20,000 Cards - Box 1, Layer 3

1)  Thank you for all of the interest in this series and comments on it!  These posts are taking a while to put together, so those give me some motivation to keep it going.  I have 2 more layers of Box 1 to post (including this one). 

2)  Please continue to note anything that you want, especially if you have any team/player requests for football or basketball.  I am starting to hit some of those cards and have nothing to do with most of them at this point.

That being said...here comes Box 1, Layer 3!

Starting Lineups continue to be well-represented in this first box.  16 more of them here.  I hope this guy still has all of these figurines on a shelf in his bedroom.  Maybe I will text him back and ask him?  :-)  Looks like he had a penchant for running backs...

There were a few Team USA women's Stadium Club cards:

President #39 Habitating for Humanity:

Baseball Randomness:
1) Cards with Kids
2) A nice Ichiro insert.  I suspect they developed this whole subset to give him another insert card.
3) That's not where the glove goes, Barry.
4)  Flair Giants Rookie...#'d.
5)  Another program for Night Owl
6)  Food Issue: Ritz/Oreo "Red" Derek Jeter
7)  This card is Swell!
8)  Glavine with rotational symmetry
9)  Young, Dodger-y Konerko

A few football cards of note:
1) This card is beautiful in person.  It's lenticular, die-cut, and heavy.  That's a keeper.
2) This Johnnie Morton has a VERY faint watermark irl, but the scanner makes it look like Morton is Hester Prynne.  1 of 499 (not SN#'d) -- It's from the 1996 Anaheim National.  Wish they would bring the show back out here! (side note:  "Devin Hester Prynne" might have to be my new Fantasy Football name if I decide to change from "Orange Julius Peppers.")
3)  Another scanner fail...this is a refractor-y Faulk.
4)  Hmmm.....what's this?  Looks OLD.  No date on the back.  Googling....  It's a 1969!  New record for the "vintagest" card so far, beating out 1981 Ron Cey by a full decade-plus.

Underneath the Roy Hilton, I pulled these three cards:

Huh??  What set is this?  These look old, too.  Must research...
Here's the backs.

So they are 1968s because of the copyright, right?  NOPE.
This set is called "1970 Fleer Laughlin World Series", as the artwork was done by Robert Laughlin originally for a self-published set in 1968, which he revised in color for Fleer to sell in 1970.  So Roy Hilton is still the elder statesman for this box.  Now I have three 1970s, too.  Those are for trade if anyone needs them.

Also in this box I picked up the last LEGO basketball card I needed, another Hawaii baseball player, a couple Barry Larkins and Cal Ripkens for folks who requested them, and a whole mess of 1990 Topps and other junk wax which I have spared you the agony of looking at.  For the aforementioned football and  basketball, I have big stacks of 1999-2000 Topps Basketball and 2001 Football (Fleer Focus, UD Legends).

Here's all the sets (with material memberships) that came in this 3rd level of the box -- 1,200 cards in this one!

Sport	Set	# of Cards
Basketball	1999-2000 Topps	88
Baseball	2004 Cracker Jack	55
Baseball	2004 Topps	42
Baseball	2002 Flair	37
Football	Misc. Football	31
Basketball	Misc. Basketball	29
Football	2001 Upper Deck NFL Legends	28
Football	2001 Fleer Focus Football	27
Baseball	1999 Upper Deck Century Legends	25
Baseball	1990 Upper Deck	24
Baseball	1989 Upper Deck	24
Multi-Sport	Starting Lineup	17
Baseball	2004 Donruss Classics	17
Basketball	1999-2000 Fleer Focus	17
Baseball	1998 Fleer Ultra	13
Baseball	2003 Fleer Showcase	13
Baseball	2002 Leaf Certified	13
Baseball	1994 Upper Deck	12
Baseball	1999 Fleer Metal Universe	12
Baseball	2003 Fleer Patchworks	10
Baseball	2000 Topps	10
Baseball	2003 Topps	9
Baseball	1999 Skybox Metal	9
Baseball	1998 Upper Deck Collector's Choice	7
Baseball	2002 Upper Deck 40-Man	7
Baseball	1999 Topps	6
Baseball	2003 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic	4
Baseball	Barry Larkin	3
Baseball	1998 Skybox Thunder	2
Baseball	2004 University of Hawaii - KKEA	1
Basketball	LEGO Sports	1
Baseball	Assorted Junk Wax	425
Baseball	Other	173

There are lots of sets where I am picking up 10 or 20 cards at a time...please peruse the list above if there is anything you want out of there.  Starting a 2002 Flair set collection?  2004 Cracker Jack?  Let me know!  :-)

Ton of Bricks - The Randoms

Last year, before I moved and before the new baby was born, I had a bomb dropped on me.  That bomb was the inaugural "Ton of Bricks" package sent out by Wes at Jaybarkerfan's Junk.  This was not one PWE.  This was not one bubble mailer.  This was a MEDIUM FLAT RATE BOX full of the best collecting stuff that I could possibly imagine.  I didn't have my scanner hooked-up yet, and knew that this Ton of Bricks would require a Ton of Posts about it.  Tonight, for the first time in 6 months, I've got my scanner running and knew I had to start this series.

Inside this box were 9 separate envelopes labeled as such:
1) "Some Randoms"
2) "Some Royals"
3) "Don't You Collect This Guy?"
4) "More Of The Guy I Think You Collect"
5) "Do You Know This Guy?"
6) "Now I'm Going To Toy With You"
7) "You May Want These"
8) "Do You Need This Card?"
9) "Hope This Is A Good Finish"

Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

I opened up the "Some Randoms" packet.  Minis....Ginter....Football...Politics...and one Padre (although not of the San Diego variety).  Here's a sampling of all the stuff he sent -- it was way too much to scan it all.

Some ships.

Some Presidents.

A mustache.

Governor Jack Markell -- he's still the current governor of Delaware.  This is my first Governor card.  I don't even have a Schwarzenegger yet!

 

America's Sweethearts.

 A couple of smarties.

Roller Derby????  Why.

I think more outfits should have epaulets.  Like pajamas and tank tops and stuff with epaulets.  Maybe find a way to put epaulets on pants.  I'd be for that.

Ski bunnies.  To the lodge!

 Politicianizer....

TEBOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!!!!  I still like him, even if his gig isn't on the field anymore.

And finally, the Padre:

JOCULARITY!!!!  I will count this as a boxing card.  Mulcahy had quite the tough jab.

 So, that's part 1 of 9.  It's gonna be a good ride.  JBF rocks.







 

Des Moines, Iowa Baseball Card Show

I was back home in Iowa in October to visit my parents and my little sister.  I knew I was going to be in Des Moines one weekend, so I just checked the Beckett Show Calendar to see if there were any card shows happening then.  It turns out that there was!  Here's what the listing said :

Urbandale American Legion Hall, 6805 Douglas Avenue, 8-3, 80T
Ryan Grother 515-491-8403 ryancardz@gmail.com

Based upon that, I was pretty stoked.  80 TABLES?!?  This thing is going to be massive!!!!  Well.........not so much. When I got there I counted 8 or 9 dealers (10% of the advertised amount).  I only had to go about 4 miles from my sister's house to this show, so it was no biggie for me, but if I'd made a longer trip based on that info I'd be pretty ticked.

However, this show DID redeem itself.  6 of the 8 dealers had either dime or quarter boxes to sift through, and I was able to find a bunch of "treasures" for myself.  Some of them were also willing to negotiate on bulk pricing on those dime/quarter cards, helping me to stretch my budget a little farther.  All-in-all, I came home with a 250-count box nearly full.  It was all cards I wanted for myself or for trades, and I think my total spending was under $30.

Here's a sampling of the stuff I picked up.

The greatest athlete to ever come out of Iowa State.

2007 Allen and Ginter - Cael Sanderson - #23

The last two "State" Royals that I needed from that Ginter Subset.  I am still looking for the Iowa card (Casey Blake) if anyone has that.

Three more MINDS.  Now I want to go do electro-magnetic experiments on a steamboat...

One guy there had a whole mess of Panini Americana.  He must have just busted a few boxes and was looking to dump cards.  He had Presidents with lovely facial hair:

A Married Couple (The Yale card will go in my wife's binder):

And some gentlemen with VERY unique leaping styles:

I always liked Barbara Bush.  She felt like "America's Grandma" to me.  She was the REAL Barbara Bush...not like that fake one.  :-)

Here were a few dime-box cards I grabbed for trade.  Do any of my Dodger-blogger friends need any of these?  The "Invincible" card is half-cardboard/half-plastic.  The Goodwins are minis.

After that I was just looking to pick up miscellaneous Royals cards.  Neither of these gents are with KC anymore, though. 

Some randoms....Bo Knows Archery!  Don Denkinger is the favorite umpire of all Royals fans everywhere. 

Finally, I grabbed a card off my "Most-Wanted" list for just 10 cents.  Justin Maxwell taking BP in the construction site.

2008 Upper Deck - Justin Maxwell - #326

Just think what I could have come back with from an 80-table show!  Probably 10 of each of those cards above....

I'm Thankful...

....that the elections are over. 

Especially the '88 election.

By which I mean the 1888 election.  (Sorry, Grover)

2008 Topps Campaign Matchups #1888

(this came to me via trade from Zistle User AAB in exchange for a few Vikings cards.)

SuperDuperTrade

I am once again WAY behind on trade posts.  These things tend to come in waves, plus I've been trying to spend more time with my little son and get to sleep at a reasonable hour.  That said, if you have sent me something in a trade....I'll get to it eventually.  :-)

Today's trade is from SuperDuperMan at the blog Fantastic Catch.

This card is Super.

This card is Duper.

This card is a Man.

 And these guys are playing a Fantastic game of Catch.

Obak at ya'

2011 Obak Football - Morten Andersen - Green Parallel - #/25

Contests.  I love 'em. 

I love entering them.
I love hosting them (keep an eye out for the return of the "BIG PILE" contest this fall).
I especially love WINNING them.  My online luck hasn't been great, but I have managed to win a few contests here and there...This is one of those stories.

Drew from Drew's Cards (naturally) had busted a box of 2011 Obak football, and was giving most of it away.  He split the box into 5 chunks and randomed each one off separately.  Not only did I win a chunk, I won THE CHUNK I WANTED -- "American Heroes and Best of the Rest."  Why did I want this piece?  Well...my main collections for football involve Kurt Warner and Kickers/Punters (see sidebar ----->), and this set netted me the Morten Andersen parallel above (#'d to 25), TWO Kurt Warners (regular and mini), and a Ray Guy.  Yep...that hits almost everything I like.  Too bad there wasn't a Tebow in this set.  :-)

2011 Obak Football - Kurt Warner Mini

2011 Obak  Football - Ray Guy

This was a set focusing more on the history of the game rather than current players.  Here's a sampling of the other stuff I got.

Running Backs with great nicknames and huge shoulder pads.  I remember learning how to do the "Ickey Shuffle" when I was little.  Man I was a cool kid.

A few modern guys.  Dennis Byrd is the "Rise and Walk" player.  They thought he would be paralyzed after a freak spinal injury, but he overcame that to walk again.

Quick question...which linemen would you rather face? 

These guys?

Or these guys?

Yes...those are US Presidents...but they all played football in college (and/or the big screen).


So thanks again, Drew, for the awesome contest.  These will all find a great place in my collection.