Bumping Into Cards

One of my wife's friends is visiting from out of town this week on a business trip so we all went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant.  Everything was going swimmingly.  We were all catching up and eating good food.

About three-quarters of the way through our dinner, the restaurant started filling up with smoke. There wasn't a fire but the kitchen had badly burned some food.  I could never figure out what caused the smoke but I suspect it was a pizza in their oven that burned.  No matter the food, the smoke would not dissipate.  My eyes were burning and my chest felt heavy.

Worst of all?  There was nary an apology over the smoke storm they created and it was obviously affecting other patrons as well.  If their restaurant could not even handle smoke from the kitchen, I question whether the place could safely manage a fire.  Needless to say, I won't eat there again.

I could not run out of that restaurant fast enough to get fresh air.  It felt so nice to be able to breathe again and find relief.

Speaking of running, today's post highlights a trade I made with Trevor at Bump and Run Football Card Blog.   He posted on my blog indicating he had a few 2008 Topps Football to trade.  I can't turn down an opportunity to collect more 2008 Topps so we settled on a nice trade.  As the name implies, Trevor posts mainly about football so our trade focused on football cards.  You can see what I sent him over on his blog.

Getting the 2008 Topps out of the way, I received a few football set needs.  Trevor also included some baseball as a bonus! I haven't checked whether I needed them or not but either way the gesture is appreciated!

2016 Classics is a set I've really enjoyed this year with the retro look.  Both of these rookies were signed by the Seahawks with only Alex Collins making it on the roster.  He's had limited playing time so far this year.

During my previous look at Prestige I remarked that outside of the Seahawks, I wouldn't be collecting any more Prestige.  Well here comes Prestige again, thankfully with only Seahawks.  The two rainbow foil cards are Extra Points parallels.  

This year Lynch's absence is glaringly obvious.  The Seahawks' run game just hasn't been the same. Thomas Rawls, the heir to Lynch's throne, has been injured for most of the year.  Hopefully, he will provide a spark to the anemic run game.   

The last set features a nice mix of new and old Seahawks cards.  I didn't become a Seahawks fan until I moved out west from New England so some names aren't familiar, like Vann McElroy and Kelvin. Other older players like Jon Kitna, Darrell Jackson and Bennie Blades are names I immediately recognize. The Blades and Jackson cards have writing throughout the background that shows up slightly on the scans.  It's a cool looking effect in person.  Out of the four modern Seahawks players, coincidentally all four were part of the Super Bowl winning team.  

This was a great trade with some set needs and PC needs completed.  I look forward to trading with Trevor again!

eBay (Final)

Third Haul

My last foray into eBay buying is courtesy of C2Cigars over at The Trading Card Database.  C2 posted that he was selling the Shaun Alexander card posted above.  I've never focused on collecting football cards and I thought I could start adding some Seahawks to my collection.  Alexander was a great running back for the Seahawks (he also ran behind an even better offensive line) and a class act.  The fact that this was a serial numbered card also piqued my interest.  So I put an offer on the card and C2 had the audacity to counter my offer with an even lower one! :)  I couldn't say "no" and the deal was struck.  He even was nice enough to send along another Seahawks.  He must have seen on my TCDB profile my not-so-subtle love for Seattle sports.  Thanks C2!  Although I will say the Carlson card is the first time I have ever seen comic sans used on a professional sports card. 

While checking out the checklist for the Shaun Alexander card I noted that the insert also had a Matt Hasselbeck card.  A helpful and clever feature of TCDB is that card pages have eBay links if that card is currently up for auction.  It turned out that one seller had the Hasselbeck card available.  The card was reasonably priced but shipping was $3.  However the seller had a special that if you spend $9 on cards they give you free shipping!  Seeing as how I was already going to spend that $3, I decided to check their list if there were any Seattle cards worth purchasing.  I found a few more to get me over the $9 threshold and made out with 7 different cards.  Their marketing trick worked but I came out with a good score.

I love the 2008 Topps design (bottom right) and I was at the Wild Card game depicted on the card.  Even though Super Bowl XL is still one the worst moments in Seattle sports history (the refs robbed us!), I feel like the city finally moved once the Seahawks won the Super Bowl in 2013. Therefore, I thought it was nice to get a card capturing Super Bowl XL for the Seahawks.  

The 2011 Topps card (upper left) is great because it features Hasselbeck and another Seahawk running back great, Marshawn Lynch.  Typically I think of Russell Wilson and Lynch as the offensive tandem but this card is a good reminder of the Hasselbeck/Lynch connection.  Plus the back of the card makes mention of the Seahawks' improbable 2010 Wild Card win over the Saints.  If you have not seen Lynch's 67 yard TD run against the Saints (dubbed Beast Quake) you have to see it:

I could get into all the reasons behind why this run was so momentous for Seattle sports but the highlight is that the crowd was so excited during that run that they literally made rumblings that registered on a seismograph near the field.  Thus that's why the run was called Beast Quake.

The other modern day Seahawks card (top right) makes mention of their Super Bowl victory so I thought it would be another good one to add to their collections.  This also reminds me that I still need to get the card set from their Super Bowl victory.  The "wantlist" never ends!

The other two cards rounding out this haul are noteworthy because A) one mentions the remarkable 2001 Seattle Mariners team that tied the Major League record for wins, going 116-46 that season and B)the other card is a great shot of Safeco Field, which is one of the nicest ballparks in the league.

In the end I spent more than I planned but I made sure not to add just filler cards for the sake of getting free shipping.  Each card has meaning, which is one of the reasons I like this hobby.  I'm (hopefully) done with my eBay shopping spree for the time being but you never know what might grab me!