A detailed look at some highlights of cards I got for Christmas

 Christmas was awesome, that's already well documented. But it took me a while to get some of the cards scanned, and by time I did it was December 30th, and I already had posts scheduled for the next few days, which due to some things I didn't have control over I ended up posting both on the 31st, so now you finally see some Christmas card highlights...although if you read my Top 12 Cards of the year post you already saw one of them. 

I will cover them in the order I opened them, because that's the sort of thing I do. 

As a refresher, here's what I got for Christmas...

First up was a blaster of 2016 Torque, which had my favorite card that you already saw.

This card is awesome! Two pieces of sheet metal, my favorite memorabilia type, and both are three colors! This confirms that Keselowski's car WAS pearl white as well, something that there was much discussion about on the modeling forum I run. And it's SN to 99 copies. 

The Horsepower Heroes Joey Logano insert and the Red Darrell Waltrip parallel both needed scans for the Database so they got done this year...or last year by the time this gets published. 

Moving to the 2017 blaster, I pulled another awesome sheet metal card and...

this awesome Richard Petty insert parallel. Also a red parallel, obviously, it's SN 49/49, so end of the line, which is pretty cool. It shows his 1989 car but the picture of him is from 1992.

And here's the sheet metal card! I'm not sure where on the car this comes from but I suspect one of the contingency sponsors. Another three color piece, too!

Now I move to 2019 Donruss. That's NASCAR's flagship set and I needed most of the 2019 set, previously only having one blaster's worth. 

Here's a base card...

a black parallel, SN to 199.

Contenders Ticket is one of the inserts, and the only one I pulled more than one card from in the blaster.

Decades of Speed is a cool insert because it features a photo from 1995, one of my favorite seasons. Terry Labonte is my mom's all-time favorite driver so she will enjoy this one as well.

Next in Line is an insert showcasing up and coming young drivers. The 2019 checklist is 9 cards long, 7 of the drivers do not appear in my collection. Unfortunately for my project of getting one card of every person to get one, Riley Herbst previously appeared in the 2018 version of Next in Line, which is the only card I have from either year's set! They didn't bring this insert back unfortunately, so at least I have a complete run of Herbst's cards. He is moving to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2021, and will have a legit chance to win the Xfinity title. 

My relic card was a tire of Denny Hamlin. I could of sworn I had this card already but as it turns out I had the Red parallel. Kind of funny how that worked out, having only two relic cards from the entire set. 

And a Silver parallel, which is really gray. 

Now, moving to hockey, I started with the blaster of 2020-21 Upper Deck 1...

The very first card out was a Golden Knight! That makes this the first set where one of the Knights was the first card out of the pack. While this is not the first time a Knight was my first card from a set, the other instances are where I bought the card as a single so that doesn't really count. I keep track on the Database of the first cards I get from each set, which I started in 2015...so I was able to easily check.

I happened to pull Igor Shesterkin, who will be the starting goalie for the Rangers going forward, friom the very first pack...

and I also managed to pull a Young Gun from my first pack as well! That is also a first for me. The blaster yielded two YG. 

This, however, is my favorite card from the blaster. Even though it's just a cut out of the player in front of a computer generated backdrop, something I normally hate, it's OK here because : 1. it's the Rangers, 2. it's an insert while the rest of the cards are real photos and 3. green is my favorite color and 4. this card looks totally amazing in hand, scans don't do it justice. This is 1990s level of awesome. 

O-Pee-Chee is always a great set, because it's so large, always at least 600 cards. 

You don't get anywhere near that many in a blaster or even a hobby box, but if your goal is to get as many different people as possible, this is the set for you. 

The base card design is clean. I like it. Easy to read name, large photo, team logo. The card stock is thinner this year, but that may be an improvement, as they did have a tendency to come out of the packs damaged in years past. Not a single card came out of this blaster damaged. 

The backs of the cards are white card stock and feature a photo this year! That's a BIG departure from the Upper Deck era of O-Pee-Chee. While the backs have changed a lot over the years, this is the first time they have a photo on the back as far as I know. I also got two Blue parallels but I have not been able to get them scanned yet. I got several Retro parallels which I really like, but didn't get them scanned either.

There were three of the O-Pee-Chee Premier inserts in my blaster, two of which were the yellow Blaster exclusive parallel. I won't complain about that, these are cool. Yellow is my second favorite color, too. OPC is not the set for chasing inserts. There is zero chance for pulling an autograph or jersey card, this is an old school set for collectors. 

Finally, I ended with the MVP Factory set. This is the third year they have done it, unfortunately I missed last year's even though I really wanted it. Unfortunately I ended up not getting card #159, Oliver Bjorkstrand. Even though I'm supposed to get a complete set...have already contacted UD but everything is closed up right now, they did say they will work on it when they get back in the office. Pretty disappointing though. 

The Blue parallel is exclusive to the Factory set, and I really like it. The first year was metallic blue, this year's is just solid dark blue. Not sure what they did last year. Like all MVP sets, they don't show the players with their new teams.

But they do get some rare player/team combos. Wayne Simmonds only played 7 games with Buffalo after being traded there at the trade deadline, something he didn't want to happen. Now he's with Toronto, this will likely be the only Sabres card I get of him, since I didn't pull his OPC card, which also should show him with the Sabres. 

My favorite part of MVP, honestly, is the pronunciation guide on the back. While I've been around the sport enough to know all the veterans by now, it's still helpful with the rookies, and it was very helpful when I was first beginning to follow the sport. It's how I learned that Byfuglien is pronounced Bufflin, for instance. 

Overall, it was a great Christmas...I got plenty of cards, yet not so many that it will make my hand hurt from writing them into my paper listing. I got my #1 most wanted card item, which was the MVP factory set. I am quite pleased with how it went. 

Eddie Lack retires- how does it compare to my other sports?

On March 30th Eddie Lack announced his retirement from professional hockey, due in large part to injury. Why is that a big deal, you may wonder?

Because the very first card out of the very first pack I ever opened after I officially became a hockey collector was Eddie Lack! I found some packs of 2014-15 MVP at the now closed antique mall I loved so much, and this was the first card I saw from the first pack I opened.

To date, it remains my only card of Eddie Lack in my collection.

It's an interesting comparison to my other two sports. I opened this pack in January 2017, so he retired 3 years and 2 months after I added his card to my collection. In the NBA, my first player out of my first pack was Sam Cassell, who got me started with that sport on Valentine's Day 1996. He would play through 2007-08, 12 years after I got the card!

In NASCAR, my first sport, well, that's totally different...my first card didn't come from a traditional pack, it came with a Racing Champions die-cast car, and Richard Petty, who was my first card, he had already retired by the time I got the card- Christmas Day, 1992. He retired at the conclusion of the 1992 season, which ended on November 15th, just one month and 10 days before I got the car, card, and GI Joe knockoff figure. Like Cassell, who is now a coach, Petty is still involved in the sport, as a team owner.

I know that in the grand scheme of things, this only really matters to me, but I thought it was interesting enough to get a blog post out of it. I've been meaning to write it up since the day I read it, but have been kind of busy with other hobbies, and just got a chance to write it today.

Plainville Card Show report and finding cards at the car show

On Saturday, I went to the Plainville card show in Connecticut, which is run by the same guys who run the Enfield show, that I visited in February. I had a great time there, and not much of a spoiler alert: I had a great time here, too! (I can't imagine not having a good time at a card show)

I actually took one picture inside the show, of the NASCAR dealer I mentioned last time.

I didn't buy any of those cards, but I did buy a lot from him. We had actually been talking via email and he had two people I was missing from my project of getting one of everyone who ever got one, and he brought them to the show for me. Of course, those were not all I walked away from his table with...

Zane Smith and Chase Cabre were the two he brought for me- Jesse Little (Chad's son) is somebody I needed as well, but I forgot to put on the list I sent him, which was actually just a screencap of my chart here on Cardboard History.

Just a couple of days before the trip (I think, actually, the night before) I updated my list of Sets Missing from my collection, which was my main focus before I moved over to my Names project, and I discovered that there were only two NASCAR sets missing from my collection: 2017 National Treasures and 2018 Panini Prime. Well...

Solved that problem pretty quickly. The Stenhouse from 2017 Absolute Memorabilia is technically a duplicate, and I knew that when buying it. The one I pulled had solid blue material, this is three color, and appears to come from the right sleeve. I will occasionally add a "duplicate" if the material is a different color. The Allmendinger is numbered to 20 and I since I didn't care which card I got from the set, I told him to just tell me which one was the cheapest. I could have chosen between this card and a dual memorabilia, SN99, no autograph, of Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, or this one. And you can see which one I chose.

After moving on from the NASCAR dealer (who has more than just NASCAR, but that's all I got from him this time) I hit some other dealers.

This dealer was at Enfield but I didn't buy from him there- I remember the large price tags he used. (I took them out of the toploaders for the image). That's my first card of Bates-Diop, and my first from this year's Select and Donruss Optic. All three cards are SN. Only my second card from last year's Chronicles, I liked the design, you all know how I am with numbered parallels, and rookie year numbered parallel of Jayson Tatum, marked at $5? Oh yeah, you know I'm not going to be able to pass that by.

 The next table down, I did something I say I will never do, but I did anyway. Current season cards. I make it a habit to not buy current year cards because I've done it and gotten burned by later getting duplicates. However, I know that I'm not really chasing current cards as much. I got one pack of Donruss and the only Donruss Optic I have of this year's set came from this show. I have not been hunting cards since January. Five of the above cards are my first of those players. All of the cards, including the numbered cards, cost me a quarter.

The same dealer had more expensive stuff, and these came out of a dollar box. I took a chance on the Elton, but it's a duplicate. However, my original copy is white and blue materials, so I'm on the fence about counting this one as new or not. (I probably will)

 The next dealer I visited was all hockey, and I bought another 2018-19 card. What am I doing? This is an oversize card, and I know I'm unlikely to buy one of the tins that UD does. As of right now this is the only card I have of 2018-19 UD Series 2. I'd like to do a hobby box of both series but I keep spending the money on other stuff...like card shows.

 Some older Whalers that I know I paid a slight premium for being in Connecticut, and a Jarome Iginla on the Bruins card, which is my first of him with that team, I think. First time I had seen any of the 1990-91 Score Traded in person, so I bought them.

 I almost didn't recognize Erik Karlsson without the trademark goatee.

This is tied as my most expensive purchase, costing me a cool $20. SN 9 of 10, it's my first card ever from The Cup brand.

The next dealer I visited, was mostly baseball, but as I was walking by I saw they had a box of the 1974-75 Fleer Cloth stickers NBA set, a rarity. The first time I've ever seen one in person, in fact, ever. It was a little more than I wanted to spend, but when I was looking at their display case I spotted a small stack of 1948-49 Bowman, the first NBA set, although it actually predates the NBA. These aren't particularly rare cards- some are- but they are expensive. You can't expect to get any cards from this set for under $20, and I didn't- paying exactly that for this card, of Bob Kinney, the only card he ever got.

Unfortunately, the top is not straight. I think it may have been trimmed, but for what I'm willing to pay, I can't be a stickler for condition. (It may have just been a miscut, but the fact that it was in my price range means it had to have something wrong with it, it's not like the dealer was trying to pull a fast one on anybody). It presents nicely enough for me, and I don't regret it.

The next to last dealer I visited had all baseball in the case, but did have some older packs for a dollar. It was a mixture of various sports and some non-sports, but everything he had I had either already completed, or wasn't interested in. These two, however, I could use.

The final dealer I visited was a great one- I think, when I get back to this show, he will be who I visit first. He had a wide variety of stuff, and great prices. Everything below cost me $45.

 A numbered Cam Neely insert, from a set I didn't previously have. A numbered Shipichyov from a set I didn't have, two numbered Mats Zuccarellos, one from a set I didn't previously have. A patch from a multi-sport set, my first Summer League patch, and a numbered relic from last year's Spectra, a set I didn't have.

 Another card towards completing 2015-16 UD Game Jersey Series 1 (I'm up to 8 of them now), a Gerald Wilkins autograph from the way-more-challenging-than-logical 2005-06 All-Time Fan Favorites Autographs from Topps 1952 style, my first card of Paul Zipser, a numbered jersey card of Zach Randolph, my second movie-worn relic ever, an autograph from last year's Goodwin Champions, a numbered triple relic featuring Kevin Garnett, David Lee and Udonis Haslem, and a card of an auto racer from 1910!

 Here's a better view of the relic from Spider-Man : Homecoming

 An auto of Frank Williams, an auto of Olympian Paige Selinski from 2016 Goodwin Champions, an astronaut relic, another card from the same 1910 set, a numbered auto of Jimmy Vesey, and my first card of Alexandar Georgiev, backup goalie for the Rangers. This is actually from last year's SP Authentic update.

The Vesey has a clear panel, which is cool. There are also parallels with relic and patch pieces, with lower numbering, as well.

In total, I ended up adding 90 cards to my collection, and that's not counting what is in those packs, as I have not even opened them yet. A great day!

We had stopped at the card show on the way to the RTS Expo, the first model show of the season. This show is the successor of the MassCar show, which was held in the same place, by the same people, but is "not the same show". I was the official photographer for MassCar from 2006-10, but for health reasons and lack of reliable vehicle, I had to stop going. Well, I went back this year, as I detailed in the last post. What surprised me about the show (Beyond the fact that I actually won something!) was that I found cards in the vendor area, from two different vendors!

 The first vendor I shopped from had the NASCAR cards, and the second vendor had everything else. What a find it was! The two Hot Rods cards are actually from the Milton Bradley game. the Fleer Krazy Kars stickers are from the 1975 second series, which I didn't even know existed...but the real highlight is those Indy car cards- from 1960 Parkhurst/Hawes Wax, this is one of the rarer Indy car releases, and I didn't have a single one. When the dealer told me the asking price, I didn't even look at them- I just said that I would take them all. None of them are in great shape, and there's even a duplicate- but I don't care. I'm thrilled to add these to my collection...at $2 each. There's 7 of them. There were also two from a different car set, which I can't identify yet,  but I think may be from Parkhurst of the same era. I overpaid for the Hot Rods and Krazy Kars, and vastly overpaid for a model from the same dealer, but based on the deal I got for the Indy cards, I'm still thrilled.

1994 Power is a set that I don't have a lot of and most of the ones I do are in poor shape. I hope that these have not become bricks after having been sealed since 1994. Time will tell, I have not opened it yet.

The same dealer I got the NASCAR cards from also had this Richard Petty set. I got one of these in 1993, but have lost most of it. I only knew where the hauler was. The two large cars, and the two trading cards? The last time I saw them was probably 1993. I had to get this for nostalgia reasons. I have opened it up to get the two cards out- and they were glued to the chrome backing. Ugh. I love Racing Champions, but not sure what they were thinking there. Now that I've bought a new one, I'll probably find my original in storage next time I go digging there.

I have three photo albums on my website in relation to this trip:
Driving through Connecticut and Massachusetts
RTS Expo Model Show
Stafford Springs, Connecticut
On the way home, my mom surprised me with a trip to Stafford Springs Motor Speedway. I also walked around the town.

Overall, I took more than 800 photos from the trip, and cleared 5000 taken in 2019...already. I also had 10 packages of cards waiting for me when I get home, which I will cover next post...thanks for reading!

PS. Sorry for the crappy pictures of the cards. The lighting in the hotel was not great. Will be scanning them soon, and posting them to a list on the Trading Card Database. I'll share the list in a future post.

Total Blaster 11

This blaster of 2014 Total Memorabilia didn't pan out as well as some others, because 2 of the 5 cards were duplicates...but you get something new for this series of posts, an actual scan!

Ryan Gifford is from the Young Guns subset, but I don't think he's made it up higher than K&N. I don't really watch Busch (Xfinity) or Trucks much anymore, although I will in 2017 as they finally are going to get the Cup drivers out of the series for the final 8 and 7 races, respectively.
Newman is the red parallel. The Jeff Gordon card appears in the second consecutive pack and the Richard Petty card is a duplicate...possibly the third copy I've gotten.

Regan Smith is my relic for this box, a good one as I am a fan of his, and though it barely shows on the card, there are two of the wear tabs on the relic, one at very top and bottom. That lets me know this relic piece comes from the sidewall of the tire. (where the lettering is). Most of both of them is underneath the cardboard flap.