Arpsmith Drops the Hits

Last month, blogger Arpsmith held a contest using his COMC Black Friday order.  He had four different questions regarding the number of certain cards in his order.  Each question had its own prize attached.  I decided to play along, and put in my guess for how many jelly beans were in the jar.  Or rather, I guessed how many cards of former USC players were hits.  I guessed 40; there were 39 hits in the package.  There was some strategy to my guess, but the fact that it was so close was really just luck.  My strategy was thus: usually about 1/3 of my Brad Sorensen COMC additions are hits, so I used the same ratio.  He told us he had picked up 120 new USC players, so I did the math and came up with 40.  Still nothing but luck, but I wasn't just throwing up a random number.

My prize was 25 hits.  Adam came up big here, and once again I was astounded at the generosity of bloggers.  Not only generosity, but collection.  Most of you have collections that would easily put mine to shame.  Adam sent more Packers and Cubs hits from his trade bait than I previously had in my collection.  It was definitely a fun package to open.

 Derrek Lee and Kerry Wood were my two favorite Cubs of the 2000s, and this is my first relic of either.  I know the Leaf Signature Series is popular on the cardsphere, but this Rey Sanchez is my first card of the set.  The Freddie Bynum is an acetate that looks great both scanned and in hand.  My favorite here, though, is Darwin Barney's auto plus two pinstripe patch.  Barney is one of my favorite Cubs to collect and this is a beautiful card.

At first glance, I thought I was seeing double.  I was thinking that I had some trade bait to send to some fellow Cubs collector.  A quick further examination proved that these two cards were in fact different and I realized one was a refractor.  The refractor on the right is serial numbered to 549.  The difference between the base and refractor is more pronounced in the scan.

Not all the baseball was Cubs.  I have some more relics here.  I think most of these would be available for trade.  I might lean toward keeping a couple of them, but if you're interested, drop me a line.

Adam sent me a good mix of baseball and football.  Most of the football was Packers, and most of those were autographs, which was perfect for me.  There were some pretty good players, too.  James Starks and Morgan Burnett were both starters for a good portion of their Packers careers.  James Jones was a solid receiver and someone I have some good memories of.  Brian Brohm never panned out in the NFL, but I sure did like his college career.  Those are two very nice looking relics, too.  The patch on the Absolute card is most likely from a sleeve, I'm thinking.  Upper Deck Masterpieces was just a beautiful set.

The last two cards weren't Packers, but very good nonetheless.  Alert reader Adam apparently remembered that I collect Heisman winners, and as a USC fan, he probably still regards Reggie Bush as a winner, just as I do.  John Henderson was a perennial All-Pro, and that is simply a great-looking card with an on-card auto.

Thanks for the contest and the incredible prize package, Adam.  I knew I was getting 25 hits, but when the package came, it was far more than I anticipated.

I just want to post a reminder about my group break that I'm running.  So far, only one person has signed up, so there are still lots of slots remaining.  If you collect any team but the Packers and the Browns, it's still available.  Click here to check out the details (and see the break bonus I'm including!).