May 2018 Card of the Day

May is a special month for this project. Way back in 2002, I got a card every day in the month of May, something that at this point I can't remember if I planned, or if it started out well and then I forced it, either way, it was the first time I ever got a card every day in a month...which I'm trying to do every day of this entire year, to celebrate my 30th anniversary in the hobby. Back then, I was pretty much collecting NBA only, with occasional single packs of a NASCAR release...and sometime in 2002 I got some Star Wars cards. But I didn't document when I got them, the project was only NBA then.

Now, my collection has multiple aspects that take up almost equal time. As is well documented, I'm still collecting the NBA, NASCAR and Non-Sports...but I've since added the NHL. Those are the big 4 for me, so I decided to do a week of each...

Week 1 started out as hockey. I hadn't planned it yet, but got two hockey cards to start the month, and decided what I was going to do on day #3.

May 1st:

2015-16 Upper Deck Overtime Flash of Excellence #FOE-13

My favorite NHL player starts us off, with an insert off COMC.

May 2nd:

2012-13 Score Gold Rush #156

This one came out of a pack I had in my pack stash, which I opened for the project. The Gold Rush parallels were one per pack. 2012-13 Score is one of my favorite NHL sets.

May 3rd:

2011-12 Panini Contenders #107

It was on the third, with this card out of my COMC box, when I decided to do the month in weeks. I'm glad I got to see the very tail end of Iginla's career. I wish he had played in the 2017-18 season because I think he still could have contributed.

May 4th:

2015-16 Upper Deck Puck Wizards #PW-2

This was packed loose in with a single packed blister pack that I got at my local TRU. I still need to write up the post about the cards I got there in my final visit, which was in early April.

May 5th:

1991-92 Stadium Club #365

This one came from my pack stash...did it late at night because most of the day was spent on building models. Lucked out in it being a Ranger!

May 6th:

2014-15 MVP #45

When I first began actively collecting the NHL in January of last year I began to build a pack stash, and this one has been with me since then.

May 7th:

1995-96 Finest #136

Back in September of last year when I was in Lake George, I got some store-collated repacks of both NBA and NHL, which have appeared in this project a few times. This one came from there. For what it's worth, store collated repacks is where roughly 40% of my NBA collection has come from and its my favorite way to get cards.

Later on May 7th, my order from Dave & Adam's arrived with the case of 2017-18 Revolution I bought. As you may recall, the case was frustrating and the way it ended up did not leave me very happy. My plan was to do a box a day for an entire week, which I did. However, the last box was 100% duplicates, so I had to pull from my COMC stash.

May 8th:

2017-18 Revolution Chinese New Year #121

Even though the set is only 150 cards, and I got more than 200 duplicates, I did NOT get the Tatum base card in the case. I eventually purchased one on COMC but have not shipped it yet.

May 9th:

2017-18 Revolution #42

Speaking of frustration, Brook Lopez was my favorite Net, and the last one left from the New Jersey days. He would have moved into first on most of the Nets' all-time statistical categories during 2017-18, but the Nets traded him to the Lakers, largely because the media kept hammering away that he MIGHT leave as a free agent, even though he never gave any indication he would do that. I was so frustrated by this move that I have not posted anything on Nothing But Nets since then...and I watched fewer Nets games in 2017-18 than I have in a full season than any other year I was watching the NBA. Can you guess what I think of Nets management?

May 10th:

2017-18 Revolution Chinese New Year #103

The Revolution packs had a pattern. The Chinese New Year Rookies would fall one in every three packs, and the first pack in the box was ALWAYS a rookie. You see them a lot in this project because the three base cards before them in the packs were usually duplicates. In fact, all the CNY parallels you will see in this post are Rookies. I tried to fix it so that a veteran parallel would be the first card of the day, by not taking the first pack out of the box...but they were all duplicates. Story of the set.

May 11th:

2017-18 Revolution Chinese New Year #105

 I am running out of things to say about this set. So I will say that the Hornets v2's light blue looks nice over the foil. Most of the set features very dark colors.

May 12th:

2017-18 Revolution Chinese New Year #138

I was hoping to pull this card in the project. Zhou Qi is the only Chinese player in the NBA during the 2017-18 season so I thought it only fitting to make the only Chinese player the cover image of the Chinese New Year set on the Trading Card Database.

May 13th:

2017-18 Revolution #81

A base card, not a parallel. For some reason, Panini did not include Joel Embiid in this set. Well, I think I know the reason. Ineptitude!

May 14th:

2003-04 UD Legends #123

Since the box of Revolution I did that day was ALL 100% Duplicates I had to pull a card from my COMC box. It's hard to see in the scan but this is numbered.

Since I got the case, making the NBA second in this month, I decided to go backwards through my hobby career. I began collecting the NHL in 2016-17, the NBA in 1996-97, and NASCAR at Christmas 1992. Non-Sports began in 1988 so you will see NASCAR next, then Non-Sports.

May 15th:

2009 Legends Gold #11

The Flock family was very important in early NASCAR- youngest brother Tim still holds the best winning percentage in a season, in fact, almost 70 years later. Bob was the oldest of four siblings who raced in NASCAR- Bob, Fonty, Tim and their sister Ethel- and this photo probably is from 1950 or 51. The card came from my COMC box, one of only two NASCAR cards left in the box I got in the mail in December 2017. The next box I get, whenever that will be, is going to be about half NASCAR.

May 16th:

1990 Maxx Glossy #1

The 1990 Maxx set is an interesting one, and hard to scan. The green border is made to look like neon, and it's significantly brighter than the scan shows, although not actually neon. The Glossy version was only available in a factory set, but not every factory set. It may have been Club Maxx only, I'm not sure as I had not yet discovered NASCAR at the time. Angus sent me the glossy version in 2016 or so and I've been holding on to it. I got it out for this project.  Terry is my mom's favorite driver.

May 17th:

1999 Wheels High Gear #33

This one is a first for the 2018 Card of the Day project- it completed a set! I got a hobby box of this set for Christmas 2013 and had been holding onto a pack since then. (well, most of one, as I pulled the one-per-pack First Gear parallel out a while ago.). That paint scheme of Jeff's is such an icon of my favorite era in NASCAR.

May 18th:

2009 Stealth Retail #28

My NASCAR pack stash is running pretty low. This set was a staple of it for a while, as it was very common in repacks, so common in fact that I've nearly completed it from repacks! However, with opening this pack, I have finally run out of it, and my local Target doesn't stock NASCAR repacks anymore. I don't really like the set all that much, but I still want to complete it. Collecting and mental stability are not really compatible!

May 19th:

2017 Absolute Racing Tools of the Trade #TT-AJ

Knowing I was running low on NASCAR stuff in my stash, and hoping to find 2018 Donruss, my brother took me to Target. It has not been restocked since before Christmas, 2018 Donruss was never in the store. In fact, this single blaster of last year's Absolute was the ONLY NASCAR in the store. So naturally, he bought it for me. I did 4 blasters of this set, and two of them had AJ Allmendinger sheet metal pieces, but they are both good ones- this is 3 color and the first, visible in the February Card of the Day project post- was part of the secondary grillwork. Unfortunately, as is typical for Panini, both the base cards were duplicates. (I have less than 10 cards from the set)

May 20th:

1995 Upper Deck #234

With this card, I'm totally out of NASCAR packs in my pack stash! Like 1999 WHG, I got a box of this set for Christmas 2013 and have been holding it. I got three cards out of this pack, but Jeff was the first. I really like this set, hopefully someday I can get a box of Series 1. (Edit to add: I found a few more NASCAR packs stashed away on May 31st, but there probably isn't going to be anything new in them. Will be mixed into the project at some point)

May 21st:

2005 Legends Greatest Moments #GM18

That really WAS a great moment. One of the most thrilling finishes in NASCAR history, I'll never forget seeing it live on my TV. I've posted the video in the past. It turned out to be the final win for Pontiac in NASCAR history, GM pulled them out of the sport after that season and shut the doors on them shortly afterwords. It also turned out to be Craven's final career win (of 2).

May 22nd:

Moving into Non-Sports, I figured a good way to start was with one of the cards from the custom set made by one of the Trading Card Database members OF the Trading Card Database members. Joe here has helped me out a few times with cards, and if you remember back when I first got into the NHL, he sent me a care package of Devils cards, which I got a post titled "The Devils made me do it!" out of, to this day one of my favorite post titles ever.

May 23rd:

2013 Beach Boys #44

I've been a fan of the Beach Boys for many years. I began listening to 60s music when I was in 7th grade- which was 1997/98 season. While my friends were listening to Eminem and Britney Spears, I was listening to the Beach Boys, Grass Roots, Jan & Dean and more. To this day the 1964-74 time period is my all time favorite in music history and the Beach Boys one of my top 5 favorite groups of all time. Then...in December 2016...we found out the Wilsons and Mike Love are very distant cousins. Couldn't be a better group to be connected to, even remotely, in my opinion. While I was composing this post, the Music Choice Solid Gold Oldies channel played "God Only Knows" a few moments ago, in fact! (As I type, however, it's Gary Puckett & The Union Gap's "Over You"). After saying for many years I need to chase this set, I finally ordered a hobby box from Dave & Adam's.

May 24th:

2000 Artbox Simpsons Film Cards #31

This set has appeared several times in this project. I love the Simpsons, my favorite TV show ever. Until last season I'd seen every episode but I missed three last year and 2 or 3 this year. I will catch them on FXX or DVD eventually. The fact that I've lost my streak of seeing everything actually gnaws at me quite a bit, I need to fix that and not miss any next season.

May 25th:

1994 Star Hooters #52

A friend from the Database sent me a factory sealed box of this set, and this was the first card out of the box...I don't usually show the girlie cards on Cardboard History though I do collect them...several of the cards in this set show the models wearing Alan Kulwicki jackets and shirts. That makes them NASCAR cards, right? :)

May 26th:

1992 Pacific The Story of WWII #87

I spent the day at the Military Encampment at FDR's Home in Hyde Park, NY, so I figured it was a good day to get some military history into the project. I bought a box of this set on Ebay in 2014 and have been going through it slowly ever since. History is one of my absolute favorite topics, although not the largest in my non-sports collection, yet.

May 27th:

2012 E-Max Angry Birds #5

When I started building a pack stash circa 2012/2013, these were some of the first cards added, and I still have a few packs left. I decided to pull one out for this project. I currently store the scans for these, and count them as "Oddball", but I almost wonder if I should move them to my animals heading...should Angry Birds be with Useful Birds? Something to ponder....

May 28th:

1999 Episode I Widevision #29

I used to be a HUGE Star Wars fan...then Disney got it and is trying their best to destroy it. It no longer really plays a role in my life. But, since it is so important to the earlier stages of my life, I figured it should be represented in this non-sports week, and in fact, closes it out. I have had these packs in my stash since before Disney flushed it down the drain, and all the cards were stuck together and took damage. Luckily this one didn't take much damage so I was able to pull a decent scan out of it for this project. Even though collecting Star Wars cards came to an almost full stop at the end of 2015, it still ranks 1st with most Non-Sports cards in my collection, with more than 2000. That concludes the four weeks of my 4 main aspects of my collection...but it leaves three days....

May 29th:

1997 Hi-Tech NHRA Autographs #HT-4

Only the second autograph I've pulled out of a pack in 2018, I certainly chose a good pack to represent the 5th aspect of my collection- the other sports! In retrospect, I probably should have saved this pack for the 30th, because my monthly subscription of SI for Kids arrived later in the day, giving me 9 new Multi-Sport cards, and the lead off card was even NBA this time. Oh well, I still got a great card. This pack came to me from my friend Josh Lones, a regular on the Database, well over a year ago.

May 30th:

2012 Goodwin Champions #80

I wanted to get some Multi-Sport into the project, and Goodwin Champions is the only multi-sport stuff I have in my pack stash, so it HAD to be them. The 2012 set had only 4 cards in each pack, and 1 of them out of here was a duplicate. I'm not an MMA fan by any means but from what I've been told this guy is one of the best.

May 31st:

1990 Topps #216

Closing out the month totally randomly, with a card from my favorite baseball set ever, really. This one came to me via Jon of A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts.

Now that I got through May doing theme weeks, I will go back to random stuff. It was more enjoyable for me in the first 4 months of the year than May turned out to be, but I'm glad I did it all the same, since May holds the distinction of being the first time I ever tried this! June will bring the halfway mark for the project, well, the completion of June will anyway, and it looks like I'm actually going to be able to pull this off. I had some trepidation when I started but now I'm confident I can do it...