Archive for October, 2009

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My winning package from Beckett

Posted in Newspaperman with tags , , , , , , , on October 19, 2009 by Cardboard Icons

About a week ago, Chris Olds held a short contest via Twitter in which he showed a screenshot of the movie Top Gun, and wanted participants to name the actor in the image that has a certified autograph. Well, after making four guesses, I had the right answer: Adrian Pasdar, an actor from Heroes. (Altered image can be seen here.) The winner of said contest was to receive a baseball autograph.

Well, my package arrived Saturday and here is the baseball autograph: 2005 UD USA Baseball dual signature of Jonah Nickerson and Kevin Gunderson, both of whom played for Oregon State University, winners of the 2006 NCAA National Championship. Cool card.

BeckettWin1

But there was something else in the package that was equally as awesome: A Chris Olds custom card in the likes of 2008 Topps Allen & Ginter; his face emblazoned on an image of Nick Swisher. The card is “numbered” to 50 and like a business card as there is some basic information on the back: name, e-mail address and title with the company.  Laugh all you want — I some of you don’t like Chris — but you know somewhere on your computer you’ve got a custom A&G card too. ChrisOldsNow, which do you think is cooler: The above Olds card or this Jim Beckett, which Topps actually produced.

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Thrift Treasures Part XV: Bo Knows A Bargain

Posted in Thrift Treasures with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on October 18, 2009 by Cardboard Icons

TTXV2Who doesn’t love a good bargain. Whether it’s a legitimate bargain, or merely some sort of perceived bargain matters not. If I spend 50 cents and theoretically got just a few dollars in book value in return, does that constitute a bargain? It does when the loot evokes certain memories of card collecting days past.

Such was the case on Saturday when I stopped at a local comic/video game/card/junk shop. This place used to have bargain wax boxes, but they’ve ditched just about everything sports related. The only things remaining are some boxes of 2008 Topps baseball, some graded junk that is overpriced and two 3,500 count boxes of cards that are selling for a dime each.

I stuck to the bargain boxes and had a hard time spending a dollar. I know you’re thinking I’m a cheap bastard, but fact is I could not find more than five cards that were worth 10 cents each to me. But the five cards I did purchase are awesome.

Looks like Spree has THAT look in his eye.

Looks like Spree has THAT look in his eye.

One of the must-have cards I spotted in this box is this Latrell Sprewell rookie. Do you now hard these were to find back in the day, especially here in the San Francisco Bay Area. It almost seemed as if the Shaquille O’Neal parallel rookies were easier to find that these. This one is likely headed to my cousin as he was a huge Spree fan.

I feel the Earth move under my feet ...

I feel the Earth move under my feet ...

I’ve written about this card already this weekend and found it very fitting that I found this copy on Saturday, the 20th anniversary of the pictured event. To read more, click HERE.

Beltran wishes his name were LeBron

Beltran wishes his name were LeBron

The Juan LeBron/Carlos Beltran error rookie card — a classic. Book says $6, I paid 10 cents — You tell me what it is worth. By the way, this one came in a top loader, so I guess I kind of got the card for free. :)

Looks like an old school card show

Looks like an old school card show

Here is a 1991 Pro Set hockey Draft Pick insert/short print card. When this card came out, it was one of a handful of inserts that actually had me interested in hockey — the others being that cool 75th anniversary hologram and the Patrick Roy mask card. The San Jose Sharks were in their inaugural season when this set was released. Take a look at the back of this card, which clearly is in French. Look at the Top two picks. (Read here for more on that draft.)

With the No. 2 overall pick in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, the San Jose Sharks select ... Pat Falloon. <insert groan>

With the No. 2 overall pick in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, the San Jose Sharks select ... Pat Falloon. <insert loud groan from Sharks fans here>

And lastly we have one of the most iconic cards of our generation. The 1990 Score Bo Jackson football/baseball card.

Bo knows you STILL want this card ...

Bo knows you STILL want this card ...

... eventhough it is creased.

... even though it is creased.

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I Survived the ’89 Earthquake

Posted in Newspaperman with tags , , , , , , , , , on October 16, 2009 by Cardboard Icons

1989quake1Today marks the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, an event that much of the world remembers as being the reason for the delay of Game 3 of the 1989 World Series between the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants. For me, it hits home because not only did this stop one of the most anticipated World Series of my lifetime, but it was an event that I lived through. I was 9 at the time and home with my younger sister and a friend when the 7.1 quake struck. When these things happen to you, you tend to remember every detail. I’ve re-written my account of the incident a few times over the years, and if you care to read the latest one, you can see it HERE, and a more detailed one HERE. (Yes, that is a picture of me, 8 years younger and 50 pounds heavier.)

1989quake2I wrote about this very card last year on Oct. 17, but given that Saturday marks the 20th anniversary, I figured I’d drag out one of the favorite cards I own: the 1990 Score “Lights Out: Candlestick” card. If you lived in the Bay Area and collected baseball cards in the late 1980s and early 1990s, you know all about this card. For  good while, this black and white card rivaled the iconic Bo Jackson football/baseball Nike pose card that also appears in this 1990 Score set.

By looking at the stats for this blog, I can tell that I am not the only one who remembers this card. Every couple of days I get a few hits from people who appear to be looking for this very card. Well, here it is again, and this time I’ve included a scan of the back so that you can read all about what happened that day. The text on this card does not do the event justice, but I figure if you really wanted to know more about that day, you’ll be looking elsewhere, not at CardboardIcons.com for a history lesson.

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Red Sox fan cheering for the Yankees to win World Series

Posted in Newspaperman with tags , , , , , , on October 16, 2009 by Cardboard Icons

JeterringsI’m going to say this right up front, and you can bash me if you want — I want to see the Yankees win the World Series.

This is borderline blasphemous coming from a Red Sox fan, I get it. But for the good of the game, I want to see the New York Yankees bring home  a title. I want to see Derek Jeter get his fifth ring and A-rod his first. I want the rest of baseball to feel like the Yankees slighted them once again so that the Evil Empire will truly again be considered the Evil Empire. After all, how scary is a villain if he has not had some recent success in being a bad guy?

You see, when it comes down to it, I am a fan of baseball, a fan of the game’s history. I’m not a narrow-minded A-hole whose season ends the second the final out is cast upon his team. I don’t simply jump to another sport because my squad is out of title contention.

I cheer good plays, even if they are against my Red Sox; I celebrate momentous home runs no matter who hits them, even if they are by Aaron Boone and Bucky Dent; and I believe that a team like the Yankees — considered to be the most successful franchise in the history of the game — should taste a championship at least once a decade even if only to serve as a remembrance of the past.

A Yankee title will add to the lore of the game, and also reinvigorate the hate for the franchise. Simply disliking them because they spend a ton of money is not enough. For the good of baseball, we must see a Yankee victory this year. You know you’d love to hate that.

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Upper Deck SPX used to be the gamble of a lifetime

Posted in Newspaperman with tags , , , , , on October 16, 2009 by Cardboard Icons

spxjordanWhen I was a teenager, I spent lots of money at card shops. I used to purposely eat less food during lunch so that I had more money to spend on cardboard to feed my hobby hunger. Back then I used to collect three sports, and every once in a while dabble in hockey and NASCAR, so I was technically a five-sport guy.

In 1995, Upper Deck introduced us to SPX, the uber-premium card set that features one holographic card per pack. These packs usually cost about $4 each, which nowadays is the equivalent of paying $10 for a pack that contained a single card — and for the most part there were no hits to be had. (Note: some SPX sets later had autographs) The chase was for the super stars: Ken Griffey Jr., Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Jeff Gordon, Joe Montana, etc. For a teenage kid, SPX was the gamble of a lifetime because one card per pack means you’re either going to love your pull, or feel like you just had you lunch money stolen. Nonetheless, one thing was clear before you even opened the pack, whatever came out of the wrapper was not for trade.

Well, for me, the packs were a little bit of heaven and hell. The very first SPX pack I opened was of football and it contained this Rick Mirer card. spxmirer2

Even back in 1995, it was clear that Mirer was a bust and this card was not going to be worth squat. Nonetheless, the card was mine and not for trade. A few days — and a couple less lunches later — I managed to pull one of the Joe Montana Tribute inserts from the football brand, which at the time were some of the hottest cards on the market, particularly in the region of the country I am from. (I eventually moved the my insert purging years)

Later that year, when the basketball SPX line hit the market, I tried my hand again, praying for a Michael Jordan card. Well, in the very first pack guess what I pulled? That’s right, Michael F’n Jordan. I was the envy of my little circle of card collecting friends.

Over the years I stopped collecting all of those sports except for baseball, which saw its first SPX release in 1996 — I purchased none. But while I have bartered and sold damn near every basketball, football, hockey and NASCAR card I’ve owned, there have been two cards from those sports that have remained with me: the Mirer and Jordan, which you see pictured here.

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