Diggin' Some Oddballs

As you saw in Part 1 of my trade with Project Pedro blog, I am really starting to pad a non-sport/oddball PC. I am really aiming for a non-sport celebrity one, but I don't mind adding a few oddballs when I can as well.

Doesn't get any more odd-ballish than rodeo autographs.

What about a Mongoose? These manu-patches out of Goodwin are kinda cool.

I simply just love Ginter. Love the oddballs, the autographs and the relics. Here are some new additions.

(what an awesome relic!)

I am also a fan of Goodwin which is basically Upper Deck's version of Allen And Ginter. I did like Panini's version with Golden Age as well but they since got rid of that product.

Here are some cool Goodwin autographs:

And one "hot" relic! That pun is intended in many ways.

 

Well there you have another part of my trade with Project Pedro Blog. Now comes the 10-card countdown with my favorite 10 cards from the trade. Stay tuned!

Another Big One In The Mail Box

Over the years, Shane over at Project Pedro blog and I have become pretty good friends and as you have seen on here, we have also pulled off some pretty big trades.

My recent mail day is another big whopper of one. One that I have taken the time once again to break down into many sections, twelve to be exact. I will spread my mail day out over the course of the next few weeks so be ready to sit down as the Top 2 cards in my countdown are pretty slick.

Today I am kicking it off with some odds and ends in our deal.

Up first, a good handful of Sport Kings cards mainly consisting of non-sport characters and personalities. I am really building up my non-sport PC and Shane is trying to ditch what he had.

If you haven't checked out Project Pedro blog, well, you are missing out. Every Wednesday he does a Cheap Wax Wednesday post with some products that cost under $50. He has pulled some pretty cool stuff and a lot of the breaks are from my favorite era of collecting, the late 90's. He tossed in these cool parallels from Illusions for me. Love the design.

Some more non-sport oddballs, all numbered.

This guy isn't an oddball, he was someone I grew up watching and enjoying when he was on Live with Regis and Kathy Lee (Gifford) in the 90's. They were quite the duo.

Not all cards in this post are non-sport. When he busts his boxes for Cheap Wax Wednesday, being the great guy he is, I get first dibs on all Griffey's he pulls for my PC. Here are some new additions to it.

(need to see how far I am on this set)


 

Some super sweet new Griffey additions.

This is just the rough beginning of what's to come, so hold on tight, things will get a bit bumpy!

2017 MLB Pick Em Prize For September

Five months are over in this promo and five prizes have been given away while the other prize lot is building up big time with inserts and hits galore! That prize will be for the one who can MLB Pick Em Champ.  So this is newbies last chance to win a prize and for those who won't make the playoff run.

Anyways, I posted the picks for the first week of September yesterday. Everyone has a clean slate for the September prize but have their points from April, May, June, July saved for the overall promo in those standings and this months will be added as well.

But, with a clean slate, that means anyone can enter to win this prize pack for the month of September,

 

 

A box of 35pt Magnetics, some Tobacco Card needs (the Hinchman is shown as an example of how the cards fit, and the Topps prize for the month will be a MYSTERY AUTOGRAPH!

There is only one way to win it however, join in on the September MLB Pick Em! 

Riding With Flair

Before social media, email and texting, there was a thing called writing. Something you did with a piece of paper and pen or pencil. With that piece of writing you, only you controlled what you put down on that piece of paper. You decided if it was spelled write as nobody else was going to override it. You used your hand motions to make letters and not just push a button. You also had the option of putting that piece of paper you had written on and handing or mailing it to someone else without hitting the send button. Human interaction believe it or not!

Where am I going with this, well I am going to 1996 and to when I was in school. My school participated in a pen pal program where you would basically write to people you didn't know and who it was depended on what grade you were in. My first pen pal was from another state or country and a kid named Daniel if I remember correctly. Somewhere I have a picture of him still. We became cool buddies through the mail exchanging letters quite often then it was over when the next year came as we didn't have a chance to keep up.

My last pen pal was my one that made the biggest impression on me and one I had a chance to meet in person.

This time it was a trucker who traveled all over the country. This was long before the movie Joy Ride came out and more about the time Space Truckers was released. So instead of worrying about him finding me and trying to contact me by the name "candy cane" he was instead pictured as some cool space dude. I don't remember his name anymore sadly and lost my letters over time.

The one thing we would always write back and forth about was card collecting and it was something he was into as well. At one point we got to talking about the missing 1995 Fleer Flair Preview Rodney Hampton from my set and he at one point told me he would do his best to find me one. Being a kid I bought right in. If I had been told that now as an adult, not sure if I would have been so gullible.

A few months later, the trucker scheduled a visit to our school. I was out sick that day so I was a little disappointed I wasn't able to ever meet him. But, the following day back at school the teacher handed me an envelope with a letter in it. I opened it up and BAM out popped this....

He said he found one on the road after stopping at a few places and was more than happy to help me finish my set. It was one of the most memorable collecting stories I have. I still have this card today and reflect back on that day.

I did write the trucker back to thank him and tell him I was sorry I missed him. We communicated for rest of the year before I moved on from that classroom. It was a kind thing that he did and I will always be grateful for as a collector. 

He may have been my biggest influence of why I give away so much on here and other places.

So if you are out there and reading this, thanks again my friend!

Puck Junk Sends A Couple More

@PuckJunk from puckjunk.com had thrown up some of his doubles up for grabs for those who wanted them a week ago. Not all of them were claimed so he put them up for grabs again and I bit at two more.

I never turn down a unique card and of a player I don't have. This could be another one of those guys who once played for the NBA then went overseas to come back and be awesome. We will see.

 

Maria Sharapova has been one of the faces of women's tennis for awhile now so adding her first card to my collection was a no-brainer.

 

He also included a good read again, I just forgot to take a picture of it to go along with this post.

 

A big thanks goes out to Puck Junk for the PC adds. Go give him a follow if you haven't yet and check out his hockey filled website!

REVIEW: 2017 Clearly Authentic Baseball

Every so often, well most of the time, I invite my wife to help me with my reviews and open packs to give her insight as well. I haven't ever posted her thoughts on here before as she is very mixed on a lot of products but I thought since today's is so quick, that I would just put her words on here.

First I will give you a sum-up of the product.

Each box of 2017 Topps Clearly Authentic baseball comes with one card. It's encased in a one-touch, is printed on acetate and is signed  on-card. The design is based off of the 2017 Topps flagship. Boxes cost about $60 per.

There are two kinds of cards to find, Clearly Authentic and the tougher Clearly Authentic Reprint Autograph Cards that fall two per case.

The Clearly Authentic Autographs use the 2017 Topps Baseball base card design on acetate and include veteran and rookie players. They feature new photos as opposed to the flagship ones.

There are parallels to chase as well, 

• Green Parallel #'d to 99
• Red Parallel #'d to 50
• Blue Parallel #'d to 25
• Gold Parallel  #'d 1/1

The Clearly Authentic Reprint Autographs are reprinted Topps Baseball cards from the past on acetate.These also have parallels of Gold Parallel that are #'d 1/1.

So as I said, I let her open up the one card mystery and she did it with her back turned to me. To quickly sum it up, I asked her how it went. She said "it's a cool looking plastic card that signed. I don't know this player and he plays for the Padres. That's probably not good. It is numbered to 50 though."

Well, you guys be the judge on that. Hunter Renfroe red parallel /50

 

OVERALL, I think this is a fun cool looking product. I do wished there was maybe three cards per pack. I have never been a fan of a one card, one hit product as it's a riskier situation and I am not one to take risks. I feel one base, one insert and then the autograph in a box would be a bit better. I think that would add some more value to it if you happen to hit a lesser player for your $60. Of course have those base and inserts be printed on acetate as well. Who doesn't love acetate?!?!

I told my wife the price of the box and the approximate value of Renfroe and she agreed a few more cards would help.

If you are a high roller and like the risks, there are some big names on the checklist to chase and all of those have parallels so you just don't know who you will hit. Here is the checklist right off from the Topps Website, follow HERE.

A thanks to my wife for giving her insight on this product and please make sure to take a minute out to thank Topps for providing this box for me to review as they help provide prizes for me to giveaway. Follow Topps on all social media sites and visit their SITE, as well. 

MLB Pick Em Standings For September

Here are the standings for the month of September. At the end of the month, these totals will be added to the overall standings that you can find, HERE. These standings here are for the monthly prize, the other standings are for the overall prize pack at the end that will be epic. 

This is the final month to try to get into the playoffs or try to win a monthly prize. The contest shuts out newbies after this month.

Sport Card Collectors League (AL)
Topps Heritage Division
SCC   9
Royals and Randoms
Rockies    6
Ryan Sawyer
Scott N.  10
hudsonfan15   5
Marty's Angels  7
Thomas  
@ATylerMurphy
Duane Danielson
SIZZLETANK
Bacon Boyy  
@zackny91
@biggsdaddycool    3

Topps Chrome Division
@JGfan24ever     3
@Dennysportscard    6
Life's a Pitch  9
Jeff Hoyle
Kyle Herring
@jake1725    2
duaned99
Rich Frank
@bmoney888
Luke Enno
Chefmsmith04 
john veith    
Mark Morales    
@JohnnyG711

Topps Five Star Division
Nachos Grande    9
Nick Frank  7
Daniel Wilson     3
Tony Quezada
@funtocollect     6
Kaiser Cats    7
Dions IP  6
Johnny G
Turks Picks, LLC
Ray Silva   
Jeanette Marlier
@DougPeltz76
AZcomm
Tread Willis  
Jay Rob

BCW Supplies League (NL)

Topps Allen And Ginter Division
Bubba's Bombers
John Sharp    9
Broad Street Bullies
Wilson   7
Irodequoit36    11
Chicken Dinner
@jambaur9
Tim B.
@lionofaheart
Dub Mentality  
Justin P
J. Barnett
the bowl cut kid  
Andrew
@clintymason
Brooklyn Yankees
@SteveWrightOne    10
Buffalo Boy     
April Bartron
E Z   9
@joemordini1  
Jason L.      3
Shawn S.
avf03     4

Topps Tek Division
Shane Salmonson 
Bump and Run  
@DavidMackey77  5
allformykids     
ketchupman36  4
@bedmocards
Raz   7
Footballcrdonly
Stauf
Mike Janeway
shawn norman
Alex Olson      
Mike E     
Lost Ways27   
Spartyhawke Cache
Kelvin B 

Topps Series 1&2 Division
@wavemix   2
The Big Show  5
THE THUNDERBOLT GREASE-SLAPPERS    4
defgav's dumpster divers     7
Thomas Y
@cheapcardsales
Brad B     8
Tyler Lucia
bsmith4256
clifford wollaston
Kenneth Alcott
@njsensasianscards  10
Dayton
gambyanks99
@sportscardinfo
@EEFFL
James Baurle   
Mad Max   
Scott Markman
Stephen Radford 
Ryan Mac

DIVISION LEADER
WILD CARD
LEAGUE LEADER 
NEW ENTRANT

WINNER FOR September WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN THE OVERALL STANDINGS. 

1996:The Year Of Change

1996. It was the year that much changed for me.

 

I had finally left my cartoon watching childhood behind to give more adult television a chance at the age of 13. Home Improvement, Friends, Nash Bridges, Everybody Loves Raymond, Mad About You (I also had a crush on Helen Hunt at the time so I watched that and Twister that year), The Drew Carey Show(this one came on a bit later and I should have been in bed for school but what my parents didn't know won't hurt them), Cosby, Walker Texas Ranger (watched this with my grandmother), were some of my favorites to name a few. Who can forget the incredible TGIF lineup as well with Family Matters, Boy Meets World and Sabrina The Teenage Witch.

 🍜

However I wasn't really a big fan of Seinfeld like most around me were. I just didn't think the show was that funny. I guess it had that kinda quirky comedy that only a few can really understand.  To me it was, "no show for you." Yes, I just did partially reference/pun the show as that's the only line I know from it.

My sports watching increased including a game that changed my view of baseball forever and I discovered Monday Night Football! ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!! A MONDAY NIGHT PARTAAAAAAAAYY!

💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸

My father had also just gotten a promotion at his job which lead to an increase in salary which also led to an increase in the hobby purchases.

It was also a year I started to expand my collecting. It wasn't just cards anymore, it was the theory of everything was a collectible.

All of this I will cover in 1996 here on The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict. The words Cardboard Addict may also come into play by years end as well.  So sit back and enjoy as I tell the tale of my hobby history.

GIVEAWAY! Win THE FINAL PWE PRIZE

When I recently broke some Panini products I mentioned doing a giveaway with some of the cards. Well, that time has finally arrived!

In these 5 envelopes is a mix of 3-5 numbered insert cards and some decent hits. There are 3 chaser cards to be found in the 5 envelopes that I will reveal in just a second. There may be more contests down the road for more of the cards from the breaks so stay tuned for that too.

ONLY NUMBER 3 REMAINS!

The above envelopes are numbered 1-5. There will be 5 separate contests held over a 5 week span. Each contest will be easy to enter but all will be different.

 

When a winner is announced, the winner will have their choice of what envelope they would like. Even though I just put them together, I shuffled them and then numbered them so I have no idea which one has the chase cards.

 

Here are some of the cards you will be chasing.....

/199

 

 

400 PANINI REWARD POINTS

 

/24

 

 

 /50

 

 

and..../49

 

To win THE FINAL PWE PRIZE, JUST SIMPLY DO THE FOLLOWING...just guess how many views this post will get. The closest wins!

 

That simple. Well, and these other rules of course....

1. MUST BE A U.S. RESIDENT TO ENTER. I CANNOT AFFORD SHIPPING OUTSIDE THE U.S. SORRY FOR THIS INCONVENIENCE AS I APPRECIATE ALL OF MY READERS. However, if you live outside the country but have an U.S. address, you can enter.
2. CARDS WILL BE SHIPPED PWE
3. SPORT CARD COLLECTORS BLOG OR IT'S OWNER/BLOGGER WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR LOST, STOLEN OR DAMAGED MAIL. 
4. Envelopes will be mailed at the same time when the contest is over. I think this will make the suspense more fun.
5. IN CASE OF A TIE, RANDOM 3 TIMES WILL BE USED TO DETERMINE A WINNER
6. ENTERING MEANS YOU ABIDE BY ALL OF THE RULES ABOVE. 
7. You will have til Sunday, September 3rd 2017. Winner announced on Tuesday, September 5th 2017.
8. Good luck and please remember to THANK Panini America and Tracy Hackler!

MLB Pick Em Week 22

Below are the picks for this weeks MLB Pick Em challenge!

The rules are simple, pick a winner, earn a point. Pick a loser, earn nothing.

The only other rule is you must be a U.S. Resident to enter or have an address in the U.S.

You will play 4 weeks like this and person with the most right at the end of September will win a prize!


Here are this weeks games to pick winners of:
Atl @ Chi Cubs
Tor @ Balt
Boston @ NYY
Cincy @ Pitt
Clev @ Det

Here are my picks for the games
Chi
Tor
NYY
Cincy
Clev

Standings should be updated Saturday!

Good Luck to all that enter!

Leave your picks in comments below. You will have til 6:30 pm Friday, September 1st 2017 to enter. Any entries after that will be disqualified for this week. If you missed Week 1, don't fret! You can enter Week 2 starting on Sunday. Even if you miss Week 2, enter Week 3. So on and so forth. I will slot those who enter in late even Week 20 in divisions that give them the best chance to win. Just remember even if you enter later in the contest and miss many weeks, there is still a monthly prize to win.

TO MAKE IT EASIER ON ME, IF YOU CHOSE A TEAM NAME, PLEASE PLEASE PUT THAT TEAM NAME IN COMMENTS WITH YOUR PICKS!!!!!!!! THANK YOU AND GOOD LUCK!! 

Panini PWE Contest Winner #4

Here comes winner #4 of my 5-part winner contest .

Was it you? We will see in a minute.

Since the first contest entries have really dropped on this and they dropped again. Kind of surprising since the entry is so easy. But, hopefully for the last one, your last shot at any of those prizes, it will pick up again. Please make sure to spread the word so we can continue to do contests like this. I mean a contest is a contest and it's FREE cards to you!

Even if you have already won in the PWE series, you can win again!

I first must apologize for my mess up with this weeks contest. When I went to NFL.coms website to look up a Week 3 preseason game to use, they instead gave me Week 3 of a regular season game which I should have known as teams don't play their division rivals in preseason. So, I once again had to run the 3 randoms to find our winner.

Anyways, here is our fourth winner...

There were 18 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Travis Guerrero
2. hudsonfan15
3. John Sharp
4. GRADY MALACHOWSKI
5. Tracy LeVeaux
6. @JGfan24ever
7. Brad Jorgensen
8. BamaDAWG
9. Justin S
10. Trevor P
11. ketchupman36
12. Corky
13. Chad Rasner
14. Jafronius
15. Dion's IP Autos only
16. Kyle Herring
17. Thomas
18. Tommy Eric

IP: 72.169.80.240
Timestamp: 2017-08-26 10:39:17 UTC

Congrats to Travis Guerrero! You win contest #4. Please email me at sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com with your address and choice of envelope number 3 or 5. You will have 48 hours to claim or the second place winner will claim it.

Thanks to all that entered, chance at the final PWE coming up soon! 

A Super Patch

Super Bowl 42 is a game that I will never forget. The undefeated Patriots who barely took down my team in Week 17 to go 16-0 was facing my team once again but this time on the leagues biggest stage. Of course all experts, including myself, was thinking they would run the table. But, what they didn't know was that this was a very special unit. A team that surprised three other teams in the playoffs to get there and an ending to a game like no other.

I remember sitting there late 4th quarter. 3rd down and Eli has a million Patriot players around him. I had my head towards the floor waiting for the inevitable sack. However, for some odd reason, it was taking a bit longer so I looked up to see Eli scrambling around and then just tossing the ball up in the air for grabs. "There it goes, another Eli interception" I yelled out loud with my father, mother and wife by my side.

Then something incredible happened, a NY Giant jumped up between two Patriot defenders and pinned the ball to his helmet using incredible strength as the Patriot player, Rodney Harrison, was trying to pry it away.

Then the rest was history, a few more short passes before Eli tosses it up to a wide open Plaxico Burress. I had tears of joy stream down my face and I bolted out my door in the middle of winter wearing only my pajamas and celebrated in the snow. It was amazing.

I will never forget that image of the helmet catch or the game.

So when I can pick up a piece of that game, I will do it. I hadn't ever heard of these Post Season patches from Topps but they look great even for a Manu patch. I even bid $8 to snag it. Not something I normally do either. But, I desperately wanted it and as it goes in the hobby, if you truly want something, sometimes you just gotta pay.

Making An Impact In 1995

Since Skybox Premium made such an impression on me, I just had to give its brother release Impact a try when I saw it on the shelves at Ames. I loved running those necessity errands with my parents.


The product fit right into every aspect of my collecting at the time. The base cards had foil, the inserts were attractive, there were rookie cards and most importantly, 12-card packs were $1.29.

This 200-card set, one I believed I completed back then but don't have now, had action packed photos

 

 

 

and some subtle inserts like Specialists that takes up cards 149-158, 

 

Super Sophs with cards 159-168,

 

 

and Impact Rookies with cards 169-198. The final two cards were checklists.

 

The inserts were really fun for a low-end feeling brand.

Impact Power Cards fell 1:3 packs and were all-foil

 

 

 Fox Same Game, More Attitude Cards fell 1:9 packs and had some embossing on the words More Attitude.

Countdown to Impact cards fell 1:20 packs and was probably my favorite of the group with it's color scheme and embossing of the numbers.

 

Other inserts were Future Hall of Fame cards that fell 1:60 packs and Skymotion Exchange card that fell 1:360 packs. These two I never pulled.

It wasn't just Skybox Impact that made an impact on me in 1995, but it was sports and sports cards that did as well. I guess it was my way of getting into manhood from being a child. As the year was closing, my afternoon cartoons and Saturday Morning cartoon watching began to decline at a high rate. My extra time when not sorting sports cards or being at school was playing sports with my friends and father and watching that on television instead.

As we make our way into 1996, we will see how much more impact that this hobby made on me and some other life changes helped mold more involvement of the hobby in my life.

Thanks for reading 1995 and get ready for 1996. More hobby to come!

TAG! Rodney's It

The headline of this will probably throw you a bit. When you see the word tag, I bet you were thinking Laundry Tag type of card and not one known as a Dog Tag or in this case, a Pro Tag.

Thanks to Jammin JD Sports Cards I was able to cross off one of the two Dog Tags I need.

These were simply NFL players printed on plastic as a collectible. They came 6 to a blister package and ran about 3 years I believe.

The cool thing about these, other than a solid design, is the back...

Where there is a spot for the featured player to sign.

 

Ever owned one of these? Let me know in comments!!

“It Counts And The Foul"

As 1995 went on, I started to learn more about basketball. I started to sit down and watch games when they came on NBC-remember I didn't have cable and I only got NBC because of a makeshift outside antenna my dad had created-and the sound of Marv Albert's voice doing play-by-play was spectacular and it was really hooking me in.

I still didn't know everything about it like I did with football or like I did with the names of every Power Rangers villain, but it was starting to grow.

When growth and interest in a sport comes, so doesn't the growth and interest in collecting cards of a sport. I think we sometimes forget that no child will be interested in collecting sports cards in today's era if they have no interest in sports. Both things come hand in hand. You can't collect a Eli Manning if you don't know who Eli Manning is. Just like I couldn't collect a Charles Oakley if I didn't know who he was. Which I started to know more about the rebounding beast.

I was a little late to the party in getting 1995-1996 Topps Series 1 basketball, but the new Series 2 had just come out. So I had to give it a try and it was affordable as well. 10-card packs were $1.29.

It didn't take long before I was hooked on wanting more. The 110-card base set had a white border along with a full-color action photo and the player's name in gold. It was very eye appealing.

I was very fortunate to pull a Booster parallel after a few purchases-not the one pictured as I pulled this one a few years ago and just using this as an example-and that wasn't an easy pull falling 1:36 packs.

There were also a couple of really cool 90's looking inserts. One thing you could always count on in the 90's is inserts with foil. I wished more had foil today.

Joe Smith looks ready to Rattle And Roll into a new dimension

I am sure Marv would look at this one and say, "What a spectacular move by Michael Jordan!" Or being humorous like I am I would say, "What a sparktacular move by Michael Jordan!" Yes, I can crack myself up sometimes.

I was not fortunate enough to pull a Mystery Finest back then. I have since then pulled some as I busted two boxes of this back in 2015. I actually landed these cards as my Mystery Finest pulls:

It wasn't too long after busting some packs of these to go along with my Fleer where I needed to hunt down a basketball price guide. Luckily, my friends uncle had some older issues he handed me.

I don't collect or watch basketball anymore today. The game has changed, the announcers are lame, the cards are from one company that doesn't even own the rights to two of the biggest names autographs, and I just prefer my time being spent elsewhere.

I am very thankful to have grown up in what was the best era of basketball and best period of collecting basketball cards.

Artists Proof Rodney

Pinnacle football was the pinnacle in my opinion of football cards when it came to capturing action shots while putting out a solid design. 1996 was no different.

I always was fond of the 1995 and 1996 designs for football of the product and thanks to my buddy over at Jammin JD Sports Cards I was able to add a much needed parallel from 1996.

This Artist Proof was the final parallel I needed to finish off my Pinnacle needs for that product.

The base cards normally have a gold triangle at the bottom, but the parallels turned it silver. This one added the words Artist's Proof in a rainbow foil. Odds on these are tough to judge as they are randomly inserted from what my research showed. But, you have to assume this was the toughest parallel of the group to find.

 

Another great add to the Hampton PC but there are many more I need.

 

Follow link HERE to see if you have any Hampton cards you have that I don't that you wanna help donate to the Rodney Hampton Project. Thanks for reading!

Wait...Cards Have Value?

Up to this point in 1995, I looked at sport cards as sport cards and not pieces of cardboard money. They were fun to collect and sort and that was it.

But, after pulling my "big hit", I was at one of my friends houses telling him about it and he suggested that "we look that card pull up."

I looked at him dumbfounded as I had no idea what that had meant.

He looks at me and says, "You didn't know that cards have value?"

No. No I didn't.

It took almost a full year in the hobby for me to realize that the money we were spending on these cards actually could get us money in return. Not that I was planning on selling any of them. But, knowing their value was a fun fact to know. It actually added a whole new twist to my collecting as I began to look every card up each month and add their values to my notebooks. I had to make changes, or as I called them scribbles, to adjust the prices as they went up and down.

The harder part was finding a Beckett locally but luckily my friend would hand me his older football issues to use. His uncle collected multiple sports and always handed me his baseball issues.  In 1996, I began finding them more locally as the hobby continued to thrive and I finally started to subscribe for myself.

Beckett magazines also started a new hobby for me, collecting them. I held onto every single issue I ever got until I moved out of my parents house. I realized how much space they were taking up and left those for my father to dispose of. However I did pull out all of my Griffey ones just to have for that PC. We will discuss my origin to Griffey on here soon as well.

Here is one of my oldest issues I had when I was younger for Griffey. Not sure what kind of pose this was....

 

And here are my oldest football ones as well. I really like the creative covers. I was lucky enough to land both of these as they came one month then the next. I also have a Griffey one that was supposed to have a 24 but I am missing one of them.

 

 

I not only enjoyed looking up my card values, but I also enjoyed reading the articles. They gave product previews, A Hot/Cold list, they had Readers Write in to ask questions (something I attempted but never got published), pictures of fans with their favorite cards, PC highlights and much more. It was a goal in every collectors life to find yourself in Beckett. Something I was able to do later on in both a PC feature in Beckett Baseball and a couple of big pulls in BSCM.

Today's magazine is much different and so much less interesting because as a blogger I have all of that access to the information they publish. They also got rid of all of the features that I think made them popular. If only they could go back in time and bring some of them back.

Speaking of going back in time, about ten years ago, I discovered a yard sale with a binder full of older Becketts. My mind told me, no, you don't need to find room to store those, but my collecting heard said, yeah you do. Guess who won....

 

 These were only a few of my favorite ones. There was roughly 17 overall.

20 years later of being a Beckett subscriber, I still look my values up only for fun though. I don't have the time anymore as an adult to write down every single value but in my mind I know what most are. I still look at sports cards the way I did 22 years ago though, cards do have monetary value and I could sell if I wanted to but I don't, because to me, cards mean so much more than that.