Box From 'Bama #7 - (25) 1997-98 Power Pack Blow-Ups Promos Jaromir Jagr

I wish I could find out more about these.  An internet search and Beckett.com weren't of any help unfortunately.  The distribution wasn't in packs, because the cards are 3.5 x 5.  Anyone out there know anything about them, or have much better research skills than I do?

Something else that I found odd was that the 25 cards came with cardboard on each side and wrapped in a rubber band.  I don't know how late 1990s promos were distributed.  Does anyone know if this was a normal method?

The Trading Card Database checklist only lists three of the base cards as promos.  The other two are Joe Sakic and John Vanbiesbrouck.  I see a Vanbiesbrouck image on COMC (it's "sold out"), as well at a Peter Forsberg.  Does the Sakic exist?  Perhaps someone entered him on TCDB incorrectly, since both Sakic and Forsberg played for the Avalanche.  Oh, the mystery...

1997-98 Power Pack Blow-Ups Promos Jaromir Jagr

1997-98 Power Pack Blow-Ups Promos Jaromir Jagr (back)

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

Sportlots - Micro Darrell Whitmore

I have to admit, I've never seen one of these single in person.  I think I've seen the complete sets and how small they are, but just one single card makes them look so much smaller.  For reference, I left the card in the toploader that it was shipped in.

1993 Topps - Micro #697 Darrell Whitmore 

With shipping, I paid 93 cents for the card.  I'm guessing if it was a full size card, I would have had to pay $5.50 or so?

After knocking this one off, I'm down to needing 24 more Whitmores, per TCDB.

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

WE DID IT!!!

Late last month I posted, trying to rally the blogging community to do something for the kids.  I mean, we talk about kids being the future of the hobby, so it seemed like a good idea.  Unfortunately it didn't receive the reception that I expected, which really disappointed me.  However, myself and six others put together enough money to send 300 Jonathan Cheechoo hockey cards north of the border. 

I'd like to thank the six folks that helped out.  Four of contributors were from Twitter:  @DieselDugong, @workoutbaseball, @realwesmoore (aka JBF of blogger lore) and @sunglaspro80.  Also helping out were Richard (who read the blog post) and David (not really sure where he found about it).  You six covered the cost of the cards and some of the priority shipping cost.  I picked up the shipping balance to get them in time for the tournament.  I can't thank you guys enough.  It's great what you all did to help the kids. 

I found the link below from CBC on the event.

LINK:  Indigenous youth hockey teams lace up at the Little NHL

Below is  the invoice for the purchased cards we bought.  I was able to get a very nice variety off of one Sportlots seller.  I can only imagine what he was thinking when he saw that many cards of one player ordered. 

Thanks again to those that pitched in.  I think we did a great thing and I feel really good for taking part in it.  Hopefully we nudged a future collector or two into the hobby!  

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

Sportlots - Whitmore Gold and a Seabol

A couple of weeks ago I scanned and cataloged all of my Darrell Whitmore cards on Trading Card Database.  It was something a long time coming, since I knew there were plenty of holes in the player collection.  Once that was done, I was able to hit Sportlots and knock some cards off the need list.

Whitmore played in three seasons with the Marlins, but he will always be a football player to me.  As a freshman in 1998, he was a vital part of the Mountaineers secondary.  He broke his leg in the last game of the regular season (which I was in the stands for) and missed the Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame (the first disappointment of many as a WVU fan/alum). 

LINK:  Whitmore a WVU standout

He was drafted by the Cleveland Indians, but taken by the Marlins in the expansion draft.  His first major league cards arrived after the 1993 season started and I tried for years to pick up one of each of his cards.  Many of those cards I picked up 25 years ago are still a part of the collection. 

He lives outside of Indianapolis (the final place he played in his professional career) and while I lived there, I hoped he would make it to one of our alumni group's events, but never did.  I would have been a nine-year old all over again.

I added the three Whitmores and the Scott Seabol from Sportlots for less than a buck each.  It doesn't sound like a deal at the top level for someone that maybe one blogger that will read this has heard of, but there were a couple of parallels included. 

1994 Collector's Choice - Gold Signature #295 Darrell Whitmore 

1994 Collector's Choice - Gold Signature #295 Darrell Whitmore (back)

This one is the card that has me most excited.  Anyone that collected during the mid-90s knows that the gold scripts weren't that easy to come by.  I'm sure that in the 1990s I'd have paid well more than the $1 I got it for.  

1995 Donruss - Press Proofs #22 Darrell Whitmore 

1995 Donruss - Press Proofs #22 Darrell Whitmore (back)

Also in my envelope was a parallel that pre-interwebz wasn't easy to come into if you were looking for a particular player.  I was more than happy to find this for a buck, less than any of the four listed on COMC currently.   

1995 Pacific #179 Darrell Whitmore 

1995 Pacific #179 Darrell Whitmore (back)

Some loved Pacific, some hated Pacific.  Count me among the former.  There were some popcorn farts like the "Pacific Online" set and some sets with parallels that are tough to decipher, but all-in-all, I loved Pacific.  

Adding these three Whitmores to my set leaves me 25 cards short of having all his cards (per TCDB). 

The final card I picked up was a Scott Seabol card that I want to send away for a TTM autograph.  He's another of the few former Mountaineers to play in the majors.  At the time he made his major league debut (April 8, 2001), he was the lowest drafted player to play in the bigs.  He was drafted in the 88th round (1716th overall) of the 1996 draft. 

He played just that one game for the Yankees, but that was enough to get him 20 major league cards (including the one below).  He did make it back to the majors and played in 59 games in 2005 for the Cardinals.  I find it fascinating that one game in 2001 got him 20 cards, but 59 games in 2005 got him no cards.  It speaks to the prospecting that happens in the hobby. 

2001 Bowman Heritage #288 Scott Seabol 

2001 Bowman Heritage #288 Scott Seabol (back)

Seabol will be the hitting coach for the Charleston RiverDogs this season, and I'm going to send this there in hope of a TTM success.  I'm a fan of the non-glossy finish on the cards. 

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

Box From 'Bama #6 - (2) 1998-99 Donruss Elite Pavel Bure Promos

One of the best things about the box of cards I purchased is what I will learn.  It started with these two promo cards.  I went to enter them on Trading Card Database, but there was no 1998-99 Donruss hockey sets.  I posted in the forum and received numerous responses.

The promos were released but before the set was, Donruss went under.

1998-99 Donruss Elite Promo #8 Pavel Bure

1998-99 Donruss Elite Promo #8 Pavel Bure (back)

As you see, the promos are supposedly /2500.  However, per Beckett.com: "These cards were issued in the summer of 1998 in anticipation of an upcoming Donruss Elite hockey product. Prior to the release of the full set, Donruss went out of business. No regular cards from this set exist. Each card is marked PROMO/2500 on the back, although it is believed that far fewer than 2,500 copies were produced of each, with some probably limited to 100 or less. Some were believed to be easier to acquire than others, including the Sergei Samsonov and Dominik Hasek issue."

Both Beckett book values and online asking prices are high on some players, confirming that copies were limited.  Book values range from $5 (Sergei Samsonov and Dominik Hasek) to $100 or more (Steve Yzerman, Patrick Roy and Wayne Gretzky).  Pavel Bure falls in the middle, at $40.

I'm sending one copy to one of the newest card bloggers, burefanatic10.  His blog is A guy and his Pavel Bure collection (and other stories).  I checked with him last night and he has a copy, but said mine looks to be in much better shape.  I'll send up sending him one copy because it certainly belongs on that Bure collection of almost 1600 cards.  The other is already in my TCDB inventory to trade or sell.

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

2018 Donruss Hits & More...thanks, @GoGTSLive!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you're not watching Go GTS Live you are missing out.  You get some hobby news, upcoming release previews and box breaks.  If you like free cards, just know they give away most of the hits from those breaks.  I suggest checking it out. 

Recently, I was the lucky winner of a lot of 2018 Donruss baseball.  It's not really my thing and that's okay.  I've already entered most of it (other than the items that don't have checklists yet) into my traders and in time will get some things back that fit better into my collection. 

Thanks to Rob, Ivan and GTS Distribution for the weekly show.  Also, thank you to Panini for supplying them the box to break. 

I took a pic of all of the cards, probably 100, but deleted it on accident.  I've already moved all the cards around, so digging them back out could be a chore.  Oops! 

I did scan some of the better cards, thankfully.  This won't be a picture-free post.  (I hate blog posts that are sans at least one image.)

If there's something you're interested in, I'm IndyBean17 on TCDB.

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

Box From 'Bama #5 - 1986 McDonald's Buccaneers

These cards aren't the easiest to find.  I have looked multiple times for an Oliver Luck (Andrew's dad) without success.  It's a shame that all I could find in the shop were Tampa Bay Buccaneers cards but knowing what I do, I figured I'd pick them up.

I can't imagine a more basic front, but I love the card backs.  Look at all of that text, and no Twitter handles!  I wish companies still cared about card backs like this.

Ron Heller is the ONLY one of these guys that I've heard of.

I did see this one and ask myself "Jerry Ball played for the Buccaneers in the mid-80s?"  Not so fast, my friend.

Hopefully these bring back some memories for you and if you have an Oliver Luck McDonald's card, PLEASE let me know!

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

2018 Trading Card Database Trade #13 - twprkj

More progress toward the 2017 Topps 1987 cards.  On a side note, as a collector, I'm becoming a bigger fan of the semi-rigids over toploaders by the day.  Anyone have thoughts either way on a preference of either? 

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

Box From 'Bama #4 - LOOSE PACKS!

I absolutely love the randomness that I found in my shop visit.

How many packs are there, you ask?

Seven "Super Packs" of 35 cards.  I bought a good bit of these in 1993, but it probably wasn't these super packs.  That 1993 class wasn't too shabby with guys like Jerome Bettis, Garrison Heart and Drew Bledsoe.  Bledsoe was the rookie I was collecting in 1993.

I took this picture for one purpose.  Look at the upper left of it.  $1.69 for 35 cards.  Is it any wonder why there aren't as many kids collecting today as when we were kids?  There's no way my parents could have afforded current prices.  If I was born in 2009 instead of 1979, there's no way I'd be a collector.  

These are also headed to the rack for the time being.  Eventually I'll open and show some results over at A Pack To Be Named Later.  

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

Giveaway Win...thank you, @ShaneSalmonson!

Recently Shane posted a 1999 Bowman Box in his Cheap Wax Wednesday series.  He elected to give away another box on Twitter, and I was the lucky winner! 

In 1999, I was looking for Chris Enochs Bowman cards.  They were in Series 1, though.  The guy I was buying in 1999 that was in Series 2?  Adam Piatt.  

Yeah.  Adam Piatt.  

Who were you collecting/investing in while we were all worrying about the Y2K bug?

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!
  

Box From 'Bama #3 - Lineups

I had a decent collection of Starting Lineups as a kid.  If I remember correctly, probably just south of 200.  I went through a phase (once I hit college) where I wasn't as into cards and the hobby.  When I came back, the bottom had completely fallen out of the SLU prices.  Does anyone know what actually happened?

I know they aren't "worth" anything, but hell...most of what we collect really isn't.  Curtis quoted me both of these for $5.  It was well worth the $5 for the nostalgia I get from these bad boys.

Did you collect SLUs back in the day?  Do you still have them?

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!