COMC Show & Tell - 1948 Bowman

I believe that 85% of card-related blogs are baseball centric, so I'm sure that many will be disappointed in the blog title and post.  Why?  Because it's vintage football.

I paid a total of $2.90 for these cards.  I usually don't want to pay more than $1 for 1950-55 Bowman football commons, but the 1948s aren't as easy to come into, so I was willing to pay just a little more.

I love the images on the 1950 and 1951 Bowman cards much better than the photos that came afterward.  There's something about these photos that I enjoy.  I believe that it's the black and white photo.  That, or the helmets that the players are wearing.

1948 Bowman #31 Salvatore Rosato 

1948 Bowman #31 Salvatore Rosato (back)

1948 Bowman #67 Paul McKee

1948 Bowman #67 Paul McKee (back)

This is the only card listed for both players on Trading Card Database.  It's likely there are some oddball/regional issues not on the site, but they have to be the only mainstream cards.  I wonder what percentage of players from the early days of trading cards had just one card and if those men were interested enough to try and own a copy.

I only have four cards from this set so far, but I'm almost 4% of the way to set completion!  I have no plans to actually pursue completion, but I'll not pass up cheap cards that I come into.

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!

COMC Show & Tell - Hey, (Josh) Judy

A few weeks ago, I had a shipment sent from COMC.  It wasn't just any shipment, it was the largest shipment I've ever received.  I can't speak for anyone else, but years ago when I joined COMC, I never imagined I'd have a 432 card mailday.  What's the most you've had sent on one shipment?

Over the next few weeks, I'll post some of the pickups as I scan, enter them into my Trading Card Database collection and the other many things I do that are completely ridiculous.  I never would have seen this as the future when I started collecting in 1987.

These four cards are ones that I needed for my Josh Judy collection.  Judy was born in my hometown and once I discovered that, it was a given that I'd collect his cards.  Per TCDB, there are 56 cards of him, but I think there are a few minor league cards missing.

Many like COMC.  I also see a lot of whiners and complainers about it.  I added all four of these cards to my collection for $1.57.  I'm happy with that.

2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects - Chrome Purple Refractors #51 Josh Judy 

I tried scanning this card two different ways.  It makes me happy that the scan reflects that the card is a refractor.  In both scans, the border comes out blue.  I promise, it's purple!

2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects - Chrome Refractors #51 Josh Judy 

2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects - Chrome #51 Josh Judy 

2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects - Gold #51 Josh Judy

Yes, my goal is to have one of every Josh Judy card.  I also realize that with 1/1s it won't happen.  It won't stop me from trying.

At this point, my Judy collection is just over halfway complete.  I don't think it would take anything more than a quick search of Ebay, COMC and Sportlots to get that up to 75%.  In time...

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 Trading Card Database Trade #12 - CardsThatTimeForgot

Another day, another trade.  I was able to send a lot of hockey in return and that made me really happy.  It's tough for me to find folks interested in hockey on TCDB and that's the sport that I have the most traders.  

Now that these cards are not current season, I'm hoping to put a huge dent in the need list the rest of the year.

Thanks for the trade, Jim!

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!

TCDB Trade - Lords of the Rink

A few weeks back I received my favorite kind of trade offer on Trading Card Database - one where I trade away baseball and get hockey in return.  There are plenty of traders that have cards from my for sell/trade list, but they pretty much only have baseball to trade back. 

I've actually had a shift in the last few days and I'm not trying to collect the three guys (Dale Murphy, Will Clark and Mickey Tettleton) from the junk wax era that were on my wish list.  Too many traders were wanting to trade me three cent cards from that era for more recent cards that both cost and have more value than those.  The kicker is that they wanted one-for-one. 

It's going to make trading tougher for me, but such is life, I suppose. 

I traded away five baseball cards for seven Blackhawks cards from the 1994-95 Pinnacle Rink Collection parallel set.  This is one of the parallels that I want to acquire the entire team set of.  I never imagined I'd get seven of the seventeen in one trade.  Lucky me! 

The cards were 1:4 packs.  For the baseball collectors reading, this is the hockey version of Pinnacle's Museum Collection. I know there's a lot of love out there for those cards. 

1994-95 Pinnacle Rink Collection #94 Chris Chelios

1994-95 Pinnacle Rink Collection #117 Brent Sutter

1994-95 Pinnacle Rink Collection #137 Gary Suter

1994-95 Pinnacle Rink Collection #283 Patrick Poulin

1994-95 Pinnacle Rink Collection #301 Paul Ysebaert

1994-95 Pinnacle Rink Collection #317 Dirk Graham

1994-95 Pinnacle Rink Collection #434 Christian Ruuttu

Let's go Hawks!

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 (including $15 back on one Black Friday purchase last week).  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

PWE Surprise from The Lost Collector

I came home Thursday to find a PWE on the table with a return address that I recognized, but couldn't place in my head.  Inside I was thrilled to find four Russ Davis cards from AJ, of The Lost Collector blog.  Thank you so much, AJ!

I'm now at almost 70% complete on the Russ Davis collection.  I am probably already there, with some of the oddballs and randoms that aren't listed on Trading Card Database.  WINNING!

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 $100 in less than a year.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Who's on TCDB

I haven't been blogging or sharing and reading other's blogs as much.  I've stepped back from social media a good bit.  With all the nonsense happening in the world, it seems a good time. 

Something I've been working on for the last week is getting more organized and entering cards into Trading Card Database.  Within a couple of days I already had a trade offer and I have accepted six trades already!  It's been a welcome change. 

If you're on there, feel free to leave your ID below and/or add me as a friend on there.  Hopefully we can make some trades soon!  Trading - it makes me feel much more like a collector again. 

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 $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!