Footballers, American

A package of bird team cards from @forgotaboutblay where most of the guys are wearing helmets. 

 

I don't set many goals when the calendar flips to January once again, but I am hoping to get through all of the cards that were sent to me from blog-reading pals in 2022 by... oh, let's say the end of the month. It would be nice to get through it all before the first 2023 set drops, but I have no idea when that is. This latest group of cards features mostly football players from Dennis of Too Many Verlanders. As usual, he sent me so many really nice Ducks cards that I'm holding a couple more back for a reveal during next football season.

Jevon Holland has put together a nice first couple of seasons in the league. While there are many Ducks on NFL rosters at any given point in time, not all of them get regular playing time like Holland.

The other green team, the pro one, is represented well here. This card is very cool to look at in person, as the "1309" is actually punched out of the card. (I'm not sure how well I'm describing this, but it basically means that you can see right through the card!)

I was having a discussion with a friend recently about all of the over-hyped quarterbacks that came out of USC from the Pete Carroll days. Matt Barkley's name didn't come up, but he was a Carroll recruit and played his first season with the now-Seahawks coach.

That's not to belittle Barkley or these sharp looking cards that Dennis sent. He's been a serviceable backup in the NFL for a decade, including two seasons in Philadelphia. How many of us can say that?

Donovan McNabb was certainly better than a backup throughout his career (well, maybe not at the end with that other team.) This card is certainly weird, though. It looks a bit unfinished. I'm guessing the "Gamers" insert also has a version where there is game-used stuff on the left side of the card, but whenever these sets (usually DLP brands in the '00s) would essentially copy-paste the same design to a basic insert card, it always looked weird.

Na Brown! There's a name from the past. I was playing a lot of NFL 2K back in those days, so I was more familiar with the Eagles receiving depth chart than anyone should have been at the time.

Hey, this guy isn't wearing a helmet! I can't bring myself to peel the coating off of these Finest cards, even if they are refractors and would look so much better without it. I also won't refuse peeled cards in trades or purchases, so what do I know?

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.