Sunday Night PWE Round-Up

 

Cards in small packages including a set filler from @cardboardjones tops off the weekend. 

 

Let's run through the contents of a few plain white envelopes before we welcome in the dreaded Monday.

First up is some stuff from reader Derek from Ottawa. The Topps Scratch Off set from 1981 seems to be one of those rare innovations that has never been repeated. I know they had some earlier scratchcards from the late '60s that were replicated in recent Topps Heritage sets, but this exact design probably won't see life again until 2030, assuming we're all still on this planet at that point.

Here's one from one of several attempts to get an MLB-themed TCG going. It didn't seem to have worked, but it produced a number of interesting and sometimes hard to find cards.

The best thing about exchanging cards with someone from another country is when you get hooked up with a regional exclusive. This seems to be some kind of educational bookmark. The back essentially looks the same, but all of the text is in French.

Steve from Cardboard Jones has been the best contributor to my 2003 Topps set endeavor over the years, and this latest crop of cards hits the Traded set portion of my want list. Future Cardinal legend Adam Wainwright and Dan Haren's rookie card highlight this group here. Kenny Lofton was also an unforgettable talent on the field.

This group isn't quite as impressive, but Jeromy Burnitz and Jerry Hairston Jr. certainly made an impact in their respective times in the league. Kirk Reuter was perhaps best known for being nicknamed "Woody" after the Toy Story character thanks to lazy Fox Sports broadcasters.

The one and only Elliptical Man sent along some (American) football cards. Brandon Graham has been one of the best Eagles of the past decade and I hope that he is able finish his career in Philly.

Lane Johnson is another mainstay over the past decade. Here's his Topps Chrome rookie card from 2013. You get a lot of weird attire with NFL rookie card photos.

I do really like this striking orange jersey swatch from Ducks star Royce Freeman, even though the photo is totally posed.

Carson Wentz isn't quite on my "do not collect" list (see Vick, Michael), but he's close. I do realize that the Eagles Super Bowl win in 2018 would almost certainly not have been possible without his stellar play during the season before he was injured, but the dude is pretty insufferable. This has a much nicer design that the 2018 Donruss Threads cards, however.

Basketball Cards for You (and Me)

Time to renew your free membership for free cards. 

It's been awhile since I've taken a look at the list of Guilt-Free Basketball Card Club members. I have scores and scores of cards to send out to people and am planning on a pretty serious purge of any unclaimed teams or players in the near future. If I haven't heard from you in awhile, please contact me and let me know if you want some basketball cards for pretty much nothing (that's why it's "Guilt Free"). All I ask is that if you run across some Blazers cards you think I might like, or really anything else from any of my collecting interests, just keep me in mind. No strict trades, no details, no guilt.

Please also let me know if you've signed up before and are interested in other players/teams not listed or are no longer interested in certain things. Just visit the page, and let me know.

Here are some members who I am considering for deletion if I don't hear from soon. It's not that you've been bad, I just haven't heard from you in a long time or don't have your mailing address (that last bit eventually becomes important.)

• Catching Up With Collecting (Ryan H)
• Henry M
• View From The Skybox
• Mariner1
• Potch (Darren W)

Here's just one example of a card that would get sent to the Great Auction Site in The Sky if no one signed up for the Warriors (seriously, no one likes the team that won 2 out of the last 3 championships?)

One Basketball Card Club member in great standing is Twitch, who is responsible for sending me the sweet CJ rookie jersey card and many other great cards of late. Let's take a look at what else he sent recently.

Hey, it's an original sketch from the man himself. Nic Batum was one of my favorite Blazers, so much that he was the first player of any sport whose shersey I decided to purchase. (50% Adidas employee store discounts help.) I still wear it on occasion, especially during basketball season/

Twitch sent Cards cards, and since this is a Cards blog first and foremost you were probably expecting that. Someone at Panini who gets to crop old photos and digitally remove logos really needs to do a Reddit AMA one of these days.

The Matt Carpenter backlash this year has been tremendous, and tremendously stupid. No, he isn't having an All-Star season at the plate like he usually does. Yes, all those walks are good for him. You'd think with all of the progress we've made as baseball fans with advanced stats and whatnot, no one would be overlooking Carpenter's contributions in getting on base with frequency despite not taking bases with contact as often as normal.

The once and current Cardinals closer: now in pink flavor!

Twitch also remembered that I like the Eagles, which is something that comes up on occasion. Brent Celek is one of my favorite Eagles. He's one of the only links to the Donovan McNabb era and he's an old school fundamentals-over-athletics tight end that just happens to have caught a ton of passes in his career. He's a great "bail me out" option in the passing game, which just so happens to be my go to move in every football video game I've ever played.

Shady, from a Panini Black Friday promo, numbered to just 25. I think this is some sort of "Black Ice" card?

Finally, it's Press Proof Rated Rookie parallel of new and current QB Carson Wentz. If things go the way of the hype train for Wentz, this card could be worth a pretty good chunk of change. On the other hand, it could also end up as exciting as a Bobby Hoying rookie Press Proof card. I suppose we'll wait and see.

We Have a Winner!

It was a close one. 

I want to extend a hearty congratulations to P00PSH00TER, who wins the big March Radness prize in a tiebreaker over akquillen (from the Tomahawk Chop blog). Yes, we knew the day was inevitable when I'd eventually have to spell out the name P00PSH00TER on this blog again, and that day is here. P00PSH00TER (that's 3 times now) and Tomahawk Chop tied in total points, so we went to a tiebreaker, with P00PSH00TER (4!) picking UNC in the final with a closer score (75-73) to the actual final (71-65) than Tomahawk Chop's prediction (78-75). The other runners-up were Bump and Run (3rd place) and Wilson (4th). The clearly deranged Erin wound up with this year's worst bracket, and she will be finding spiders in her handbag for weeks to come. If you're one of our winners, please get in touch with your mailing address as I am terrible at keeping track of these things.

Since this is a card blog, let's check out some cards, since presumably if you're still reading this you didn't win anything. Maybe next time? Way back in the winter month of January, I received some stuff from Canadian trade partner Sportscards From The Dollar Store. Court Kings seems to be the hoops version of Diamond Kings, with fancy artwork on faux-canvas cardstock. It looks good.

I don't think I've ever seen an Elite card that I really liked, but I appreciate getting new cards of The Glide.

On another outlandish Panini design, it looks like Dame is either about to get eaten by gargoyles or licked by sheep. I'm not sure which.

Hey, here's a baseball card... kind of! As much as I was excited about the Hamm cards from the First Pitch insert set in 2015, these get old rather quickly. I like Wilco and all, but Jeff Tweedy is a bit of a step down from Jon Hamm, don't you think? I pretty much took the year off from flagship Topps (something I am repeating this year), so it is nice to get ahold of any insert or parallel because I wasn't going to pull this in a pack.

Buckstorecards is your leading source for O-Pee-Chee CFL cards, which allows me to brush up on my Oregon Ducks football history. Oldham was a UO alum who won the Grey Cup with the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1973, and according to the back of the card he was known to be the fastest man in the league.

Lefty Hendrickson played tight end for the Ducks in the '60s before he made it in the CFL. A bit of Googling led me to this article from the archives.

Someone remembered that I liked the Eagles! Carson Wentz got off to a nice start as a rookie, but quickly began to struggle with the lackluster receiving corps that surrounded him. The team has made some significant moves this offseason, and it will be interesting to see how Wentz does in year two. This card is from Panini's Black Friday promotion.

I really like Jordan Matthews, but he has a share of the blame for the offense's struggles last season. (As does, probably, first year head coach Doug Pederson.) I don't know what Panini Spectra is, but they sure do make a nice and shiny dual jersey card.

Thanks again to Sportscards From The Dollar Store, and everyone who participated in this year's Radness.