These Cards Are To Dye For

Back in April, I got a package from Colbey with my plunder from one of his "Affordable Group Breaks."  It had a bunch of Pacific Online, Pacific Paramount, and Topps Gold Label cards for the KC Royals.  He also threw in some extras for some stuff I had sent him.  These were a lot better than the usual throw-ins, though.

The first one was a 2001 SP Game Bat - Milestone Edition Auto/Relic of Jermaine Dye.  It had a LITTLE sliver of bat in it with a "KC" imprint, plus an auto.

2001 SP Game Bat - Auto Relic - Jermaine Dye - #S-JDy

The second one was another Jermaine Dye -- with more tiny stuff in it!  This one had two parts of a base. 

This one was a "Home Opener Souvenir" from the game on April 6, 2001 with two chunks of memorabilia -- one smooth and one textured.  There's a picture of the base!  That's way better than the current Topps disclaimer..."This memorabilia was not used in any specific game, event, competition, play, day, zoo, restaurant, bathroom, or submarine."  I think it goes like that.  Oh yeah, it was #'d /200.

So that's some good stuff, eh?  Thanks a bunch, Colbey!

Just Call Me "Josh Sr."

Right before the Super Bowl, Colbey at Cardboard Collections ran a Football Group Break.  That's something we don't see around here too often, so I had to jump in.  There's just one problem, I don't have one team that I root for, that is "MY team" like I have in baseball.  This is the result of growing up in a state with no NFL team and a father who was into college football way more than pro ball. 

Anyway, so I had to pick teams.  I decided I would try to get a Tebow (and grabbed the Broncos) or a Peyton Manning (and grabbed the Colts). 

No Tebow, but got 3 Peytons!  Here were my two favorites.

Peyton Manning

Here were my top picks among the other cards.  Got an Andrew Luck Score rookie, and a very sharp-looking Eric Decker.

It was a buy-one-get-one random team setup.  My random teams were the Falcons and Lions (not too shabby).  I got lucky and picked up a Lions hit.  Mr. Titus Young.

Or should I say "Titus Young Sr."  Why would I say that?  The guy is only 23.  "Sr." gets affixed to your name when you are in your 40's at the earliest, right?

Nope, Titus cared enough about naming his son Titus that he had the "Sr." put on his jersey last season. 

It's spreading!  Mikel Leshoure was doing it, too.  Oh, Detroit.

I doubt we'll be seeing much more of Titus Young now that his name is mostly seen in headlines like:
TITUS YOUNG SUCKER PUNCHES TEAMMATE and TITUS YOUNG RUNS WRONG ROUTES ON PURPOSE.  He doesn't get the privilege and opportunity that he could have had.  The Lions cut him after the season, he was picked up by the Rams, and then cut by them after nine days.  Have fun in the Arena League, Titus.  It's too bad....that's an awfully pretty card and blue swatch.

With that, my first football group break post is done.  Thanks to Colbey Hopper Sr. for making it happen!

Look Out, Ruben Sierra!

Look out, Ruben!  Things are getting bad -- Giant eagles are attacking from the sky!  They are dropping huge class rings on people to capture their prey!  (I think these eagles are working for Jostens). 

Eric Hosmer has the good sense to run for cover.  Though he is encased in a bronze paper frame, he has eluded the rings and eagles so far. 

Billy Butler and David DeJesus have an alternate plan.   They are going to bash the ringed-eagles out of the sky with large sticks of wood.

They can't  hold them off with the bats for long.  Little to no assistance is coming to them from the outside.  Only one person can save them now -- the fireman!  USE YOUR HOSE OF POWER!!!

Oh no!  Something has gone horribly wrong!  The eagles have warped Montgomery's mind!  He has turned into some sort of fireball-throwing maniac. Mankind is DOOOOOOOOMED!

As he watches the apocalypse, Alex Gordon wishes he was back in Nebraska.

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If any of you have survived to read this, you will be happy to know that all these cards came from Colbey at Cardboard Collections.  Some were part of his Stadium Club Monster Group Break (Ruben got randomed to me), and others were some extras that he threw my way.  Thanks so much, Colbey!

Also, if anyone else has any of those other Ginter State Cards (particularly John Buck (WY), Brian Bannister (AZ), or Casey Blake (IA)) to trade, I'd love to have them. 

Billy Butler is in my Cardboard Collection

2012 Allen and Ginter Relic - Billy Butler - AGR-BBU

A 1-for-1 trade can be a beautiful thing.  Look at the card above from Colbey at Cardboard Collections.  I had a Gypsy Queen relic of Brian McCann that I sent his way, and this guy came my way.  Everybody's happy! :-)

Thanks again, Colbey!

Yo! Colbey Raps!

Well....I don't know if Colbey raps (though he seems like the type!), but the cards he sent me sure do.  He recently sent me a lovely yellow envelope full of good stuff in response to some Charlotte Hornets/Bobcats that I sent his way. 

Regarding 1999 Skybox Thunder -- it is one of my card-collecting guilty pleasures. :-) I will take any of this that people want to get rid of!!  In case you didn't know, some white boyz were writing the backs of the cards for this set, and did a (wonderfully?) horrible job making raps

 Throw your hands in the air,

And wave 'em from here to there

You're bringin' life back to the K.C. scene

With talent that's mean and lean

Eh.  I guess that's no SO bad for Beltran.

1999 Skybox Thunder - #268 - Carlos Beltran

You're the King of the Royals,

And you've got all power.

K.C. is your kingdom,

And you're rulin' like no other.

Yes, really.  That's what they came up with for Jeff King.  Luckily, this one was a "RAVE" parallel, and it was #'d /150.  I missed that the first 3 times I looked at this card.  Only when I was entering it into Zistle did I notice the difference.   

1999 Skybox Thunder Rave - #43 - Jeff King

Man, you tore it up in the minors last year.

Now, you got your eyes on the bigs for '99.

And you've got that Rookie of the Year award on your mind.

1999 Skybox Thunder - #6U - Jeremy Giambi

What the heck was that rap!!!???  I love the "Wheaties" vibe on this one...at the bottom instead of the package size it says "Net WT 185 LBS (83.9 kg) NET HT 6'0."

He gave me these goodies, too. 

Thanks a bunch, Colbey!

Christmas Card(board) - Name's The Same

Colbey over at Cardboard Collections sent me a Christmas card!

  

(What's that you say?  Christmas was 2 weeks ago?  Well...I'm a little behind.)

 

1996 Leaf Signature Series - #138 - Keith Lockhart

That was a very nice gesture -- He tossed this little beauty in there.  This is an on-card auto of Keith Lockhart from the 1996 Leaf Signature Series.  COMC says this was out of 3500(!).  Poor Keith -- his signing hand must have been so tired.  I guess that's not as bad as Marshall Faulk signing all those cards for the Madden game -- that took him months!  But I digress...

I had actually forgotten that Keith Lockhart had played for the Royals.  I remembered him as a Brave. He was mostly an IF platoon guy during his time in KC.

This brings up another thing -- famous people with the same name.  There's lots of them!  Both within sports and sports/non-sports combos.  Baseball Keith Lockhart is not even the #1 Keith Lockhart google result.  It's this guy:

Smug Keith Lockhart

This Keith Lockhart is the conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra.  If you grew up with only 5 TV channels like I did, you inevitably came across PBS showing the Boston Pops on the 4th of July and this guy was front-and-center.  It takes a certain amount of compulsiveness to be a professional orchestra conductor -- worrying about little details that most of your audience doesn't understand or won't notice.  That's gotta wear on a guy.  That and wearing cummerbunds every day... :-)

Do any of you guys remember EITHER of these Keith Lockharts?

Shiny Parallels and their Non-Shiny Brethren

I never expected to use the word "Brethren" in this blog, but look in the title -- there it is!

I have to show off some brethren cards that I got in Colbey's most recent group break (check out Cardboard Collections for good cheap group breaks on a regular basis).  KC was the big winner on parallels in this break (several Pinnacle products).  The checklists for each team were not super-deep, so I was able to get the base cards for them, too.

These are all 1995 Pinnacle Summit.  The base cards are on top, while the "N-th Degree" parallels are below.  They are pretty shiny, as the scan indicates. 

1995 Pinnacle Summit #120 Joe Vitiello, #121 Jon Nunnally, and #139 Joe Randa

These guys were from the 1996 Pinnacle Aficionado box that Colbey opened, too.  These cards are really neat in that the faces on the right are a dot-picture (like you would see in the Wall-Street Journal), but the texture of them is such that the dots are raised above the level of the card stock so you can feel it as you run your fingers across it.

1996 Pinnacle Aficionado #65 Kevin Appier and #128 Johnny Damon

The final product that I wanted to show off featured a young (that is, short-haired) Johnny Damon and a young (that is, still thin) Sal Fasano.

1996 Summit #124 Johnny Damon and #169 Sal Fasano

I love discovering these less-prominent sets that I completely missed during my hiatus from card collecting.  Thanks for bringing them out into the open, Colbey.