Random Cardboard Of The Day: 2022 Upper Deck National Prominent Cuts Wayne Gretzky

Two New Traders Bring The Fun!

I am always adding great traders to my trading circle and I did just that recently.

For a couple of months, I have been working on a trade with Greg from Nine Pockets blog who contacted me about some 90s inserts and set help, it was dragged out so long because of my slacking on getting my card room situated to find him a return. Usually an easy trade like this one should have been just that, but the specific things I was looking for to send in return were buried among the mess.

But, we finally got a deal done once I pushed past the mess and here was my return,

I have always enjoyed some 90's Ultra inserts. Ultra to me was the start of the creativity in the hobby before 1996 started the uphill climb of the 90's inserts with other companies.

More Ultra with some Gold Medallions. Ultra base cards alone are worth a look at. The Leaf one at the bottom is one of those steel cards made of metal.

 Shine a light on Black Diamond...sorry Rhianna came to mind

90's Black Diamond was the best and here are some die cut versions including the man, Wayne Gretzky. One day in my wildest dreams I will own his rookie card and autograph.

There were even some football inserts. Quasers is pretty cool of Lions WR Crowell

 Rhett, there it is. Rhett there it is! digging the old Bucs uni's more as an adult

Irvin refractor from 1995 Finest,  I consider the best design out of all the Finest ones and would almost use the term iconic for that line with it.

 And to end, a couple of autographs. Not anyone I know, but still cool.

Thanks to Greg on this awesome mail day! I hope when we trade next time I will be much more prepared!

Now onto my second new trader who was a new trader but not new to me as a person. I have always spoken to @911baseballguy usually about TTM autographs and addresses. But, when I saw him post a Daniel Jones I really wanted, we began trade discussions and here was the results of those.

Daniel Jones Red Prizm parallel. Prizm is such a beautiful product. It's not quite Topps Chrome, but close.

And I have been trying to add to my Mahomes rookies and this Donruss Optic fit it well.

Thanks to Shawn on a great trade and I know many more are to come from us! (well we already did just do another since with another post on the way)

I strongly suggest you seek out these two great traders as well. Easy to deal with and ships perfectly!

Sorting:Hockey

Last year I tweeted out this photo on Twitter of my desk,

Immediately I had a comment of "wow that's such a disaster someone please help this guy sort things out." 

I responded with, "that's not a mess, that's how I sort. It's a bit complex."

I made a promise to that individual that I would do a segment to explain my sorting and here I am.

It really isn't as complex as it looks, at least to me. But, it is a bit in-depth with as much as I collect and as many sports as I collect.

So I thought I would make this series breaking down everything I collect and how I sort it. I hope this will explain the picture I tweeted and maybe give you some ideas for your own collection on how to sort.

Today I am showing off how I sort hockey cards.

When I take a stack of hockey cards, I split them into many sections. This is something I have done every since I have been in the hobby. 24+ years of the same thing.

Just like my last sorting post with basketball, I don't pull out a favorite team. Back in the 90's I was a fan of the NY Rangers and the Colorado Avalanche. But as I got older, I became less and less interested in the sport. So I no longer watch it, but I still do collect it to a certain extent. My main hockey focus right now is trying to put together the late 90's Spx hologram sets. I currently have half of a set for 95-96 hockey but none of the 96-97 version. I am also on the lookout for a Wayne Gretzky rookie card and autograph. Won't be cheap adds, but maybe I will find someone with one for trade.

So for hockey I kick it off with the hits, Anything I feel that has good "book value" for inserts, $25+, and any hits get set off to the side to be placed in penny sleeves, toploaders or 10ct plastic boxes for jersey cards or thick cards. These all get placed into 2-row shoe box houses by sport. There are boxes I mark for hits and another for inserts.

The next stack is a player binder stack. This is where I put Wayne Gretzky and Mario L. I don't bother much with other players but I do set aside a few of my favorites from the 90's that get placed into 4 row boxes by player. There roughly is 10 total players I pull out as opposed to football that has almost 100.

The next stack is rookies and rookie inserts. For hockey they all go in the same binder and at this point they all fit in one three inch three ring binder. I thought about putting them by team during my binder reorganization project, but decided against it as I don't plan on adding a lot more hockey.

Hockey inserts, less-valuable ones and excluding star players, find themselves in a binder by themselves. In my binder reorganization project I will be pulling out 90's sets I enjoy. I had considered putting all of the card by the products they were, but that would take me forever. Maybe that will be a later on project.

Once I get everything bindered, they get stacked on shelves. Not standing up of course as that damages cards in the long run as the pages start to fold overtime. They are stacked alternating so one side doesn't get squished and so I can fit many on one shelf. You may notice numbers on the outside of the binders. At one point I used to number them and keep what's in them in a notebook but that got too complicated with the alternating as I can't see all of the numbers now.

 

And finally, the scraps. This is everything I don't collect or put into binders or set aside into boxes by-something. The base of the base like this Allison. Though this was my all time favorite hockey base card product.  

 

These are put into big ct boxes marked NHL, sorry for the lack of picture on this, by team and fit nicely under my desk. These cards I used to put by brand, year and number but I dismantled them last year in my box resorting project. I feel it's easier putting them by team as I don't ever plan on putting together most of those sets I had once started. 

And that does it for hockey. Like I said, I am not a die hard fan like I once was. Everything I sort in the sport is pretty simple unlike football my next sport in this series.

As for hockey sets I used to collect or have bought, they stay in their original boxes or in 800 ct boxes if I hand collated them.

Another part I failed to mention above, is my giveaway/trade pile. I pull that stuff out and set it aside as I go along for people I normally trade with and which giveaways I run. I only currently have one hockey trading partner. I wouldn't mind another or unloading some of mine for a sport I care more about.

Well, that's it for Part 3 of this series.There is only a couple more sections left to this series.

Thanks for reading and your thoughts on my sorting are welcomed in comments.

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?! PART 2

WHAT'S IN THE BOX??!!!! I yelled, well, quietly yelled to myself making a movie reference from the ending of Seven. Cause honestly like Brad Pitt, I had no idea what was inside this shoe box.

If you read Part 1, you know that I didn't find a head like in the movie. And if I had, it wouldn't have been my box and that would have another topic for another day :-P But I did find some Olympic cards from the back of a cereal box. This time, it's something a bit more interesting. A 2013 limited edition Christmas Card from Upper Deck.

In the mail a couple of years ago, I received an envelope from Upper Deck. I wasn't expecting anything from them so this caught me by complete surprise. I had no idea what was inside, but I knew coming from them that it had to be good.

Inside was this Wayne Gretzky Holiday card. I loved watching Wayne skate as we all know, he was/is The Great One. I found it to be an interesting/cool collectible of one of my favorite hockey players and I also dug the design. I did see that others received them but not sure on how many of these were sent out, they could be limited.

The back of the card is a thank you to loyal collectors, long-time partners and dedicated fans. They must know how much I enjoy and have enjoyed their products.

Also inside the envelope was this small writeup from Chris Carlin. I wouldn't get it graded though cause the centering is awful ;) #BadHobbyJoke

I was glad to have found this again because I had forgotten about it. I really need to get it into a larger sized top loader so the card won't get bent. Cause who knows if I will ever see another cool thing like this again and I might display it too.

Part 3 of What's In The Box will be coming up soon! Stay tuned for more fun ahead.

What's In The Mail Box?

Recently I was able to get my hands onto one of the Upper Deck 25th Anniversary sets, I mean what collector wouldn't want to, so I wanted to show it off to you guys just in case you haven't seen them and may want to try to get a set for your own collection.

This is a small set but packs a punch with athletes who have made a big impact on Upper Deck over the 25 years (except I couldn't figure out why Michael Jordan wasn't in it) and will continue to make an impact for them for the next 25.

Now onto the set.  I will start off the gallery first with THE GREAT ONE:

  

Every back of the card has this written up on them thanking fans for their support:

Upper Deck then put in Super Stars, Peyton Manning, Ken Griffey Jr, Tiger Woods and LeBron James to complete the set

Looks like Peyton just did an audible, well, are we surprised, another TD pass

The Kid looks like one here

Tiger has always made a huge impact on Upper Deck Golf Cards

How many more titles will this guy win?

One of my favorite things about the set is the throwback design paying tribute to Upper Deck's beginning set way back in 1989. It also has a modern day look to it.

I think this set was a  great way to celebrate 25 years of so many things that Upper Deck has brought to the hobby. I hope to see them expand upon this set and maybe do a product with a huge insert set of these to chase.

5 most EPIC cards you have got to own!

Here is a list of five cards we feel that every collector needs in their collection. We personally only have one of the top 5. The Griffey Jr. But who would not want some these in their collection. These are the most talked about, valuable, collector centerpieces that need to be in your collection. And ours too of course...

Hall Of Famer

5. Derek Jeter Sp 1993 Rookie Card

Why this was chosen...Not only is it a greatly designed card, it has been on the Beckett hot list multiple times as the most wanted and most valuable rookie card of Jeter. These cards are also hard to find in great condition due to the foil cardboard. And of course the player is another reason. Not bad to have a top rookie card of a future Hall of Fame Shortstop who has won multiple World Series Championships among other awards.

An honest hitter who didn't use steroids to put up big numbers.

4. 1989 Ken Griffey Jr. Upper Deck Rookie Card

Why this was chosen... This card is called by us the most iconic card in Upper Deck history and its also the one that started it all for Upper Deck. When I was young, you didn't have a collection without this card. And it didn't matter even if you didn't collect baseball cards... this was the card you had to have. Sales and value have dropped due to his injury prone ending to his career, but he is still way up on the all-time home run list, probably if not been injured conquered 3,000 hits and did it the honest way during a time of huge steroid use.

The Best Hockey Player Of All Time

  3. 1979-1980 Wayne Gretzky O-Pee Chee Rookie Card

Why this was chosen... Once again. "The Great One" A Hall Of Fame player and by far the best hockey player of all-time. He is the leading pointscorer in NHL history who has the most assists than any other player has points. Not to mention that he is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season and he not only did that once..he did it FOUR times!! This is a must have for any hockey collector and collector in general. His name is well known and this card is still very popular now. Just go check out the buying prices for it.

No one will ever do or bring what this guy did and brought to the NBA

 2. 1986/1987 Fleer Michael Jordan Rookie

Why this was chosen... You would be crazy to say you don't want this rookie card. I was a Knicks fan and seeing Jordan play against them and winning multiple championships made me cringe..but my wanting of owning this card has never changed.

Michael Jordan was one crazy man on the court and you knew you were in trouble if his tongue was hanging out...that mean you were or was about to be dunked on. He has stats, championships and play that has never or will never be seen again. Sorry LeBron.

 

One word for this card...ICONIC

And the number one.....the one and only 1952 Mickey Mantle card. It doesn't get and more EPIC than this card. And it doesn't need an explanation why its at the top..just look at it and try not to drool and want it for your collection. You would have to go get yourself checked if you don't.

What do you think of our top 5? Is there one you would have substituted? Is there one you would have moved up or down?