Rebuilding for the future.

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 18, 2017

I’ve been avoiding just about anything and everything Redskins on this blog since my team lost to the Giants a few weeks ago. It was a tough loss to a division rival, a game that would have propelled the Redskins in to the 2016 playoffs. Not to mention to a team that had a topless boating trip planned for South Beach the following day…no respect. After seeing how some of the teams that made the playoffs and ended up losing, i can’t help but imagine what could have happened. You know, the Washington Redskins were the last team to beat the Green Bay Packers. It’s true! In hindsight, that game was most likely the penultimate moment for the Redskins season as they put up 42 points on a Sunday night game. A game under the lights which they have been miserable with the past forever seasons…Clearly, though, it was one of the lowest points for the Green Bay Packers…they were crushed by the Titans a week before…so you could go with either game i guess, but the Pack haven’t lost since and i would be quite happy for them to win two more games.

The off season for the Redskins has begun early as it does most seasons. But instead of everyone cracking jokes about the Redskins winning the offseason, the talk is how everything is falling apart. They lost a brilliant young mind in Sean McVay. He was the OC for an explosive offense at times and is now the head coach for the Rams of Los Angeles…taking Joe Barry along with him to be an assistant defensive coach. Honestly, i don’t think any Redskins fan is upset about the Barry loss…but McVay is a tough one. Happy he was able to get a HC job, the youngest ever, but he has a huge task ahead of him. Luckily he has Bum Phillips son to help coach the defense…a defense that will see this guy next year.

The other big news for the offseason is whether or not the Redskins will/want to sign Kirk Cousins to a long term deal. Personally, i really hope they do. It’s been 20 years since the franchise has had a QB that has put up the numbers KC has in consecutive seasons. Granted, he’s not perfect, but he is a top QB and i would argue a franchise QB that you build around.

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That said, if what i’m reading…and it’s all speculation at this point…but if they give him the franchise tag and attempt to trade him, they could get a really nice haul of picks in return. Not to mention the nearly $30million of cap space they have going in to next year. They could be well placed to rebuild quickly with young talented players. Maybe a certain receiver could maybe get healthy and maybe make an impact in his second season…maybe.

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Really hope this kid pans out…i’m getting a ton of his cards and the price is falling on them. That could be due to his lack of playing though. Buy low kids!

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It would be seen as a season of rebuilding, but could possibly turn out to be the starting point of something really great. The defense needs a significant amount of help and could use a great defensive coordinator, whomever that turns out to be…so many names, some good some bad. Plus, if you are able to move Cousins, you would end up saving a $20+ Million investment in one player. Who knows, maybe you already have your future QB on the roster anyways…

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This card is really beautiful in person by the way…the scan does not do it justice…but neither does that signature!

if i have to live through years of rebuilding again, i’m gonna need to get my pacemaker hooked up to a clapper…clap on. Love El-P

A sweet tight end, a good Reed and Rhythm Roulette

Posted by cardboard hogs on December 5, 2016

I’m obsessed with tight ends that have great hands.

Amazing ball skills.

Guys that aren’t afraid to go up the middle and take a pounding.

…what the f*%k…?

That is no way to attract the kinda readers i’m looking for with this blog. What i’m really trying to say is that Jordan Reed is quickly becoming one of my all time favorite Redskins. He’s an incredible talent that is quite possibly the best receiving tight end in the NFL…if you ask me and many other Redskin fans, they would tell you he’s the best…and we never lie. Don’t get me wrong, Gronk is great…all-time great really, not to mention an extremely wild and crazy guy, but I love my teams TE, Jordan Reed. Born in July of 1990…damn…

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His career started out a little patchy with several small nagging injuries and unfortunately concussions…lots of them. He’s had one or two this season and i believe 6 during his NFL career. You have to wonder about the length of his career and more importantly his long term health after the game. Concussions as we are all sadly just now understanding have horrific long term impacts on these guys careers. That’s one of the reasons why i’m never upset about most of these guys getting the money they can while they can. Often playing through short careers with a short window of earning opportunity, they are often faced with long term health impacts not to mention addictions associated with those injury treatments…one of the reasons why i tell my son “football is for watching, baseball is for playing” i’m such a downer right now.

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Reed is amazing. I’ve been building quite a nice stack of his cards for my Redskins collection over the past couple of years. These nice little additions were from my latest stop at the Sports Room.

Side note, i’v updated my 1960’s Baseball checklist needs…so if you are interested in making a trade or two take a peek at the link above the banner and see if you can help a brother out! I’m sure i can arrange for a sweet card package in return.

Also, i’ve been posting a few items on eBay in hopes of reloading my PayPal account for future card “investments”. Most of whats posted on the bay is football cards…hoping to sell off my non Redskins, but if you see something you like, again let me know and i’d be happy to pull the cards and send them your way for a trade.

Thanks again for reading…hoping to get some older stuff scanned soon and get them posted here soon.

Keep reading if you’d like to see how hiphop producers put together music! Well, sort of. I’m a huge fan of the Mass Appeal’s YouTube series of Rhythm Roulette. Basically, what they do is take a producer to a record shop, blindfold him and have them pick out three random selection of vinyl. Then, the producers take the records back to the “lab” as the cool kids call it and put together various loops along with drum beats…now, some of you may be thinking this is shit…it’s not even music! I can kinda understand where that’s coming from, but what these guys can do with a tiny snippet of a shitty record is quite amazing to me. If you have some time, check out the series. Here is one of my favorites from one of my all time favorite emcee’s/producter…El-P!!!

Sundays with J-Dox

Posted by cardboard hogs on December 4, 2016

Sundays around here can be a little chaotic. Lots of chores to be done before the day is done, spending quality time with the family, and getting ready for the upcoming work/school week. Not to mention finding a way to watch every second of every Redskins game. The swings of my emotions would often swing directly with the results of the game and how each play played itself out. I’ve grown up a little bit though. I’ve been able to manage my expectations a little better and control my emotions and temperment…being a fan of a team that hasn’t been to the Super Bowl since 1991 will do that do you i guess.

The 23-31 loss to the Arizona Cardinals today though was quite frustrating. Arizona has a solid defense and a few fantastic players on both sides of the ball…but i think the Redskins had many chances to win the game today…the defense just didn’t get the job done today. Here’s hoping they can regroup for the Philadelphia Eagles next week in Philly and that DeSean Jackson has a big game.

Speaking of D-Jax, there seems to be a lot of build up about him returning to the Eagles next season. Although i wouldn’t be overly happy about that, i don’t think i would lose much sleep over it either. One of the reasons is this guy…Josh Doctson.

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Josh is a completely different type of receiver than Jackson.

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He’s also a very different kind of receiver than the Redskins have had in a long time. Tall, fast guy that can make some plays on the edges and in the middle of the field…i just hope he can get healthy. He’s been dealing with some odd achilles/foot injury all year and hasn’t been on the field too much this season…two games i believe.

Here are a few of the nicer cards i picked up from Brian the other day. Brian is an Eagles fan.

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I’m always a sucker for jumbo patch cards like this…but i’m always a little curious about the crop of the player on these cards. Jumbo patch or player photo…i’ll take the jumbo patch, especially with the burgundy and gold stitched together.

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The tri-colored patch is pretty cool, but the autograph is just aiight.

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So whether or not D-Jax leaves and Josh Doctson can fulfill his large shoes…or not is to be seen. If J-Dox turns out to be a gem, i’ve got a nice start to his rookie card collection.

Thanks for reading…on to the Eagles! HTTR!!

…the card life…

Posted by cardboard hogs on December 3, 2016

Life moves really fast at times, sometimes a little slow…but mostly fast.

Things that you love and wish you had time for get pushed to the side…like blogging.

I miss writing about the cards i collect and telling stories about the players or how i acquired the cards, a back story always adds a little extra dynamic to the whole collecting process. I’ve been buying cards, going to shows and even actually updating my checklists. I just haven’t been writing about that entire process and i’ve come to realize that this is a major piece of my collecting life that i really need to “make time” for…it’s a bit of a release for me after a busy day at work, or a long night attempting to get our 4 year old boy to eat his dinner or go to sleep at night. Life…you know…

Speaking of work, i’ve changed jobs. This is my first new job in nearly 10 years. Pretty exciting stuff. Still doing architecture but instead of public education work, it’s more of multi-family housing infill projects…but with a greater level of attention paid to design. My previous place of employment was great, loved it and loved the people there…kinda just needed a change of scenery and pace. So, i’m at a new place and for the past two months, i love it! I realize i’m still in the honeymoon phase, but it’s been awesome. The people are great, a lot younger which makes me feel younger as well, plus they are incredibly talented. There are lots of the so-called “millennials”, but these aren’t those whiny, lazy millennials that the media tells stories about. They are people that work hard, do great work and play incredibly harder than my last office. We just had our holiday office party Thursday night…Friday was an incredible struggle for me. Free whiskey and coke all night will rack a 41 year olds brain to pieces. In my never ending attempt to be likable, i did my best to keep up with a couple 28 year olds…they won…but i was one of the last men standing, for better or worse…

This blog isn’t about drinking with people born in the 80’s though. It’s about collecting cards of people that were born in the 80’s, or 90’s…jesus! Professional athletes doing amazing things were born in the 90’s. Life moves really fast…

Cutting work short this past Friday, i stopped by the LCS in Beaverton on my way home to visit with Brian at the Sports Room. He’s a great guy that is super easy to talk to and he knows me as a regular so he’s been pulling some great Redskin cards for me. Love being a “regular” at a card shop, much better than at a bar i guess…

Here are a couple of gems that he pulled aside for me.

Now, coming in to the season, Matt Jones was supposed to be the big guy in the Redskins backfield this year. I had my doubts and suspicions…and to this point, i’ve been proven somewhat correct. Jones seems to have the skills to be a top notch back in the NFL…but he just doesn’t have the Fire…maybe? Hate to say that about a guy, but he just doesn’t seem to run with the intensity that other backs his size do. Especially since he was compared to Marshawn Lynch when drafted before last season. Talented and fiery or not, this card is gorgeous. I cannot get enough booklet cards like this for Redskin cards…although, i haven’t been able to find a portrait booklet card holder…let me know if you come across them…or i could just check out the next card show. Absolutely love the colors of the patches and the layers of materials on this one. Matt Jones is one of those sloppy autograph guys, but the overall composition of the cards is quite fantastic. Here’s the back of the card with the numbering of 06/25.

Another Matt Jones card that i picked up from Brian is an autographed eye black card. I honestly don’t think Jones wears eye black, but maybe that would help with some intensity…works for Bryce Harper.

I truly hope that Jones can come back fierce…not Tyra Banks or Beyonce fierce, but legitimately fierce.

Well, that’s what i’ve got for today. I hope to write soon…gotta lotta cool stuff to share and some stories to tell i think.

A Panini Redemption, and it’s a Bear!

Posted by cardboard hogs on February 6, 2014

One more Panini redemption down and one more to go. Come on Panini America, you can do it! Get it done! Get those busy athletes that don’t care about sports cards to sign their autographs on a sheet filled with little 1 3/4″ x 5/8″ stickers. They love it. Tuned in to the latest Rick Ross song bumping through their beats by Dre headphones. C’MON PANINI!

Initially when i pulled this redemption of Jeffery, I wasn’t too excited. He a Gamecock and I’ve always been partial to the Clemson Tigers. I was born in South Carolina and all of my family is from there, so I picked the Tigers at a young age and never looked back. Now that Spurrier is coaching the cocks, i have even more dislike for them…Spurrier…yuck…Clowney is pretty awesome though. And so was Jeffery this past season.

In hindsight, this is actually a pretty decent hit. Unfortunately though, there isn’t a serial number on the card. It’s just a regular ol’ autograph on a nice card. Seeing the high quality of Jeffery’s auto, i can’t imagine it took him too long to get his pen on the sticker.

Quick stats. This card was redeemed on February 23, 2013 and it was pulled from my mailbox on February 5, 2014. Nearly a year, but not quite…348 days to be exact. Way to go Panini, keep those customers happy. Just for the record, i haven’t picked up any packs or boxes from Panini since last summer and I haven’t really missed it.

I apologize for sounding too negative, but the redemption thing in this hobby really needs to end. Of all the frustration this hobby brings on its collectors with parallels, topps control of the mlb contract and high price ‘hits’, the redemption is the most annoying. Waiting nearly a year to get one of your guaranteed hits from a box is simply ridiculous.

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…

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…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!!??!?!!

Shiny Baseball Cards

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 6, 2014

My football card blog is lagging in baseball card posts…not really, I just have a few Harpers and a Hanley I wanted to show you kids.

These bad boys have been sitting in my man cave aka, my closet! Just sitting there, precariously perched on a box of top loaders stacked on a box of books, next to a pair of jeans that no longer fits my ever growing winter ass.

Bryce Harper everyone!

I managed to pick up 3 Harper cards that do not have him with a Curly W Nats hat.

This one is very patriotic and shiny and Prizm-y.

Here is the Hanley Ramirez card I noted in the very first sentence of this post. I love Hanley and hope that he can stay healthy next year.

I have paid more attention to the Dodgers in the 1 1/2 years since they picked him up…this also gave me a great opportunity to listen to Vin Scully. Man, I miss baseball already…

Panini Prizm Redemption, I.Pead

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 4, 2014

WOW! Two redemptions in less than a month and it’s a decent auto of a decent player. Isaiah Pead, I.Pead. With a name like that he’s lucky that he’s fast and incredibly athletic. I can only imagine how difficult elementary school could have been.

This card, as you can tell was from last years Prizm set. I picked up a box of this from Dave and Adam’s and really loved the design and layout of the cards…plus they have a great feel to them. This completes the hits from that box that I opened up 315 days ago. Better late than never, I guess.

I have two more redemptions that are in the hands of Panini. I’m going to give it another week or so and give them a call to see if I can get a Redskin replacement for the two outstanding redemptions. I will keep you kids posted. Until then, good luck to you and enjoy collecting!

Black Friday Reeds

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 2, 2014

Going back to Black Friday. As I mentioned earlier, I jumped all over the COMC.com Black Friday sale and picked up some very nice Jordan Reed cards. These are the kind of cards that you want to put in nice card holders and present on some prominent shelf in your sports card room. I don’t have a sports card room, so they will be shown here on the blog.

Here are the player worn patch/player worn relic/player worn memorabilia cards in landscape format. The first one is from Topps Inception. I love these cards with the very cool over processed images and intense photography. Plus it’s number 1 of 93. What’s up with the random number 93?

Next up is Bowman Sterling with Mr. Reed staring very intensely into the cameraman’s lens.

And here is a quad patch numbered to 75.

Here is the autograph portion of the post. The Bowman card along with the three above are super thick cards that barely fit into a penny sleeve. It’s kind of a shame that a card this thick and nice is a sticker auto.

The next card is from this years Prizm set. I love Prizm.

For the last two cards, you will notice they are crazy die cut cards with reflective shiny-ness all over them. I love the die cut cards, but they can be a pain to put back in the penny sleeves.

This one was more difficult to put back in the sleeves. Not putting the toothpaste back in the tube difficult, but difficult no less. I happened to scan these along with the thicker cards, so pardon the shadows…although they create a nice depth to the card and the angles. So nice!

If you are in your late 30’s like me and love some good ole Hip Hop, then you should listen to this as I am doing right now. This takes me back…life moves way too quick.