Another Thank You Post

I made a post just a couple of days ago, thanking Jon from A Penny Sleeve for Your Thoughts for a mailing, but in digging through my stacks of cards and paper I found another card from him that requires a post. This one wasn't in an envelope, but it had a note wrapped around it, mentioning the serial number.

This card comes from the 2015 Panini Cooperstown Induction Images insert set. It's a Gold parallel of Goose Gossage, the HOF reliever whose cards I collect. The serial number on this one is # 12 / 25, which makes it a coveted 'Christmas Card,' because if you write the date for Christmas out numerically you get 12/25. I like Christmas Cards, and I collect them, but I can't take credit for the idea. Blogger defgav over at Baseball Card Breakdown has an extensive Christmas Card collection, and has done at least a couple series' of posts showcasing his Christmas Card collection. I gladly stole his idea, though, and I will take a Christmas Card when I can get it.

Hopefully as I dig through these piles I will be able to match up some more cards with their senders, so that I can properly thank the people who have been so generous to my collection. Thanks for the card, Jon!

A NASCAR Christmas Card

I've had some pretty good luck in finding new Danica Patrick cards for my collection lately. A lot of the stuff out on eBay is the same old recycled overpriced auctions, but some gems pop up from time to time. It seems like many of the best deals to be had are on serially-numbered parallels, because they can sometimes blend in with all of the overpriced base cards that cycle endlessly on the site.

This card wasn't particularly cheap, but I felt like it was worth grabbing for the asking price. It comes from the 2012 Press Pass FanFare set and it's a Silver parallel. Even better, it's a Christmas card, bearing the serial number # 12 / 25.

I am kind of looking forward to the start of the NASCAR season. I am not a die-hard fan or anything, but I try to catch a few races a year on television and I almost always at least look at the leader board throughout the race to see how my favorite drivers are doing. I can't really pinpoint the source of my additional excitement for the 2016 season, but it's definitely there.

Christmas Card in August: 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Jon Singleton Relic

I've been out of town for a few days, visiting with my wife's family in Utah. I didn't do much related to baseball cards or blogging down there, although I did manage to get that UFC post written up while I was away. I managed to pick up a LEGO kit I really wanted at the LEGO Store. The LEGO Store is a big thing for us to visit when we find ourselves in Utah, as Idaho doesn't have one. It helps that there is a Godiva shop Boutique just down the hall from the LEGO Store, so there is chocolate for my wife also. She actually likes LEGO kits quite a bit, too. I got a Star Wars set, the Imperial Shuttle Tydirium. My boys got some new Ninjago Airjitzu guys who plug into plastic capsules that can be launched into the air and over the fence into the neighbor's yard.

The last couple of days were pretty miserable as the in-laws have a cat and I am extremely allergic to cats. They left the cat outside for a couple of weeks before I came down, but if there is a trace of cat anywhere I will find it and basically be out of commission until I get away from it. I spent most of the last two days holed up in our room with the lights off, popping allergy medicine and blowing my nose. I am still pretty sick, and I probably won't be back to normal for another couple of days. It didn't help that when we came home my wife looked up and saw that our ceiling fan was hanging out of the ceiling. The guy who installed it had used some questionable techniques and the screws holding it up had ripped through the housing. So instead of taking the day to recuperate I found myself among the dust and insulation in the attic reinstalling the fan. On the plus side the fan now hangs straight and doesn't wobble.

In card-related news, I got a pretty cool item from 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen in the mail. I am not usually a huge Gypsy Queen fan, but the framed relics and autographs are usually done pretty well. This is the Gold parallel of the mini framed relic card, so it is numbered out of # / 25. This card features a nice red piece of fabric and is numbered # 12 / 25, making it a Christmas card.

As predicted, the Astros' moves around the trade deadline pushed Singleton back down to AAA. He wasn't playing great during his stint with the Astros, but he had some useful at-bats and it seemed like he was improving a little during his last few games. His struggles have been good for people like me who want to buy his cards, but it can be hard wanting to chase cards of a guy who may never pull it all together. I honestly would like to start an Evan Gattis or Carlos Correa player collection, but that would probably mean dropping one of my current player collections. It's hard to let go of a collection that you've put a lot into. Unless Singleton has a sudden change in his stats that forces a move back up out of AAA, he probably won't have as many cards in 2016 as he has in 2014 and 2015, and maybe then I will make a change in focus. We'll see, Ideally he can get things turned around and play his way into some more at-bats for the Astros.

Now that I'm home I have a couple of prizes from my contest that I need to get mailed out. I haven't forgotten, I promise. I just held my contest at a really inconvenient time.

Pack of the Day 96: A Box of 2012-13 Panini Basketball

I opened this stuff last year, but the post is in the queue and I might as well write it now. Dave and Adam's Card World had some decent deals during their Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale and I took advantage of some of them. One of the things I ordered is a Hobby box of 2012-13 Panini Basketball. Each box promises 7 Knight parallels and 2 autographs, along with cards from a handful of insert sets.

The base card design kind of resembles the NBA Hoops cards of the early 90's, mostly because of the key-shaped border around the photos. James Harden is having an MVP-contending season for the Rockets, and hopefully this year the team will advance past the first round of the playoffs. I'd probably start an Anthony Davis PC since I also have a unibrow, but I don't even keep up with the basketball PCs I already have. A new one would just be silly. JaVale McGee and Nate Robinson are a couple of fan favorite type players.

Chandler Parsons was on his way to becoming my favorite 'new' Rocket, but I didn't like the way he handled himself during and after his move to the Dallas Mavericks. Jeremy Lin has struggled as a Laker, and I wonder if Linsanity will be on the move again soon? David Robinson and Grant Hill are two of the players I collected a bit during my initial card collecting phase in the 90's, although Robinson was a rival to my favorite player, Hakeem Olajuwon.

This Matching Numbers insert takes a couple of players who wear the same jersey number and puts them on a card together. I guess it's a cool concept, but not a must-collect set for me. I'm not a huge fan of anyone in this group, either, so that's probably a factor in my lukewarm response to it.

These Spirit of the Game inserts fill the 'insert with photos taken from the vicinity of the backboard' niche. It's an all right insert, but I don't like how far the logo intrudes into the action photo. It takes up like a third of the card.

There's not much to say about these Knight parallels. They have the different logo down at the bottom and that's pretty much it. I've heard of Shved, but the other guys I am not that familiar with.

This batch is a little better, with Kyrie Irving as a pretty big star and Morris and Evans at least being guys whose names I know.

Here is the insert that fills the 'famous old guys' slot in the set, Heroes of the Hall. There are some big names here, but no one I have much attachment to. Moses Malone is pretty cool. Patrick Ewing is a villain.

And here is the star player insert, All-Panini. Zach Randolph and Dion Waiters aren't the biggest names out there. I guess I don't follow the NBA close enough anymore to know where they fall in the star/semi-star/scrub hierarchy, but they aren't in the core group of star veterans and they aren't the hot new rookies on the scene, so they must be in the middle somewhere.

It is really hard to tell from the front, but that Zach Randolph card is a parallel. It's a Christmas Card, too, carrying the # 12 / 25 serial number.

My two promised autographs are both redemptions for Rookie Signatures. One features Quincy Miller and the other is Kahwi Leonard. Miller has spent this season signing 10-day contracts and bouncing between the D-League and the end of the Kings' and Pistons' benches, not getting a lot of playing time. I imagine he'll probably be out of the NBA altogether pretty soon. Kawhi Leonard is the young star of the Spurs, the most boring great team in the Association. He was the NBA Finals MVP last season as the Spurs won the Championship, and he plays pretty good defense while scoring some points and getting some assists on offense. If he did similar things on a flashier team this would probably be a better pull, but even as it is this card will probably cover the cost of the box once it's redeemed.

And that's it for this box. I kind of like the base set, and maybe if I get around to sorting through the cards I will consider putting it together. The boxes are cheap, which makes sense considering what you get out of one. I am not too big on any of the insert sets. Mostly it's a good cheap break if you want to bust some basketball cards and take a flier on getting a decent autograph. But honestly, I opened a box of 2014-15 Donruss Basketball recently that I think was a lot more fun than this stuff. It's still a pretty low-end break, but there was so much more going on that it felt like I got more for my dollar. I'll post that whenever I get my scans all sorted out, so probably around the time 2015-16 Donruss releases.

What eBay Hath Wrought 126: 2014-15 NBA Hoops Olajuwon and O'Neal Matchups

In addition to a blowout victory by the Royals over the Giants to extend the World Series to Game 7, last night also marked the start of the NBA regular season. My favorite team, the Houston Rockets, kicked off the season by beating the LA Lakers 108 - 90. It seems like a perfect time to show off a card featuring my favorite basketball player of all time, Hakeem Olajuwon. This is a Matchups insert from this year's Hoops offering from Panini, highlighting Olajuwon's battles with another famous big man, Shaquille O'Neal. This is the Green parallel and happens to be a Christmas Card, numbered # 12 / 25. 

The back of the card discusses the 1995 NBA Finals, when the Rockets swept the Magic in four games to win their second consecutive championship. O'Neal would go on to win rings of his own with the Lakers and Heat, while the Rockets would not reach the Finals again.

Last year I was able to attend my first NBA game in Utah when the Rockets came up to play the Jazz. My Blogger profile picture is actually a cropped photo from that day. I am not sure if I will be able to make it down there for another game this season. There are two games on the schedule that bring them up to Utah. One is this evening and I definitely won't be able to make that one because I am several hours away and I have class tonight. Maybe in my younger years it would be a great adventure, but I have too many responsibilities and obligations for all that right now. The other game is in March. I have no idea what I will be doing in March. It also might be nice to try to catch a game in Portland, but logistically that is more difficult because we don't really have family there.

Breaking it Down 17: The Immaculate Toronto Blue Jays

I thought it was about time to do a baseball post, as my readership numbers have dwindled into the single digits after posts featuring NASCAR, comic books, and the NFL. Some nice Blue Jays hits should get the page views back up in the dozen or more mark. Page views aren't everything, but getting a few people to read the blog provides some motivation to keep writing.

I picked up the Toronto Blue Jays slot in a group break of 2014 Panini Immaculate Baseball. The spot was cheap, and the Blue Jays had a larger chance than most other low-priced teams to get something really cool like a bat knob or one of the shoe relic cards that have been getting a lot of buzz. I didn't get any of those things, but I got a couple of nice cards.

First up is these two Jose Bautista base cards. Every card on the checklist is serially-numbered, with the base cards being limited to a print run of 99 cards each. I got # 30 / 99 and # 32 / 99.

The card-backs are all right, but nothing spectacular.

I got this Ryan Goins relic card, with a nice little piece of blue cloth in the window. It is numbered # 65 / 99. Goins had a bad year and got sent down to AAA for a while. I honestly don't know all that much about him. I read that his glove is pretty good, but he has so far been unable to catch up with his bat.

And this is the number one card in the lot. It's an Immaculate Swatches relic card of Edwin Encarnacion featuring a pretty nice two-color relic that appears to be some blue fabric with a bit of white patch sewn on. It's also a Christmas card, being numbered # 12 / 25. It's not a bat knob or a piece of shoe, but it's not a bad hit for one of the cheapest slots in an Immaculate break. I don't miss the logos too much on these cards for some reason. Maybe it's because on all of these cards Panini went ahead and showed the players from the front, avoiding the plague of man-butt that has been apparent in other sets as Panini tries to avoid highlighting the lack of licensing to use MLB team names and logos. Obviously I would prefer to see Panini get the MLB license and give Topps some competition, but it seems like the major sports leagues are moving in the opposite direction, shrinking the number of companies that have licensing rights to make official cards.

Rainbow in the Dark 17: What Day is Christmas in Canada?

Today I am featuring another Red Ice card from 2014 Bowman, as I was also able to pick up a copy of R.A. Dickey's card from eBay. I've got about a million sets I am working on, but they have all come to a screeching halt as I look for rainbow cards from 2014 Bowman. I do have a Zistle trade in the works for some 2014 Heritage and I think a few 2012 Topps inserts on my wish list.

It doesn't quite have the Christmas colors of yesterday's card, but it does have the # 12 / 25 serial number, qualifying it as a gin-u-wine Christmas card. 

I also got the unnumbered Silver Ice version of Dickey's card. I overpaid for it, but it wasn't by too much and I will live with it. I'd rather pay a little extra for a card I 'need' than for a card I don't, like that Randy Johnson mini from a few days ago.

What eBay Hath Wrought 55: A Christmas Card in March

I have a whole pile of posts in my queue, but in trying to find one that I could type up real quick and have some new content on the blog tomorrow I found that most of them were uninspiring or would take a lot longer to write up than I want to spend before I go to sleep.

Today I have been scanning a buttload of cards for a set that was missing from Zistle's database. I've determined to get my cards organized and uploaded onto Zistle so I can keep track of what I have and maybe what I want. But mostly to track what I have. I guess in deciding to upload and scan in a set that I recently acquired, I failed to realize that I would need to do nearly 100 scans, and then I would have to manipulate those 100ish scans into 350 or so individual pictures of the fronts and backs of cards. And in doing research on this set I found out that I am missing entirely a parallel to the base set that includes 137 more cards. I don't know if I will chase that parallel or not.

I also finally got around to putting a few things up on eBay that I've been meaning to sell for quite some time. I am hoping that the proceeds will offset a hobby box or so of 2014 Topps Heritage. We'll see if the bidding is in my favor.

My NCAA bracket is doing okay so far. Cards on Cards set up a contest (with valuable prizes!) and 31 people signed up for it. I am proud of the fact that I went 16 for 16 on the first day of the tournament, but that ended quickly with several straight missed picks on day two. However, my Final Four picks are still alive and I am currently tied for first in the group again after my pick Connecticut beat Villanova tonight. I get the feeling that I am going down soon, though, as my bracket will be busted by one of the teams from Michigan.

And none of that has to do with the card pictured above or the title of this post. The card is a 2012 Press Pass Showcase Elite Exhibit card of Danica Patrick. It is some sort of red foil parallel, and is numbered 12 / 25, making it a Christmas card. You know, because if you read the serial number as if it were a date you get December 25th. Don't credit me with that idea, though. Baseball Card Breakdown runs a whole series on 12 / 25 cards during the run-up to Christmas. This card even has a nice red and green theme to it, although I don't think that lime color is the green usually associated with the Christmas holiday. I thought that this was another acetate card, but when I went downstairs to find the cards I posted on eBay this evening, I stumbled across it and saw that it was just regular cardboard and foil. Oh well. It's still a pretty decent card.