New Ebay PC Pickup...Is NEAT!

I'm still 80% committed to keeping this Tangradi collection going...especially if I end up winning some auctions that I am currently bidding on.  I'm obviously not the only ET collector because my luck has been less than stellar.  So for lack of anything else relevant or important to say, I will leave you with this little guy I just received in a nice, half-cut, brown padded envelope. 

Show & Tell: Player PC Addition

I don't post a whole lot of PC love on the site.  I don't know why either.  The whole purpose of collecting is to collect what you like, right?  Well I felt that this one was definitely share worthy. 

I picked this one up from the Bay about a week or two ago.  It comes from the ITG Canada Vs. The World set that came out this year.  I haven't picked up any boxes of this (I know, shocking isn't it?) and really didn't plan on it as their were many other priorities when it hit the shelves.  I like them.  I mean, I like everything ITG puts out.  I just didn't get overhyped by the set or concept. 

I have been a little gun shy about Jags since his Benedict Arnold loving butt parked itself in Philadelphia.  He meant so much to the Pens and the city of Pittsburgh in his time spent there that although it was a business deal, every fan felt betrayed.  So I have been less than motivated to add to this collection.  But, lets face it.  He is still one of the greatest ever. 

So when I saw this, I had to have it.  Let's just say it looks 1000X's better in person than it did in any picture.  Here's my contribution to show and tell...

The best part is that it shows Jags in his early 2000's Pens jersey with a Penguin swatch as well as a swatch from his Czech Republic sweater from world competition.

Just A Quick Brag Post

I just wanted to take a moment and brag about my latest addition to my Penguins PC...THIS BEAUTY!!!  2010-11 Artifacts Tundra Tandems Crosby/Fleury #'d/75.  I suppose I could have spared you the details because you can see all of that printed on the card.  I picked this one up off the Bay and was so jacked when I saw the package in the mail because I new what it was.  This is one of those cards that looked good online but looks 1000% better in person.  No Event-Worn nonsense here either.  My only gripe is the small but noticeable nick on the bottom right corner.  Otherwise, this card is EPIC in my opinion.  I'll shut up now.

A Cool Ebay Pickup and Pens Update

Today's game was most definitely not a goaltenders paradise.  With only scoring 5 goals in the last four games, they took a step in the right direction to fixing the hole in the bucket today with a 6-5 shoot-out win over Toronto.  Toronto picked up a point on the Canes with the overtime extra (they have a game in hand too) and helped their cause a bit at making a playoff spot.  I said at the beginning of the season that I thought they would be in this year.  The Kaberle trade had me a bit worried by I still stick with my original statement for now.

The Pens get the two points they needed to stay put in the East but the bigger stories here are the impact of Kovalev in the game and the return of Mark Letestu.  Kovalev scored a goal and potted the game winner in the shoot-out.  He logged another 17+ minutes of ice time and picked up another 4 minutes in the box.  Mark Letestu came up big once again vs. Toronto, with a goal and an assist in his first game back from injury.  Letestu seems to bring his "A" game every time he faces the Leafs.  I think the best goal of the game was Maxie's sweet shortie that came off a foot race to a loose puck in the neutral zone.  I know it's only one game but the Pens need momentum from winning performances like this.

But enough about that.  I wanted to show off a few from the Bay that I picked up on the cheap...VERY CHEAP!  I have been pondering what direction to take some of my PC in.  One thing I realized is that I have very few autographed items.  Without counting my Penguin stuff, I think I have maybe a couple dozen autos.  That might seem like a lot to some but it is one area that I have never been really focused on expanding.  While perusing some soon to close auctions, I stumbled across a little gem that featured four autos with a bid price under $3.  Better yet, they are hard signed on-card.  Better still, they are Champs mini's from last year.

Check 'em out.

2009-10 Champ's Signatures James Sheppard - I like when a player puts his uniform number on his signature.  Especially when they have a signature like this.  Looks like it says IAe(something)e.  It still looks cool though.  Sheppard has been sidelined all season with a broken kneecap.  Just recently, he was cleared to begin practicing and has been participating in a few morning skates.  Even if he was ready to play, he is still suspended due to his ATV accident prior to training camp.  Reminds me of another idiot on a motorcycle.

2009-10 Champs Signatures Max Pacioretty - Max was a first round pick by the Canadiens in 2007.  So far this year, he has 20 points in 32 games, including a goal the other night against Toronto.  Once again, another signature that benefits from the uniform number being present.  That looks like MuAt.

2009-10 Champ's Signatures Mikkel Boedker - This signature is interesting because it has the elements of a good signature but then falls apart at the end.  You can make out the M, the Boe, and then there is some scribble the resembles a "J" with a swoosh.  Again, good thing for the uniform number.  Boedker has four assists in the Coyotes last three games.  He was called up to replace Ray Whitney and if he keeps this pace up, could have a spot in the lineup even after Ray comes back. 

2009-10 Champ's Signatures J.P. Dumont - My favorite one of the bunch, it's J.P. Dumont.  All we have here is a "J" and "P" with his uniform number.  Even without any semblance of a normal signature, as long as you are a hockey fan, you would know who this is.  That's what makes it cool.  I wouldn't be surprised to find J.P. on a new team real soon as his playing time has dwindled over the last couple years in favor of other Preds forwards.  With the pickup of Mike Fisher from Ottawa and the return of Marek Svatos from injury, I think his days are numbered.

Things Rescued From Auction

For some reason, don't ask me why, I have been trolling the Bay quite frequently lately looking for different items to fill in some gaps in my collection.  One of those gaps has been some missing cards from my Penguins and Steelers tribute card-o-rama.

Those of you that have been around for any length of time may remember this post about my wife's contribution to my madness way back in when.  She brought these home to my utter amazement and even permitted me to hang them up.  If you recall, I had decided to use one frame to feature all the Pittsburgh Steelers that have been elected to the Hall of Fame (or at least as many that would fit).  The other frame would be for the Trib Total Media All Time Penguins team which features 15 players and 5 Honorable Mentions. 

Since I decided to put them up, I have been trying to find the perfect cards of each player to put in.  The holders are snap-tite's that anchor themselves by sliding in and out of pre-mounted strips.  I'm sure many of you have seen these before.  The problem lies in the fact that the holders are vertical.  If you want them to look nice and uniform, the card images have to also be vertical.  My other dilemma has been that I didn't want to duplicate any set designs.  So if I have a 1974 Topps Franco Harris, I need to have some other year for Joe Greene. 

Les Binkley and Randy Carlyle have been my two Penguins that I have yet to fill in since I can't seem to find any Binkley's and the only two Carlyle cards I have currently are already being used (one in a set and the other year/brand is already represented in the frame).  Despite the two holes, the frame filled up quickly as most of card collection is hockey and I have been actively accumulating stuff since the mid-80s.

As for the Steeler frame, that has been a bit harder to fill.  First, I limited my Steelers to only those that spent the bulk of their careers with the team, were integral in building the team, or spent the most productive of their careers in Pittsburgh.  This helped to eliminate Cal Hubbard, Marion Motley, Bill Hewitt, and Len Dawson.  It took out Greasy Neale too since he was a coach for only one year.  I also didn't include Dick Lebeau because although a pivotal coach in Steelers history, he was elected for his playing days with Detroit.  He will almost certainly go in as a coach down the road.

So I was down to 20 players/coaches/owners that had to be filled in.  The players with modern cards (ie. 1960s to today) were easy.  The bump in my road came with The Chairman Of the Board Art Rooney, Dan Rooney, Bert Bell, Bill Dudley, Ernie Stautner, Walt Kiesling, Bobby Layne and John Henry Johnson.  I also didn't have a vertical card of Chuck Noll but do have a temporary one in its place. 

This was supposed to be an Ebay post though.  Here are a few I picked up to fill in some holes in the Steeler "Hall Of Frame".

 1985 Football Immortals Bill Dudley #37

 1988 Swell Hall Of Fame John Henry Johnson #140

 1991 Enor Hall Of Fame Bert Bell

1991 Enor Hall Of Fame Art Rooney

I know these are odd ball cards from "off the grid" sets but sometimes you have to dig deep.  I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg to get this filled up.  Plus, since it will be on display, I didn't want any of the better cards being exposed to too much light or conditions that would cause fading.  I still want it to look cool though.  I know there is a different Art Rooney card out there with almost the identical photo but I haven't seen any Bert Bell's.  So for now, I will temporarily suspend my rule of 1 card per set in order to accommodate both the Enor cards. 

Oh, and just to round out my purchase for some almost free shipping, I picked up these too.

 

1976 Wonder Bread Franco Harris #3

T206 Honus Wagner

The Harris was to help complete the Wonder Bread set that I am sort of on-again off-again working on.  The Wagner is because I have always wanted a copy of this card.  I'd take the real thing too if I had a quarter of a million to waste.  If I am going to call myself a Pittsburgh collector, there has to be at least one of these in my Pirates collection.  Now there is.

The long lost Ebay purchase

So have you ever bought something on one of the auction sites and through no fault of your own, forgot?  That was the case with a couple cards from a fellow I purchased from about a month and a half ago.  You see, I was caught up in a whirlwind of buying online and in stores and trades that I forgot about this last group I picked up.

After about three weeks, I noticed the button was still active that I needed to leave feedback.  I couldn't remember why or what for so I clicked it and realized that there were still two cards that I had yet to receive.  So I sent an email to the seller, thinking he must have also forgot about it.  Within an hour, I had a confirmation number in my hands and a delivery confirmed notice...?

WHAT?  Are you serious?  I never, ever, received anything.  I know sometimes my wife hides my packages because she gets some kind of primordial enjoyment out of making me squirm but not this time.  They were sent a day after I sent payment so where could they be?  Maybe my mailman decided he wanted to keep them.  Maybe the neighborhood kids finally caught on as to what was in all those bubble mailers.  Maybe they were abducted by alien mutant space ninjas.

I inquired to the post office to no avail.  They simply confirmed they received them and then sent them out for delivery.  Since no signature was required, they could neither confirm or deny if they made it to their final destination, although I knew they didn't.  I finally gave up hope and sent the seller an email letting him know they were AWOL but it wasn't his fault and I didn't want a refund but wanted to bid on some replacements.  He, of course, thanked me, apologized, and then told me he had nothing else available for auction at this time.  Oh well.  Such is life.

FAST FORWARD TO YESTERDAY.  I get home and there on the counter is a small bubble mailer with a big green sticker on it.  The sticker reads "we are sorry the delivery of your package was delayed"...it continued, "there are many reasons why parcels are sometimes held up in shipping"...it goes on to list several...yadda, yadda, yadda....Love, the US Post Office.  So you are telling me that you temporarily lost my package but told the shipper they were delivered and told me the same thing only to turn around and miraculously produce it out from the crack between some sorting machine and the 3:30-11 shift supervisor's lunch pail?  I say...

Thank you.

Here is what I was waiting for.  Something tells me there are a couple people out there that would like me to try and lose them again by shipping 'em to their collections. 

2009-10 SPx Winning Materials Brian Campbell WM-BC

2009-10 SPx Winning Materials Patrick Sharp WM-PS (2-color)

Little Ebay pickup

I bid on a triple swatch jersey of Jason Spezza a week or so ago for the simple fact that it was from the 2009-10 Upper Deck Trilo3y.  I have been wanting to break some of this product this year because it is really cool looking.  I haven't delved into my high end product of the year and this stuff has had my eye since it was released.  I am usually not big on the high end products because I'm always too afraid of boxes with one pack with 3-4 hits and a base card.  Mine would be the one with all commons and nothing for my PC.

I know Joe Collector is planning a group break of the stuff but my Paypal is hurting something fierce.  Maybe I can get in at the last minute.  Maybe monkeys will fly out of my...nevermind.

I picked up the one card and wanted to share it's Trilo3y goodness.  This is my one and only Trilo3y card, this year or otherwise. 

 

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the best part...Closing auction cost = $1.00 including shipping.

My new favorite pastime...$.99 auctions

I have been doing quite a bit of bidding on $.99 auctions as of late. If you pay attention to the shipping details, you can make out pretty well on many of these. Here was one in particular that I scored on. 6 Jaromir Jagr cards (only 1 I already had) for 99 cents and, get this, free shipping. The auction closed with my 1 and only bid for, yep, you guessed it. 99 CENTS.

So here we have 6 cards for one of my player collections. Add those to the two from the other day and that makes 10, no wait...9, I mean 8 cards for my Jagr player collection. Anything to keep me away from blaster boxes.

1. 1999-00 Pacific Card #338

2. 1999-00 UD Victory Checklist Card #234

3. 2000-01 UD Powerdeck Card #AUX 17

4. 1999-00 Topps Gold Label Class 1 Card #15

5. 2001-02 Upper Deck ICE Card #42

6. 2002-03 Topps Heritage Card #6

Colorful text is neat!! And also annoying. I won't do that again. I promise.

Ebay Pickup

In an effort to try and get back on track to my new years goals, I picked up a few PC cards from the Bay that arrived yesterday. I will let the cards talk for themselves.

1993-94 Ultra Red Light Special #6

1995 Fleer Slapshot Artist #4

1995-96 Summit Mad Hatter #10
(scanners don't do justice to shiny)

Big Ebay Win...Literally Big

Yes that's right. In this case of the use of the term "Big", I am not referring to some hidden gem of a card that I have been looking for all my life. I am literally talking big as in size. I picked up two auctions from another collector that was getting out of the hobby. He was selling his football collection by the box load. Those new "if it fits...it ships" boxes from the USPS, to be exact. The two auctions that I won included over 3000 cards in each box. That's over 6000 cards for those of you not proficient in the ancient art of math.

Since the auction closed on Monday, imagine my surprise when, at lunch, my wife calls to inform me that there are two giant boxes that weigh at least 15 lbs each sitting on our dining room table. Usually the only thing in the mail are the bubble mailers which already annoy her to no end. Here's to sticking it to the man...er, woman.

After getting home tonight, I decided to bust them open to see what 6000 cards look like in a giant, unorganized, completely random pile. Here are the results.


Yes, that's my cat back there, basking in the glory of a big pile o' cards.



There's some 80s stuff...some 90s stuff...some 00s stuff. Even if they are all commons, it will be fun to look through.



I bet there are even some complete (or at least mostly complete) sets in here.




As you can see, I started to pile them nice and neat there on the right but quickly gave that up for a more conventional piling method of sorting.

So now I have my work cut out for me for a while. What to do with all these and where to put them? Plus, I haven't even begun to make a dent in the long, lost collection. I have started to log everything I have into my Zistle database. If you aren't familiar with Zistle, you need to be. It is a great alternative to most of the card organization programs out there. It is waaaayyyy better than the "new" Beckett server system.

Any football collectors out there with player or team wants, hit me up with your lists and I can see what I have in here.

So far, so good

As of today, I have pretty much stuck to most of my resolutions. I have yet to overload on retail boxes and my collection organizing is coming along swimmingly. The addition of the baseball cards did put a snag into the consolidation plans but found cards are as good as free cards and I love me some free cards.

I finally received my first card for my Bill Guerin player collection. I had won this one at auction back in December for a whopping $.35 (American). After two weeks of not receiving the card, I happened to check the seller and discovered that he was not in the US. He wasn't even on this continent in fact. He was from the UK and had sent everything from his closing auctions out the week of Christmas. I didn't know how long mail took from overseas and neither did he. Well, the answer, my friends, is 29 days. Here it is...


2003-04 Topps C-55 Mini Brooklyn Back #31

This is the first C-55 card I think I have in my entire collection. I was out of the hobby at that point, or at least on hiatus. I didn't collect anything from 2000 until 2004. This was one set that must have flew under the radar. It is a retro set modeled almost exactly after the 1911-12 C-55 Set. It is believed by most people in the hobby that Imperial Tobacco issued this set with their tobacco products, although no one actually knows for sure. Topps did a pretty good job of recreating these. Unfortunately though, they fail when it comes to production. In perusing the checklist for others in this set, I found 11 different variations of Guerin cards in this set, 8 of which are mini versions with back variations. Still, I like these cards and will probably try to find some more if I can.

So there we have it. My first player collection PC card of the year.

Some PC pickups off the Bay

I recently (ie. before Christmas, I think) picked up some PC cards off the Bay for somewhere around the whopping $2-3 range w/shipping. In my quest for every Pittsburgh Penguin Card, I present to you, The 1978-79 Pittsburgh Penguins Topps Team Set...



I always loved the old Blue uniforms on the 60s and 70s. I remember my dad had an old practice jersey that was blue and I would always wear it in the winter when we would go out and play crick hockey (if you don't know what that is, we would dam the crick [or creek for you non-easterners] and when it would freeze, we would have our own rink). You have to love the stache on old Oren there, too.



I think the best part about this is the fact that the team checklist is an upgrade. I have most of the team checklists from the 70s sets but I think this is the first one that I now have without being marked up. Checklists in that era were used for that very thing...checklists. I guess they didn't have the internet yet.