Trading Card Database Secret Santa got delayed by the mail, but worth the wait!

 I got what I can only conclude is my TCDB Secret Santa today, which was sent to me direct from COMC...who as we all know aren't the fastest. It arrived today, December 30th, but was well worth the wait!

1999 Press Pass is my favorite Press Pass set, and documents my favorite NASCAR season. 1998 is when I went from a casual fan to "this is my life and everything else comes after NASCAR". That has not changed and I don't think it ever well, nor do I want it to. 

I didn't get all that much of the set when it was new, although I do believe the first Serial Numbered card I ever pulled was from this set. I did not get the short printed #0 card. For many years Press Pass included a 0 card on the checklist which is part of the base set but is packed and treated more like an insert. Despite the fact that I opened boxes of Press Pass every year from 2002 to 2015 (when they went out of business) I only pulled two or three of the 0 cards. Many of them are serially numbered, as this one is- to 800 copies. 

While this doesn't complete 1999 Press Pass for me (I'm still chasing some of the 1-per-pack Retro subset) this is THE key card needed to complete the set, and one that sells for more than I'm usually willing to spend for a card. The cheapest one on COMC right now is $26, and I generally won't go above $20...although my preferred price point is $5 or less. 

This is a huge addition for me, and is not only in the running for favorite addition of December, it's in contention for favorite addition of the year! (Look for that post next week sometime...hopefully)

Jeff Gordon's 1998 season is also the best season I've seen. He won 13 of the 33 races, including 4 in a row, both of which are tied for the most in the Winston Cup era. His 13 wins are the most any driver has put up in my lifetime in a single season. 

Hiding in plain sight

Back a few years ago, I sorted out my cards that needed scans for the Trading Card Database, in an effort to prioritize them and get them posted. When I did the NASCAR cards, I set aside the Jeff Gordon cards that were already posted...and there were a lot of them since Jeff is one of the most popular drivers ever. 

I remember putting the cards already posted in a small white box, and I hadn't seen them since...or so I thought. I don't remember when I began to work on scanning the NASCAR cards that were already posted to the Database, but I think it was 2018. (I know I finished getting everything on the Database on Christmas Eve 2017, and I had finished NASCAR quite a while before that since I made it a priority.) I remembered putting them in that small box, and I've been looking for it for a while now. 

I've probably checked each small box twice, wondering where it could have gone off to...

Then, out of the blue this morning, I had an idea, to check the 5000 count box I have right next to me but rarely go in because I use it as the base for my built model display. After a significant amount of work to get into the boxes, I got to the bottom box...and there they were. 

I remembered putting them in the small box, but I had ZERO recollection of taking them out of the small box and putting them into the big box. I probably did this back in like 2015 or 2016, so it's been a while! 

I have no idea exactly how many cards it was, but the column at the bottom was full when I opened the box, and after I took the Jeff Gordon cards out, that's how it looks now. 

I have no idea how long it will take me to get them all scanned...may take quite a while, but there's no time limit. I do know that I have more cards of Jeff than any other person, over 1200 according to the Database, although they include stuff that shouldn't be included like multi-person cards, race scenes and more. I've got 766 scanned currently.  Every other card in that box needs scans too. I'm not yet close to being caught up, 

Thanks for reading.

Actually doing some card stuff!

 After a two month break, I have actually been working on some card stuff the past few days. I reached a standstill in my modeling due to two factors- running out of supplies and my local hobby shop was closed for vacation, and it got too hot to do anything else, 92 degrees as I type this...too hot for my health to handle. Too hot for the paint also, it specifically says 90 is it's upper limit. 

I finally finished cropping the scans of the blaster of 2021 Donruss I got for Easter....which I made back in April! But that wasn't all. I also labeled the scans I had made in full, cropped and edited, back in either late March or early April, I no longer remember. And it wasn't all NBA, NASCAR or NHL either, there was some Star Wars, even some baseball. 

While cropping images is still causing me a significant amount of pain from my arm injury (which I rehurt badly the other night...usually rehurt it every night but that one was bad) I did discover that typing the cards into my Excel chart where I keep track of what I scan hardly hurt at all. I am not going to say it didn't, but I'm used to living in pain, I can handle this level of hurt. So I decided I was going to do some typing...remember a while back I said I would be doing the typing when I finished scanning everything? Change of plans. 

Hopefully my arm will go back to normal and I can go back to scanning when it's too hot, too wet or too cold to work on models, but I don't know when that will be...IF that will be. For now I'll type, there's probably too many to expect to finish this year. But I literally have nothing better I can do right now. 

However, typing requires unplugging my scanner, and before I did that, I had some stuff that needed scans, mostly oversized stuff that wouldn't fit into one of the white boxes I use for everything, or, in this case, standard sized cards where the issue number is only printed on the package. 

These die-cut Jeff Gordon Lifetime Series cards from Winner's Circle have numbers, but the only place to see it is on the plastic bubble the car and card came with....

While I do keep the cardboard backs, I don't keep the plastic bubbles. They can actually damage the cars so they get tossed...but I've had these three hanging around for the past week and a half until I could get the cards scanned. Even though this one is clearly visible in my photo, I wasn't sure they all were. I was going to match the shape of the bubble to the card to determine which was which, but they have now been scanned and properly labeled so the plastic can go. In case you're wondering, the 50th win car was #1 and the End of the Rainbow car was #2 in the series. I led off with the Chromalusion car because it's one of my all-time favorite paint schemes. 

I had also brought home a bag of packaging from my storage unit...yes, a bag. I had a nasty habit of sending the empty boxes to my storage unit in shopping bags and naturally, many of them got crushed. 

You can even see my hand trying to hold it as flat as possible on the scanner tray. This was a hugely important box to me. Still is. I was essentially out of the hobby in 2007 and 08. I had last opened a box in, I think, September 2006. When my brother brought me a random pack of this set from Target, I loved the set. So much so that he got me this box as well, and I completed the set. I had thought that I would never open another box for about 3 and a half years until this one, and it kickstarted me back into collecting, a high I've been riding ever since...until I hit 2008 levels of burnout two months ago. 

Without this box, there might not have ever been a Cardboard History. I might never have gotten into hockey. It's not hyperbole to say that this is THE most important set post-1990s for me. 

I'm sad to see the box crushed. The impact of this set and the memories are still there, but yeah, it's tarnished a bit now, because I won't be able to forget how my negligence in packaging it up for my storage unit led to it being crushed. 

By the way, there were two other hobby boxes and two blasters in the shopping bag with it and this is the only one that took significant damage. (sigh)

Luckily, the packs themselves fared better. 

 Also in the bag were 3 retail and 2 hobby packs of 2007 High Gear. The last two years of High Gear is a huge gap in my collection...other than a couple of numbered parallels I picked up on COMC over the years these 5 packs make up my entire collection of 2007...21 cards out of a 90 card set, and some of those 21 are inserts. I have about the same number from 2008.

When I repackage the boxes back up for storage, they will be in a sturdy box which hopefully will not let them get crushed any further. 

It's funny, when I stopped typing the cards after each scanning wave, I felt good...it felt like it was a waste of time that could be better spent scanning. Then I actually began to miss it, so much so that it felt like something was missing from my hobby. I eventually devised a way to copy and paste the info from my chart where I track what I scan directly into the various topic charts, which meant it was done right the first time and saved me from typing out each card three times (the scan label, the when I scanned it chart, and the topic chart). I knew that I was planning to go back and type everything in when I was done, but I figured that I would be doing that years into the future. Instead, I will be working on it now, and I will probably enjoy it very much. Like I said above, I probably have more than I can finish typing this year, so even if I don't finish typing them right now, that's OK. I will get closer to completion. The ultimate goal is to have an excel chart that lists every card in my collection...again, years away, but I will enjoy the process. Just need to finish cropping and labeling these packaging scans and I can begin. With the heat wave expected to be 90 or just below for the next 4 days I should be able to get a couple boxes in before I do more model stuff. 

On that topic, here are the first 25 builds I've completed in 2021. It's been a good year for modeling, and it's just going to get better, since I have finally figured out what I am doing. I had, at one point this past week, 30 builds painted and ready for decals, the most I've had ready at any one time in my life. I'm not sure where I'm at now because I decaled 8 of them, but I also painted more, so it's probably holding right around there. Some of the builds I'm doing have been waiting a very long time...some of the decals have been in my possession since 2005! I'm making a conscious effort to build down my stash instead of putting them off for various reasons. One of them I just finished, not yet done at the time I made this group photo, got put off for so long for the simple reason than it's an ARCA car, when my focus has been on Cup. That's the one that I've had since 2005 for sure. Instead of saving the donor body for in case I got another Cup decal set some day, I decided to just build it, and I'm glad I did. I haven't even photographed it yet. 

The builds here cover a wide range, with the earliest being 1951 (the black 88 on the far right) all the way up to 2021 (the black #1 on the far left), and in fact, this is the first time ever that my first car from a year is one I made. Every major decade is represented here, which I love as well. 1949 is not, but NASCAR only ran 8 races in what is now the Cup series in that decade, and it should appear in the Next 25 as well, eventually. There is only one car that can be built from that season right now, and of course, I'm building it. I've also been working on the easy conversions as well. For example, the Coors #9 on the 4th column, top row, was censored due to the Coors sponsorship, so I was able to correct it by just adding the decals. I have had the correction decals for so long, yet I just hunted down the donor this year. The hobby shop I got the decals at closed in circa 2011, so yeah, it's been a while. I'm also getting closer to having my NASCAR by the Numbers project complete...I have 13 numbers left to build, and 5 of them are currently in progress. The 84, 59 and 81 seen here are all the first cars I've ever built for those numbers. I still need to build a Cup 87, since that one is a Busch car, and for that project only Cup cars count. 

They are, from left to right:

2001 Shawna Robinson (Completed 1/1/21)

1993 Rusty Wallace (conversion from censored car)

1995 Rusty Wallace (another conversion from censored car)

1989 Bill Elliott 

1989 Brett Bodine (a conversion, in 1990 Racing Champions issued the car that Morgan Shepherd drove. The same paint scheme was used by Brett Bodine in 1989 so I just had to change the name. I also added some details that Racing Champions didn't bother with, like the number on the nose and the sponsor on the back)

1999 Ricky Craven

1969 Dave Marcis (a conversion, added sponsor and some minor bits)

2004 Jeremy Mayfield Hemi (the 7th Mayfield car I've built, making him tied for the most I've made of any driver)

2013 Tony Raines (also my 7th Raines for the tie. The camo was a full body wrap, not easy!)

1970 Talmidge Prince (a sad car, he was killed in his first race, in this car)

2021 Kurt Busch

2019 Ryan Truex

2012 Jason White (one of only two career Cup race was in this car at Pocono)

1996 Darrell Waltrip (a conversion, only build with no decals. I added the foil to the numbers and the strip separating the orange from the rest of the car)

1951 Frank Luptow

2020 JJ Yeley (You'll see this car in a future post, not sure when but I want to do a post about when other sports sponsored NASCAR. It's specifically the reason I chose to build this car)

1970 Richard Brickhouse

1955 Fireball Roberts

2000 Ron Fellows

1988 Derrike Cope

1976 Earl Ross

2001 Mike Wallace (one of the few full season cars from the 2000s I had not done yet)

2002 Boris Said (the first silver car I've ever been happy with)

2007 Martin Truex Jr. 1957 Chevrolet scheme

2011 Scott Riggs. This is a special car to me. It was the last one I started before I got sick in 2013 and thought I could never build again. I lost the chassis in the time between 2013 and 2020, but I found it in May and was able to finish the car. It is the last build I brush painted, and had the chassis not gone missing it would have been completed last year. 

Of these 25, it is the only car in my collection of Prince, White, Luptow, Brickhouse and Ross. It is the only car possible to build for Prince as it was his only car, and Luptow, it's the only car buildable, although he did run 5 total NASCAR races. He unfortunately was killed in a race at Lakewood Speedway in 1953. The majority of his career was outside NASCAR. While researching him I found out his daughter married Rocky Hodges, a sprint car driver who I've had cards and diecast of in my collection since at least 1994. I know I will build another Brickhouse and Ross car eventually, and White is unknown. I currently have no plans to do any of his Xfinity cars as I rarely do that series, but I have a friend who occasionally gives me decals and donors so I can't rule it out. He's also still active in the sport, so he may run some scheme I just have to build, or he may run in Cup again that I decide to build. I don't believe his 2011 car has decals available. 

Since I made this, I've finished 5 more cars, and once I can get back to my hobby shop to restock supplies, I will be able to finish 8 more. My second 25 builds of the year is really not that far off. There aren't any new numbers in the next batch, but there are two new drivers I've never built before, but that's just what I've done now. By the time I hit the next 25 and make the next group picture I expect that will change. 

a card that means more to me now than when I got it

Working on scanning, as always...came across one I got a couple years ago that when I got it, was just another card...but now, it's different.

I have a lot of Jeff Gordon cards, more than any other person in fact. But this one stands out...because now I've been to Times Square! When I got this card, I didn't think that I'd ever get there. Turns out it's less than an hour and a half from home.

Honestly, if we had known how easy it was to get to...I would have gone down for the NASCAR celebrations that were once held there. The annual awards banquet was held in Manhattan from the early 80s until about a decade ago, when they stopped because too many NYCers complained about the traffic delays. They moved it to Vegas, and now this year it'll be in Nashville for some reason. (A city NASCAR has pulled out of twice). It should really be in Charlotte, but no, NASCAR won't put it there for reasons known only to NASCAR. For selfish purposes I wish they were still in NYC.

Something a lot of people probably don't know is that New York State has the second highest number of tracks raced at in NASCAR history, behind only North Carolina. They only race once a year here now, in Watkins Glen, but in the early days NASCAR was much more national than it has been at any time since.

I posted about my trip to Times Square right after it happened, back in January 2019. I also visited Madison Square Garden that day, a fun trip...I don't really need to repost all the pictures because they are already posted and labeled there, so just hit the link if you want to see them.

I know there are other cards in this subset...I know I don't have them all but I am looking forward to the next time one randomly comes out of a box I'm scanning.

I actually wrote this post some time before Christmas 2019...I visited Times Square again the Sunday before Christmas, and that was NOT a fun experience. Even without the virus I had zero intention of visiting Times Square in 2020.

NASCAR is the first sport to return- here are 3 times it was first in the cardboard hobby

NASCAR is scheduled to return on May 17th, at Darlington, South Carolina. When they do, it will be the first sports to happen in America for over a month, thanks to the Corona virus. NASCAR is perfectly placed- the drivers are all alone in their cars, wearing a full-body fireproof suit, and a full face helmet. The crew members who service the car wear the same, but they usually took off their helmets and fireproof mask between pit stops. That won't be allowed any more. The crew chiefs and the media will have to adapt, and there will be no fans in the grandstands, but the racing, itself, shouldn't change all that much.

Things are different now. This has changed life, and while it will eventually go back to normal, it may take some time...most pandemics in history have lasted 3 years. NASCAR, for the month of May, will be the only live sports competing in the entire country. I hope it brings a lot of new people into the sport, and even if people don't stick, I expect the first race to have a huge TV viewership. I know I will not miss it but I'm a long time die-hard fan.

Being first is not new for NASCAR in the world of trading cards. In fact, two of the major innovations that changed the hobby that occurred during the 1990s came from NASCAR cards.

The first occurred in 1992, with the introduction of "chrome" cards. Predating Topps's Finest brand by a year, the first chrome cards were actually issued by Hot Wheels, in a set that covered 4 forms of motorsports, with NASCAR having the largest portion of the set.

 It was the also the first time Hot Wheels had actually attempted to make a series of real race cars. There had been several issued in the mainline over the years, but this series, which had only 17 issues, combined cars from NASCAR's Winston Cup, the IndyCar circuit, NHRA's Funny Car division, and SCCA Trans-Am racing. The set, unfortunately, was short lived, as it did not return for 1993. Hot Wheels would not produce real race cars again until 1997, when they began sponsoring Kyle Petty's car...they would issue a series of cards over the years, until 2005, after which NASCAR pulled their license. None other were as groundbreaking as these Chrome cards were.

And on the topic of chrome, the next major innovation that occurred in the world of NASCAR cards was in 1993, when Maxx introduced the Maxx Premier Plus brand. This was a fully chromed set of the Maxx Premier series, a concept that Topps would later copy for Topps Chrome in 1996. Interestingly enough, 1996 was the first year that there was not a Maxx Premier Plus brand, as the company went out of business before it could be created.

That is the Premier Plus and the standard Premier Series card for reference.

Interestingly, the Maxx Premier Series was only available as a factory set, while Maxx Premier Plus, the Chromed version, was issued in packs. Maxx also issued a standard flagship set in 1993, which had green borders. (I've completed all three).

The final innovation that debuted in NASCAR, I can't show from my collection...because I don't have any of the cards. In fact, I've never even actually seen any of them in person, since they are so rare. In the 1996 Press Pass set, the first ever relic cards appeared, called Burning Rubber, which featured actual pieces of race-used tire from 7 different drivers. These were revolutionary- no one had ever thought to cut up pieces of things and stick them on cards before! And I believe that's literally what it was- pieces of tire glued onto the cards. (I have one from the second year and that's how it was done). Later that year, Pinnacle joined in, issuing firesuit cards. I have one in my COMC box waiting to ship but it will not actually arrive here any time soon. Upper Deck would jump into the memorabilia game in 1997 and those cards are much more well known- but they were not the first.

Even though I can't show one that I own, I can show one from the COMC archive. They are all sold out, and they've only ever even had 4 of the 7 cards. Like I said, quite rare...and likely out of my price range even if they did show up.

Although they did not technically innovate, NASCAR's first serially numbered cards and autographs were both issued in 1991, the same time they debuted in other sports. It's possible they were first on the market, but the actual release dates is unknown to me- whereas the three innovations shown in this post predate the other sports by at least a year.

I hope, if any of you reading this, have never watched NASCAR before, that you give it a try when it returns this Sunday. It became a lifelong passion for me when I was 8 years old, and I would not be surprised if it hooks you as well. Of course, I may just be hoping for some blogger people to take up NASCAR so I can send out some RAOK....😉

Lost & Found: Beckett Samples

A few years back I found a box in my storage unit with some old Becketts in it. I consider magazines one of the main things I collect but I am terrible at keeping track of them. After I read them, I put them in a box and put them in my storage unit...generally never to be seen again, although I hope to change that in the not too distant future. Well, back in late 2017, when we upgraded to a much nicer storage unit, I found a box that was mostly old Becketts, and I took it home with the intent to re-read them again. And then, I just kind of used the top of the box for storage, not actually opening it up and looking through them or reading any of them. 

A few days ago, I reached a bit of a burnout impasse in my scanning project, (Since I got scanner #5 I have been working on scanning foils, finests and etched cards only, not editing the scans. Not a lot of fun and I hit burnout.) So, I got into the box and decided to start scanning the covers. Not only for my own collection, but also to post on the Trading Card Database, which has a magazine section. Also, those issues are a goldmine for card ads, which I also scanned. 

The box was mostly early Beckett basketball...issues #1-18, minus #4, and then another run of issues from 1995-96 era, and then some from 2002, which is probably the last time I was in the box before it went to storage. (I'm not sure if I never got issue #4 or it just never got into the box- back in the day when Beckett actually had articles worth reading I was working on collecting all of them)

There was also a small selection of Beckett Racing. Now, one thing Beckett Racing had that Beckett Basketball did not, was promo cards. Starting in 2002, and going to circa 2005, Press Pass supplied most issues of Beckett Racing with a sample card. These cards are actually quite rare and whenever I meet someone who collects, there's about an 80% chance that their first question is going to be if I have any of the Beckett Samples available. 

I thought that I had pulled them all out of the magazines when they were new...I was wrong! 

Jeff Gordon is 2002 Premium. Dale Jarrett is 2002 Eclipse 

 The fronts look just like normal base cards, but the back...that's what makes them special.

Two of the Becketts still contained the cards, and I thought to myself, they must be duplicates, which is why I didn't take them out. But I checked, and they were not! I needed both cards! Unfortunately, by being glued into the magazine with tacky rubber "glue", both cards have some slight damage. The back of the Gordon card shows some of the "cracking" that is common on these, and the Jarrett card has that AND the glue took some of the UV coating off the card. I don't care. I'm thrilled to have them, now officially part of my collection, 17 years after I originally acquired them! 

That was an awesome find, and it really makes me wonder what else is waiting to be found in my storage unit, unseen by human eyes in a decade or more...

In the end, I scanned 108 magazine covers for my collection files, and totally coincidentally, 108 card ads, which I will be working on uploading to the Cardboard History Gallery over the next few days. I am debating adding my magazine cover scans to it as well- especially the card related magazines, which are not solely Beckett.  

If anyone would like to read a Lost & Found post about the magazines themselves I could whip one up in a very short time...I'm not sure anybody would want to read it though. I may write one anyway if the spirit moves me. 

Error Gallery: Mis-aligned effects

It would have made perfect sense to post an Error Gallery post on April Fool's Day, but it didn't occur to me in time...

There are lots of special things done to cards to make them special. Sometimes, though, it goes wrong.

2003 Press Pass Top Shelf #TS2

The only card I've ever seen where the embossing is off center and the image is not!

1995 Classic #45

 I wasn't quite sure where to put this one- the silver is not properly lined up with the white underlay. Could have easily gone in Print Error as well.

1995-96 Metal #136

1995-96 Metal #173

1995-96 Metal #191

All three cards from 1995-96 Metal Series 2 are missing the "metalizing" effect at the very top of the card, most clearly visible on the basketball. I also have a Danny Ferry with the same issue but it's nearly impossible to see in the scan so I didn't post it.

I have a couple of cards from 1996 SP NASCAR that the scans are really awful on and need to be rescanned, and the annoying this is that I had them in my hand in the month of March and forgot they needed to be rescanned, and put them back in the box...which is a pain in the butt to get in to, but...the scan doesn't show up anyway. The error is that the hologram background has a layer added over it where the picture was, and I have two cards that it was not lined up accurately, and you can see a hologram silhouette around the person's picture.  You can kind-of-sort-of see it on this Rusty Wallace card, he's not supposed to have that glow around his head.

Now, by sharing this scan, you can see why I've been debating trying to fix or just outright re-scan a large portion of my NASCAR collection. (I've mentioned that mental debate several times over the course of Cardboard History). There's a lot of crappy work that I accepted as "good enough" for some reason, when I scanned my entire collection in 2009 and 2010. This is totally unacceptable yet I accepted it. I have no idea what I was thinking, proving that not only card companies make errors. Also, I somehow messed up the creation of this post so you are getting think funky layout. I tried to fix it several times and was unsuccessful.

Top 12 cards of 2017

Last year, I debuted a new feature that counted down my top 12 favorite cards from the year- one from each month. I plan to keep doing that feature, and here's 2017's addition.

This year was "the year of the hockey card" as I officially began collecting them on January 15th. I experienced some incredible kindness from my fellow hockey collectors this year, as they started rolling in literally 5 days after I announced I was now collecting the NHL, and have not stopped! I started the year with exactly 3000 NHL cards, and at the close of the year, I'm pushing 9000...and most of them came to me as gifts! I've gone months throughout the year without buying any, but they kept rolling in anyway. I'm not sure exactly what I've done to be on the receiving end of such kindness, but I am eternally grateful. But while this was the year of the hockey card, I didn't stop collecting the NBA, NASCAR or Non-sports...let's see which cards show up as my favorite addition from each month. I'm going though my Excel chart listing the exact date and order I get each card as I type this up, so you'll sort of be finding out as I do- except for the fact that I'm writing the majority of the post on December 17th, and don't plan to post it until the 31st.

January

1957-58 Topps #66

 My very first day out buying hockey cards for  myself, and I luck into a card from 1957-58? And in this condition? Can't beat that! As I did with the NBA, I'm learning as much as I can about the history of my new sport via cards, and the NHL has a much better representation on cards than the NBA does. While this is my oldest NHL card currently, they got them starting all the way back in the 1920s, after a 1917 founding. There are even card sets issued for the professional leagues that existed before the NHL, which I would also welcome into my collection if I ever had the opportunity to.

February

1888 Kinney Brothers Novelties Camera

I'm still amazed I have this card...and at the kindness of fellow collectors. This is the oldest card in my collection, from 1888! I got it as a gift from fellow blogger CommishBob of The Five Tool Collector and now, 10 months later, I'm still kind of in shock! I didn't remember off the top of my head what month it arrived in, (that's why I write everything down) but I knew it would "win" it's month, whatever it was. As I am a photography buff, and set a new personal record for most photos taken in a year, week and month all during 2017, the very old school camera theme resonates with me as well. Also, I had no idea die cut cards were such an old concept. I thought they were more of a 1990s thing. I learned something new!

March

2006-07 Be A Player BAP Signatures #SN

March was sort of a hard one, as again I got a lot of great cards, and there are a couple that stand out. In the end, I went with my first NHL autograph, which was a gift of fellow blogger CaptKirk42. I very nearly went with a dual relic that came from Shoebox Shane or my favorite card from the box of 2017 Donruss NASCAR that I did, but a 1st of a major category of cards must take precedence.

April

1995 Maxx Bat Chase #8

April was my third largest month of the year in terms of new cards, and it was the toughest one to choose yet. I seriously considered the first NHL autograph I pulled from a pack, from my first hobby box of the sport, but I am actually going to go with a NASCAR card. I received a gigantic box of NASCAR cards from a friend who does not blog, and several of the 1995 Maxx insert "Bat Chase" were in there. In 1995, Bill Elliott's normally bright red Thunderbird was changed to the black Thunderbat, it is to this day one of if not my all-time favorite special paint scheme in NASCAR history. I've known about this insert set for many years and always wanted to add some of them to my collection. Now, finally, I have!

May

2013-14 Panini Titanium Rookie Gear Autographed Patch #RG-DMI

Another card that came to me as a gift, this time from JediJeff of 2x3 Heroes. This is an incredible card, and is my first relic from the Rangers, who have become my favorite team! And what a relic it is, clearly part of a letter! There was no competition for this month- like the 1888 Kinney Brothers Novelties card above, I knew that whatever month it was in, it would win, and it turned out to be May. If you'll notice, through the first five months of the year, I only purchased one of the cards myself!

June

2012 FanFare Magnificent Materials Dual #MM-AD

June breaks that streak with a card I bought for myself- one of only two I purchased on Ebay this whole year, I think. I rarely go on ebay, but occasionally I will to do some research on if something actually exists or what the actual numbering is, and I think that's what I was doing when I found this card. The glove part of the relic is awesome. The circles are rubber, and all open, although most mushed on the scanner tray. In hand they remind me of the undersea worms from the cartoon that launched the GI Joe series...maybe a couple of you will remember that. The firesuit is a piece of the Bass Pro Shops logo. I won this card for under $10, no longer remembering or caring the exact number, but I know I don't like to pay very much...so that includes shipping.

July

2014 Panini Black Friday Tools of the Trade NBA #8

July was the hardest month yet, as there were three cards I was having a hard time choosing from. This one, which I got from Wes of Jaybarkerfan's junk/Willinghammer Rising's World Cup of Trading, the Wade Boggs autograph -which I count as part of my Simpsons collection that came from Gavin, or my first NHL stick relic, which came with a patch on the card as well. But this one is the one that takes it, mainly because it's such an unusual piece. It's my first and to date only towel relic, and even though it's an NBA player, it's actually a multi-sport release. We have now crossed halfway through the year and not an NBA card has appeared...surprising. August isn't one either.

August

1994 Press Pass Authentics Autograph Jeff Gordon (NNO)

August was another one that I knew, back in August, what card would be the winner. Instead of writing about what this card means to me again, I'm just going to link to the post I wrote about it when it arrived, from COMC. : "The Biggest of the Big Guns" I don't really do many single card posts, but this one got one. Honestly, this is probably the winner for favorite new addition of the year. November's card is a spectacular one, and the other months are no slouches either, but getting my hands on Jeff's autograph...not sure that can be topped.

September

2012-13 Prizm Autograph #36

Finally, an NBA card proper makes the list! I've written about Jimmer Fredette a few times, and I've written about this card before. Jimmer is sort of a semi-local guy. He's from Glens Falls, NY, which is basically, in my mind, Lake George, which is my favorite place in the world. I've spent much time in Lake George area over the years, including in Glens Falls. In fact, one of my earliest memories of collecting the NBA is opening a pack of 1995-96 Stadium Club in the Long John Silver's that used to be there, and was the best fast food ever...but closed right after that...in fact, it was probably the last time I was there. Anyway, Jimmer didn't really make it in the NBA, and is now playing in China. But he's still someone I would consider a "Hometown Hero" despite the 3 hours away his home town actually is. I've wanted his autograph for a while, but one has eluded me...until this September, when I got one...while on vacation in Lake George, naturally! The month was actually my second lightest of the year- only 270 new cards-but this one, due to the Lake George connection, didn't have much chance of "losing" the month. By the way, it only cost me $5, which is a total shock to me. The auto is a little faded, which may have played a role.

October

1994 Action Packed #31

October was a tough one to choose. It was my largest month of the year, seeing me take in a whopping 3009 cards, thanks to my friend Joel Freedman, who sent me a 21 pound box of cards, and another friend who sent me a 10 pound box of cards! Joel doesn't blog but does read, Thanks Joel! There are some cards that I really like a lot from this month that aren't going to get the nod, which is a shame. But I had to with the card from 1994 Action Packed shown above. My all-time favorite NASCAR set, this set has so many memories for me, every time I see a card from the set, it brings me a smile. I got most of the ones I needed to complete the set from Tim. If anyone has any newer Anaheim Angels or Dodgers cards they want to move to a new home, Tim collects the teams and I owe him for the cards he sent me. I have been meaning to look for some cards locally, but health has been preventing me from doing so on my own.

November

2015-16 Upper Deck Portfolio Profiles Quad Materials Premium Series Gold #PM4-WG

November was my lightest month of the year- only 235 new cards. Even if there were a lot more, this one would have been the #1 card for the month....I mean, how could it not be? It's one of the greatest cards I've pulled in my 29 years in the hobby. If I hadn't been chasing a Jeff Gordon autograph since 1994, I'd declare this the card of the year, hands down.

December

 Another tough one, I got a lot of great cards, mostly at Christmas. But I think I had to go with myself...I didn't the last time, and I probably should have. So this time I will! As a bonus, this one got me a PID on the Trading Card Database, my favorite website ever. (even moreso than my own)

I mentioned in last year's post that I would retroactively do a Top 12 for 2014 and 2015, but I never got to it. Hopefully I will in 2018.

The Biggest of the Big Guns

the back of the card is just blank white cardboard

Of all the cards I've purchased on COMC over the past few years, this is right up at the top- if not the top- for most important. In the world of NASCAR cards, there are some people who are harder to get autographs of than others, and for me the hardest to add to my collection was 4 time Champion Jeff Gordon. It's not that he's a rare signer- he's just so popular that his autographs are usually more than I can afford to spend on a single card. For many years they were in the 3 digits, a place I just can't go for one card.

However, luck was on my side, as I was cruising through COMC during the Spring Cleaning Sale earlier in 2017. I saw this card...and it was only $13 and change. I didn't really believe my eyes...I thought there must have been some mistake. It was mislabeled at COMC, not listed as an autograph...(eventually corrected before I actually shipped it) I had never seen any cards from this five card insert before, but I know enough about cards, and although I did not possess one in my collection, I recognized Jeff's signature. I couldn't click "Buy Now" fast enough! It WAS labeled as having a bottom right corner ding...I was willing to risk it because it's not every day I can add Jeff's autograph to my collection- but it's really so minuscule that it wasn't really worth noting. Yes, it's there if you know where to look, but it's limited to the white border, and it's a JEFF GORDON AUTOGRAPH!

And when I say big gun...I mean it. This card is huge. It's 7 3/4th inches tall, and 5 and 5/8th inches wide, making it one of the largest cards in my collection- and quite probably the physically largest card in my NASCAR collection.

I have wanted an autograph of Jeff since 1994...that was the first year autograph cards became a big deal in NASCAR, though there might have been some previously...I don't actually remember. I got my first in 1994. The first lap of NASCAR racing I ever saw happened to be the first lap Jeff would ever lead...he would add 25,000 more over the next 23 years en route to 93 career wins, third all time.

Ironically, Jeff is my favorite of the Big 4...yet was the only one without an autograph in my collection. (Richard Petty, David Pearson, Dale Earnhardt). Not anymore!

Of the top 10 race winners in NASCAR history, I now have the autograph of six or possibly seven of them. I know I'm missing Darrell Waltrip (5th, 84 wins) and Cale Yarborough (7th, 83 wins) but I can't remember if I ever got Rusty Wallace's signature. I'm really slacking because I used to be able to remember everybody in my autograph collection. (UPDATE: No, I checked my records, I'm missing Rusty) 10th place Lee Petty is not available as he did not sign any cards before he passed away in 2000.  He might have a cut signature but no chance I could afford that.

Jeff was the key name missing from my collection...but I can finally, almost unbelievably even to myself, say...no more!

NASCAR Special Paint Scheme of the Month: 2009 Jeff Gordon National Guard

Today is the Sears Point Infineon Sonoma Raceway race, the first of two road course races on the Cup schedule. It's also one of my favorite races of the year, but unfortunately I've slept through the race more often than I've seen it...my schedule varies and when it makes me miss this race, is very annoying. This year I've been able to see every lap, which I'm quite happy about. Even if it's looking like, with 4 laps to go, the winner will not be a favorite driver of mine. I don't care, I love this track and am always happy to see it.

I thought I would take a look at a special paint scheme from the all-time best road racer in NASCAR history, Jeff Gordon. I chose to show the last special paint scheme to appear on a card, although Jeff drove many more after this one- Press Pass couldn't be bothered to show any of them.

Jeff did not have a good track record at Texas, but he finally broke through and won in this car, after trying since 1997 when the track opened. It was the final track Jeff needed to have won at every Cup track he drove on, although he did miss Kentucky which was added after this track at the end of his career.

I am a big fan of Jeff, and am not happy that he retired. He led the very first lap of NASCAR racing I ever saw- it happened to be his first lap led as well, by the time he retired he would rank (I believe) 6th in all-time laps led. Maybe higher.

2009 Wheels Main Event is not a set I like- one of my all-time least favorite sets in fact- but it shows this car the best. It also appears on the Unleashed insert from 2009 Press Pass, but much smaller. However, that card does not crop off the nose and tail of the card.

Thanks for reading!

Thank you, Angus!

I'm not sure what I've done to be on the receiving  end of so much kindness, but Angus has sent me two packages that I need to cover, and I'll combine them here into one.

Make sure you read Angus's blog! You can find it by clicking on this very sentence.

The first arrived December 30th, which is unfortunate as it was a Christmas gift. It was mailed long before Christmas but the international shipping must have slowed it down.

There were a lot of highlights and even a mystery in the package.

I had no idea this card existed! I need to spend more time looking over the checklist for this set, I think. Angela and Amber Cope are twins and nieces of 1990 Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope. They have been unable to secure sponsorship so have not really been able to do much racing.

I have very few cards that feature more than one signature on the same card- I'm not sure how many exactly but I can think of less than 10 off the top of my head. Very cool!

First out of the box was a factory set of 1994 Action Packed The Champ & The Challenger, which was a 42 card set that highlighted Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon. It was an interesting changing of the guard time in NASCAR. Earnhardt won his 7th and final Cup championship in 1994, and Jeff won his first two races that year- 92 more would follow, third most all time, but even more impressive when you consider that he did it in seasons where he only had at the most 36 opportunities to race, while Richard Petty (200) and David Pearson (105) won most of theirs in seasons when there were as many as 64 races a year. The first lap Jeff ever led in Cup was the first lap I ever saw.

For some reason the half of the set focused on Jeff has always been easier to find, while the half with Dale has always been tough. Now, I've got them all! Here's some highlights.

 I chose to highlight this one since it shows porta-potties in the background. That's not something I've ever seen on a card before!

 This photo was taken in the 1993 Daytona 500, the first race I ever saw. Jeff led the first lap after starting 3rd. He would lead more than 25,000 laps in his career.

 Dale celebrating one of his 76 career wins.

 The one problem with Action Packed cards is that being embossed, they don't always show up properly in scans. as the white line on his chin are not on the actual card.

 Alan Kulwicki, owner/driver of the #7 car, was killed in an airplane accident after 5 races in 1993. It was a rough year as NASCAR lost two major drivers to airplane crashes in 1993, and two on track at Daytona the first week of 1994.

Dale and Jeff together. They were actually friends in real life, Jeff looked up to Dale. Many fans of Dale Earnhardt refused to accept Jeff for some reason, but Dale himself did.

As with all Action Packed cards from 1994, the cards have rounded corners.

Next up was a complete factory set of 1991 Carms F1. This is a set I had never actually ever seen before! They did a good job with the cards, with most if not all of the drivers getting a portrait card, a car card and a helmet card. There are a couple of cards at the end of the 105 card set on F1 history and one about the company itself. The cards have a nice texture, feeling quite similar to 1992-93 Hoops or 1991 Ultra football.
Here are the three cards of Ayrton Senna, who was on top of the F1 world when he was killed on track.

I also like the fact that they did not censor the cards- note the prominent Marlboro sponsorship- unlike the majority of NASCAR sets, which are mostly scrubbed of any alcohol, tobacco or even prescription medicine sponsorships.

As near as I can tell, this is the only set ever issued by the company. A real shame as they did a good job.

The last section of the package is a bit of a mystery. It is various NBA cards, but with perforated edges. Cards from 1994-95 Fleer, Hoops and Ultra, including some inserts from Hoops. He found them in a dime box. While these cards were all knew I did have a couple others from 1994-95 Fleer and cards from other sets from 1992-93 through 1995-96 that I can't quite identify, not being sure where they are from or what makes up the checklist.

Only about a week later, I got another surprise package from Angus. This one, however, was not mailed from Canada...but from his Mom's place in Arizona! It seems he had gotten some cards he didn't want to transport back home to Canada, so instead he sent them to me! I'll take them! The majority of them are baseball and football, which I admit aren't my main sports, but I am always glad to get new sports cards and widen my horizons. However...I didn't look through the majority of the cards. I'm saving them for something special. A whole year, actually. 2018 marks my 30th anniversary collecting trading cards and my goal for that year is going to be getting at least one new card every single day of the year. It will be tough because I have so many NBA and NASCAR cards already. But I don't have a lot of hockey, baseball or football. There's a 99% chance that every card in those boxes is going to be new. So, I shall save them. It was hard not to go through them and see what was in there...but I think I have the control to do it. After all, I purchased that box of 1991 Olympic cards in 2014 and saved them until the 2016 Olympics, and I have packs in my pack stash that have been waiting since 2013...so 1 year? I can do that!

My favorite items however, were not cards.

This Bobblehead of Jason Kidd is! I had no idea these even existed.

And like he guessed, my Mom did love it! She's going to get it for display now that I've photo documented it for this post.

Also favorites are some post cards of the Suns. Angus went to a Suns game while in Arizona and these two post cards must have been sold by the team. This is the kind of thing that I know exists, but I never have any access to...or this great 70s style Gorilla sticker. Why do the Phoenix Suns have a gorilla as a mascot? No one knows. But he's been their mascot for decades. I used to have a code to play as the Gorilla on NBA Jam as well.

If I weren't such a Nets diehard this would easily have been my favorite item in the box. How could you not love this?

Some cards I did go through right away was this factory set of the first half of 1993 Action Packed Hall of Fame. First off, I had no idea there was a factory set available...and secondly, I had no idea that such a short set (84 cards) was issued in two halves! This is card #1-42, naturally. This rights a mistake I made. Back in 2010, before I committed to collecting the NBA full time again, a shop had a stack of this set quite large...probably most of the set if not all of it. And stupidly, I didn't get any, even though it was a set I was constantly chasing. Of course, by time I decided to start collecting the NBA again...the shop had gone out of business. So I was particularly frustrated with myself then. (although not as much as letting a large lot of Star company cards get away, but that's a story for another time)

Not all of these cards are new, but there are more new than not. My list of people missing from my collection is not showing anyone new in these cards, but there are some early, 50s era players who are pretty rare in my collection and I think are below 5 cards. Bob Davies, in the front on the bottom row, is one of them. According to my records this is only my second card of him, for example.

Unfortunately the overall card landscape for players before the 1980s who did not make the NBA's 50 Greatest Players list is pretty slim. Most of the players who played before the 1969-70 Topps set do not have a single card at all, and while it did get better when Topps started producing cards, since they issued small sets of usually 132 cards post NBA-ABA merger there are a lot of lesser known players without cards from the 1970s also. This set is one of the few that covers some 50s players, and quite a few of the cards are in color. It's truly a great set and I'm glad to have completed the first half of it.

I did look at at least one Football card.

What a name. I've now got a card of him, Marion Butts and Isaiah Pead, or I. Pead. If I had known there was so much sophmoric humor in football names, maybe I would have collected them more...and based on the look on his face, he knows this joke is being made even though this card was printed in 1989.

I did not shake this card. Yet...