hey, you got any vintage Redskins cards from the 1950’s you lookin’ to unload? i need some help!
1950’s Washington Redskins checklist
where in the hell have i been? doing this and that, getting organized…that’s where. seriously though, let me know if you have any buried treasures with redskins logos on them…help a brother out.
Ok, here are some of the highlights from packs 3 and 4. Nothing overly exciting or notable so this is mostly a post about what I got rather than “HOLY CRAP!! LOOK AT WHAT I GOT!”
In the previous post I pulled two Jean Segura Inserts and whattayaknow, in the third pack, I pulled another! How many The Future is Now cards does this kid have? Oh yeah, in the fourth pack I got the Future Stars version of Mr. Segura. Here is a side by side comparison of the base bandit with eye black and without eye black. Run Jean Run!
The next couple of pairings come with mixed feelings.
I love Jeet and think this could be the last season we see him in a major league uniform. I guess it’s going to depend on how he can recover and produce in the revamped Yankee lineup. It’s going to be a whole different world without #2 at short…here’s hoping he has a great season and we get to see him pick it for another year or two…or three. It will make his gift baskets so much more valuable, especially his balls that he gives to the ladies. His scan partner is A-Rod. I’m really glad he won’t be on the field this season. I’ve mentioned many times in the past that I can’t stand the kid and hope he never rocks the pinstripes again. Such a self-absorbed, neon orange chump.
These guys are the future for the Yankees rivals. Bogaerts and Machado are going to be great players for so many years…oh…so…many…years. Those Machado ears though. Kinda with Xander was a Yankee…that’s my problem with the Yankees organization, they just don’t ever seem to develop major league talent. They have tons of guys that have the potential, but it never works out for them. Xander picked up some great experience in the World Series last year…good for him…
Up here in Portland as in many other cities throughout our beautiful country. Beards have taken over. Along with beards, you have facial hair of many types, like curly mustaches. I’ve never been a fan of facial hair and do my best to keep my face clear of facial hair other than the times I’m too lazy to shave. One thing I would never do though, is sculpt my facial pubes in the same manner as Mr. New House. It’s just way too much time sculpting and crafting in front of the mirror. We have lots of guys with handlebar staches in this great town I live in and they are the only guys I will order an old fashioned from. They are the ones who know how to make them properly. Not with all that muddled fruit crap. Just whiskey, bitters, sugar cube an orange slice and cherry. Any bartender that muddles the fruit and turns your drink into a pink liquor concoction should not be trusted…and will more than likely not have a handlebar mustache.
Here is the hits part of our program.
First up. Elvis Andrus. A great glove and a mediocre bat. So here is a bat card with a picture of him throwing a ball. Nice photo/object coordination.
Next. Matty Alou. One of the 83 Alou’s (actually, I think it’s just 4) that have played Major League Baseball. It’s a buyback, which means now that it is stamped nobody will buy it back. At least Topps went smaller with their foil stamp logo.
I’ve always been a little slow and therefore have been late to various things in my life. So i’ve developed a mentality of sitting and waiting for other people to do something before I go. It allows me time to think of what I want to do or can provide…since 2014 Topps has been out for a couple of weeks I’m going to show you what I got as well as give you a piece of my mind! 🙂
I know some folks don’t like the Topps flagship or are upset with their exclusive MLB license. You won’t get any of that vibe over here though, I’m all in for the Topps flagship. To the parallels and inserts, I say…”I don’t care” or “I choose to ignore you”. I say that to the cards. Take them out of the center of the packs and put them aside. Sift through the base cards first and them make my way to the “hits” part of the program. You should probably also know that I always eat muffins by starting from the bottom and working my way up. I like to save the best for last. Gives me something to look forward to.
On to the card judgement.
Topps has come back with the white border cards and personally i’d like to see a different color border, or possibly a full bleed. I know this isn’t anything groundbreaking but a little variation would be great for the borders. I’d like to se a card from each year and know that there was more than just a slight variation of the previous years designs…something bigger like the changes in card designs from 85 to 86 to 87. Basically I want a fresh and new design each year. The photos though, those are great. Lots of action photos from what i’ve seen so far and great shots of men leaping in to walls.
One of the things that Topps has done with their photos is select the image that makes you stop…and look…and think…why this photo? The Crisp card has appeared all over the blogosphere and it now appears here. That afro is straight up Oaktown. If rappers had baseball cards, this would be the exact same image that Boots Riley from The Coupe would have. Big Ass Afro and a clean pair of mutten chops piercing out of each cheek, shoulders back doing the Bernie lean.
Besides the cool images, you get the obligatory post game celebration photo. The gatorade bath. Now, this would make a much better football card. In fact, I think Topps should have one football head coach card next year and it should be Pete Carroll getting an orange bath after the Super Bowl and it should be card number 48. That’s a free one for you Topps people, run with it. This Dozier card though…it reeks of gimmick that folks complain about. Dozier…remind me of the Souls of Mischief lyric…’Maintain composure, hit dosia, pick a booga, don’t be shook up, i got the hook up.’
TWO OAKLAND RAP REFERENCES in one blog post!
This kid. Love this kid.
One last base card before i show a couple of the ‘Hits’. The Kendrys Morales card. This card should never have been made unless it was a Mariners team card. In this modern world of high price cameras and digital media at every turn, how can you have a card of a player that only shows his back. AND THE BACK IS OUT OF FOCUS!!! Seriously??!!??! The only guy that’s really in focus is Felix Hernandez. Not Morales! The moral of this card is that team celebrations are good and should only be shared as a team card. Really bad decision on this one.
Mini’s. Die Cuts. I love both and that’s what you get this year! Some 1989 design mini with various border colors that are die cut! Yes please! Sign me up for that. AND I get a Lou Gehrig. Such a lucky boy I am.
This next pair of cards came in my first two packs and I started to think I had a Segura Hot Box. Guess you will have to wait and see…I’m not trying to tease you, I have no idea either as i’ve only opened two packs.
Be on the lookout for the following 8 packs America. I can only hope that I get more blurry cards of guys backs.
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.
Big day for all you Redskins out there. The organization has a new head coach and I am really excited about it…until it bombs and I cycle back through my football depression. I think Jay Gruden will be a lot of fun. He has a pretty good sense of humor and a wonderful accent…sounds just like his brother minus the television schtick. Hail to the Redskins!
Ok, enough about football teams. The real reason I want you to read this blog of mine is to let you kids know, I am putting my sorting and collating skills to work over here at the Hog household. I’ve started work with the Redskins Topps cards of the 1970’s. There are some unbelievably wonderful cards and some very exceptional hair stylings like Mr. Hanburger. This guy.
What about the good ol’ days when the Cowboys and Redskins played in NFC Championship games…and the Redskins won!
If you have some extra cards you are dying to get rid of or care to make a trade, take a look at my checklists for the 1970’s Redskins. I’ve managed to pick up a few little gems like this shiny and bright Sonny card!
I also have some gems like this…
…and this…
But I still have quite a few holes left to fill, so if you can help a brother out. You just let me know and send me an electronic mail my way to see if we can work something out.
no more Mickey Mouse Horseshit football please.
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.
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.
I think the 2013 Redskin rookie class could be a pretty good one. Most of their performances were overshadowed by injuries, lack of playing time or just not being ready for NFL action. One of my favorites and a guy that i’ve been picking up a lot of cards of has been Jordan Reed. One of the knocks on him coming out of Florida was his tendency to suffer injuries, or not being able to play through the injuries. He has been shut down for the remainder of the season due to a concussion. I’m hoping this isn’t a precursor to future issues with him as he’s shown to be a player with a ton of upside.
I have a pink chrome refractor card autographed by Mr. Reed…This is a very masculine card.
…and a nice fancy topps base card auto that is unfortunately a sticker auto.
Another kid that i’ve been really excited to see play has been Jawan Jamison. He’s been on the practice squad for most of the year and made the roster last week, but was inactive for the Falcons game. I’m hoping he can see the field against Dallas this weekend and get some good runs in…all over the field agains the Cowteam.
JJ has an extremely tiny signature, but it’s numbered to 25. This card was picked up at the last card show i went to that Tom had pulled for me. He told me he had a nice short print autograph card for me that i could have for free if i could name the player. I said Alfred Morris, wishful thinking i guess…didn’t get the card for free, but I got my usual great deal from Tom and was very pleased to walk away with this platinum #1 beauty.
It’s a little weird seeing a Redskin wear #47 and it not be Chris Coooooooley!
In my current obsession of collecting plates, not fine china, but Redskin plates. I picked up a 2012 Topps Printing plate of Santana Moss. Funny enough, it is another magenta plate…again, i swear these things are far more frequent than any other color. WHY!!??!!?
Here is the front…
…and here is the back
you gotta love metal cards.
Some of you kids, if not most of you have heard of Collector Revolution. It’s supposed to be a revolution for collector’s in that it’s not ebay…or feebay as some like to call it. For those that don’t know, it’s a place where collector’s can sell their goods to other collectors online. Not a new concept, but a pretty cool place to find some good cards at a good rate from people you can sorta trust. I still prefer COMC as my #1 online shopping for singles, but collectors revolution is something i may be looking into in the coming year.
One thing they have that really intrigued me was their online box breaks. The intriguing part for me was that they are fairly inexpensive for good product…the drawback is that the breaks are all random, at least the ones i’ve seen. If you are into big hits, which i tend to not be, than this is something you may be interested in. For me, I like a little more focused collection process. I don’t have a ton of money to spend on the hobby so any dollar I have to spend on product is stuff for completing sets or chasing players i like from teams i like. That said, i wanted to give the breaks a few chances.
I was a little weary about the breaks at first, so went with a lower end football break of 2013 Leaf Certified and Platinum Football as well as a break of 2013 Topps Triple Threads. I picked up two spots on the football break and one for the baseball break for a total of $30. As i expected, I got teams I wasn’t excited about – San Diego Chargers and Indianapolis Colts. I was hoping for a Luck auto…but the best card i received was this Dan Fouts serial numbered card.
The baseball break was a little better. I got the Tigers and received these two very nice cards. An Al Kaline serial numbered card…
…and a Prince Fielder Largest Card memorabilia card. Nothing too exciting, but nice cards no less.
Me being a glutton for punishment, i went in on a 4-box break for 2013 Topps Chrome…and pulled the Jacksonville Jaguars…i know…
Not wanting to go out on a bad note, i thought i would buy a spot for the Topps Five Star for $14.50. I figured, i would never buy this product ever and may end up getting lucky. I was essentially buying 7 mega millions lottery tickets…and I lost. I pulled the Astros and ended up not getting anything in the box. When you go hitless in the box break, you name is added to a special bonus box break…which has yet to happen…i’m hoping it happens soon though!
All in all, I like the idea of the box and case breaks but not the random teams. I’d rather pay a little premium to get the Redskins or Yankees or Nationals. I guess at the end of the day it’s no different than buying a pack or box of cards in that you have no idea what you will get. You could end up with a short print auto relic or you could end up with a 7th round offensive linemen…it’s always a gamble. One that I will probably avoid in the future as it doesn’t fit my collecting tendencies.
PS – If you are interested in any of the cards above, let me know as they are up for trade!
PPS – as a side note and something completely unrelated…my favorite album of the year Run the Jewels from El-P and Killer Mike was noted as Okayplayer.com top album of 2013. There are a few other albums on their I need to dig deeper into before I can agree with the ranking (Earl, Tyler and Chip).