It's Tebow Time with Leaf Live

Topps NOW is probably the most successful of the card companies' print-to-demand programs, but they aren't the only game in town. Panini's Instant program covers NASCAR, NBA, NFL, USA Basketball (and maybe soccer?), with a heavy focus on offering a selection of parallels for each card released.

Leaf Live is the other player in the game, casting a wider net than the other companies when it comes to subject matter. Their controversial first card commemorated actor Gene Wilder upon his death, and other subjects to appear on the Leaf cards include Harambe (the gorilla who was killed by authorities at the Cincinnati Zoo after a child fell into his enclosure) internet fame, the U.S. Presidential campaign debates (Topps had a whole series of NOW cards devoted to the campaign, as well as a Garbage Pail Kids parody covering the same topic), John Cusack's Cubs fandom, and a rookie-centric assortment of baseball and football cards.

The Leaf Live cards are offered for a week-long period before orders are shut off. I know they are posted on the Leaf eBay account, but I am not certain if they are offered through any other venue. I resisted buying into the program, I guess because the subject matter didn't appeal to me and I suppose I am kind of a hobby elitist, looking down on Leaf for not being a major licensed card manufacturer. But they reeled me in with this card depicting Tim Tebow's journey in the New York Mets' minor league system.

Tebow hasn't been all that great as a baseball player, but he has done all right for someone who is just starting out in the minors after a long break from baseball. Regardless of his performance on the diamond, I am a Tim Tebow fan and I was excited to get a card featuring him as a baseball player. He seems like a genuine good guy, and I respect that about him. The print run on this card was announced at 182 copies. One of those is mine. There's a spot at the top where it looks like the printer malfunctioned or the ink smudged, but I am not too worried about that. I didn't buy this card as an investment.

At the Trade Deadline 42: An Awesome Trade Package from Lonestarr

I recently got a massive trade package from blogger Lonestarr / Twitch. It touched on nearly every part of my collection. I scanned quite a bit of it for this post, but there was plenty more. I just couldn't scan any longer.

I don't have many Elway cards, and this SPx Gold card is a great addition to my collection. I remember that the Hakeem Olajuwon SPx Gold from this set's basketball equivalent was one of the prizes of my collection in my teen years. Hologram, die-cut, and foil on thick card stock? Yes, please!

This package may have nearly doubled my Peyton Manning collection. It certainly was a big boost to the number of Manning cards I have showing him in a Broncos uniform. I've heard rumors that Peyton will officially announce his retirement soon. I guess we'll see what happens. That whole business with the sexual harassment allegations from his college days is pretty disappointing. Without any context outside of working in male-exclusive jobs for a large portion of my life I imagine he tried to pull some sort of prank that went over the line, and instead of owning his actions he denied them and went on the attack. Probably a sincere apology and an admission of wrongdoing 20 years ago would have cleared the whole business up.

There were plenty of other Broncos in the package. That Terrell Davis is probably my favorite of this bunch, although it is hard to deny the power of Tim Tebow. I wore my Tebow jersey just the other day. Apparently there was a poll recently in which respondents were asked who their favorite and least favorite NFL quarterbacks were. Tim Tebow appeared in the top handful of both lists (5th-most popular, 2nd-least popular), despite the fact that he hasn't played in a regular season NFL game for a few years.

Switching sports to basketball, several Houston Rockets cards were included in the package, highlighted by a couple of appearances by my favorite player of all time, Hakeem Olajuwon. I also liked that Panini Black Friday Dwight Howard card, although Dwight Howard himself has been pretty underwhelming as a Rocket. I have to wonder how long it will be before he and James Harden get run out of town and the Rockets enter another rebuilding phase without really living up to their potential? It's almost like a repeat of the Yao Ming / Tracy McGrady days, although their problems had more to do with injuries than with attitude. I don't know why that Earl Boykins cards has rounded corners. It must be a parallel that I am not aware of.

There were two other cards in this Astros scan, but I cropped them out when I discovered a big hair on the scan in front of one of them. It was a sweet card, but I was so done with the scanner by that time. I like that Bill Virdon card. I pulled an autograph of his out of a box of Heritage in 2014. For whatever reason that makes him stick in my head. I'm not about to run out and start a Bill Virdon PC, but I'm at least two cards into one now. I love those rainbow-colored uniforms. Sometimes I think I might be part unicorn or part leprechaun or something.

There were plenty of Astros from all eras in this package. I think I've mentioned at least six times that I didn't scan them all. I DIDN'T SCAN ALL THE CARDS IN THIS PACKAGE! There were a lot of cards. If I were a rapper I would be bragging about all of my phat stacks (of cards). But I'm not a rapper. When I try to sing or rap my wife tells me, "No!" and mists me with a spray bottle.

That Nolan Ryan / J.R. Richard card is one of the cooler cards in the package. It's an Astros card, but it's also a Nolan Ryan card, but from a time when he wasn't an Astro. And now the Astros are in the A.L. so this card wouldn't even be possible anymore unless they started making AL West Leaders cards. At that point Topps would have jumped the shark. Can you imagine Division Leader cards for all of the different divisions? That would be ridiculous.

The Astros probably got the least freaky of the 1995 Fleer card designs. Things don't get all that trippy until you're below the waistline and the colors go weird, which I guess is kind of a metaphor for life.

I like those framed Gypsy Queen parallels. That's one of the few things I like about the Gypsy Queen brand. I guess I'm a Ginter man if it comes down to faux-old-timey vintage brands. I like that Lance Berkman Soaring Stars card. It's like he's defending the Earth from Randy Johnson-thrown meteors with a cosmic bat or something.

Now we're getting to the hits portion of this trade package. Those two cards on the top are serially-numbered. Nolan Ryan is # / 250 and Tony Scheffler is # / 200. Olajuwon is die-cut, Prizmed, and # / 199. Also he is wearing those cool goggles that he sported for a while. He tried, but he couldn't rock the goggles as well as Horace Grant did. If there were a Mt. Rushmore of eyewear it would definitely have Horace Grant and Kent Tekulve on it. Who else would be on it? That Aaron West autograph is pretty cool, too. When I see the name Aaron it makes me think of that Key & Peele Substitute Teacher skit.

These relics are all pretty cool. I believe that Lancaster JetHawks Mascot Patch is my first manu-patch relic. Some of my readers might be impressed that I have remained untainted this long, while others wonder why I didn't get on the manu-patch train a long time ago. My one stalker might comb feverishly through my posts to find out if this really is my first manu-patch card. I know for sure that the J.R. Towles card in the upper right contains my first game-used base relic. The other relics are your more standard swatches of fabric, but the Rod Smith is # / 750 and the other card contains the previously-mentioned Tracy McGrady's pants or something. It's not a breathable enough material to be a jersey.

Closing things out are some non-sports items in the form of sketch cards featuring some of my favorite comic book characters. I believe the She-Hulk sketch was done by Lonestarr / Twitch himself, while the Wonder Woman sketch was done by Colby Zigler. I haven't been able to add as many She-Hulk and Wonder Woman sketches to my collection as I'd like, so these were a welcome addition to my sketch card binder. (I wish I had a sketch card binder. I actually don't. I have a vague idea of which sketches I have and sometimes I can find them in among the other cards in boxes and the piles of cards on my desk.

Closing things out is a sketch of Power Girl reminding all the fanboys out there that Cosplay does not equal Consent. That's a big deal with cosplayers and models, both online and at convention or promotional appearances. Sketch artist Cesar Feliciano has illustrated what might happen if one of these rude folks mistook Power Girl for a cosplay model.

This was an awesome package from top to bottom, and I was super-stoked to flip through all of it. I wasn't super-stoked to scan all of it, but I scanned many of the best parts. The rest of the stuff you'll just have to wonder about. It was all pretty cool, with plenty of touches personally-tailored to my collecting habits. Thank you!

At the Trade Deadline 28: Christmas Cards from Too Many Verlanders

I call this a trade post, but in reality it was more of a gift. Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders sent out a whole pile of packages in something he called Too Many Christmas Cards. A giant bubble mailer arrived in my mailbox with stacks and stacks of cards packed inside. I chose a few of my favorites to show off here. This first group features some recent Denver Broncos, including Von Miller, Demaryius Thomas, Montee Ball and Tom Brady's former man-crush, Wes Welker. Of course, now that they've had some time to see other people, Brady isn't feeling too much pain. I'm rooting against the whole Super Bowl this year. I hope no one wins. Or maybe Katy Perry could win the Super Bowl. That would be okay.

These cards came from what was probably my favorite stack of cards in the package. There was another stack in close contention, but someone in the postal service used the other stack as a bludgeon (I'm guessing to knock out a mugger or a rapist) and left a big ding on the corner of every card in that pile. I hope the brave letter carrier received a civic award for valor. Shannon Sharpe was my favorite Bronco of that era, and Elway wasn't half-bad himself. That Terrell Davis Hidden Gems Refractor is the 2nd-coolest card in the package. I love looking at it. While Tim Tebow may not actually have been a Complete Player, he was the face of a very exciting run by the Broncos. Although everyone knows that strong defense, clutch kicking and a lot of luck were the true heroes of that season, Tebow made for a much better story line. And he does a buttload of charity work that really brings a lot of good to the world.

In spite of questionable card design, that Nolan Ryan is a pretty good picture of one great pitcher. You have to love a guy who can intimidate so well while wearing a flippin' rainbow. I thought I had all of the 2013 Mascot cards from Topps Opening Day, but that Orbit card looks unfamiliar. Maybe his wooden gaze is just confusing me.

I loved drafting Michael Bourn in my fantasy baseball leagues for a few years, and he always sunk my teams. He's not a bad player, but I drafted his stolen bases too early and forgot that he wouldn't be providing any Home Runs or RBIs, and power is expensive in fantasy baseball. Speed is always available on the waiver wire.

Finishing up this group is a nice 'grip' card of R.A. Dickey, my current favorite player to collect. Unfortunately, the shine of his 2012 Cy Young season is long-gone and he is no longer featured in every set checklist. The Blue Jays' checklist slots are now mostly taken up by Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and maybe Marcus Stroman from time to time. With R.A. Dickey and Josh Reddick getting fewer cards lately and Press Pass going out of business on the NASCAR front I have been focusing more on my Jon Singleton player collection and some non-sport stuff. I've grabbed a few sketch cards, some comic and TV stuff, and some artist sketches lately that I think are pretty cool. I'm still looking forward to another season of baseball cards, though.

Here are a few Seattle-based players. I have to admit that having the Seahawks completely dismantle the Broncos last year in the Super Bowl kind of soured me on them a little bit, and I think they do a little too much talking (or not talking, in Marshawn Lynch's case), but I do like their colorful uniforms and I suppose I still root for them a bit. I still hope that everyone loses the Super Bowl. Michael 'Sticky Neck' Pineda makes the cut for an appearance here and so does a pretty cool picture of Jeff Clement with a ball in his glove.

And here is the card that kept Terrell Davis' Hidden Gems card from being the coolest card in the package. A Muggsy Bogues autograph! How can you not love this card? This is my second Bogues autograph, with the first having been purchased in the infancy of this blog.

This was a great gift, and I certainly owe Dennis plenty of Verlander and Michigan hits whenever they happen to fall to me. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have spent half of this post bagging on Tom Brady. Kind of a backward way to thank a guy for some cool cards, isn't it? In spite of the fact that I find it incredibly humorous to make fun of Tom Brady, I really enjoyed getting these cards in the mail. It is unfortunate that I took so long to post them, but the posts with the most scans seems to take the longest to write.

Thank you, Dennis!

Showing Off 2: Getting to a Second Card Show

One of the local shop owners hosts a card show a few times a year (probably quarterly, I don't know) at a hotel, with probably about 20 tables set up. I made it to the show in October, but wasn't able to make the last one for some reason. I vowed to go to this one, though, but I almost didn't make it. There was some failed communication between me and my wife regarding plans for the day, and so we wound up having a rather heated discussion about whether I would be going to the show. Of course, the argument wasn't really about the day's scheduling conflict, but in reality was more about both of us feeling a bit overworked and under-appreciated in our current roles. Once we started listening to each other and rooted out the underlying issue, we were able to work it out peacefully and I went to the card show.

I wandered around for a little while to check things out and decide whether I was even in the mood to look at cards. My first purchase was not the Randy Johnson card shown above, but I knew that if I led off with a basketball card no one would click through and read this post. My first purchase was a pack of 2013-14 Panini Crusade basketball. It was a waste of money. I didn't even bother scanning the cards from it, as thinking about the $13.00 I spent in the hopes of pulling something good just makes me feel bad. I need to put an electrode in my clothing that shocks the ever-lovin' out of me any time I think about buying basketball wax. The most notable thing about the pack was the incredible amount of powder all over the cards. The latest Panini Prizm baseball product also had this issue, with a ton of white powder coming out of packs and being stuck all over the cards. Panini says it is an organic press powder designed to make Prizm-technology cards stop double-feeding through the printing machines. I say it is a mess and I don't think I'll be buying more of their products until they find a better solution. I participated in a Prizm group break a little while ago, and those cards were also covered in powder.

After the powdery pack of cards, I continued my show tradition of paying too much for Hakeem Olajuwon cards. In this case it was a '96-'97 Topps Stadium Club Top Crop insert featuring Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal. It's a nice shiny card, but not really worth what I paid for it. At least the guy gave me 50% off the sticker price. One thing that really gets me was the sellers' reliance on 'book' prices, which may or may not be relevant. A couple of savvier guys were pulling up the recent sold eBay listings as justification for their prices, which I think is probably much closer to reality than whatever Beckett is printing.

Next I talked to a guy who was wearing a John Elway jersey and a Denver Broncos hat. We talked a little about the Broncos, and I asked him if he had any Shannon Sharpe cards. He didn't have any on the table, but he had a small box of them in his pile by the wall. I sorted through them and picked out 18 cards that jumped out at me. Was there a consistently better product in the late 90's than Collector's Choice? I don't think so.

I held back a little because I hadn't brought a lot of cash with me, but when I handed him the stack of cards I had chosen he told me he'd let them go for $2. Well heck, of course I'll take them for $2. I should have grabbed a lot more of them. Although Sharpe is probably my favorite Bronco of all-time, I don't have a lot of his cards. In high school I was all about the basketball cards, and I didn't accumulate much football or baseball stuff at all. This little stack of cards makes a pretty good start to a Sharpe player collection. There were one or two cool cards picturing him as a Raven, but I am not ready to cross that bridge.

Because he had made such a low offer to me for the Sharpe lot, I decided to also pick up this Tim Tebow Rookie Card from him, which is a photo variation of some kind. His career never really took off, but he had that crazy run in 2011 that was hugely exciting for me as a Bronco fan. I'll probably always have a bit of a soft spot for Tebow and his cards because of that.

After purchasing the Tebow and Sharpe cards I grabbed that Randy Johnson Upper Deck card at the top of the post from a table across the aisle. Could I have gotten it cheaper at some point in my collecting career? Probably, but now I have it and I don't have to worry about it. At least I didn't buy the graded copy I saw with a $60 price tag on it.

As I headed for the exit I had $5 left in my pocket, and I saw a guy set up with a ton of vintage stuff. He had a box showcasing low-grade vintage stars at 80-95% off book. I thought I might have a look at that. The first card that caught my eye was that one up at the top, with Goose Gossage and Rollie Fingers on the front. It's too bad Gossage hadn't grown his handlebar out yet, or that card would probably take over the world. Nolan Ryan and Tom Seaver on a card together? I'll take it. I'll even take Nolan Ryan and J.R. Richard on a card together. There was another card with them together on it, but it would have taken me over $5, so I had to put it back.

Here is another bunch of cards from that box. You can see especially in this scan that these cards were in rough shape. But I got a Killebrew In Action card and a psychadelic bat barrel shot. A PSA 10 graded copy of that psychadelic 1972 card sold for $1235 on eBay, and I got my well-loved copy for less than a dollar. A similarly-graded In Action Killebrew card went for $400 on eBay. I may never get my $0.83 back from these cards, but I have probably already got my money's worth in intangible benefits from owning the cards. I like that Rollie Fingers card in the middle, too. This year's Archives set has sparked my interest in the 1973 set design, so all you old curmudgeons who dislike Archives can at least take solace in the fact that it has driven some collectors into taking a closer look at the vintage sets you love so much. I had to put back a couple of other Fingers cards and a very miscut 1975 Harmon Killebrew card, but I imagine most of that guy's cards will be there at the next show. It would be kind of fun to put together a vintage set, even a low-grade one. I am not sure which one I would try for, though. Right now it would probably be a toss-up between 1973 and 1975. That is something I may have to look into in the near future.

After handing over my $5 bill I headed for the exit and went home. My stack of cards wasn't very big, but I feel like I did all right. There were a couple of cards I had to leave behind because I wasn't on the market for high-dollar stuff, and I really wish I had spent the $13 from that pack of basketball cards on something else, but overall I feel okay about the experience.

At the Trade Deadline 15: Sportscards From The Dollar Store

I completed a trade with Sportscards From The Dollar Store. Actually, as of my typing this out on the 19th of January, he has completed the trade. I have been unable to get to the post office during business hours so that I can send his package to the Great White North. The big hits here were some cards from Topps Archives, both 2012 and 2013, especially the Ken Griffey Jr. 1972 Basketball design from 2013 Archives. He also included a Nolan Ryan Colgan's Chips insert from 2013 Panini Cooperstown. In researching it, I found that Ryan has two different Chips in the set, one smiling and one scowling. I wonder if they line up well enough that you could make a .gif of them switching back and forth between Happy Nolan and Mad Nolan?

Next up are a couple of cards of a quarterback with as many playoff victories as Tony Romo. That's right, Tim Tebow. I enjoy reminding the Cowboys fan at my office about that little nugget there. I hope that Romo never wins another playoff game so I can always have that little bit of trivia at my disposal. I can't say that I like the Jets or the Patriots at all, but Tebow did spend some time at each of those places. He may not be a great quarterback and his constant preaching might get a little bothersome, but that stretch of games he started for Denver was a pretty exciting time. I hope he does well in his new job as a college football analyst.

The package included a number of Mariners old and new. Is it just me, or is Alvin Davis wielding a comically large bat?

The football cards included a number of Denver Broncos, who you may have heard are going to be in this year's Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks. I like both teams, but I was a Denver fan about a dozen years before I started liking the Seahawks, so I hope Denver can find a way to win it this year. I hope Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson have a good game, and I hope that Richard Sherman gets burned on whatever happens to be the key play of the game. His post-game antics after the victory over the 49ers were ridiculous.

Ryan Clady played his college ball for the local Broncos of Boise State University. I am not a BSU fan, although I do have a couple semesters worth of credits at that institution. My loyalties lie with the miserable Vandals of the University of Idaho, so I just pretend the college football season doesn't exist. Knowshon Moreno has had quite a year this year, and Champ Bailey is one of the great long-term Broncos. Jay Cutler probably gets a worse rap than he deserves, but the guy's face just always looks surly and petulant. You can't help but feel like he's a whiner. 

A batch of Houston Rockets added to my collection of cards from my original favorite sports franchise. Tracy McGrady had a lot of promise, but it seemed like the Rockets could never really put everything together in the years that he and Yao Ming anchored the team, and then injuries put an end to that pairing altogether. That Olajuwon in the top row is new to me. I heard a lot of trade rumors surrounding Omer Asik a while back, but it seems like he might stick around. Otis Thorpe was a key member of the Rockets' first Championship team, and Sam Cassell was one of the more visible members of the team during both Championship runs. He also won a title with Boston in 2008, thirteen years after playing on the 1995 Rockets. That's a long spread between titles. I wonder if anyone else has ever won a second title with such a long span in between?

This Team Leaders card gains the honorary vintage title as it is probably the oldest basketball card I own.

The common theme shared by these hockey cards is facial hair. There are a lot of mustaches on display, and one particularly thick beard. I have to admit that I don't know much at all about hockey. I just never got hooked into it like I did the other sports. The cards are visually interesting, though.

I really appreciate the trade. I have a return package all ready to go, and I plan to hit the post office soon to send it.