Care Package from Fuji

When I got home from New Jersey I had a veritable mountain of mail sitting on my desk. Among the mailers was a package from Fuji over at The Chronicles of Fuji. Inside I found a whole bunch of items that hit many of my different collections.

First up is a number of Hakeem Olajuwon cards. Those Upper Deck holograms were huge for me back in the day. These are the cards I coveted in the 90's. There's also a Manute Bol card hiding down there in the lower right.

I like lists, and those NBA Jam Session cards take a list and put it on cardboard. There's a lot of star power on those cards. The Trading Places insert at the bottom was new to me. I got out of collecting around the time that Olajuwon went to the Raptors, so I haven't seen most of his later cardboard.

Fuji also hit up my Nolan Ryan collection. I'm not a very good Ryan collector, but I like getting his cards when they show up. Out of this lot, I especially like the O-Pee-Chee in the upper right and the Starline card in the lower left. It's also nice to see a couple appearances by the Astros' rainbow uniforms.

There were plenty of Astros in the package, including the Killer B's, player collection guy Jon Singleton, and World Series hero George Springer.

Hologram technology makes another appearance here, with a Denny's oddball of Jeff Bagwell. I've probably eaten at Denny's three or four times in my life, so I wasn't ever exposed to these until I started reading card blogs. There's also a nice-looking Craig Biggio League Leaders card here.

My R.A. Dickey collection got a little boost, too, with a few different things, including two different Bowman Platinum parallels, a shiny foil Stadium Club card, a Little League card (from a Sports Illustrated for Kids magazine), and some Museum Collection and Ginter to round it out.

This slightly over-sized Kellogg's Raisin Bran card was one highlight of the package. I don't think I'd ever seen this one before, so it was a welcome addition to my Olajuwon hoard. It highlights his college career.

This 2017 Topps Series One Jackie Robinson Logo card of Alex Bregman is a solid chunk of cardboard. These were a one-per-blaster inclusion in the retail release of this product, so the card for a given team would be a pretty difficult find.

The last card in the package was this Jason Lane patch relic from 2002 Leaf Certified. This is the Mirror Blue parallel, numbered # 68 / 75. Lane played outfield in parts of 6 MLB seasons, with his only full season being 2005. That means he's played in four more World Series games than most of us have. He fell out of the MLB after 2007, but bounced around the minors and came back as a pitcher, throwing 10.1 innings for the Padres in 2014. I thought that was pretty wild, especially with the long gap in between. I believe he is currently a hitting coach in the Brewers organization.

Thanks for the package, Fuji! There was a lot of variety in here, and I enjoyed looking through all of the cards you sent!

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.

Manute Bol Gala Relic

Although much of the hype in the card collecting world currently revolves around the All-Star Game and Aaron Judge's Home Run Derby exploits, today I am posting about a basketball card. I even have some Aaron Judge cards to post about, but they aren't scanned yet and there's like a 0% chance that they will get scanned this week.

I think I picked up this Manute Bol Main Attraction Memorabilia relic card from 2015-16 Panini Gala on eBay a while back. Bol's cards still command decent prices, especially low-numbered parallels, relics, and autographs. This one is numbered # 33 / 60, and I picked it up for just a few dollars. I don't add to my collection of Bol cards very often, and I am always happy when I get one. That 76ers uniform he's wearing on this card is pretty sweet, too.

My favorite NBA team, the Houston Rockets, recently completed a trade for point guard Chris Paul and also signed James Harden to a massive contract extension, basically betting on him as the guy to lead them to glory over the next few years. I don't know about that. I think they will continue to be a pretty good team and make regular playoff appearances, but those two guys plus whoever else they are able to add to the roster aren't going to beat the Warriors in a 7-game series.

Adding A Minute Manute

One thing that crossed my mind today was the idea that many of the people who work at card companies might not be card collectors at all. They are probably like graphic design folks who wanted to work for Pixar or something, but wound up at Panini editing baseball logos out of pictures instead. Or they work in some non-design capacity, working with clients on licensing decisions or distributors. Or something like that. I'm sure that there are plenty of collectors working at Topps and Panini, but there are probably plenty of employees who don't collect and maybe don't fully understand what the fuss is all about. It would be interesting to see how the reality of the daily business of card companies compares to what collectors imagine. It would also be neat to know how many card company employees are collectors.

What really drove that home for me was a box break video done by Cryptozoic employees. I forget what product it was, maybe one of their DC comic book sets or some TV show or movie set. Anyway, the guy opened up the box, then held it upside down a couple of feet above the table and shook the packs out onto the tabletop. Maybe the percentage wasn't that high, but all the collector in me could see was half the packs tumbling out and landing right on the corners, ruining the pristine cards packed inside. That guy was 100% not a collector. He was a marketing guy doing a marketing video for some product that his company makes.

None of that has anything to do with today's card. I try to pick up Manute Bol cards when I can, and a couple months ago this 2015-16 Totally Certified Materials card popped up on eBay at a reasonable price. I added it to my collection. As far as I can tell, this is the Red version of the card, which serves as the base card for this relic set. There's a spreadsheet for the print runs, as different players have different print runs at different parallel levels. This card is numbered # 65 / 99. Manute Bol died tragically a few years ago, which is a real shame. By all accounts he was a great humanitarian and a good person, devoting much of the fortune he made playing ball to help the people of his home country, Sudan.

Splitsville: Lose-Lose on eBay

I absolutely love eBay. I've had thousands of transactions on the platform over the last 15+ years, and for the most part it's been a pretty good experience. But sometimes things go wrong, and when they do it often feels like both parties come out losing. That was the case with this card, which on the surface is a beautiful 2015-16 Panini Totally Certified Materials Camo parallel of late NBA player and humanitarian Manute Bol. It's got a nice three-color relic piece and is serially-numbered # 07 / 25. It took a little while to arrive because it shipped out of Hong Kong, and I was pretty happy after I opened the package. Upon further inspection I found this:

The patch piece is so thick that the card bulges in the middle and it has actually begun to peel the layers of the card apart. The first thing I did was go back and review the auction listing to make sure I hadn't missed anything in the description or the pictures. There has been a time or two where I got a little too hasty with my bidding and went back to find that the faults were clearly listed in the item description or one of the photos. In those cases I just ate the loss. But this auction featured just one photo that didn't reveal the damage and the description said that the card was Near Mint to Mint in condition.

I spent enough on the card that I didn't really want to just drop things, so I took a picture of the damage and opened an Item Not as Described case on eBay. I always feel like kind of a douche when I open a case, but I also don't want to pay for something that isn't what was listed. I uploaded the picture and wrote a message describing the problem.

The seller refunded the money pretty quickly and eBay sent me a message saying that there was no need to send the item back. I was kind of relieved that I didn't have to ship it back as shipping it to Hong Kong was going to be a hassle, with customs paperwork to fill out and probably more cost than the card was worth. But I also felt bad because now I had a damaged card and my money back, and the seller was out the money I'd sent plus the money it took to ship the card. It was kind of his fault to begin with for not inspecting what he was selling but it still sucks for everyone involved.

I left positive feedback for the seller because he made things right. I'm not out to rip anyone off or blast someone who has done the best they can to make things right. A little while later I got kind of a passive-aggressive e-mail from the seller saying that the card had come out of the pack like that and that now that I had my money back maybe I could find another copy of the card, but that even if I found another three-color patch card from someone else it would probably have the same issue as the one I'd purchased from him. I understand that he is frustrated at the situation because he's now out the money and the card. In my mind we both lost on the deal. I didn't get the product I wanted and he lost money on the transaction.

I also sent a message out on Twitter directed at Panini with a picture of the damage and a complaint about their quality control. I am pretty sure that exactly 0 people saw that Tweet. It was worth a shot, I guess.

The card looks good from some angles, but in addition to the damage on the bottom edge it also now has negative feelings associated with the eBay experience I had. There are items in my collection that would otherwise be okay, but because of the way they came to me I have these bad feelings associated with them and I keep them tucked away so I don't get all fired up again. This will be one of those items. Whenever I stumble across it in the card boxes I will be reminded of the bad side of eBay, where everybody loses.

edit: I went back and sent the seller the amount that was charged as a shipping and handling fee. It felt like the right thing to do. It's only a few bucks.

Manute Bol 2014-15 Panini National Treasures NBA Game Gear

There hasn't been a lot of traditional stick-and-ball sports content on this blog for a while just because I've been focused elsewhere in my collecting lately. But that doesn't mean I've neglected my baseball, football, and basketball collections entirely. There is always something out there to pick up, like this Manute Bol NBA Game Gear dual relic card from 2014-15 Panini National Treasures Basketball. I try to grab Bol's cards whenever I can, especially if they feature relics or autos. I only have one autograph of his so far, a card that just barely missed the cut for my collection's Best Binder Page. I've got a few of his relic cards, though, and this is a worthy addition to my collection. Although there is no patchwork on the swatches, I did at least get a red swatch and a white swatch. The card design is pretty nice and it is serially-numbered # 43 / 99.

I know all the cool folks in the blogosphere are posting 2015 recaps and/or 2016 goals right now, but I haven't given a whole lot of thought to either of those things. I've got a general idea about how 2015 went for me and I have some thoughts about what I want to do in 2016, but it's been a long time since I really sat down and made up checklists or cataloged things. The main thing I'd like to get done this year is get my hobby room set up with some tables so that I can do a whole lot of sorting. There are a few sets that I failed to complete in 2015 (Topps Update, Stadium Club) that I would like to pick up. I have some trade packages that I owe to people. My kids are clamoring for some attention, so I need to cut this post off here and go attend to that.

Manute Bol Timeless Treasures Relic

I picked up this card way back at the end of January. It is a Perennial Materials relic card from 2012-13 Panini Timeless Treasures Basketball. Manute Bol seems to carry quite a bit of popularity and his cards tend to go for a fair amount, especially autographs and relics. He passed away in 2010, so the autographs that are out there are all that will be produced. I was able to get an autograph last year, and this is my second relic card featuring the shot-blocking specialist.

I guess this one is a little better than my first Bol relic card, as it is serially-numbered # 081 / 149. I don't collect a lot of basketball cards these days, but outside of the great Hakeem Ollajuwon I tend to focus my collection on the tallest (Manute Bol, Gheorghe Muresan, maybe Shawn Bradley) and shortest (Muggsy Bogues, Spud Webb) players in the game. I haven't really latched on to a current player yet for my collection, and I don't know when that will happen. I kind of started to follow Chandler Parsons when he was a Rocket, but then he switched over to the Mavericks and I dropped that. There are a few candidates out there, but nothing I have pursued with any vigor.

The seller threw in this Shawn Kemp card for free, which is pretty cool. Kemp was a pretty exciting player who got fat near the end of his career and fathered a billion kids across the country during his playing days. I guess that makes this post as good as any for Father's Day. My one connection to 'Reign Man' is that when I was in high school I was able to acquire a pair of Reebok Kamikaze II shoes, which I thought were pretty darn cool. Recently Reebok released a throwback in similar colors to the ones I had back then (Blue/White) and I was able to snag a pair of those.

At the Trade Deadline 24: Trade Package from The Lost Collector

A while ago The Lost Collector left a comment on my blog to inquire about trading for a Bowman die-cut I had pulled. I sent it to him along with a couple of other things I hoped he would like. Then he e-mailed me and asked me for my address. You would think it wouldn't take much to send a quick reply to someone with an address, but it sat on my to-do list for a long time. In fact, it took me so long that he must have sourced my address from somewhere else, because a package arrived in my mailbox without me ever getting back to him. Sorry about that. I am horrible about my e-mail, especially when I am in the throes of trying not to fail one of my classes. I don't even know what I will do with my life if I am fortunate enough to complete all of my courses and get my degree. Where will the perpetual sense of impending doom that drives my life come from? I'll probably have to take up a risky hobby or borrow some money from a gangster or something.

Anyway, there was a lot of good stuff in this trade package. I'll kick it right off with a hobby heavy hitter in the form of Ken Griffey Jr. There are a couple of good inserts from this year's Topps set, a Spring Fever card which I believe is from 2013, and a Topps Gallery card from several years ago. The Spring Fever card is probably my favorite out of the four, but that 50 Years of the Draft card is pretty good, too.

Also included were nine loose Houston Rockets basketball cards from various sets in the 90's. These are all guys who I was very familiar with during Phase I of my card collecting life, as for me it was nearly all Rockets all the time. I need to go through my Rockets team box at some point and see what all I still have.

Up next are a couple of star pitchers in the form of Felix Hernandez and Nolan Ryan. The Nolan Ryan card appears to be an oddball issue involving Coca-Cola, which is pretty cool. My Nolan Ryan collection is not that expansive, so these cards are definitely new additions to my card boxes.

The Lost Collector also added to my Manute Bol collection, my Jose Bautista PC, and sent a Sport-Flix card featuring an old-school Denver Broncos uniform on it. I still like the Broncos, but those old uniforms were light years better than the current ones. Also, SPORT-FLIX!

Finally, there was this bagged group of Rockets cards from '93-'94 Upper Deck. I don't know much about how Upper Deck packaged their cards back then, so I am not sure if this is a standard team set or if it was a special distribution or oddball issue of some kind.

That was quite a group of cards, probably more than I deserved for ignoring e-mails and sending just a couple of cards the other way. Thanks for the trade!

What eBay Hath Wrought 49: Manute Bol 2010-11 Panini Elite Black Box Signatures

Here is a card I have been chasing for quite a while. Earlier this year I got a Manute Bol relic card, but his signature has been somewhat elusive. This is a sticker autograph, but Panini layered the card in such a way that the sticker forms the middle layer and isn't just a big ugly spot slapped on the front of the card. I don't really mind sticker autos as long as they are integrated well into the design of the card. The ones I take issue with are the stickers just slapped willy-nilly on the card, with no regard for alignment or aesthetics. Bol died in 2010 and given that this is a 2010-11 product, he may have already been gone when this card came to market. That is another reason I don't mind the sticker. 

The back of this card features the serial number, which in this case is # 05 / 49. It came to me all the way from Australia by way of eBay. I guess if I want to build the Manute Bol trifecta, all I am missing is his 1986-87 Fleer Rookie Card. I am rather partial to that set anyway as it contains the Rookie Card of my favorite player of all time, Hakeem Olajuwon (and some guy named Michael Jordan). I may try to track down a copy of Bol's card.

UPDATED 07 JAN 2014 What eBay Hath Wrought 32: Wait a Manute! (also starring Little Gheorghe?)

I've been wanting a relic card and a certified autograph card from Manute Bol for a while, but the ones from Panini Flawless that were on the market generally fall well outside my price range. Bol died in 2010 of complications from a disease he likely contracted while performing humanitarian work in his native Sudan. I tend to gravitate toward players who stand out somehow from the crowd, and Bol matches that profile by tying with Gheorghe Muresan as the tallest players to play in the NBA. I also enjoy collecting cards of two of the shortest players to play in the NBA, Muggsy Bogues and Spud Webb.

I've pursued a number of his relic cards that have popped up over the last few months, but recently I found this one with a Buy It Now price of under $5. There is another version of this card that is serially-numbered and goes for quite a bit more, but I figured this one would be good enough to get me started. I would really like to get an autographed card to go with it. Bol has a few cards out there, but they don't seem to pop up all that often.

I found this photo of my two favorite players while looking up information for this post. It doesn't have much to do with the Bol card aside from featuring Gheorghe Muresan, who is regarded as being slightly taller than Bol. To put this in perspective, Olajuwon, who looks to be getting his shop blocked by Muresan in this photo, is 7 feet tall. Muresan is a big dude.

07 JAN 2014 Update: I did actually get a Gheorghe Muresan card in the mail the other day. As the co-tallest NBA player ever, he fits perfectly here in this post. It is not a relic card, but it is relatively low-numbered, at # 096 / 100. I don't really know anything about basketball sets past 1998 or so, so I have no clue really how 2009-2010 Playoff Contenders fits into the grand scheme of basketball cards, but this Legendary Contenders insert card is a part of it. Can't say a whole lot for the design, but it is one more notch in the player collection. It might be my first serially-numbered Muresan card, although I do have a couple of autographs which I would categorize as a higher tier of card than something merely numbered, at least until you get way down to the # / 5 and 1 / 1 cards, again depending on the player involved. Any 'legend' in a respective sport should always have an autograph trump a serially-numbered or shiny card.

I'm not necessarily sure that the Bullets made the playoffs while Muresan played for them. If they did it wasn't a very memorable run. It makes him an odd choice for inclusion in a Legendary Contenders set within a product called Playoff Contenders.

What eBay Hath Wrought 5: Variations

One thing I've found I like is variation cards. They're fun, and they're rare. I especially like this Spud Webb variation from 2013 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions. It doesn't just feature Spud Webb; Muggsy Bogues makes an appearance too! Both players were famous for making their way in the NBA despite their height. Webb is 5' 7" and Bogues is 5' 3". The variation cards in the set are expanded horizontal versions of the regular base cards, as you can see from the base card below. I was never much good at basketball, but guys like these two showed that you didn't have to be well over 6' tall to be successful at the pro level.

This is one of the more famous photos of Muggsy Bogues, in which he is standing next to the tallest NBA player, Manute Bol, who was 7' 7". Unfortunately, Bol died in June 2010 due to an aggressive skin condition. After his basketball career, he was famous for using his wealth and NBA name recognition to help the people of his native Sudan. He is tied with my 2nd-favorite player, Romanian Gheorghe Muresan, for the record of tallest NBA player. I may just start a Manute Bol player collection. It probably wouldn't take much to collect most of his mainstream issues.

Here is another variation, a 2012 Topps Update David Wright card. But I didn't get it for David Wright, I got it for the guy standing next to him, R.A. Dickey. It's a pretty good card of a couple of teammates enjoying the All-Star game, and it came a lot cheaper than the $20-$25 folks on eBay are asking for Dickey's 2013 Opening Day press conference variation card.



These are a couple of good additions to my player collections, and they're a lot of fun to collect. Variations are a good way for the card companies to make the base cards more interesting, although I like base cards plenty anyway. Contrary to what the internet would have you believe, the base cards are more than just a vehicle for delivering hits.