I am not really a football fan. I have actually seen a football game in person, at my high school when I was a student there, and I didn't enjoy it much. Truth be told, I mostly went to ogle the cheerleaders. Most of the game was spent shooing away mosquitos rather than watching anything. But anyway.
I scanned this card today.
Based on the card back it seems he was a great player, because A) he's in the Hall of Fame and B) he has a trading card set designed as his own, which is something only elite players get. This set was made by the Ted Williams Card Company, too.
However, I don't think of football when I see or hear of him. I think of the line in Mark Willis' classic "19 Somethin'"
in which he sings "I was Roger Staubach in my back yard, shoebox full of baseball cards".
This song gets fairly regular airplay on the Sirius channel I listen to, and my local radio station before that, meaning I now permanently associate this football player with this song, and vice-versa.
That's it, that's the essay, making the effort to post more so when I was cropping it I thought to myself "I can make a post about this" and here we are.
Every year I like to take part in the Secret Santa exchange on the Trading Card Database, formerly the Blogger Secret Santa, which is now run by my friend Dan, AKA vrooomed, on the Database. It is getting bigger and better every year, this year more than 100 people took part. My Secret Santa this year was fellow blogger Andy of Stadium Fantasium and he came through with probably the most unique Secret Santa gift I've ever seen, let alone received!
It's a helmet!
No, wait, it's actually a bowl! How very cool! This is a special helmet shaped bowl direct from the Rose Bowl, where Andy actually works, and like I said...that's so very unique, and cool.
I did try to wear one as an actual helmet but my head's a little too big for that, LOL. No pictures, sorry, it wasn't really worn so much as balanced on my head anyway, haha.
But that wasn't all!
There were cards too! The AT&T promo set is a special all-Clippers release from the 2001-02 season, and includes a brand new to me Elton Brand promo! The Planinic is a SN-rookie from the 2003-04 Hoops Hot Prospects set. The All-Star pack of Adrenalyn XL is a fun one with a story. I had no idea there was a promo pack for that set until December 19th, when my brother and I went to the Basketball Hall of Fame...a series of posts is forthcoming on that...and they had some as part of the exhibit. I have not actually opened the pack yet...I need to scan it first, but I've got so much going on at the moment my scanner has not really been too clear yet this year. Unfortunately the pin was rendered mostly invisible by the flash of my camera, but it's from the time were his stadium hosted the Super Bowl.
Yesterday I posted a look at some random NHL hockey cards that came out of my boxes and onto my scanner tray in a totally random way. Well, I really enjoyed typing that post up and I hadn't moved the scans to their proper place yet, so I figured, I might as well write up a post to cover the other two sports I worked on, and a third for the non-sports I covered. This turned into a pretty random mini series but I really ended up enjoying it, both the scanning of the "whatever came out of the box" and then the posting of it.
Like the hockey post, looking at one card from each set.
1991 Donruss. As you can see from the scan it's not in the greatest shape but I don't mind. It threw me at first when Donruss was using different colors for the border in the same set. Luckily, when I took the time to actually look at the logo, I saw they were one in the same.
1991 Fleer. Fleer was always my favorite company for the NBA, but this set really does not work for me. I don't like cards where the player has been cut out of the image and placed over a single color background, or even any other background.. Just use the real photo!
1991 O-Pee-Chee. I don't actually have any of the Topps set that year, but I have quite a few 1991 O-Pee-Chees, 34 of them in fact, to make it the 7th largest baseball set in my collection.
1991 Ultra football. I had no idea that Ultra existed before the 1992-93 set issued for NBA and NHL. Based on the background, nobody else knew either. This is the largest set in my football collection, with 248 cards present. It's not the first time I've shown this set...it's not even the first time this week!
1995 Skybox. I think he might be a rookie.
2000 Pacific Paramount. That crosshatching appears on the card. I believe this and the card above it are the only examples of each set in my collection.
2005 SPx- holofoily but not mirror foily. Yes, I just made up a word. If Shakespeare can make up words because he was too drunk to remember how to properly write them, then I can make up a word to fit a need here!
2005 Topps. Have some of these. Not very spectacular, but for a flagship set it's just right. I like the 50th logo on the cards.
2009 Playoff Contenders. A very busy card, lots of stuff going on here and very little of it enhances the look of the card.
2011 Score. Good photography, large base set, nice texture to card.. Can't complain here.
An insert from 2011 Score. Technically that's more than one card from the same set, but the post was a little weak otherwise.
Bonus sport card! Well, I guess that American Gladiators counts as a sport card. I loved this show when it was new, and I was thrilled when ESPN Classic had it on a few years ago. If it was still on, I would still watch it.
The other day I filled my cases of NBA cards but it was too late in the day to start sorting them for this round of updating my Excel files. So that meant it was time to dig into my boxes of other assorted cards that were already posted to the Trading Card Database. In those boxes it's about 50% NBA and 50% everything else...just like the breakdown of my collection overall, actually. I went through to find some non-NBA to scan and came across this card.
Naturally it made me laugh...I may get older but if there was ever a time when someone named Butts didn't make me laugh then that's not a life worth living.
According to the same Database mentioned above, it is my only card of him, which means I have no more to show... thus the post title.
Wishing I had named my blog Hugh Jass Cards or some such, I need to work more Simpsons quotes into my posts.
I actually feel kind of bad for making fun of this guy's name but come on, his name is Butts. I can't help myself.
It's been a while since I had pulled off enough trades to make a Trade Recap post. In fact, I have not pulled off any trades except for the two I covered here. It's just been slow. Then, in August, I made three trades, and oddly enough they all arrived on the same day- August 6th. Go figure!
First off was a trade with Mark Z/mzentko on the Trading Card Database. I actually forgot that he didn't send me anything from the three-way trade mentioned in the linked post, but he didn't forget.
He sent me a mixture of basketball, including more from the 2012-13 Hoops Taco Bell set, and others.
10 new cards from the most recent food promo in the NBA. these are the highlights for me, as we don't eat at Taco Bell so I didn't get any when they were new.
An insert from 1996-97 is always welcome! Even if it is mirror foil, lol.
A base RC from 1999-00 Topps Chrome. I did do a box from this set but I am nowhere near complete on the set.
This is a college card, normally not a fan, but the photo is from USA Basketball (Miles didn't waste time in college) so it's good.
Several 1998-99 Finest. Oddly enough, Reggie Miller was used in the promo set, which I got when the set was new, or close to it, but I never had the base. I never liked Reggie Miller, but when you are a set collector you end up with a few hundred of him.
The highlight of this trade though was this NASCAR relic, SN07/25, of Matt Kenseth
There were other cards- quite a few others, actually- but these were the highlights (and the ones I got scanned in a timely manner AND remembered where I got them from...my memory is like a goldfish at times). Some of them need to be scanned with the other scanner or scan best with other cards from the same set, that I don't have enough of to make a full 9-card scan of yet. (either not yet in collection or not yet found if already in my collection. IE, 1994-95 Collector's Choice Silver Signature parallel. He sent two or three, I have 5 now waiting to be scanned, but will hold out until I can get a full page scanned. I may break out some of the international cards from the same set, need to do them all together with others from the same set or else the light tan box on the back of the card washes out to white, but I digress)
The second trade was with Tony Burbs of Wrigley Roster Jenga, and wasn't so much a trade as mutual gifting, I sent him some cards and he sent me a thank you package. Close enough to a trade to get recapped here for me!
It was pretty much all NASCAR promos, including some of the California Highway Patrol sets from 2004, which I've long known about, but also a Tide promo that appears to be a single card set that I never knew existed!
Where in the world did this come from? Ricky scored the last win in NASCAR history for Pontiac in this car.
Although the video quality in this upload is terrible, this is one of the greatest endings in NASCAR history. At the time it was the closest finish in NASCAR history, but it's not any longer...and it was only 3 100ths of a second!
Above are one card from both of the Super Shots CHP promo sets. I don't have #CS5 from the orange set. Does it exist? The CHP promo sets were usually 5 cards, which leads me to believe the CS6 in the set might be a CS5 but misprinted. They did promo sets for several years, both of these are from 2004.
I have NO idea where these came from. I don't think they are licensed. It looks like they may have been cut from a magazine. The border is gold foil.
Note how the borders are very oddly cut. The Rusty Wallace card actually pictures Michael Waltrip's car, too!
Another one from Tony was this card of Mike Joy from 2013 Allen & Ginter. It's pretty bad that NASCAR guys get cards in BASEBALL sets but NOT NASCAR sets. I had no idea this card even existed until I opened the package!
Another card he sent is kind of surprising that I needed it. It's a card that came with a 1/64 Action diecast. As you may recall for most of the 1990s and 2000s 1/64 NASCAR was actually my #1 hobby, ahead of cards. At the time this was issued, I was getting the RCCA cars, which they put more effort into, but they didn't come with cards, so from 2002-05 I don't have most of the cards. This was one of them! This one specifically went to the Retro Rainbow car.
The final trade was was Joel Freedman, who is the subject of the linked post in the first paragraph. I mentioned in that post that we were working on trade #3, and it arrived sooner than I expected. As usual, it was chock-full of NASCAR, but this time it included some more as well- once again including my oldest card from a sport, in this case football.
This one is by far my favorite. A serially numbered Ernie Irvan parallel is a big winner in my book! A special firesuit (celebrating the 10th anniversary of Texaco/Havoline sponsoring Robert Yates Racing, worn only at Talladega-2 in 1997) makes it even better.
Another VIP Explosive parallel from 1998.
and another SN parallel, this time of Jimmy Spencer.
This one is pretty high up my list of favorites from this trade too...a promo I had no idea existed. And as far as promos go, it's highly unique as most of Action Packed's promos were just exactly like base cards with a promo stamp on the back. This one is totally unique!
He sent along some basketball inserts from 1995-96 as well, which is Always welcome as one of my career goals is to get every card issued in 1995-96 for the NBA, which was my first season. Theoretically it could be done as there are no autographs or relics to chase, which is helpful, but the Electric Gold parallels of 1995-96 Upper Deck fell at one per box or less, which is tough as it's a 360 card card set. These came from Skybox, there were some from Hoops I didn't scan yet.
Some 1994 Action Packed, one of my all time favorite sets, one card from the flagship and some from the surprisingly hard to find Champ & Challenger set, a stand alone set which focused solely on Dale Earnhardt (Champ) and Jeff Gordon (Challenger). For some reason I always had trouble hunting these down, even when they were new, and believe me, I tried. (Action Packed was my favorite back then) Also, for some reason I (again) have never been able to figure out, the Earnhardt cards are about twice as hard to find as the Jeff Gordon cards.
This is actually gold foil and black checkered flag pattern. Looks spectacular in hand, but not in the scan.
As you can see, Action Packeds don't always scan well, due to the embossed nature of the cards. I don't care.
He actually sent along one of my most wanted cards without even knowing it, because I've never told anyone it was one of my most wanted! How cool is that? Among the 5 cards sent from the 1992 Andretti Family racing set, this is the one I most wanted, because it's the only card to show this car...and it's a triple digit car, which I have always been fascinated with.
Unfortunately they went with a black and white photo. There are color photos of this car extant. It was medium metallic blue with a red stripe on the side of the roof. Note that the roof number is only 14. Back then they allowed three digit numbers (Banned in 1971, sadly) and if more than one car showed up with the same number, one of them- traditionally the lower qualifier- would usually add a 1 in front to make it a triple digit number.
Here are some Football he sent me. Of the 5 major sports football is my least favorite (too slow paced for me) but I still have more than 1000 cards of the sport. Like I've said many times I will accept any card, any sport, any time. And if they are vintage cards? Then I'm happy! (happier, anyway, as any new card makes me happy) Considering the newest one from this package is from 8 years before I was born, then they are well into the vintage range in my book.
4 from 1976 Wonder Bread. this was a promo set made by Topps and issued with Wonder Bread breads (naturally). I now have 22 of the 24 cards in the set, which is my closest set to completion not in the areas I normally collect. Cool!
Even cooler...vintage!
1963 Topps
1960 Topps
1968 Topps
1961 Topps
1959 Topps
Sorry they aren't in order. I hadn't labeled the scans yet when I uploaded them. The 1963 set is unusual in that it has non-white borders, which was pretty rare pre-1990. The 1969 Smith is an error card, in that Topps put the wrong team logo on there. (which I found out from the Database, as I am not familiar with vintage NFL logos). the corners are cut- the green is my scan backdrop- but who cares, it's my oldest football card! Before this package the oldest was from 1972, so my oldest card got bumped back by 13 years for this sport! The baseball package in the linked post only took me back 5 years, as I previously had a 1963 Topps I had rescued from a local dealer's "junk bin".
None of the cards had their "rub a coin to make a picture" rubbed, so maybe someday if I am ever given a non-cut cornered Smith I will see what the picture showed. Maybe...I don't spend money on cards I already have if I can help it, even if they are not in the greatest of shape. It darn near killed me to have to rebuy some of the cards I lost to flood last year. Maybe a little overdramatic, but I was not happy about it. I digress. Again.
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I actually have another package to recap in this post! I recently sent a care package of 1992-93 Ultra to Ketchupman36 and he sent me a thank you package. I was happy to find somebody who wanted my stack of 1992-93 Ultra duplicates, but since he's fairly new to the hobby he's got a lot of "catching up" to do. (get it?)
He sent me along some loose cards and two packs, one of this year's Complete and one of this year's Revolution. First, the loose cards: (Well, not really loose, they were protected, but not in a pack)
Two more 1994 Action Packed led the way! I love this set, and as I've said before, possibly even earlier in this post, any day I get a new card from this set is a good day.
Yes, Todd had hair in the 1990s
Not as cool: The Loy Allen card was censored, the large Hooters wording on his uniform was removed.
Next up was 1 card each from 1996-97 Upper Deck (another favorite set of mine, but I didn't scan it yet) and 1994-95 Topps, and 3 cards from 1995-96 Topps, which of all the 1995-96 sets is the one that is the least well represented in my collection. I don't know why but they never show up in repacks, which is where I get/have gotten the majority of my collection.
1994-95 Topps #43
Bonus on being a New Jersey Net card I needed!
Great through the glass photo on this card of Clifford Robinson, #151.
The Complete pack was surprisingly good. I did two blasters and a full box of the set and I still have lots of cards to chase, but with Panini, most of the time you just keep getting the same cards in the same order out of pack after pack, but 3 of the 5 in the pack were actually new to me. The first card out was Kelly Olynyk, who I know he has mentioned being a fan of in the past....I'm not after the move he pulled on Kevin Love in the 2015 playoffs but the card was new.
The very outspoken Enes Kanter (who may soon have a new last name because his family has disowned him) was next.
The silver parallel was also one I needed, and it was Devin Harris, who somehow manages to get cards while players who play a LOT more don't.
Complete was my 2nd favorite set of the year after Hoops so getting new ones is always a pleasure.
The Revolution pack was actually my first from the set! I don't know if the set ever went to retail or not, but if it did, our local Target didn't stock it. My local card shop does box sales only so if it doesn't go to Target I don't get to open any of it, as doing boxes is a little too pricey for me these days.
I did have one Revolution card in my collection, that I purchased on COMC when I was going after at least one card from each set. Unfortunately, 4 of the 5 cards had a corner damaged, clearly the pack took a hit at some point. You can never tell with a pack sometimes. I've got more than a few that came out of the pack damaged. It's not that big a deal to me. If I ever get another copy I'll upgrade, but it's not a priority. I'm thrilled to have them anyway. They look MUCH better in person than they do in scans. The Mullin insert is die cut, which actually prevented it from getting a dinged corner.
#4
#94
#98
#139
Icons #31
And that's it for the month of August. I managed to bring in a total of 434 new cards during the month, despite the fact that my purchases are in total 5 packs (4 of 2016 Olympic set and the Allen & Ginter I profiled) and 5 singles, the rest all came from trades and my stash of unopened cards. That's a good month!
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