2018 Card of the Day: January

As you may recall, in 2018 I am trying to get at least one new card every single day of the year, in celebration of my 30th anniversary in the hobby. January was a resounding success, as I was able to get a new card every day. (The last time I tried this, in 2015, I got into mid February before I messed up and failed. I've been stashing cards away since!) I have the posts, written like this, of the first time I tried this in my drafts folder. I might not ever show them, or I might, now that this version is going live...and I'm actually checking every day to make sure I am actually getting something new.

January 1st:

2000-01 Fleer Futures Copper #194

 To ensure that the project would start with an Elton, I had my mom going though the box of cards from COMC that arrived in December to find one.

January 2nd:

2016-17 Fleer Showcase Flair Showcase #13

 While she was rooting out an Elton, I had her pull out and hold onto a Henrik Lundqvist for January 2nd.

January 3rd:

1992 Maxx International Motorsports Hall of Fame #3

 I wanted NASCAR to be represented next, but Dale Jr.'s cards were a little too expensive at that time on COMC, so there were none in the box. Instead, I pulled a pack out a box Angus sent me quite a while ago and the first card out of the pack was new. Interestingly, the contents of the pack completed the set for me, but I didn't list my cards in my paper listing until January 21st so I didn't know that for a while!

January 4th:

2015-16 Upper Deck Contours Jumbo Fabrics #JJ-CG

 This one came out randomly from the COMC box. In the post linked to above, it was the card in the toploader by itself in the box. I got it because I liked the fact that they wore bright orange, but it's not really creamsicle orange as it scanned. It's darker than that. My first relic from the team.

January 5th:

2005-06 Bowman Chrome Refractor #9

 I really love refractors, and I really love serially numbered cards, so I picked up several on COMC. A random COMC box pull.

January 6th:

2018 Sports Illustrated For Kids #692

 I maintain a subscription to the magazine mostly to get the cards, but I actually read it, too- even if I am months down. Unlike regular SI, which I also read, the SI for Kids actually covers sports besides Football and Baseball.

January 7th:

1994 Star V.I. Model Search #15

 This was a gift from a Trading Card Database member who has asked to remain nameless. I'm never going to complain about a gift like this!

January 8th:

2001-02 Inspirations #161

 Another random COMC box pull. This was a redemption card when first issued, and I'm slowly working on the set. There are more from it in the COMC box waiting to be pulled.

January 9th:

1999-00 Black Diamond Diamond Cuts #91

 Another random COMC box pull, and another Elton. That's something you're going to see a couple more times in this post. Being my all-time favorite NBA player will do that.

January 10th:

2000-01 Ovation Center Stage Act 2 #CS7

 See caption for above!

January 11th:

2016-17 Panini Threads #199

 Came out of a pack. My first card of him, even though I got a hobby box for Christmas.

January 12th:

2017 C2 Cigars Trading Card Database Cards Canvas #BC-AD

 A gift from C2 himself! (The only other member of the Database I've met in person). I did not take every card out of the envelope, so expect to see this set again.

January 13th:

2013-14 Panini Titanium New Wave #68

 Random out of the COMC box. My first NBA card of him, he also appears in the BBM B.League set but since that's not NBA, this counts as #1. My first autograph of 2018 (I was mistaken when I mentioned that previously)

January 14th:

1948-49 Bowman #27

 Not every day I get to add a card from the first basketball card set ever! In fact, in my 22 years collecting the NBA, this is only the 8th I've been able to hunt down. I got this one with the $10 bonus I got from COMC for shipping over 200 cards in August, I decided to treat myself. It came out of the box randomly. John Norlander may or may have only ever gotten this one card. The Database shows one issued by Converse in 1970 but I'm not sure if they are something I would count or not. Either way, it's my first card of him.

January 15th:

2004-05 Upper Deck Sweet Shot #100

 These shadow boxes are a pain in the butt to scan. It requires my 3rd-string scanner, which I basically only use for neons, currency and deep cards, like this one. It's in such bad shape (the glass is delaminating) that I basically have to reconstruct the scan manually. It's one of only a handful of cards Miralles got, and the first in my collection. Came from COMC box.

January 16th:

2017-18 Panini Stickers #26

 This one came from a pack. I really have begun to enjoy the sticker sets, wish I had gotten them in previous years...I've never once gotten one in a repack.

January 17th:

1996-97 Fleer #279

 A gift from David Switzer on the Database, this is one of my favorite sets, but I still have a lot of holes in my series 2 collection. One less now!

January 18th:

2015-16 Fleer Showcase Flair Showcase Materials #55

 This is the closest I came to killing the project all month. I forgot about it, and my mom asked me after 11 PM that night if I had done my card of the day....I hadn't! So I reached into the COMC box and this one came out. My first Jets relic.

January 19th:

2014 Upper Deck 25th Anniversary Silver #26

 A multi-sport card makes an appearance. I would never have known this card existed but I did a search on COMC for serially numbered Rangers cards and this one popped up. It popped into my cart and popped out of the COMC box. I promise, no more wordplay in this post!

January 20th:

2008-09 Topps #175

 This one came from a local dealer. Excellent shot taken in the old Boston Garden, of two of the greatest to ever play the game. Bonus points to Topps for using the black and white Celtics logo, which is period correct.

January 21st:

1991-92 Topps #78

 You may remember the post where I showed off a pretty epic mailday from SumoMenkoMan. He got some cheapo hockey boxes at a local shop and sent them my way, for which I am forever grateful. They are going to be appearing in this project quite a bit, as it's much more likely I will get a new hockey card out of a pack than I would an NBA or NASCAR pack of the same period. There were only two packs of 1991-92 Topps but I chose one of them to be the first to appear in the project. I really like this design- I wish Topps had come back to the NBA one year sooner so I could have seen it used there, too.

January 22nd:

1953-54 Topps World on Wheels #148

 Even though I got this on January 22nd, this is actually a Christmas present. My brother gave me $100 in COMC funds to spend as I saw fit, and I decided to hit non-sports cards with the majority of it. You've seen some of the posts (Post 1 Post 2) but I still have two more that I need to write entirely and one more I need to finish, which I hope to do all of in the next week or so. I thought to look for some from this set while writing my Top 30 Non-Sports Set countdown- which seems to have become sort of a Blog Bat-A-Round as The Shlabotnik Report, Fuji, and even Night Owl did their own, my first time being linked on the most well-known blog in the Cardsphere.

January 23rd:

1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier #39

 Another one from the box of boxes from SumoMenkoMan. I have not learned hockey well enough yet- I will- and I keep having to turn this one over to see if it is 1991-92 or 1992-93. Sports that have seasons that are part of two years should NEVER be listed as one!

January 24th:

2006-07 Bee Hive #23

 A gift from CrazieJoe, this also happened to be my first card from the set! The same PWE it arrived in also included a new Elton for me, one of his rejects from the Santa lot.

January 25th:

2005-06 Ice #177

 This one is another from the COMC box. It has a lot going for it- Ice is becoming a favorite brand in hockey, because of the clear plastic factor, as this card is, and it's serially numbered! As you all know by now I'm majorly addicted to SN cards. I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce "Artyukhin" though.

January 26th:

2003-04 Topps Chrome Refractor #42

 I sort of binged on Elton cards on COMC a while back, and I had to get this Refractor. Refractors are my favorite parallel concept in cardboard history (Oops, another wordplay pun), Elton is my favorite player, and this is my favorite Topps NBA set- I think. I can't really make up my mind, but it's definitely a contender.

I think I can actually complete the base set at some point. I was lucky enough to pull the LeBron from the box I did when the set was new, as well as the Carmelo and Dwyane Wade, so I have the expensive cards already. I'm working on it, and there are about a half dozen cards from the base set still waiting to be found in the COMC box. I didn't get the Refractors of either of those three key rookies so completing this parallel is out the window, unless I win the lottery.

Janaury 27th:

1993 Upper Deck Authenticated Classic Confrontations Super Bowl XIX

 Funny/aggrivating story about this one- CelticWolfCo on the Trading Card Database bought a collection that had bunches and bunches of copies of this and a Wayne Gretzky oversize card from UD Authentics, and when he posted that he didn't know what he was going to do with them all, I replied that he could send one to me...and he did! He put them in the mail on November 13th, but they didn't show up to my PO box until January 27th. The PO lost them somewhere. But, when I finally did get them, they were in perfect shape and this one happened to come out of the envelope first. I had actually completely forgotten, and when I got the envelope I had no idea what was going to be in there.

January 28th:

1995-96 Upper Deck Electric Court #310

 I talked about this card and what it means to me in my last post. (Here for easy clickability) I have to admit of the entire list, this one is the most important to me and will likely get the nod for "Card of the Month" when I do my yearly countdown on December 31st.

January 29th:

1991-92 Pro Set Platinum #166

 Another from the SumoMenkoMan boxes. Cool throwback uniform, too. The one bad thing about Pro Set Platinum- the player's name does not appear on the card front, and on the back it's in cursive. Not always easy to figure out who is who, but this is Michel Goulet. He was not a prospect, which is how Pro Set signified rookies, making this a UER. What's even better- I had a bunch of Series 1 but comparatively little series 2. Now, I have a box of Series 2 with only one pack removed- this one- so I will probably be able to complete it. And, despite the high gloss nature of the set, they were not sticking in the least, something you always have to worry about with 90s cards that remain unopened.

January 30th:

2005-06 Topps Chrome #255

This card came out of my COMC box, and is from the only set that ever gave the D-League cards. Being a Chrome set they are not easy to come by, but I'm slowly knocking them down off my needs list. Also, in the D-League portion of the set, only two of the players got NBA cards, so almost every one is a new person for my collection, and Otis George is no exception.

January 31st:

2013-14 Select #4

Remember at the start I said I had been building a stash to do this project since 2015? Well, finally, on the last day of the month, I dipped into it. I last visited a semi-local shop in September 2014, where I purchased a 550 count box that the store collates with lots of cards in it. I had saved some of the box, cards unseen, until 2015 when I tried to do a Cards Every Day for the first time, and failed. Well, I decided later in 2015 that I would not try again in 2016, I would save it and do it in 2018 for my 30th anniversary in the hobby. So those cards have been patiently waiting now, in my possession but not in my collection- and never having been seen by me- for more than 3 years. (And they aren't even the longest tenured cards in my unopened stash)
When I failed this project in 2015, it was actually this very set that was the problem. I have never opened a pack from this set, all the cards in my collection- 34, with the three I pulled out of the box today- came from the mixed boxes this dealer sells. I was sure that I didn't have one of the cards I pulled out- Derrick Favors, I remember- and I didn't bother to check for almost a week. I go on to the Database and check my paper listing- and it's there. Many days have gone by. The project had failed halfway through February. I am making sure, in 2018, that I am checking the day I get them- and it's a good thing too, as the first card from this set, that I didn't remember having-I not only already had, but posted the scan to the Database myself. Luckily, this time I checked, and put that one on the duplicate stash where it belongs. The next card up was this Dragic, which I needed. A good reminder to check, and not trust my memory, or else I could fail this project again.

It is, of course, the largest and hardest project I've ever attempted to do. Month #1 was a complete success. Just 11 more to go...

Also, I want to add that I am maintaining the list (mostly) daily on the Trading Card Database. It includes the scans of the card backs, which you aren't getting on here. If I don't have my scanner plugged in, which is rare but does happen, I sometimes don't update for a few days or don't have it open. But.... here's the list.