More COMC Goodness

I got caught up with a few other things, and now the Daytona 500 is getting close to starting so I better knock this out real quick.  Last time I posted some COMC cards I got last Black Friday, and today I'll show the rest.  So let's dig in.

Let's start with shiny.  I've been building up these cards for a while, and good thing too since these look to be the future of the Royals.  I just heard Hosmer signed with the Padres, so a pretty much full on rebuild appears to be on the way.  I usually don't care about getting the Prizm cards but they were cheap enough to just get.

After Yordano Ventura's death last year, I started looking for cards I didn't have of his and stocked up before prices got too high.  It still hurts that he's gone, but knowing I added a few of his cards to my collection eases that pain a bit.  The Bowman Platinum cards I really liked the look of so I added them too.

That there is some gold!  I don't try to get too many of the parallels unless I have a card to begin with, so I had a start.  I added these pretty cheap as is the norm, so this helps this collection out a lot.  The Butler at the end is the Blue Sparkle cards from a few years ago which I'm still slowly trying to build but I finally bought this one because it was almost half the price it was normally listed as.

With my 2016 focus mainly on Topps, I didn't spend any time on Donruss, but I did end up with one or two before, so I tried to build the Royals team set so I could finish it.  I do like the look, and I got another George Brett to add to my collection so there's that.  The bottom builds on the Holiday cards from 2016.  I'm not going to build that set, but I think I have the Royals covered now,  I have the checklists updated so its easy to check.  The Duffy card  is the second Royals card I have from that set, and I think that might be it.  There could be one more card too, I'm not sure.

More Royals goodness, now with more Sportflics!  I think that finishes up that set as well.  Be on the lookout for Hunter Dozier this year, he could make a splash.  I was also happy to add a Royals card of Carlos Beltran.  Its nice to find them cheap.  It would be nice if he decides to take a spot on the Royals staff and eases his way into the manager spot.  Ned Yost said he'd manage the beginning of the youth movement, so I'm not sure if he'll stick around more than a year, but Beltran would be perfect to take his place.

HOLD ME CLOSER TINY ROYAL!  The George Brett mini was the last card I needed from the Fleer minis set, and I'm happy to finish it.  I also was happy to finish (I think) the other Fleer set, which was just the checklist.  I was also happy to add yet another Royals Beltran card.  The others are nice as well, but those are the ones getting love from me right now.  I'm in a rush, Daytona is about to begin.

To close out this post, we'll go old school.  Buck Martinez and Steve Mingori are from the 1975 Topps set, and since I already have the George Brett, the rest should be easy to get.  Aside from any other Royals I'm missing from that set, the only other card I may seek out is the Robin Yount Rookie which would look nice on display next to the Brett Rookie.  Next we jump 10 years to 1985, with another George Brett, and another Bret, this one of Saberhagen.  I'm pretty sure those are the main ones in that set, so I should be able to get the rest easily.  Bottom row starts with Larry Gura, and honestly I forgot the year, but I think its an 81.  I have a couple already, but not in a real rush to build it, as I figure I'll get it done at some point.  I was happy to find the Quaker card of Dan Quisenberry as I want to try to get as many of his cards (Royals or otherwise) as possible, and this was one I didn't have.  I like oddball cards anyways, so this was a nice addition.  Speaking of oddballs, its not often you can find a Burger King card, and I'm glad I have one now.  I would like to finish this set sooner than later but also as cheaply as possible.  Lastly is a Charlie Leibrandt and again I forget the year as its not in front of me.  I was too young to see him play for the Royals, but it was still a nice card to add. 

Overall I was very pleased with all the additions I made to my collection thanks to COMC and have already started buying more cards which I hope to build up and get around November of this year.  Since I know they are safe, no need to rush them here.  Plus if I get one before then, I could always try to flip the card on there.  So that wraps up my COMC purchases.  It also wraps up this post, which surprisingly I got done before the Daytona 500 started.  I remember it starting much earlier than it does now, but NASCAR and TV are two things that don't seem to mesh well together these days, but that would be a rant I've done too many times.  So thanks everyone for reading and I hope to have another post up sometime this week, but for now I have racing to watch, and some more scanning to do.  Thanks for reading and have a great day.

3 Months and 100 Cards Ago...

Remember when I said I was backlogged?  I bought a big purchase last year around April that I never got around to showing on here.  Even worse is I scanned and photographed a lot of the cards but misplaced all of it so until I can find them (not the cards, they are already sorted) I have no way to show them off.  However, back in November I did partake in COMC's annual holiday sales.  I waited for almost a year for the sale, maybe even longer.  I didn't plan for it to happen but during their last Spring sale they didn't offer free shipping and while I eventually got over it, I wasn't too pleased at the time.  To ship the cards it would be 4 bucks.  That's still a good deal if you get quite a few cards, but I then realized if I had them ship me 100 cards, I'd get a $5 credit.  It's something they've done for a while, so I had about 30 cards at the time and figured I would essentially get free shipping if I just held out and got 100 cards.  To my surprise, they offered free shipping again in November, so not only did I reach the 100 mark and get the $5 credit, but free shipping to boot.  Most of the money from the cards I bought were because I did a lot of the challenges on their site, which helps them out.  I haven't done many lately, but still knock a few out when I can.  In total though, I got 130 or so cards in November, and its time to show them off.

A little bit of everything, but the Royals cards I'll focus on next time, let's dig in to the other stuff first.

I'm not a history guy, but always wanted to build a Presidential Frankenset.  Then I fell in love with this 2012 set.  Well, part of it.  Its like 150 or 200 card set featuring the Women's Soccer team, but no disrespect to them, I just wanted the Presidents.  So I found these cheap enough to start piecing together a set.  Maybe I should just look on Ebay and find just this portion of the set.  HMMM, maybe I have a future blog post to write. ;)

Those stickers were pure impulse buy, but it was a 5 card insert set advertising for the wacky packs from 2016 and I had the other 2.  Might as well finish the insert set up.  In fact, I'm very slowly looking to build a master set of the 2016 Topps set including Update.  Now I'm not looking for all the parallels or 1/1 or anything, but the base set and a few of the insert sets.  If I add gold or other variations I'll upgrade that card in the collection.  I doubt I do much more to it now, and probably should just buy a complete set and be happy.

I've slowly started making a PC for A-Rod.  Mainly because it seems you can find his cards cheap because people want to discard them so easily.  Did he take steroids?  Yeah... Did he entertain me?  Yeah, so there you have it.  It seems he's in a happy place now, and hey, if he does more autograph shows and brings J-Lo along, I might have to start going to those.  The Damon card I got because I didn't have it.  Like I was going to get a COMC package WITHOUT a Damon?  This isn't his best card and it has another player on the other side (its not beside me right now so I forgot who, maybe Slade Heathcoat? or I just made up a random name).  As for the Aaron Senne card, I got because he went to Mizzou.  He never made it too far in the pro's making it to the advanced A league and the SALLY league, but retired in 2013.  I found out after I got the card he actually was one of a few guys who sued MiLB citing the pay for minors violated wage labor laws.  I never heard about that, so I don't know what happened but since it was filed 4 years ago I don't think it made it too far.

Jon Lovitz on a trading card?  That's the ticket!  "See the grass?  Don't eat it."  These are all First Pitch cards I didn't have, and a couple I ended up getting after I bought them but forgot.  After getting the Leslie Jordan I decided not to keep trying to get all the cards and focus on just guys I like, but previous years I thought I'd finish first.  The 2015 set is about all I have left to complete.  Aside from Lovitz none of these really stand out to me and none were ones if I wasn't set building would have chased.  Though I must say the Brady Kahle card was cool to get because I've heard some good stuff about him and so I was kinda happy to get that one too.

Much like getting Johnny Damon cards, it wouldn't be a COMC order without some Greg Maddux cards.  The two I wanted most was the Tombstone one, and the Stadium Club one.  The Spellbound one was nice too.  All these cards I believe were under 40 cents.  I try to get as many cards as I can in the .30-.40 cent range, but sometimes I'll go higher.  I do make exceptions, but at this point it doesn't happen too often.  Though if I found a good deal on a Robin Yount rookie I wouldn't pass it up.  After reorganizing my collection recently (well, I'm still working on it, but a lot of the baseball is done), I see I'm approaching 175 unique Maddux cards.  200 might be out of reach this year, but I think 180 could be within sight since I'm not going to press too hard on adding cards this year.  Since I'm organizing my cards better I want to feature more of what I have for now.  Only exception in non-sports, that's a beast in its own, and I might build a few sets.  Currently though, Maddux has 169 card (going to go up in a couple weeks), Damon just passed 100 (101 to be exact), and George Brett is at 89.

This oddball collection is a bit fun to look at.  The Phil Rizzuto card I watched for almost 2 years.  While the actual site sits dormant, I am still trying to get a card of every team who played in Missouri.  This card satisfies the Kansas City Blues.  While its not a card from the time period, its good enough to me.  Hopefully later this year I can update all that and see what I have.  Maybe I can work on that site too, we'll see.  I didn't need a Monarchs card, but I'll get any Buck O'Neill I can find at a good price.  I just love that second card of him, which I've also been watching a couple years.  The top row concludes with an Ozzie Smith card I didn't have.  I still have to update my Ozzie cards, but I'm happy with the amount of Padres cards I have of him.  I think this is my first of him representing Cal Poly though.

Bottom row starts with a couple Wacha's.  I am a fan of his, and even if I wasn't I'm still building that Marketside set so I didn't have that one.  I also liked the USA Champions card and so I got it.  That reminds me I need to update my Michael Wacha collection.  I'll get to it.  At least I did update my Albert Pujols collection.  Hey currently sits 6th in my baseball collection with 64 cards (behind Kevin Appier who I have 66 cards of).  I'm sure I'll add more AP cards this year but for now these caught my eye.  I really like the National Baseball Card day one.  The Holiday one really doesn't do much for me, but its a new one to add to my collection, so I'm glad I got it.

Let's talk football.  After finding a bunch of Brett Favre cards at Savvy Seconds a year or two ago, I've had more interest in building a PC of him.  These two seemed like they would fit nicely into my collection, and I knew I didn't have them so let's get them.  That Pro Line card is something else.  Next is a Marshall Faulk card from the Monsters of the Gridiron set.  While my friend bought me a pack of the complete set, I've yet to open it, and still plan to finish building the set so I don't have to.  I'm well on my way and think the hardest ones are out of the way.  Finally up top is a SI For Kids Mike Alstott card.  At one point I had an impressive Alstott collection.  I remember the first thing I ever looked for on Ebay was Mike Alstott cards.  I didn't buy them at that time, but eventually I did.  When I sold my collection so went all that I had, but I've slowly started to rebuild it.  Its not as much of a desire as it used to be, but its fun to find his cards at random times.

The bottom row is all Mizzou guys.  The Ron Taylor I've spotted for a while and finally pulled the trigger.  I don't think its the oldest Mizzou card I have, but its close to it.  The Maclin I got because even if he wasn't a Mizzou guy, its him as a Chief, and I'd likely would have got it anyways.  The last card is one of Kirk Farmer.  His drink of water in the pros was longer than I thought, but not by much.  These days he lives in the Mid Missouri area and is part of Farmer Holding Company who currently owns the Capital Mall in Jefferson City.

More Mizzou football, this time shiny ones.  The purple Marcus Murphy card I got for a steal, and actually cheaper then his base card was selling for (I think it was 33 cents).  I liked him in college and while I don't need every card of every guy from Mizzou, I make exceptions for some guys.  I wasn't sure at the time if I had a Shane Ray card so I got it.  If you remember when he was drafted you might have heard about him getting busted for pot in Mid Missouri a few days before the draft.  Turns out the county that happened in is the one I live in, so I guess we have that going for us.  Lastly is the Markus Golden card, another guy I wasn't sure if I had a card for.  I liked the design of the card so that influenced my decision to get it.

Let's finish up with a random mix.  I like finding cheap DeMarre Carroll cards and this one fit the bill.  At the time I didn't have a card of him with the Raptors and I like to stay current.  By the time it arrived (well, actually 4 months prior) he was shipping out to Brooklyn (which isn't the same as Shipping Out To Boston) and he's now on the Nets.  I hope to get a card of him with the Nets, but it was rumored he might be traded again.  Last I heard he wants to stay in Brooklyn and they likely won't, which I hope is true.  Speaking of trading, Jordan Clarkson has a new team now and it doesn't make me too happy.  I don't regularly follow the NBA but I tolerate certain teams and can't stand a lot of them.  I tolerate the Lakers, but I can't stand the Cavs.  I think its more than just not being a LeBron fan, but I really wish they would go back to being in the bottom of the league, same with the Warriors.  Anyways, I am happy that Clarkson is on a team that seems to want to improve though, and I wish him the best of success.

The Michael Annett card is one I didn't have and I try to find cheap ones of him.  Its racing season again, and since I don't have FS1 or NBCSN, I hope to catch all 4 Xfinity races that I might get to watch this year.  It also means its the season that I constantly gripe on twitter how more races aren't on network TV.  Sorry if you have to suffer through my tweets.  Maybe its good I don't watch NBA or NHL as much, I'd find a lot more to complain about.  Speaking of hockey, I got the Vladimir Tarasenko card because it seemed for a while he was the only bright spot about the Blues.  I hope they can hold on to him.  Who knows maybe I'll actually watch more of their games.  I mean I can now, but choose not to (while I don't get NBCSN or FS1, I do get Fox Sports Midwest, so Blues and Cardinals games is all I get, I can't even watch Royals games, ugh!).

Okay, bottom row is a common Bonds card I didn't have and since it was cheap I got it.  I'd like to build up my Bonds PC collection sooner than later, but at this rate its climbing about as much as his HOF votes are.  Eventually I hope he gets in, and hopefully I'll have a healthy amount of his cards by then.  Next is a Max Scherzer card I didn't have.  Mizzou alum or not, I'd collect his cards.  I can't believe how much of a Mizzou fan he still is though.  He's tweeting photos of him watching Mizzou games all the time on twitter.  It makes me like him even more.  Lastly, and maybe most random is an A.J. Styles wrestling card.  I actually have a few of his cards, but they are from his TNA days, so this is my first WWE card of him.  I've always been a big fan of his and even remember when he teamed with Kid Romeo in the final days of WCW.  I remember his WWE Jakked match against Hurricane in 2001 or 2002 as well.  I'm lucky enough to see him wrestle at a house show a few years back so I really wanted to get this card, and while I might pare down my wrestling collection, this one I'll proudly display.

So I didn't expect to write this much, so I think I'll stop here for now.  Next time I'll focus more on the Royals cards I got.  I should have that up later this week.  Thanks for reading and have a great night.

Early Birthday Bash: I OWN YOU PETE!

So the other day I showed off a set I've wanted for a long time- Daredevil trading cards, and today I thought I'd show off another set I recently bought from Ebay.  It is another one I've wanted for a while, so I was happy when it arrived.

AH GEEZ, I'm talking about Blue Chips aren't I?  I mean of course I am.  Will it ever be placed among the best sports movies ever?  Not likely, but I do like watching it every year or two if I can find it.  It's a movie I don't own, but would like to at some point.  They made this a 90 card set, and I'm glad they did because they did a lot of things right with this set.  Such as showing a lot of scenes from the movie, especially good or important ones (unlike the Daredevil set).

I do wish the shot of the basketball was on the left card, but still.  The point is, they chose the right ones for this set.  I included the right photo because while I don't remember it from the movie (maybe it was an extra), it shows reporter Todd Donoho.  While at the time I didn't know of him, he was an actual sportscaster for KABC in Los Angeles, and like in the movie, he used the phrase "Take a hike".  The reason I was happy to have a card of him though is because after he left the station (heard he was fired), he ended up going to where he graduated from Journalism school- MIZZOU!  I don't know if he still works for Learfield doing the pregame shows, as I can't find anything about him for the last couple years and I haven't listened to pregames in a while, but it was great to hear him on the radio a few times I did.  He also wrote a couple Mizzou books.

I like how they feature a lot of the main stars on multiple cards.  That is a great center card of Nolte, I must say.  I love the cards with Shaq and Mary McDonnell and there are a few, it just shows the height difference.  I would have preferred a better card for Happy, but it is what it is.  By the way, the title I OWN YOU PETE is a quote from the movie.  Happy says that to Nolte's Pete Bell.  It was a good way to use a line from the movie, and its true. I do own several Pete Bell's now.

I do think the set did a disservice to Tony though.  I mean I know he was flunking TV, but still, he deserved more respect in this card set.  I also didn't realize the Dolphin Girl was such a crucial part of the movie that she needed two cards.  Though that is part of the problem with this set.  They must not have had much of a budget for these cards, because none of the people with cameos are on cards.  No Larry Bird, no Dick Vitale, nobody famous outside of the main cast.  They don't even have a card for Lou Gosset Jr. who was Butch's high school coach.  That might be forgivable since he isn't even listed in the credits.  However, after looking at the credits, a few famous people did have small parts in the movie.  My favorite is Tony Gonzalez was in the Dolphin suit.  That would be a cool card to have.  Which also I must say a card of the Dolphin mascot would be nice too.  Allan Houston, Rodney Rogers, Matt Painter, Bobby Hurley, Rick Fox, and Chris Mills were some names of players on the other teams.  I think they might sound familiar.

There was another issue with this card set though.  Well besides and oddly thin cardstock. I've seen thicker business cards, but I'll let that slide.

Remember how I said they must not have had a budget for the set?  I mean Robert Wuhl didn't even get a card.  Aside from that, look at the bottom left card.  Extras faces are blurred out on cards!  I've never seen anything like it before.  I would think they wouldn't need permission from extras, but I don't know.  I'm sure a few extra bucks and they would all have been happy.  Even if they blurred the people behind them, this one card irks me a lot.  GIVE THE LADIES A FEW BUCKS TO SHOW THEIR FACES!  Aside from that, I do like the two team photos showing before and after team rosters.  I also like the one of the assistants.  They made some pretty good behind the scene cards as well, I liked the Shaq one.  Mary had a lot more cards than I thought, and it almost seemed like she signed a contract to get more cards.  Aside from Nolte, I think she had the most cards.  The bottom right card I really liked because it shows while Pete quit coaching he never really could give up the game.

"Hey guys, we couldn't get the money to feature Bobby Knight on a card, or Larry Bird. Or even the Dolphin."

"That's okay, we'll put Mary on more cards, and feature the "LEGENDARY UNIFORM".  So again, no issue with all the love for Mary, but in all my years watching this film, I've never thought their uniforms were LEGENDARY.  They are the most basic uniforms I've ever seen.  If I had to rank tv/movie uniforms, it likely wouldn't make the top 50.

Again, I do like a lot of the behind the scenes cards.  One issue I did have though is the cards are in order of the movie and they are really random.  Like they'll show 20 cards from the movie out of order, then a few behind the scene cards, then a couple casting cards, then more from the movie and so on.  It's almost like they wanted to split it into two sets or series, but decided not to last minute.

One issue not related to these cards specifically but more from the Trading Card Database, none of the cards with Shaq on them are credited to him.  So the question I might ask later on there is should they?  I would think yes, but if you are a Shaq PC guy, do you really think your set is incomplete without these cards?  We'll see.  I decided to show the checklist cards because most of the cards in the set aren't on the Database yet, so two birds one stone.  Though most of my scans came out crooked so I'll have to likely rescan a lot of them.  Oh well.  Let's look at the backs.

Same cards with the backs.  What is surprising is neither the Paramount or the Skybox logo is on the front of the card.  I also just notice Shaq's logo is on his cards here.  That is kind of cool.  As you can see on the last checklist, there are more than 90 cards, but the first 90 are the base set and that's all I got and really wanted.  One more thing about the back, they use the same photo for the front and back, and that means if a face is blurred on the front, its the same on the back.  Very odd, but oh well.  I do think the non-scene cards could have used other photos for the back or something else.  I don't need the same photo twice.

So overall, I have to admit I was a little disappointed with the set on quite a few levels, but overall I'm still happy I got the set.  It was cheap enough (even without Ebay bucks) that its not money wasted, and I'm glad they are now in my collection.  I'm just glad I didn't buy a box of the cards which I considered once.  I played it safe and got all that I needed.

So that wraps it up for today, I hope you enjoyed these last two posts, and I hope to have a couple more posts up next week.  I've been scanning more stuff lately so it could be good for the site as well.  Speaking of the site, I had an issue with commenting the other day, I think its more of a Firefox thing, but in any event, I might start thinking of a new layout soon.  I was going to wait until the summer, but I might move it up to see if any catch my eye.  I think changing the look every couple years keeps the site fresh, and honestly I'm not in love with the current look like I thought I would.  So anyways, just rambling now, so thanks for reading, have a great weekend, and if you are expecting bad weather, stay safe.

Early Birthday Bash

In January, thanks to some Ebay bucks, I managed to get a couple sets of cards I'd had my eyes for a while so today I thought I would show one of the sets off.  In addition I will show a couple other goodies I picked up along the way.  So let's dig in.

 Before I start I wanted to show a couple packs of cards I bought from my local convenience store- Casey's.  I decided to give the NFL a try since they only had 2017 baseball cards and I still don't plan on buying any packs.  So I tried my luck on this pack and was really happy with it.  I got a Jeremy Maclin card which is about the only one I would want.  Overall I like the design of the set, and I think Panini did a good job with this Donruss set.  I decided to show the back of the Talib card because I don't like him, and figured it was a great way to show the back of the card.

So the second pack I think was even a better pack.

 I planned to post these before the Super Bowl, thus the reason a Patriots and Eagles cards are first.  Chris Hogan actually had a good game.  Though the bigger card is the Reggie White.  This card pops!  Sure its not an action shot, but who cares.  I'm not a fan of having tons of legends in current sets, but its not like you see Reggie White cards all the time.  That card made the pack.  However, next card I pulled was a Travis Kelce card, and while I'm not in the market to collect all the Chiefs, I might only have a couple Kelce cards so this was a nice addition.  I doubt I buy anymore packs, but it was fun to open a couple.

Speaking of opening, I got a card in the mail from my sister the other day.  I wasn't expecting it since it was a couple weeks before my birthday but I was pretty happy.  I opened it and it was a birthday card with a cat, which I really liked.  When I opened the card up she wrote it was a combination birthday and Christmas gift since we didn't actually get to meet up for Christmas.  So what did she get me?

 Sweet!  I usually get a free trial around July so I can binge the shows I like for a month, but this should get me about 3 months (using the cheapest option) so it will give me more time to explore.  I will likely wait about a month or two to use it so I can hopefully catch the new seasons of Ozark and Orange is the New Black.  I'm sure I'll find more to watch, and might rewatch some Daredevil and try some of the Marvel shows.  We'll see.

Okay, so now its time to see the first of two sets I bought from Ebay.  I bought them from the same seller, and they arrived a couple days sooner than I expected.

DAREDEVIL!  For those unaware, I was a big fan of the movie, even though I never read the comic books.  The movie released on my birthday in 2003, and I think I just wanted see something on release date.  I never did see it in theaters, but once it came out on DVD, I bought it and really liked it.  A few years ago I discovered that they released a trading card set, and I have had my eye on it since.  I finally pulled the trigger and got it.  I was pleasantly pleased with the design of the cards.

 I love how all the cast is featured on the cards, similar to the Transformers set Topps would release later.  The only thing is the cards don't mention the actors names.  Even on the back there is no sign of the actors name.  In fact, I believe only Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck are mentioned by name on the cards themselves.  Its not a huge complaint, but it would be nice to have the actors names be acknowledged.  I do think that the inserts featured their names, but I only got the base set.

 There is some really nice cards showing some great scenes, but I also feel they missed out on some other major ones.  For instance, Daredevil standing over Kingpin who is on his knees which is a major scene to me.  Small complaints, but oh well, I did get a card with Kevin Smith on it, so there's that.

 The back of the cards are nice, they talk about the scenes in question.  The Behind the scenes cards give a nice detail about the filming, but as the next scene shows, it takes a bit away from the movie as well.

 While its obvious they used CGI for a lot of the movie, the bottom two cards showing the green screen took some of the magic of the film away from me.  I have to admit the high rise green screen is kind of cool, but I could still have done without it.

Overall though I wasn't disappointed in the set, and I'm happy its in my collection now.  One day I might try to get some of the autograph cards if I find them cheap, I usually spot the Young Matt Murdock cards around, but I doubt I'll get them.  Since I bought the Director's Cut and still haven't watched it, I think now is a good time to check it out.  I might wait until the 14th to watch it, just so it will be the 15th Anniversary of the release.

Well, that wraps up part one, next time I'll show another set I bought, and might even have another Ebay win I got that same week as well.  Thanks for reading and have a great night.

Backlog Beauties: Listia Wins and More

Recently Listia decided it was changing their currency on their site.  I think at the end of the month, they will have something called INK which is some sort of cryptocurrency and allows you to keep doing what your doing on Listia, but also allow you to use it on other sites.  I don't like change, and remember last time they messed with the points system and left me out in the cold basically.  I had about 20,000 credits and at the times was about 10 bucks, but suddenly it was worth a buck if that.  I started to stop bidding so much then and since don't find too many deals.  So upon hearing this INK news, I figured now that my credits are built up nice again, which oddly is about 10 bucks again, I thought I'd bid on a few things, and to my surprise I won some things.  I don't know if I'll hurry up and spend the rest before the end of the month, or test the waters, especially since I've gotten back into Ebay some, but for now let's see what I won.

I've mentioned I'm hoping to pare down my collection some that aren't PC guys or Royals or Non-sports, but Brett Hull is more or less a PC.  I have quite a few St. Louis Blues cards even some relic cards, but I believe Brett Hull is the hockey player I have the most cards of.  When I saw this I really liked it, and it was on the lower end of bidding (499 credits) so I bid.  I honestly expected it to go over 1 or 2,000 credits and I'd lose interest, but luckily nobody else bid and I was the winner.  I remember the first hockey game I ever saw on TV, but even from that time I just can't get into the sport.  What's worse is I don't have a favorite team and since the Blues are the most local, I guess I collect them by default.  Though I will say in the 90's I did like a lot of their guys like Hull, Brenden Shanahan, and Curtis Joseph.  Today I couldn't name many players on the team, but did notice a lot of guys in their front office are pretty big names who had great careers.  Guys like Brett Hull, Martin Brodeur, Al MacInnis, Barret Jackman (who I didn't know retired), Keith Tkachuk, and I'm sure I'm missing others.  For those that like TTM autograph hunting, that would be a great place to start.  As for the roster, I only knew 5 players and 2 I didn't know played for the Blues, so there's that.  Not to get too deep in it, but expansion to warm locations kind of ruined hockey to me.  Plus the fact that I miss the Hartford Whalers.  Anyways, this was a great card to find, and I'm glad I got it.

Now before I continue, you may wonder why the title has beauties in it.  Well because I think these cards are nice first and foremost, but I mean come on, Brett Hull isn't a beauty so we have to get a real beauty on here.

I was never a fan of Candice Michelle as a wrestler.  She couldn't wrestle, but I did enjoy seeing her on TV.  While I don't actively seek out Benchwarmer cards, I see them often on Listia but while they start cheap, most get up there in price and I don't want to spend the credits on them.  My goal was to get an autographed card of some sort hopefully one depicting baseball, but I also wanted to get a Christmas card.  Maybe eventually an autographed Christmas themed card too, but its not a huge priority.  When I saw these two cards, which is the front and the back scan, I watched it like I usually do with all the Maria Kanellis cards as well, I never expected to win.  At 399 credits I made a small bid of under 1,000 credits and forgot about it.  A couple days later I saw that I won.  I was pretty happy because now I can skip most the other Benchwarmer cards and not worry about watching 50 auctions and losing out on all of them.  I will still look at them and decide if I have an interest, but I doubt I'll watch many of them.

So the last win I got from Listia was a big one.  Well, it was a six card lot, but while I just really wanted 2 of the cards, this was a perfect way to jumpstart the few cards I already have making a great start to a PC.  While it isn't baseball, it is football, and its one of the best players in NFL history.

BARRY SANDERS!  I watched many running backs since around 1992, and while there were many I liked, such as Thurman Thomas, Emmitt Smith, and even Mike Alstott (who was a fullback, but still), none of them were as good as Barry Sanders.  I will go so far as to say, he was better than Marcus Allen, and even if he stayed healthy, Sanders would still be better than Bo Jackson.  He could have been even greater, but he left on his own terms.  I can't say much more about him.  This auction I won at a steal of 499 credits, and honestly I really only wanted the Rookie Flashback card, and maybe the Legacy card.  I already had the Topps cards, and I never liked those Fleer cards, but all of them will look nice in my collection now.  The Legacy card looked even better in my hand, and I forgot how much I like the Lions helmets.  In fact I'd say they are top 10 helmets easily.

After doing all this I got a message on TCDB.  A fellow collector said he had a couple Royals cards and wondered if I'd want to trade.  I usually brush most off with a nice response, because I have blogger that I still need to give cards to, and I just don't like mailing stuff.  In this case though, I saw what was on his wantlists and noticed he was a big fan of the New York Giants, specifically Eli Manning.  A relief I thought since I gave most of my football cards away a couple months ago to my friend.  So I kinda told him I don't think I have anything to offer, but I'd look.  About a week later I was going through a couple boxes of cards and they were ALL football.  CRAP!  Not that it meant I might be able to trade, but I thought I was done with most of them.  So I scoured for some Giants cards and to my surprise I found a few Eli cards he didn't have.  I ended up working a trade with him, and sent cards his way on Friday, and he should get them on early next week.  In the meantime, I found some cards I forgot I had, and some I decided to scan.

I scanned these cards because they weren't on the TCDB, but these look pretty sweet.  It made me realize how much football cards I did buy in the last few years.  I had fun opening them, but wish I had spent the money a little better.  Oh well.  Here are the backs too.

Not a bad insert set.  I wouldn't be opposed to an entire set of cards like these, but I seriously doubt I'll go back to buying packs or sets of football anytime soon.  Okay, SETS or LOTS of packs.  I did recently buy 2 packs of 2017 NFL cards, and happy with the results.  I'll show them later next week maybe, they are scanned but have other things to post first.  I've gotten a bit burnt out of NFL and while I still watch, collecting cards of NFL players aren't a huge priority unless they are ones I really like or collect.

Speaking of guys I like and collect...

I do collect Odell Beckham Jr.  It was odd that I would collect him, because I rarely get to see him play, just his highlights.  Though he usually has a couple a game so I see him often enough to know if he stays healthy and keeps his cool, he can be an All Time player.  The real reason I collect him though is because I pulled a Sage rookie of him when they came out, and was lucky enough to pull an autograph of him as well.  I was tempted to sell it and likely make some good money on it, but I'd rather keep it.  As for the Bortles card, I don't really collect him, but I pulled it aside because he could be on the verge of being a big time QB, and that card could start to be worth something.  I doubt it, but who knows.

Lastly, I'll show a couple basketball cards I recently found too.  They were in another oddball box I had and I had to pull them to see if they were doubles or not.

As it turns out, the Lego cards are doubles, but its a set I am half heartedly building so I had to be sure.  I do collect both Shaq and Kobe, but not officially PC.  Not yet at least.  Maybe one day as my collection of cards I don't want diminish I will build up cards I do want some, but for now I'm happy with what I have.  The Renaldo Balkman I found was one I never really took time to look at before.  Its a player holding a basketball card, which is a fun oddity some people collect.  If you look close though, its not just any basketball card, its THE basketball card- MICHAEL JORDAN!  That would also fit into some peoples oddity collections as well.  It was cool enough to set aside until I figure what to do with it.

The bottom row starts with AI, a guy I loved to watch play.  Like Shaq and Kobe, I keep his cards, but unofficially they aren't PC's.  To be honest I don't think I have any PC's of basketball players with possible exception to Dan Majerle but its only a couple cards and not really a PC.  I do try to collect as many Mizzou players as possible, but they don't really count as PC's since they are more team PCs.  The most cards I have of any basketball player I believe is Anthony Peeler, and once things get sorted better, I'll try to add to that, and many other Mizzou guys.  I don't watch NBA much anymore so besides DeMarre Carroll and Jordan Clarkson, I'm not sure if any others are still in the league.  I know Phil Pressey flounders around and Clarkson had a teammate on the Lakers from Mizzou, but I think he was cut (I forgot his name as I'm a bit tired).  Next year I might need to start getting Michael Porter Jr. cards if he goes pro.  Personally I hope he doesn't so I can see him play for Mizzou for more than 2 minutes, and it would be fun to see him and his brother Jontay play together for a season, but MPJ is a top 5 pick so I doubt he'll stay.  BTW, great job Mizzou knocking off Kentucky today.  So what UK isn't as good as they normally are, a win is a win.

Okay, last card is the Mailman, and again, while I don't PC him, I set this aside in case didn't have any of his other cards.  I also had a thought of Frankenset of some sort of people who was involved in wrestling, and this would be a good card to use of Malone.  He wrestled a match in WCW with Diamond Dallas Page against Dennis Rodman and Hulk Hogan.  It was around the time Jay Leno wrestled too.  If I decide to build that Frankenset, it could be pretty cool and potentially huge.

So I guess that wraps it up for tonight.  If you have a team in the Super Bowl, I wish them the best of luck.  If you don't have a team to root for, GO EAGLES!  I don't have much interest in the game this year, but I bet I watch.  I also plan to catch the Kitten Bowl as well on the Hallmark Channel.  If I had Animal Planet, I'd catch the Puppy Bowl as well.  I still think WWE should bring back Halftime Heat as it was always fun to catch if you didn't care about the Halftime show.  Though since Chris Stapleton is performing with Justin Timberlake, I'll watch it.  Well, thanks for reading and have a great week.