Color Coordinated

Two recent purchases have made me appreciate the art that is a color coordinated parallel.  Occasionally a card's colored parallel will match up well with the player's photo/team colors.  

Here are two such examples that I can think of off the top of my head:

2005-06 Upper Deck Rookie Debut - Gold

I'm loathed to actively seek out a Los Angeles Lakers card.  The 2008 and 2010 NBA Championship Finals with the Boston Celtics and the Lakers are the primary cause behind my dislike for the Lakers.  The Celtics should have captured their second title with the "Big Three" (or four if you counted Rondo). 

Anyway, I'm a Gonzaga basketball fan, which is the primary reason I was drawn to this card.  The other reason being that I think the set design is top notch.  With the photo of Turiaf in his college uniform I consider this part of my Gonzaga PC.  Even though it is properly listed as a Lakers card. 

As much as hate to admit it, the card matches the Lakers' purple and gold colors very well.  As a bonus, this card is low-numbered out of 50. 

2017 Topps Chrome - Green

Whereas the previous card look nice due to the design elements coming together, here the photo matches up with the parallel color.  The Mariners' "Northwest Green" uniforms debuted in the 90s and hung around for a couple years.  After some sporadic appearances in the 2000s, these jerseys became a regular fixture in the Mariners' uniform rotation in 2011.

The greens don't match up perfectly (side note: at one time my wife legitimately thought I was color blind) but I think they match up enough to consider this a color coordinated parallel.

Do you have any favorite color coordinated parallels?  

Day 4: College Memories and College Players

30-Day Challenge: Day 4

It's time to jump back into the 30-day trading card challenge.  As always, I am simultaneously doing to the 30-day music challenge.  Here are the topics of the day!

• Music: A song that reminds you of someone you would rather forget about
• Stars - Ageless Beauty
• Card: A rookie card of one of your favorite players
• 2013-14 Panini #161 Kelly Olynyk

I'm at a point in my life where if there is someone I want to forget about, they have been forgotten.  I would rather forget about moments than people.  (although I don't think there is someone who I would rather forget).

This song by Stars evokes heartache from a time during college.  Without getting into the details (this is a card blog, not my Livejournal), all I can say is that the love lost cut me deep.  Even though this song reminds me of her, I harbor no ill will.  Thus, I don't care to forget the person this song reminds me of but I would like to forget the moment associated with it.

---

Attending law school was a similar experience to attending college.  Thrust into a new environment, having to form new social circles, all the while trying to conquer the challenge that is the first year of an experience like no other.  One of the ways to form a bond with new classmates was to coalesce around a common interest: Gonzaga basketball.

2013-14 Panini

One of my favorite players is Kelly Olynyk who played at Gonzaga during my time there.  He's a tall center at 7 foot even who is not afraid to shoot from behind the arc.  At the beginning of his college career he was small for his size but the way he played I knew he had something going for himself.

After his sophomore year, he took a redshirt year to develop.  It paid off as Olynyk returned a completely different player.  He hit the gym hard and filled out his frame.

Pre-revolution

Olynyk in his junior year

All grown up

Olynyk not only had a radical physical transformation before and after his redshirt season; he played remarkably better his junior year.  His stats were up all across the board.

Season	PPG	FG%	FT%	RPG
Freshman	3.8	50.0%	59.6%	2.7
Sophomore	5.8	57.4%	61.8%	3.8
REDSHIRT
Junior	17.8	62.9%	77.6%	7.3

His play propelled Gonzaga to it's first ever #1 AP & Coaches Top 25 ranking and Gonzaga's first #1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

After declaring for the draft following his junior year, the Dallas Mavericks drafted Olynyk in the first round before shipping him off to the Boston Celtics.  Without the Sonics, the Celtics are my favorite NBA team so I could not have been happier that Olynyk would get to wear the Celtic green.  His rookie cards all look wonderful.

2013-14 Panini Court Kings - Art Nouveau Jerseys

With his combined his play style, skills, and teams played for, Olynyk is one of my favorite players.  

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.