John Soukup Hits Me With One of the Coolest Surprise Packages Ever!

Early last week I showed off a Princess Leia sketch card by John Soukup that I had purchased from the artist himself on eBay. In addition to posting about the card here, I sent him a message to say thanks and let him know that I am a fan of his work. I try to do that when I get convention sketches done or when I acquire sketch cards that I enjoy, so the artist knows I appreciate the work they put into what they do. He responded to my message and thanked me for my support. Then a few days later a box showed up on my doorstep with his return address on it, full of fun stuff. First is the non-card stuff.

In Soviet Russia, arts patronize you!

That plush Yoda over there on the left says a few phrases from the Star Wars films. I tried to hold on to the A-Team Van Hot Wheels car for myself, but my kids whined and cried so much that I finally gave in and gave them all three cars. Maybe when they get tired of them I will steal it back. The book on the bottom is a music magazine featuring his art on the cover and an interview with more art inside.

He does seem to have an interest in sports and sports cards, so he included a variety of things to hit my player collections, as well as a couple of notable cards that I am saving for the end of the post. First up are three Gheorghe Muresan cards for my 2nd-largest basketball player collection. That '95-'96 Fleer Metal set is something else, especially in-hand. I could look at cards from that set all day. Across the bottom are some cards from Seattle-based teams. I really don't know how to feel about Russell Wilson, Marshawn Lynch, and the rest of the Seahawks. I want to like them and cheer for them, but there is something going on with them that makes me uncomfortable. I haven't thought really hard about it though, so I can't be any more specific than that.

For the prospecting side of things he added a Bowman Chrome autograph of Tyler Pike, who is still pretty young and seems to be a popular mention whenever someone writes an article about the Mariners' next group of rising stars. I guess we'll see how he turns out.

And here is where the package really takes off. These are a couple of vintage cards with a bit of notoriety to their names. On the left is Pedro Borbon's 1970 Topps Rookie Card, and on the right is Billy Martin's 1972 Topps card. Since Borbon is more famous for what's on the back of his card, we'll start with Billy Martin. You'll notice that Martin is slyly extending the middle finger on his left hand, flipping the bird to the photographer or maybe someone in the background. Usually there is a joker on the team that is prone to this kind of stuff, but Martin was the team's Manager! Anyway, his gesture ensures that this card pops up on many of the internet's Top 10 lists for vulgar or silly trading cards. 

Pedro Borbon's card is famous because the back features a cartoon explaining that his hobby is cock fighting, which is legal in his country of origin, the Dominican Republic. It's not so legal here in the United States, though, which probably makes talking about it in the open like that kind of taboo. I guess it would be akin to printing a football card for Michael Vick announcing that his hobby is dog fighting. Borbon isn't someone I'd read up on until now, and his story is a pretty colorful tale. It seems that he had quite a penchant for getting into trouble and biting people and things.

There was some other cool stuff in the package, but those were the highlights. I could really tell that he went out of his way to select just the right mix of stuff for my collections and interests, and that personal touch to me is probably even more neat than physically getting all of this awesome swag. Make sure to check out his art page and also go look at these awesome Star Wars figure sets he's made (make sure to scroll down and see the Hoth set!). I know that he goes by the name Kettle sometimes, too, but I am not cool enough to know how street names/art names work. Maybe he uses 'John Soukup' for his commercial stuff and 'Kettle' for his more personal art. Either way, I am super excited by this surprise package and I will be seeking out more of his stuff soon!

Mambas, Saints, and Fish: Another Munnatawket Mini Post

I completed the base set of the Munnatawket Allen & Ginter custom mini set, but that doesn't mean I am done collecting the cards. There is an insert set out there called What Could've Been Had They Gone Another Way, featuring famous athletes in uniforms they could have worn if they had chosen another sport/not been traded/not retired. I grabbed this Kobe Bryant mini off of eBay fairly recently. I actually really really don't like Kobe, but what are you going to do when you've got to complete the set? I had been tracking the Tom Brady card, but it sold before I hit the Buy It Now so I went with the Bryant. This one is serially-numbered # 21 / 25.

There were a couple of extra cards in the package when it arrived, including something I hadn't seen before. This set apparently includes Framed Mini Autographs! Through some sorcery roddster has repurposed frames and inserted his own customs into them. This first one features the signature of Father Christmas himself.

Also included was this Billy the Marlin autograph. His penmanship is surprisingly good for a critter with flippers. There were also a couple of the regular-style mini autographs included in the package.

 Here's what I have from the insert set so far, so I've only got two more cards to go.

Here are the backs of the cards, showing off the checklist and the serial number stickers. This is a really neat custom set and it's full of little surprises, just like the Allen & Ginter sets put out by Topps.

What eBay Hath Wrought 119: More Munnatawket Ginter Minis!

Soon after the Nachos Grande blog posted about their existence, the creator of the Munnatawket Allen & Ginter mini set posted a group of the What Could've Been limited insert set on eBay. The set features various sports stars as if they had continued down different career paths, and it is limited to 25 sets overall. I placed bids on all of them, but when the dust settled I had only won one of the auctions, the Russell Wilson card featuring him as a member of the Texas Rangers, the baseball team that drafted him. The other card I really wanted from the set was Vladimir Guerrero, but either the auction went higher than my high price or I got distracted around the time it ended and forgot to check up on it. I am pretty happy with the Russell Wilson card, even though my Denver Broncos haven't yet found a way to crack that Seattle code. This particular example is # 22 / 25. The Munnatawket minis have been pretty quiet on eBay as of late, so I am not sure how many chances there will be to complete even the base set. Card # 0 has been especially elusive. I am still kicking myself for not taking that second chance offer a few months ago when I had the chance.

Then there is the matter of the base set. I am not sure how many cards are in the base set, although I thought I saw the number mentioned in a blog post somewhere (it happens to be the blog post I linked above, and there are 80 total cards in the set). Three additions to my collection were included in the package along with the card I won. I got a Tom Brady, although on this card he is featured in his more recognizable uniform. Also included were Roberto Clemente and Ryan Zimmerman, the other Washington Zimmerman(n).

And here are the backs. I always like getting cards from this set, as Ryan is very generous with the freebies and anticipating what will drop out of the envelope is almost as fun as getting the cards I've won at auction. I don't know that I will ever be able to assemble the full set, but I am going to get as close as I can. I tracked down the cards I do have, and it looks like I've got 15 out of the 80 cards purported to be on the checklist. So I'm nearly a fifth of the way there!