Packers of Yore - Ingle Martin

I recently had my box over at COMC sent to me.  I've been doing challanges and making a few bucks in store credit here and there.  I've also been picking up cheap autographs.  And when I mean cheap I mean $2 or less.  Sure they aren't of superstars, but one of my collecting goals was to try and start picking up more certified autographs of Brewers players.  Along the way I ended up picking up this sweet 2006 Upper Deck Exquisite Rookie Autograph of former Packers Quarterback Ingle Martin.

Who's Ingle Martin?  Why he's the Packers 5th round pick from the 2006 draft and the guy sitting three rows back behind Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.  Ingle may have only made league rookie minimum with the Pack, but that was probably a sweet job.  Showing up to practice and getting to hang out with the kicking crew and hold footballs for kicker Dave Rayner.  You may scoff, but Ingle did get actually NFL playing time.  He got the last two snaps of the last game of the 2006 season.  The Packers routed the Bears who didn't bother to show up because they already had locked up the division with a 13-3 record.  The Packers beat the Bears that day 26-7 which is almost as bad as the Bears beat the Packers in the first game of the season beating them 26-0.  Ingle got to get on the field and kneel down twice, his official stats are -5 yards.  Ingle would go on to bounce around club's practice squads and even decided to try UFL, he officially retired in 2009.  But Ingle is still involved in football coaching the Christ Presbyterian Academy football team in Nashville and has a very impressive 67-6 record.  

So why did I pick up this card?  Well first off, Ingle is a part of Packer history.  Sure he's was a third string quarterback that didn't do anything in the NFL, but he still put on a Packer uniform every week in 2006.  Second I only paid $1.88 for this card and this is an on card autograph numbered to 60!  Sure he has a terrible autograph that looks like a lightning bolt, checkmark, and MX, but to be fair Ingle and rookies in general sign thousands and thousands of cards.  And of course I get to share Ingles' story.

My Blue Sunday....and Monday

I'm a sad Packer fan today. It's not as bad as yesterday afternoon, but I'm still pretty shocked at the Packers implosion.  I can talk about the missed opportunities, the chain of worst case scenarios that kept coming true, but in the end it's still just a game and while I would have loved to see my Packers in the this year's Super Bowl in the end Seattle won fair and square.  I'd even say that the officiating was pretty decent and even heavy in Green Bay's favor.  No I won't be rooting for them this year.

Anyway I figured I post a quick and dirty watercolor I did years ago.  I'm not sure if I painted this in 2005 or 2004. I ended up putting a 2005 date on it, but I do know I painted it while out in a field camp one fall.  I was in the middle of nowhere, but we strung an antennae and could get Fairbanks sports radio in camp, so on Sundays we would huddle around the radio and listen to football.  I actually got to listen to a Packer game out there and if you can't tell they lost.

Just seemed fitting to post.

12-12-12 Happy Aaron Rodgers Day.

There are some things Wisconsinites take very seriously.  Cheese for sure, it is delicious, and the Green Bay Packers.  So as a joke Jennifer Brilowski decided to start a facebook page "Let's make 12/12/12 Aaron Rodgers Day" and the state legislature in Wisconsin did.  See politicians can do useful things.

I was thinking of working up a nice post with the best of my Aaron Rodgers collection, but I didn't.
So instead in celebration I present a card I will probably never own but is very nice.

Mr. Rodgers 2005 Exquisite dual relic auto.  I'm not sure if it's real, but the seller is only asking about $1775 ungraded.  What a steal!!

And I got 10 inches of fresh snow this morning! My dog was very happy about that.

TTM Success Jordy Nelson!!

I had sent to Jordy way back in September.  I had meant to send to him when I did a big Packers mailing in May, but for some reason didn't have any single base card doubles to send.

 If you read regularly you know I'm a huge Jordy Nelson fan.  I'm guessing he's had a little time to answer some fan mail while recouping his hamstring.  Either way I'm super thrilled with this return and can't wait to see him on the field again.

I sent Jordy two of his 2012 Topps Football cards.  One for me and one for my brother who's also a big Jordy fan.

TTM Stats
Jordy Nelson
c/o Green Bay Packers
1265 Lombardi Ave
Green Bay, WI 54304

Date Sent 9/8/12
Date Received 11/10/12

Thanks Jordy! Get better soon!

TTM Success - Packers WR Randell Cobb.

I have to say I was excited to see one of my TTM return envelopes postmarked from Green Bay.  I sent a bunch of Packers some cards way back at the start of training camps in May.

Anyways it was awesome to get my second Randall Cobb auto in less than a week.  The first one in a trade and now a TTM. And Randall is stepping it up this season. Returning punts, playing both as a back and wide receiver.

TTM Stats

Date Sent 5/10/12
Date Recieved 10/3/12

Address used

Randall Cobb
c/o Green Bay Packers
1265 Lombardi Ave
Green Bay, WI 54304

Thanks Randall. A great addition to my Packers collection.  Keep up the good work.

TTM Success Packers Fullback John Kuhn

Back in May I sent almost everybody on the team a card or two.  Spring and summer mini camps were starting so just like spring training I figure it would be easier to get a couple current Packers sigs. Well this is the first one I got back.

I thought I sent John only one card, but I could be wrong there and I did get two back signed.

TTM stats

Date Sent: 5/10/12

Date Recieved 6/28/12

Address used

John Kuhn

c/o the Green Bay Packers

1265 Lombardi Ave

Green Bay, WI 54304

Thanks John!

TTM Success Sterling Sharpe

I sent 2 1990 Topps 1000 Yard Club Sterling Sharpe cards to Sterling on Feb 24 and they were waiting for me when I got back from vacation on March 14th.  I seem to have misplaced the envelope and I don't rememeber what the postmark date was. But two weeks is still a great turn around time.  I sent the cards to the NFL network in California, but the post mark was from South Carolina.  

You might be saying why two of the same card.  Well besides being just a great looking card. One of these is for part of my brother's birthday present later this year (the unsmudged auto in the screwdown) and one if for my TTM collection.  My brother and I were/are huge fans of the man.  Sterling's career was cut short from a neck injury, I can still remember watching the game when it happened.  Sharpe was always Favre's go to guy.  I'm sure he must have dropped a few balls, but I can't remember him ever doing it.  He had hands of glue.

The stats.
Date Sent: 2/24/12
Date Recieved: (3/14/12) Not sure the exact day I got it in the mail though.

Address used.
NFL Network
10950 Washington Blvd
Suite 100
Culver City CA 90252

CB out

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #57

Jordy, Jordy, Jordy!

Man what a great year this kid is having.  I mean he was awesome in the Superbowl and then just carried that through to this season.  Just incredible.  Mix with that the season the Pack is having and that they just offered stock again. It's a great time to be a Packer fan.  Jordy's cards are starting to get some notice with his new found popularity. Luckily I scored this card early last year before he was on a lot of collector's radar.  That's when I picked most of my Jordy auto's and relics.  I can't remember what I paid for this relic, but trust me I got it cheap.  A great rookie card here. Yeah I know that this is all stuff Jordy touched or wore during the Rookie Premiere in 2008, but who cares a great multirelic card.

Number 57 on the Top 100

2008 Donruss Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Jordy Nelson Rookie Premiere Materials Dual Relic (Ball/Super Swatch) #274  Numbered 043/100.

I am an NFL owner!

Back in 1997 the Packers had another stock offering to help with the cost of building the atrium addition and it is sweet (the atrium that is).  This morning the Packers opened their 5th stock sale to help raise money for another expansion to add about 7000 more seats. That means that 7000 more season ticket holder names will come off a list that has 1,000 year waiting list. Or so it seems.  They sold over 1600 shares in the first 11 minutes of the offering.

Back in 1997 I was a poor college student, just about to graduate and the one thing I'd always wished I'd done was scraped together the money to buy a share of the Packers back then.

Well today I finally got to fulfill that wish.

As a man who's taken his finances very seriously since I graduated college and had money to invest. I can say that this is a terrible investment if your looking to get rich.  It is, however, one of the best investments a sports fan can ever make.  I feel no regrets and I can't wait to be able to frame my stock certificate and add it to the wall.

Here is the website if your interested.  Packers.com  The link will take you to the owners page where you can fill out the forms to buy stock.

After filling everything out it seems you can purchase stock as a gift if your looking for the ultimate Packer fan Christmas gift this year.

Go Pack Go!

A good day for a Packer fan.

Wow.  What a weekend of football. Was the Indy Pats game really that close? Seattle creamed Philly.  Dallas and the Lions are imploding. And holy crap the Pack almost gave me a heart attack again.

 It's funny I was talking with an old college buddy a few weeks ago and he was complaining about how many points the Packers were beating their opponents by and wished the games were more competitive.  Well I guess he got his wish on Sunday as the Packers faced what was probably their closest and hardest game so far this year.  I was biting my nails and cussing at the TV through a lot of it.  But it the end I did get to use this graphic I made last week.  You know it was coming.

Looking at the schedule it won't be a cake walk.  The Raiders are no pushovers.  I think the Pack can handle the Chiefs and the Bears again especially now that Culter is out. And of course we have the season ending New Years Day game against the Lions which will no doubt be a good game as well.  Just an interesting season all around the League.

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!

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #4

Keeping it old school, but changing sports.  There are always players that you think of when you think of the classic teams of the past.  Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, Dick Butkus, Mean Joe Greene, ect, ect.  For the Packers Ray Nitschke is one of those players. 

#4 1963 Topps Football Ray Nitschke Rookie card. 

Not the best centered but fairly sharp corners and great coloring.

cb out.

Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy

Man oh man, I'm sitting at my desk waiting for the clock to get to 4pm.  And then I'm off to the bar to watch the opening game of the 2011 Football season.  My beloved Packers taking on the Saints.  Should be a good one.  Kickoff is 4:30 Alaska Time so I'm going to be in a hurry to get a good seat.

Oh boy, Oh boy, Oh boy.

Anybody else excited?

4 Packs of 2011 Panini Threads

Well after I opened my first two packs of Threads I was conflicted.  Mainly because the card layout isn't half bad.  And I only got one stupid insert and one Packers card. So I was at Bosco's the other day picking up my hold comics and browsing the new stuff and stopped in the card section and picked up two more packs.  Boy I'm glad I did.

First lets talk about the design this year.

Not too terrible we have some background this is awesome.  Most mid to high end Panini card have the player cut out on the card.  I think we could have done without the strips on the side, but again not too terrible.

Here's what the backs look like.

This looks like a typical Panini back.  Hell this could be the back of a Score card.

Here are the rest of the Packers I picked up from my 4 packs.

Now I only need 2 more vets and all the rookies.  Speaking of rookie cards let's look a the rookie design.

Now some of the inserts.  I only got 2 and they're unnumbered and fairly unremarkable.

Both of these have jersey parallels with verying numbering and patch colors and complexity.  I wouldn't mind a Packer triple jersey Triple Threats.

But the reason I was glad I picked up the two extra packs was this card.

Not only did I snag a rookie letterman patch auto, it's Packer!!!!  Wow, I'm tempted to try something a little pricier the way my lucks been running the past few weeks. 

Next return of the old school break.

cb out.

Lambeau Field, I'm such a tourist!!

I'm back with my second part of my sports vacation which was actually the first part of the vacation.  We flew into Chicago and rented a car and headed north into Wisconsin to visit my fiances Aunt and Uncle in Oshkosh and then over to my folks place in northern Wisconsin.  On the way to my folks we took a short detour to Green Bay to go to Lambeau and look around.

The best part about Lambeau is that it's always open.  There's the Pro Shop that has everything a Packer fan could desire and a great restaurant, Curly's Pub, that has awesome food.  I've been to Lambeau a few times for games.  Before and after the atrium addition, but I've never just gone to be a tourist.  So we went and got our tickets for the stadium tour and Hall of Fame.

I'll be honest the tour was kinda long, but for a fan it was great.  I learned a lot of little things I didn't know.  That Lambeau has a convention center in it and host over 500 events a year besides Packer games.

One of the first stops is the largest luxury box in Lambeau.  Called the worsts seats in the house because the are as far from the playing field as you can get, I was told you can lease a luxury box for about 30 grand a year.  So if I win the lottery you know I'm there.  (side note: I didn't win the lottery while I was there, but I did play. Mega Millions was over 300 Million!!)

Next they take you down into the tunnels.  Here's our tour guide.

Here we are entering the stadium through the Packers ramp.

And here is the plaque at the end of the tunnel. Looks like they're going to have to get a new one now.

This is the tunnel the opponents get to come out of.

Field level view.  We weren't allowed on the field or any of the locker rooms. Boo.

Still need to add a date here.

After the tour we were kinda hungery so we headed to Curly's Pub for a snack.  I had the Bacon Beer Cheese Burger.  It was freaking awesome I wish I'd have taken a photo of it.  My fiance had the Buffalo Chicken Salad also delicious.

After that we were fueled for the Packers Hall of Fame.

You get this free hand stamp and can come back as much as you want all day!!

I must have got a little caught up in the HOF because I don't think I took any pictures.  Well almost no pictures.

Somethings missing here.  The HOF was great with lots of interactive exhibits and great displays and plenty of room for the new 2010 Super Bowl.  I was a little bummed the 4th trophy wasn't in the Trophy Room yet.  I guess we'll have to go back in a few years.

Here's a photo of Vince outside.

And Vince and Curly.  From this angle it looks like Curly is pointing at Vince. 

And I was very good at the Pro Shop I only bought a Super Bowl XLV pennant and a pack of the Topps Tribute Super Bowl cards.

Until next time.
cb out.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!! Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web Winners!!!

The Almost Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web is OVER!! Finally and we have a winner.  You might have noticed I was very quiet on Super Bowl Sunday.  Well I was pretty drunk after that win.  The Pack drives me to drink sometimes, but I thought it best not to drunk blog. Anyways....

I asked you to tell me who would win the Super Bowl and Mark from the The Green Card blog correctly guess that the Green Bay Packers would win.  And since he was the only one to pick the Packers, besides me, we don't need the tie breakers.

Here was the official entries if you forgot what you picked.

1 .Spankee: EAGLES over the Pats 27-24

2. Adam E: STEELERS over Bears 17-6

3. BA Benny: SAINTS over Pats 38-31

4 .cubsfan731: PATRIOTS over Falcons 23-14

5. Captain Canuck: PATRIOTS over Falcons 42-31

6 .Mariner1: SAINTS over Steelers 27-17

7. Play at the Plate: PATRIOTS over Eagles 38-21

8. Mark: PACKERS over Patriots 24-17

9. Fuji: PATRIOTS over Packers 24-17

10. seemahn: FALCONS over Patriots 28-24

11. Community Gum: PATRIOTS over Falcons 31-17

12. dawgbones: EAGLES over Steelers 27-17

13. Offy: PATRIOTS over the Falcons 31-14

14. Kev2380: BEARS over Patriots 24-20

15. Steve D: PATRIOTS over Saints 35-27

16. Milwaukee Southpaw: FALCONS over Steelers 27-24

17. Colby (Flywheels): STEELERS over Falcons 24-17

18. Wicked Ortega: RAVENS over Patriots 21-17

19. mike: BEARS over Steelers 20-14

20. Nathan: COLTS over Saints 24-17

21. steve: PATRIOTS over Packers 24-17

22. dayf: FALCONS over Colts 30-28

Mark wins a full set of Topps Rookie Redemption Codes!! 

And now for you bonus prize.
The above 22 names were entered into the Random.org list randomizer in the order that you entered.
Here is the results:

If you can't see it click on it for a close up but the winner is seemahn!!! Who has a blog Bottom Brain.
Seemahn email me I need your address you've won the 2010 Topps Prime Quad Rookie Jersey card!!!

 Thanks to all who entered and to Mark and seemahn who took home the prizes.  On a side note I took down Justin's Super Bowl contest, which was oddly similar to mine, by sticking to my guns with the Packers. I think I win a lot of chrome. 

cb out.

It's official the Packers have the Zoo animal vote!!!

As if I needed any more proof the Pack are going to win on Sunday, Texas zoo animals predict the Packers to win.  And we all know that animals, especially caged zoo animals know things they aren't telling us.

Last week a coati named Cody in at the Ft Worth zoo picked the Packers.  A coati is a type of raccoon.  And we all know how reliable their predictions are.  And you think that would be enough but NOO!!!

Yesterday Jenny the elephant at the Dallas zoo also predicted a Packer win by stomping on a watermelon with the Steelers logo on it. 

And not to be out done an orangutan in South Carolina also picked the Pack by picking a Packers T-shirt over the Steelers.  Totally scientific.

I don't know why the Steelers are even going to show up with the zoo animal vote so stacked in favor of the Packers!! 
But it doesn't matter the only animal I would take advice from is dead.  Paul the Octopus is gone and I'm not even sure if soccer predictions translate over to American football. 

On a more serious note Topps Series 1 is coming out "officially" tomorrow.  I know that there is already a bunch of stuff up on ebay and the it was out a little early in retail.  Not up in Alaska though.  I've got a trade night tomorrow and I'm praying that they actually get their shipment in so I can bust a box of jumbo.  I've been so good and haven't busted a box in months.  I will put the results up here for all to see.

cb out

Jordy Jordy Jordy

I've been working my way around my blog family posting various things.  I finally found some time to scan a bunch of stuff.  And I just got a nice rookie card lot of Jordy Nelson in the mail yesterday.  In my opinion one of the most underrated players on the Packers Superbowl team this year.  He's really stepped it up with all the injuries this year and it's nice to see Jordy coming into his own. Once relgated to punt returner he's moved right in to #2 reciever very well.  I've been snatching up auto's and jersey cards for cheap all year. 

The framed UD Masterpieces is a blue parallel numbered to 150.  Plus in the lot was two super shiny chrome rookies and two UD star rookies, one first edition, and an SP.

Here's a look at the backs.  I'm expecting big things from this kid in a few weeks and next year.

I guess I can officially say I've started my Jordy Nelson super collection and I don't expect prices on his cards to stay in the dumper much longer.   Just look at Rodger's prices going through the roof.  I picked up a bunch of base and inserts for Rodgers a few months ago from my LCS.  Don had packs of 25 cards for 5 bucks and I ended up picking up all three Rodgers packs.  I'm glad I did.  Seems cheap now.

Enjoy your Thursday.

cb out.