Another National Parallel

I've got a large number of NASCAR cards to post, and I am falling behind on getting to them. I try to reserve NASCAR for Sunday posting, but I may have to increase the frequency, as I've got enough to probably get me out past March. Panini's recent releases have injected a lot of new product into the market, and that's been good news for me. I am still able to get some of the older Press Pass stuff, but most of my recent buys have come from Panini.

This card came from the 2016 Panini The National set. It's a parallel of Danica's base card, numbered # 81 / 99. I don't know if Panini actually named these parallels, but I've seen a couple of places call this one by the name 'Wedges.' I like the look of it, and I've spent a lot of time trying to get one at a decent price. I didn't want to spend $10 on a card with a print run of nearly 100, so I waited, and waited, and waited some more until I found one at an acceptable price. It's hard to collect the #1 seller in NASCAR. She isn't the number one seller in NASCAR die-cast, but she is definitely tops when it comes to trading cards.

I watched both of the NFL Conference Championship games, which were about as dull as you could get. Both games seemed pretty well out of hand early on, and neither trailing team ever seemed like they were capable of making a comeback. If I have to pick a team to win the Super Bowl, I guess I choose the Falcons. My wife is from Atlanta, and her family and friends have at least a casual interest in seeing their local team win it all (my mother-in-law has already added a 'Rise Up' border to her Facebook profile photo). Beating New England will be a tough task, though, and I hope the Super Bowl winds up being a better match-up than today's games were.

Click Here to View Cart 20: COMC Black Friday 2016 Haul

Some people around the blogging community go crazy during the annual Black Friday sale at COMC, buying up stacks of cards and taking advantage of free shipping offers for cards they've accumulated during the year. I personally probably haven't made the best use of COMC, as for whatever reason it is never among the first options on my mind when looking for cards to purchase. This past year I did find myself browsing the listings during the big sale, though, and I picked up a total of 6 cards.

The first card is this shiny Danica Patrick card from the 2016 Panini The National set. COMC is calling this parallel Hyperfoil. My card is numbered # 17 / 49. I've been tracking various versions of Danica's The National and The National - VIP cards on eBay, but haven't picked up nearly as many as I'd like. It seems like the prices plus shipping are always a little more than I want to spend. This one was on sale and I was able to combine shipping with the other cards in the order, so into the cart it went.

The other five cards in this order were all from the 2014 Topps Stadium Club Members Only parallel. I have a goal to add as many of these to my collection as I can, so I picked up the five cheapest ones that I didn't yet have copies of in my collection. The horizontal card from the lot is pitcher Chris Archer.

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The other four are Josh Hamilton, Michael Wacha, Nelson Cruz, and Julio Teheran. No huge superstar names here, but I was happy to add five more of these to my collection without completely breaking the bank. I had several more in my cart for a while, but they were in higher price tiers and I ultimately decided to just pare my order down to these ones. I've already progressed much further with this collection than I ever thought I would. I know I am not ever going to complete the set, so I feel less pressure to gather them all. That frees me up to seek out the best deals I can and pass unreasonably-priced cards.

Although these aren't serially-numbered, the rumor is that only 5-10 copies of each Members Only card were printed. As time goes by I would expect the supply to really dry up, but here in early 2017 there are still a few to be found. I think that in some ways the passage of time helps, as people have probably moved on from 2014 Topps Stadium Club in the search for the next hot thing, and this is a parallel set that kind of flies under the radar.

I also got one scratch-off ticket in the package, which netted me a $5 credit on the site. I used the money to purchase a card that I had already purchased once. The seller sent me a different card (which I also needed for my collection), and I let it slide. The card I actually purchased popped up on COMC around the time I scratched my ticket, and I negotiated a discounted price on it with the seller. Pretty dramatic stuff. Right now it is sitting in my COMC account. I will have it shipped to me some day in conjunction with another order.

2016 Panini The National Danica Patrick - Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400

Panini usually puts out a couple of card sets tied to The National Sports Collectors Convention (The National for short). This year's set included NASCAR cards, including cards for Danica Patrick. As usual, there are about 65,000 parallels, but so far all I've got is the base card. 

It's got a pretty basic design. I don't really have much to say about it. The front features your usual posed shot with arms crossed, and the back has the door number, another nameplate, and a short description of a race Danica placed 16th in. It is nice to be getting a few cards featuring her Nature's Bakery sponsorship, although I have to admit I miss the old GoDaddy green sometimes. Nature's Bakery does seem like a better sponsor for her now, though.

Today's race was the Nickelodeon-sponsored Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. in Joliet, Illinois. Danica drove a special car featuring April O'Neil, one of the Turtles' allies. I lifted the picture from the linked article.

Danica started the TMNT 400 in 25th place, bringing her average start at the track to 26.40. She wasn't able to move up much in the field, finishing in 24th place, slightly worse than her career average 22.80 finish at the track.