C-3PO Golden Rod Error Sketch by John Soukup

Today's card is an art "card" paying homage to an infamous Star Wars card, the C-3PO Golden Rod error. Back when the original Star Wars sets were being produced, the C-3PO photo chosen had a bit of costume out of place, leading it to look like C-3PO was rather excited. This was scandalous, and Topps put out a corrected version of the card that removed the offending appendage. The uncorrected version is rather popular and probably one of the more expensive cards from the Star Wars sets now.

Recently, artist John Soukup, whose work I've featured on this blog before, has been posting Star Wars sketches done on wood to his eBay page. One of those sketches called back to the C-3PO Golden Rod error card, and I had to have it for my collection. I've got at least one copy of the error card in my collection, and in fact it makes up part of the background collage for my blog.

Here is the back of the artwork, for the sake of completeness. Not sure what SSW stands for, but it is appropriately labeled as a 1/1.

2023 Panini Select WWE Nikkita Lyons Autograph

Today's card is an autograph I've been waiting to get for a while. I'm a fan of wrestling in general, and of women's wrestling specifically, so I try to have as comprehensive a collection as possible. One wrestler who's only had a couple of autographs so far is Nikkita Lyons. I've been watching WWE card releases to see when she might get a couple of autographs on the market.

Well, she's finally got a couple of autograph cards on the market and I eventually sniped this one from 2023 Panini Select WWE for a lower price than they generally go for at the moment. It's even Valentine's Day-themed, as she included a little heart as part of her signature.

2023 Panini Prizm UFC Undercard Box

I'm returning to the recent order I made from Blowout Cards, with a box of 2023 Panini Prizm UFC Undercard. This is a watered-down Hobby product, bypassing most of the exciting stuff but also adding a few Undercard-exclusive parallels. The draw for me here is that you're guaranteed an autograph and a large portion of the base set at a pretty significant discount from the regular Hobby boxes. Although I am kind of a scattershot singles collector, I do value being able to complete base sets, and I'm trying to collect on a limited budget. I just can't afford most Hobby wax these days. The value isn't there for me.

The last card in the set is a famous UFC fan, Hasbulla Magomedov. He's a social media personality with dwarfism who hangs out with the Dagestani contingent of UFC fighters.

Most of the non-base cards in the box are these Undercard Prizms, which have a disco-style background that is exclusive to Undercard boxes. Similar to the 2022 set I showed a couple of days ago, there are 100 horizontal and 100 vertical cards in the set. The Valentina "Bullet" Shevchenko card shown here is a special nickname variation that is again exclusive to Undercard boxes. 

Here are a couple of the vertically-oriented Undercard Prizms. The set is pretty comprehensive, with 200 cards featuring current and retired fighters.

This Silver Prizm of Saidyokub Kakhramonov was the only regular Prizm in the box. They are more common in other packaging configurations, but here they apparently take a back seat to the Undercard Prizms.

I was moderately surprised to find 2 numbered parallels in my box. The Alatengheili Red Undercard Prizm is #/99 and the Francis Ngannou Blue Undercard Prizm card is #/25. Ngannou is the more recognizable name for me here. He famously left the UFC during his time as Heavyweight champion when the two sides couldn't agree on the terms of a new contract. He is currently signed with the PFL and participated in an exhibition boxing match with Tyson Fury.

All of the insert cards in the box featured Undercard Prizm backgrounds, so someone trying to complete the inserts would have to choose between regular packs and Undercard packs. I guess you could try to build mixed sets, but what kind of collector mixes sets?

The Dominance insert set appears to feature champions, with Stipe Miocic and Henry Cejudo being the pulls from my box. Cejudo is mildly irritating, but he embraces being a villain and is undoubtedly good at fighting. I've mentioned before that I collect Miocic cards, so I was happy to pull an insert of him here.

The Fearless insert is a nice-looking colorful insert that I'd consider collecting if I had the bandwidth to pursue such a thing. Holly Holm is another fighter I collect, so it's nice to get another PC pull from the inserts. Brock Lesnar is a fearsome person, but over in the WWE world he's been tied to some pretty disgusting allegations along with Vince McMahon, who has been ousted from the company (again). Of course everyone is innocent until proven guilty legally, but in the court of public opinion there is certainly enough smoke for me to suspect some of the fire is real.

Hall Monitors showcases Hall of Fame-level fighters, and I pulled one of the best in Khabib Nurmagomedov, Dagestani friend of the previously-featured Hasbulla.

Finally, the autograph in the box was Damon Jackson, who I am unfamiliar with. He had a stint in the UFC prior to the period when I was watching events heavily, and again after I stopped watching the UFC on a regular basis. He's fought a lot of fights, but they happen to coincide with times I wasn't paying attention.

This was a decent box break for the price. I could see myself buying a couple more boxes to chase the base set in this format. Although a lot of the big hits are off the table in this configuration, there is enough interesting and exclusive stuff to hold a little bit of value.

Panini Chronicles UFC Obsidian Holly Holm Autograph

Apparently I'm on a bit of a Holly Holm kick lately, as I've been gathering a handful of her cards recently. My hobby journey is kind of like that, wandering from interest to interest without much consideration for continuity or reason. I go where the wind takes me, and just try to enjoy the moment. Sometimes it all feels kind of pointless, but I must get something out of it because I keep doing it. Collecting is embedded in my brain as something I have to do. Sometimes it overwhelms me and makes the hobby feel like another job. Sometimes it is fun and exciting. I couldn't imagine my life if I weren't collecting something. The good thing about cards is they take up a relatively small amount of space on an individual basis. The entirety of my collection, even after all of these years, fits into a 4-foot square of 5000-count boxes in the shed. Other collections, like LEGO sets for example, have a much larger footprint per dollar spent. That's likely one reason why I will always default to card collecting as my main hobby.

This is a Holly Holm Obsidian autograph from 2023 Panini Chronicles UFC. It's a striking card, with lightning bolts all around and a clear autograph right in the middle of it all. It's some kind of parallel, numbered /49 copies, but I don't pay much attention to that because I don't have the attention span for it. I've given up on collecting everything for everyone I collect, instead focusing on cards I like and deals I can't pass up. This is another eBay purchase that I added to my watch list and got a discounted offer from the seller.

2022 Panini Prizm UFC Retail Box

Some of my pickups from my latest Blowout Cards order were UFC cards. I was heavily into UFC cards during the Topps years, but then Panini got the license and prices were too high to be reasonable. Topps recently took the license back and followed suit with a $250 asking price on a box of Chrome UFC. That's just too high for me. I got some cheaper boxes by going with retail and watered-down Hobby releases, including this 2022 Prizm UFC Retail box. Most of the Hobby Prizms are out of play here, and you're lucky if you pull a hit, but I'm hoping to get a good chunk of the base set and maybe some interesting retail-only parallels.

I believe the Green Prizms are retail-exclusive parallels. The Derrick Lewis card is a Prizm Flashbacks insert, and Jorge Masvidal and Marvin Vettori are other guys I've heard of before. Not too bad of a start to the parallels.

Yair Rodriguez is another name I'm aware of, so 4/4 on the Green Prizms as far as name recognition goes. The base set is 200 cards, with 100 horizontal and 100 vertical cards. I didn't bother to photograph any actual base cards, as the parallels look the same outside of the colored border.

I didn't photograph all of the inserts I pulled, but I tried to get one of each kind for this post. The Rafael Dos Anjos card is a Bonus Machines insert, highlighting fighters who have won Fight of the Night bonuses for their performances in the Octagon. Rose Namajunas is a non-parallel Prizm Flashbacks card. Most of the Prizm Flashbacks cards seem to feature fighters wearing belts, so I thought maybe it was a champion-centric insert. I had to go to Cardboard Connections' checklist to find out it was a flashback-themed insert.

Fearless and Fireworks feature fighters who are fearless and explosive. Khabib Nurmagomedov and Valentina Shevchenko are both pretty good pulls here.

According to the packaging, these Pink Pulsar /42 Prizms are the big chase in retail. I've never heard of Movsar Evloev before, but I haven't been following UFC very closely the last few years. It seems I'm never around for the Fight Nights on ESPN+, and I can't justify the expense of the PPV events. I almost logged in last night for the fights ,but the ESPN page wouldn't load and I took that as a sign that it wasn't meant to happen for me.

I did get lucky and pulled an autograph from this box. This is a Green Prizm autograph of Stipe Miocic. I have a small collection of his cards, so I was pretty happy to get this one.

1955 Topps Doubleheaders Wally Moon

Another one-card post today, although this one is a little less modern and shiny than the Ticha Penicheiro Prizm I showed off yesterday. I continue to make progress on my Wally Moon master set, gathering the cards that are a little more off-the-wall than his basic releases.

This card came from eBay, which is where 99% of my singles are sourced. It's a 1955 Topps Doubleheaders card of Wally Moon and Joe Cunningham. The card is designed so that the player on back can be folded down and the legs will match up with the front of the card. This one graded out as a 5, likely due to some centering issues and a couple of marks on the back. It still presents pretty well, and most importantly, fills a spot in my graded master set of Wally Moon cards. I'm a little glad that Wally Moon got front billing on this card rather than being relegated to the little half-photo on the back of the card. 

Color Match Ticha Penicheiro

Just a one-card post today because that's probably all I've got in me at the moment. Some weeks seem longer than others, and this has been quite a week. Nothing really crazy has happened, but it's just one of those weeks that seems to drag on and on for a lot of little reasons.

I've mentioned at times that Ticha Penicheiro is my longest-standing WNBA player collection, something I started way back with the first WNBA cards in the 90's. I recently did a sweep of eBay and found this Purple Prizm from 2022 Panini WNBA Prizm listed for a couple of bucks, and the purple goes so well with the Sacramento uniform colors that I decided to buy it. The card is # /99, but I probably would have bought it anyway if it weren't numbered because of the color match.

The Other Half of a Blaster Case of 2018 Donruss Racing

I'm back today with the second half of this blaster case of 2018 Donruss Racing. This is all going to be pretty similar to yesterday's break, but with a few different names thrown in. Hopefully I can come up with a few things to say in between pictures.

This batch of 10 blasters didn't have an /49 like the first one did, but it did have 3 cards /99, including a couple of inserts in Chase Elliott and Dale Jarrett, and a base parallel of Bobby Labonte.

The /199 contingent included Bill Elliott, Mark Martin, and Austin Dillon. I have a small collection of Mark Martin cards, so happy to pull something of his from this group.

The Red foil cards are numbered /299. Richard Petty is the most recognizable name here, as one of the most famous race car drivers of any era.

Mark Martin makes another appearance in the Gold /499 parallels. Other highlights include Kevin Harvick and a Kyle Larson Race Kings card.

The inserts get the Cracked Ice /999 versions, which in my opinion are some of the best-looking cards in this product. The Joey Logano Pole Position car card is pretty neat. I think Pole Position is the best insert in the set, and I'd contemplate trying to complete the base set of that insert. Bubba Wallace and Danica Patrick are both drivers who I collect, so I was glad to pull some numbered cards for those driver collections.

Another Bubba Wallace appearance is the highlight for me here, this time with a bit of firesuit in a relic card. These are the 1985 Retro relics.

Rounding out the relic cards are a quartet of Rubber Relics tire swatch cards. Probably the highlights for me here are the Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman cards on the bottom row.

The ink from this batch of boxes comes in the form of an old-timer, Morgan Shepherd. Also in this batch of blasters was a dreaded Panini Rewards point card. 150 points will get you a whole lot of nothing in the Panini Rewards store, and you'll have to pay shipping if you want to get that nothing sent to you. I hate to waste a hit on a points card, but what can you do?

That does it for this blaster case. Like I mentioned yesterday, for $100 this blaster case was a pretty fun rip. I got 19 various hits, a bunch of numbered cards, and several base sets out of it. I'd probably do a similar deal again, but not on the same year of Donruss. You can only handle so many base cards before it gets ridiculous.

Half a Blaster Case of 2018 Donruss Racing

I recently made a decent-sized purchase from Blowout Cards. Part of the buy was a couple cases of Panini racing card blaster boxes. The first case was 2018 Donruss Racing. Not a super exciting product, but at $5 per blaster I thought it would be pretty fun. I'll show the hits from half the case at a time, just to keep from having the post be too long for me to deal with.

Those are the base cards from the entire case. I got 3 full base sets out of it, and 6 or 7 copies of many base cards. I actually sat down and sorted all of it this weekend, which was quite a project.

You're going to get plenty of parallels in Donruss, mostly identified by a slight color variation in the foil. This Austin Dillon holofoil Press Proof was the lowest-numbered card of the break, at /49. It's a lot shinier in the picture than in real life, but I'll take it.

This Jamie McMurray car card was the only /199 card in this half of the case. I averaged just over one numbered card per blaster, which is decent at the price point I paid. I bought this on sale at $100/case, and it's currently listed on Blowout at $400/case. I wouldn't recommend buying it at $400/case.

Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano make up the /299 parallels from these 10 blaster boxes. The Hamlin card shows the Race Kings design from the base set, which I think is pretty good. The Joey Logano card is a variation. The photo/nickname variations in the set aren't short-printed, appearing just about as often as their base counterparts. I sorted them as part of the base set rather than putting them in the back of the box with the parallels and inserts.

I pulled five /499 Gold parallels, with the Chase Elliott car card probably being the best of the bunch. Corey LaJoie and Carl Edwards are part of the Retro 1985 portion of the checklist, which all told is 175 cards deep.

Most of your insert parallels are going to be the Cracked Ice /999 variety. I don't really care about the numbering that much, but I think the Cracked Ice foil treatment is pretty sharp-looking. It's not really evident in this photo, but the Dale Earnhardt Jr. Studio card is particularly striking with its dark blue border and the foil.

Big hits out of this product are rare in retail. This is one to break for fun rather than for money. I suppose that should be true of all products, but some lottery tickets have bigger prizes than others. This is the low end of the trading card lottery pool, where the $1 scratchers are. The Brendan Gaughan card is a parallel of the 1985 relic design, numbered /99. I believe it's the only numbered relic or auto from the whole break.

This AJ Allmendinger Racing Relics sheet metal card was the lone representative from Racing Relics to come from the entire case.

The majority of hits from Donruss Racing come in the form of tire swatches in the Rubber Relics set. I got some good names in this batch, like Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr.

The lone signature from this half-case was Spencer Davis.

That does it for half a case (10 blaster boxes) of 2018 Donruss Racing. I got a handful of relics and inserts that fit into my various collections, and a whole ton of base cards that I can use as fortifications when the world ends. At $100/case you could do worse than this. At $400/case you should probably look at something else.

1964 Topps Venezuela

I've documented a bit of my progress on my Wally Moon collection recently. I have most of the low-hanging fruit already in my collection, so I now have to gather the rarer stuff. Some of it is not readily available in PSA-graded form, so I've gathered some cards that will eventually be sent off to PSA once I'm confident I've got just about everything in-hand. That future PSA submission will include Wally Moon cards, as well as the remaining cards I've gathered for the 1891 N20 Allen & Ginter 50 Prize & Game Chickens set I've been working on for the last decade. None of these cards will grade very well, but that's not really the point for these set builds.

I recently found myself looking for Wally Moon's 1964 Topps Venezuela card, which is similar to his 1964 Topps base card, outside of the printing on the back. Venezuelan releases were printed on poor cardstock, and most of the ones that have survived are in poor condition. This copy is no exception, with rounded corners and fading. It still shows Wally's unibrow in all its majesty, though.

The card backs on the 1964 Venezuelan cards are printed in black, as opposed to the U.S.-released cards that were printed in orange. It's a relatively easy way to determine which is which for this year. Several years ago I purchased a 1962 Topps NL Batting Leaders card that purports to be the Venezuelan edition that I hope will grade as such in spite of being virtually identical to the U.S. printing.

Based on the available offerings during my search, it worked out cheaper to buy a lot of Venezuelan cards rather than just the Wally Moon single. It's strange how it works out that way sometimes. So I got Ryne Duren and Harvey Kuenn Venezuelans as well.

Again, these are in pretty rough shape, but that is expected with these cards that are nearly as old as my parents, who were born in 1962. Ryne Duren I wasn't super familiar with, but he made the All-Star Game a few times and won a ring with the Yankees in 1958. Harvey Kuenn was a familiar name, who was a perennial All-Star with the Tigers and managed the Brewers for a couple of years after his playing days.