Parallel Paul

Posted by cardboard hogs on February 8, 2021

Yesterday was another Super Bowl that didn’t include my Washington Football Team. At times I feel like it will never happen and I should just give up, but then I think to myself…when it does happen (and it will…at some point…it’s inevitable) it will be the greatest thing ever. That’s assuming they win, of course, and not just make it to the Super Bowl.

I know a lot of people really HATE Tom Brady, and I can generally understand it. I just don’t really get why people hate on greatness so much. The guy has been to 10…TEN…Super Bowls in his 21 year career and won 7…SEVEN of them. Just insane. Hate all you want, but that’s Greatest of All-Time material.

Anyways.

When I rebooted the blog, my goal was to make it something more than a “look what I got today” blog. I wanted to be able to find a twist or some other way to make this medium more entertaining or readable…but alas. Work and life. Life is work these days and will be for the next few weeks. So, I’d like to apologize in advance for the dull posts. But, hey. Dull posts are better than no posts right?

One of my favorite guys at our monthly Portland shows wasn’t at the January show. Normally that’s a sign that the guy had decided to give up the hobby or just fuckin died. Well, neither of those were the case with Paul.

Thankfully.

I like Paul. He’s a fascinating guy. Every time I see him, he’s got some new kind of gadgety thing that you get from some mail order catalog. It’s like an Inspector Gadget of card collection. Lots of times he’s there with his kid who seems to be in on the family business. What Paul deals in isn’t your ordinary kinda cards. He’s a parallel man. You know the kind; variations, colors, dots, lasers, patriotic colors, refractors, glossies, not so glossies and super slick glossies. He’s a veritable one stop shop to get your parallel fix. Parallel Paul.

That day, I was planning to spend cash at three tables. Bill, Terry and Paul. Here’s the Paul portion of the morning.

As I mentioned, Paul goes for the gusto on the parallels and all modern stuff. I like going through his stuff because I can pick up Washington guys on the cheap. The majority of his cards are $1. He’s basically charging you for his cost of retail unless there is something really dynamite about the disco parallel you’re picking up. But he’s got ‘em all. Here’s a nice blend of Randy Moss’ kid, Thaddeus Moss.

Ya’ll remember when we used to make fun of blasters and show of a stack of cards for $20? We’d go “…for the cost of a blaster, I got…” Well this stack of cards (minus the baseball and relics) cost a tick under that price point. The sad truth though, if you can find a blaster in the wild it would cost you $20…but you ain’t finding no blasters in the wild. They’re gonna cost you at least $75 for a box of Prizm.

I’ve watched a lot of folks rip those Prizm boxes and to be honest, if I paid more than $20 for them I’d be really really really upset. The hits are rare and the ones you get aren’t that amazing. I like to stand on the sidelines and wait for disgruntled box break investor flipper guy run through a bunch of Washington guys, toss ‘em to the side so I can grab them for a buck.

Like this group of disco sparkles

Prizm does a nice job of the parallels and including a wide variety of great guys from the past. I was able to pick up the Theismann from Paul today, which i hadn’t added to my collection yet. This one is green…i think…

Also picked up some laser show zippity zappity zoom prizms…stupid dad jokes man…

I was able to chat with Paul a bit. Again, super friendly guy and incredibly helpful. I overheard him saying most of what he rips is retail…or something like that. Maybe there was some percentage I missed in the conversation. The point is, he’s got the small sales from small investments dialed in quite well. I doubt he makes a killing each show, but can imagine he’s doing far better than recouping his table and boxes cost. Nice little income for him.

Along with the parallels paul sells, paul puts pride in presenting player worn garments…i really tried to keep that alliteration going.

There were also a few baseball cards ready to be sorted through. I took a quick pass and found a few gems, these were not included in the “…cost of a blaster…” portion of the story, they were a little more than that, but part of the PC. So, felt compelled to grab them.

Honestly, at this point i’m picking up each and every single Rickey Henderson card I can find these days. I’m never certain if he’s incredibly popular or unpopular, but the cards of his that i don’t already have are hard to find.

As always, thank you for reading and extra special thanks to those that comment to let me know your reading. I really do appreciate it. The last few weeks of work have been rough and i don’t see them getting any easier. I’m very happy that i am fully employed, but sometimes…it’s just more difficult to get motivated to something that doesn’t quite interest you.

Thank you,

Cardboard Hogs

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This video is a few years old, but really cool. Made with 100% Solar Power…take a look.

Mail week roundup and some thoughts…

Posted by cardboard hogs on December 20, 2020

I thought Sunday night would be a great time to do a weekly recap of the cards that came into my house during the week. Mostly they will be eBay pickups. Some will be from my two close-by LCS’s, Hoody’s and The Sports Room and there may even be a Sportlots delivery or COMC soon…oh yeah, possibly some Topps stuff too.

Sunday’s around our house are normally filled with chores. Chores of all kinds.

Laundry

Vacuuming

Bedroom cleaning

Yardwork

Maybe even some Washington Football Team viewing.

Washington Football Team | Sports Teams Wiki | Fandom

That last one is a must. I’m an incredibly loyal fan, ride or die with a team that’s been killing me for nearly 40 years. The good ol’ days are so far gone at this point that I can barely remember them. Good players have come and bad ones too, it’s just the ebb and flow of a team that isn’t too consistent. You get a lot of turnover during the rough years.

Well, I honestly feel like the team is beginning to make a turn for the better. Yeah, they are now 6-8 after losing 15-20 to the Seattle Seahawks this morning…but they are still in FIRST PLACE IN THE NFC EAST!!! Thanks to the Giants losing at home to Cleveland this evening. What a season, eh?

Bright spots abound for my favorite team and they are centered around this young man, at least on Defense. To see his helmet-less face, you feel the desire to card him and make sure he’s supposed to be here…maybe it’s just me being old, but he looks like he’s still in his teens.

A champion!

A leader!

The cornerstone of a defense that is on the verge of something special. Chase Young ya’ll

Being one of the worst teams the past decade plus you get to collect some great players at the top of the draft. Franchise changing players that can catapult you into a different stratosphere of winning and potentially a dynasty. Now, let me pump the brakes here. I don’t foresee this team being the next Patriots…I’m not nuts. But I do see them gaining some traction and having an impact on the league in the next 5-8 years with their young talent. The coaching staff is doing a great job and putting the team first and winning should hopefully come from that.

Along side Chase is a player that was drafted last year. A guy that I loved watching in college and was drafted in the first round of the 2019 draft. Montez Sweat. His rookie year showed lots of flashes of potential, but teaming up with Young this season has had a tremendous impact on his defensive pressure and overall play. Both are going to be so much fun to watch the next few seasons.

Another pickup from the week is a great young RB that i’m just not sure will make it in the NFL…again, i really hope he does whether it’s with Washington or somewhere else. I’d love to see him healthy and starting somewhere…the Football Team sure could have used him this week with Antonio Gibson out again. Really hoping Bryce Love can get to 100% for 2021.

The last guy I wanted to talk about was the starting QB for the game today. Dwayne Haskins Jr. Quarterbacks these days aren’t allowed to develop like they were way back in the 90’s. They are expected to start from day one and have an impact on day one. Fair or not, that’s the way it has become. Haskins is young, he’s athletic, he’s strong…but he’s young. He also was a one year starter for one of the best college teams, Ohio State. Putting up big numbers wasn’t the greatest challenge you could have every Saturday, and he took full advantage of it.

Now, don’t get me wrong here. I love Haskins and want him to be the guy. I think he can achieve an extremely high bar of success in the NFL. I just don’t think he’s there yet and I’m not sure he will get there next season either. If this was the older NFL days, he’d be on the bench for a season or two before he was thrown into the fire…he hasn’t gotten that chance. I hope he does and I hope he remains in Washington to be part of the rebuild. I would love to see Haskins Jr. hoist a Lombardi trophy next to his college teammates Young and McLaurin.

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Thinking of Sweat and Young, I’m reminded of Keith Sweat…when I was young. Man I loved 90’s R&B.

Box Break: 2013 Topps Heritage

Posted by cardboard hogs on March 18, 2013

Have you ever had a hot box, or better yet, been hot boxed. Well, I was hot boxed over the weekend and it was wonderful. I saw blue refractors everywhere while listening to the Stones. There were giant heads and men shooting imaginary arrows after pulling ripe plantains out of their pants. Others were smiling, giggling and simply staring in to space…and I swear I saw a Marlin with photos taken before and after a clean shave. It was all magical, and now the trip is over…the flashback is now Monday night and I have a hangover.

Topps Heritage is a set that I LOVE putting together each year. I know a lot of folks out there are indifferent or hate it, but I really enjoy the set. I love that it’s set at a decent price. I also love that you can complete a base set with minimal headaches while managing to still eat lunch each day. I admit the SP’s and SSP’s are a little bit of a pain, but isn’t that what collectors really want? They can definitely come off as gimmicks, but they also represent the desire to chase and build sets. Part of my enjoyment with collecting cardboard is that I know I can’t have everything I want…even though I really want everything. To me, that is the joy in collecting. The chase. I have binders of the flagship Topps set with all the cards in their proper position. I have binder of Topps Heritage with huge chunks of cardboard missing. It’s infuriating at times but I can’t quit it. It’s like that girl in high school that talked to you enough to be a friend, but you just couldn’t get closer to her…it was the chase. You didn’t hate her for it, you knew deep down that nothing would ever happen, but it never stopped you from trying did it? That’s what I love about Heritage. I will never complete all the Heritage sets I’ve started, but I will try and will buy boxes to open packs to put in sleeves…that’s what I do. That’s why I collect.

To chase the un-obtainable.

Ok, I’ve been rambling a bit here tonight. Each year I buy a few boxes of Heritage throughout the year to build a full set with all the SP’s. This year I ordered my boxes in advance from Dave and Adam’s cardworld and have slowly started to open them. Just out of curiosity, I did something I’m a little embarrassed about. I weighed each box on a small digital scale my wife uses around the kitchen. I found three different sizes of the boxes 1lb 4 3/4oz, 1lb 5oz and 1lb 5 7/8oz. Hmmm. Think I’m going to open the heavy box first. Glad I did as it was what must have been a HOTBOX!

Holy Hot Rocks I’m Hot, so give up the props – just a little something from Redman to lead into the magical Blue Refractor imagery.

$12 TH Jeter Rivera Blue Refractor$

I also managed to pull an awkward looking Adam Jones Clubhouse Collection White Jersey Card.

Here is the archer/plantain man. Just watched him lock it down against the Netherlands. Any fans of the WBC out there? I’ve really been enjoying it this year, plus the Dominican Republic team is stacked like an all star team.

A young stoned Stones. This photo was taken before Keith Richards made his deal with whatever devil that allowed him to live to 150. Maybe he’s a vampire?

Lots of gigantic heads in the ’64 remake here. Wonder if that was the trend in the mid 60’s, to get right up in a man’s face and release the shutter? I’m not up on my camera lens history, but I imagine a lot of fixed lenses back then creating the up close shots. One of the many reasons I like Heritage is their attentiveness to focusing on the mimicked set. My one complaint about it would be the photos though. I think Topps could take easily use the same angles and focal lengths, but get sharper photos rather than attempting to copy the grainy old school photos. I know, I know…that’s the whole point of this set. I just think the technology of today shouldn’t be limited in order to duplicate what couldn’t be done 50 years ago.

I got a Heritage Suite card too, SSSP?

The thing I love about this card is these two guys look like a before and aftershave photo. Maybe Mr. Mattison can find a razor and trim that beast up a bit?

Nothing to hide.

This guy is WAY TOO INTENSE.

Card Design 3.5 of 5

This isn’t one of my favorite designs, it’s a little too simple for my liking. The backs are great and I think Topps has done a great job matching the original design and feel of the cards again.

Photography 3.5 of 5

The photography is what it is. They are matching what was done previously. Just think more can be done, especially with all the technology we have now.

Hits 3.5 of 5

Although this box was pretty dope, I can’t say that Heritage has great hits. They just don’t and that’s what has a lot of folks upset. That’s not my concern though. I like the Clubhouse Collection cards as simple and non-descript as they are, I think they work for this price point and set. The box toppers are only nice if you don’t get a panel. The panels are terrible because you can’t really do anything with them and nobody wants them…at least that I know.

Review

I have a long way to go to completing this set, but I am going to enjoy every minute of it regardless of what people think. I like the simple non glossy cardboard that is Heritage. It reminds me of the cards I collected as a kid, only better stock.