Just a Few UFC Autographs from eBay

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:

@chonk34 @ufc We are currently evaluating that.

— 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.

This Fancy R.A. Dickey Card Belongs in a Museum

I've been struggling a bit with my motivation to write posts. I've got enough photos in my draft queue to get me into the first week or so of July, but those pictures need words to go with them. I am pretty busy at work lately with some training and certifications I have to finish. They've all got deadlines, so it all hangs over my head quite a bit. I've been trying to make progress on the classes in the evenings, because I need my work time to produce actual work. I have been able to watch some baseball, though, including most of the Astros' recent games. It's nice that they are actually doing some winning, moving closer to the teams currently holding Wild Card spots. There's still a ways to go, but they did at least get to .500 today with a win over the Angels.

The Toronto Blue Jays are another team vying for a Wild Card spot, and they are considerably closer than the Astros at this point. They're a half-game behind the Royals for the 2nd Wild Card spot, but they've lost three in a row to stay under the line. R.A. Dickey has pitched better recently, but his season numbers aren't all that great. I still pick up the occasional card for my Dickey collection, and when I saw these 2016 Topps Museum Collection Meaningful Material Prime Relics hit the market I knew I would be chasing one down. This is the Gold version of the card, numbered # 11 / 35. This is just a good-looking set, so I had to get a copy for my PC. It looks like the relic swatch might be a part of the sleeve trim on the jersey.

Here's the typical back-of-card stuff. I'm still trying to decide how much it matters if the player ever wore the relic embedded in a given card. I like the cards that somehow tie a piece of memorabilia to a game or event, like the recent Topps Strata release with the holographic stickers with codes that could be entered in to see which game the relic pieces came from. I never did actually pick up any Strata cards, but I did look up the codes from a few stickers just to see how it worked. I'll probably track something down from that product eventually. I don't think I would buy a box of Museum Collection because it is out of my price range and most boxes seem to be duds, but this R.A. Dickey card was a nice single to grab from eBay. I haven't really looked for any more Museum Collection cards from this year since I grabbed this card, but they look good enough that I might take a glance through the checklist to see if there are any other players I'd like to chase down.