RIP Hot Rod

This is not what I intended the content of my 100th post to consist of. Earlier today, I read that yet another of my favorite wrestlers from my childhood had passed. 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper, the Hot Rod, one of the most gifted heels to ever grace a mic. Whether he was hosting Piper's Pit or cutting a promo on his opponent, more often than not, he spewed pure gold.

You'll be missed 'Rowdy' one! Do us all a favor and say 'hi' to The American Dream.

Adventures at the Card Show - Volume 2, Part 2: Digging the Mythical Nickel Box

In my last post, I focused on the small but awesome vintage haul I took away from the card show this past Sunday. Tonight, I'll focus on a few other singles and what I took away from the incredible nickel boxes I found.

First, I continue where I left off in the vintage post. I had found most of those in $0.50 boxes that one vendor had. Well, I picked a few non-vintage cards from those boxes too.

How could I possibly pass up a Koufax SP for two quarters. As you might imagine, I was filled to find two Pineda parallels, one liquorfractor RC and one rookie year gold. I happily took those home for a buck! Though his past few starts have been a bit rocky, so far he has been exactly what I had hoped for in spring training - healthy and solid.

In addressing my other set collecting goal, I was able to find a guy who had a good number of series two singles for $0.10 a piece. I pulled 68 base cards towards completing the set. He also had a small stack of series one and two inserts and said he'd let any of them go for a quarter. Among others, I pulled all but one card I need for the series two First Pitch set. Fluffy here is the only inclusion that I was really excited about in the set, but I still like the concept and need to finish it. Kevin Hart is the only one I still need.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find any Stadium Club singles at a reasonable price. I found an extremely small stack from one vendor, but he wanted $0.50-0.75/card and wasn't willing to budge. We're not even talking about a lot of the stars that I needed. I'm talking about the Mark Reynolds' and Carlos Ruiz's of the set. So, I took a pass on those. I was also unable to find the remaining Will Ferrell I needed or any of the Archives Game inserts. In fact, I only saw one or two of those at all. I've updated my set needs which can be seen here.

In my effort to reinforce some trade packages hat will be going out very soon, I found myself digging through a box of relics/autos that were marked $1 each or 7 for $5. I was able to find 7 that were worth picking up. Here is the lone one from that pick that will remain in my collection:

'Romo' was one of the greats! I loved watching the intensity he brought to the field. It's a shame, though not surprising, that he eventually admitted to PED use. He was still one of my favorite players to watching the late '90's. This was definitely worth the roughly $0.71. When you factor in what came next, it was another steal! While I was sifting through the relic/auto box, I happened to look over at an slightly older gentleman that was looking through boxes a few feet from me. Every once in a while he would say 'I found another _____dollars' worth. He'd hand over whatever total, out the cards away, and go right back to looking. Once I had finished picking out the 7 cards I ended up with from the box I was digging in, I decided to at least glance at the boxes the other guy had been checking out. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the labels on those boxes...here they were, in the wild...the mythical 'nickel boxes' that I had heard/read so much about within our community. I had never seen one of these at any show before.needless to say, I dug right in.

I'll start off by keeping in the football theme. John Mobley was another of my Bronco favorites. I used to love these Holoview inserts. Back in their day, they were pretty tough to get your hands on. For a nickel, I couldn't drop this one in my stack fast enough.

Mario Williams is one of the few non-Bronco players that I collect. I went to school at NC State, and it was pretty exciting that he was a first overall draft pick a few years after I graduated.

These are my first singles from this yaer's Diamond Kings set, two Yankees RC. Blake Snell was recently promoted to my beloved Durham Bulls and if he realizes his potential and continues the great season he is having, he may well become one of my favorites from the local team. I'm looking forward to getting to see him pitch at the DBAP really soon.

These boxes were as random as could be, but there were tons of hidden gems in them. This is from the time in the '90's when holograms were everywhere. It's quite an awesome salute to Rickey's stolen base record.

Here's more hologram-y goodness with that Eck up top. I'm still loving the Walk-Off Winners set from GQ this year. Oh, hey, have I mentioned how much I love Collector's Choice before? It's even better when you get Donnie Baseball signing autographs for fans at the stadium!

The boxes were chock full of 'oddball' issues, some of which I had never seen before. The Colla Collection Wade Boggs is one I never knew existed, but am very happy to have in my collection. I haven't officially added Bonds to my list of players I collect, but before all of his PED issues, I was quite an avid collector and fan of his. I'm still in the habit of picking up cards of his. I guess old habits die hard. Knowing my thought process, his name will probably show up on my player collection list. There's more Donnie Baseball goodness to round out this scan! Dang Fleer oddball sets of the '80's, how many are out there?

More former Durham Bulls. It's a shame that Moore is the only one still with the Rays. The Mattingly and Canseco come from a 1992 Fleer/Citgo/7-11 set. I had previously picked up a few of these from Listia. With the addition of these, I might try for the complete set of 24. Though you can't tell from the scan, that is a Select Nomo RC. I am slowly putting together a nice selection of his RC's. Back at the height of Nomo-Mania, I only had his Upper Deck issue.

This scan is representative of the randomness that I was able to dig out of the boxes. That is my first of the Bad News Bears subset from Golden Age. I've seen so many of you out in the blogging community post about that Griffey that I had to have it when it showed up during my search. The Big Unit is one of a handful of Black Golds that I was able to pick out.

I know I've shared a lot and rambled quite a bit, but this post doesn't even sort patch the surface of what I found. I grabbed around 40 Bowman Chrome prospects from this year's set, some of which will hopefully end up being autographed at various ballparks. All told, I grabbed somewhere around 120 cards from these boxes. I easily could have doubled or tripled that total if I had more time. I guess I can hope that this vendor might be at the next show in Raleigh(hoping to go when it's back in September).

Overall, my first show experience in over six months was a tremendous success and a whole lot of fun. While I wasn't successful in picking up the Mantle Game insert I needed, I did make significant progress on my 2015 series 2 set, picked up a few more towards the 1968 Gsme set, picked up the reinforcements for my trade packages that I wanted to, and I was able to meet fellow blogger William from Foul Bunt. Can't wait to see where my next Adventures at the Card Show will take me! Thanks for reading.

Adventures at the Card Show - Volume 2, Part 1: My Vintage Haul

Thank you to everyone who wished me well on my first show in a long time. In my last post, I detailed some goals that I had set for my Sunday at the Show. I picked up a lot of cards. Now, I'm not talking about Johnny's Trading Spot-a lot of cards, but I brought home more than I have from any single show in years. Did they help me meet the pre-set goals? We'll get to most of that answer in another post. Tonight, I'll focus on my vintage haul. Wow, I've never put those two words together to describe my show(or shop) spoils before. It's got a nice ring to it...vintage haul.

First, I'll address my only vintage related goal. Was I able to track down and bring home my 'public enemy number one'? That was a very disappointing no! It turns out, Mr. Mantle's 1968 Topps Game insert did not exist at this particular show. That being said, I was able to walk away from the show very happy. I did a fairly quick scan up and down all of the aisles, stopping briefly to ask the vendors if they had any singles from the Game set. Most said no, a few said yes, but none had the Mantle. However, I was able to cross off another HOF'er from my set needs.

I found the McCarver for a buck and I was able to pick up Frank Robinson for only $2. I will end an upgrade at some point on the Robinson(there is some ink on the flip side), but for now it is an acceptable place holder in my set. With a recent acquisition(which will be documented in a future trade post) and the word that another should be on its way to my mailbox in the near future, I am down to 3 more cards needed to complete this set.

There were several guys that had bins labeled 'discount vintage', but the closer I looked, a lot of the singles still had large enough price tags that I didn't even bother looking. The Robinson was in a box labeled '$2-5 multi sport'. It was the only card in the box that was of interest to me at all. Turns out, the same guy had a 2-row 'shoebox' that was filled with his definition of 'vintage baseball'. The entire box was $0.50/card. I started digging and as I saw some really nice cards(that didn't fit my collection), I asked the guy if the whole box was two for a dollar, just to confirm. After some digging, I came across these:

These are my first vintage Hostess cards that have the dotted borders in tact. The Morgan is pretty clean; no creases or staining. The Eckersley is from his rookie card season and does have a noticeable crease near his first name. Heck, for only fifty cents, there is no way I was leaving it behind, crease or no. While these are good, they're not the best picks of the day.

When I came across a stack of various early Fleer, I knew I needed to take home an example of each set. I chose the Lazzeri from the 1960 set because he is one of my favorite Yankees that doesn't get much hobby love. I wish he was in the Yankees uni on this one, but I'm digging it anyway. Out of the players that were available in the box, picking the Cap Anson from the 1961 set was a no-brainer. He was one of the first true superstars of the game and how can you resist that mustache?

As is my custom, I've saved the best(or at least my favorite) for last...

I couldn't believe it when I saw this 1951 Topps red back in the $0.50 box! I had been thinking of picking up a '51 Topps card at some point. How could I pass up the chance to own one at that price point? It's just gravy that it happens to be a Yankees player. Yeah, there is a pretty dinged up corner I'm that bottom left corner, but I can still see everything and read all of the text.

That puts an end to my 'vintage haul' from this show. I'm sure as I go to future shows, the numbers within the vintage purchases will increase, but I may not beat the deal on that Bauer. That's not nearly the end of what I brought home, but the rest will wait for another night. As a teaser, I picked up set needs, some cheap relics/autos, and I found a unicorn...at one point, I came face to face with the mythical 'nickel box' that I've only read about before. So, there is plenty more to read about. I hope you come back to check out my other finds.

Prepping for the Card Show

It seems like forever since I've been able to browse at a local card show. In reality it's only been about 6 months. Tomorrow, that drought will end. So, I find myself feeling a little like a kid on Christmas Eve. My daughters are asleep and I am up getting things ready for what will hopefully be a great day of sifting through cards. 

In my recent trips to the card show, I've really relaxed my 'plan-making'. However, since I started working on putting together some sets, I think I'm going to reconsider. That said, I've put together a loose plan with three primary objectives.

1. Make significant progress towards completing both my Stadium Club and Topps series two sets. I have just shy of 200 cards to go on the SC set and somewhere around 125 cards to go on series two. I don't expect to complete either, but I want to make a serious dent in them both. Enough so that I will feel like it is reasonable to actually add my remaining needs to my 'Sets I'm Working On' page. 

1a. Search for cards to finish the 2015 Topps Game insert and try to track down the final Will Ferrell card I need(the A's).

2. Track down some great deals on cards to send to some of my frequent trading partners.

3. Previous plans that I put together always consisted of putting together a list of cards that I hoped to acquire. Back then, I almost always walked away from any given show disappointed. I hadn't planned to revert back to that, but I have one single card that will make the show a success if I can bring it home. For the last few months, it has been my unofficial public enemy number one. I've made several attempts to win auctions on eBay and have come up short every time so far.

This Mickey Mantle is the biggest name I still have left in my quest to finish the 1968 Topps Game set. I know these are relatively plentiful, but I won't spend beyond a certain point on this one. This is my first show since deciding to collect this set, so I have high hopes that one or more of the usual vendors at this show will have a copy and accept my offer for it. 

I also read earlier tonight on Foul Bunt that I might get the chance to meet its author, William since he is set up there. Whether I complete these goals or not, I know it's going to be a fun day filled with hobby goodness! Goodnight all, thanks for reading.

Cracking Some Ginter - Does My Hot Streak Continue?

I'm a few days behind the release date, but I was finally able to track down some retail Allen & Ginter packs last night. There wasn't much variety on the shelves of my local Target. I basically had a choice of a few standard loose packs or a blaster. I opted to use my $1 off coupon that came in my series 2 blaster to purchase two loose packs. I figured it would be a nice way to get a quick intro to the product first hand. So far, I've liked what I've seen which has mostly been from following Nachos Grande's case break - thanks Chris. Here are highlights from my first look.

My two packs were heavy on young pitching talent. The Betances was, unfortunately, my only Yankee pulled. I chose these three because of the incredibly strange look of each. I had read about the 'measles' filter that Chris described in several of his posts from the first box of his case, but it didn't really come through in the scans that I saw in those posts. All three of these cards(and the majority of the others from both packs) had that same filter. It looks so out of place. I'm not sure what the design team was going for, but I know they missed the mark. Maybe as I see more of these cards in person, I will begin to overlook it, but right now, it sticks out like a sore thumb! That being said, Harvey looks like he has a lazy eye, and Scherzer's heterochromia(two different colored eyes) is front and center.

I happened to pull an SP in each pack and this awesome Ancient Armory insert fell out of one. The minis were nothing to speak of, both regular back, non-SP, players that I don't collect(thus the lack of a scan). However, there was one more card of note in these packs.

When I first saw this card, I wasn't thrilled. I saw the stamp and figured 'oh great, a buy back. Woo-hoo...'. It was when I was flipping back through the stack of cards that it caught my eye. I noticed it was this year's design which made me realize it couldn't be a buy back. So, I looked a little closer...

That's when I saw that stamp on the back!  Serial numbered out of 10?!?! I scanned the back of the pack and it looks like my odds on this 'Base Card 10th Anniversary Parallel' were 1:522 in the retail packs. Not quite the long odds of the Puig relic I found in the series two loosey, but still pretty darn good. I obviously wish it was a player or personality that I'd be interested in keeping, but it's a nice piece of trade bait. 

The verdict on these packs: I'm still on the fence about the design/execution of the base set. I like the insert that I pulled which will likely be good enough to get me to pick up at least a few more packs. Since the Anniversary parallel was pulled along with an SP in each pack I'd have to say that my Hot Streak is still intact!

Dime Box Nick Sent a PWE and Knocked Out Set Number Three

For some reason, as I typed this post title, I suddenly heard Muhammad Ali saying 'float like a butterfly, sting like a bee'! I'm not sure that there is any point in my mentioning that other that to give you a bit of insight into the random thoughts that enter my head at a moment's notice. 

Speaking of random, Mr. Random himself, Nick from the Dime Boxes blog recently dropped an awesome PWE on me. As expected, Nick packed the envelope with incredible randomness, hitting many different parts of my collection. Let's dig in.

I've always loved 'The Man in Black' and actually have a full sheet of these stamps in my collection. I knew it would be an incredible package when I saw that this was the stamp Nick used to send it!

Minis! The Grandy Man is the first of the newer Topps Minis that I've added to my collection, but after seeing one in person, I'm certain it won't be the last. The GQ mini O'Neill is #/199. I will always welcome a new card of 'The Warrior'.

Next up, a tribute to Negro League Baseball. Josh Gibson is one of my favorites, and the 2014 Classics was new to me. At least you can understand if a company recycles the same photo on multiple releases for these guys since there is a finite number of photos available. That being said, the Classics card is really great, nice design, good use of the photo...it truly looks classic. I had a few other Greats of the Game Negro League players from this set, but somehow the Kimbro had eluded me until this envelope arrived.

Moving on to oddballs! What would an envelope from Nick be with something a bit odd? I dig the Purina Guidry, especially because it has logos. I'm particularly fond of the Sterling Hitchcock. It is from the 2003 Upper Deck McDonald's regional set. To this point, I had only had the Jeter and the Hideki Matsui. Sterling makes three. Seeing this fall out of the stack reminds me how much I'd like to have this complete set. Hmmm, maybe I'll have to get to work on that...

From the odd, to the vintage(vintage-like). That Johnny Kucks(that obviously belonged to Don) is my first '59 Topps card. Sorry Don, your loss is my gain! The faux vintage Longoria is an SP from that set, definitely appreciated.

Nick knows my affinity for 'season/playoff highlight' cards, and he didn't disappoint there either. Bonus points that he found two Yankees highlights to send my way. Extra bonus points that one of those Yankees highlights has The Mick on it!

Here it is. The final card I needed to complete 2015 Topps series one! Figures it would have been a Red Sox card(even if he isn't on the BoSox anymore) that was holding me up(sorry Shane). That makes three sets completed over the past few weeks.  Hope I can keep it up and finish a few more!

Thanks Nick! I've got your next PWE almost packed and ready to go. It's always a pleasure swapping cards with you, looking forward to the next round!

I Heard A Bowman Hanger Calling My Name

This has been out for a long time now. I thought for sure that I was done for the year. I was in a Walmart and wasn't even planning to look at the poor excuse for a card aisle that they had. We all know how this story ends though... My name is Tim and I'm a pack-aholic. I walked out with this box shaking my head and muttering to myself about having no willpower at all. How could I lose that internal battle once again? I'm not sure why/how, but my gut knew I needed to take this box home.

Pretty decent base and prospect cards.  Love that I pulled the Chrome Bryant too(maybe this will be a sign of my ability to pull his cards going forward, fingers crossed). The yellow Russell is the first decent yellow parallel I've pulled.

I've pulled several of the Top 100 inserts and I like the design. It's great to have this shiny Severino. Here I was thinking this was a good hanger box, my feeling of buyer's remorse mostly gone...then:

I flipped to this. He's not the top of the organization prospect that would've really blown me away(or Rodon or Bryant), but I don't usually have great luck pulling autographs from products, let alone a Yankee auto! Taylor was actually called up to the bigs earlier this season, but was optioned back to Triple-A before logging an AB.

I'm still. It sure what made me decide to grab that box, but I'm sure glad I did. This makes three good pack/box breaks in a row. I think that can qualify as the hot streak I was hoping for. I'm gonna ride it out for as long as I can. Thanks for reading.

He Dropped a Bomb on Me

A Broncos Bomb that is. Oh, and the he I'm talking about is none other than John from Johnny's Trading Spot. A few short weeks ago an unprompted, small flat rate box arrived with the only warning being a comment on my want list page. Sure enough, a short while later, a small flat rate box arrived at my mailbox. I didn't have the chance to open it right away, but when I finally cracked it open I was definitely blown away! I started with this note:

The sheer number of cards certainly qualified as a bomb. John should have called it a John Elway/Terrell Davis bomb, but I guess that just doesn't have ghee same ring to it!

Mini Elway cards! I loved those Goudey inserts in Fleer's baseball products, so it was awesome to see these two fall out of one of the stacks. I especially dig the 'older school' Broncos uni on the '96-7 version.

Here we have a mix of early and late career highlights. Two cards detailing the '87 AFC Championship game and 'The Drive' start the scan off. That is the first NFL game that I really remember watching and leaving an impression. The upper right is an awesome Pinnacle Dufex insert from before the uniform changes. The three along the bottom row all focus on Super Bowl XXXII. I already had the Skybox card of John hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, but how could I pass up the chance to show off that awesome moment? 

Not much to say here, except I needed all six of these and am happy to have these in the collection.

More TD! The Fleer Tradition card is a great shot showing his best asset, patience. There he is running down the line looking for the opening to make his cut back and head up field. Nice cameo of Howard Griffith making the lead block. It's almost like Shanahan Drew up the play on the Collector's Choice card and then you see the outcome on the Tradition card. The UD to the upper right highlights him breaking the 2,000 yard mark in the 1998 season.

These were literally the only non-Elway/Davis cards to peek out of the stacks. As nice as these are, I'm totally alright with the fact that the majority of the brick was devoted to those two guys. They were huge parts of the Broncos back-to-back championship seasons and now I have more cardboard to remind me of that! Thanks for the bombing John. I'll have return fire coming your way real soon!

By request, enjoy the video of the '80's song that inspired this post title:

Bubblegum Wishes and Cardboard Dreams

Please pardon my lame take on the old "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" catch phrase. Truth is, Jeff from Wish They Still Came With Bubblegum has sent me enough PWE's that I'm rapidly running out of suitable post titles. That's a good problem to have though.

In the most recent arrival, Jeff did some set needs damage. The two new 1st Home Run inserts put me at just seven more to knock out the series one set. At some point, I'll have to add all of my series two needs.

The 2002 Topps Post 500 HR Club McCovey finishes that set off for me. It was only 8 cards, but these didn't pop up in my circles very often and I wasn't about to get them on eBay at 3-4 bucks each(shipped). Thanks Jeff, that's two sets finished this year. True, they may be relatively small insert sets, but I'll take it!

I also found a few Stadium Club Yankees in the envelope. This David Cone shows him in post-perfect game celebration. It's crazy for me that this game was 16 years and two days ago. I guess I should have posted this on Saturday. Oh well, better late than never. Thanks for another great PWE, Jeff. I know I've been saying it for a bit now, but it promise there is a stack with your name on it just waiting to be mailed. I'll be sure to finish it up and send it soon.

Breaking Down a Trade Package

I recently completed my first trade with Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown. As has been the case of late, I inquired about a trade in order to pick up a few needs for the Topps Game set from Archives. Things just snowballed from there.

Here are another 5 that arrived around he same time as the 5 from Douglas. I still stand at 20/33 on this set.

I thought it was ironic that I found this in Gavin's envelope. I had recently acquired this in a large lot of 1960's/'70's inserts. The lot primarily consisted of original Game inserts, Deckle, and cloth stickers but there were a few of these booklets. It was great that Gavin sent this over as it is a significant upgrade from the copy I found in the lot.

I will assume that these were the fruits of searching the card show prior to mailing this out. I love the Old Judge autos. I remember both of these guys and it's fun to remember a time when something with a print run of 5750 copies was truly considered limited.

This is one of the few trade packages I've received that has addressed my non-Yankees collections. I like the blue Desmond in particular. There were some Former Durham Bulls thrown in too though they aren't pictured.

Of course the Yankees were fairly represented as well. The Ford is #/499 and the Cone is metal! I had never really seen the prismatic Pacific cards in baseball, just football. Kinda cool to have the Tartabull there. That Larsen is only my third or fourth Golden Age single. I'm not sure about the set as a whole, but the small sample size I have in my collection makes me think the set is well done. This would have been more than enough for an initial trade package, but the real gem of the package was this:

This extremely limited, custom magnet is awesome! I used to be a fan of The Simpsons back when this episode aired and I love the 1991 Studio design. I'd rather forget Steve Sax's tenure as the Yankees second baseman, but I'm thrilled to have this. In fact, it has already assumed a prime location affixed to my magnetic message board next to my desk.

Thanks for a great trade Gavin! I'll have to send another stack of cards your way really soon.

One Last Toys R Us Series One Pack...

Topps Series 2 is out. It has been for weeks now. I've got a good start on that set, but it had been bugging me that I was still 2 cards short of completing series one. I happened to be in my local Toys R Us trying to find a toy for my daughter. I can't walk into a retail store that sells cards without checking out the display, so I wandered over to take a look. Nothing was really jumping out at me until I saw that there was only one of the series one blister packs left on the rack. I had already picked up a bunch of these and figured that the one pack it held wouldn't help my set collecting needs, so I was leaning towards not getting it. I took it off the rack and without trying saw that the top purple parallel was Carlos Gomez. When I saw that I figured it was as good an excuse as any to buy something to open. At least I could send the Gomez to Tony from Off Hiatus so I knew it wouldn't be a total loss no matter what else was in there. Well, I sure am glad that I decided to take it home.

I opened he pack first, being careful to put the purple parallels to the side without seeing the others besides the Gomez. I was right about the pack, no help for the set needs, but it did have that gold CJ Cron. These are two of the three purples, the previously mentioned Gomez and a really cool George Springer 'Future Stars'. As nice as the Springer was, my jaw dropped when I saw the third card...

Ohhh Yeahhh(he said in his best 'Macho Man' Randy Savage voice)!!! It's a really clean copy of one of my favorite cards in series one. I had planned to stop searching for parallels of this one and the Jeter checklist card after I finished the base, rainbow, and gold of them both. Now that I have one of the purples though, I might need to search out the purple version of #319 too.

Sportscards From North of the Border

For a self-professed non-set collector, it has been in the name of finishing a few sets that I finally reached out to a member of the blogosphere that doesn't reside in the US.

When I saw a post from Douglas(AKA buckstorecards) of the entertaining blog Sportscards From The Dollar Store, about the Archives boxes he opened I had to reach out. The cards were up for grabs and he had five more Topps Game inserts that I needed to finish my set. Progress on the set has slowed, but my current count stands at 20 out of 33.

He also had two more Will Ferrell cards that I needed. I am close to finishing this one. I have 8 of 10 in-hand.

I can only assume that Douglas dug into some of the cards he had stockpiled from busting discounted Target repacks because he didn't stop here. He included a hearty stack of Denver Broncos and New Jersey Devils.

This is just a small sampling of the hockey cards that were included. It was an impressive mix of older and newer sets, US and Canadian versions. Growing up in New York, my friends gave me a hard time for not liking the Rangers. The top three players had a lot to do with me wanting to watch and cheer for the Devils instead. Richer was exciting to watch, Lemieux could find the back of the net and lay an opponent out, and Slava Fetisov was a great defenseman. The gold signature Kovalchuk is pretty cool. The Elias die-cut is awesome. It's really strange seeing Jagr in the Devils sweater after so many years in Pittsburgh.

Let's bring on the Broncos! That's my first card of Danny Trevathan, one of my favorite defensive players of the last few seasons. The two die-cuts are pretty nice. I think the team will miss Julius Thomas this coming season, though I understand the strategy of letting him sign elsewhere. The Miller is a nice card, but I'm having a hard time not transferring my dislike for the baseball version of Prizm.

Here are some shiny parallels and a nice Roby RC from Turkey Red. I may be in the minority, but I am glad that Peyton Manning decided to come back for the 2015 season.

These would have been great, and at this point, I am kinda thinking that I came out way ahead in this trade, but it didn't end there.

Historically, I am not a fan of the pink parallels of any kind. However, this Cody Latimer RC is beginning to change my mind a bit. It looks really sharp in person and...

it's #/399! As nice as this was, I have saved the best for last.

Though I was expecting this card to fall out of the trade stack(we had discussed it prior to mailing), I wasn't prepared for how much it would blow me away. This is my first multicolor patch card. I have a few Yankee patch relics that are simply solid, navy blue letter/logo patch material. This is on a different level and there are only 35 copies of this floating around. Ball may not have panned out quite yet, but I am happy to give this card a new home in my collection.

Thanks for the incredible stack of goodies buckstorecards! Now that I've learned the ins and outs of international shipping, I will be sure to send more cards your way. I've somehow got to make up for coming out so far behind on this trade.