The Rest of the Stash

Not just a hockey blog! 

Last week, we took a look at a few cards of the newly crowned champs after capturing their very first Stanley Cup. This time around, let's check out a selection of some of the great non-Blues cards I received from buckstorecards. All in all, this was quite a great lot, and I need to figure out how to get this things squared and still somehow avoid the high cost of international shipping.

I love that new Clyde Drexler cards are still being produced. This is an especially good looking inserts from this past season's Prizm set. The Glide is looking especially cool here doing some sort of midair move while some silly Lakers look on the in the background, dumbfounded.

Festus?! Yes, the dude that never played a minute, practice or otherwise for the Blazers, still gets cards in a Portland uni. I guess it's cool that he showed up for team photo day or something. Injuries suck.

Here's an Immaculate Dame. Rarely do cards from such a treasured line come into this household, so this was a nice surprise.

This past year's Court Kings set had several different tiers of rookie cards. Here's Anfernee Simons in Pissed Off Tier 1 and Super Happy Tier 2.

Along with Blazers cards, there was a flock of Ducks and Ducks alums. DAT's card from 2014 Bowman Platinum feature two pieces of player worn memorabilia. It would be funny if the players wore every single jersey they need to put on during the Rookie Photoshoot at the same time, and just peeled them off in layers. That's probably not how it works, is it?

Here's a couple of cool cards of the recently retired J-Stew.

Big super intense football close-up shot!

Here's another patch from a photo shoot. LaMichael is looking like he doesn't quite know what to do with the ball here. Are the balls differently shaped in the pros?

Doug was cool enough to send some Eagles cards my way as well, including this sticker auto of the team's on again, off again wide receiver Jordan Matthews.

Finally, let's end it on a good note, with a Cardinals cards. That's right, this is a baseball blog! This is a 1st Year card of the Cardinals uber-prospect Nolan Gorman. It looks like people are going to more or less hoard his cards for awhile, so any chance to get one of these is good for me.

A Massive Haul

All the cards from all the sports. 

I don't use the words "massive" or "haul" all that often, let alone together. I just couldn't think of better words to describe what I got from Sportscards From The Dollar Store back in November. All the big sports were involved, including hockey -- not pictured here because, while I enjoy the sport, I barely have time for it (and never know what to say about it) because I spend so much time watching all of these other dumb sports.

Cardinals cards are the first order of business here, and we kick things off with a couple of Harrison Bader rookie cards. Bader was my favorite Cardinal last season, and I'm thrilled to be piling up his rookie cards. The Stadium Club card is actually a black foil parallel with a low print run (I think?).

I don't talk about minor league cards enough here, but I love them. Jordan Hicks, who made the huge leap from A ball last season, is showing his best Pitcher Face here.

Here's another minor leaguer. Game used championship banner?! In baseball cards, you see something new every day.

With Jose Martinez somewhat surprisingly in the mix in the Cardinals suddenly crowded outfield, it will be interesting to see what Tyler O'Neill brings to the table in 2019. This is his "action" photo variation from last year's Heritage High #s.

I avoided Panini Chronicles blasters when they were on the shelf because I didn't fully understand the set, but it apparently gives Panini the chance to show off a bunch of set designs they didn't fully commit to. There's also a "base" design which is entirely exclusive to this set. This is a Press Proof parallel of the base design.

And this is what Score would have looked like, if Panini had released a Score set for baseball. I'm honestly not sure why they didn't. Score usually equates to affordable, and it was a well known thing back in the day. I think the budget looking design blends well with Panini's lack of an MLB license. If anything, the fancier high end stuff is where they start to embarrass themselves in the baseball realm.

Here's the "Select" design, which was not a thing -- except in Chronicles!

Switching gears to basketball, and the Blazers specifically, here's a super thick fancy card from the 2015-16 Panini Black Gold set. The cards are kind of impossible to describe in words. The whole thing is sort of encased in plastic, and lighter part of the design is kind of like a window. The cards are also kind of... hollow?

It's a huge Dame jersey card! Wait, no, it's... MASSIVE.

Current Denver Nugget and namesake of my fantasy hoops team Mason Plumlee also makes a fancy basketball card appearance.

I also like football... specifically, the Oregon Ducks! I bet you didn't know that (you totally knew that.) Like almost all things in the card world, Panini is responsible for this set. I wonder if they're planning on bringing it to the NBA.

It's a silver ink auto! Royce Freeman had a pretty solid rookie season, and I'm hoping he continues to do big things on the football field. Do NFL people collect him?

I've actually managed to catalog all of my Oregon Ducks cards, so I actually finally can keep track of what I have and still need in this area. This includes basketball cards. Tyler Dorsey was a big part of the Ducks Final Four team of a couple of years ago, and he's sense moved on to the Memphis Grizzlies. I do like the swatch used for this card an awful lot, with the Hawks diamond cut pattern on the jersey.

(I'm sorry I was mean to you, hockey. Go Blues!)

It's Late

I'm tired. Here's a recent Listia win. 

I'm not sure how much life is left in the Listia website after their conversion from their own virtual currency system to some cryptocurrency that no one's even heard of. The price of said currency has plummeted to less than 3 cents per whatever, as Listia trudges on. I have no idea who and how much actual cash is being spent on the site, outside of people paying for postage to mail their stuff around the country. I can still find interesting cards on it from time to time, including this weird shiny "camo" Damian Lillard.

It's a low numbered card, and I spent a very low amount of cryptowhatevers on it. I can't imaging listing anything like this on the site for auction myself, but I can't complain as a winning buyer. Someone has to be making something off this site, right?

The NBA Draft is less than a week away, and it will be very interesting to me to see what the Blazers team looks like by this time next month.

Blazers of Prestige

I bought a slot in a @SCCTradingCards Group Break. 

I know it's been basketball-heavy around here at Cards on Cards, but I've got just a couple more of these to get off my chest before we head full swing into baseball season. After being tantalized on Twitter a number of times, I finally bit and plunked down some cash for a group break guaranteed team slot (I don't do random) for a new Panini set.

I'm going to show you every card I received, sans duplicates. This set has a bunch of unnumbered parallels with dumb names like Crystal, Horizon, Metallized, Rain, and Compost. Through some research, which should really not be so necessary, I've determined this this is "Metallized". Also, I may have made one of those parallel names up.

Back to the base cards. You know you're having a truly cursed season when just when it looks like you're finally getting integrated into your new team's offense after a really rough go of things for several months, you break your hand. Turner is back now, and was playing his best ball right when he got hurt. Hopefully he can get enough time to be a key part of the team before the possible playoff series.

Rookies have had little to no impact on the Blazers season, which is a little bit surprising considering how they spent nearly the entire season outside of the playoff discussion. They're back in it now, battling with Denver for a single spot. Layman is best known for a barrage of garbage time three-pointers he hit during the first week of the season. And the hair.

At the price point, this wasn't a great break for me, but I did end up with an autograph. It wasn't bad. This is one of those cards that probably goes for $10 in the Greater Portland Metro Area and $1 everywhere else.

Obligatory Dame card!

Here's the other "hit", and it's a serial numbered (to 75) parallel. Lillard had a really rough prolonged stretch to this season as he was trying to play through an injured ankle, but he's been deadly as we head closer to the end of the schedule.

These Stat Stars inserts looks pretty similar to the base cards, but there's a bit of gold foil on them.

I have to say this: Mason Plumlee was better than advertised in his time with the Blazers, and there are so many things he does well on the basketball court that it's hard to say anything negative about him. I liked watching him play. The guy that replaced him has really done some interesting stuff, though.

While he's not pictured shooting here, one of my favorite things about CJ is his shot selection. I can't think of anyone who puts up smarter shots than he does these days. There are probably people with a better understanding of advanced NBA stats than me who could back this assertion up.

Here's the other rookie of the team set. Quarterman was undrafted and made the team as the 15th man as a bit of a surprise. He's played even less than Layman, but undoubtedly has some good stories to tell after his experiences this season.

This is the Metallized 1/4 Man.

Another thing I need to admit publicly: I wanted one of these guys gone, as recently as last month. As great as they are (and they're pretty great), the two shooting guards in point guard bodies thing just wasn't working, as it usually doesn't for most teams. There's a lot of redundancy. And while I still don't really believe in it long term, even in this current three-shooting happy version of the NBA, the Blazers found another way to make things work by going out and making a different move. Jusuf Nurkic is now running wild on the court for the Trail Blazers, and we're all just along for the ride.

Serious Snail Mail

It was worth the wait.

Yesterday, there was a plain white envelope waiting in my box from Canada that was anything but plain. It was also postmarked November 30th, which I found a bit odd. I know international shipping can take some extra time, but this was pretty ridiculous! The envelope in question was sent by Mets/Jays/Raptors/hockey fan buckstorecards, and I have to tell you that it was pretty great. There were a few cards for the Cardinals binders and some neat stuff from the other sports.

Two cards of former Eagles QBs were included, including this Chrome-style Panini Select Nick Foles. (Why do they have this set and Prizm? This looks better.) Foles seemed like he was going to be a franchise quarterback, but then all kinds of madness transpired and Foles went on to disappoint Rams fans instead. It was an awful year to be a Rams fan, unless you're that one guy who will go to their games next year somewhere in Los Angeles. The other ex-Eagles QB included in the bunch just simply cannot be mentioned here.

I usually save my Ducks cards for gameday posts, but I was pretty excited to share a CFL card for once in my life. Jeremiah Johnson is a number of years removed from his college career, but it's nice to see him getting work in the pros one way or another.

Here's the card that blew me away. Lillard cards cost a pretty penny in this area, and this is such a nice one. It has sort of a vinyl canvas surface to it, similar to the mid-'00s Diamond Kings baseball sets. I could certainly do with more Dame cards in envelopes in my mailbox, even if it takes a month or two to arrive!

Cards from Across the Border: The Red & The Black

New Blazers cards from buckstorecards.

My oft-neglected Blazers collection has had a bit of a facelift done on it recently. I'm current with my binders (now 3 of them!) and if I can just get around to working on the want lists, it'll be like I'm a real card collector or something. The latest additions to my collection came from Sportscards From The Dollar Store, who sent over what I believe may be the entire 2014-15 NBA Hoops team set along with a bunch of inserts and parallels. (So many parallels.)

Here's what the base cards look like. I'll forgo my usual embargo on all things Lakers on this blog because Kaman is one of the good guys now, and he has the logo (if not the jersey) to show for it.

Picture Perfect is, I'm guessing, an insert. It's a nice looking card at any rate, even if Damian Lillard is doing his best to look super serious here.

These Road to the Finals inserts are pretty slick as they capture actual moments in the playoffs, like this one. If you watched any playoff basketball last year, you're probably familiar with the 0.9 play. You may have even seen it on the ESPYs. This incredible shot sent the Blazers on to face the Spurs in the next round, where they'd be humbled by an efficient champion-to-be.

More Lillard. I probably should've found some different players to scan, huh?

One last Dame card, commemorating his achievement in last year's All-Star Weekend where he participated in every single event they could come up with. I think he even did some valet work. Also, did you know that there's a Smoothie King Center? I didn't.

Here's a refractory parallel of second year guard CJ McCollum's base card. It's numbered to 399. Panini uses this foil numbers, not the crappy ink blots that Topps has been known to fancy in recent years.

Finally, here's yet another parallel (I think there are goldish ones in the set, too. And possibly other colors.) of fan favorite RoLo. This one is sparkly. It's fitting.

So many Parallels, Panini. I don't know what you are thinking.

Drop me a line if you have any extra Blazers and/or if there's an NBA team that you like.