Friday, December 11, 2015

Raining Cats and Dawgs

Card bloggers are good people. I mean, I think we know that's a given, because only cool people take the time to write a card blog (right?) but some go above and beyond. In the past few days I received packages from bloggers with animal themed titles, and of course I have to post about said packages...it's Cardblog etiquette.

First up was a package from Angus at Dawg Day Cards. A few days ago, he posted up that he was going to give away cards to anybody who emailed him their address. I didn't do that, but I had previously made a large trade with him on the Trading Card Database, and he must have saved my address because sure enough, I got a Christmas card packed with cards!
These were the new cards- he sent me two complete promo sets and two cards from the 2015-16 Tim Horton's hockey release (those are really nice looking cards in hand, much better than my scan shows!)
He sent along all three Sun Drop cards but I had acquired one locally earlier this year. The Mario Andretti card is so detailed it even includes the date he came to the USA and the date he became a US citizen.

The next day saw the arrival of a large package from The Prowling Cat. He has been running a "cleaning out the clutter" series of posts where if you want something he's got up for cleaning, claim it and then figure out what to send him back later. (He likes pocket schedules, of which I've got one headed his way shortly with some other stuff). I claimed three sets, which is way more than I'm going to be able to scan and get posted in anything resembling a timely order...so I'll post an example of each set, instead.
First up was Bon Air Fire Engines Series 1. The Fire Engines series is actually the largest automotive themed set ever, including racing sets, at 500 cards, 100 per 5 series. I had a couple of packs' worth that I got when they were new, but only from series 2.
Next was Series 4, which is cards #301-400. The fronts look very similar but the location of the fire engine photographed is much more prominent. On series 1 and 2 it appears on the back of the card only.
How cool is a green fire truck? Green has always been my favorite color, but I've never seen a green fire engine before. That's why I chose this example to post.

The first two series' backs are white and light yellow, like so:

  
 Speedway, Indiana is of course the home of Indianapolis Motor Speedway...which is why it's called Speedway. Neat, huh?

Series 4 has this very obviously 1990s yellow and blue flame scheme on the back of the cards. What a great decade it was. I have no idea what series 3 and 5 look like on the back. Series 5 was not produced by Bon-Air, but by another company, I can't remember which one right now. It was also issued several years later. Continued the numbering series though so to me it's the same series. I won't consider it complete until I have all 500 cards. With the package that prowled to me this week, I now have more than 200 of them, so that's a pretty good start.
 

The first set I claimed, but the last to come out of the box, was the 1994 Cardz Hanna-Barbera Classics set, which is 60 cards, and he sent along all of them. 2015 has been a down year for me completing sets, so it was extra nice to get a full one all at once. The set is a little frustrating, though, in that they did not produce cards of some of my favorite cartoons. For example, Wacky Races does not have a card, yet both it's spinoffs do. Instead, they gave multiple shows 5 cards (Yogi Bear, Flintstones, Jetsons, Scooby Doo and Jonny Quest). All of those long-running shows could probably have supported their own card set. Also, they use up 8 cards on magic tricks. Those were totally unnecessary, especially as there were so many shows that didn't get a card or even a mention. The production quality was high, and I'm glad to have them, I just wish they had been a little wiser with subject selection. I have grown up watching most of these cartoons, and if they were still on, I'd still watch them. (Wacky Races is one of only 4 TV shows I've seen every single episode of, thanks to the DVD set)
Here's a Scooby Doo card.
It's actually funny, although I was actively collecting non-sports cards when these were issued in the 1990s, I've gotten more cards from the Cardz company in 2015 than I did new. In addition to the 60 cards of this set, I also completed the Muppets set earlier this year.

And wait, there's more! The box he used to send them to me was not quite full, so to keep the cards from flopping around and getting damaged, he stuffed the remainder of the box with late 1990s NASCAR cards! Most were from 1999, which, for some reason, I got very, very few cards of. Here's a small sampling of what I received, there are more I didn't yet scan.
1999 Upper Deck Road to the Cup #85

2000 Wheels High Gear #31. I love car shots, by the way!

1998 Collector's Choice #105

1999 Wheels #61

1996 Maxx #46. Maxx's last flagship...not the best design but the one I have the least of, so this was very welcome!

1999 Upper Deck Victory Circle #4

1998 Collector's Choice CC600 #CC11

1998 Collector's Choice CC600 #CC9
1998 Collector's Choice CC600 #CC42

1995 Action Packed Winston Cup Country #16


8 comments:

  1. Those Andretti cards are superb! Where do they come from?

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    1. Billy, hope you don't mind if I jump in here.

      They are 1991 K-Mart promos of some sort. I found them last March at a table selling cards at a flea market in Phoenix while I was on vacation. I picked them up for Billy there and finally mailed them with the Christmas card.

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    2. Thanks for the info! I'm a big time Indy fan and I'd never seen those before.

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    3. I don't mind at all...I have no idea how they were originally sold either, I just know they were called 1991 K-Mart. Tony, do you have any of the 1992 All-World Indy set? I have a bunch of them left over from when I did a box circa 2011 if you are interested. Almost a complete set, but not quite complete. They were bad with set colation, I got 4 or 5 copies of some cards but only 1 of some.

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  2. Replies
    1. That's really been the theme of all of 2015 for me!

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  3. Big fan of Wacky Races myself. Never noticed that they didn't have any cards in the set. I'm planning on putting a bunch of stuff in binders in 2016, and reading this post has me thinking that I shouldn't just toss cards in a binder, but look them over, and enjoy them more while doing it.

    It wasn't for a few years that I ever saw that the fire engines series 5 was ever made. To this day I still haven't pulled the trigger on adding a set so I can complete the series. I should as they made a binder for the series, and it has this big hole of empty pages where that set should go.

    Now that I know you are soft in the late 90's NASCAR you might be in trouble. I have quite a few of those so if you create a wantlist at some point I bet I could do some damage to it. Either that or you might just find a box one day at your doorstep full of those.

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    1. I know what you mean...I didn't use to appreciate my cards as much as I do now. For a long time it was all about the acquiring them, now it's more about appreciating them. I actually take the time to read new additions now, where back in the 90s and early 2000s I didn't do that.

      I do have a partial wantlist on the Database, with a link under my "membership" section here. I only put sets that I had enough of that buying a box would be wasteful though. For 1999 I only have a lot of flagship Press Pass and Wheels High Gear, which I got a box of for Christmas 2013. (You still managed to find two cards I needed for the set, though!) Basically everything not in my collection already is my wantlist :) 1998-99-00 are the years I have the least of. Kind of strange as 1998 was my favorite season as well. At least I finally completed 1998 Maxx Year in Review, one of my all-time favorite NASCAR sets. Thank you again!

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