#PaniniPylon Prizm 1/1 – Brian Orakpo

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 30, 2013

I am going to break one of my rules and have multiple posts in one day in order to get a little caught up on the blogging. I’ve been away from home and have had limited access to a computer the past few days as I was helping my move from San Antonio to Portland. We had four full days of driving and managed to escape the flooding in Schertz and Cibolo to arrive safely on Tuesday evening. Needless to say I was completely exhausted last night and the previous three nights…driving 10+ hours a day can do that to you!

The last piece of the of the Panini Pylon Prizm collection is one of my all time favorite Redskins, Brian Orakpo.

‘Rak has been injured the last two seasons and missed all but two games last year with a muscle tear. Here’s hoping this doesn’t become a recurring injury that limits him in the future.

This card went up for auction on the same day the Ryan Kerrigan card went up, so I had to double down and do some quick jumping from screen to screen in order to be the winner! I had seen the upcoming auctions and knew this day was coming so I passed on the Fred Davis and Pierre Garcon cards in order to afford these two defensive linemen. I would love to have gotten in on the Garçon card, but it went significantly higher than I thought it would and I just watched from the sidelines. I also watched from the sidelines on the RG3 card as it went for an astounding $1200! I guess that’s about right for a 1/1 parallel rookie card. Wonder how much it would have gone for if it had an on card autograph penned to it?

Overall, I am really happy with the cards I won and would love to have pulled in the whole Redskin collection…but I am more than excited with what I did win. If Panini does something similar to this again next year, I will no doubt be in line for the bidding.

-HTTR!

#PaniniPylon Prizm 1/1 – Ryan Kerrigan

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 30, 2013

The next card from the Panini Pylon auction is Ryan Kerrigan.

Ryan has been solid in his first two NFL seasons and is starting to build a decent career in DC. Hopefully he can play a full season with a healthy Brian Orakpo opposite him and have a dominating season in 2013. Seeing Orakpo and Kerrigan bookended at the line of scrimmage would surely cause some heartache for the NFC East quarterbacks.

There are no great stories with this card other than I finally learned how to bid properly and not get too excited with online auctions!

Top 12 All Time Redskins: Santana Moss

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 27, 2013

In the next installment of my all-time favorite Washington Redskins players, Santana Moss checks in at #8.

TanaMan came to the Redskins in a trade that sent Laveranues Coles back to the Jets in 2004. I was more than happy to see Coles go. He had become another prima-donna receiver and complained about everything with the Redskins. There could have been some behind the scene things I don’t know about, but if you don’t want to play for my favorite team, than I don’t want you to either. Bringing Moss in was a bit of a coup for the Redskins. They needed a big play receiver that could stretch the field as well as someone who could become a possession receiver. Moss ended up filling both roles very nicely and was a part of the late season push for the playoffs in 2005.

Moss will forever be one of my favorite players for what he did on Monday night in Irving, Texas on September 19, 2005.

When the schedule for the 2005 season came out and i saw that the Cowboys and Redskins would be playing on September 19, the day before my 30th birthday, I knew i had to get tickets. I got them locked down and went overboard on the seats, but was able to justify them by saying it was a gift…to me, because I’m special! 🙂 Finding someone to go with me was difficult and I was turned down by my father (I know…) and a couple other friends. So, that left my Mom. Who doesn’t love their mom? They are the best. She came through when noone else would and dealt with the 100+ degree temperature in the dumpy old Cowboy stadium to be a part of her son’s favorite team playing their biggest rival. During the game, I could tell she wanted no part of the action on the field and was more than ready to leave…especially seeing how poorly my guys were playing. Until the last 4 minutes of the game when the noodle armed Mark Brunell tossed two bombs downfield to a double teamed Santana Moss for game winning touchdowns. Magnificent. Not to mention, by the time the touchdowns were made it was actually September 20th…an awesome birthday gift and one that hasn’t been matched since (although my wife came really close three years ago with amazing tickets to a game at FedEx Field.) One more thing, the Dallas Cowboys Trifecta of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin were inducted in to the ring of fame during halftime of that game…even more reason to have this game at the top of the list!

Santana is getting close to the end of his career and I doubt he will suit up for anyone else. He is still productive and can put up some great numbers with RG3 getting him the ball this season. I would love to see him put up a 1,000 yard season and 5TD’s this year. Could be a nice way to round out the career.

$09 BS Santana Moss Refractor 53:199$

#8 – Santana Moss

#9 – Chris Cooley

#10 – Gary Clark

#11 – Brian Orakpo

#12 – The Hogs

#PaniniPylon Prizm 1/1 – Santana Moss

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 27, 2013

My next winning bid for the Prizm Pylon Parallel cards is Tanaman, Santana Moss.

This is probably my favorite of all the Prizm Redskin cards. I absolutely love it when the Redskins rock the Burgundy jerseys over the ‘Gold’ (yellow) pants. Love the color combination and the way it looks on the field and television…really cool. Not to mention this is an action photo of what looks like a big play…I can’t really tell what game this was from, but i am going to assume he took it to the house for 6.

One of the great things about these parallel cards is the rainbow coloring. You can kind of pick it up in the photo here, minus the glare of course. One little piece of nice coincidence on the card is the wavy lines along his left leg. It’s part of the basic card design, but appears to follow the outline of his leg in motion. I don’t know, just thought it was a cool little happenstance detail.

I will not be judged by my grades.

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 26, 2013

At the last card show I went to in Cedar Hills, Tom had a card waiting for me.

He had been telling me about this card for quite some time, and i was reluctant to even look at it. Not because I wouldn’t be interested in the card, but because it would open up a whole new realm of collecting i had yet to endeavor in to. Graded cards.

When I left collecting, these were not on the scene, or at least I don’t remember them being a part of the hobby. I was aware that they existed though in my collecting sabbatical, but wasn’t sure why anyone would do this to a card. Sending a valuable card in the mail to a stranger to get graded, slabbed and sent back to the owner for a relatively small fee, seemed foreign to me. One of my favorite parts about collecting was actually holding and touching the card. I realize this isn’t great for the cardboard, but i enjoy the connection with the artifact. Having a piece of cardboard hermetically sealed in a plastic casing was in complete contradiction to this thought process. The deeper I got back in to collecting I saw these graded things everywhere…and they were not going anywhere anytime soon. With that in mind, i could choose to accept and embrace them or ignore them.

I chose the latter.

Until the card show. Tom made some very compelling points for slabbing the cards, for example, keeping them in mint condition, depending on the grade, their value can skyrocket especially if said card is one of a few with such a high grade. Just like the fluoride battle here in Portland, I was beginning to see the value in the oppositions ideas. So I made the purchase and am now the proud owner of a 2012 Topps Magic Autograph of Alfred Morris, graded 9.5. The autograph was graded to 10, which I guess is just verification that it’s real? Seems like it should be a point or at least half point deduction for a sticker auto?

Tom gave me a great deal on the card and even threw in a Niles Paul autograph for my Redskins collection. I am still on the fence about the grading of cards and may need to get another one or two cards graded before i decide to jump in. If i can get through the idea that this is hurting the hobby, I may just become a supporter in the future. I am very happy with the card and think the slabbing makes it much more of a show piece than just something that sits in a top loader or magnetic case.

What are your thoughts on graded cards? Good for the hobby? Bad? Indifferent?

#PaniniPylon Prizm 1/1 – Leonard Hankerson

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 23, 2013

Next up for the 1/1 series is old alligator arms, Leonard Hankerson.

I am still holding out hope that this kid comes through in a major way this season, he seems to have way too much talent to not become a star…but I could just be another Redskins mouth breathing homer. I know he’s capable of making big plays and becoming a number 1 target for Robert Griffin III.

This card was one of those bidding war cards and I may have outbid myself on this one, but i’m expecting it to be well worth it. I can’t wait to see what he does next season in the burgundy and gold.

#PaniniPylon Prizm 1/1 – London Fletcher

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 22, 2013

When Panini announced their auction for the inaugural season of Prizm Football, I was quite interested in what they had to offer. Seeing that the cards were being issued as uncirculated 1/1 parallels. I thought any and all would be way out of my price range or at the very least more than what i would want to pay for in a football card…even though they would be issuing 1/1’s of Washington Redskins. So, in a passive approach I just watched from the sidelines as the Alfred Morris card went for $200+. The thing that i noticed though, was that most of the other cards were going for $20 to $50. Your basic ‘team favorite’ kind of guys. These guys aren’t really superstars but rather guys that you like and that wear your teams jersey on Sundays. This gave me hope that I could win a card or two without going buckwild.

I still need that diaper money son!

With the auctions ending at 10am PT, this created a bit of scheduling conflict for me and work. I typically get to my desk around 7am and the project manager i’m working with rolls in around 7:30am, while the other architect on our team likes to stroll in about 9:30. The straggler likes to get settled in and start asking questions around 9:58…2 minutes before the auctions ended. My solution? Hit the john with a fully charged iphone at 9:57 and bid my ass off! Too much information, i know, but the details are important when telling a story. This technique was crazy successful and turned me in to a winner in life and in parallels…plus i got some ‘me’ time during the hectic workday.

If wildside71 is reading this, i’m sorry you had to hear of my ill techniques this way, but the bidding wars were fun!

Enough with the rambling, here is the first card I won.

London Fletcher

As you can see, these cards come in a standard issues magnetic ultra pro snap lock case with a red Panini sticker covering the magnet. The photo doesn’t do the card justice, but it is infinitely better than the my scan attempt. I think Panini did a great job with this promotion (maybe it’s gimmicky for some?) Being able to bid on a 1/1 rather than hoping to pull one from a box is much better for a team collector like me. I’m able to get exactly the guy I want without screwing around with fruitless packs or boxes. I get my guy each time. PLUS the case these guys came in is pretty cool. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but it seemed to be some type of plastic composite with black felt lining that the card was set in. Great packaging for a one of a kind item. My only critique would be that the box itself had the players name and team on the outside of the box. I’m sure this wasn’t done to cut down on costs, but if you have multiples of these things, there is no telling who is in what box? That’s a very minor issue though and i’m conjuring up ways to get the names on the boxes for proper storage and retrieval in the future.

This post is the first in a series of posts i will do on these cards. I hope you enjoy them, and again, wildside71…no hard feelings.

-HTTR!

#PaniniPylon Prizm 1/1…is happening…

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 21, 2013

This is a teaser of some fun stuff to come…stay tuned!

I am going to be road tripping the next few days and hope to have some quick posts before I check in each night. Lots of fun stuff to show and talk about, hope you enjoy what I show you.

Panini Limited: Revisited

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 18, 2013

So, I couldn’t help myself. Dave and Adam’s Cardworld had a great deal on their 2012 Limited boxes so i picked up one more. That made three total, as i bought one direct from Panini and somehow received an extra box from them.

I really liked the cards initially and thought i’d give it another go. I was pleased with this box as it yielded some nice new cards for me, although nothing to add to my PC.

The design of this set has been one of my favorites, next to the Prime Signatures by Panini this year.

Look at this guy, Jim Otto. I’m sure this legend is super proud of this card too.

The hits were nice, two autographs from two young and talented players along with a gigantic jumbo patch of LaMichael James, with the safety strip at the lower left corner.