30 Day Challenge 28: A favorite relic

This one, again, is an easy one and I didn't have to think about which card to show...I just had to locate my scan of it.

 

I have actually shown this card before, when I first got it.  It's a sheet metal card, so it's heavy. And it's got a large part of the Coors Light Pole contingency. It's my favorite relic in my collection by far, and I've got lots of them. I may be a base card guy first and foremost, but I'm within a couple of years away from hitting 3000 relic cards. I can't resist a cheap relic.

Mail Day, a Clamshell and 2 packs- Cardboard History's First Ever New Addition Update!

I may not be able to bring in new cards like I once did, but I still get as many as I can (of course, we all do that, right?) and I have gotten all these cards since I started Cardboard History- in fact, I was in the middle of typing up the Welcome Message when the first batch arrived to me. It took me a couple days to scan everything, and during that time, my brother surprised me with a clamshell of NBA cards, and two packs of 2014-15 Prestige.

The Mail Day was a good one- I had purchased a lot of 31 NASCAR cards off an acquaintance on Facebook, and 30 of them are numbered.

Some 2013 Legends parallels led the way:

There were also some cards from 2013 Showcase as well. Note that the Clint Bowyer is one of the purple parallels numbered to 13.

There were four gold parallels from 2014 Total Memorabilia, two of which were new people for my collection- Tanner Berryhill and Ryan Gifford. As you'll see in future posts, getting a new person for my collection is something I particularly enjoy- my goal is to have everyone who has had a card issued in my collection. One of my goals anyway! Unfortunately, gold foil generally does not scan well, and appears black. It's not.

The horizontally based cards don't combine well with the others, so they are here. I now have two of the 10 Showroom cards from 2013 Showcase. I am seriously thinking about trying to complete the set. I don't chase inserts very often, but I really like this one.

And finally, the color proofs. I am not a huge fan of these. I will still chase them (I AM an OCD completest, after all!) but they aren't my favorites. They also do pink, which are common (and hideous) and yellow, which are the hardest to find, and I don't have a single one in my collection.

There is one more card that I combined with the clamshell cards. Coming up later. There were also two cards out of the lot that I really, really like.
First up, is one of the Showcase parallels, and I didn't even realize it when I was looking at the lot, it's a Red, serially numbered 9 of 10, of Bobby Labonte. This is my second Bobby Labonte card numbered to 10.

And this one. I am not sure which of these two cards I am posting individually are my favorite from the lot. It's hard to argue against a card numbered to 10...but this one makes a strong case!

2013 Legends Famous Feats Holofoil #FF7, Ernie Irvan's car, serially numbered 01/99. Ernie was my favorite driver until he retired, and remains tied as my favorite. And it's serially numbered 1, something I always have enjoyed getting. I didn't notice it was 01 when I bought it.

Yesterday, my brother took a trip to Target, and he brought me back some cards. A pleasant and fun surprise. He got me two packs of 2014-15 Prestige, and in one of them I pulled a Bonus Shots Purple card of Shabazz Napier, SN 46/49. Every year it seems like there is one or two rookies that I get more cards of proportionally than other rookies, and it looks like Napier is going to be that one for this year- it's already my 4th card of him, and the year is only two sets out, for me anyway. It's on the bottom right.

Then there's the clamshell. They are a proverbial crapshoot, because you never know what you are going to find in them. Most of the time, they are more often that not duplicates, which, when you have as many cards as I do, can only be expected I suppose. But occasionally they will be one that yields 20 or more new cards. Sadly, this was not one of them. The majority of the cards in this one were duplicates. This one yielded only 7 new cards. It's not the least new I've gotten out of one of them (that "record" is 3). But the cards it added to my collection are all good ones!

The 1991-92 Upper Deck card, Doug West, was a surprise. I am glad I checked, because I had assumed it was a duplicate- I was 13 cards away from the complete, 500 card set, and this was one of them! I now have 488 of 500, or 97.6% of the cards, according to the Trading Card Database.
I'm not as close on the 1994-95 Ultra set. The Marty Conlon card here is my 264th of 350, or 75.4%.
The 1996-97 Z-Force set was one of my favorites when it was new, but as time goes on I'm less enthused about it, when I was young I was swayed by flashy designs and whatnot, but now as I've gotten older, perhaps more mature, I value actual photography and shun designs where it's just the player over some fake backdrop- just like the Z-Force design. Counting the Hakeem card here, I have 182 of the 200 cards, or 91%. In case you can't tell, I love the feature of the Database that automatically calculates the percentage of the set in your collection :)
I'm not really a fan of college cards, but this one is new. The design is fine, but I am really only interested in pro cards- almost all of my college collection has arrived to me through the mixed groups (like this clamshell) that is my preferred method of adding new cards to my collection.
The 2007-08 Topps Rookie Set card of Mike Conley is getting me closer to this set. I now have 7 of the 14 cards (50%, that percentage I could do in my head!) and every one of them came from various clamshells or other mixed groups via my local Target.
The Scott Speed card was the 31st and final from the NASCAR lot that arrived to me on 11/22. I am not a fan of Scott Speed at all, but that does not preclude me adding cards of him to my collection. OCD Completist, remember? :)

Finally, there were two other new cards in my clamshell. This one was on the outside of the package, and I had thought it was a duplicate, until I got it open and realized this is actually one of the Spanish issues. That means it's a new card, and it's the second time in 2014 I believed it was a duplicate until I saw it was bilingual. I have the complete Rare Air set (factory set) but I believe the International versions were issued as inserts in Collector's Choice- not standalone- although I am not sure on that.

And finally...a baseball card. Yes, really! I am not a baseball collector. I don't hate it by any means, but I don't love it either. (I will say it's the only sport that they actually get the cards RIGHT, though) Back in the day, I would have been very disappointed to pull a card that wasn't basketball from one of these packs. Now, though, I am happy to add a new set to my collection. Another one of my many goals is to have as many sets as possible represented in my collection. And it's a checklist, I am a big fan of checklists, so for me this is actually more interesting than a single player card. I have actually added a lot of baseball cards to my collection in 2014. Over 300. I received some as gifts, (I will take any card as a gift- even duplicates or sports/things I don't collect) and I have rescued some that were going to be thrown away. No card should ever be thrown away. My collection, in 25 years previously collection, was around 50 cards, all of which came to me by being in various mixed boxes of basketball cards.

I can't guarantee I will post every new card I get- actually, I can pretty much guarantee I won't post them all- but as my first new additions since the beginning of Cardboard History, I thought it worth a post to show them off.
As always, thanks for reading!

Box Break- 2013 Press Pass Showcase

I'll be honest- I hate the so-called "super premium" sets...the ones that cost an arm, leg and kidney to buy...and I've mostly stayed away from them. Not by choice, but because medicine must come before cards. Each box of Press Pass Showcase sells for roughly $225, so, in all the years they've done it, I've never done a box before. Until November 17th, 2014. Dave & Adam's put the box on sale for $100. For 16 cards, that's still a lot of money...but I could justify spending that. And besides, I may never have another chance to do a box of Showcase, so why not?
Now, in a normal box break, I would not post every card. For instance, I did a box of 2014-15 Hoops a few weeks back and ended up getting several hundred new cards- to see them all, that's what the Trading Card Database is for. I would post highlights- the standard hits, and whatever I deem as highlights. But at 16 cards, for Showcase, I will attempt to post them all.

Pack #1

The first card out of the box is a Carl Edwards insert, which is actually printed on clear plastic. Serially numbered 093/299.

Second card out turns out to be my favorite of the entire box! Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been my driver since Ernie Irvan retired and Dale moved to Cup in the same year. I have never had a lot of luck pulling multi-piece relics but I pulled a good one here. This is the second piece of sheet metal I've pulled from Dale Jr, the last coming all the way back in 2002.

First base card, #19 Mark Martin. Good design. Mark has been around since they raced chariots...not really but it sure seemed like it at the end. Odd twist of fate- my only other previous Showcase base card, which I was given as a gift, is of Mark, from the 2010 set.

The next card is a subset of Tony Stewart. I like the base card design better...what a shocker! The serially numbering, which didn't scan all that well, is 170/349.

The final card in pack #1, is a gold parallel of Dale Earnhardt Jr. The subset looks better with the gold bracing. The serial number is 58/99.

Pack #2
The second pack starts out with another clear card, of Jeff Burton. 218/299.

The second card out is a firesuit of Michael Waltrip. And what a big piece of firesuit it is! In fact, I think this may be the largest relic in my collection. Second largest for sure. As I was typing up the insert checklists to post to the Database, I realized this was actually a gold parallel of the basic Prized Pieces insert. The gold foil and being numbered to 25 tell you that fact.

The base card for this pack is Kyle Busch. Not my favorite, but also not my least-favorite driver in the set, either. SN116/349.

Another Dale Jr. card, can't complain about that! This is a different subset, but neither of them are really worthwhile, cards of the cars would have been much better.

Parallel for this pack is Tony Stewart's base card.

Pack #3
 The final full pack. I knew there was going to be an autograph in this one, or so I thought.

Finally, a car shot! Also printed on clear plastic, this is serially numbered 279/299. They even managed to get a special paint scheme. I'm glad they went with the Jimmy John's car instead of a fake censored Budweiser car, as well. I know it's not Press Pass's fault, but I loath the goofy fake junk they have to put on the cars instead of the real sponsor.

Now, what should be the autograph. But it's not. I got a redemption. I loathe redemptions- I have terrible luck with them. I am still owed cards from both Fleer and Upper Deck, (I know I will never get them) but the worst thing is I usually get the redemption cards after they have expired- I once pulled one from a Topps NBA set literally the day after it expired. If I ever own a card company (a lifelong dream) there will be no redemptions whatsoever- all cards will be inserted into packs. I'll post what the autograph is when it arrives from Press Pass- I need to hold out for a mailday post. I don't have a lot of mail days anymore.

Card #3 is a Joey Logano base card. SN081/349.

Another Elite Exhibit subset, this time of Kurt Busch. It's numbered 174/349.

The gold parallel for this pack is of Travis Pastrana. I was surprised to see he was included in the set, and he's already out of NASCAR- the money ran dry. It's SN73/99.

Bonus Pack
Each box of Showcase includes a one-card bonus pack, which could be one of two low numbered parallels, or a special rookie card of either Danica Patrick or Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Press Pass totally ignored the fact that Josh Wise also ran for Rookie of the Year in 2013)

As it turns out, I got the rarest parallel of all, the Purple set, serially numbered to 13. This card, #55 in the 60 card set, is SN 06/13.

Overall, I am very happy with my box. It was definitely worth the $100, but had I spent $225 I would have felt ripped off. I was very unhappy when I did the box, not knowing for sure if the autograph would ever actually appear in my collection, but I am now fairly sure it will. It's of a driver I've always wanted, so I am looking forward to getting it.