Orange you glad you use TCDB?

The TCDB trades have been rolling in, as many other forms of trading and acquiring new cards dry up. I don't post all of my swaps here, but one of my recents was a fun one.

I rarely add or peruse the basketball section of the site, but from time to time I do add a few cards of Syracuse Orange basketball cards just to keep my want a bit diverse. Luckily, it worked out in my favor for a trade with jrad1973, as I sent him a few Astros for the following cards.

While I absolutely hate baseball mascot cards (looking at you, Opening Day), I thought a card of Otto the Orange was cool to have. Typically Syracuse has four students play Otto each year, and during football they alternate each quarter. One of the best mascots in college sports!

A couple of Syracuse one-and-dones! The Carmelo is cool, especially with Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery in the back. Feels like a big event game!

It wasn't just Syracuse cards! Three Yankees were included in the package, as well. I don't hate Contenders baseball. I have no idea when or they were released. Retail blasters, I guess? But I would have never come across them if not for TCDB.

Pretty cool what resorting to TCDB can net you, especially for unwanted Astros cards!

Staying Melo on Memorial Day Weekend

Man, what a shitty Memorial Day Weekend.

The forecast calls for rain all weekend, as well as record low temps here in New Jersey. This is a very 2020 thing to happen...not 2021! It's especially disappointing after last weekend was in the '90s. The town pool opens today, but no one will be there.

I'm especially bummed because I really needed a nice, relaxing long weekend after a tiring few weeks at work. I guess nothing will stop it from being relaxing, but there's not much to do other than sit inside. I'd rather be out on the patio with a drink and enjoying the weather.

Regardless, I can't control the weather. But I can control my mood. And I hope to stay mellow. Or Melo. Just like my newest basketball card.

I totally missed collecting during Carmelo Anthony's prime, as I not only stopped collecting during many of those years, but stopped buying basketball cards. However, I do like to pick up Carmelo cards here and there, and an autographed card by him is high up on my want list.

For now, I'll grab singles here and there. I especially liked the shiny foil look of this one, plus it shows him in a Syracuse uniform.

I hope your weather is better than mine this weekend. But most importantly, I hope you all can relax and stay Melo.

Return of the King

A few weeks back, The Diamond King ran his own unique twist on the Big Fun Game. The BFG is a Napkin Doon creation that has seen a few iterations, but it is still alive in several forms, and for that, he is always with us.

The DK ran a fun one where he gave every player a balance - 100 DK$ - and you essentially bid on the items he posted. Players could also receive bonus DK$ for answering trivia questions or unlocking hidden moments of the game.

I only one won lot - I was a little too stingy with my DK$ - but I came home with a good one.

I feel bad because I sniped a fellow blogger, but it just so happened I was near my phone as the bidding was coming to a close, so I took care of business.

The item I wanted centered not only around basketball RCs, but had a few MJs as well. Fitting that I won it for 45 DK$, a strategic number I used because one of the Jordans was of him wearing #45:

The real apple of my eye was a RC of this guy:

Dirk was a player I really enjoyed watching, and the chance to score a beautiful Flair RC of him was too much to pass up.

This was the second most interesting card to me, for obvious reasons. Any Kobe adds right now are solid.

I had never seen these M3 rookie cards, They are pretty fun. In doing a little research, the ones with LeBron are obviously the most sought after. I liked the ones with Melo and D-Wade, though.

Next, some RCs of guys in a college product. Fun cards. You've got a beardless James Harden, right before his college career was brutally ended by Syracuse. You've got Derrick Rose, who I saw play for Memphis at MSG and I was convinced OJ Mayo was going to be better. Then you've got Pierce and Duncan. Sweet!

The DK also threw in a few non-auction items, including a signed Tino USA RC and a few others. I asked if he had a story behind the Tino, but just said it came from a cheap box at a show once, The signature looks legit to me though.

This was indeed a fun game. Just wish I didn't keep 62 unused DK$!

Wait, is this the contest prize? Or is this?

I've had this posted draft for ages, but just never got around to publishing.

Back in the late spring, I got two packages from Kerry over at Cards on Cards. I actually figured the first package was my contest prize for his March Madness contest, but then the second package indicated that that was indeed the contest package. So looks like the first was just a nice act of generosity from Kerry!

The first package was a mixture of Yanks and Knicks. The highlight for me was a very shiny, beautiful Elite Series Gleyber.

In the words of ZZ, woof. That's a pretty card.

A few other Yanks were included, which we new to me at the time.

The Knicks cards are always fun to go through, minus the fact that they are...you know...players on the Knicks. I just like seeing basketball cards, which to me, have been a bit better looking than baseball cards on the whole over the last few years.

Look, it's the guy the Knicks traded away so that they'd have the cap space to sign Durant Julius Randle and Kyrie Bobby Portis.

I can't keep track of all the Panini parallels, but I do think these look really nice.

While I'll always be a fan of the old Donruss and Pacific, I'm not the biggest fan of bastardizing them like this in current issues, although the Melo is ok.

These two sets bring me back to my childhood!

And I'll always laugh at the back of 90-91 Skybox where they had a box with the player's first name in it. So odd.

Here's a nice assortment, as well an auto that was neatly tucked inside! Will Hernangomez has a very elaborate signature, eh?

So I would have been totally fine if that was the prize package, as it was generous and a blast to go through. But then this showed up, which was the REAL prize!

This was a bit more Yankee centric!

My favorite card was a Hertitage Clubhouse Collection of Masahiro Tanaka! Pretty sweet card.

Here are some other's that caught my eye. As I've been saying, any Gleybers right now are very welcome!

Kerry, thanks for always sending such excellent packages!

Cards on Cards coming in faster than outgoing cards

Just around Christmas, another awesome package from Kerry at Cards on Cards came in.

While I was happy to receive the unexpected package, I cursed to myself a little bit because I've been meaning to send Kerry a package, and he beat me to it again! Kerry, I do have a package with some Cardinals and some Blazers cards you probably have, I just need to hit the post office and send your way.

Packages from him are always fun because I get to see some new basketball products. I'm happy to see that NBA Hoops is growing strong. Back in the mid-90s I collected basketball far more heavily than baseball, and Hoops was a staple, especially for a kid on a budget, as it was usually the most affordable pack. I remember them being $.89 at CVS.

 

The Donruss and Donruss Optic cards look nice too. I wish Donruss baseball had the team-colored backgrounds like other sports. It would have made them so much better. I'm glad to get a RC of Frank Ntilikina.

I always appreciate the Malachi Richardson cards too. I have to send him a TTM request one day.

Baseball! There was some baseball too, of course, headlined for me by this excellent-looking Tino Martinez diecut.

Pinnacle Xpress came out when Pinnacle was putting out 25 different sets a year, but I think this is one of the better looking ones they put out. Pretty unique looking, if you ask me.

I do like Donruss Optic, and think the Diamond Kings look good, although I always chuckle at this card since it looks like ARod is hitting his face.

This is definitely one of the best cards of 2017!

Lastly, Kerry sent a bunch of packs from the Leaf Babe Ruth set. My son likes Babe Ruth because of the movie Everyone's Hero, so I like being able to give him card of the Babe when he asks for one.

Kerry, a package is coming your way soon. Thanks for always taking care of me!

JBF's World Cup of Trading

As many have undoubtedly seen, JBF of Willinghammer Risingheld his World Cup of Trading. In return for the good below, I sent Wes an 8x10 acrylic on canvas painting of Josh Willingham:

I’ll start by showing what I claimed. First and foremost, a signed Kevin Mitchell jersey:

I did feel a little bad about claiming this, as I feel a Giant fan would have really liked it. However, in a previous Big Fun Game held by Wes, I had a Mookie Wilson signed jersey and some point that was stolen from me, so I felt like this was a second chance at adding a signed jersey to my collection, which is a first for me. I do plan on hanging it alongside the area in my attic where I am organizing my cards.

I also claimed two cards:

The Andy Carey, because 1956 Topps. And the Carmelo relic? Well, I don’t really collect basketball, but Melo is a favorite of mine from my Syracuse days, and I thought it’d be cool to add a jersey swatch of his to my collection. I have a rookie card too, so I guess now I need an autograph?

As Wes usually does, he included a stack of Yankees.

I could never have enough of this card.

This is a great card. It’s like a 20 year old Superfractor, although not 1/1. It’s from 1994 Pacific Prism. I really don’t need to show any more proof on why Pacific was awesome, but I’m going to keep showing off their cards because they dominated the ‘90s, most people just didn’t know it.

Circa Thunderboomers! I already had this card, although this one is in better condition than the one I had. The hole in the wooden fence is actually clear cut. Pretty neat.

Classly looking Jeter card.

I liked these Bunt Lightforce cards. Pretty fun design, and in my opinion, what an insert card should be.

Last but not least, a confusing, yet cool set: Topps Stars N Steel. I’m not surprised this had a short shelf life, but they were actually pretty cool. They were metal! It’d be neat to see this come back as a one-off, maybe in some high end product.

Wes, my man, thank you as always!