Pure Card Porn

Billy Williams RC!

I’m miserable and cranky and pissed off about so many things I don’t even know where to begin, so I’m just going to show off a 12-pack of card porn to lighten the mood, because the mood definitely needs lightened.  So let us take refuge in the cards… These are all mine, picked up by various means over the past few months.  Yes, including that beautiful beat up Billy Williams RC at the top of the post (cost: $3 on COMC on Black Friday 2013).

Frank Thomas Jersey & Card Frame..

This was also part of the trade with Shot Not Taken.  It didn’t make it into that post for the simple fact that it was still in my backpack and didn’t get scanned until around two weeks later.

2009 Draft Picks & Prospects Neftali Feliz Purplefractor RC..

This came out of a random discounted fat pack I stumbled across towards the end of last year.

Roxxi Printing Plate Autograph..

Possibly the earliest pickup here.  Cool printing plate with a sticker auto stuck on it of perhaps the single most underutilized woman in the history of TNA’s Knockout division.  And that’s saying something, when they also severely underutilized Ayako Hamada, who might be the single most talented lady wrestler in the world, and of course my girl Sarita, who has gone onto to bigger success in both Mexico and Japan.

2013 Bowman EJ Manuel Orange parallel #’ed 54/299..

The back compares him to competent game manager Alex Smith.  I don’t know how to feel about that…

2008 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Cat Osterman Collegiate Patches Autograph #’ed 160/250..

It is the realest shame Panini ran this concept into the ground so fast, because this card, much like Cat herself, is absolutely spectacular.

Bloodlines Liz Carmouche auto..

Here’s a fearsome and fantastic addition to my fledgling Girlrilla page, which is now up to TWO.

Milk Duds Billy Williams..

More Billy Williams!  This time it’s super beat up vintage food-based oddball goodness.

2003 Topps Traded Shin- Soo Choo Gold #’ed /2003..

I’ve been jonesing for a new addition to my Shin-Soo Choo page for awhile now, and this is what I came away with.

BowChro Aramis RC..

The desire to break 100 cards with another player does not preclude me from getting more cards of future Hall of Famer Aramis Ramirez.  This was one of a half dozen newbies of him in my latest COMC shipment.  They may crop up here & there over time.

Heroes & Prospects Andre Dawson Jersey..

Whine about lack of logos all you want, you big babies.  This card just oozes class. 😉

’09 iMPACT! Booker T auto #’ed /60..

Closing out this post with my favorite wrestler of all-time!  Booker T autos are extremely hard to come by cheaply (dog tag auto aside), but I managed to secure this bad mamma-jamma on COMC for $8.  It’s even an inscribed version.  Unlike every other WWE reject, Booker never won the TNA World Title, but they did create a brand new vanity belt (later renamed and became their midcard title) specifically for him.  So I guess he’s got that going for him, which is nice.

That’s all for now.  Time to go work on some half-baked novel writing or some such.  Thanks for stopping by, and we’ll be seeing y’all again real soon.

Until our next…

The Lonestarr Personal Collection- 1983 Fleer Ryne Sandberg RC

One of the better couple dollars I’ve ever spent..

Picked this beauty up on COMC not too long ago for around $2.40.  I already have two Topps Ryno RCs, so now I just need OPC and Donruss I think.  I’ll never be able to afford the TCMA card.  Also, those early-’80s Cubs unis are ridiculous, but still better than the fugly White Sox’ early-’70s Sunday alternate throwbacks.

I wish I had more to say about the card itself though.  It’s definitely worthy of an insane Night Owl post.  Maybe I could use it as an excuse to continue down the ridiculous uniform rabbit hole, or lament the lack people naming their kids Ryne these days or something.  But alas, I’m not that focused or seasoned or good.  If I was, I’d have my silly tween genre fiction novels written & published already & no longer be living in this dump & I’d be able to afford more cards &… Err, anyway, just suffice to say I absolutely LOVE this card.

Until our next…

Flea Market Finds #3: Second Binder Page

Now for the second binder page.  Keep in mind these pages only cost me about 60¢ apiece.

1992 Fleer Nolan Ryan, Barry Bonds, Vinny Castilla RC, 1990 Score Frank Thomas RC, Juan Gonzalez RC, Larry Walker RC, Bernie Williams RC, Curt Shilling RC, Mark McGwire

Why Purchased: The ROOKIES!

Keepers: The ROOKIES!  At least for now anyway.

Notes: Somehow, this all-junk wax page might be my favorite of the entire bunch (maybe).  It’s so cool to see so many rookies of stars that I grew up watching, even if The Big Hurt and The Big Shill are the only likely Hall of Famers (holding out some hope for Walker too!) of the bunch.

It’s so weird to see Shilling in an Orioles uniform.

I miss the Expos… 😦

The color scheme on the Castilla makes me keep having to remind myself that he’s a Brave, not Pirate.

Mind-Blowing Statistics: The only one that’s really coming to mind is that when I punched up ’92 Fleer on Check Out My Cards, that top row were the top three ungraded cards listed, and the only ones with a book value of at least $1.  Sad.

Also sad, is that someone got a ’92 Fleer card graded.

Page two is awesome, but it is done.  More pages to come.

Until our next…

Flea Market Finds #1: Overview

Heyas.  Been a long time, huh?  Nothing’s really changed since last we chatted, except for getting a few more of the sketch cards from the previous post finished (and a few new ones drawn up), and a seriously loudass person moving in upstairs pushing me to the end of my rope with this lousy place.  Seriously, if anyone knows of a halfway decent place with no noise problems to speak of that falls within my modest price range, I’m so effing outta here.

Ah, but that’s not why you called.  I happen to have some fun stuff I’m getting prepared to blog about.  For the past several months, they’ve been holding a small monthly flea market at the shell of our once thriving mall.  I asked my dad if they had any cards when the parents made it out there at the beginning of the year, and he said they did, but didn’t elaborate.  So I’ve been wanting to go ever since, to see what was there myself.

On Saturday, I finally made it out there.  I wasn’t expecting much, but I had $23 with me just in case.  And am I ever glad I did.  There was a guy there with cards.  He didn’t bring the whole card shop (of which he apparently owns one nearby, according to the business card), but he had a very nice selection of cards to peruse.  He had cards available ranging from the late ’60s to within the past couple years, in baseball, basketball, and football.

He seemed to be an old school Beckett-adhering type, but his cards were priced to move.  He mentioned to another person there that wandered by that his philosophy was that if a kid saw a cool card they liked, they should be able to afford it, which sounds like an awesome philosophy to me.  As such, the vast majority of his singles were $1, and almost everything on up seemed to be reasonably priced (I think I spotted a Felix Pie auto for $50 in the one little bunch hits behind glass, but that is easily forgivable when pretty much everything else was so reasonable).

He was also willing to deal, as you’ll soon see.  So I picked out a few singles I liked (9 in total, I believe), all but one marked $1 or $1.50 (the two of which he gave me for $1), and two random 25 card grab packs for $1 apiece that had interesting cards showing.  Then I came to the side of the table where he had several binders laid out, each with about a dozen pages full of cards in them.  They were marked $1 per page, or $10 for a whole binder.  As it happened, I managed to find a dozen random pages I like from the various binders.  So he stuck them all in one of the binders, and gave it to me for $7!

So yeah, I spent all $23 I came armed with.  In total, I ended up with about 170 cards, the vast majority of which I very much like.  Needless to say, I completely obliterated the number of cards and enjoyment I would’ve gotten out of your average blaster (+ maybe one $1.59 pack), and will be heading out there again next month.  There were many things I had to leave behind this time.

Anyway, the binder pages will make up the vast majority of the posts to follow in this little series.  I’ll go over them card-by-card, one or two pages at a time, because there is just so much random coolness in each page.

I’ll also be getting a few packages sent out over the course of this month, and a few of the cards from the flea market may even find their way into some of them.

1/3 of of one of the most iconic basketball cards of all time, and a small preview of the craziness to come...

Flea Market > Blaster.  It is a fundamental truth.

The fun has only just begun…

Pack Breaks Cuz I’m Depressed

Lots of crap is going on, bringin’ me down.  So I’m gonna do one of the handful of things that make me feel good when I’m feeling like crap.  Bust some wax!

We got a retail pack of ’09 Allen & Ginter and a fat pack of ’09 topps Chrome.  We’ll do the A&G first, just because.  Let’s get to it!

2009 Allen & Ginter retail (6 cards)

207 Jack Cust

111 Jason Giambi

66 Alex Rodriguez

346 Dominique Wilkins- Keeper!

259 Napoleon Bonaparte Regular Mini

NP33 Hanley Ramirez National Pride- Keeper!

That was a good pack!  A couple of keepers in there, so I’m feeling a little better now.  I’m typing these up as I open them, btw.

2009 topps Chrome fat pack (7 cards)

186 Trevor Cahill A’s RC- Jeez, we’re now three for seven on A’s.

59 Zack Greinke

W27 Alex Rios World Baseball Classic- Keeper!

97 Dustin Pedroia Refractor

42 Kosuke Fukudome- Keeper!

22 Justin Morneau

174 Matt Tuiasosopo Mariners RC

Nice!  Two more keepers.  A 4-13 keeper count is very good.  I’m very pleased.  I wasn’t really sure if I would feel better or not after busting some packs.  After all, it is easily my most hit-or-miss way of feeling better, being squarely at the mercy of fate.  She was kind today though, bringing a smile to my sadsack self. 🙂

That’s all for now, folks.  Thanks for reading! 🙂

Until our next…