July 2017 Trade Recap

I'm really slacking on this one...I normally try to post my monthly trade recaps on the last day of the month or the first or second day of the month after. This time? I'm not even beginning to type it until August 13th, and I don't know if I will actually get it posted the day I'm writing it!

July was a huge month for me for cards. I got so many, as documented, that I even got backlogged on documenting them all. I pulled off several trades, and I hope I didn't forget any...There's only so much I can store in my temporary memory before I forget, or am distracted by something else, like a squirrel or more cards coming in. (like the COMC order I rushed to create this post before and ended up falling short on)

My first trade of the month was with Trading Card Database member CKBeber329. It was not our first trade and both have gone well. I got a mixture of things from him, and I sent him some football and Space Jam cards. I don't have a whole lot of football available so I was glad to move it to a home that would appreciate it more than sitting in one of my (many) duplicate boxes.

 A big highlight were three of these oversized Gatorade promos from 2003. I had never seen these before. Also got Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth.

 

Another promo is this Darrell Waltrip card from Pepsi and Maxx, from 1996. Again, a set I had never seen before adding it to my collection. It's in poor shape, but it's mine!

 

A card from 1995 Action Packed. Just a base card, with nothing "special" about it, but Action Packed was great, so I'm showing it.

1995 Classic is one of the few college sets I've ever tried to build. This card isn't technically new- I had this one, and several others that appear on my wantlist. But my college collection took a big hit in a basement flood several years ago, so I needed an upgrade. I had no idea that I had accidentally left the box on the floor...I had no idea I had ever even put it in the basement....1995 Classic took a major hit and 1991 Wild Card was even worse. I have not completed 1995 Classic yet, but someday I hope to. I won't pay money for college cards, so I am hoping to get them out of repacks. I need to start buying repacks again. He sent me three cards from the set, all of which replace water-damaged cards, but I didn't scan them all.

A few posts ago, I showed you my getting 3 big boxes and one envelope of cards all on the same day. As it turned out, the cards in that photo ended up being the 3rd largest day of new cards in my collection! Only two of them were trades, but one of them was a big one!

The small envelope was all non-sports cards from Shawn Norris- we've got a long running series of small trades going back and forth. Luckily for me, he doesn't mind taking imperfect cards because I've got a lot of them, and he will send me perfect cards for them. Win for me! The mailings usually are a mixture of DC and Marvel comics cards and this shipment was no exception. I got so many cards, I'm not sure which box they are in now, but I did need to scan one of them for posting it to the Trading Card Database so I can at least show one of them. The rest were all done on there.

Not really a great card, but at least I had a scan to show.

The biggest trade of the month was with Database member bevans. Brad and I have done three deals now, and I've gotten a ton of great cards from him. The centerpieces of this trade for me was about 3/4ths of the 2006-07 Fleer 1986-87 Throwback set. I had exactly one before. Now I've got 79 of them! He also included a bunch of 2003-04 Exhibit cards from the NHL, many of them are different color back parallels, including several blue which are serially numbered, two of which were oversize. He also sent along some 1970-71 O-Pee-Chee which are in lower shape but were all new to me, some 2012-13 Certified NHL 2012-13 Panini Brilliance NBA, and some O-Pee-Chee Star Wars stickers, which are actually my first cards from the O-Pee-Chee set. In all honesty, I didn't realize they were OPC until he mentioned it...because they look exactly the same as the US releases, unlike the base cards which are bilingual. Once he mentioned it I realized that the edges were indeed ragged, a typical sign of OPC.

 This one looks good from this side but some dopey kid wrote his name on the back of it.

 This is actually a blue back.

 Blogger resizes everything, but this blue back is oversize- the same size as two regular size cards when turned on it's side.

 Yellow back.

 Kenyon! One of my all-time favorites.

 I didn't know long-time Knick Kurt Thomas played for the Suns when I was away from the league. Although he had a long career, this is a throwback jersey, not an 80s image.

This turned out to be the 88,000th NBA card in my collection!

I had to get these posts I'm backlogged on done and up before I really get into my COMC haul! Still a couple more to go before I get into the COMC goodness that I teased yesterday.

My biggest COMC order has arrived...

And it's going to keep me very busy for a while. There are 259 items here including something for every aspect of my collection...and every project I've been working on. A card I've been wanting for more than 20 years...several actually...a card that's right around 100 years old...and so much more. You're going to see a lot of posts about these cards over the next few weeks...just wanted to get this teaser up..

This is the largest order I've ever made with COMC, and some of the cards have been waiting for me since November...my first COMC order since I became an NHL collector...there's even a baseball card in here! (It will get it's own post)

Stay tuned...

Wes gets me under 400

While I'm still a set builder at heart, lately I've been putting much more effort into getting one of every person who got an NBA Basketball card into my collection, and NASCAR as well...I've recently added the NHL to this as well, which I've begun documenting but got so many new people I may have to hold off on that project for now.
 
The legendary Wes of JBF/Willinghammer Rising read what I was working on, and hit me with a shipment of cards that brought me down under the 400 mark in the NBA for the first time! When I originally compiled the list, there were more than 600 people on it.

The package started out with some vintage...

 And yes, I DID think about titling this post "I have good news and Bad News"! Amazingly, this is his only NBA card. He does have a college card, which doesn't count though. For my NBA collection he's a One Hit Wonder.

Jerry Eaves is also a one-hit Wonder.

Then we start mixing old and new...

 Bobby Brown is still in the NBA, on the Rockets. the only current player in this mailing. He caused an international incident last year when he wrote his name in chalk on the Great Wall of China.

 Andre Brown is a one-hit wonder! There aren't many players who have their only card as an SN card- but he is the second one from this same set in my collection. (2006-07 Ultimate Collection)

 Darren's son Austin also played in the NBA and was one of the first players who originally appeared on the Missing list I was able to add to my collection.

 Although it didn't really show up well in the scan, this is an X-Fractor!

 Davies spent some time with the Nets but did not get a card with them.

This is my first base card from 2007-08 Finest. I had two Refractors previously.

Mixed in throughout the mailer...but saved for last here, are 7(!) D-League cards from 2005-06 Finest, including a Refractor!

 Refractor! SN799/999!

 He's euphoric to be on a card.

 D-League teams couldn't afford jersey numbers. Actually, they could, the picture is from the start of the season, before numbers were assigned. I just thought it was funny.

 Most of the D-League cards are posed photos, but this one and the next are actual in-game shots!

Topps brought back the old cement wall backdrop for the D-Leaguers.

I've talked about the 2005-06 Topps Chrome set, including the D-League cards in it, before. It is the only set ever made for the D-League, which has been in operation since 2001. This coming season they change the name to G-League as Gatorade offered the NBA a dump truck full of money for title sponsorship rights. When I created my list of people missing, the D-League players from this set made up roughly about 1/3rd of all people missing from my collection. I've since got that percentage down, as I did do a box of the set, which surprisingly I never wrote about, despite the fact that I once ranked it my #1 most wanted box. Now the largest percentage of people missing comes from the early sets- 1948 Bowman being the largest set represented, since most of the players only ever got cards in that set, and most of them are too expensive for me. It was originally 1/3rd early players, 1/3rd D-Leaguers, and 1/3rd players from when I stupidly took a break from the NBA from 2006-12. Now it's probably closer to 45% each for the old time players and the players from when I wasn't collecting, with the final 10% the remaining D-Leaguers and the players Panini only bothers to including in expensive sets during their rookie season, and never again. None of these numbers are hard stats, just guessing.

Thanks again Wes, this is much appreciated!

Since I mentioned in my last post about cards from Wes that I also got a Russell Westbrook insert from this year's Donruss Optic, but had forgotten to photograph it, here it is. I got it scanned today.

A great shot from the Toronto All-Star Game held in the 2015-16 season. 

I have to be honest, you will probably see all these cards again someday, when I get back to my NBA Encyclopedia. I'm so backlogged-and my COMC order which may show up today will set me back even further- I expect the posts from that to last me an entire month- I probably won't be able to get a new post in that series up until October, if I'm lucky. I may try to crank one out before the season starts at least, but no promises. Deji Akindele might even appear in the very next post.

My first NHL error!

I know I promised last week that I would get a post up about my error collection...and I would have, except I got a boatload of new cards in the mail, way more than I was expecting. Between July 27th and August 5th I got exactly 2388 new cards...that's more than I've gotten in some entire years! (In fact, you could combine all the cards I got in 2007, 08 and 2011 and still not hit half that total!) A large majority of these cards were gifts from fellow collectors, although there were a couple of trades, my monthly SI for Kids subscription, and a small promo set I nabbed on Ebay also included in that total.

It's set my timeline for getting my error cards posted back by a bit. I will try to fit them in but I need to make a couple posts about the cards I got too! Maybe I can compose a post while I'm scanning the new cards?

Anyway, in that large group, which was mostly NHL hockey, I got my first ever NHL error card! I now have an error from every major sport except football.

This is a base card from 2002-03 Upper Deck, the flagship set. It's off center, with part of this card missing and part of another card present. (Check the bottom right of the front- there's some foil there from another card).

It may not be as spectacular as the baseball error I showed late last month, but it is, nonetheless, my first NHL error! Off-center cards with parts missing is actually the most common error, and thus the largest portion of my error collection.

I don't actually have a copy of the card without the error yet. I didn't even have 2002-03 UD present in my collection before July 27th.

Getting overwhelmed by new cards!

The people in this hobby are so great. I am actually getting a little overwhelmed by the amount of new cards that I'm getting in the mail...I think I can manage it, of course, but I have not been hit with this much new cardboard in a long time.

It started last week, when I received 4 packages of cards in one day. (the only one I have a photograph of)

Top row is a trade with Trading Card Database member bevans and on the right is one of the many packages of my ongoing trade with Shawn Norris. On the bottom is a giant box of hockey cards that I was given by a member of an NHL card forum I joined on Facebook. While what's showing is mostly 2016-17 Upper Deck, the box contained cards going as far back as 1973-74 and included several autographs, relics and serial numbered cards mixed in as well. On the bottom right is a box from Sportscards from the Dollar Store, which is almost entirely hockey and almost entirely new people for my collection. This all showed up on July 27th.

Two days later, I received two MORE packages of cards, from Trading Card Database member Mihome316, and frequent trading partner and blog reader Joel Freedman. These were mostly hockey also but included some baseball as well. The package from Wes's World Cup of Trading also arrived on the 29th.

Since then, I've been working on documenting my new additions non-stop! In fact, I didn't even turn my computer on for several days as I worked on updating/creating my NHL paper listing. My hand hurt too much and I ran out of binder space to finish, but I will get there eventually.

As I was working on the listing yesterday, I got a totally unexpected surprise package from Jason German of Jason's Sportscard Blog! I wasn't expecting that at all and it was a mixture of pretty much everything I collect- NHL, NBA, Non-Sport...even Olympics! Some vintage too, including a card from 1974-75 Topps NBA that is just about pack fresh. On the same day, a rare ebay purchase showed up with 11 more cards- several of which will be held back for the NBA Encyclopedia, which I simply have not had the time to work on in a while.

Today, August 5th, I get two more boxes from Tyler of Rekindling the Cardboard Flame. Probably more than 400 cards! I also managed to get to a car show, which is unusual for this time of the year, the heat takes a major toll on me with my health problems.

During this time, I somehow managed to get cards put together to send to 6 different people, 4 of whom went into the mail today. The package will be a surprise to at least one recipient.

Did I mention that for most of last week I was sick and had no energy whatsoever? I was. Don't worry, people receiving cards, I waited until I was better to get them out.

Did I also mention that I got two large packages of stamps in the same time period, adding a couple hundred new ones to my collection? I did! 

Now, the documenting in my paper listings in fun, I love it...one of my favorite aspects of the hobby. Creating the listings for each set can get tedious but I'll get there.

Here's where the hard part comes up...Most of the cards Douglas sent me and at least I would guess a third from Rob (the big box in post above)...All of the baseball cards John (Mihome) sent me...most of the cards Tyler sent me...most of the cards Wes and Joel sent me...are all new people for my collection. I have to now figure out which people are new to my collection, and then figure out which card of them was the first. With the box Rob sent me, and then the box Joel sent me, I went from not having people in my collection to having 3 or 4 all in one day. (I wrote in Excel the exact order they came out of the box- that took a day in and of itself).

I'm not complaining....no, I'm actually really grateful...I'm just explaining why I have not been properly thanking the people who have sent me cards and posting them.

I do have a bit of a dilemma. Remember how I started the series showing each new NHL player as they enter my collection? I'm not sure if I maybe started it too soon. There's still more players I don't have then I do, and with these boxes...I've probably gotten about 300 or more new NHL players alone. (lots more when you add the baseball cards from John, and Olympic and Benchwarmers cards from Tyler, almost all of which are new people, and the NBA from Ebay and the issue of SI for Kids that came on July 31st...) If I continue doing that series it's going to be all I do for the rest of the year. It won't leave me any time to do any other scanning, any other writing...any other posting. It will be just that. While I enjoy doing the posts, as it helps me learn about the history of the sport, I think I may have to put the series on hold until I get to the point that the person being new to my collection isn't the majority of the cards I get, as it currently sits now. At 10 cards per post, that'll be more than 30 posts...and since I write on average 10 posts a month...I'll never catch up, or at least it seems like it!

I may pick out highlights (players from the 100 Greatest list, specific cards I want to highlight, really great photos, etc) and post them only, or come up with a solution I have not thought of yet.

I may also open the list I've created documenting all the new people on the Database and just post a link to that instead.

Before I can even begin scanning any of the cards, I have to:

1. Figure out which people are actually new to my collection, which requires checking an Excel chart
2. Enter all the cards into my collection on the Trading Card Database, determining which ones need scans at the same time
3. Enter the new players and new sets involved into the charts on the same Database
4. Type the people into the NBA and NHL charts I maintain here on the blog

I still have more to do on the paper listing and my Excel chart that I document the exact order I get each and every card in. I am pretty sure I hit #6000 for the NHL already, even though I just hit #5000 last month.

At this rate I am going to give 2002 and 2003 a run for the money with most new cards added in a year...being as OCD about documenting as I am, you know I have those records! I only wish I had kept track of the exact order I got each card before 2014.

In the process of working on my paper listing, I sorted the new NHL additions by set, marking the first time in my NHL era that I sorted them by set. Being a set collector at heart, this is the "right" way to sort cards to me. My NBA collection has not been together by set since 2004, and NASCAR since 2009. I won't be able to put everything together by set until I finish scanning my entire collection, and that is 2021 at the earliest...but probably later because I'm the world's worst estimator. (In early posts on the Trading Card Database I predicted finishing in 2016...in reality I hit halfway in 2016, for example)

This I did think to photograph, and here are several. I did three waves of sets as the table is not big enough to do them all at once.

A photo I really like is this one, which is kind of abstract...it's a closeup of the "next wave" after the first round, and kind of shows how many cards there were that didn't make the first wave.

To put it in perspective of just how many cards I've been given or traded for in the past week or so...2015-16 Upper Deck, not visible in this closeup but is visible in the top photo, the stack is about 75 cards...the Next Wave stack towers over it by nearly a foot!

A few days ago I remembered also getting a package from CrazieJoe...it came right before bed one day, and I never even opened it...now I don't remember where I put it...I'm so clueless sometimes. I wish I could keep track of things in reality as well as I do in Excel.

After the car show today, my brother and I hit the local comic/game store. I picked up a couple vintage games for cheap. I have not purchased any games for Xbox in so long I don't even remember when it was. Probably more than 10 years ago. Since my TV died I can't actually play them at the moment but I will replace it at some point. I used to be a regular video game player but not so much anymore, except for Simpsons Tapped Out, which I play several times a day. The last system I got was the original Xbox, I never went beyond that.

I also love military history so I figured I'd give them a shot too. For a few bucks each I figured it was worth the risk.

Once again, thank you to all my trading parts and generous fellow collectors!

Throwing in the towel - World Cup of Trading

I mean that literally!

Wes of Jaybarkerfan / Willinghammer Rising is a legendary trader around the Blogosphere, and this is my second trading event participation with him. It turned out to be pretty incredible- better than I initially thought when I was claiming stuff from him!

What he did in the World Cup of Trading was post a bunch of really great stuff, had you pick out 3 items, and then send him something you think he would enjoy. I sent him three wrestling autographs and 4 wrestling figures, and when I got the package back from him on Saturday, I really think I didn't send enough!

There were two main things I claimed from him, and this towel card of Doug McDermott was the first. It's my first towel relic, and it's not too often I can add an entirely new kind of relic to my collection. (I ended up getting two in two days, but you'll have to wait for a future post to see the other).

The other main card was this triple relic:

From 2016 National Treasures, this is a set that went for about $400 a box- well more than I could afford these days. This set was, in fact, the last one I needed to have every NASCAR set ever in my collection, although since I claimed it 2017 Torque and Select have come out and put me behind again. The fact that one of the three on here is Darrell Wallace Jr. is even better. He's one of my favorites. I think this set was his first to have relics in, definitely one of the sets from 2016. This is actually my first relic from any of these three. All the wording, the border and the stripes on top and bottom are all holofoil, by the way. At 15 this is one of the lower numbered cards in my NASCAR collection as well. A quick check of my records show only 21 cards with a lower print run- and I've got more than 650 numbered NASCAR cards!

I also claimed a Alex Ovechkin relic, from 2015-16 Ultimate Collection (another new set for me)

(Funny aside - my tablet tried to autocorrect his name to Oven Chin!)

and a Refractor from 1998-99 Bowman's Best of Bison Dele.

 What I didn't realize at the time...was that I wasn't just claiming those cards. I was claiming entire stacks of cards, including something Wes described as a "relic cube"....he wasn't kidding!

Holy mackerel! That's a darn fine collection there in and of itself! But wait, there's more.

A patch! I have never even held a patch card from a sport I don't actively collect before Saturday. And a pretty nice one too, three colors. I think it may be from the B in his last name.

And more...this time a picture

Mirror foils and Finest style cards need some extra effort to scan, and scan best when you have a page of all 9 like-style cards. I don't have enough at hand to do a page of them right now, and I don't want to hold up the post while I go and dig some out.

To be honest, I think I claimed some of those NBA relics and possibly the Lidstrom as well, but I don't remember for sure so I am lumping them all in here.

For those keeping count at home, that is, for my collection, baseball relics #1-6 and football #2-11, and Golf relic #1! I'm not sure how many it is for NBA and NASCAR yet, as my records are several months out of date right now, and I'm still a couple of months away from updating them. (depends on how fast I scan stuff) My first CFL card of any sort!

I've always enjoyed seeing the relic cards from other sports, either being posted to blogs, forums or even for sale online. Now I have some of my own!

But STILL that wasn't all! Aside from the Bison Dele refractor, there were these:

An entire page of 2016 Panini Black Friday cards, all of which were new to me...

And finally, a John Stockton base card from 2012-13 Panini Brilliance, which was a duplicate, and a Buddy Hield base card and Russell Westbrook All-Star insert from 2016-17 Donruss Optic which I forgot to photograph. Duh, lol.

All in all, a pretty incredible package from Wes! I think I got a MUCH better end of the bargain, and I'm thrilled to add these cards to my collection! Thank you Wes!