New Cardboard Acquisitions

As I sit here in my office and continue to catalog cards for both my collection and to trade via the Trading Card Database, I figured now was a good time to showcase a few of the better cards I've recently picked up. Some of these came via trade, while some came from Twitter and others were cheap pick ups. Enjoy!

Cardboard Acquisitions: Baseball & Football edition

Hey everyone! I meant to post some new content to both the blog and my YouTube channel before Christmas, but there was just so much to do in order to get the house ready for family visiting and all that comes with it and I just didn't have the time.

However below is a link to my latest "pick ups" video I posted to my channel. I do hope to get back to some regular activity in the coming week or so. Hopefully I can get some ideas for a 2020 collecting resolution video out of my head and typed up before they disappear! Until then, enjoy the video.

Cards on Cards sends cards

I can't be the only guy out there collecting cards that gets the evil eye from the wife when I come back from checking the mail w/ bubble mailers in my hands. Kerry from Cards on Cards (@cardsoncards) got my wife going over the weekend when I pulled out a rather thick bubble mailer out of the mail box. I wasn't expecting anything from him so I was looking forward to seeing what was inside...

There were two large stacks of cards that were neatly stacked and stored insides team bags and a sealed package of NBA TeenyMates. With the exception of a line Braves TeenyMates someone sent me years ago, I haven't had any exposure to these. I'll showcase the contents of that pack later however as I want to get to the meat & potatoes.

For starters I received 82 cards from my 2018 Topps Big League want list! I haven't done much with this set since last fall so it was nice to put a big dent in the list of cards needed.

Off the top of the 2nd stack were two cards of Braves players that represent the future and the past. I have both of these cards, but I don't think I have them for my 2018 Allen & Ginter set. When I'm building sets I always keep the Braves for my team collection first and foremost.

I busted a lot of 2019 Donruss, but somehow the base cards of Ozzie Albies has escaped my grasp. The others were needed for the set and are much welcomed.

Couple more shiney Freddie Freemans for the collection and a Topps Archives RC insert of Ozzie. I believe this card will go in the Archives binder as I pulled one last year for my team collection.

I don't buy a lot of basketball cards and I don't know many who do, but I do know that Kerry is an avoid Portland Trailblazer collector so I can usually bet any package from him will include some basketball cards. Oh boy, he did not disappoint either as he sent me cards for several different collections.

In the heyday of my collecting I pretty bought anything and everything. I had many of these cards, but as the collecting itch faded away a lot of my early collection disappeared. I can't remember what happened to all those cards, but I'm so glad to get some of these back. 

I made a comment on @pennysleeves blog the other day about a Robert Parish card I saw that featured him in a Hornets uni...and then this Hoops card shows up in the stack! I still don't have many cards of Anthony Mason as a Hornet so even though this Hoops card has him in a Knicks uniform, I'll take it. Not sure how many fans remember Darrin Hancock. He was drafted out of Kansas in the 2nd round of the 1994 draft and went on to play 1 1/2 seasons in Charlotte before he was traded to Milwaukee. His career in the NBA only lasted until 1997 (in Atlanta) before he would finish his career in 2005 playing for several different D-League teams. He was however electrifying to watch when he played for Charlotte, executing several fast break plays that usually ended in some kind of dunk.

I love getting cards of Hornets players from that time period where I attended a lot of games. This Kendall Gill and Kenny Gattison cards are so much cooler (to me) than the base cards they are because of the memories I have attached to them.

Considered the "dark period" in Charlotte basketball now, the Bobcats never really caught on with the city of Charlotte or it's fans. I have several ideas why, however I still count them as part of my Hornets collection. There was one lone Bobcats card in the stack and it happened to be a RC of D.J. Augustin. I liked watching him play the short time he played for Charlotte. He's still going strong (for Orlando) and gave the Hornets a fit in the backcourt this season.

I knew of Roy Hibbert from his time spent in Indiana, but I hardly remember him suiting up in the team and purple for the Hornets. However Panini made a card of him for their 2016-17 Complete set. I love getting cards of players that had a brief stint with a team as it makes it more fun when looking back. Do you like getting cards of players like this?

Panini releases a lot of sets and it's hard to keep up with what is out there and what the cards look like. Their Element set has some nice looking cards, such as this base card of Michael Kidd- Gilchrist. I think this makes the 2nd base card from this set I now have. Dwight Howard's time with Charlotte was short so he doesn't have too many cards of him in an actual Hornets uniform, so this insert of him was a welcome addition.

With the exception of the Tony Parker, all of these shiny cards look much better in hand than the pics. I especially love the Optic RC of Devonte Parker RC. I don't know what type of Prizm parallel this is, but it's really sharp. The multi-colored Optic parallels aren't my favorite looking, but anytime I can get new cards of young players like Monk and Bacon...I'll take 'em. I believe both of them are just now starting to scratching the surface of their potential.

If all of the Hornets cards weren't enough, Kerry tossed in not one, but two autographed RCs of P.J. Hairston. I find it ironic that P.J. was yet another former Tarheels player that owner Michael Jordan paraded through Charlotte. I swear the Hornets have had so many Tarheel players that never did anything. Probably the best former UNC player that came through was Raymond Felton in the early Bobcats years...so Jordan can't take credit for him.

In addition to the Hornets cards, I also got a new cards for my NC State Wolfpack Alumni collection. Nate McMillan was born in Raleigh, NC and was drafted by the Seattle Supersonics in the 2nd round of the 1986 draft. He went on to play 19 seasons for the Sonics before he went into coaching. While I believe I originally had all 3 of these cards, I don't have them in my current NC State Alumni collection so these will be nice additions.

My favorite card in the whole package though has to be this Courtside Draft Pix card of former NC State point card, Chris Corchiani. While Chris' NBA career may not have gone as he would have liked, he was magic in the backcourt during his college years. Watching Corchiani interact and play with Rodney Monroe was a thing of beauty. For some reason it kind of reminded me of watching John Stockton and Karl Malone play together. I don't have many cards of Corchiani period, and this card is a beauty. You probably can't tell, but the front of this card features ink that has a slight metallic sheen, something cards from 1991 just didn't feature that often.

Thank you Kerry for all the great cards. While I love getting new baseball cards, I also love getting new basketball cards from time to time and this package was a very nice surprise. I owe you one!!

NC State Wolfpack vs Miami Hurricanes: 02/04/17 @ PNC Arena

Last weekend my wife and I drove up to Raleigh, NC (kid free) to catch my first official NCAA Men's basketball game that wasn't apart of a conference tournament. The tickets were a Christmas gift from the wife.

I grew up in Charlotte, NC so ACC basketball was (and still is) a big thing. I guess you could say Charlotte is a part of "Tobacco Road" seeing how the ACC Tournament has been held in Charlotte on a number of occassions. My dad was a UNC Tarheels fan, so me being the little rebellious kid that I was (not really) latched onto the NC State Wolfpack from an early age.

I grew up watching the Wolfpack play my dad's Tarheels and I can somewhat remember State's last NCAA Championship and coach Jim Valvano's enthusiam on the court after the win. Most of my memories though came in the mid-90's as I was working my way through high school. Even though my playing days were over, sports really started to take more of an importance. My dad took me to an ACC Tournament when I was in high school and I remember what a great time it was...even if we didn't have the best of seats. While I didn't get to see the likes of Rodney Monroe, Chris Corchiani or Tom Gugliotta play, I did get to see Todd Fuller play when he was at the peak of his college game.

Being a fan of the Wolfpack ain't easy. If you're from the NC area or a fan of the ACC then you should know what I mean. This year's basketball team has been so frustrating to watch. To have the talent that they have, yet to lose and lose games in the fashion that they have is tough. Freshman Guard, Dennis Smith, Jr. is pretty much all but gone after this season. If he doesn't declare himself for the NBA I'll be surprised. Malik Abu has been fun to watch grow and develop and he's turned out to be a good player for the Wolfpack, but Beejay Anya (on the cover of the program) confuses me. Seeing him in person on the court...the dude is big. He reminds me of Anthony Mason (Knicks/Hornets forward, RIP). He's got some decent offensive skills, but you would think a guy of that size would be a good, shut down type of defender. He's not. The Wolfpack's most recent game (a blowout by Florida State) Beejay didn't even travel with the team. Guess he's in coach Gottfried's dog house. I wonder if Gottfried knows he is in the fan's dog house?

I don't know what is wrong with the last few Wolfpack teams, but year after year we are teased with signs of great things to come...only to end up disappointed. However can you be disappointed when you really didn't expect much out of your team? Regardless, it was a great experience and I love that my wife thought to do something like this. PNC Arena is also home to the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes, and the building was beautiful. Hard to believe it was built in 1999. Now that I've been, I really would like to try to attend another game in the near future. Maybe if I keep attending games I'll finally see them win one for a change? One thing that I didn't expect to see at the arena was the student section was so small. On TV it looks much bigger, but in reality it was maybe 5-6 rows deep? I also didn't expect the NBA type atmosphere...the introductions, music and such. Lots of fun, can't believe I've never experienced this before last weekend.

2016 Panini Instant: Jacoby Brissett #51 (1 of 85)

The 2016 NFL season rolls on and Panini Instant is there to capture the moments with their newest made to order series of cards. During Tom Brady's 4 week vacation at the beginning of the season, the back up QBs got a chance to show the league what they were capable of. Jacoby Brissett, the Patriots 3rd round pick in this year's draft got the call after Jimmy Grappalo went down with an injury. The product of NC State, the QB led the team to a 27-0 win over the Texans.

His Instant card captures his first NFL touchdown on September 22, 2016 where he scrambled for 27 yards and dove into the end zone for the score. The base version of the card ended up with only 85 total copies sold, kind of surprising since the card carries the rookie card (RC) designation. Maybe people aren't prospecting with this kid?

Catching up w/ scanning some "new" cards

The problem with card collecting is it can easily snowball on you if you don't stay up to date.  Seeing that I've been away from actively blogging and cards in general, I've got a huge catalog of cards to scan and put into my own databases.  These cards aren't necessarily new, but I've yet to share them prior to today.  I've got cards for my Tim Hudson and Brandon Beachy PCs, Atlanta Braves, a few Carolina Panthers and Charlotte Bobcats plus a few NC State basketball autos to round everything out.