March Madness!

Hello everyone. I hope everyone out there is getting ready for March Madness and has their brackets filled out. I just finished mine about 3 hours ago. Anyways, on to sports card talk. Lately, I haven't really been buying a lot of stuff as I had stated in a previous post. I've actually been selling more, and not just sports cards. I have sold some toys I had while I was a kid and made a nice profit from it. I sold a Daffy Duck Pez dispenser, a gun that shoots mini yellow pellets, 2 Spit Balls - which are these rubber balls of a squirrel head and a red haired kid with a baseball hat on that spit water, a Coke keychain from the 80's and 1 sports card which was a Michael Hutchinson RC and that netted me this gem that I had been watching for over a month on my eBay watchlist:

2002/03 SPx Yao Ming 2 Color Jersey Auto RC 166/999

After the purchase of the Yao, I still had some funds in Paypal left over and decided to take a chance on the next card. If you are an avid hockey fan, you surely know the story of Jonathan Drouin. Due to his current situation his card prices have plummeted. I figured I would take a chance on his SP Authentic Auto RC, which I picked up at an AMAZING price. I figure for a Top 5 Draft Pick, it wouldn't be that big of a gamble. For now this one is headed in my PC box (with the rest of the cards in this post). Although I absolutely despise the design on these cards, it's still a decent card of a young star in the making.

2014/15 SP Authentic Future Watch Jonathan Drouin RC Auto /999

Finally, I just wanted to show a card that I have had for a while now. The rarity of these cards is remarkable and they rarely are ever available for purchase. A lot of times when they are, they will sell really quickly. Around this time last year, I had a day off of work. I did some chores around the house, and was winding down to relax. I decided to look at some of my old Pittsburgh Penguins game programs from when I would go to games to see Crosby in his rookie season. I was glancing at some of the rosters and the names were just a blast from the past. Lasse Pirjeta, Cory Cross, Ryan VandenBussche, Rico Fata, Niklas Nordgren and a guy that I enjoyed the most watching...Andy Hilbert. I wondered what the heck he was doing lately. I started doing some internet research and read some things about him. After about a hour or so, I decided to see if I had any cards left of him. When I got through the last box of hockey cards I had, I realized I did not own one. I pulled up eBay to see what cards of his were available. I found a few from sets I had collected back in the late 90's - early 00's. I decided to try the Highest Price search option to see what his best cards out there were being offered for. The 3rd one down on the list caught my eye instantly. I gave it a few minutes of thought and decided to just pull the trigger for $30. It's been in my PC ever since. If you ever see one of these cards at a reasonable price, just buy it. These cards are rarely ever seen or available for sale and if it's a player you like or enjoyed watching, it's worth it to just scoop it up.

1998/99 SPx Andy Hilbert Spectrum RC 1/1

That's all I have for now. Good luck in your brackets everyone!

Shaking Hands, Making Deals

Usually making trades online with a person that you don't know can be hard, but other times can be frustrating. Over the past few weeks, I have been trying to trade more and buy less. So, I scoured the net for certain cards, maybe found on a personal webpage and checked out different hobby sites and I pulled off a few trades that brought in some cards that I am pretty excited about.

Deal #1

I had someone email me on one of the trade sites I belong to in December and I hadn't been on that site since the end of November, so I felt bad about that. I finally responded to the guy. He had asked me if I still had a card that I had posted in a sale thread back in September and that he was highly interested in it. The card he was asking about was a Bogdan Yakimov 3 Color SP Game Used Jersey /499 that I had. Now, to be honest, I don't really remember having this card at all. I went upstairs in the closet of my den and pulled down a Nike shoe box from the shelf. I started sifting through loads of stuff I forgot about and WHAM! There it was. I still had it. So, I responded to the site member that I had the card. The next response I got was something I absolutely hate doing....looking at someones photobucket to find anything interesting. Most of the time, the cards aren't labeled and I would just rather look at a list. I stumbled across a photo that had 9 cards in it with 2 of them catching my eye. I responded to the guy and inquired about the 2 cards I found to be interesting. His response blew my mind...he would take the card straight up for the 2 cards that I was interested in. I was seriously planning on giving him a little more, but he was ok with making the trade because he was not a football fan at all. I threw in a few hockey inserts as freebies (because from this guys photobucket, he REALLY likes inserts) and sent the card out. Since the cards were coming from Canada, they finally arrived at my doorstep this week and I'm happy about the deal.

1989 Score Cris Carter Rookie Card #72

AND 1995 Select Certified Warren Sapp Mirror Gold Rookie Card #127

Deal #2

Usually making a trade fires me up and I just want to trade even more. I found a trade thread that was full of SPx, SP Authentic, Upper Deck and The Cup cards, so I decided to check it out since it was right up my alley. One of the cards posted in the thread really caught my eye. I messaged the poster of the thread and he got back to me within an hour. I sent him a list of stuff I had and he wanted a John Scott SPx Rookie Card and a SPx Jordan Schroeder Dual Jersey Auto RC (that I actually had doubles of- SWEET). I totally understood why he wanted the Scott and he probably sold it for 3 times what it was really worth due to all the John Scott All Star Game hype, but I didn't care. Finally, the card made it's way to me and I'm glad to have it.

2007/08 UD The Cup Platinum Erik Johnson Parallel Rookie Card /25

Deal #3

For the final trade that I pulled off, it was probably the least painless deal of the 3. Someone posted a wantlist of stuff that ranged from old O-Pee-Chee Rookie Cards to oddball items such as NHL Pogs. As I checked out this guys list, I'm seeing a few things I know I have. I quickly ran up my stairs to the den to find a box that had 3 of the O-Pee-Chee Rookie Cards he was looking for (Luke Richardson, Steve Bozek & Jim Kyte). Also, the NHL Pogs this guy was looking for I was certain I had a handful of them. Now I was not a pog fan at all. I just wanted to clear that up. The only reason I have these pogs is because in high school, I worked as a bag boy at the local grocery store during the pog craze. This grocery store stocked all sorts of different packs of pogs, NHL pogs, cartoon character pogs, etc. The only issue with this was that the grocery store caught onto the pog craze very late and it was near the tail end of the craze. I remember seeing them sit and sit and sit. Finally one day I was stocking shelves and they asked me to take all the pogs to the back where the clearance items were located and mark them down to .25 each. So, I'm marking these stupid pogs as a quarter each and I just looked at the NHL pogs and decided to buy them all during my lunch break. So these stupid pogs have been sitting in a sandwich bag in my possession since 1997. It took me a lifetime to find these pogs for this guy, but eventually they turned up. I had 11 pogs that he needed. So, when I responded to the guy with what I had, he was amazed that I had these pogs. He sent me a trade list that he had that was mostly full of vintage common cards, but a few rookies were included in the list. There was only 1 card I was interested in though. I inquired about the card and the guy sent me a message back with a scan of 3 of that card that he owned and he said "Pick the one you want and it's yours". One of them had 2 rounded corners so I wasn't interested in that one, but the other 2 looked to be in great shape, so I told him that between those 2, he could pick. So to recap, 11 stupid NHL pogs (with the best player probably being Mark Messier) and an OPC Rookie of Luke Richardson, an OPC Rookie of Steve Bozek and an OPC Rookie of Jim Kyte for this...

1978/79 OPC Bernie Federko Rookie Card #143 (a little off-centered)

Now I couldn't completely cut out buying things. I always come across things that are pleasing to my eye either on trading sites or on eBay that I like. It's basically inevitable. This lot below I got at an incredible price of $4 shipped. I just love the 2005/06 SP Authentic Future Watch Limited cards! At the time I purchased the card below, Wideman had not yet crushed that referee and got himself suspended, but by the time the cards arrived, he had. As for the Larsson, I honestly had never heard of this guy! I'm interested in looking him up now that I own one of his cards. And Mats Sundin...what can I say? This goes to the PC with my Jagr and Roenick OPC Premier RC's. What a great lot!

1990/91 OPC Premier Mats Sundin Rookie Card #114
2009/10 Be A Player Daniel Larsson Rookie Card #297  64/99
2005/06 SP Authentic Future Watch Dennis Wideman Limited Rookie Card #240  8/100 

The next 2 cards that I picked up one was actually from last year and I just wanted to post because I am excited to watch him play for my hometown Penguins again. I think this kid is talented. The other card is from a player who just was recently traded from the Vancouver Canucks to the New York Rangers for Emerson Etem. I decided to look at some YouTube videos of this player and was blown away! This kid has talent. The quick release of his shot is the first thing you notice when you actually check him out. His wrist shot is deadly. I actually believe in this kids talent and wish him luck in his future (hopefully in the NHL).

2014/15 SP Authentic Future Watch Bryan Rust Limited Rookie Card #238  4/25
2013/14 SP Authentic Future Watch Nicklas Jensen Rookie Card Auto #286  403/999

I'm sure if you read my blog you notice that I'm a huge fan of cards from the 90's. It's when I grew up. It's also a time when flashy foil cards were all the rage. This next card that I picked up was only 99 cents, but back in the day, it was probably almost impossible to find. I will now take you on a trip down memory lane for me. I was sleeping over my friend Jason's and we were going to trade hockey cards. He told me he had just bought some pinnacle packs and I had to see this card he had. It was a 1995/96 Pinnacle Kevin Lowe Rink Collection card. I remember thinking, "so what, I have like 6 or 7 of these", but something was different with it. It not only was a Rink Collection parallel, but was also an Artist's Proof parallel. At the time, I didn't think this was possible and that Pinnacle had to have screwed up somewhere. I ended up trading for the Kevin Lowe card that night. I'm not sure what the odds were for these cards being inserted in packs was at the time, but I'm sure it was pretty hard to pull one. Anyways, fast forward to 2016, and I had found another that was only listed as a Rink Collection parallel. Sweet for me! This seller also had another card I had been seeking out for some time. Has anyone ever heard of Jonas Johansson?...anyone? *Crickets* Well, I have. I had been looking for a certain Jonas Johansson card. Be A Player (In the Game) had this redemption card that you pulled in packs. This redemption was #'ed for every first round pick that year. Once that draft pick played his first NHL game, you would actually send in the redemption card and get a card back of that player serial #'ed to 100! It was a pretty neat concept to be honest. Well Be A Player ended up going bankrupt. That's when Upper Deck ended up taking over and honoring the redemptions. These redemptions in my opinion do not look quite as good as the Be A Player ones, but what can you do? Now back to Jonas Johansson....Jonas was drafted in the first round in 2002. However, he hadn't made his NHL debut until 2006 (which still remains his only game in the NHL). His redemption could finally be redeemed in 2006. With that in mind, how many people have actually redeemed this card? Who knows? In The Game who produced the Be A Player sets had actually kept track of how many were produced, but when Upper Deck took over, this information remains a mystery. This is the 3rd one of these Jonas Johansson's I have ever seen and what makes it even cooler is that it's the 1st one made! I'm pretty excited to add this to my PC!

1995/96 Pinnacle Rink Collection Artist's Proof Craig Janney Parallel #37

<---- See Artist's Proof Label here

(Back Showing Rink Collection)




2002/03 Be A Player Draft Redemption Jonas Johansson Rookie Card 1/100

Finally, a card from my photobucket files that I had been looking for was a Dan Fritsche Rookie Card parallel from 2003/04. I can still remember pulling that card. I was going to my brothers new house he and his wife had just purchased, to help him make some repairs (since the house was from the 1950's). On the way to his house, there was a small card shop. I made a quick stop to buy a few packs of Black Diamond. I remember the first pack had a Jordin Tootoo Green Parallel RC /100. The other pack had another rookie of Dan Fritsche...sweet. After spending a few hours with my brother and dad making some repairs to the house, I went home to shower and spend a little time with my collection. When checking out the Black Diamond packs I had just purchased, I noticed something I did not catch initially which was that the Fritsche RC was actually a parallel! Later that year, I ended up selling off my collection to gather money for a down payment for my first home, so with my collection went the Dan Fritsche card. I had set an ebay alert for this card about 3 years ago. I was surprised to see it go off a few weeks ago. I put in my bid and won the card. I'm super stoked to have this card again (even if it's not the exact serial #'ed card that I pulled myself back in 2003).

2003/04 Black Diamond Clarity Dan Fritsche Rookie Card #161  8/10

Mailday, Christmas gifts and some Ink!

Hello everyone, I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year!

I had some mail in the past few weeks that I had been wanting to share, but haven't had any time lately. Work is super stressful and it seems when I am home from work I am so mentally exhausted that I just have no intention of looking at a computer screen. Today, however, is my day off and I am finally getting down to putting the cards I have picked up in new plastic holders, screw downs, etc. Well, onto the mail!

Lot of 2 1976 Topps David Clyde RC's # 133

I know what you're thinking...why pick these up? Well, I'll explain the reason.  For Christmas, I got one of those Kindle Fire tablets (the cheap $50 one that has a constant run of ads when you turn it on). It was actually a late addition to my Christmas list from my wife. The day after Christmas I fired that thing up and just scoured the internet one night searching for an article to show my wife on Mike Ivie (who is into stories of mental health and sports players because she has a psych degree) and I stumbled on an article on David Clyde. Now I cannot say that I'm the biggest baseball fan in the world. I have loved the Royals, Cubs and Pirates since I was a kid, but don't follow it closely like I did when I was a little kid. This story on Clyde was sad. It was basically about how his career had been ruined because he was rushed into the majors as an 18 year old kid. It was an intriguing article. After I read it, I checked out his stats and read a few other articles about him. I really felt bad for the guy. I found an auction for 2 of his Rookie Cards for less than a buck, so now they are in my collection.

Moving on to the next bunch of mail I received. Do you remember the WR Rod Smith? He used to be one of my favorites back in the late 90's. I had a small collection of his stuff for a while before I sold off my collection in the early 2000's to use that money as part of a down payment for my first house. My favorite card of his was always his Gold Medallion Rookie Card. These things pop up every once in a while on eBay but it's hard to find one at a decent price. In my old Rod Smith collection that is now gone, I had 3 of these cards. In my current collection, all I have are 2 of his regular Fleer Ultra Rookie Cards. I came across one of the Gold Medallion Rookie Cards listed at 99 cents, so I waited until the last few minutes and put in a bid of a few bucks and won! What you may not know is that Rod Smith only has 1 Rookie Card and it was in 1995 in the Fleer Ultra Extra series. So, this is actually Rod Smith's best Rookie Card. I hope you learned something from this mail post now! Here is this beauty..

1995 Fleer Ultra Extra Rod Smith Gold Medallion RC #369

The next piece of mail is of a player that in 1997 I had put together a little collection of. We share the same last name, and just like Terrell Davis I figured maybe there would be a chance that he would become a star. Sadly, this never happened with this player. He was a Heisman candidate when he was playing for Iowa State and was the first NCAA Division I-A running back who had back to back 2,000 yard seasons. He was just a smaller back and was never seen as the player he was in college. I believe he did win a Grey Cup in the CFL though, but I could be wrong. Anyways, this is absolutely his hardest card to find and I can confidently say it's his best card.

1997 Playoff Contenders Troy Davis Gold Rookie Card 1/1

Front

 

Back

The next card that I picked up is just one that had intrigued the hell out of me. The entire story of this player with the card companies in 2000 is just pure craziness. Lavar Arrington never signed with the NFLPA in his rookie season in 2000, so card companies could not release cards of him. Most were pulled from production, but a few had made it into packs. His UD MVP card was inserted into packs with his picture cut out of it. That's what I'm going to show you. I finally found one of these at a good price.

2000 Upper Deck MVP Lavar Arrington Cut Out RC #189

The next card I picked up was in a trade. I traded an in person autograph from Ron Hextall for an in person autograph of this player. First off, if you don't know the story of Normand Leveille, please read an article regarding what happened to him. I will give a brief summary of what I know about him. Leveille was 19 in his rookie season with the Boston Bruins and was playing in a game against the Vancouver Canucks. He was checked into the boards by Marc Crawford and he skated back to the bench on his own power with complaints of shoulder pain and feeling dizzy. Normand then was rushed back into the locker room where he had a brain aneurysm. Leveille was in a coma for 3 weeks and this ended his hockey career. A first round pick in 1981, he actually had a bright future ahead of him. It truly is a sad story. As you can imagine, he only has 1 card due to what happened to him. 1982/83 O-Pee-Chee. Here it is:

1982/83 O-Pee-Chee Normand Leveille Rookie Card Autograph (In Person) 

What the hell was I thinking? These next 2 pickups I really don't know why I picked them up. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason other than I was bored and just felt like buying them. If anyone stumbles on this blog someday and these 2 cards spark your interest, let me know. I would definitely be open to moving them.

2010/11 UD Ice Mattias Tedenby RC 10/99

2011/12 Panini Contenders Hugh Jessiman Calder Contenders Gold RC 1/1

On the sports card site that I am a member of, I struck a deal with one of the members for this next card. Although this player is not my favorite in the world (because I am a Penguins fan), it's still not a bad card to have...

2005/06 Upper Deck Artifacts Alex Ovechkin Rookie Card 623/750

Now onto the final card of this post. All I can say is, I love my wife. She's awesome. One night I saw this card was listed on eBay and I was freaking out. A few hours later, it was gone. Fast forward to Christmas morning. In my stocking, it was the usual, gum for work, tic tacs for the truck, some Hawaiian Punch packets for work but then there was a large One-Touch Magnetic Holder with a thick card. I pulled the holder out to see what it was and BOOM!.....

2009/10 UD The Cup Tyler Myers Black Rookie Card 1/1

Like I said, I love my wife!