Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Total Blaster 14 + JBF Christmas Tradeathon + NHL #3000!

Kind of late to get this posted tonight, but I have two topics to cover and one of them led to a milestone.

First up, because I opened it first, is my 14th Total Blaster, and although the picture is not good, the blaster it self was a great one...probably my favorite so far.
They are all new, which is nice. Jamie McMurray base, Drew Herring red parallel, the Carl Edwards Acceleration and the Ned Jarrett Hall of Fame placque...Herring was only ever included in this set, it's my second card of him, I have the base version already. With the Edwards Acceleration I'm now one card away from completing the insert.
Here we go! I mentioned in the very first post of this series I was hoping to get some of the tires from the first Eldora race- NASCAR's first major race on dirt since 1971. I had pulled race winner (I think, memory is not so good) Austin Dillon from one of the two blasters I did when the set was new, and now I've pulled Jeb Burton. This is the gold version, clearly SN to 50. This is my favorite card of the project so far. It looks better than my cell phone photo shows.

Next up, I got my trade package from Wes at Jaybarkerfan's Junk in his Christmas Tradeathon. While I regret missing the Andrew Wiggins relic he offered, I still got some great stuff. I will be getting his return into the mail on Friday, I didn't have his address so I had to wait and get it off his return address!
What you see here: 2014-15 Totally Certified Materials Red #82 Julius Randle
2013 Panini Black Friday #40 Trey Burke. Bonus points for this being a set not in my collection, which I didn't realize when I claimed it!
2015-16 Panini Prizm Prizm #243 Alonzo Mourning
2011-12 (I think) Pinnacle Threads #56 Erik Johnson (More below)
2011-12 Past & Present Bread for Energy #12 Kevin Durant
This is actually the exact 3000th NHL Hockey card in my collection! It actually only got that milestone number because I found that 6-card panel in my stash, which I posted about recently but had totally forgotten I had. Not only is this #3000, it's also my first actual NHL relic...and it's a patch! (SN 49/50 on the back too!)
Pretty darn cool. The relic has a different texture than I am used to- the NBA relics that I've got literally thousands of and the NASCAR relics I have hundreds of, the cloth used, none of them feel like this. That might be because hockey uniforms are meant to played on the cold ice, where NBA players are trying to minimize heat, and inside a NASCAR racecar usually hovers around 150 degrees Fahrenheit so they definitely don't want to add any more heat.
No matter what, this card will always be important to me as my first relic from the sport, and a Milestone card at that! (I'm obsessed with the milestone/thousand cards. Don't know why, just is). Once I find this set's listing on the Trading Card Database, it will appear on this list I linked to as well.

7 comments:

  1. Wait...there is actually a driver named Carl Edwards? lol, I knew the Cubs pitcher had a NASCAR-sounding name. I saw you snag that Erik Johnson during the tradeathon, didn't know it was such a milestone for you. And those 'bread for energy' inserts have always caught my eye because...its just such an odd name. I'm sure there's a story behind it.

    Oh, and can you e-mail me your address? I know it was on the box you sent me but I tossed it in the recycling...and I have a card to send your way. ;)

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    1. I definitely thought you knew that when you made that comment on my post - I guess it is a very NASCAR-ish name!

      Also, it absolutely blew my mind that NASCAR returned to the dirt while I was away from the sport. I was always fascinated by the ARCA races that were still held on dirt tracks and hoped NASCAR would try it. Now, how amazing would it be to see the Cup series in such a spectacle?

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    2. Yep! Carl's been in Cup since 2004. When I claimed the Johnson I didn't know it was going to be #3000...I thought it was going to be #2999 until I found that promo panel. The Bread for sets are throwbacks to regional issues from the late 50s or early 60s. The originals are pretty rare and usually in really bad shape because they were used as ends in loaves of bread. I don't have any but someday I would like to get my hands on them. I think they were multi-sport but they may have been basketball only. Panini did three versions, Health, Life and Energy, not sure how many originals there were. I got 8 of them in the box of 11-12 Past & Present I did. Thank you! I will send you my address when I get on my computer, on my tablet now.

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    3. Tony I would love to see Cup back on dirt...I tried to get a grassroots campaign going to put dirt down at North Wilkesboro but got no support.

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  2. Billy-Thanks for explaining the history of those 'bread' cards.. and Tony, I'm sure the name was buried in my subconscious somewhere and I didnt make the connection..but my NASCAR knowledge is pretty pathetic. Richard Petty, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhart, Dale Jr and Jimmie Johnson are the only drivers I know for sure.

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  3. The dirt track relic is an interesting idea.

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