November Trade Recap

After a few down months, November had me make a couple of trades back and forth with other bloggers, so much so that I'm typing up the beginning of this post on November 17th, where usually I whip it up the night before I post it, or even right when I post it. But I have too much to cover to do that this month!

First up is a trade with Spazmatastic who I know from both NUTS and the Trading Card Database. Adam and I chat regularly- usually sending each other a message every night- mostly about NASCAR, and it actually evolved into a trade. (not the first we've done) First things first, I feel terrible about this trade because I promised him two cards and then couldn't find them. I made up the difference with paypal but I still feel terrible about it.
From him I got the Panini Instant card from the Charlotte race, which his favorite driver Jimmie Johnson won. Only 80 copies of this card were purchased, and he got 5 of them. I bought the first Instant NASCAR card, but I have not gotten any more on my own since then or any of the NBA ones. I meant to write a post about the Truex card I bought but I never got around to it.

I got another PWE from north of the border from CrazieJoe. included were some more Ultra cards from 2004-05, a set I love but needed a few of, luckily he's pulled more than a few of them. 5 more of them joined my collection here, including this card of Brian Cardinal. I like getting cards of big name players of course, but what I really love is to get cards of obscure guys. This is only the 14th Brian Cardinal card in my collection. Ray Allen, who was also in this PWE, has about 300 cards in my collection, for example.

Another rather obscure guy in the PWE was Willie Green, who constantly foiled Charles Barkley's attempts at "Who he play for?" I don't know how many I have of him yet as I have not scanned my collection of him, but it's probably only about 15 cards give or take.

I posted on the Trading Card Database that I was looking for a copy of the Craig Sager card from 2016 Topps Update's First Pitch insert, so member griffey423 just sent me one. Much appreciated!

New member of the Trading Card Database sahal694 is also a basketball collector and we pulled off a simple two card trade. While I've done hundreds of trades online, going back to around the year 2000, it was the first trade he'd ever done online. That's the second time in the past year I got to be somebody's first trade, but I can't remember the other one. The bubble mailer I sent to him covered from New York to Phoenix in just two days! Of the two cards he sent me, one did something that doesn't happen too often- it completed an insert set! I'm a base card guy, that's well documented, but I like non-base cards as well. Inserts getting completed for me is fairly rare, and in fact, I don't even have a list of the ones I've completed....that's definitely something I need to do! David Robinson Flagship Series was a 10-card insert set in 1992-93 Skybox, and #R6 was the last one I needed to finish it off. The Ray Allen from 1996-97 Stadium Club Rookies I brings me to within only two cards for that set, as well.

 My friend who sent me the Racing Champions card that got it's own post earlier in the month sent me some other great stuff too. And not just NASCAR!

 This is only my 3rd flag relic and first Blue Flag. The blue flag with yellow stripe is one of the rarest in NASCAR, used to signal out a lapped car in the way of the leaders, it's the second rarest flag to see, with only the reg flag displayed less frequently (although with the growing number of rain relays it's a about a draw now). Another rare flag is red with yellow X, it is displayed when the pits are closed.

Terry Bradshaw! My first card of him. While from everything I've heard he was a great football player, I know him more from his many appearances on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It's Serially Numbered to 999 as well.

While I teased the shifter boot card he sent me in the first post, I am going to hold onto that for now as I have an idea for a post that it will show up in shortly, hopefully by the end of 2016.

Thanks for reading.

NBA 20th Anniversary Countdown #6: 1996-97 Stadium Club

A set that at one point I didn't like, but as time went on I realized I really do like it- a lot!

#6: 1996-97 Stadium Club

Why I like it: The design and the memories. That's going to play a role in the entire top 5, as well

Set size/Completion: 180,  I have 178. The Database shows 100% because I have the two checklists as well, so it shows 180 of 180, when it's really 178 of 182.

As I mentioned the last time a Stadium Club card came up, they really were known for the photography. In 1996-97, the photography was really not really to the levels it would become just the next year, but it was still pretty darn good.

Each card featured a colored strip on the right that "dissolved" into the photo, and there were multiple colors. The player's name appeared in blue holofoil on an embossed holofoil strip in that color bar. When you have this set together, they are pretty much unstackable, because the name bar makes them flop over. I have not had my collection sorted by set since 2004, though, so it has not been an issue for me, and I don't think I will get my sets back together until at least 2021- probably later.

I never really realized how much I liked this set until recently. If I had made this countdown at my 15th anniversary it would have not cracked the top 10, and yet now it very nearly made the top 5!

The one big thing I dislike about this set is the way the rookies were handled. There are no rookie cards in the base set. Both series had an insert simply called "Rookies"...and both series were numbered R1-R20, with Rookies I having an R21-R25. The Series I rookies feature photos from the rookie photo shoot, while series 2 rookies have action photos.

Backs feature an action photo and a closeup shot. They also have the stat rankings like I talked about in the 1997-98 post. but I forgot that at the time I wrote that one up.

There are 18 inserts and 4 parallels, three of which I do not have in my collection. The one parallel I do have- Matrix- were only issued in series 1. It's unfortunate, as they are incredible. Some of the best parallels ever issued. They don't scan well though.

 Class Acts was available in Finest, Refractor and Atomic Refractor versions. This is a refractor, and it is double sided- this is one card.

Fusion, which was two cards per team that supposedly you could put together to make one. I don't have both versions of any team so I don't know if it works or not. The cards feature a gold holofoil that scans yellow-green.

 Golden Moments

 High Risers. The background is hologram, and the player in embossed.

 Matrix. You can kind of see how these glow in this scan

Pick Up Game. These were included in at least 4 different sets in 1996-97. Finding checklists for them is quite difficult. 

 Rookie Showcase, using holograms again. (The world needs more holograms)

 Rookie I

 Rookie II

 Shining Moments

 Special Forces

Welcome Addition. This is a forerunner to the Transactions cards that would appear as a subset in Stadium Club sets from 1997-98 through 2000-01.

Top Crop, a dual-sided insert that is printed on holographic stock. Really striking in hand, not as nice in scan.

• #20: 2002-03 Topps 10
• #19: 2004-05 Topps Total
• #18: 2002-03 Topps Pristene
• #17: 1992-93 Ultra
• #16: 1975-76 Topps
• #15 1996-97 SP
• #14 1992-93 Upper Deck
• #13 2012-13 Hoops
• #12 1997-98 Ultra
• #11 1992-93 Fleer
• #10 1994-95 Fleer
• #9 1996-97 Upper Deck
• #8 1997-98 Stadium Club
• #7 1995-96 Fleer 
• #6 1996-97 Stadium Club

Hot off the Scanner Tray Week 5

I mentioned opening some of the Journey to the Force Awakens cards in my birthday post, but I hadn't scanned them to post in the Birthday post. I scanned them shortly afterwords. I got my first Neon parallel....I was not able to capture how very bright it is in hand!

I created an album on my website where I put all the cards I got for my birthday...or at least I will, when I finish scanning them, someday. (Some of the 2012-13 Panini Brilliance are being put off indefinitely). You can see it HERE

On the subject of 2012-13 Panini Brilliance, that is a set that I really don't care much for. I'm not a fan of mirror foil and that's what the entire set is made from. To put in perspective how little I like the set, I got a box of it on sale in February 2014...and I STILL have not finished scanning it! I determined that there were 16 cards I had from the set not yet on the Database, so I finally scanned them on 10/20/15. I filled the other two slots on the pages with cards I got for my birthday so at least a couple of them will be represented in the album in a timely fashion (IE, this decade).

Not a new card, it's one of those that have been waiting since 2/14/14 to get scanned. And this is my favorite player currently in the League!

1996-97 Stadium Club is a favorite set of mine, and this is the most innovative insert from that set. Each card was die cut so that, in theory, if you had both from each team you could connect them to show the location and the team name. I don't have either card for any of the teams included so I don't know for sure if it actually works.

It is kind of a slow HOST this week, but for good reason. The first couple days of the week, I was working on transferring (copying, actually) all my files from nearly 2 dozen flash drives to my external hard drive...this meant I had to unplug my scanner to plug in each flash drive. I really love the new drive, for the first time ever I am able to have access to all my files at once- mostly photos (Including scans) but also Excel and Word files and also videos. I forgot to write down a couple of the flash drives but the ones I did write down totaled over 230,000 files!

While I was doing that, I prepped some of the previously scanned NASCAR cards. I scanned my entire collection from 2009-12 but I did a really poor job of it. Pretty much all of them need to be worked on, nearly 1/3rd need to be outright replaced. I don't enjoy the correction work so I don't do it often. I prepped two 1997 sets while I was doing the Drive work, Skybox ProFile and Racer's Choice.

I see in posting it to the blog that I need to make another correction on both of these cards. Even when I think I am done I still see something wrong many times. Can you spot what needs fixing?

On the Racer's Choice Hut Stricklin, there's some scanner scuzz in the large red R of Racer's Choice, and for the Ernie Irvan card from Pro File, there is some scanner scuzz on his sleeve at the very bottom of the card.

The other reason I didn't do a lot for this post this week, is that on the 22nd Mom surprised me with a late birthday present- a box of 2015-16 Hoops - which will get it's own post in the next day or two.

I have created a new section on my website, called "Box Breaks"  I love to open boxes of cards, and I'm going to document them there. I have been opening boxes since 1990 and I won't be able to get all the old ones done, but I will be able to get some of them from my records, and any in the future can be documented there. So far all that is in it is the Chrome Perspectives Jedi vs. Sith set I did a box break on recently. There will be more shortly, as I'm going to upload more as soon as I hit post on this post.