Stacking and slacking

 I recently discovered something on Twitter called a "stack sale", which is where a seller puts up a series of posts with cards for sale, generally on the lower end of the price spectrum, and you claim the cards you want. When the seller finishes the sale, they send you a total, you pay them and then they send you the cards. It's kinda like digging through a box at a show and pulling what you want but from a distance. 

I really enjoy doing this. My most common person to buy from is JTmailman but I have also stacked with LeBron's Locker and BiggE. (and in case you're wondering, LeBron's Locker is not only NBA, although that's what I bought from him- LeBron is his last name)

One thing you have to worry about in the stack sales is not getting there fast enough. The more popular a stacker is, the more competition there is. I've missed out on several cards I would have added because they were claimed before I even saw the post. 

This is my most recent stack sale arrival, from JT Mailman, and covered everything I collect, although most of it was a Simpsons set I've never heard of before, which appears to be a Chinese set from last year. I even grabbed a baseball card, because it's a hologram and I love holograms. And I may not actively collect baseball but I will spend either a quarter or a dime (I forget what it cost) on a hologram any day of the week. 

My previous sale was a smaller one and came from LeBron's Locker.

I got NBA exclusively from him, although he also had football and I think baseball available. 

I can't seem to find the photos of my previous stacks with JT Mailman or BiggE. I've been a little bit slacking in processing pictures and doing the stuff I should be doing. The slacking in the title? Yeah that's part of it. Mostly however it refers to my paper listing. This is what defines my collection, and it's how I know what I have. It is normally the be-all-end-all for my collection, so much so that at one time I didn't count a card as part of my collection if I didn't list it in my paper listing. 

I normally do my paper listing on a fold up card table in my room, but I took that down in either April or May to put my air conditioner in, and I haven't put it back up so I could do some cleaning and other stuff. I haven't listed any of my new additions since then, and it's stacking up, although not as much as it could be since I haven't really been getting too many cards this year. In fact, I've not opened some of the cards I've gotten specifically so I wouldn't have more to list and be backlogged on. 

I've been spending almost all my time on my modeling, but the fall is here and very soon it will be too cold to work on models. I will catch up on my card listing when that happens, which most likely will be before the end of this month if tradition holds true, or the first few days of November if not. 
I'll also get back to scanning then I suspect, I've only done about 20 cards all summer. 

Speaking of slacking...I got the most recent batch of cards from JT Mailman on September 21st, and LeBron's Locker on September 19th. I thought of the post title on the 21st but I didn't edit the pictures or actually write the post until October 14th. 

COMC Christmas: Olympics

I have been wanting to increase my Olympic collection, and with the money my brother gave me to spend on COMC at Christmas, I did!
First I hit the relics...

 Max Aaron is alphabetically the first person in my collection.

Covered all three Topps Olympic sets there. Unfortunately none of them say what kind of relic they are. The Kim Rhode is my first relic from the 2012 set, Topps' first modern foray.

Then I tried for autographs, but only added one:

It's a good one though, as Rugby was my "find" of the 2016 Olympics. I really enjoyed it, and I had never seen any before. Carlin Isles was one of only two Rugby players to be included in the 74 card set. The autographs tend to run a little high priced for the Olympic sets, but I got lucky with this one.

Then I went for promos:

The 1984 M&Ms set and 1992 Snickers set were new to my collection. I've completed the 1991 Hall of Fame set, but didn't have any of the prototypes before.

I also picked up this gold hologram, which is an insert from the 1992 Impel set. I don't have a whole lot of that set so I may buy a box at some point...at which time I'm sure I'll end up with another of these. I generally only buy cards I know I won't get elsewhere, but a cheap hologram, I couldn't resist!

The 1992 Olympics are the first I have any memory of, but 1996 is when I really became an Olympic super-fan. I've completed 4 Olympic sets, and I have another I bought as a complete set but am parceling out and pulling cards out of during the Olympics. This will be the second Olympics I do that for. I am quite sure I will complete the 2018 set as well, eventually. It's so small, it's easy to do- even a retail box yields almost two full sets. I constantly bemoan the poor quality of the Olympic sets, and especially the fact that only the USA is covered- but I am glad we have even them. There were no sets issued for any Olympics between 1996 and 2012, and pre-1992 was spotty at best, with most years having no cards whatsoever. One of the biggest shames of sports cards is that there are no cards whatsoever that actually document the Olympics- there should be a set that gives a card to each medalist in each sport. It's NEVER happened in the modern Olympic history, most sets are even released before the Olympic teams are even chosen. I know why it's done that way...but it doesn't mean I have to like it. It also doesn't mean I won't collect what we do get. And it doesn't mean I'm not going to complain every two years. But I still love my Olympic collection.

Holograms

There is nobody in my age group who doesn't love holograms, it seems. I sure do! I was only able to get 4 this time, but I was able to complete a set of them with this COMC order!

My favorite is this Captain Marvel card from 1993 DC Cosmic Teams. Captain Marvel is one of my all-time favorite super heroes. This hologram particularly pops!

From 1992 Impel DC Comics comes the Flash. This one didn't scan as well. Interestingly, despite being two separate sets with two different titles, from two different publishers (Impel and Skybox) the numbering continues from the 1992 to the 1993 set. All told, I now have 4 of the 16 DC holograms from these two sets.

1992 Country Classics is a 100-card release from Collect-A-Card, that, naturally, is all country music. I completed the set not long ago (either last year or earlier this year, I don't recall) and these two holograms are the only inserts- neither of which showed up in my partial box I procured back in 2010. I nabbed them both to make the complete series in one easy step!

My First NHL Autograph!

I said that I wanted to pull my first NHL autograph, after buying my first NBA and NASCAR autographs as singles. That didn't happen, but it was still a surprise, which is what I really wanted it to be! And a surprise it was- I wasn't expecting a package, I had to do some sleuthing to figure out who sent it, and most surprising of all is that it did not come to my PO box address, but right to my door. After having problems with our mail being stolen right out of the mailbox we have switched to the PO box almost exclusively. In fact I didn't think any of the card people I know even had this address. So when I saw this I had no idea what it was going to be.

Then I opened it, and this came out...

There it is, my first NHL autograph! The kindness of my fellow card collectors, and hockey collectors in particular, never ceases to amaze me. And now that I don't have to worry about not buying my first as a single, this opens me up to start shopping on COMC...if only I had more than 42 cents in my account. Of course, if I had actually done something like buy some cards, I might have crossed this threshold sooner, but in fact I have not purchased any cards since January, all my new additions- over 1000 NHL cards alone- have come as gifts or trades. What a community!

But this isn't all! The package contained 5 cards. One of them....the one that clued me in on who sent it- was this NBA card, that I had claimed on Kirk's blog a while ago and then forgot about.

 To be honest I had actually forgotten that I had claimed this one. My memory is really bad...bad enough that I didn't recognize the name on the return address despite this being the third or fourth time Kirk has sent me mail, LOL. Yes it comes from my friend Kirk aka CaptKirk, who is a regular on the Trading Card Database and his own blog, as linked above. This insert comes from 2015-16 Donruss, a set I really liked. This The Rookies insert is 50 cards long and includes some guys I don't have a lot of cards of. Jokic is one of them for now, but he's having a breakout season this year. Despite the fact that it's his second season he's definitely in the running for Most Improved Player this year. He's going to be the keystone the Nuggets build their team around for the foreseeable future. I think this is my 4th card of him only...maybe 5th. When I claimed it from Kirk it would have been my second. I think. I'm glad he remembered because I forgot totally until I saw it today!

The final card I needed was a hologram. As you should all know by now I love holograms. I think they are the best kind of insert set in card history. I now have 3 of the 9 cards from this insert from 1991-92 Upper Deck. That's pretty good considering I just got my first in January!

I finally completed the NBA set about 2 years ago now, but I'm finding the NHL versions scan better, and also the examples I've gotten are not as beat up as the NBA versions I have. I don't know if that is due to the life they have lived before I got them or if they were not made as well. Such a great card though. Holograms rock!

The package also included two Nets cards, one from the same Donruss set and one from last year's Complete Silver parallel, but I had those already.

Thanks so much Kirk, you truly surprised me with this one, in more ways than one!

A cracked....hockey stick?

Recently Julie from A Cracked Bat and a Hot Dog sent me a box of cards...I had no idea what would be inside said box, but it turned out to be hockey! Lots of hockey! It looks like we are starting to convert Julie to a hockey fan herself, and that's very understandable because the game is very addicting, as I have not gone a day without watching it since November.

In the box, Julie sent me a lucky 13 new sets, ranging in age from 1984-85 O-Pee-Chee (also the oldest card in the box) up through 2016-17 Parkhurst! There were also- I think- 22 new people for my collection! I thought I had everybody in my collection documented, but I found one player that was not on my chart yet the Database showed me it was my 8th card of him, and another player who the Database said was my first yet he appeared on my chart. (it's possible he was on the promos I have not been able to list due to not being able to find a checklist, though, because everything else is listed). In total, I got 99 new cards, and I still have one pack left waiting to open. The cards covered a wide variety of sets and players, and scanning all 99 of them would take me a while- so I'll show just some of the highlights.

I'm also so far backlogged- from mid-February through earlier today I had not typed anything into my chart, and I was sent three large boxes of hockey cards in that time, including this one from Julie. So I may not have the cards attributed to the correct person,so you may see one from Julie in the post from Shoebox Legends, coming soon. But I think these all came from Julie.

I think this one might be my favorite- or the last one I will show. I just can't decide.

 Henrik Lundqvist has quickly become one of my favorite players, and this is my first rookie card of him...only my 5th card of him overall. This is also my first card from 2005-06 Power Play.

My first card of McDavid!

Here's that 1984-85 O-Pee-Chee I mentioned. To me this qualifies as vintage. I know others have different systems but I define anything older than myself as vintage, and anything made after I was born non-vintage. Since I was born in October 1984, this BARELY qualifies, as the season would have been a few days running before I was born, I think, but I should point out that don't limit myself to one area or era and I am thrilled to get any card from any year.

These semi-holograms from 1992-93 Upper Deck are neat cards. But they are partly hologram so that goes without saying. Except I said it!

My first cards from 2001-02 Ice and 2015-16 Ice, both of which are printed on clear plastic. I really enjoy the clear plastic cards!
The back of the Rinne really shows it well.

Those are just spectacular. I can't think of a better word to describe them.

There were three packs of 2016-17 Upper Deck series 1, and this was my favorite photograph. I seem to be favoring the wide angle shots.

I managed to beat the odds and pull a Young Gun!

Considering they are one in every 4 packs and I pulled one from 3 packs, I would say that's beating the odds.

These Summit Ice parallels are also pretty spectacular in hand. Mesmerizing, almost. She sent two, here is the one that scanned better.

It's Jari Kurri if not clear.

But the one giving Henrik Lundqvist a run for his money is this one. I am, if nothing else, consistent.

Holograms will always be my favorites, or contending for them, when I get one. To me, Holograms are the best insert concept ever made. Well, considering the SPx brand, sometimes base cards too. This gift contained some serious star power too- Mario Lemieux is no slouch, and Wayne Gretzky may be the Great One, but there was more than one card of him in there. I didn't scan any of them though...so backlogged, of my own doing. This is my second card from the 1991-92 Upper Deck Award Winners insert. 7 to go. I also have the aforementioned Gretzky.

Thank you so much Julie!

As an aside, this is what is going on today.

That's somewhere around 18 to 20 inches of snow. Somewhere under there is my brother's Chevrolet Cobalt...with possibly 10 more inches yet to come! (think it's done though) The snow eventually did cover the rear quarter panel but this picture is better. As long as we don't lose power, I will be happy.

It was also 2 months ago today I revealed I was now an NHL fan. In that time my friends from the Trading Card Database and the Blogosphere have sent me over 1000 different hockey cards. Incredible. Thanks to everyone! I hope to be able to repay that kindness someday.

Some new Non-Sports Additions

I don't like to do a lot of "Hey look at my new stuff" posts...I like to put more effort into it, make it more interesting to read, and not look like bragging. That isn't me...I am always grateful for any cards I can get.

But I have not been in much of a writing mood lately. (Have you seen the last time I updated my other blogs?!) . All kinds of stuff has been going on, most of it not good...Honestly, I am still reeling from my remote hard drive dying, that really messed up everything I was doing. Constant health issues are taking a toll on me as well. Part of the reason I won't be going to the National, even though I have been looking forward to it for about 3 years now, when I found out it was going to be in the next state away. I've only gotten one good night's sleep in the last week because my scumbag neighbor is constantly making the house vibrate with their "music".  On Monday I only got 3 hours sleep. And this happens every day.

But I have still added some new cards to my collection, mostly non-sports. I visited my favorite local non-sports dealer for the first time since February last Sunday (Sunday before last now). You've already seen one thing I got from the dealer, now here's the rest. As usual, I spent a lot more money than I planned to....but I kept it under $100, although if I got everything he had that I wanted it would probably go into the 4 digits. I am mostly just hoping it doesn't sell out before I can save up enough to get everything. Anyway, I am going to show you most of the cards I got from this latest trip, and I'm going to break them down by subject.

I got 7 new holograms, which is the most I've added to my collection in about 18 years. (when 1997-98 SPx came out, the last hologram based NBA set) I LOVE holograms and will always go for them if I can. I have dreams of completing the hologram sets from the DC and Marvel issues of the 1990s....again, someday. I consider holograms the best "hit" in the history of the hobby...better than autographs, relics, SN cards (which I also love), etc. To me, the holograms were the glory days of my youth, so there's the cool factor and the nostalgia factor.

I thought about titling this post Hologramarama! but decided against it because I had more non-holograms to show than holograms.

History

History is my favorite subject, I am always reading something related to history. So I naturally go for history cards when I can get my hands on them. I added three new history sets to my collection and one of which I didn't even know existed before I got it.

1957 Topps Planes is a set I've been trying to add to my collection for years. I have bid on them on ebay multiple times, and I keep losing. He brought in a lot of them- probably about 100 cards- but I didn't see them until I had picked out everything else, so I only got two. I love blimps- I would ride in the Goodyear Blimp if I ever got the opportunity, and this is the very first blimp card in my collection! The Aerocycle is actually my first card from the set, and I have to say, that seems like a really poor idea. Which is probably why it didn't take off (pun intended). Both are blue backs. The set was made with both red and blue backs, and the blues are more common. I don't know why there are two versions.

1954 Bowman Power for Peace is another new set for me. It's the only card he had from the set, and now I have it. It's normally large Bowman size, which means it's taller but not as wide as modern cards, making it a little hard to store.

1958 Card-O Planes, Trains and Ships was the set I was not aware of before I found it. As you can see, it's in really poor shape, but I don't care. I don't normally accept ripped cards in my collection, but I couldn't pass it up. (it was also free, due to condition...apparently nobody else wanted it.). The corners are rounded but I don't know if they were supposed to be, or if it is just wear/damage. It's only a 20 card set, but are numbered up to 30. Several numbers were never made. I didn't realize how common that was back in the day until I started getting older cards. When I was younger anything older than 1977's Star Wars seemed forever out of reach.

I also got a handful of 1956 Topps Flags of the World. I had two cards previously but both were trimmed. (I think whoever did it was trying to make them match standard size cards, which debuted the very next year, but failed miserably) These were not trimmed, and are in better shape to begin with. I got every one he had.

#2

#18

#39

#68

#77

The Norway card is my favorite, for several reasons, which I hope to detail more of in a future post.

DC Comics
As I've mentioned several times, I grew up reading DC Comics. I had my first one read to me when I was 5 days old, and I've been with them ever since...until July 1st of this year, when my last new one arrived. The people running DC now have no idea what they are doing and have pretty much killed it. I never imagined a time I would not be getting DC Comics, but...that time is here. I've talked about this before. Luckily, there are older comics to chase, and older cards too. Including....Holograms!

The first one is from the gray bordered set from 1992 called simply DC Comics, while the next two are from the 1993 Cosmic Teams set, which has purple borders. They continued the numbering system for the holograms from one year to the next, though. The first ten are in the gray set, the last six in the Cosmic Teams set.

 Not a huge Lobo fan, but...holograms make everything better.

 Not one of Jon Bogdanove's better artistic pieces, kind of a surprising choice. You can really see the blue and red of his costume though in hand.

 DC Master Series Foil of Hawkman.

 Primal Force was a great book, unfortunately it got cancelled after only about one year, and the characters mostly never appeared again.

 A base card, an insert and a two-panel promo from Power Chrome Legends '95. I still think I have a complete set of these somewhere lost in storage, but the heat has affected them, so I will still pick up base cards when I find them cheap enough.

 An insert from 1996's Superman Holo Series. I now need only #H1 to complete the 4 card insert set!

I actually passed on a couple of other cards from this hologram set, not too often I pass up Holograms, but I wasn't sure if I had them already or not. I knew I didn't have this one. The Holograms were one per pack. The movie was not good, but at least it gave us holograms.

Marvel Comics
I never really got into Marvel. But I have more Marvel cards than DC...Marvel always did a better job with cards than DC did, and in fact, many years DC didn't bother to have cards at all. Marvel took a break from cards but is back in full force now. The largest selection of cards I got this trip are Marvel cards.

A hologram from 1991 Marvel Universe and one from X-Men Series 1, the latter gold. I don't know if they are all gold or if this is a parallel. My first hologram from each set. This Gambit one is the first hologram I found that day.

 Four cards from 1993 Marvel Masterpieces. I like this set because each card has two different color foils, and the colors are ones you don't see too often- light blue, green, purple, red all appear on these four cards. I got some of this set when it was new but not too many.

 Four Holofoil inserts from 1994 Marvel Masterpieces. These are really nice in hand. Very sparkly. I had Captain America previously so I now have half the set.

 Four inserts from 1994 Marvel Universe, my favorite Marvel set. I am actually closing in on completing it. I'm six cards short of the base set, two short on the Power Blast set (Punisher) and I think three short on the Suspended Animation insert, which were all printed on clear plastic and have all yellowed badly. I loved the cartoon these Suspended Animation cards were all based on by the way, although it's been about 20 years since I've seen an episode. Somewhere I have an actual cel from the cartoon I won in a contest circa 1993.

This one is from the 1995 X-Men Chrome set, it looks really cool in person so I got it. Much better than the scan. This is only my second card from the set- I have one other insert card, no idea where I got it as I know I didn't open any of this set.

There's one more Marvel card that needs the other scanner, but I don't feel like getting it out for one card so it'll have to wait for another post. 

Star Wars
I may have had my love for Star Wars pretty much killed by the horrible decisions they have made under the Disney regime, but there's still classic Star Wars to collect from the good times.

 Card #1 and three of the 6 embossed inserts from 1996's Star Wars Finest. I didn't realize the Solo kids got cards in that set, for some reason I didn't get any when it was new, and in fact I only had one card from the set before these. I need to hunt down the card for Jacen.

This is actually a post card advertising 1997's Star Wars Vehicles set. As my family can attest to, I've always loved the B-Wing so it was cool to see that it was chosen over the more popular and well known X-, Y- and A-Wings. The card is kind of flimsy so I'm surprised it's survived as well as it has for the past 19 years. The cards in the actual set are unfortunately mirror foil. Technically it's an ad and not a card but I counted it as a card- close enough for me.

Everything Else
I picked up some other random cards as well.

 A Canvas insert from the 1996 Amalgam set. For those who don't know, in 1995 DC and Marvel had a collaboration where the characters fought each other (I still have several ballots, including some never opened) and then, the year after, they collaborated again to make Amalgam, where the characters were merged with the other company to make new characters with traits of both companies. This character is very obviously a mix of Wonder Woman from DC and Storm from Marvel. They created a shared character named Access who was supposed to appear in both companies books, but he only appeared in one comic from each company and then they started fighting again.

This three-card panel advertised the comics AND the card set, and I don't think I have to tell you who were merged to make Dark Claw. It's the size of three full-size cards, but that doesn't really show up well on the blog.

The Fire Engines set is the largest automotive set in history, running 500 cards over 5 sets and two card publishers. This is a Prism insert from 1993's series 1, and depicts a 1938 American LaFrance owned by Denver, Colorado.

I have no real idea what this card is. I bought it thinking it was from Marvel, but..it's not. It is from something called "Cyberforce" and appears to be based on some independent comic. As a DC loyalist I have no real idea. It's clear plastic and kind of holographic, similar to 1995 Maxx Crown Chrome NASCAR set.

Last card for today is actually a NASCAR card, but it kind of fits in Non-Sport too. It's a postcard, postcard size, and was issued by Press Pass for Christmas 1995. It may have been a boxloader in 1996 Press Pass, I don't know. The Press Pass flagship was usually issued very early, and by the end of their run the flagship set was getting released around Thanksgiving of the year before. it feels like the 1995 set more than 1996 though, and has the same font as 1995...plus a 1995 copyright. Either way I had to have it!

As someone who loves NASCAR and Christmas, how could I not? Don't be too surprised if you see this one again come Christmas time.

And that's it for today. I'll try to get back to actual writing someday. You may be seeing some of the "Sets in my collection" series coming up again soon.  I have about 20 of them written and ready to go, and I am just not in the writing mood so I may have to move them out of the queue. They've been waiting since late 2015 when I got on a writing jag and did about 30 of them in one day, some of which have since been posted.