Showing Signs of Life at the Card Show

You may or may not have noticed my absence from blogging over the past few weeks.  It has all been for a very good reason.  On October 10, my wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Theodore.  Since then my life has been occupied with 3AM feedings, daytime naps, poopy diapers, and the occasional videogame to de-stress (Super Mario Odyssey is awesome btw).  I haven't even had time to keep up with reading blogs.

Newborn Theo

Newborns are supposed to feed at least every 3 hours so I figured I would have time in between those feedings to do card related stuff.  Nope. In between taking care of myself, my recovering wife, and making sure household chores don't pile up, time goes by quickly.

Now at the almost 1 month mark, things are normalizing somewhat.  My wife was even gracious enough to let me attend my local bi-annual card show.

The largest purchase of the day (literally) was a complete set of 2008 Upper Deck First Edition.  The big draw here was the price: $5.  The design is decent enough but the real kicker was the inclusion of a relic card.

It's not a card show without picking up a few additions for my Felix Hernandez collection.  I love picking up Topps Museum cards on the cheap ($1) considering these are from a high-end set. 

The playing window on Felix is closing soon.  He deserves the respect of being an opening day starter but next year he might be pushed back to #2.  That will be a sad day.

These cards are from this year's Topps flagship set.  Gimmicky as they are, I enjoy seeing players in their holiday/special event jerseys.  When I get several more cards of these alternate jerseys I'll have to branch them out into their own PC.

 

With the birth of my son, I've added a few players to my collection roster.  I'm collecting players who share a birthday with my son.  I plan to expand upon this idea in a separate post to come later.  Andrew McCutchen is a great player and I'm excited to start collecting him.  I don't know if this 2005 Topps Update card counts as his first rookie card but either way, it's a nice looking card.

The card on the right is from Panini's 2016 Father's Day promo set.  It is the thick stock parallel numbered to 50.  For only $1 it was an easy pick up.

Troy Tulowitzki is another player who shares a birthday with my son.  Tulowitzki had a down year last year with the Blue Jays, which hopefully will help soften the price on some of his cards.  

Typically I stay away from collecting Griffey in a Reds uniform.  I'm not upset or anything that he left Seattle, it's just that with so many Griffey cards I need some focus.  I made an exception for these cards since they feature the 2001 All-Star Game logo when it was held in Seattle.  As a bonus, this is a two-card oddball set from Ritz/Oreo.

The 2016 Panini Diamond Kings Rookie Signatures Silver is the only relic (and auto) set I plan to complete.  I have over half the set and was surprised to see a set need show up at the show.  

Retail relics from 2008 Topps. I love 2008 Topps. 

At the last card show I found a WSU Cougars Smokey set.  As luck would have it, I found another set at this show.  Since the cards are unnumbered I wasn't sure if I found the complete set or not.  Unfortunately, after checking the Trading Card Database, I discovered I am one card short: Drew Bledsoe.

It will be difficult to find that card available as a single so I might have to purchase a complete set.  Bummer.

That wraps up my card show for this year.  It was a nice feeling to get back into cards! Thanks for reading!

Day 5: Playing Loud

30-Day Challenge: Day 5

• Music: A song that needs to be played LOUD
• Self - Trunk Fulla Amps
• Card: A certified autograph card of one of your favorite players
• 2012 Topps - Golden Moments Autographs #GMA-FH Felix Hernandez

Note: this song contains liberal use of the word "mothafucker." Do not play this song loud if at work or near children.  

I first heard this song on local community college radio, KGRG 89.9.  I would listen to it in my 1971 Chevy, wishing I had more than a paltry single speaker.  With a song about having a trunk full of amps, it only makes sense that this song should be played loud.  I can feel the bass pulsing through my body as I imagine what it's like to play this song over a properly decked out sound system.

The lyrics wouldn't come close to winning a Grammy in the "Best Songwriting" category but that's part of what makes the song so fun.  It's a silly, carefree song.  The song is even better when played loud.

2012 Topps - Golden Moments Autographs

The loudest player on the Seattle Mariners is no doubt Felix Hernandez.  He plays with such passion that he is always cranked up to 10.  A loud, home crowd is the ultimate motivator for Felix.  That makes his pitching more electric to watch.

His autographs are not cheap and the ones that are on the lower end of the price range are not the best looking cards.  When I was looking at buying a Hernandez autograph I wanted it to be worthy of display.  At $25 on COMC, this was a suitable entry-level autograph of King Felix.

Despite being a sticker autograph, his signature remains one of my favorites in the collection.

Riding Out the Storm At a Card Show

The big rain/wind storm that was advertised for the weekend never came.  That was fine by me as it meant I never lost power.

The lack of a storm was pretty evident as I was driving down to a card show.  There were patches of blue sky and not a drop of rain.  Storm or no storm, it was a good day for a card show at a local mall.

I didn't make it down to the show until the mid-afternoon; close to when tables were starting to pack up.  Nonetheless, I managed to make quick work at the few tables I checked out

One table had a 6-for-$1 box, which had a sizeable amount of 2008 Topps Football.  Sensing I could get a deal, I held up the giant stack of cards and asked how much.  After some hemming and hawing, the dealer said $5.  I would have paid $10 for that stack so I'm glad I held my tongue.

There ended up being almost 120 cards, which means I scored quite the deal.  Furthermore, out of the 110 rookies in this set, my stack had probably 100 of them.

2008 was the first year after Favre left the Packers.  This happens to be a variation of the Favre base card and it's the only one of him in a Jets uniform.  It just looks weird.  There is also a variation of Favre riding a lawnmower.

Looking at the 2008 checklist there are not a whole lot of notable rookies.  Bennett is still going strong, now with the Patriots.  

Being a Seattle area show I knew I would find at least one table with a good selection of Mariners players.  The same table that had to 2008 Topps also had these Felix cards.  Most of these were early Felix, which is cool.  These will go in my Felix PC binder.

All 2016 Topps Chrome.  I don't have a desire to collect this year's Chrome and I traded away a lot of them earlier.  But I did want at least the Mariners.

The Zych autograph was my most expensive individual card purchase ($3) and I probably overpaid by a dollar.  However, that's to be expected for a hometown team.  Zych has the distinction of being the last player alphabetically in all of baseball, I think ever.  That in itself is worth the purchase.

A few random Mariners pickups that can fit nicely into my existing collection of these sets.

Cards for my WSU PC binder.  Unfortunately, it turns out I already have to the two SP Authentic cards but these cost me about 17 cents each so no big loss.

Vince Mayle is a former Cougar and this happens to be his rookie card.  For my WSU binder I typically only focus on players in their college uniforms.  I think I can make an exception for rookie cards, since at least the college is featured in the stats.

Chrome is not my main focus for 2008 Topps but I like the style so much that I'll pick them up if I stroll upon them.

Two inserts from two current sets I collect: Score and Panini Classics.  

What do you know, 2016 Absolute makes another appearance even though I'm not trying to collect the set.  I will collect the Seahawks, though.

I was really pleased with the amount of 2008 Topps I was able to find.  Even if I didn't get any other cards I would have considered this show a success.

eBay (Part 1)

eBay is a very, very dangerous website. With the "Buy Now" option it's easy to go from listing to listing clicking "Buy" with reckless abandon.  On the flip side, it's a great way to get the cards you want without spending a load of money on packs or a box trying to get them.  I'm not one to seek the ultra rare 1/1 printing plates or anything to the extreme, but since getting back into a hobby over a month ago I've spent about $20-$25 on eBay getting a few cards that I think look nice.  Without further ado, let's get into the cards!

First Haul

As someone who attended Gonzaga, I'm a big fan of Kelly Olynyk.  He had quite the transformation at Gonzaga.  His first two years you could tell he had the potential to become a good big man.  He was good in the post and mid-range but he was small for a center and his skills were too raw.  He redshirted his third year and he came back for his senior year a completely different player.  He had put on a lot of muscle, honed his skills, and was ready to carry the Bulldogs as their center.  Based on his breakout year I knew he was going to the NBA and I was excited when he was drafted by my favorite team, the Boston Celtics. His rookie cards were $0.75 each and I didn't have any of his cards in my collection so I bought two of his base rookie cards.

Sticking with college players I like, I also bought a Klay Thompson Wazzu card.  I saw Klay play when I went I did my undergrad at WSU and he was a lot of fun to watch; such a good 3-point shooter. I didn't anticipate that he would do as well in the NBA but I'm happy for all the success he has had so far.  With the NBA playoffs going and the Golden State Warriors winning, I'm not ashamed to say I've jumped on the Warriors bandwagon.  I don't have any Klay Thompson cards and I thought that having him in a Cougar uniform would be great.  His Golden State cards seemed to be little more expensive so I had no problem sticking with a college card.  Not coincidentally, I've themed my blog in the WSU colors. 

Last but not least, my first memorabilia card.  Being new again to the hobby I didn't realize that memorabilia cards were a thing now.  However, I was reading the great Cardboard History by Billy Kingsley and he made a post about pulling a patch card.  I thought that the patch cards looked neat and were a unique thing to have.  Rather than spending money on a box hoping for a patch from a player I care about, I went to where else but eBay. I figured that Mariners memorabilia cards would be the most prevalent and stumbled upon this Felix Hernandez card.  Felix is a workhorse and truly the King of this Mariners team for many years now. A nice card to have in my collection.

That's it for part 1!  I have a couple more eBay purchases to document but those will come at a later date. I don't expect to be a big eBay user but at the beginning stages it's a helpful way to supplement the collection with cards I actually want.