Holy Grail?

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 15, 2015

Well, not quite, but this USFL Gary Clark rookie card (his true RC) has been a card that i’ve always wanted. I realize it’s probably not that difficult to find, but every time i saw the card it was a little too expensive or dinged or a part of set that I didn’t want to buy. Not this one though, it was actually free. Well, free with strings attached. I picked it up at the Mall 205 card show a few weeks ago from my new favorite table, Kim. He always has a ton of Redskins ready for me and i am more than happy to hand over some cash for what he has. I picked up a few gems from him and paid but decided to dig a little more in case i missed something new and exciting when i stumbled across this card.

He just gave it to me. It was only marked at $5 and i would have paid for it regardless, but getting it for free was a much better deal. Nice little addition for the Gary Clark cards.

Crazy Card Show success!

Posted by cardboard hogs on March 9, 2014

This past Saturday, Mall 205 had their monthly show (although there wasn’t one in February). I hadn’t been to a show since the end of last year (although I stopped at the Cedar Hills show for about 20 minutes) and was really excited to see some new product and pick up a few cards for my various personal collections (way too many of those things for me right now). As usual, I stopped by Tom’s table.

Tom is always my first stop. He’s extremely personable, easy to talk to and is more than happy to pull cards for the regulars…like me. He also works at Check Out my Cards (COMC.com for the cool kids)…which is cool…really cool. They seem to be one of the few companies that are working to strengthen the hobby rather than dictate it’s direction. Their new plan for databasing cards seems like a wonderful idea and one that the hobby is in desperate need of. I’m not really sure how the details work for the database creation, but that’s not my job to figure out…only to contribute in some way.

Now that i’ve completely lost track of what I was talking about…I should get back to the card show.

Tom’s table.

So a few weeks ago, I sent Tom a list of cards to fill my Redskins Topps team sets and didn’t think much of it. Apparently Tom took the list very seriously and hit me off with a huge stack of cards from the 70’s and 80’s nearly obliterating my checklist.

Redskins Lot 1

So freakin’ wonderful. Plus! He put them all in penny sleeves and top loaders. Double Plus! He told me he pulled most of them off the COMC.com inventory, which saved me a few dollars in shipping and more than likely a few dollars in the asking price.

Needless to say, I was blown away. The only bad thing was the stack of cards was going to cost me my card show budget for the day. I sifted through what Tom had and saw he had a few other cards I didn’t need. Pulled the ones I wanted and needed and we made a deal that allowed me to troll around the show for a few other bargains. I was more than happy to part with a chunk of my cash for this chunk of cards.

I need to get my checklists updated for the 90’s and 2000’s now. Gotta keep Tom busy, you know. Once again, Tom, if you are reading this…thank you very much. You saved me some money and no telling how much time.

Here is a peek of some of the other Redskins cards I got from Tom. New stuff and some rando’s that will soon be crossed off a list thas has yet to be generated. Yes, those are mini cards, not some weird proportion bending photo.

There were also these kids. Some new rookies, some Cooleys and some 2000’s thingys.

I did pick up a few other Harper’s, Hanley’s and Strasburg’s at the show which I hope to scan and post in the coming days (months depending on the lil boys needs…)

Chromeo Rainbow

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 18, 2014

Here are the last notable scans from last weeks show. These Chrome gems were picked up from my first table stop, Tom. Tom always has some great new Redskin stuff for me…makes my collecting easier plus I can save some time by not sorting through a ton of cards I won’t ever purchase.

Tom has been my mainline for Jawan Jamison short print and serial numbered cards…and he continued with this beauty.

$13 TC Jawan Jamison Refractor Black Border 96:299$

Next up is the start of a beautiful chromey Amerson Rainbow.

Amerson Refractor!

$13 TC David Amerson Refractor$

Amerson X-Fractor!

$13 TC David Amerson Refractor X$

That’s all for now…here is some Chromeo to ride out to…

Strasburg with few words

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 17, 2014

I am way too tired to write about some fancy cool cards that I picked up at a card show last weekend from the dollar bin. So, i am just going to show them to you and like fine art you can interpret them for yourselves. Remember kids, fine art. So lets get some intellectual insight to the gems below.

I like that this one is chrome and shiny. The problem with shiny cards is the fingerprints and other sticky stuff prior to sleeving and top loading them. I get these cards from a guys that’s always at the shows. He comes up from Salem and is a really nice guy, but his cards always seem a little dirty…and sticky…and sometimes…hairy….ehhhhh…

Check out that reconstructed elbow on this one. It would be interesting if any kid that pitched 3+ years of college baseball got the ol’ Tommy John surgery prior to starting their professional career. I wonder how many major league seasons could be saved if this happened? Probably a bad idea…just spitballing.

I really like this mini. Very cool card with Stras looming over Stras. I would be very happy if he did indeed become a Champion Base Ball Pitcher this year when the Nats win the World Series.

Strasburg in Red! Love the old school socks and short knickers for this GQ Mini. Both of these minis were simply dropped in the top loader. Why do people do this? If anything the minis NEED a penny sleeve to keep them from bouncing around.

Look at the Harper kid

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 14, 2014

Here are a couple more pickups from the Mall 205 card show for one of the new kids on my PC block. A few inexpensive Harper cards that set me back a grand total of $2. Can’t beat that for this kids baseball card.

look at the kids well manicured eye brows here. Very precise, just like his nearly flawless swing. Seems to be some very minor controversy about him ‘ballooning’ in weight over the off season as if he’s lost control of everything and just letting himself go…DC media…build you up and knock you down.

look at the clean shaven Harper. There has been some crazy beard action going on in this country and it is very heavy in Portland…i’m putting full blame on the hipsters and all those folksy/campy 12 piece banjo bands that keep popping up on my spottily streams. One thing I will not miss is the beard phase. You know what’s worse? A dude with a full grown beard, a vest and a handlebar mustache. Absolutely no excuse for that, at all!

I will post a couple Strasburg cards I picked up from the dollar bin as well soon! Good night kids.

Reed Book(let)s

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 13, 2014

Here is the next gem of a card to add to my ever growing Jordan Reed collection. This one is a booklet. My first Reed booklet and my 3rd overall (2 Leonard Hankerson’s).

This was a pickup from the Mall 205 card show I attended last Saturday…which was lightly attended. I guess most of the dealers come down from Seattle and wanted to watch the Seahawks put a hurtin’ on the poor Saints…so they decided to stay home rather than make the three hour drive.

I was pulling for the Saints to knock off the heavily favored Seahawks and so was the VERY talented Australian actress Margo Robbie. I have no idea why an Australian lady actress would be a Saints fan, but whatever…

https://twitter.com/MargotRobbie/statuses/422208544872873984

…we were both heartbroken…If you haven’t seen The Wolf of Wall Street and are ok with gratuitous everything and anything, then you should kill 3 hours as soon as they can be killed by you. Beats driving to Seattle (I LOVE Seattle, just not the drive…LOVE IT!!!)

Getting back to the card since this is card blog. The guy that i picked the Reed from had purchased it from e-bay specifically for me. Pretty cool huh? That’s what i love about these shows. You attend them enough and chat up the guys, they will go out of their way to find things for you…and not mark up the price! This is a great example of the hobby and what it can be. Very cool…too bad I can’t remember the kids name!!??!?!!

A Hog Auto, B-Mitch and Lachey!

Posted by cardboard hogs on April 15, 2013

I don’t typically buy non certified autos since you can never really verify them…plus they tend to be sloppy and not something i’ve been excited about in the past. One table at the Mall 205 show last weekend has a few Redskin autos that I turned down last month, but couldn’t resist this time around. The dealer, Greg, had about 20 of these cards and was more than happy to sell all of them to me. I resisted and purchased the three i liked the most.

Jim Lachey wasn’t really part of the Hogs glory days, but could have easily been a part of their dominance. He would have fit in nicely with Jacoby, Butz, May, Bostic and Starke and may have won another Super Bowl or two. Jim was a part of the Super Bowl XXVI winning team.

Russ Grimm took WAAAY TOO LONG to get in to the Hall of Fame. Offensive Linemen really haven’t gotten the respect they deserve historically. A lot of the reason for this is due to the anonymity with which they play and they don’t have ‘stats’. They do all of the grunt work and protecting the QB and RB, but the guys behind them get all the glory. It’s not fair, but neither is life.

Brian Mitchell is a guy that should be in the Hall of Fame. Only one other player in the history of the NFL has more all purpose yards than him, Jerry Rice. Yet, he is nowhere close to getting in. Not sure why his value to the NFL, Redskins and his return dominance is overlooked by so many. I guess Special Teams is also overlooked. Devin Hester and Josh Cribbs are doing everything they can to change that.

These are the first autos for me from these players and i’m pretty happy with the purchase. All three set me back $10, so i can’t really complain…PLUS, they are all on card autos and not the dreaded stickers. Pieces like these are nice to add to my Redskin collection and are just cool little pieces of history for me.

Mall 205 Card Show

Posted by cardboard hogs on March 11, 2013

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.

$11 TC Ryan Kerrigan Orange Refractor$

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.

01 UD Santana Moss Game Gear Jersey510:1000

04 PP Clinton Portis Jersey 39:100

02 TD Santana Moss 139:199

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.

Hogs out!

The boxes of neglect…

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 27, 2013

This new blog was an attempt at therapy for me and a way to connect better with my favorite hobby. Unfortunately, life always seems to get in the way…as it does and doing one post a week has become difficult. This is by no means me waving the surrender flag, but more of an apology to the blog itself for my neglect. With that in mind i am going to attempt to up the ante and do two blog posts a week, one on Wednesday and one on Sunday…we will see how that all works out.

Another task that i have thoroughly neglected with my collection is the purging i promised myself and my wife. I’ve gotten to the point of putting the cards to be sold into a nice empty white box, which is now a grey dusty filled box. The biggest problem is the time involved with this task along as well as the difficulty in dealing with the fine folks on ebay. The scanning and describing and mailing aspect seems insurmountable at times, especially with a 4 month old. A new short term goal is to get a few dozen posts before February…it would be nice to have some loot back in my paypal account as well…to buy more cardboard.

The last item of note to get off my chest is this Washington Redskins shoebox that needs some serious sorting and organizing. I would say that i’ve done a wonderful job at purchasing cards through checkoutmycards.com, the two card shows in town and my favorite local card shop, The Sports Room. But i’ve done a terrible job at organizing them. I know for a FACT that i purchased two Ryan Kerrigan autographs from COMC at about $8 each. Not the worst thing in the world, but that money could have gone to another card i don’t already have. I could also use this time to figure out what RGIII cards I have and which ones i can afford to purchase. So, i’m hoping to get this going on the next few weeknights around the Riddle house here…work be damned!