pulled the trigger on another trade with my most frequent trading partner, Shot Not Taken!  Lot to get to, so with relatively minimal textual commentary clutter and just pure card porn, here is what came my way.  Roll that beautiful bean footage:

Assorted Bowman and a couple Ernies..

This Kree-Skrull War puzzle was an unexpected surprise. 🙂

One Little Corner..

Space is the place…

Martial Mastery..

And of course, minis!

Triple Threat..

Best of WWE..

It is kinda hard to tell, but that Booker T base card is actually a bronze parallel.  The normal foil logo on the base cards is red.

According to my wantlist, I actually still needed this base card!

Hall of Famer & Superb Owl-winning QB, Roger Staubach!

Angelina Love-o-graph..

Roger & Angelina were consolation for a card I inquired about that wasn’t available.  I’ve been wanting an Angelina Love auto for awhile now though, & Staubach will be made available for trade.  He should net me a nice return and turn this into a technical three-way deal, if one comes along.

Very seriously considering adding Kane to Single Page Sensations..

Trouty Mays Lava Flow!

This card is so much more gorgeous in person.  So much so that I decided to acquire a full page of Panini’s Black Friday Lava Flow parallels.  This goes on the Trout page, but I’ve already acquired Bryce Harper and Kevin Durant for the Lava Flow page.  So just a heads up that I’m looking to trade for some more if anyone in the blogosphere has any.

What appears to be black on this is actually bronze-ish foil. Scanners are fickle mistresses..

I also picked up a Nomah RC shortly after this arrived.  Now if I could just trade for or find a good looking sub-$15 to buy (well, when I’m not completely broke again) for a possibly all-time record speed trifecta acquiring.

Finally got a Rizzo hit! 😀

Awesome way to close this post.  And that be that.  Even my attempt at sparse commentary turns out to be not all that sparse.  Thanks again for being a prime time trading partner, Ray!

Until our next…

Another Great Shot Not Taken Trade

The card that got this trade rollin’. A certain Olympic-obsessed someone on twitter will be so jealous when I twitpic this card. 😀

Hey there, stately gents and comely wenches, time for a trading post!  These lovely cards come to me from my most frequent trading partner Shot Not Taken, if the title didn’t clue you in.

The Back of Mr. Lochte. #’ed to a medalistic (I bet there was a ’90s insert called Medalistic :P) /75 copies..

The above Lochte started things, but when Ray bought basically the saddest pack of SportKings in the world, the deal fell into place.

Pictured: The backs of an entire pack of cards that cost $100. Yes, $20 a card.

Despite the fact that even though I still wouldn’t touch a pack of high end stuff myself even after I become a rich & famous YA genre fiction writer (what?), I’ve still been contemplating trying to piece together an entire base set of all the SportKings series’ (because I am insane, but you probably already knew that).

Old school runner..

I greatly enjoy the silhouettes playing sports, but as you’ll see on the David Robinson on down, they can get lost if the depicted player is wearing dark colors that don’t have much in the way of highlights or shading or whatever.  Franco gets it a bit too on the darkest parts of his jersey.

NASCAR legend and inappropriate ponytail enthusiast..

The base cards are really nice.  Clean & simple look & they feel super sturdy.  I think I’m in double digits after this trade, so I’m not completely starting from scratch.

Not even high end can avoid Mini Mania!

I do loves me some minis, but if you have a two or three of the base cards I need, I may be willing to deal Franco here.

The Admiral..

This is the S back, which I’m also willing to deal for base cards, on the off-chance anyone has any.

As the hit of a 5-card, $100 pack, “The World’s Most Famous Ultramarathon Runner” doesn’t come close to cutting it, but it’s a damn cool card to me..

This card I decided I was interested in entirely because I’ve become a lot more physically active this summer and I thought a hit of a famed ultramarathonner would be good motivation to keep me getting after it.

Rajon RC..

I… have nothing interesting to say about this card.  Just thought my PC could use a nice Rajon Rondo RC.  That wall behind him is… odd.

Hehe, 4/20. Heh..

We basically put the whole deal together via twitter.  I remembered this late and tweeted Ray, hoping he still had it.  I was hoping he would set it aside for our next inevitable trade if he did, but he threw it in just before he sent my stuff out.

Meredith Salenger cut auto..

Just before I sent out that fateful tweet to Ray in regards to this card, I somehow stumbled onto Meredith Salenger, or someone posing as her, on twitter, which reminded me of this card, which prompted me check her out on IMDB, where I found out that, in addition to appearing in all sorts of things, she has also done a bit of voice work, which is what made me want this card.  I’m a total geek for great anime & western ‘toons alike, so voice actor autos is another possible new PC I’ve been considering that may or may not become a thing.

Well, there ya go!  Another successful trade, and I’m sure we’ll deal again soon.  I love when I can send out a lot more stuff than comes back my way, because that means great stuff like this comes back, and also because I’m forever trying to shrink my collection down to somewhat manageable levels (still got a loooooooong way to go).  Seeya next time, when I don’t know what I’ll jibba-jabba about.

I still don’t know how to pronounce “Lochte”…

2009 Upper Deck Spectrum Mini Blasters

They finally made to my K-Mart!  Picked up a couple, gonna pick up another next time I need to go there.  Here’s the good stuff from these two.

Uggla Jersey, Ellsbury Jersey, CC Blue, Ankiel Blue, Randy Johnson 20th Anniversary, Griffeys Sr. y Jr. 20th Anniversary..

20 cards, an insert, a parallel and a jersey per blaster.  Not bad for $5.99 apiece!  It makes pulling a lame jersey a lot easier to swallow.  Fortunately, both of these were pretty good.  All I’m keeping Griffeys Sr. y Jr., but the rest are available.  Also, isn’t someone out there collecting the 20th Anniversary Retrospectives? I have a bunch I can send them.  That’s all for now.  Thanks for stopping by!

*fades into the night…*

Shiny Legendary Shortprints

Oh yeah!  Time to post these bad mamma-jammas up!  All from my latest order from COMC.  Hawk & Hurt & Monte Irvin aren’t available, but the rest can be had, though I’m a bit partial to the Kaline, Reggie, Feller, & McCovey.  As such, they will slightly-to-much be harder to get than the rest.  I’m a little more after regular versions (all other years 2009-present included) of random legends to keep for myself, but if you have ANY version of Frank Robinson, Ernie Banks, Ryne Sandberg, Expos Andre Dawson, A’s Frank Thomas or any version of White Sox Frank and Cubs Dawson, I am most interested to deal indeed.  But enough chit-chat, time for pretty!

Get drunk on liquorfractors!  I’m totally making this scan my twitter background pic..

Some really cool photos chosen for some of these..

Well, there ya go.  Have at thee!  The available ones will go up on the for trade page overnight.  I also have a few others not pictured here.  Carlton Fisk Diamond, Pee Wee Reese Cognac, Honus Wagner Cognac, a couple different Jimmie Foxx (both Diamond I think).

And here’s Frank.  He got his own picture because I can nine cards at a time is the most I can scan, and since he was a keeper, Big Hurt Cognac stands alone.

This would be a good picture to link to an ad for Big Hurt Beer, but I won’t..

That’s or for this one, sports card fans.  Shoot me an email if you see something you like.  Also, just so there’s no confusion… MY EMAIL IS ON MY BLOGGER/GOOGLE PROFILE LINKED ON THE SIDEBAR UNDER “I WANNA TALK ABOUT ME”.  Ahem.  Sayonara and thanks for stopping by!

Until our next…