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.