Well…damn…!!??!?!!?

Posted by cardboard hogs on March 20, 2017

We have a champion in the very first ever Cardboard Hogs contest…and it was a non-contested contest. The Winner…wait for it…GAVIN!! from my current hometown of Portland, Oregon and writer/blogger of the very entertaining Baseball Card Breakdown blog. I don’t believe i have your address, so it you wouldn’t mind passing me an email i’ll get something over to you that i hope you enjoy! Not sure i’m going to make it to the show the weekend…

In case you were wondering, here are the results…along with some other stuff.

DOOR #1 – $20

Rypien Monk Mann

Ok, brief story on this lot. This is the old guy, the new…old guy that had the vintage football. Seemed nice, very chatty…but there was something odd about him. He was a little more pushy than the other guys and was really doing a sell job on me. Normally i don’t like that and tend to wander off when i get that kind of vibe. I should have listened to my gut! When i pulled this lot of cards, i handed him the stack and said my usual “what’s my damage…?” his response was “…make me an offer!” I offered $10 thinking that was more than enough. $2 per card. In fact, i thought it was a little too high…Bill probably has all of these cards in his 7 for $5 boxes. Anyways, he LOL’d out loud and said “…the 24K gold card is $20 by itself!”. That’s the Charles Mann card. He could quite possibly be right, but card shows aren’t about getting top dollar for your cards. It’s about selling cards to collectors at negotiable prices that work for both parties. I was taken back by his counter and shockingly stared at the cards for what seemed like 2 minutes before sheepishly taking out a $20 and handing it to him. Retelling this story and reliving the moment, i’m quite upset with myself. I tend to be a fairly generous person and don’t mind getting the lesser end of the deal if i can make someone happy…but this was just a case of me getting taken advantage of…and it pissed me off…i’m still upset that i let myself accept that offer. I should have given him the cards back and walked off. I will certainly skip his table next time…if he’s there again. I can’t imagine he did much business in finding too many suckers last time.

DOOR #2 – $15

This is just some good ole’ Tom hooking me up. His table was my third stop and more than made up for the previous door…Now, Tom has a habit of overpricing his cards and then giving you a great deal on them. I think he does that so he an engage in conversation with the guys at the show. When he handed me that Jamison Crowder card with a $40 sticker, i was like nah SON! But, he smiled and said, “you know i’ll make a good deal for you.”

DOOR #3 – $25

These are a few gems from Kim. All relics or autos, most with serial numbers…and $5 more than door #1. This is why i enjoy hitting up Kim’s table. He has stuff set aside for me and i get great deals on them.

DOOR #4 – $10

Reed Seastrunk Jeffcoat

So, the last door was from the military vet. This is another guy that over prices his cards with the label, but is more than happy to negotiate a deal quickly and easily. He’s the autograph guy that is more interested in moving things than keeping them. I had offered him $15 for the lot and was scrambling around for a $5 to go with my $10 and he said “…$10 is fine…” That’s how you treat a customer at a mall show i say!!

So there you have it kids. Don’t let people take advantage of you and do not hesitate to negotiate…don’t be a sucker like me!

Today is the first day of spring and my mid year birthday…tomorrow is my son’s…kinda cool that we basically share birthdays. So, in honor of none of that…here’s a video from a TEDx conference in Wisconsin by Michael Ford…very cool connection of Hip Hop and Architecture. Check it out.

One of a kind

Posted by cardboard hogs on February 2, 2017

In my endless journey to collect every single unique Redskin card that man, woman and child has ever made, i have to understand my limitations. Whether they are due to fiscal inability or levels of rarity that would make winning the lottery easier, i must pursue, pursue, pursue…or collect, collect, collect! What that means is when i have the chance to pick up a card that is rare…10 copies or less…maybe, actually 5 or less…i gotta do it…assuming I can afford said card. The real issue comes in to play when the old printing plates cross my eyes.

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Printing Plates are annoying. I would venture to say that most of us would wholeheartedly agree to those four words. They are FREAKIN’ ANNOYING!. At first i thought they were a cool little insert in packs and something that was part of the card production process. A truly unique, one of a kind insert. But now, there are multiple printing plates for multiple card sets each year, and as a team collector it makes me feel the need to put them on my checklists…knowing good and damn well that i won’t ever get the majority of them…or possibly any of them. They are One of One after all. Last Saturday though, I had a chance to pick one up from Kim at the show and this was it.

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It’s from the 2013 Panini National Treasures set, card #100 of Robert Griffin III. Now a former Washington Redskin(s). The thing that’s baffling to me and printing plates is their price. This card you see here was marked at $20 and i probably got it for around $10 (bought a bunch of cards so it’s hard to say exactly). Now, i’m no economics expert, but neither is your President of the United States…but i would think that a second year card of an NFL QB that is the only one of its kind in the entire world would fetch upwards of $100. Possibly even more, tens of hundreds maybe, but no, not today, not at this show.

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Now, i get that RGIII isn’t the same RGIII in 2017 as RGIII was in 2012…or 2013 RGIII. But it’s still a 1/1 card! I feel like a fool for complaining about this pick up, but it just seems really odd to me and my marginal understanding of basic economics. Regardless, i now own it and am pretty pleased with the card. it is quite lovely and has a nice weight to it. It’s thicker than most of the other plates that i have, which is great because most of those are dinged or dented or bent(ed). This one just has some printer roller streaking, maybe that’s RGIII fleeting career moving past him quickly and on to the next guy, not quite sure.

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Another thing that i think is a little crazy about these printing plates is that i normally end up with the Black versions, not the Cyan, not the Magenta and definitely not the Yellow. I may have a couple Cyan and Magenta ones…but i don’t believe i have any Yellow plates. Could it be that the Yellow Uno/Uno plates are even more rare? Maybe the rarest of them all?

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Idiotic, i know…there’s one of each of the CMYK printing process plates randomly inserted in your packs, boxes and cases…but it just seems odd to me. Cue Rod Sterling…

…That’s all i got for today

I saw The Founder tonight with Michael Keaton, he wasn’t physically there, he was on the screen, but it would have been pretty cool to see the movie with him. I have a couple questions about Mr. Mom and Gung Ho i’d like him to answer anyways. Getting back on track…It’s the story of Ray Kroc and how he brazenly took the McDonalds model ~~nationwide~~ worldwide and became a billionaire of the seemingly kind McDonald brothers. (Nick Offerman is a man crush of mine.) It was a good movie, not epic, but entertaining. Watch it if you get a chance!

Here’s a one of a kind from Slug and Ant…AKA Atmosphere.

Ballin D’Hall

Posted by cardboard hogs on November 26, 2013

OK. I’m over the debacle from last night and want to focus on some positivity here at Cardboard Hogs. One player that has been having a very solid if not great season is DeAngelo Hall. Hall is one of those guys that Redskin fans love to hate and hate to love. In his short career with the Redskins he has made some terrible bonehead decisions, like picking fights with receivers and getting penalized or bailing on coverage to go for a pick only to get burned when he misses out.

This year though, amidst all the terrible-ness of a 3-8 season, Hall has stepped up in a major way. He’s having the kind of season that would get much more pub is he wasn’t on a terrible team…albeit, the main reason for the bad record is due to the defense (and special teams if you keeping score at home). Hall has managed to slow down if not stop some of the leagues best receivers all year long. From Megatron to Dez and Brandon Marshall, he has slowed them down from their standard levels of production.

I’ve picked up a few nice jersey or swatch cards as i have decided to coin them from my new favorite local card shop, Hoopla Sports. I am loving the customer service at Hoopla and the friendliness of their staff. One reason for switching shops is their online stores with Beckett and ebay. They are constantly updating their store with new items that i can bid on or add to my cart and pick up in store with no shipping charges. Cuts down on my in store time (which isn’t necessarily great) which is great considering my demanding 14 month old baby monster…(I love the kid!)