With all the turmoil going on with the burgundy and gold the past couple of days, I thought i’d post about something positive from the cards I already have scanned. Well, nothing positive to see here.
Coming in to the season, I, along with a lot of football analysts had Leonard Hankerson on the list of football guys to have a breakout season. He got off to a very nice start, but stumbled through the season until he was injured a few weeks ago. I still love the kid and think he can have some type of impact with Redskins, but I don’t see him as being any type of breakout star. Just a guy that has a couple of big games each year mixed in with marginal performances.
One thing about Hank that I love is his simple signature. Normally, I frown on the laziness of these kids signatures but this one has a certain flair to it and seems to have been thought out. I like it.
I’m also thinking this could be Fletcher’s last season with the NFL. Actually, I kind of hope this is his last season. He’s not been as productive as in recent years and appears to be losing a few steps…quickly. Still, he brought a ton of passion to the defense, not to mention an abundant amount of leadership. They should build a statue for this undrafted free agent.
As always HTTR and hope you guys are having a good holiday season!
This is something i have never thought of buying in the past and will not buy in the future. For me, this was a high risk, low reward box and something that i bought because i got whipped up in the Panini hype machine and my pursuit of pulling an RG3 auto from a box. As you will see, that did not happen. With all that negative energy out, these cards are pretty cool and it’s difficult to have any kind of criticism of the cards themselves. They are quite beautiful and definitely pieces of art…for the cardboard connoisseur.
As you may know, Playoff gives you 4 cards in a box with some autos and some jersey cards. You always see the great 1/1’s on the websites out there, but I never actually pull them myself. I do love the booklet card idea and had hoped to pull any kind of Redskin card… instead i got a freakin’ Cowboy. A very young and talented cowboy no less…but a Dallas Cowboy.
The other booklet card i pulled was a guy that i strongly remember from Hard Knocks that barely made the team and seemed lost quite a bit. Michael Egnew. He played in two games last year and put up some goose eggs. I wonder if he even ran the right routes? It’s kind of crappy that this is the box ‘hit’. A guy that will probably be out of the NFL in a year or two. No disrespect to Mr. Egnew, but Panini should do a better job of making these box hit booklet cards of guys that will have some type of impact in the NFL. I realize they don’t have crystal balls, but if they did, it would be awesome…crystal balls. If i pulled a single card of Egnew, I would have been cool with that, but not the booklet.
The next two autos were of the Bears Rookie Brandon Hardin…
…and Casey Hayward from the Green Bay Packers. Casey had a pretty good rookie season with the Packers, picking of 6 passes. Seems like the kind of guy you want to keep an eye out for in the future…would love to have received a booklet auto of THIS GUY!
After re-reading this post, it sounds really negative an filled with varying levels of disappointment. That’s not totally the case. I knew what i was getting in to. It was a gamble and in all honesty it was a fun gamble that i enjoyed taking part in. I probably won’t buy another box of these in the future, but I really do like the look and feel of them.
So I finished breaking the boxes of Heritage last night while watching ESPN’s 30 for 30 on Jimmy V and the 1983 NC State team. If you haven’t watched it yet, you really should. I’m one of those people that can’t get in to much of what ESPN does and haven’t watched Sportscenter since Olbermann was pushed out. I feel like their programming is only slightly above MTV these days. The guys at Grantland and Bill Simmons have done a phenomenal job on the 30 for 30 series though and i never miss an episode, including the shorts on the Grantland site. Opening packs of cards and watching sports on TV way past your bedtime is a little treat for me these days. Our 6 month old boy is really moving around a lot these days and requires a ton of attention and love during the daytime hours. I have no problem doing, but it’s nice to have a break at night. PLUS i have an amazing wife who gives our son tons of love and unfortunately is tasked with the onerous responsibility of getting him to sleep at night.
As i mentioned in the initial review post of this years Heritage, i am a big fan of this set and love putting it together each year. In the past couple of years, Heritage has fallen out of favor due overproduction and too many SP’s which makes getting the base cards somewhat easy but difficult to complete the whole set. The boxes i opened were pretty nice and i noticed quite a bit of SP’s that i may post in the future, but i wanted to show off the hits that really caught my eye. I’ve heard that Heritage was going to add more autograph hits this year and i was lucky enough to pull 4 in the boxes i had. Not only did i get 4 cards, but i got a good haul of quality players. Nothing jaw dropping, but nice cards no less.
And there they are…
The first one is David Freese, and he looks as if he is about to get his DMV photo taken.
Next, Mr. Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks. When i was looking at graduate schools i was trying to decide between the University of Oregon and Arizona State. This was around the time the D’backs won the World Series and i thought it would be great to live in a major league city, but just couldn’t deal with living in a dessert since i grew up in hot, humid San Antonio for so many years. So i chose Oregon. Had i chosen ASU, i would probably be a D’backs fan and be super excited about this card. But, i am only excited. He is one of the young up and coming stars and could be a big home run guy in the future.
Next was Lance Lynn. My second Cardinal. Honestly, i would have missed this card were it not for the hand numbered 43/64 in the top right. The red ink auto pretty much disappears into his glove and with my color deficiencies, i can barely make out the Topps Certified Autograph Issue on the name stripe at the bottom. This could have been done better Topps.
The last autograph is pretty awesome. Maury Wills. The auto is nice and placed in a great spot on the card. You can tell this was done by a professional, someone who has signed a million autos in his lifetime. This autograph is actually a long time coming for me. I believe in 1989 i went to a show in Austin, TX where he was supposed to be signing autographs for a small fee. This was around the same time when i was doing the through the mail autos and thought it would be great to get a veteran player added to my collection…but he never showed up. I was pretty upset, not Sheldon Cooper vs. Wil Wheaton upset, but upset no less. I had an 8×10 and baseball all ready for him to sign. I never found out why he didn’t show up, but attempted to mail the baseball to him a few months later and never recieved anything. Chalked to experience up as a failure and moved on with my life. Now we have come full circle.
The next few cards are the annual jersey cards from the Clubhouse Collection series. There were significantly less cards that i pulled than in years past. Which i am ok with as these cards seem to be uninspired and a little boring. Here’s hoping Topps does something different with these next year and maybe does larger swatches or better photos? I don’t know, but something different would be great.
It’s been a while since I’ve been to a card show and since my last post, so I will tackle both in one post this evening!
Each month, we have a show at Mall 205 here in the Portland area. Not sure why they do these things in a strip mall, but that’s how they do it up here I guess. Maybe they pick up residual traffic from mall shoppers? I don’t know. It provides a great opportunity for me to get new deodorant at Target, some new kicks at the Famous Footwear (remember that name…) and chase it all down with a slice of pizza from the place no longer called pizza schmizza although it still looks like a pizza schmizza.
As of late, I’ve been on a purging phase and have managed to get rid of a bunch of CD’s at the local Everyday Music and have some cash for the card shows. So, I had a slightly bigger budget than normal for this trip…the excitement builds. In general, I don’t go to these shows with goals or objectives because I tend to look for the same stuff and hit up the same tables. This time though I really wanted to pick up some new Robinson Cano and Rickey Henderson cards along with any shiny new Redskins cards I didn’t already have. I was only successful with the latter goal.
Having gone to these shows for the past couple of years now, I’ve developed a rapport with a few of the guys and gravitate to their tables first. My first stop is always Tom. Somehow he manages to have some new Redskin stuff for me each time at fantastic prices. He’s always personable and friendly as well as having a tremendous amount of great cards. In my visit with him, he pulls out this triple auto card with RGIII on it that I can only manage to drool over. No idea how much it was and really didn’t want to know…it was too much for me, but a beautiful card no less. I walked away with a new orange Kerrigan card and a serial numbered Fred Davis along with a couple other items.
After Tom’s table, I typically just move down the line knowing the other tables I want to visit will have some good stuff for me. I worked down the line and ran into a new guy, Greg who had some nice stuff to offer. He dropped a Kirk Cousins auto Prizm and Alfred Morris in front of me…$10…why, yes, thank you.
The next couple of items I picked up came from a couple of different tables at good prices…can’t go wrong with any RGIII in my mind.
One table I visited was very interesting. The guy was selling DVD’s, comics and had a box of cards with a really nice and shiny Derek Jeter on top…so I stopped to take a peek. His sign said ‘this box $1 each’, but he tells me that if I buy 5 cards or more, I can have them for 50cents each…hmmm. If I buy 4 cards, that will be $4 but if I buy 5…it will set me back $2.50. I used to be really good at math and from what I can recall it was in my best interest to max out my purchase at this guys table. Unfortunately, I only managed to pick up 5 items. 4 Jeters and my only Rickey Henderson of the show.
As I worked my way to one of my new favorite table, for some reason I have never asked for the guys name…but I always spend a good amount of money on his stuff. He always has great stuff and gives you a nice deal…plus he’s really cool. I was sifting through his 50% off box when I heard some loud cursing. I turned to see some kid darting out of the aforementioned Famous Footwear with some new Nike kicks in his hand. The kid was fast, but I can see that corporate check on those sneaks a mile away.
THE KID WAS HELLA FAST!
He was being chased out of the mall by Paul Blart’s slimmer brother, well, slightly slimmer and Segway-less. This mall cop had no chance, but it was a valiant effort. I should have offered him a slice of my Hawaiian pizza, they were on sale that day…daily special.
Anyways, back to marked down cardboard. Homeboy hooked me up with some RGIII goodies along with an Aldrick Robinson auto and a Ryan Torain auto that I’ve passed up many times. At least I can cross it off my imaginary list.
Last stop before my wife kills me for being late. New table, friendly guy and great cards that were marked down to 80% off. 80% off! Why in the hell would I pay retail when I can get great cards for 80% off! The guy had a few boxes of nice serial numbered cards with Clinton Portis and Santana Moss cards that I could use for my PC. Unfortunately most of the cards were in their previous teams kits, but still guys I loved to watch.
All in all, a great show that included great deals, food and a petty crime. Can’t beat that at all. I ended up staying under my budget and walked out a happy guy…plus it was sunny and warm on a March day in Portland, Oregon. Life is good
One last thing, I couldn’t help but notice this sign and think of The Chronicles of Fuji.
The Washington Redskins are NFC East Champions for the first time since 1999. Holy Crap! A team that was all but out of it in early November at 3-6 rallied to win their last 7 and finish 10-6. So proud of my favorite team and excited to make the playoffs…and keep the Cowboys out of the playoffs. This was a great night.
For most of the seasonthe attentionwas focused on RG3 and rightfully so. He is an amazing talent and a once in a generation type player, a true game changer. With all that said, having another rookie behind him taking hand-off after hand-off and racking up over 1600 yards on 300 carries and 13 TD’s, Alfred Morris has been amazing. Morris has lead the rushing attack for the month of December and breaking down the defenseseach week all the while not turning the ball over. Two rookies with very bright futures and two rookies that are extremely humble and gracious in victory. This is by far the most excited i have been to be a Redskin fan in over 20 years. We have a great foundation and future with these two along with the other core guys on the team. Morris is impossible to not love, dude drive a 1991 Mazda 626 to work every day? What NFL player at his level does that? Seriously, a freakin’ Mazda 626! Gotta love him.
Coming out of thedraft he was not a highly sought after player and really an afterthought in the draft. So the card companies have been a little slow with the production of his face on cardboard. This will change soon. I have been lucky enough to pick up a couple of his autographs earlier in the season for under $20 each. Feeling pretty good about those pick ups now. With all of his success in his first season, i imagine the demand on his cards and autographs will only increase. Maybe he can get a new ride in the offseason.
With the Redskins win, that means another season comes to an end for the rival Dallas Cowboys. As a Redskin fan, there is no better way to end the season than to knock out your most hated rival…well, i guess winning the NFC East while doing it is better? Watching the Cowboys suffer is something i thoroughly enjoy. I also love that they keep going to Tony Romo. In all fairness, he is a very talented QB but is simply unable to win big games. Romo is the football equivalent of Alex Rodriguez, big time player in any game but when it’s a big game he disappears. His legacy will based on whether or not he ever gets over the hump and can at the very least GET to a Super Bowl, winning one would solidify his place in Cowboy history…can’t imagine that ever happening though.
This week will be exciting for all Redskin Fans. We get to face the Seattle Seahawks in the playoffs for the 3rd time in 7 years. I have been to the two previous games in Seattle and would love nothing more than to knock them out at Fed Ex next Sunday. They will be a handful though. Great defense, Wilson and Lynch are similar to RG3 and Morris. Should be a great matchup. -HTTR!
