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. 

Christmas Cards

 My family is so awesome, I'm not exaggerating. Every year I ask for one thing, cards, and they deliver. 

2025 is no different, I got a huge amount of cards. I made an offhand comment that in a perfect world I'd get a hobby box, blaster and tin of Upper Deck, and I got it! I didn't expect that. I haven't done a hobby box of UD in a couple of seasons so that was really nice. I pulled a Clear Cut parallel which are so cool. I've never done a box of Select in the Panini era for NASCAR, I ended up pulling an autograph SN 10 out of it plus some other great cards. I had never seen the Match Attax cards before but I really, really like them. Every card is holographic, I added multiple Knicks and Nets and two different Cooper Flagg cards. I had no idea that Upper Deck produced a promo sheet for MVP, that was the most surprising to me because I knew all the others existed, but that I did not. 

I don't know how many new cards I got yet, but there's a pretty darn good chance that today is now the leader for most new cards in a day in all of 2025. It usually is every year. 

And except for Hoops Winter and PWHL, all the others had a pack saved to be scanned first, which means I am not even done getting Christmas cards. I had gotten a blaster of each already so they were already documented for the packaging section on my website. (I can't remember if I uploaded them yet or if they will go up when I post what I scanned during December, starting on the first of the month every month) I usually save them to open on a different day though so I can get a different color into my paper listing. 

All that and then the Knicks came back from 17 down and won. It would have been a perfect day had my chronic health problems not acted up badly but even feeling pretty lousy it's still a great day. 

I hope you all had good days as well. 

NBA Advent Calendar Day 24

 Today is Christmas Eve, and the final day of the Advent Calendar! It was fun and if they do it again next year I will definitely do it again. 

Today's pack includes Ty Jerome, a plaid parallel of Anthony Edwards, the Making the Nice List of Kaspasas Jakucionis and a base card of Anfernee Simons, who we just saw the Plaid of yesterday. 

Once I decided to start taking interesting backgrounds, I knew the last day would be balanced on my Christmas Tree. I actually painted that house between Edwards and Simons and the candy canes on the far left. 

Here's a final shot showing the whole tree. 

Merry Christmas everyone! 

NBA Advent Calendar day 23

 Only one more day to go after this one! 

Russell Westbrook is one of the all time greats but doesn't get the recognition he deserves. Anfernee Simons is a quality player. The Nets and Knicks round out the pack, with my 4th card of Dëmin and my second of McBride, both of which came from the Advent. 

NBA Advent Calendar Day 22

 

An almost all rookie pack today. Tre Johnson and Khaman Maluach debut during this project, and Chaz Lanier appears again. Naz Reid is the only veteran in this pack. 

NBA Advent Calendar Day 21

 While I'm enjoying the Advent calendar, I have to be honest, getting the cards out isn't very fun and I've gotten multiple paper cuts doing it. I won't miss that aspect. 

I don't really know anything about any of these guys except Nikola Vucevic, who's been around for more than a decade now. I did look up Chaz Lanier to see if he was related to Bob Lanier but I couldn't find anything out. As far as I know they are the only two Laniers to play in the NBA and they both played for the Pistons. 

NBA Advent Calendar Day 20

 Nearing the end of the Advent Calendar. It's always a little sad when they end but there are still 4 more days for me to try and come up with an interesting background for the pictures. 

This one sees a big card with the VJ Edgecombe Making the Nice List insert. I want to complete this set and he's one of the two biggest cards, along with Cooper Flagg who I've already pulled. They will likely be going head to head for Rookie of the Year this year. I'm glad I don't have to buy this card on the secondary market, and I do like the fact that he wears a rarely seen number in NBA, where anything above 34 is rare. Jalen Suggs is a pretty good player. Nique Clifford appears again, my entire collection of him came from the Advent calendar. Then I get another Nets card which always is a good thing. 

Santa came by later in the day, and when I got home from seeing him my COMC box was waiting for me. A large part of the box was the 2022-23 MVP Green script parallel which was exclusive to Epack. As green is my favorite color I hit them hard on there. So hard that I bought multiple copies of the same card on more than one occasion, oops. I'll get pictures from that box up in the future. Not sure if it'll be a dedicated post or sharing with an Advent pack.