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.

PS – I’ve updated my 1970’s Redskins checklist…check it out if you think you have something to help me complete my team sets.

Sick Pickups!

Posted by cardboard hogs on December 22, 2013

The title is true, but not in the douchey overused term that is used way too much in this hobby today. My whole family was sick, including me. The wife and baby had the H1N1, aka swine flu and luckily i avoided it. There has been a minor breakout of this strand of flu in Portland and SW Washington…but i somehow missed out, I guess I’m just strong like that!

The sick pickup part comes in to play with an evening visit to Target to get a few physical mending supplies like juices, fruits and drugs. I’ve been avoiding retail packs for a while now because of the unlikeliness of getting anything worthwhile. I ended up buying a few packs just to see what the cards look like, knowing I wouldn’t be happy with any of them. I guess I was delirious and more than happy to fill my slightly sick body with new shiny football cards. Here are some fun scans of what i spent my hard earned loot on.

The first pack was Absolute Football from the fine folks over at Panini. I pulled two QB’s that I have a lot of respect for, even though i can’t stand either of their teams. The Cowboys dislike should be obvious…they are the hated rivals.

The Seahawks one may not be as clear for you. I find their fans to be a little over the top. I’ve been to football games in Dallas, Houston, Seattle, New Orleans and DC. The fans in Seattle are hands down the most belligerent and a little too handsy for my liking. Plus they act as though they’ve won 3 Super Bowls. They haven’t, but the Redskins have. Now, that’s not to take anything away from Wilson. I think he is great. I actually love the kid. He’s modest and works really hard and I believe he is going to become one of the leagues great QB’s. He’s also an underdog which I always love.

I also managed to pull a serial numbered Phillip Thomas card.

Next up is Topps Prime. The base cards of this set are decent. I feel that the photos are way too tight on the players and would love to see a full photo of the athletes…maybe that sounds weird if you read it out loud, but I think you know what i mean. Is it me or is Milliner’s smile a little goofy?

Jordan Reed! I have the hobby version of this card, now the thinner retail version is in my sole possession.

Ok, so this next card really caught me off guard. Is this seriously the best photo Topps could get of Matt Ryan? I have to believe there are at least 15 other photos that could have been used, but they chose this shot. He’s even staring in to the camera while giving his center the business! I’m sure Mrs. Ryan is none too happy about the photo immortalized on card stock…at least it’s not a butt fumble card…Mr. Sanchez…

The final pack was PRIZM. YES! I loved Prizm last year and I think this years cards are equally as nice. Love the quality of the card, the texture and photography of them as well. Target has a small rack pack that came with 3 red parallel cards, and here are two of them. Both are often injured RB’s. These red cards have a nice sparkle to them, almost like a disco ball or some fancy pop star sequence…very shimmery when viewed in person.

Spankee, if you like the Wilson…it’s yours.

Here are two more cards. Michael Vick. He would look good in the Burgundy and Gold next year as a backup to RGIII and could teach him how to survive in the NFL. Maybe teach him how to slide too? Or just run out of bound before being tackled? #justsayin

Kenjon Barner. Showing this one because he’s a Duck and so am I…sort of.

The last two cards came from the Prizm pack. I’m guessing they are not part of any Prizm insert or chase set as they have none of the qualities of Prizm. BUT, they do have a QR code on the back that takes you to an online video. Unfortunately Kenny Stills doesn’t explain his hair in the interview which I think is a huge missed opportunity. Terrance Williams broke my heart this afternoon, but that’s nothing new.

#PaniniPylon Prizm 1/1 – Brian Orakpo

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 30, 2013

I am going to break one of my rules and have multiple posts in one day in order to get a little caught up on the blogging. I’ve been away from home and have had limited access to a computer the past few days as I was helping my move from San Antonio to Portland. We had four full days of driving and managed to escape the flooding in Schertz and Cibolo to arrive safely on Tuesday evening. Needless to say I was completely exhausted last night and the previous three nights…driving 10+ hours a day can do that to you!

The last piece of the of the Panini Pylon Prizm collection is one of my all time favorite Redskins, Brian Orakpo.

‘Rak has been injured the last two seasons and missed all but two games last year with a muscle tear. Here’s hoping this doesn’t become a recurring injury that limits him in the future.

This card went up for auction on the same day the Ryan Kerrigan card went up, so I had to double down and do some quick jumping from screen to screen in order to be the winner! I had seen the upcoming auctions and knew this day was coming so I passed on the Fred Davis and Pierre Garcon cards in order to afford these two defensive linemen. I would love to have gotten in on the Garçon card, but it went significantly higher than I thought it would and I just watched from the sidelines. I also watched from the sidelines on the RG3 card as it went for an astounding $1200! I guess that’s about right for a 1/1 parallel rookie card. Wonder how much it would have gone for if it had an on card autograph penned to it?

Overall, I am really happy with the cards I won and would love to have pulled in the whole Redskin collection…but I am more than excited with what I did win. If Panini does something similar to this again next year, I will no doubt be in line for the bidding.

-HTTR!

#PaniniPylon Prizm 1/1 – Ryan Kerrigan

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 30, 2013

The next card from the Panini Pylon auction is Ryan Kerrigan.

Ryan has been solid in his first two NFL seasons and is starting to build a decent career in DC. Hopefully he can play a full season with a healthy Brian Orakpo opposite him and have a dominating season in 2013. Seeing Orakpo and Kerrigan bookended at the line of scrimmage would surely cause some heartache for the NFC East quarterbacks.

There are no great stories with this card other than I finally learned how to bid properly and not get too excited with online auctions!

#PaniniPylon Prizm 1/1 – Santana Moss

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 27, 2013

My next winning bid for the Prizm Pylon Parallel cards is Tanaman, Santana Moss.

This is probably my favorite of all the Prizm Redskin cards. I absolutely love it when the Redskins rock the Burgundy jerseys over the ‘Gold’ (yellow) pants. Love the color combination and the way it looks on the field and television…really cool. Not to mention this is an action photo of what looks like a big play…I can’t really tell what game this was from, but i am going to assume he took it to the house for 6.

One of the great things about these parallel cards is the rainbow coloring. You can kind of pick it up in the photo here, minus the glare of course. One little piece of nice coincidence on the card is the wavy lines along his left leg. It’s part of the basic card design, but appears to follow the outline of his leg in motion. I don’t know, just thought it was a cool little happenstance detail.

#PaniniPylon Prizm 1/1 – Leonard Hankerson

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 23, 2013

Next up for the 1/1 series is old alligator arms, Leonard Hankerson.

I am still holding out hope that this kid comes through in a major way this season, he seems to have way too much talent to not become a star…but I could just be another Redskins mouth breathing homer. I know he’s capable of making big plays and becoming a number 1 target for Robert Griffin III.

This card was one of those bidding war cards and I may have outbid myself on this one, but i’m expecting it to be well worth it. I can’t wait to see what he does next season in the burgundy and gold.

#PaniniPylon Prizm 1/1 – London Fletcher

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 22, 2013

When Panini announced their auction for the inaugural season of Prizm Football, I was quite interested in what they had to offer. Seeing that the cards were being issued as uncirculated 1/1 parallels. I thought any and all would be way out of my price range or at the very least more than what i would want to pay for in a football card…even though they would be issuing 1/1’s of Washington Redskins. So, in a passive approach I just watched from the sidelines as the Alfred Morris card went for $200+. The thing that i noticed though, was that most of the other cards were going for $20 to $50. Your basic ‘team favorite’ kind of guys. These guys aren’t really superstars but rather guys that you like and that wear your teams jersey on Sundays. This gave me hope that I could win a card or two without going buckwild.

I still need that diaper money son!

With the auctions ending at 10am PT, this created a bit of scheduling conflict for me and work. I typically get to my desk around 7am and the project manager i’m working with rolls in around 7:30am, while the other architect on our team likes to stroll in about 9:30. The straggler likes to get settled in and start asking questions around 9:58…2 minutes before the auctions ended. My solution? Hit the john with a fully charged iphone at 9:57 and bid my ass off! Too much information, i know, but the details are important when telling a story. This technique was crazy successful and turned me in to a winner in life and in parallels…plus i got some ‘me’ time during the hectic workday.

If wildside71 is reading this, i’m sorry you had to hear of my ill techniques this way, but the bidding wars were fun!

Enough with the rambling, here is the first card I won.

London Fletcher

As you can see, these cards come in a standard issues magnetic ultra pro snap lock case with a red Panini sticker covering the magnet. The photo doesn’t do the card justice, but it is infinitely better than the my scan attempt. I think Panini did a great job with this promotion (maybe it’s gimmicky for some?) Being able to bid on a 1/1 rather than hoping to pull one from a box is much better for a team collector like me. I’m able to get exactly the guy I want without screwing around with fruitless packs or boxes. I get my guy each time. PLUS the case these guys came in is pretty cool. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but it seemed to be some type of plastic composite with black felt lining that the card was set in. Great packaging for a one of a kind item. My only critique would be that the box itself had the players name and team on the outside of the box. I’m sure this wasn’t done to cut down on costs, but if you have multiples of these things, there is no telling who is in what box? That’s a very minor issue though and i’m conjuring up ways to get the names on the boxes for proper storage and retrieval in the future.

This post is the first in a series of posts i will do on these cards. I hope you enjoy them, and again, wildside71…no hard feelings.

-HTTR!

#PaniniPylon Prizm 1/1…is happening…

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 21, 2013

This is a teaser of some fun stuff to come…stay tuned!

I am going to be road tripping the next few days and hope to have some quick posts before I check in each night. Lots of fun stuff to show and talk about, hope you enjoy what I show you.

Overpay, Underpay or just walk away?

Posted by cardboard hogs on April 23, 2013

I’ve never been a big fan of the Beckett price guides and think the ‘pricing’ guys have a little part in the destroying of my childhood hobby, but that’s just my opinion…and i have been called an asshole many times over. With both being the case, i never really have an idea how much a card costs or what it’s market value is. I tend to just look at the card and decide if it’s a $5 card or $20 card to me. I believe that the value of a card varies per person and so i don’t put too much weight in the value of cards, but rather what value it has TO ME. Right now, anything with RG3 has a ton of value for these eyes of mine (I’ve used value way too many times in this paragraph)…The last Cedar Hills show i went to, i purchased two RG3 cards from two different tables. Overpaid for one and underpaid for the other. Both guys asked me what i would pay for the card and here is how is went down.

The First Table: I was searching through a box of unorganized football cards from this past season and noticed a Prizm RG3 with a different photo than i had seen before. I put it aside and pulled a few other cards out including Alfred Morris serial number, Kirk Cousins chrome and a bunch of other Redskins you may not care about. I got about 15 cards and laid them out in front of the guy and reviewed them…he took a look at them. As we were reviewing the cards, I had a number in my head. $50. The number in his head was a much better deal for me. $20. I was a little confused and stared at him for way too long for two guys to be staring at each other over football cards. After we both realized how awkward this moment had become, I agreed to pay his price with little to no resistance. As i walked away from his table i felt a little guilt, but rationalized that it was his price and not mine and that i simply got a good deal. I agreed to pay what he was requesting. As I left his table, I did a quick Ebay search and was told by my iphone that this card alone is being sold for $10 to $20, so i felt pretty good about my purchase. Big smiles for me.

The Next table: This guy has been at the past couple of shows and has a bunch of cards laid out on his table in penny sleeves and top loaders as you do when you sale cards. No prices though. This kind of annoys me, because as i have mentioned, i have no idea how much something should cost and i am a sucker for the Burgundy and Gold on cardboard, especially when it’s got Bobby Three Sticks on it. The guy has this Leaf Metal Universe card in a screw down case, he must have felt it screw-worthy…which in turn I thought, i just may need to own this card. Now, I don’t know if it was the all white jersey, or the shiny metallic card or the screw down case that made me think this card was something i had to have or if it is just my addiction to the Redskins. The guy asks me what i think he should sale the card for. Numbers run through my mind like John Nash…60, 20, 50, 35, 40…it took about 5 minutes for me to come up with those 5 numbers until i blurted out TWENTY! The guy smiled and says…’Damn man, you must have been reading my mind! That’s the exact same number i was thinking!’ How convenient, eh? It’s like asking a painter for a quote on your house and you tell him, ‘I think we may have Lead paint’ and sure enough the bid comes back with an estimate for Lead paint without the guy even testing…(that’s a whole ‘mother blog). Back to my point…this was the last card of the show for me as it was my last $20. I leave the mall and get to the car to look up the prices on ebay and they were maxing out at $10 with most of them going for $5. CRAP! I got hustled!. Getting hustled made me a little upset though…completely unfair as I just got a bargain and now i overpaid. Karma works quick in my world.

The lesson here kids is that beckett can only be loved by those that care about the cost or perceived worth of things…just kidding, that’s not the lesson. Just a cheap, unwarranted shot by me. The real point is that you should always do a little research before you purchase anything to find out how much it should cost YOU.

One thing I’ve learned about collecting cards is that this hobby can rob you blind. It’s so easy to see these pieces of cardboard as an investment. But at the end of the day, most of them are simply little pieces of joy that have varying value to each of us. I am a collector, not an investor. I collect because i enjoy the pursuit of the cards, not how much money i can make when i flip the cards for more money…that said, don’t forget to check out my ebay store.

good night to you and yours.