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!).

All the Big Hits

I have three more TCDB trades to post and then I should be caught up on that front.  I was very happy with all three of these trades, so I scanned most of the cards I received. The last of the three trades was probably the biggest I have ever pulled off, in terms of hits and numbered cards.

First, let's start north of the border.  Canadian TCDB member karisal proposed a trade that brought me some baseball and football.

Some Update Cubs, including my first Cole Hamels and Brandon Morrow in Cubbie blue.  These were probably my most desired cards in Update this year, so I'm glad to have added them.

I'm also now two cards closer to the Wrigley Field insert set.  Jake Arrieta highlights his two no-hitters, making this one of my favorite cards in the set because it's one of my favorite memories as a fan.

 DeShone Kizer was as bad as advertised in relief for Aaron Rodgers this year.  A couple of new Jordy Nelsons here, and a Southern Utah T-Bird alert.  Miles Killebrew was part of SUU's Big Sky championship team that sent three players to the NFL a few years ago.

This lone card is a nice Orlando Pace for my All-2000s collection.  I just noticed that most of the cards on my Pace page feature him as a Buckeye.  As is the case with most linemen, he is easier to find as a rookie than later on in his career.

Kari helped me with a couple of set builds.  I'm getting awfully close to my 92 Ultra set.  The Score NFL Draft inserts from this year caught my eye from the very beginning, and I've been working on the set ever since.  I'm glad to have Mayfield out of the way, but I still need the likes of Saquon Barkley, Sam Darnold, and Josh Rosen.

My next trade comes from mrmike.

He also helped me with some set builds: 1991 Upper Deck Game Breakers (that's former Bronco Bobby Humphery, for those who can't tell), 1992 Ultra, 1993 Fleer, and 2012 Topps.  That's a nice Luke Kuechly rookie included here.

 Included among the Packers of the trade were two new Jordy rookies and a nifty art checklist from 1992 Upper Deck.

Some BYU players, including my first Ryan Denneys.  He carved out a pretty decent career from 2002-2010 after being drafted in the second round.  Former Outland Trophy winner Jason Buck is a local guy whom my dad once met in the grocery store.  My wife's cousin is also related to him through marriage.  Despite these convoluted connections, I have never met him myself.

Isn't Stadium Club beautiful?  1991 isn't my favorite year for Stadium Club, but I love these cards.  1994, however, is one of my favorite TSC sets.  I know the names are hard to read, but I've always liked this set.

2008 Upper Deck may not be Stadium Club, but it can certainly hold its own, photography-wise.

Mrmike also sent me some All-Decade team needs, including an Aeneas Williams rookie and a pretty cool looking Collector's Edge Excalibur.

The big trade came from wudu44.  There were autos, relics, and serial numbers going both ways, and we were able to work it out pretty well.

Oh lookie, more Draft inserts.  I don't even think I have this set on my wantlist here on the blog, but I'm more than halfway through it.

Another Game Breaker Hologram, this time from 1992.  Hall of Famer Will Shields makes a rookie appearance.  Rookie Roundtable is a pretty cool insert set from Collector's Edge.

More Jordy, but shiny!  I really love the Certified Comeback Player of the Year card.

And now for the big stuff.

A couple of BYU autos.  Both Ansah and Van Noy are having pretty good seasons.  A trio of Packers jerseys.  Davante Adams has really become a solid playmaker this year.  Ty Montgomery is numbered to 10.  And Bazooka!  It's a Pro Bowl jersey swatch from hard-to-find All-Decade player La'Roi Glover.  Very nice.

A big thanks to all of these TCDB members.  I hope you enjoyed the trades as much as I did.  As always, it was fun.

Spoils from a Pair of Group Breaks

I've gotten in on a couple group breaks hosted by fellow bloggers in the past month.  The first was a break of some 1990s Pacific boxes from Colbey at Cardboard Collections.  The second was a smorgasbord of older and newer boxes (but called a "retro" break) from Nachos Grande.  I selected the Cubs in both.  I have to say, I was pretty satisfied with the results of both breaks.

First up is Colbey's Affordable Group Break of Bilingual Pacific cards.  I was intrigued by this break because I didn't own any 1993 or 1994 Pacific.  They're not bad looking cards, either, and I like the novelty of having both Spanish and English on the card.  It's kind of like the appeal of O-Pee-Chee, but with cards that aren't quite as widespread.

My random second team was the Rockies, which was kind of a tough break because they didn't exist for one year of this break.  Still, I wasn't in it for the random team, so I'm content just to have these new Cubbie additions to my collection.

Here is 1993 Pacific.  This isn't every card I got, but a sampling of some of my favorite North-Siders from that year.  I was familiar with Pacific football from this year, but this set doesn't share too much resemblance with its gridiron counterpart.  In fact, this looks much more like the 1992 Pacific football.  It's a nice, colorful design, and I like it.

And here is the 1994 edition.  I like the team color marbling on the bottom.  Once again, I didn't scan every new Cub, but here are some of my favorites.  Two boxes, two new Gracies for my collection.  I'm not complaining.

I'm not showing the Rockies (which only came in the 1994 variety) because I already have them ear-marked for someone.  I also have some Cubs dupes from this break, so if any of you Cubs collectors have some 1993-94 Pacific-sized holes in your collection, just let me know.

The second break was Nacho Grande's Rockin' Retro Group Break.  Chris broke 7 boxes spanning 20 years from 1997 to 2017.  Once again I picked up the Cubs, receiving the Rays as my random second team.  Once again, it was a team that didn't exist when some of these products were released.  But again, I was content with my Cubs.  Plus, you will see that I got some Rays that fit into my PCs anyway, and one team would have been sufficient with the cards I wound up with.

This was my first look at 1997 Sports Illustrated in hand.  They were much nicer and glossier than I anticipated.  Here is the complete Cubs team set, so no complaints here.

Here is the one insert I got from that box: a mini-poster of Ryne Sandberg.  Good thing I have some page protectors so I can put this in my Cubs binder.

1998 Bowman Chrome came next.  A second Mark Grace from the break, a young Kerry Wood, and a zero-year card for future All-Star Jon Garland.  Old Chrome is usually pretty fun.  I had to look up the Kerry Wood because I wasn't sure if this was a rookie or not.  As it turns out, he had a rookie card the previous year.

Now we have a set that I had never seen before: 2002 Fleer Triple Crown.  Like most Fleer sets from this time period, it is rather simplistic and easily forgettable.  The Moises Alou in this scan may be wearing an Astros uni, but the team is listed as the Cubs, so I got the card for my collection.  One Ray managed to become part of my collection from this box: Ben Grieve, former AL ROY.  The McGriff and Young additions are welcome, as both are underrepresented in my Cubs collection.  Nate Frese spent his entire career in the Cubs organization, but never advanced beyond AAA.  This is the first card I have of him.

Here's some 1998 Gold Label.  Class 1 has a fielding picture in the background, as you can see most of these do.  The Sammy Sosa in the middle is Class 3, and the one on the right is a Home Run Race insert.  Nothing screams late 1990s baseball like an entire insert set featuring players who could break Maris's home run record.  It seems like half the teams in the league had a candidate.  Thank you, steroids.  The Fred McGriff on the bottom is a cool black parallel.  It's hard to see in the scan, but the name and the Gold Label logo on the front are not gold.  That's a nice All-Star Game MVP pickup.

Fast forward 19 years and Chris is breaking a box of NEW Gold Label.  I really liked these cards when I got them, but I was surprised at how thin they were.  I can't complain about the player selection.  Neither can I complain about the fact that not one of these is a Class 1.  That's right; KB and Javy are both Class 2, and Jake is Class 3.  That's pretty lucky, I'd say.  I didn't notice at first, but along the left edge of the cards, the Class is written very faintly.  Here is a close-up of Bryant:

Finally, Chris threw in a blaster of 2016 Donruss Optic.  It was kind of an afterthought, so I didn't think much of it.

I ended up with one base card and one pink parallel that both fit into my collection.  I'm still not impressed with Panini Donruss, even with the Chroming treatment.  But then, Chris made an amazing pull.

Kudos to Colbey, who noticed on the live feed that this was not a facsimile signature.  I thought it was at first.  I just planned on adding a new Schwarber rookie to my collection.  But this is a real, autographed hit!  More than that, it is the black parallel signature.

Yes, Chris pulled an autograph numbered to 25 from a blaster box that he just added to the break at the end, and I got it!  That is astounding luck!  Had I walked away with nothing else, I would have been okay.  But adding this as a cherry on top of the rest of my new acquisitions just made this an incredibly fun, unforgettable break.

I don't always get in on group breaks, but I really enjoy these breaks within our blogging community.  Thanks to Colbey and Nachos Grande for hosting the breaks.  You do a great job, and I appreciate it.

Sneaky Secret Santa Strikes Swiftly, Soundlessly

Just as December was beginning, I went to the mailbox and found a padded envelope.  As I expected, it was addressed to me.  Nobody else in my family receives bubble mailers.  However, I didn't recognize the return address at all.  I wondered, Could this be my Secret Santa?  It seemed a bit early for my Secret Santa package to arrive; after all, I hadn't even begun putting my package together yet.  (I have now.  It's in the mail, so the recipient should be getting it in a day or two.)  I opened it up, and saw some wrapping paper and a card.  It was Secret Santa, and he was early!

My first thought was to keep it and unwrap it later, more toward Christmas Day.  However, knowing how slow I am at posting things on my blog, and wanting to give a shout out and public thanks to the sender ASAP, I decided that I had better open it.  So here I am, two weeks later, finally posting its contents.  It's probably best I didn't wait, or I might not have written this post before Christmas.

The question remained: Who was my Secret Santa?  The answer lay in one of the cards.  This card to be exact:

Jon, from A Penny Sleeve for Your Thoughts, was my Secret Santa.  Jon and I have never traded before, so it was no wonder that I hadn't recognized the address.  He made a great first impression.

A couple of vintage Cubs is a nice start.  The '59 Glen Hobbie is almost my oldest card now, if not for my Glen Hobbie rookie, which is a '58.  I thought it a strange coincidence that it is the same player in back to back years vying for the oldest in my collection.  Neither one of these pitchers had great careers, but Hobbie was serviceable for a few years in Chicago.  Schaffernoth played for the Cubs for 2 seasons, posting a 4.58 ERA and a 3-8 record before leaving the Big Leagues for good.

Now here we have two players who had significantly more successful careers at Wrigley.  These are both oddballs, and sets that I never even knew existed, to boot.  The Andre Dawson is a 1993 Duracell issued set called "Power Players," and it was apparently available in 6-card packs with a proof of purchase mail-in order.  I don't know how I didn't know about this as a kid.  I was certainly old enough to understand this concept at the time, and I would guess that I used batteries then.  The Ryno is from a 1993 set released by photographer Barry Colla and it featured the All-Stars of that year.  I have no idea how it was released other than it appeared to have been only available as a boxed set.  I'm happy to include both of these cards in collection.

My only other card from this red-bordered set is a star, Giancarlo Stanton, but I'll take a Rizzo any day over Stanton.  The blue hat and red border look fantastic together on this parallel.

After seeing those great Cubs, I ran into some basketball.  Jon included a trio of Grant Hill cards.  Hill just happens to be my favorite basketball player of all-time, and one of the few basketball players that I collect.  What I can't figure out is how Jon knew to include Grant Hill.  I have no basketball listed anywhere on my wantlists, and I don't think I've ever done a post that focused on Hill.  Jon must have done some deep digging in my blog to pick up that clue, and I appreciate that.  All three of these cards are pretty sweet, too.  The Classic Four Sport is a Promo, which is cool.

The cards kept rolling, as Jon sent some Steve Youngs for my BYU collection.  That Pacific Revolution set is really cool in hand, but it is pretty busy.

This is the back of the Action Packed Armed Forces card.  As you can see, it is clearly marked as a Promo, as well.  I don't know where this one came from, but the oddballs keep rolling in from Jon.

If I'm going to be completely honest, the package made my heart sink at the very first.  You see, I opened up the 1st little package and immediately saw the back of the Raymont Harris card.  It was like opening up that present from your grandma on Christmas Day, all full of anticipation and excitement, and discovering that she had given you underwear.  Except this was worse than underwear, it was a Bear.  I wondered if Jon had gotten me mixed up with someone else, or had assumed that since I was a Cubs collector I also liked the Bears, and sent me a package chock full of Bears.  Then I noticed one single word in the bottom corner of the card: "Refractor."  It hit me that Jon had seen the newest addition to my wantlist and had sent me a card for my Refractors Frankenset. He was redeemed!  It's a shame that refractors don't scan well because these cards look great in a binder full of refractors.

That was it for the package labeled "Open 1st."  Now for the one instructing me to "Open 2nd."

We're back to the Cubs, but this package is obviously the one full of hits!  A Brett Jackson auto from A&G.  I don't collect A&G, but I have to say that they always look great and I'm happy to take this former Cubs Prospect Supreme into my collection.

The second hit of the package--a Johnathan Franklin auto from 2013 Prizm.  Johnathan Franklin logged only 19 carries in his brief pro career with the Packers, but he is one of the Packers that I focus on.  In 2013, he and Eddie Lacy were both drafted by the Pack, and it was my excitement over both of the picks that helped catapult me back into collecting.  Franklin was an entirely different skillset than Lacy, and I thought they complemented each other well.  Unfortunately, a neck injury in his rookie season ended his career.  I suppose it's the career-ending injury that gives me a soft spot for Franklin in my collection.

The final card in the package was an auto-patch numbered to 725 of Brandon Jackson.  Jackson came into the league in 2007 and had higher expectations than Franklin, due to his status as a second round draft pick.  Unfortunately, it didn't pan out for Jackson, as he spent only four years in Green Bay, starting only 16 games and averaging about 3.8 yards per carry in that span.  He spent one year in Cleveland after leaving the Pack before he was out of the league.  That doesn't matter to me, though.  I'll take an on-card auto and two-color patch (especially when it is obvious part of a number or letter) of anybody who suited up for my Pack.

In his card, Jon wrote that he "attempted to add some new additions to multiple parts of [my] collection."  I'd say he was successful.  Thanks a million, Jon!  I loved the package.  And thanks to Matt at Bob Walk the Plank for facilitating this little Secret Santa exchange.  It has been fun.

The Ultimate Box Break

Box breaks are a rich collector's game.  On a budget as small as mine, I simply cannot afford to throw money on the chance that I might get a card.  Box breaks have their place, and I'll admit, I've gotten some pretty good hits from products I would never have afforded to buy otherwise.  But on the whole, I'm a low-end, low-budget collector and I don't chase after hits much.  Case in point: my Packers collection includes a whopping four autographs and three memorabilia cards.

But every once in awhile, I get the itch to gamble a little.  Black Friday was one of those times, when my favorite breaker was offering some bonuses, including Black Friday packs, along with the breaks.  My go-to breaker is Ultimate Box Breaks because Brian, the guy who runs it, is the most entertaining breaker I've seen out there and his prices aren't extraordinarily high.  Plus, I like his system of "drafting" teams and then he offers you the opportunity to trade your teams and picks from various breaks with other people.  So, I got sucked into a couple breaks on Black Friday.  And, this time at least, the gamble paid off.

The first break was a 2016 Panini mixer, and I drew the Packers.

My team collection additions of these three rookies.  Kenny Clark comes from Infinity, Blake Martinez from Panini's new incarnation of Playoff, and the Trevor Davis cards from Elite.  And make that 5 autos in my Packers collection.

I also joined a Spectra break.  This break was buy one entry, get two teams, and I drew Cleveland and Dallas.

The first card in the box was this filthy Joe Haden patch.  Yes, I mean literally filthy.  I've never seen a patch that dirty before.  This beauty is already claimed, and will be heading out in a trade package shortly.

Then things got interesting.

This sweet Tony Dorsett is numbered to 60.  Dorsett is one of those guys who I don't overtly collect, but I tend to hold onto any of his cards that come my way.

It turns out that I drew the Cowboys in a high-end product Cowboys hot box.

ZEEEEEKE!  The top card is a neon green parallel, numbered to 25.  The second is an auto patch numbered to 99.  I'm not sure if you have heard of this guy, but he is a pretty decent player.  Oh, who am I kidding?  This is big-time hit!  I may not be a Cowboys fan, but I definitely got my money's worth. 

I forget what the bonus was for, but one of my breaks earned a Cyber Monday pack for everyone. 

Here is my Cyber Monday pack.

Well, I'm not excited about either card, but I won't complain about any bonus that comes my way.  Is anybody interested in either of these Cyber Monday cards?  Let me know.

In all, it was a great break.  Still, it exemplifies the very problem I have with box breaks--I could have easily come away with nothing.  Sure the gamble paid off, but in the end it was exactly that: a gamble.  And I can't afford to be a high roller.