Nacho Flavored Set Building

Wow, has it been almost a full month since my last post here?! Well, I can explain. I've been busy over on Twitter talking about cards and sharing new acquisitions and working out a trade with @Pgn3540, better known as Nacho Nordberg.

I really don't even remember how our trade got started, but we went back and forth for a few weeks before we finalized a deal and sent each our some cards. Once my package arrive I realized why it Nacho some time to put his offer together as there were four team bags full of cards...99% of them for sets I'm working on building.

Let's start with the cards I was most excited about...Stadium Club. Nacho sent over cards from my want list for 2017, 2018 and a huge stack for 2019. My love for TSC has really increased over the years and completing these three sets has been a goal I set for myself. I haven't bought a box of either of these years and have just relied on buying retail so I appreciate all the help I can get!

If the TSC cards weren't enough, he also sent over a few cards to help me with some flagship Topps sets such as 2016, some 2018 Big League and a single from 2018 Allen & Ginter and 2017 Gypsy Queen.

Surprisingly there were some 1993 Upper Deck in one of the stacks and even one 2009 Goodwin Champions card. These two sets haven't received much attention from me lately so it's nice to add some cards to the set binders, especially '93 UD...love that set!

I didn't make it to my LCS on National Baseball Card Day unfortunately and I doubt Nacho knew that...but he included three cards from this year's program. Thanks!!

Finally, we have two shiny Bowman Chrome Braves cards of Cristian Pache and a RC of Mike Soroka. Both of these cards are so beautiful in hand, especially the Pache with the Refractor sheen. I've had so much fun watching the Braves this year and Soroka has been a big part of that. Who would have figured this tall, lanky Canadian would come into the starting rotation and be so dominant this year? 

Thanks again Nacho for all of the help with these various sets. My next move is to update my want lists both here on the blog and over at The Trading Card Database.

The Buzz - Charlotte Hornets on Social Media

Between Christmas and New Years, my wife and I spent a few nights in uptown Charlotte to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Despite living just down I-77 in Rock Hill, SC now and growing up in Charlotte, I rarely find myself in uptown. It's always nice visiting, but with all the growth Charlotte has gone through I feel like I'm a visitor in my own town!

One of the evenings while uptown, we walked next door to the Time Warner Cable Arena and caught the Charlotte Hornets vs Milwaukee Bucks game. This was the first time I've been back to the arena since the Bobcats to Hornets transition. I haven't had the opportunity to tour any other NBA arenas, but I'm still amazed by the "cable box" each and every time I visit. I love the subtle changes that have been made in favor of the teal and purple returning. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me so I was only able to get a few pictures on my phone.

Just inside the arena, near a decent sized eating area I found these large 'Hornets Greats' pictures. I don't believe these were here before. The first group, far left is comprised of Muggsy Bogues, Dell Curry and Larry Johnson. The middle group is comprised of Kelly Tripuka, Alonzo Mourning and Kendall Gill. The group on the right is comprised of Glen Rice, Jamal Mashburn and Bobby Phills.

Just to the right of those Hornets pictures is the practice court for the team. You can grab a (incredibly over priced burger) and sit by the large window that separates the arena from the court. While we were strolling by, Hornets forward Marvin Williams was on the court taking a few shots.

We were staying next to the arena at the Hyatt House so we got to and inside fairly quick. This was my first look in person at the new court and looked great. I love the subtle honeycomb design on the court. Even the new arena is starting to grow on me. Even the scoreboard is really impressive. Did you catch the small Air Jordon logo underneath the screen?

While we were waiting for the game to start, I flipped through the program, The Buzz, we were handed as we walked in. Inside is your usual scouting report for that nights game, plenty of stats, advertisements and other little bits of info. Towards the back of the program was a section called Player Headshots. 

Listed beneath each player were their various social media handles. Outside of Facebook, I'm not all that active in social media, but I do find myself following certain athletes and getting a kick out of their status updates and tweets from time to time (Chipper Jones immediately comes to mind!). I don't think I knew many of the Hornets players were on social media to begin with so I found this kind of interesting.

Players of interest:

P.J. Hairston

Instagram: @kangaroo.jack

Gerald Henderson

Facebook: /GeraldHenderson

Twitter: @GhJr09

Al Jefferson
Facebook: /aljefferson25

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
Facebook: /MKG14Official
Twitter: @MKG14
Instagram: @MKG14

Lance Stephenson

Facebook: /StephensonLance

Twitter: @StephensonLance

Instagram: @stephensonlance

Kemba Walker

Facebook: /KembaWalker

Twitter: @KembaWalker

Instagram: @_KW15

Cody Zeller

Facebook: /codyzeller40

Twitter: @CodyZeller

Charlotte Hornets

Facebook: /hornets

Twitter: @hornets

Instagram: @hornets

#PaniniWildCard Promo

Over the weekend Panini held a cool contest via Twitter where you were supposed to snap a picture of yourself holding your favorite 2012 Panini football card.  Up for grabs are 1 of 30 boxes of 2012 football cards!  In between the chaos that is called the weekend around my house, I grabbed my 2012 Panini Rookie & Stars Greg Olsen auto and snapped a quick pic of my ugly mug.  To my surprise when I checked my e-mail yesterday I saw that my photo was included in this giant collage.  Can anyone find me in the image above?  I don't yet if I won anything, but Panini certainly knows how to interact with their fan base via social media.

Braves shopping Martin Prado?

I was checking Twitter tonight and I just saw this Tweet from Buster Olney:

An AL official on Martin Prado, who has been made available by ATL: "He's like a younger Michael Cuddyer -- and might be a better hitter."

 

Say it ain't so Frank Wren!

Twitter to the rescue!

I've only recently (past month) started to really use Twitter.  I still don't understand it completely, but I've found it handy many many times.  I posted a week or so ago about trouble I was having w/ Topps with a redemption card I got out of a past group break.  It was for a 2010 Topps Chrome Brandon Hicks autographed rookie refractor.  I redeemed the card November last year and well, forgot about it.  Later when I logged into my account to check the status of it I saw the card had been replaced w/ some Finest basketball card?!  My account stayed this way for several weeks before reverting back to the proper card.  Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I checked my account again (after forgetting about the card yet again) and I saw that it had been shipped in February.  It listed a tracking # as well so I copied and pasted it into USPS' website.  It said the card was delivered in December 2010 in Bridgeport, NJ.  Ok, now I was majorly confused.

I called the 1-800 number on several occasions, but never could get through to a live person.  I left messages as requested and no reply.  So I hit up Twitter and the Topps Support account.  I sent them a message and got the common response of "Please contact 1-800-489-9149".  So today I sent them another tweet letting them know that I've gotten ZERO response back.  Shortly thereafter I got a direct message asking me what the problem was.  After a few more exchanges I was told the card would be replaced and I should have it within 2 weeks.  I'm holding my joy in check until I hold the card in hand, but it appears Twitter did what the phone number couldn't.

Want an early jump at next month's ALL CHROME group break?

...then follow me on Twitter (@flywheels) and you'll get first dibs at claiming your favorite team(s) as well as early information on future group breaks!

Sign ups for June's group break will be posted to on the blog Wednesday morning, June 1st.  Prices per team start at only $4.00 and there are discounts for multiple teams.  Make sure to drop by after the long Memorial Day holiday for all of the details.