Gold Screws, Gold Borders, Gold Tebow

I have been doing almost all of my trading lately on the Trading Card Database.  With my limited time and trading inventory now, I've got to be a little more surgical in what I am giving and getting in any deal.  Ideally, I would dump stuff I didn't care about to get something I REALLY wanted.  That sort of deal recently presented itself with user hafengr.  He wanted around 100 base cards from 2013 Topps Football, and I had my eye on a Tim Tebow rookie card -- but not just any card, the GOLD parallel card.  Sure, there are 2,000 of these out there, but that didn't make any of them particularly cheap to get. 

I sent first, and nearly sent his cards to his local cemetery.  If someone's address is "48B Main Street", don't send his cards to "488 Main Street", OK?  Just don't.  Luckily my postman alerted me that 488 wasn't a valid address so I double-checked it at the PO counter and borrowed his Sharpie to fix it. Otherwise all my football cards would be sitting there amongst the headstones.

Once his side showed up, I though the envelope felt a little heavy for just one card (and wondered why he put it in a bubble mailer instead of a top-loader + PWE.  When I opened it, the item above dropped out.  Not only was it the gold-bordered parallel, but it was in a gold Screwdown holder with gold screws!  I have never seen a card so well-coordinated with it's surroundings.  I had no idea there were different colors available besides clear and black, but I gotta admit I like the look on it and will probably leave it in there for now until I have a good reason to pull it out of there.

Do any of you guys have any colored screw-down holders?  Pics or it didn't happen.  :-)

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.







 

TEBOW

Listia comes through with good stuff again.  This time it's a Tim Tebow XFractor...

2011 Topps Chrome Football - XFractor - Tim Tebow - #148

Jaybarker Fan's Junk Mega-Post

As you may have seen, I've posted more in the last 2 weeks than I did in the prior 2 months.  Part of that has been catching up on the ever-growing stack of incoming packages on my card shelf.  Usually that means dealing with one package-per-post, but I'm not gonna do that when I have FOUR packages from Wes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk.  If you aren't reading his blog yet....HOW have you missed out this long?  He's a super-generous dude here in the blogosphere and has run some fun card-drafts, too.  I gotta post my favorites in honor of all he's doing out there for the people.

So here we go....the first (annual)

 Jaybarker Fan's Junk MEGA POST

NUMBER ONE
First package was one of his PWE BOMBs. 

Teahen looks downright regal in this card from UD A Piece of History.  I think he should be on the $2 bill or something.

NUMBER TWO
The second package was from one of his card drafts.

 I used my first pick on this Jay Buhner relic.  Not really sure why, but it was neat.  :-)  Anyone want it?  It's for trade.

 

Next, I picked up a few vintage Royals.  I'd never heard of Billy Sorrell, but that didn't stop me from pulling the trigger.  One of the nice things about cheering for a team that has only been around since 1969 is that you don't have to get bogged-down with all the old players from before you were born.  Just think if you were a team collector of the Yankees or Cubs.  You'd have to be on the lookout for everything starting with the turn-o'-the-century.  Not my problem.  I can mostly stick with the '70s and up.

 

TEBOW!  I'm pretty sure JBF just threw this one into the draft pile since he knew I would jump on it.  Love me some Tebow.

Here's a few "Propaganda Posters" that I grabbed since I thought they looked cool.  Any David Wright or Ichiro collectors need these?  They're for trade.

Here's a Deion Branch that I grabbed for my buddy, Raj.  It's X-Fractory.

Finally from this package, as my last pick I was able to grab a Rafael Palmeiro Pepsi card.  On this one, Pepsi is claiming to be the "Flavor of Baseball."  Call me crazy, but I always thought that the flavor of baseball was "Leather and Cork."  I guess we'll agree to disagree on this one.

(Oh yeah, this card is slightly wider than a regular card, so it doesn't fit in a penny-sleeve or page.  It is destined to live in a top-loader forever.)

NUMBER THREE
The penultimate package was ANOTHER PWE BOMB.  

This one had two more sweet cards I needed.  A Score Traded Buckner, and the Alex Gordon Masterpieces card.

NUMBER FOUR
The last package is from the "Oddball Draft."  Hey, I'm an oddball.  I like math and wear glasses and goofy band T-shirts.  I guess that means I should participate.  Oh, it was Oddball CARDS?  I misunderstood....

Let me take a look at what JBF is offering here....and I'll do my shopping.

CARDS ON MY HISTORY WANTLIST?????  Yes, please.  26 left on that subset to go.

Royals parallels? Throw those in my cart.

 History MINIS.  Last year when Ginter came out, I decided to look up who LL Zamenhof was since I had no clue.  Turns out he invented the language Esperanto.  Nobody needs to know that, right?  Wrong.  That little piece of knowledge won me a match in my online trivia league last season.  Yes, I am in an online trivia league.  And it is glorious.

 I had no idea this set existed.  I would have chased it.  Jared Ingersoll was a lawyer and VP candidate who signed the Constitution as a representative of Pennsylvania.

Finally....this appears to be my first "modern" tennis card.  I had to unlock the Tennis section in Zistle for this.

And.......Scene.  That's it!  Thanks for all of it, JBF!

A Bronco, A Cardinal, and a Guy Named Mike

I made another Zistle trade with the SuperDuperMan from Fantastic Catch.  He and I traded just a few months ago, so it was fun to see that we already had enough for another trade.  The three best cards (in my opinion) that I got were these:

I'm always happy to get a Sweeney, and this is a very slick, horizontal design from SP.

My favorite subset from 2011 Topps Football was the Game Day insert set.  I'm slowly collecting those and Larry Fitzgerald escaping an Eagles tackle is a great shot.  Too bad his talents were being wasted down in Arizona last season.

TEEEEEEEEEEBOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW!!!!

This is Timmy T. on a 2011 Topps Rising Rookies card.  He looked GOOD in the Orange and Blue.  I think the missing Tebow storyline was a reason why this season has interested me less than 2011 did.

Thanks, SDM!  I'd recommend you all go out there and make a trade with him if you can.

It's Tebow Time!

I like Tim Tebow. 

(commence throwing of tomatoes)

Luckily, some people have no affinity for him, which makes it easier to get his cards.  All of these came to me from Wes at Jaybarkerfan's Junk.  I picked up the first one as my first pick in his "Card Draft #2" -- then he just threw in the rest of them!!!  All of these were new to me, so they were VERY much appreciated.  Thanks, Wes!

The first one is a Wal-Mart-exclusive parallel.  The rest are from 2010 Press Pass.

Sewing Machine Guy HOOKED ME UP - Football Style

Not the "REAL" Sewing Machine Guy....

Late last year I responded to the Want-List of the Sewing Machine Guy and sent him a Jason Castro along with a miscellaneous stack of Tigers, Lions, and Pistons.  I sent about 2-3 team bags worth of stuff to him.

So then I got a package back from him.  It was a BOX with six team bags worth coming back to me.  He hooked me UP!

It's too much stuff for one post, so I'm just posting the football here.  SMG paid very close attention to my want-lists (on the right ------->).

He started off by showing me some Kurt Warner love:

2006 Score, 2006 Topps, 2006 Heritage Kurt Warner

 Then TEEEEEEEEEEEEEBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!  That Topps Magic set is sweet.

2010 Upper Deck, 2010 Topps Magic, 2010 Topps 52 Insert Tim Tebow

A couple of Iowa State alums...

2008 Topps Sage Rosenfels #29 and 2007 Topps Seneca Wallace #40

Men of the Foot!

Chip Lohmiller, Neil Rackers, Matt Bahr, Sebastian Janikowski

And 3 (ex-) coaches...The Mike Smith card is way thick.

Tony Sparano, Mike Smith, John Madden

These were exceptional, SMG.  I am SOOO happy.  There's still a huge stack of baseball to post....but those will have to wait until tomorrow.