7 Day Card Challenge Day 1: Favorite Quarantine Addition

A few weeks ago- actually, last month- Tim over at Cardpocalypse challenged us to do a  seven day post series. I replied that I would do it on Twitter since I had stuff lined up for here. Well, lo and behold, I have not gotten those posts written yet...due to working so hard on my scans and Cardboard History Gallery where I have still not finished the monthly upload yet, taking time out to work on my scale modeling hobby, and my overall state of unhappiness and despair caused by the general situation of the world right now...and Twitter is an absolute cesspool, and I've decided I don't want to spend any time there I don't have to. So, finally, I've decided to do them here...let's see if I can get them actually written and posted.

Man, some of these are going to be tough. I'm going to have to be creative on some here. But, let's see what I can do...

Day 1, favorite card acquired during Quarantine...hmm...I have a couple of cards that immediately spring to mind, but I need them for the posts I mentioned coming up, which, while I have not written yet, WILL be written at some point...so I'll go to one of the few instances of new cards that I got during the past month or so.

From the 2020 Donruss set, this is a silver parallel of the Throwback paint schemes that were run at Darlington last year. My favorite paint scheme program of the year, last year's race focused on the 1990s. Bubba ran a car in honor of Adam Petty, who was killed in an on track incident at age 20 in 2000. Victory Junction is a camp where sick kids are able to go and enjoy life and their parents don't have to worry about paying for anything- it's run entirely on donations and volunteers. Before Adam was killed he was already laying the groundwork for this camp...instead of running it himself, his family runs it in his honor. Losing Adam was a major blow to the sport and the Petty family, I don't think they have ever truly recovered, to be honest.

So, you have a really special paint scheme, and then you have one of my favorite active drivers behind the wheel...it doesn't get much better than that. Many people who are...or I should say were...not fans of NASCAR have likely heard of Bubba in the past few days, as he's gotten some national media attention in the past week. He's got a unique platform being the only active Black driver, and he's using it to try and make the world better. Maybe this time that can actually happen, but based on the reaction you see on places like Twitter, probably not. I plan to support him no matter what.

Cardboard History Goes to a card show!

I have not been to a card show since 2005. I've said that many times, but I can say that no longer! Yesterday morning, my Mom and I made the 2 hour drive to Enfield, Connecticut to attend their monthly card show, and let me tell you...it was WELL worth it! I had a really great time, it was everything I could have hoped for, and then some. The last card show I went to, at the Holiday Inn in Taunton, Massachusetts, back in 2005...it had nothing for me. That's a 4 hour ride one way and I didn't get a single card. This show...this show in Enfield had EVERYTHING represented, and as you will see in the photos below, I added to my three main sports and even baseball.

Everyone at the show was friendly, knowledgeable and I don't feel like a single dealer judged me based on how I look- something that actually surprised me, because I'm so used to it. I never felt like anyone was trying to pressure me into buying anything either- although it's a given that every dealer wants to make a sale, none of them felt pushy to me. Two of the dealers, who I had never met before yesterday- gave me cards.

I saw some really awesome cards, including a Bill Russell autograph (who I consider the greatest of all time) and also the most spectacular patch I've ever seen- the entire Chevrolet logo from Jimmie Johnson's firesuit. It took up most of the card! (It was a 1/1). Unfortunately, I was a bit out of it- being surrounded by that much cardboard can do that- and I didn't think to ask if I could take a picture of it! In fact, my plan was to ask dealers if I could take pictures of their stuff to post on here, and I totally zoned out on that. I took one photo when I first got there-

and I didn't take any other pictures of the show. Duh!

While I didn't take any more pictures, I was IN two pictures. I had put up a thread on the Trading Card Database about the show, and two of my fellow members mentioned that they would be there. I made sure to get a photo with each of them, which will surely appear in the 2019 edition of the C2Cigars Trading Card Database set!

 Myself and Jimetal

Suomibear and I

As you can see in both photos, I'm holding cards in hand. I'll get back to the cards shortly.

One thing that was interesting, is that the show was noticeably Boston- themed. Aside from the fact that most everyone there was wearing Boston gear, there were more Celtics cards available than any other team. The Bruins were well represented, but I would say hockey was pretty evenly available. Every dealer with each sport had some of the Boston teams. I don't remember there being such a Boston-theme to the shows when I attended in Taunton, but it's fine with me- I will be happy to have a place I know I can go to when I need to find some cards from these teams. (I actually have a trade I'm putting together that requires me to send out 50 Celtics cards...you'd think I would have bought some. I already had all the 90s era Celtics I saw but I didn't think to get any for my trade partner. I realized I had made that mistake this morning, unfortunately.).  It's too bad I both can't find and got too fat to fit into the Antoine Walker jersey I bought in 1996. I'd wear it to that show for sure. When we used to have shows here in the Hudson Valley, I don't remember them being NY themed, but it's been so long since we had any, my memory could be faulty. It was 17 years ago today since we had a card show locally.

The cards that were there was an interesting mix. TONS of vintage- I would say there was more vintage there than anything else, from all 4 of the sports Topps produced back then. Naturally, I can't say much about baseball or football, but I saw stacks and binders full of early 60s baseball. I saw high quality vintage NBA but decided to go in a different direction with my purchases. Modern stuff was also well represented. I would say that the show was about 50% all vintage, 25% modern (last 5 years) and the rest was a mixture. 1990s were well represented, the era between the two NBA lockouts was not (1998-2011), which is not to say they were not there, just not there much. NASCAR was much more well represented than I expected (NASCAR does have a rich history in Connecticut) and I was thrilled with that. I was actually able to pick up cards of two of the NASCAR people I was missing for my project of getting at least one of every person to get one.

Now, I'm sure you want to see some cards, so...here we go!

OK, the pictures kind of stink. Since the flash died on my camera the pictures have not been great, but it will take me forever to scan all these. These were the first two cards I bought- my first game used net card, and a game used patch from Nash.

More hockey from the same dealer...My first Goalie Pad relic, from Fleury to boot...SN to 15!

My two biggest purchases of the day. My mom talked me into buying the Roenick. That card caught my eye the instant I saw it but it was more than I usually spend. I'm glad I got it though. It's game worn, the Bennett is Rookie Photo Shoot worn.

 The one NASCAR dealer had a stack of Bubbas. I had to get this one- you all know how I am with SN cards. Purple foil for a purple car, it works well!

 Some cards out of 2017 Absolute. Majeski is one of the two people I needed. I just pulled the SN 8/10 Gold of the Newman so recently I have not even scanned it yet.

More NASCAR. The Slugger Labbe autograph is the other person I needed. My first Terry autograph, and the JJ Yeley is a base card from that year's American Thunder. Although the card is SN to 350, based on my searches for that card and the others from the subset, it's significantly rarer than the number would have you believe. I've been looking for that specific card since it was new (2006) and I've never even seen one for sale before.

 One dealer had 4 cards I needed from the 1965 Donruss Spec Sheet set, my favorite of which being the top right one. As a model builder, that speaks to me.

The same dealer also had a stack of Bee Hives, this is my first...and for about 45 minutes, was  (probably) my oldest hockey card. (Howell played for the Rangers from 1952-68, but the Beehives can't be dated properly.)

 All these cards came from a quarter box. I didn't think too hard about them, so some may be duplicates. It will be fun to see how well I remember my own collection. One of the cards I got for a Database member who I owe a thank you to. Those two Lundqvist cards and the one Zuccarello card were the only ones I saw in the show. Since I needed them, it was no thoughts needed to add them to my stack. I'm 99% sure I actually found a player I needed for the NBA names project as well- can't remember and have not yet bothered to check if I had already found an Erazem Lorbek yet before yesterday.

There was some unopened material to be had, but this was the only example I bought. This was the last Ultra set issues of my favorite brand for sports cards.

 My last purchase of the day- also one I had to be talked into buying, I'm such a cheapskate- brings me my oldest hockey cards to date. The card on the left is clearly from 1951-52, but I'm not sure when the card on the right is from- I will check on the Database shortly- Milt Schmidt was the first NHL player who died after I began watching the sport- at age 98. Both players are new to my collection, and since my oldest card was previously from 1957-58, I know that one of these is my oldest now. Also, my first original Parkhurst cards!

Right after we got there- before I had even seen every table- my mom won the door prize! That was pretty cool. Each winner got to pick three prizes, but all but one of the prizes were baseball. I chose the one hockey prize...

And I decided on a baseball prize as well. I have commented on numerous blogs that the 1990 Topps baseball design is one of my favorites in all of cardboard history, and I basically just got the entire set for 33 cents- the cost of entry into the show, which gave us the ticket that led to three prizes!

 Since there was nothing else for me, I gave the third prize to my friend Jim from the Database. Afterall, the first time I meet him, and he handed me this box below!

I have not gone through it all yet, but it's a mix of hockey and NBA. All the curved cards on the right side appear to be 2017-18 Essentials Retail, a set I don't have much of- and one that has several people I do not yet have a card of. Hopefully they will be there, but I have not had a chance to check yet.

After the show, instead of coming back home through Hartford, we decided to go north, into Massachusetts, and came across I-90 to Albany and down. That was a wise choice, because...

 We drove right past the Basketball Hall of Fame! The sport was invented in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891. We will be making a family trip to the Hall some time this year, knowing it's less than three hours from home, there's really no excuse anymore for not going.

Saw some really nice vistas on the ride home as well. I love the Northeast.

Today was another busy day. I went to a coin show in Parsippany, NJ, a show that I had been wanting to get to for quite some time- around 2009 or 2010- but just never got the chance to get there. Either it conflicted with something, or I didn't have any money saved up, or I simply didn't feel good enough. I've kind of drifted out of that hobby over the past few years, but I still wanted to do it. And I'm glad I did! Because I ended up coming home with a bunch of vintage cards, including one of my most wanted non-sports sets!

1933 Goudey Sky Birds! I've wanted this set for a long time, and now, finally, I have one. The dealer also had the key card in the set- Baron von Richthofen, AKA, the Red Baron. But, it was in poor shape and more money than I wanted to spend on a card in that condition.

 That wasn't all I got from that dealer, though. These 50s Topps cards come from the 1957 Isolation Booth set, which I did not have previously.

 These two cards come from the same set, and I believe also date to the 1930s. I need to do more research on them.

I also got 4 cards that are quite a mystery to me, but I can't post them here- they are naked ladies, from Cuba. Pre-Casto, probably pre-War, but I'm not sure. I'm not even sure where to research them.

As we were leaving, my mom spotted a card vending machine- something I had not seen since 1996, and they actually had something I needed! It got stuck coming out, so I had to bang on the side of the machine with my fists. It didn't work, so I had to get help from a woman who worked there- and she was rocking the machine back and forth, until finally it fell. I was having images of the Simpsons episode where Homer is trying to get chocolate out of a vending machine and the machine falls on him. Luckily that didn't happen, but it gave us a good laugh.


Both shows are held monthly, but I don't plan to go every month to either of them- the card show, I would LOVE to be able to go to every month, but it's just a little too far to do that. 2 hours one way, it's a bit of a haul. I am hoping to go 3 or 4 times a year. The coin show, honestly, that hobby is just not as important in my life as it once was, and I can see myself only going once or twice a year at this stage of my life. I enjoy seeing the stuff, but most of it is out of my price range, or stuff I'm just not interested in. Honestly, I most likely will not go even that often. The card show, that one I want to do a lot more.

Since it's relevant for the day- I saw this sign on the outskirts of Hartford.

I took a whole bunch of pictures (and even a video) of the trips, and you can see them all HERE on my website.

Christmas Card Highlights- NHL takes the lead

Christmas, as was teased on Christmas day, was great this year! I got 879 new cards, which is the 11th most I've ever gotten in a single day! The high number of new cards was helped by the fact that I've not been buying cards for myself as a general rule, so there was not a lot of duplication. Normally, by the time we get to Christmas, I've got at least a blaster of everything. Not this year. Only Donruss NASCAR and Hoops had any sort of representation in my collection, and both had less than a full blaster's worth. (I'll get back to that later for NASCAR).

So, not only did I get a bunch of new cards, I got a bunch of new people too:
34 NHL
10 NBA
3 NASCAR
19 Olympians

What's more...that puts NHL above NBA in total number of people in my collection! That's really amazing when you consider these things:

• I've been collecting the NBA since February 1996, the NHL since January 2017
• I have more than 93,000 different NBA cards, and "only" 13,000 NHL cards
• I have actively worked on my project of getting at least one of every NBA person for several years now, and have not even made the list of who I should be looking for in the NHL yet
• Roughly 80% of the people in my NHL collection...or more, I'm just guessing...arrived to me as gifts from fellow collectors
• The NHL numbers are actually probably a little higher than my records show, because I keep finding people I missed when I created my original list of who's in my collection! 

Now, part of the reason that the NHL has more people already than NBA is that the NHL gets much better card coverage. The NHL gets at least three 500 card sets every year- sometimes the sets have topped 800 cards, let alone 500- the NBA has not gotten a set with 500 cards since the 1990s, despite being a 525-player league. It is also for this reason that I predict someday, I have no idea when, but probably sooner than I would guess- the NHL will have more total cards in my collection than the NBA will. There are simply more cards produced, so I have much more chance to add cards to my collection...and that's not a new thing. The NHL has had more cards produced than the NBA in literally every decade of the NBA's existence. NASCAR's not in the running, despite the fact that I've collected it avidly since Christmas 1992, because they get even LESS cards. For instance, you could take all the base cards produced during the 2018 season, 5 sets...add them all together...and only come up to 490 cards. That's 10 cards less than the Upper Deck flagship for NHL, 85 less than the NHL Panini Sticker set, and 110 less than O-Pee-Chee, and that's not even counting the usual 100 card OPC update set! So you can see why, despite the fact that I've collected NASCAR the longest, it's not in the running for number of cards or people in my collection. 

There is a small asterisk to this as well- the number of people counted for hockey, is ALL hockey people. It includes Women's players, minor leaguers, international, etc. The NBA total is JUST NBA. The total does not count WNBA players, college only people, international, etc. A part of that is because hockey does not have the stigma of the NCAA, and a part of that is because, when I created the list of people in my collection, I didn't differentiate them as I did for the NBA- I wasn't yet  watching the NHL- and I don't have anywhere near all of them scanned so I cannot easily figure out which ones are truly NHL, and which ones are not...and I'm not sure I'm ever going to make that distinction. So, I have a lot more basketball people than hockey people- but I have more hockey people than NBA players. It probably doesn't make sense to anyone but myself.

I will show the person who put the NHL in first in my monthly wrap-up of the new NHL players to enter my collection. It won't be too soon because I've only scanned about 8 of the 34 new players I got for Christmas, and I have not scanned people I got before Christmas yet, either! So, look for it in mid-January, most likely. 

Now, I'm sure nobody opened this post to see me ramble on about something that only matters to myself, so, here's some of the "hits" I pulled, and some non-"hits" that needed scans for the Trading Card Database- that's all I've had time to get scanned, so far, which is why this is so hit-heavy. Literally all the base cards I got for Christmas were already scanned on there. 

 Violet Pixel parallel appears to be one-per blaster in the OPC Platinum last year; the blaster I bought for myself when new contained Auston Matthews.

 An insert parallel serially numbered to 25!

 This is from the Complete Materials insert in 2018 Certified- not that it says that anywhere on the card- the top left relic is firesuit, bottom left is tire. Both on the right are sheet metal, which happens to be my favorite kind of relic for NASCAR. Byron won Rookie of the Year in 2018, he's really talented and can probably win a Cup title someday.

 The orange parallels are blaster exclusive, and I lucked out, getting three of them. I think I was only supposed to get two, as I received two blasters.

 The second Certified Blaster gave me a firesuit relic of Bubba Wallace! One of my favorite drivers in the sport, with the potential to be my #1 favorite some day. Nearly won the Daytona 500 and still finished second despite Denny Hamlin running him into the wall on the final lap.

 I love the Cracked Ice insert parallels in Donruss. I pulled 4, you're going to see them all in this post.

 Gold parallel.

 Green parallel.

 Before 2017, Derrike Cope last appeared on cards as an active driver in 2000. (He's been active in NASCAR the entire time). He's the last active driver who was racing when I discovered the sport in 1992. Although he does appear as an active driver in some sets, his cards in Donruss are vintage. This photo dates to 1988.

 More Cracked Ice. This photo is circa 1977.

 Press Proof parallel, holofoil, SN to 99.

 Brad Keselowski firesuit

 This red parallel was in the first pack of the box!

 So, after not getting a new Derrike Cope card since 2000, I pull 3 base cards, one SN parallel and this autograph in one day! This photo dates to 1990, specifically February 18th, 1990, when he won the Daytona 500- his first of two career wins, both coming that year. It was the biggest moment of his career, winning the Daytona 500 is generally the biggest highlight of anyone's career.

 More Cracked Ice. Would have been a perfect card if the image was in color.

 Last Cracked Ice of the box. Came out of the last pack of the box, too.

About Donruss...I had purchased a blaster back in June, but I had not opened all the packs out of it yet. After I did the box on Christmas, I discovered I was 4 cards short of the complete set. Well, I had one pack out of the blaster left, and opened it on 12/26 hoping to pull the final 4 I needed...no such luck. The only thing I needed in the pack was a Kyle Busch insert, so at least I got my card of the day out of it.

 Moving now to Prizm, it seems I got a Dale Jr. hot box, with two base cards, this insert shown, and TWO of the three Camo parallels that come exclusive to the blasters were of him. Not that I will ever complain about that, he is my all-time favorite after all.

 Here's one of the Camos.

 This insert reminds me of the In the Paint insert in 2000-01 Topps Chrome.

 And a parallel of same, which, despite having a similar photo as the firesuit card, surely taken the same day, is very welcome in my collection.

 I know Chase Elliott won the Most Popular driver award this year...and probably will every year until he retires, just as his father did...but I am not a fan. Card design is pretty cool.

 Red White and Blue parallel of a variation. There is nothing worse than variations in the hobby. They are even worse than exclusive licenses. They have now infected NASCAR.

 Moving to the Olympic box, I have mixed feelings on it. I will discuss that more in another post, for now we see the hits. This "medallion" actually scanned WAY better than I expected it to, being deep set in the card. To be called a medallion implies metal, but I don't think it is- I believe it's plastic. It's cool, either way, and is SN to 99.

 The box advertised one autograph and two relics, but...

 I clearly got two autographs! Both are from snowboarders, which while is not my favorite event, I will watch it...especially snowboardcross. I really enjoy that one but it doesn't get much TV time.

 This US Flag parallel is really, really subtle. How subtle is it? Well, I looked at each card when opening the packs. Then, I looked at each card when making my paper listing. Then, I looked at it again when I entered it onto the Trading Card Database. Then, I looked at it again when I finished listing everything on the Database but realized some cards were missing, including the next card. It was only then- on the 4th time looking at it- did I notice the tiny gold foil serial numbering on the back, making me realize it was not, in fact, a base card! Luckily I remembered getting a "duplicate" of the card, so I didn't go into panic mode thinking I had not completed the set...I still had, but I had a bonus, serially numbered parallel to boot.

 The Gold parallels fall at long odds- one in 66 packs. (one in three boxes) This year, the 4th Olympic set Topps has done in the modern era, is the first time they were serially numbered, and the first time they did not have gold foil logo on the front. Again, very subtle, as the Golds and Bronzes are almost identical. The easiest way to tell them apart is by the serial number on the back. Skating is one of the marquee events of the winter Olympics, and unlike some of the people in the set, she actually did compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics, winning Bronze in her event (with brother Alex, who also has cards in the set)

 Chloe Kim was one of the breakout stars of these Olympics, and easily was class of the field in her competition. A good relic to pull, if I ever go for the set now I won't have to buy it. Although it doesn't show in the scan, there are tiny stars in a pattern in the relic- which, though unlabeled, I believe comes from a team USA jacket, as I believe most relics in the Topps Olympic sets do.

 Not much to show for the NBA- almost nothing needed scans on the Database- but there are a few.
Luka Doncic is everything he was cracked up to be. Barring a major, catastrophic fall-off, he will be Rookie of the Year this year. Just about the only way he'll lose it is if he misses every shot he attempts between now and May- highly unlikely. This is my second card of him.

 My guaranteed blaster jersey card. Well, I think it's a jersey card. Panini never bothers to tell you. It's also my first card of him!

 Mini card!

 Pulling a blaster exclusive parallel of an insert of my favorite player....priceless.

The "Silver" parallel. It's really gray. Getting back to what I started this post with...it's my second card of Hickey, but my first NHL card. I previously had a minor league card of him. If he were an NBA player, it would count as my first card of him. Since I don't make a distinction with hockey, he is not listed among the 34 new people. 

 Pulled the holofoil sticker of my favorite player...awesome.

 I have not pulled too many cards of Zuccarello- my favorite skater in the league- so thought I would show this one.

 Team logo cards also got the holofoil treatment.

 My first Maple Leafs Tavares card.

 The caricature cards in this year's Panini Sticker set are...something else. I still have not decided if that is good or not.

 I did not pull many Golden Knights stickers from my packs. They are the least well-represented team in my collection from the set.

 I like how the Panini Sticker set includes cards for the All-Star game and the Skills competition. I don't like that they left out people from the All-Star game. I would have liked to have been able to get a Brian Boyle all-star sticker (card), for example. Henrik Lundqvist didn't get one either. Funny aside- when I typed up the checklist for the set for the Trading Card Database, the Note section gets an abbreviation for the subsets. This one is called All-Star Skills. I had to add the C for Competition to get ASSC.

 The all-star cards that are in the set seem to be double printed. I pulled three copies of P.K., which I don't mind- he's one of my favorite players in the sport-but I would rather have gotten, say, his regular Nashville uniform sticker, which I didn't get any of, than three copies of the same sticker including in two consecutive packs.

Besides pulling three copies of P.K., the other All-Stars also seemed more plentiful than regular stickers to me. Just because it was the first All-Star game I really watched, and I like the unique uniforms that were all one color, here's one from each team. 

The gray Metropolitan Division doesn't appear really well on any of the three stickers I got showing it. Kris Letang's card features more of Carey Price than Letang, and Claude Giroux's is co closely cropped that the NHL shield is not even fully visible. Also, the Metro should have had gray pants, not black! 

Finally, I end with a rainbow of parallels for Hoops, and one base card for good measure.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my newly added Christmas cards, as much as I've enjoyed adding them to my collection, documenting them, and typing about them!