I missed out on making a NASCAR post yesterday, as I spent the day traveling to some training I need for job certifications. I didn't feel much like doing anything after I got to my hotel. I guess I could make a NASCAR post anyway, but at the moment I am not inclined to do that. Danica Patrick finished the O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in 24th place. She was tied in the points standings with Michael McDowell going into the race, but he finished the race in 23rd place and moved ahead of her by one point. She's currently sitting in 29th place overall for the season.
In other news, UFC 210 happened on Saturday. I missed a lot of the event, as I was trying to get my bags packed for my trip. I did watch the weird ending of the Chris Weidman / Gegard Mousasi fight. Wow. Mousasi landed two knees that the referee decided were illegal, so he stopped the fight to probably warn Mousasi or take away a point. Then he discovered that the knees were legal, but told Weidman that he had 5 minutes to recover instead of returning the fighters to the original position they'd been in and restarting the clock. While that was going on, the doctors came in and called the fight off. The end result was a TKO victory by Mousasi, with both fighters angry about how the fight had ended. It appears that a rematch will be happening at some point.
Daniel Cormier also retained his belt against Anthony Johnson, who retired after the match was over. I always feel bad when a fighter retires after losing a fight, because it takes the spotlight away from the person who actually won the fight. In wrestling (like Undertaker retiring after WrestleMania) because wrestling is all about the story, but in fighting it just seems like a weak move. Hold a press conference or something.
I asked Topps on Twitter if they were planning on continuing the Topps Now line for the UFC after the low print runs on the cards for UFC 209, and here's what they said:
— Topps Company (@Topps) April 11, 2017
So if you're waiting on news from Topps on the status of Topps Now for the UFC, there you go. That's not the most promising response in the world, but they responded pretty quickly and they are at least contemplating the continuation of the line.
These autographs don't have anything to do with UFC 210, but this was the oldest UFC draft in my post queue, so their turn is up. This Joanne Calderwood Archival Autographs card from 2016 Topps UFC Museum Collection was the original card I was chasing after in this lot. I went a little wild for the 2016 Museum Collection stuff, and I don't think I had a Calderwood autograph yet, so I bid on a few copies of this card and finally won this one. It's numbered # 11 / 99 and features a cool on-card signature with a heart in front of it.
I got a couple of other cards from the same seller, including this 2016 Topps UFC Top of the Class Autograph Relic card of Cat Zingano. It's not numbered or anything, and the relic swatch is relatively plain, but I have a small Zingano collection and this was a good addition.
Finally, I also got this Sarah Kaufman autograph from 2012 Topps UFC Bloodlines. It is marked as a 1st Autograph, so this is the first autographed card Kaufman had in a Topps product. It seems like fighters' first autographs always carry a premium for collectors, so I was happy to get this one for just a few dollars. This had kind of a high print run, as it is numbered # 406 / 449.
I went to an Antiques Mall today, looking for something to read or some kind of cool collectibles. I didn't find much, but I did get a nice Cincinnati Bengals jacket for my son and a 4-pack of Ginger Beer for me. I was planning on going to a card shop, but they weren't open today. Maybe tomorrow I'll go, if we get out of class early enough.
With the order of magnitude more cards they do for baseball, it can't be much more to do the UFC cards, but if they aren't money makers at all I can't see the line continuing. I hope they do as I know there are a good handful of collectors that collect them.
ReplyDeleteThey might make money off of the UFC cards even with low print runs, but why put a bunch of effort into something that only sells 35-80 copies when you can put that work into something else? I can see the business case against continuing the line, but they could probably stand to advertise them a little harder or leave the ordering window open a little longer. I guess we'll see what happens. If they don't continue with the line, at least I can say I have a full run of them.
DeleteKaufman does have a couple of autographs in 2010 Leaf MMA but that was before UFC bought Strikeforce and WEC and Topps got the rights to include fighters from those organizations.
ReplyDeleteI have a few Leaf MMA cards in my collection, but I don't know much about the set outside of that. I just like to throw bids in on Topps cards with the 1st Autograph designation.
DeleteThe 2016 Topps UFC Museum Collection Archival Autographs are hands down my favorite UFC autograph set. Calderwood has a sweet looking signature to top that card off.
ReplyDeleteAs for UFC 210, I missed out on the Weidman-Mousasi drama... but luckily caught the Cormier fight. Very surprised that Johnson took a wrestling approach, when most of his damage comes from those deadly strikes of his. Assuming things go their way, I'm looking forward to the Jones-Cormier rematch. I'm a big fan of both of those guys.
They did a good job with Archival Autographs, especially since they were able to get the signatures on-card. The big space allowed for fighters to make full-size signatures.
DeleteI hate it when bad refereeing gets in the way of a good game or a good fight. It is weird when a fighter goes completely away from their strengths, like Johnson wanting to wrestle Cormier or Rousey trying to stand and strike with Nunes.