A Box of Cryptozoic's The Guild: Seasons 1-3

I made an order from Dave & Adam's Card Works a little while ago, and I ordered a box of Cryptozoic's The Guild: Seasons 1-3. It's a pretty cheap break, with a chance at pulling Felicia Day relics and autographs, so I usually throw a box or two into each order I make from Dave & Adam's. 

This box yielded one relic card, a t-shirt of Vincent Caso as the character Bladezz. The only real note of interest I have about this one is that I own a Cheesy-Beard's shirt like the one he is wearing in the picture. 

I got two autographs in this box, with one being from a fairly notable name in nerd culture. Wil Wheaton is pretty popular among nerds and geeks, and his autograph is probably the third-most desirable hit in the product, behind Felicia Day's two autograph variations. I'm not much of a Wheaton fan, but I can appreciate his place in the world of geeky celebrities.

The other autograph features Jeff Lewis, who plays one of my favorite Guild characters. I already had a copy of his card thanks to the generosity of San Jose Fuji, but I'll take another one.

This turned out to be a pretty good break if this product. I'll probably keep grabbing boxes as long as Dave & Adam's keep selling them. 

2013 Bowman Platinum Jon Singleton Auto Relic

I missed most of last night's Game 5 of the World Series. I had to be up early in the morning, so I went to bed after Cody Bellinger hit his big fifth-inning home run to put the Dodgers up 7-4. I kinda figured the game was over at that point, so it was a pleasant surprise to wake up in the morning and see that the Astros had tied it back up right away and gone back and forth to win in extra innings. Now they only have to win one of two in LA, which is an admittedly tall order. I hope Verlander can lead them to the trophy in Game 6.

I picked up this nice autograph-relic card of Jon Singleton from eBay recently. The card comes from 2013 Bowman Platinum. It's a shiny card. I was surprised to see that it didn't have a serial number, but that doesn't matter too much. I didn't spend a lot on it. 

The back of the card is your standard hit card fare. I don't know if I'll be able to watch Game 6, but I hope the Astros can seize the opportunity and close this thing out. A Game 7 would be exciting, but I'd rather have them put it away as soon as possible. 

2014 Panini Elite Die-Cut Jon Singleton

I've been pretty quiet on the blog lately. I'm attending an Army course in New Jersey, and there's no internet access in the barracks. My phone's data plan is less than forgiving, which is the price I pay for having a $25 phone bill each month. I've been pretty busy, but we got a day off today and I walked up to the coffee shop to get some internet, update my apps, pay my bills, and write a blog post. The Army has been a good career for me, but every so often I am inconvenienced by having to spend a month in a place that is relatively Spartan compared to my usual standard of living. 

I believe this card is an eBay purchase from a few months ago. I've got a couple versions of this Jon Singleton die-cut autograph from 2014 Panini Elite, but I think this is my first copy of the Red parallel. This one is numbered 17 / 25.

The Astros and Dodgers are making quite a World Series this year. I wish Houston would have gone up 3-1 last night, but they didn't and will probably need to win at home and once on the road to pull this thing off. The Dodgers are a tough team, though, so it's going to be a battle.

Topps Now Players' Weekend Astros and Bonus Cards

Well, the Astros made it plenty interesting, but they managed to finally knock the Yankees off in a series where the home team won each of the 7 games. I didn't get to watch Game 7 since I am stuck in some barracks without internet for a month-long course. I'll probably miss the World Series, too, but I guess that's the price you pay for career advancement. I hope the Astros can pull it off, but the Dodgers are a formidable opponent. 

One major key to the Astros' success is their little second baseman, Jose Altuve. A huge portion of their offense runs through him and his bat. Although I mentioned his small statue above, I got pretty tired of the TV broadcasts mentioning the size difference between Altuve and Aaron Judge, along with shots of them standing next to each other. 

When MLB did their Player's Weekend promotion, Topps released team sets to commemorate the event. Part of the promotion was that players were allowed to wear nicknames on their jerseys, and the Topps' Player's Weekend sets show the nickname jerseys on the back of each card. 

Most nicknames are some variation of the player's real name, which makes sense. I go by a shortened version of my last name in most circles, because some people have a hard time pronouncing it.

I guess the Astros' uniforms for this special weekend were all right, but I'm glad this isn't their regular color scheme. I thought this was a reused photo of Reddick, but it's not. This is just the standard Josh Reddick photo pose. 

I was pretty happy with the player selection for this set, as Josh Reddick and Evan Gattis both got cards. They aren't exactly the stars or hot rookies on the team, so they don't always get included in these things. 

Part of the draw for these sets was that if the team had a 6-game win streak after the All-Star break, you got a bonus card. The Astros had two streaks, so I got two extra cards. The first card celebrates Cameron Maybin and Justin Verlander helping the team get to six in a row. 

The second card pictures Brad Peacock and Yulieski Gurriel. Pretty cool stuff. I don't know if I'll buy as many Topps Now cards in 2018 as I did this year. Keeping up with these extra sets and the Astros' playoff Now cards is hard to do. Topps released nine cards for the team's Game 7 ALCS win! If the World Series is this card crazy, I might have to give up. 

2016 Topps Update Josh Reddick Parallel

Well, I guess I can show a Dodgers card today, since they went ahead and eliminated the Cubs in a blowout this evening. The player pictured, however, is currently playing for a team that I hope can rediscover their bats and win two games at home to face the Dodgers in the World Series. With the way things have gone the last few days that seems like a long shot, but maybe some home cooking will do the Astros some good.

This is a card from 2016 Topps Update that I picked up on eBay. It features Josh Reddick after being traded from the Athletics to the Dodgers in the middle of the year. He went on to sign with Houston for the 2017 season, and his is one of the bats that has fallen most silent in the ALCS against the Yankees. This is the Pink parallel of his Update card.

The back of the card talks about the trade, and is printed with the serial number # 29 / 50. I like the Pink parallels, and I was glad to pick this one up even if it doesn't show Reddick as an Athletic or an Astro. He is a player I collect, so I find myself occasionally grabbing his Red Sox and Dodgers cards, even though those aren't really teams I follow like I do the teams in the AL West.

The NBA is Back for Another Season

The NBA season has started, and the Houston Rockets began with a nice win over the Golden State Warriors. Of course, a win in the first game of the season doesn't count for much in the long run, but it's nice to see the team working well together and adjusting to having Chris Paul and James Harden on the same roster. I imagine they'll be good enough to make a run in the postseason, and probably get into the Conference finals, but I can't see them getting into the Finals or winning it all unless some of the other super-teams fall apart or have injury problems.

This card doesn't have anything to do with the Rockets, but I don't really chase cards of current Rockets these days, and Manute Bol is the only retired guy I collect who still appears in a lot of sets outside of Hakeem Olajuwon. Bol doesn't get a zillion cards a year, but he gets a couple. I pick them up when I can. This Heroes Materials relic card comes from 2016-17 Panini Absolute Basketball, and was an eBay buy. It's got a swatch of fabric and is serially-numbered # 17 / 99.

The back of the card uses a zoomed-out version of the front image, and talks about Bol's height and his shot-blocking prowess. The days of towering shot-blocking specialists are pretty much over, but I'll still collect cards of guys like Bol, Gheorghe Muresan, and maybe Shawn Bradley as long as I can find new ones to get.

As I write this, the Houston Astros are down 2-0 to the Yankees in the 4th inning, so I'm off to watch and hope that they can pull out a comeback and at least bring the ALCS back to Houston with a 3-2 lead. With the way things have gone the last couple of days, though, I'm worried about their chances.

The Fun Side of Topps Now

Well, the Astros laid an egg last night, dropping a game 8-1 to the Yankees in New York. The Yankee bats came alive, the Astros seemed to have some trouble fielding the ball cleanly, and the Houston pitchers couldn't close out innings with two outs and runners on base. To take my mind off of the loss as I wait for tonight's game 4, I decided to take a look at the fun side of Topps Now, with some of the more whimsical cards I've picked up this year.

I'm kicking things off with the Astros, who held a funeral in July for Carlos Beltran's glove, since he hadn't played the field much to that point in the season. Shortly after the funeral, though, Beltran got a start in the field, and presumably the glove rose from the dead to wander the stadium again.

This next one features an animal on cardboard, which always gets me on the wagon. In this case, the animal in question is a donkey that Joey Votto promised to Zack Cozart if Cozart made the All-Star roster. Cozart made the team, and Votto bought him the donkey. I have to admit that I voted for Cozart a few times because of Votto's promise, and apparently a lot of other people did, too.

The Cozart family donkey has a name and his name is...Donald!

Named after Donald Duck, Cooper's favorite cartoon character. pic.twitter.com/ECmqVay95p

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 22, 2017

Apparently the donkey's name is now Donald, after Cozart's son's favorite cartoon character, although if the fan voting really led to the name, I'd be willing to place a bet that most fans voted for that name with other reasons in mind. I'm also a little unsure as to why the donkey on the card looks different from the donkey in the Tweet. Maybe one of them was just a placeholder?

The final card in this post features Bartolo 'Big Sexy' Colon joining many others across the country in viewing the eclipse that happened in August. My state was in the path of totality, so it was a pretty big deal around here. We went and viewed it at my dad's farm, although we only got like 99.9% totality there. After it was over, my wife said that she really wished we had gone a little further north to see the 100% eclipse. Either way, we had a pretty good time with my dad and my sister, and I was happy to have a baseball card showing the event.

Those are a few of the fun cards that Topps printed for the Topps Now program this year. The print run on the Astro card was 357 copies, there were 691 donkey cards ordered, and the eclipse card generated 450 orders. I think those numbers are higher than an average order, so there is definitely demand out there for some fun and silly cards during the season. I hope the Astros can find a spark tonight as Lance McCullers Jr. and Sonny Gray duke it out in ALCS Game 4.

Topps Now Astros Clinch AL West

I've found myself picking up quite a few Topps Now cards lately, as the Astros closed out a great regular season and began their playoff run. With the price per card being what it is, even through eBay resellers, I feel a bit bad for trying to get all of the playoff Now cards for the Astros. It seems like for each playoff win a team will get about 3 cards, and for each loss a team will get 1 card. That's a lot of cards! I know that if the Astros win the whole thing I'll be happy to have all the Now cards that chronicle the journey, but if they fall short I'll probably be kicking myself for buying in. So they'd better win it all, and in as few games as possible. They have a chance to really put the thumb down on the Yankees tonight if they can win Game 3 of the ALCS on the Yankees' field.

This Topps Now card comes from before the playoffs, commemorating the Astros' clinching of the AL West Division for the first time in a long while. They did it at home against the Mariners, behind another strong performance from newly-acquired ace Justin Verlander. The print run on this one was 341 cards. I don't know what the average print run for a Now card is these days, but this is a pretty fun one to have in the collection.

Pack of the Day 178: A Blaster of 2017 Panini Select Racing

I like to sample new NASCAR products when they come out, although I am pretty sure I've missed a couple in the recent past. 2017 Panini Select was on the shelf a few Walmart visits ago, and I grabbed a blaster to see what it was all about.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets the cover treatment on this one. Each blaster promises one autograph or memorabilia card, and there is a blaster-exclusive Purple Pulsar Prizm parallel to look out for. Since this is a high-end product, you only get 15 cards in the box.

The pack design matches the box design, and with those wavy lines I find it difficult to look at.

The base cards are all mirror foil, which we know scans as a dull gray that shows off thumbprints and scanner fuzz.

There are a few names here I know, and a few I don't recognize. No one I really collect, though, which is a little disappointing. With a lot of my favorites on their way out of the sport through retirement or release, I don't know what the future holds for my NASCAR collection.

I got two of the blaster-exclusive parallels in the box, as well as that Kasey Kahne Red, White, and Blue card. The Kahne card is serially numbered # 289 / 299. The Richard Petty card is a Select Stars insert, the only insert I pulled in the box.

The promised hit card was this Select Swatches card of Elliott Sadler. It's got a little bit of fabric in it and it's your standard racing relic card. I don't have much else to say about this blaster. I like the colorful parallels, but the rest of the blaster was kind of a miss, and I didn't pull a single card of anyone I collect.

Topps Now Astros Hurricane

Every so often Topps will donate the proceeds from a particular Now card to a charitable cause, which I think is a pretty cool thing to do. I often end up buying the charity cards regardless of who appears on them, but it's even better when the card shows one of my favorite teams or players.

That was the case at the end of August, when Topps put up this card for the Hurricane Harvey relief effort in Houston. I posted about this card when it was available on the site, but I never showed the back of it. Profits from the card went to the American Red Cross, and 799 copies were ordered.

The back of the card shows a sign that told fans how to donate at the stadium, as well as a hashtag to use on social media.

The Astros have gone up 2-0 on the Yankees in the ALCS behind some strong pitching, strong defensive play, and some high-risk base-running. The long ball has figured into the series a little bit, but probably not as much as expected so far, with both games being decided by a 2-1 score. I am excited to see how the series goes now that it's moving to New York for a couple of games. I've been picking up all of the Astros-related Topps Now cards from the playoffs, and that has been a little expensive for me. Still, I hope they get through the Yankees and move on to the World Series. The postseason is a lot more exciting when your team is in it.

A Deadpool Sketch by Stacey Kardash

I showed off a Wonder Woman sketch card by artist Stacey Kardash almost two years ago, and I recently picked up another piece of her artwork from eBay. She also has an online store with a variety of stuff in it.

This is my latest pick-up of her artwork, an illustration of the Marvel character Deadpool. It's quite a bit bigger than your standard sketch card. I don't have it close at hand right now, but I think it's on a 5" x 7" piece of art board. It's a really cool piece of artwork, and I was happy to win the auction, although I do wish there had been more bidding on it. I like to get good deals on artwork, especially from resellers and flippers, but I don't like to feel like I'm taking advantage of an artist. I think this is my first Deadpool sketch, and it's a neat one. I like the pose and the expression on his face mask. It's interesting how expressive artists can make a plain mask look.

If you like this, you should check out Kardash's Facebook age and online store that I linked above. She does a lot of fantasy-themed artwork, but there is some superhero stuff in there as well.

2017 Topps On-Demand WWE SummerSlam Set

Topps has several print-to-demand programs going. In addition to Topps Now programs for various properties, Topps also does Throwback Thursday sets and a program called On-Demand. Throwback Thursday is basically what it sounds like, a fresh take on an older Topps design. On-Demand is kind of a grab bag, with ideas that may not warrant a full product release. There have been On-Demand sets for Star Wars, baseball, a boxing match, a cartoon, Garbage Pail Kids, and WWE.

The WWE set was based on a SummerSlam theme, and offered a 30-card base set, 2 autographs, and a chance at randomly-inserted parallels. I think the original solicitation listed parallels numbered up to # / 99, but only 125 copies of the set were ordered (most people on Facebook and Twitter seemed to think the autograph list was too weak) and the parallels and autographs were changed so that the max print run on them was 10 copies apiece.

The base cards all have that swirly blue and orange background, with a big SummerSlam logo and the wrestler's name at the bottom. The backs have a write-up of the wrestler's SummerSlam exploits. I think it's a pretty fun set, and it's pretty cool that there are only 125 of them out there.

Due to the low ordering, my set was packed with four parallels. I got three Red parallels, featuring Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, and Nia Jax. They are all serially-numbered # / 10. I was happy to pull the Nia Jax card for my collection of her cards. I wish the other names had been a little bigger. I also got a Black parallel of Big Cass numbered # 4 / 5. You can see the backs have a suffix on the card number that denotes the parallel type.

My two autographs were of the Red variety, again numbered out of # / 10. I mentioned in the comments of an earlier post that these are more initial-graphs than autographs, as Dean Ambrose and Luke Harper put the smallest amount of ink they could on these stickers. I think I would have preferred just about anyone else on the autograph list over these two, but those are the risks you take when you order this kind of product.