eFavre

I was going to post these over at my Packers blog Long Way from Lambeau, but since I mentioned I was getting a big eTopps haul I might as well just lay them all out here.  Out of the over 200 eTopps cards I had shipped there were maybe only 20 to 30 I actually plan on keeping for my collections.  The rest will be up for trade or go up on ebay to help support my habit.  These are all keepers.

I present to you my eFavre collection

2004 eTopps limited to 900 not individually numbered but does have a unique hologram sticker number.

2004 Packers Team card limited to 2500 copies.  I do believe these were issued for all the teams that made the playoffs that year.

2005 eTopps Favre card. It doesn't say it anywhere on the card but this card was limited to 1200.  This was also the worst Packer season while Favre was quarterback.

2006 eTopps.  I really like this years design and on top of that they started serial numbering the cards.  This issue was just to 749!

I didn't snag a 2007 Favre card and at only 499 produced it's one of his pricier cards.  But I did snag this team card number to 999.  NFC North Champions baby!

Even though he left Green Bay and what a soap opera that was, I still love the guy and collect all this later cards too.  Here is his 2008 eTopps card numbered to 799 and yikes in a Jets uni!

Woe is me.  Not the great Favre in Viks jersey!! Yep, a nice looking set, I also got the Aaron Rodgers from this year.  I do believe statistically that this year was Favre's best and he was one interception away from taking the Vikings to the Super Bowl.  Doh! You've been Favred.

The Vikings team card featuring Favre and Purple Jesus among others. 

Of course Favre's best season was followed by one of his worst. He didn't have a regular issue eTopps card that year but did have one of these 1956 Tribute cards issued for him numbered to just 799.  My only complaint is that Topps could have easily put him in a Packers uni seeing as this was a Tribute product, but what ever.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #13 and Contest reminder

 Just a reminder I posted my World Series contest announcement late last night.  Go here to enter. 

I'm a Brett Favre fan. Wiener, stint with the Vikings, cry baby and all.  I have a nice player collection of the future HOFer and I'm not afraid to admit it. 

Yes I wish he'd have retired a Packer, but I won't throw a man who took my team to back to back Super Bowls and renewed the greatness of my team out to the curb.  No sir.  But I digress.

I pulled this beauty out of a pack way back in 2002.  I mean if I had to pull any card out of 2002 Donruss Football this would have been the one. 

#13 on the Top 100

2002 Donruss Football Brett Favre Leather Kings LK-4 Football Relic numbered 139/250.

Remember the contest!

Your not going to read this Trade post.

Wow I've really not had much to blog about.  I'm not planning on buying much Gypsy Queen.  Maybe a few packs, but seeing as I'm in A Cardboard Problems group break so hopefully I'll get some goodies outta that.  No boxes for me, especially at over a hundred bucks a pop.  I'm saving up for Series 2 and maybe some A&G.

But before my vacation I posted my box break of my one box of Heritage and I stated I had no intent on putting this set together and Jeremy over at No One's Going to Read This Blog asked if he could have the Mets and Team cards I had pulled.  After a few emails back and forth after I got back from my trip we worked out a deal.  I sent him all the Heritage he wanted and went through his needs lists and filled a good amount.  Well yesterday I got home and had a nice little package waiting for me.

Jeremy sent me a few cards from my needs list.  A few 2010 Heritage, 2009 T206, 2010 Topps inserts, and some random and very nice Brewers and Packers cards which don't need to be shown here but were very much appreciated.  He also sent me these goodies for my PC's and team collections.

First we have a few minis. Have I mentioned I love mini's?  You know what else I like shiny!!  Hey Topps how about some shiny minis???!!! Na probably not a good idea they would probably curly up like a piece of bacon.

Speaking of shiny.

Topps Chrome Johnny McNally card.

A Favre Flight to 420 chrome card.

2011 Heritage Refractor of Rickie Weeks.

This card didn't scan shiny, but it is.


Jeremy also sent along some nice parallel cards for me.

A couple 2009 Topps Gold and..

a Ryan Braun 2010 Topps Opening Day Blue Parallel.  If you haven't noticed I officially have added Ryan to my list of Player Collections.  I did a big write up about it over at my Brewers blog Miles from Miller. Now that Mr. Braun will be a Brewer until at least 2020.  This means I will actively try to acquire and will trade for relics, autos, ect outside of just collecting him for team sets.  I already had a nice collection of Braun cards in my Brewers collection and have been picking up cheap cards of his here and there, I also got a nice lot from Brian at 30 year old Cardboard a while back.

Jeremy also sent this bad boy along.  Nothing like a new Big Hurt card to add to the collection.  Frank and Bo are two very passive player collections.  They are two players I loved watching growing up.  I'm not really a White Sox or Royals fan, although I'm not a hater either, but the first real Major League game I ever went to was a New Comisky Park after my dad retired from the military.  Long story, but I got to see Frank play and watched as the Sox came back down from 7 runs to actually win the game!  I do believe that was back in 1992! Man the years fly by.

I think the best card that Jeremy sent along and was a total surprise was this bad boy.

If your wondering what the hell is that a custom of I'll tell ya.  I've been drawing comics since high school and was fairly seriously thinking of heading that direction in life when a guidance councilor told me not to make something I love to do something I had to do.  So instead of getting an art degree I went and got a Biology degree.  I still like to draw and have books and books of doodles.  A lot of my comics come from doodles that eventually get fleshed out and worked on.  One of those ideas came from a group of doodles of superhero objects.  I was reading Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins at the time and if you haven't read it some of the main characters are inanimate objects, which kinda put this thought in my head.

You can read the comic that I came up with here at the 13 Tenets.

While your there you can explore a lot of my other comic strips.  In the Legion of Extraordinary Objects there's a little guy named Samurai Mushroom.  I actually had a friend commission a strip of the Samurai Mushroom on his own and that snowballed into a series, which of course I never published until I started posting it at the 13 Tenets. 

Whew.  Anywho, thanks Jeremy what a great trade!!!

Man it's getting boring going to go to the card shop and some Trade night pick ups.

Well I went to Don's Sportscard Trade night the other night.  Both card shops in town do this.  Bosco's on the first Wednesday and Don's usually a Wednesday in the middle of the month.  Both nights I walked out barely buying anything.  At Bosco's I literally left with out purchasing a single trading card but I did pick up a few comics.  There just hasn't been anything I want to buy and with Heritage prices going threw the roof again this year and Tribute topping 70 bucks a pack, no thank you, there's not really much to buy for a baseball/football collector.  Sorry UD Football with pros in college uni's doesn't count, at least not in my book.  So there I was looking through Don's dropboard seeing if there was anything that peaked my interest and looking through his 1972 Topps Baseball for some Brewers to help me finish my set.   I did manage to find a few things to take home with me.  This is exactly what happened last year and why I ended up spending so much money on Heritage.  Boredom with the hobby.  Topps exclusive severely limits what I can buy which is too bad.  Yes there is new Basketball and Hockey, but those are both sports I really don't collect. Enough with the soap box here's what I picked up.

First I found a nice 1971 Topps Football game Bradshaw for about 2 bucks.  I really like these cards and the only other one I have is the Bart Starr.  I really want to get my hands on a Willie Wood as well.

Got me a Favre for  the old Favre collection.  Even if it is in those awful colors.  Another buck off the dropboard.

A Prince Fielder/Pablo Sandoval 2010 Bowman Sterling Dual Relic unnumbered.  For 3 bucks I couldn't pass it up.

I also grabbed three MSA blank back discs of Johnny Bench, Mike Schmidt and Tony Perez, each a buck.

I also grabbed 4 1972 Brewers cards for my team set and I decided to splurge on a pack of UFC Knockout.
I have to say if I followed UFC more, I have friends who are nuts for it, I would definitely go after these cards and the other UFC sets.  I pulled 2 numbered cards, one of Dan Hardy, who I actually know who he is, and this guy.

I ain't complaining, but for 25 bucks a pack I won't be going after this set.  Maybe I'll see if I can pick one up on ebay for cheap.

cb out.

State of the Collection 2011

2010 in review and an outlook to 2011

Well it's been an interesting year.  I've gotten a new job, moved, proposed to my fiance, bought a house, slayed a dragon, popped my trading cherry, officially started a new player collection (the Big Hurt), added to my current PC's, bought way too many cards, and participated in my first group box break.

So it's time to reflect on my collection and my collecting goals for the new year. Sorry for the lack of pictures.

The teams. 

After the big move which is still only a few weeks old.  I've come across things and cards I hadn't seen for months and sometimes years.  Always fun to find that stuff.  That being said I came across a large collection of Brewer and Packer Team sets, some I didn't even know I had.  One of the goals I had set for myself mid-year and one that will hopefully dominate is my Brewers super set.  I'm inspired by some of the great super setters around the Blogoteria, I decided to start putting together as many Brewers and Packers Team sets as possible.  The first step is to complete all Topps base team sets from the flagship.  This is fairly attainable since  Brewers cards have only been around since 1971 and the most expensive cards from the 1975 set, (Yount Rookie and Hank Aaron) and 1978 (Molitor Rookie), I already own making this fairly cheap.  Of course I'm going to be posting a complete  need list eventually and trust me I have tons to trade. 

The Player Collections.

As you can see I'm a big Robin Yount and Rollie Fingers fan.  I wouldn't have taken the time to make there own blog space if I wasn't.  This year was a slow year for Yount.  Mainly because there just wasn't that much out there and the stuff that was was fairly pricey.  Near the end of the year I finally decided to pick up some of the higher priced cards I needed before they disappeared totally.

Mainly his Topps Update bat barrels, Triple Thread Logoman, and Series 1 and 2 Hat Patch Cards.

He also had a card in the National Chicle which I picked up 3 of the backs, just missing the numbered Topps Umbella back.  I also have his Turkey Red from Update and the 1975 Yo momma cards, original back and regular, still need to find the 1985 cards without breaking the bank.  I also picked up his base #d to 250 Sterling card, a couple Tribute relic cards and his Series 2 variation.  Actually not a bad haul this year after all for a retired guy. 

That being said I have amassed  a lot of Yount cards over the years I'm still working on a finally count of unique cards but it's over 700 for sure.  That being said cards I need or want for the collection are slowing and that allowed me to focus my attention and collection dollars on my other player collections.  I have added a lot of sweet cards to the Fingers collection.  It's amazing how cheap I've gotten some of these great relic and auto cards for.  Some of the highlights this year was my completion of the 2009 Topps Tribute Rainbow for Rollie.  Snagging the Red 1/1 was a highlight, as well as, 2 printing plates.  I also finally added a Goodwin Champions Magician back mini #d to 8 to the collection.

My Reggie Jackson collection is coming along nicely.  While I'm pretty fanatical about the Yount and Fingers collections, going after cards sometimes with careless abandon, I'm much more opportunistic when it comes to Reggie and the rest of my PC's.  The one major goal I'm setting for myself this year is to acquire a 1969 rookie card for Reggie in excellent or better.  I have lots of base and oddballs from the 70's but have not gotten around to picking up his rookie.  I also haven't tried very hard.  I could always break down and buy the one at Don's Sportscards but I do love the chase and possible bargain of buying online.  I do however have his  Milton Bradley rookie card so that eases the pain somewhat.

Switching gears a minute to football.  My Brett Favre collection has slowed down.  I've still been adding new stuff regardless of uniform over the last few years but mainly just from packs I've busted.  I have a feeling after he retires prices will plummet until he's elected to the HOF and this will be a great time to pick up new stuff.  One of my continuing goals for this collection is to complete his Flight to 420 set from Topps.  Probably just the base set not the Chrome but maybe I might get crazy who knows.

I'm going to lump Bo Jackson and Frank Thomas together.  Both of which are fairly passive PC's, meaning mostly pack pulls and the like and I've been collecting their cards since their rookie years both I'm hoping to add a few more cards to over the next year but like Reggie it'll probably very opportunistic in nature and possibly through trades.

The Sets.

Since I started collecting card in 1987 I've tried to put a Topps Baseball set together from packs.  There are a few years missing in that timeline but I've done pretty well and am on the way to filling the holes. 

This year I ended up buying so much Baseball that I put 2 sets together, Series 1, 2 and Update, and still have a shit load of extras, I also put together a football set.

I'm looking forward to the 2011 set of baseball that'll be Topps' 60th.  Seem like lots of cool cards to be put into wrappers.

This year out of boredom to my chagrin I tried to put a Heritage set together, which I still haven't finished.  I put together a Score football, which would have been 200 dollars cheaper if I'd just bought a factory set, but I did pull 2 autos.  I also put a Panini Rookies and Stars base set together and Prestige base set, still working on the rookies.  I'm working on a Score hockey set for the first time ever and I like it.  I also finished my 2010 Allen and Ginter set, with the help of my favorite LCS, Don's Sportcards. And tried to put together a T 206 and National Chicle set both of which are unfinished but I'll probably post a needs list sooner or later.

I've been trying to finish the Turkey Red inserts from 2009 and this year and I'm close.

whew.

Next year since I just bought a house and will be a little cash strapped, I'm planning on holding to my guns but still plan on putting together at least one set of Topps Baseball and Football, because for all the shit I give Topps I still like a lot of there products.  This is going to be hard after having opened a few packs of Topps Magic, that set is beautiful.

Looking into 2011....

My goals are pretty simple this year. After moving into my new house, I realize how much shit I have. 
One of my goals is to consolidate and reduce my inventory of cards I don't want, through trades and selling.

I also put up my Yount collection at the Yount Collector and I'm slowly uploading scans of each card to photobucket and linking them to each card. I also plan to do the same thing with my Rollie Fingers collection and I hope that I can have that completed by the end of this year, taking my time so as not to get too overwhelmed.

Organize my Brewers and Packers Team sets.  One of my long term goals is to put together a Topps team set from 1971 to present.  I do believe I have 1971 complete so on to 1972!!! You can check out all the action once I set it up at Miles from Miller, my Brewers blog. I guess as a completist I would love to get a team set from every set but I'm just being reasonable.

I spent way too much money on cards in 2010 so I'll be scaling back a bit on boxes but I love to bust open a few packs of new stuff, so I won't deny myself that pleasure,  I think I'm probably going to try and complete the Kimball insert set in 2011 Baseball, I love mini's and inserts and retro so this is a no brainer, they'll go nice with my turkey red sets from 2009 and 2010.

ONTO 2011.......hiddy ho.

cb out

Oh and check out and enter my Superbowl Contest 3 days left!!



Favre and his penis fined $50,000

Oh what a way to go out.  So the NFL finally finished its investigation into penisgate.  Favre is fined 50 grand and who cares.  To go from what was I guess statistically his best season to his worse is bad enough but going out like this is terrible.  Getting injured in the last 2 games you played in is pretty bad too.  The fact that you are now the butt of the joke is well it's your own fault Brent.  That's all I have to say.

297 is still a lot.

Well I'm sure you've all heard the Brett's streak is coming to an end.  For better or worse.  Still 297 is a lot of games, 300 would be a nice number to hit but hell.  Peyton Mannings still got 5 more seasons of consecutive play to hit that record.  Good luck with that.  Seems like it's time to retire anyways Brett holds almost every passer record, good and bad.  I only wished you'd have retired in Green and Gold buddy.

Bye Childress and Take the Favre with you on the way out!

I wish I'd have seen this a few hours ago when I posted my gloat.  The ax has fallen in Minnesota.  It was only a matter of time and now Childress can go have a beer with Wade Phillips and I'm sure John Fox will be here soon too.

The only question is Favre going to be put out to pasture?  Now don't get me wrong, I like the old guy.  I root for him when he's not playing the pack, really I do.  But seeing as the Viks playoff hopes are gone, I would think you would want to get the guy who is probably going to be your starter next year, Jackson, some playing time. 

Next week the Viks take on the Redskins so we'll have to see what Leslie Frazier can do with the team.

Sunday Musing

As I sit here and bid my time till I'm filled with either over flowing elation or nerve deading season ending depression as the Packer/Cardnials game is on in about 2.5 hours from now, I've been surfing the blog 'o' sphere reading other's Sunday rambling and sooz over at A Cardboard Problem posted a Sunday question about all the post career and post life issued cards of players ie Mickey Mantle.  I posted a few thoughts and read a few other's thoughs on the matter and it got me thinking.  And trust me that's a dangerous prospect right there. 

I have also been reading a series in Tuff Stuff about what's wrong with the hobby.  ie: exclusivity, $50 packs, ect. ect.  And how companies are alienating the set builders and pricing the youth of today who will be the next collectors of tomorrow. 

So my thinking was what exactly defines us collectors and card junkies? 
And like anything there are lots of diffenent species of us.  Bear with me.  I'm sure we've all thought about this and I'm sure it's been blogged about before and the scientist in me has decided to try and classify, at least the basic, kinds of collectors out there.  See where you fit.  These are in no  particular order.

1.  Player collector:  A collector that collects cards and memoriblia of a certain player, regardless of what team(s) they have played for. 
  Sub-species: Regular issue collector:  A collector that collect only cards issued in the regular sets issued from card companies
                        Insert collector: collector that collects inserts and oddballs of a certain player.
                        General collector:  collector that collects all cards that were issued of that player by all companies and brands. 
                         Completeist:  A collector that tries to collect every card ever issued of a player, even thought the possiblity is slim that it will ever be attained.

2.  Set Collector:  A collector that puts together and collects sets issued from card companies.  This may be a collector that purchases factory sets or hand collates their own sets.  Set collectors may have preferences to certain companies and/or sets. 

3. Team Collector:  A collector that collects cards and card sets from a specific team.

4. Vintage Collector:  A collector that collects only cards before a certain date.  Usually 1975 or earlier.

5.  Autograph and Game-used collector:  A collector that collects only Autographs and game-used cards( bats, jersey, helmets, ect).  This collector may be a sub species of team and player collectors. Also may include Through the Mail (TTM) collectors.

6.  Rookie collector:  A collector that collect rookie and prospect cards.

7.  Speculative collector:  A "collector"  that collects cards in the hopes that they will become more valuable over time and that they can turn a profit.

That's all I can think up at the moment.  If you guys can think of anything that needs to be added to this list or you think you're not represented let me know.

Now this list isn't to pidgeonhole any body.  One person can be a multiple kind of collector.  As for me I know I fall into at least 3 of these catagories.  I'm a player collector, I love Yount, Fingers, Reggie Jackson, and yes, I still love Brent Favre.  I collect sets.  I have been putting together Topps baseball sets since 1987 when I started collecting cards,  and I'm a team collector collecting Brewers and Packer cards.  And I have a nice Autograph collection and there's nothing wrong with that.

God this one still cracks me up.