Will They Get 73?

 

Tonight, the defending NBA Champions Golden State Warriors are chasing a record that was never thought could be broken, the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls 72 win season.  

This Warriors team has been dominant all season and look even better than last years version that won it all. Could they be the next dynasty? Could be. Lot's of young talent led by the new face of the NBA, Stephen Curry, whose card prices are off the charts. Glad that I held onto this autograph above and a couple of base rookie cards before the prices went up.

So what I want to know is, will the Warriors take down the Grizzlies tonight and win game 73? Or will they fall? Let's hear your thoughts before tip-off!

#MambaDay Showcase

Having grown up in the 90's I got to watch some amazing basketball players. Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, John Starks(yes I threw in my favorite), Tim Duncan and of course, Kobe Bryant to name a few. Other than Duncan, most of these guys have retired and today is the last time any of us will see Kobe Bryant on the court.

I still put MJ ahead of Kobe if I had the choice, but you cannot say that Kobe didn't leave a name for himself on the court. His accomplishments alone set him up to the top with some of the games greatest. He was a two-time Finals MVP, was an All-Star 18 times, was named first-team All-NBA 11 times, won 5 NBA titles and even had an 81-point game on Jan. 22, 2006, against the Raptors. The guy has had an incredible NBA career.

So to send him off, here is a short gallery of some of my favorite Kobe Bryant cards I found going through blog pictures.

 

 

These last two are rookies. I also have the Sp rookie card but didn't have time for that picture. Most of these including the Sp I found under $5 for this sure fire Hall Of Famer. I bet that won't be the case today or after tonight.

 

 

So congrats to Kobe on an amazing 20-year career and good luck on your future endeavors. And please leave your best of the season on the court tonight against the Jazz.

Alright readers, what was your favorite Kobe moment?

Handwritten Blog Post Challenge Accepted

 

Bloggers Note: This was probably one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I have no flow with this handwritten piece, couldn't use a backspace to correct words or to add some and felt like it was all over the place. So yes, my challenge by Gavin was accepted and was fun, but I felt like I failed lol. He just makes it look so easy lol.

How many of you that attempted at this felt like you struggled? I know when I blog I take a couple of days to do a post as I take things out, put them in, do research, so on and so forth.

The Beckett Files:The Hot List

It may sound crazy, but one of my favorite features in Beckett other than the price guide is The Hot List.

When my new issue arrives, I always find myself flipping it open to those pages first. I think it's fun to see which cards I have make the list and which spot they fall under. For the most part, baseball and football are always last for me meaning either one or none make the list even though I collect those sports most. It's odd.

If you are unfamiliar with these pages or haven't seen The Hot Lists in Beckett, they look like this....

They list the Top 20 hottest cards on the market from each sport along with a position they fall in and Beckett book value.

I thought for fun, I would have you guys first tell me if you have a card off from the Hot List for these three pages, then take a guess on which one or ones I have off from it. I do have at least one off of each.

Baseball:

 

Basketball:

 

Other Sports:

There are still more The Beckett Files to come. The next parts of the series will focus on things I miss that are no longer apart of Beckett. Stay tuned!

Nuttin But The Hits:2015 Upper Deck Ant Man Hobby Box

I don't know what it is with breaking non sport stuff, but I get silly excited to do so. Today's break is from the movie, Ant-Man, and was made by Upper Deck.

Now onto the break.

Box Breakdown

• 20 Packs Per Box, 5 Cards Per Pack
• One Sketch Card or Autograph Per Box
• Two Memorabilia Cards Per Box
• Two Rare Bronze Foil Parallels Per Box
• $100 per box

I decided not to post the bronze parallels and get straight to the hits!

The order I posted these in is the same order I pulled them.

Cool design here

A dual version of the same design above. This one is much cooler cause look at that awesome Ant-Man swatch!

And finally a rare pull from my understanding. A dual comic book cover card autograph which is on-card. I think the silver ink gets a bit lost on it, but still a really cool card.

 

Overall, a great break in my opinion. Got a swatch from the star of the movie and a hard-to-pull dual auto. I have seen most boxes provide the sketch card so I am pretty happy with pulling that.

What are your guys thoughts on my pulls? Did you like the Ant-Man movie?

Collectin' Griffey:SPECIAL EDITION!!

If you didn't know, on this date in 1989,  Ken Griffey Jr. hit his first home run that led to the eventual 630 home runs.

To celebrate this special occasion, let's see which Griffey's I uncovered during a recent card search. These cards I had no idea I had.

I have busted at least four boxes of this Panini USA Champions, but I misplaced this in a pile of base. Ooops! Griffey #784.

 

Up next, a couple of cool Upper Deck Sp Authentic Baseball Heroes I found in a yard sale binder I bought last year and forgot to look through. Great pairing here,

 

And even better, here. When I can find Griffey and Jeter on the same card it's a great day. These are cards number #785,#786 on my Griffey list. Really like the design on these and gives me another reason to miss Upper Deck baseball cards.

 

 

So glad to find these as I close in on 800 Griffeys. Actually, I am pulling off a trade with Project Pedro Blog to help me surpass that. Believe me, you guys will be blown away with what I am taking home in that trade including one nice Griffey. It's such a big trade it's being broken down to a Top 10 list. If you haven't checked out his blog yet, please do so. Great guy and his Cheap Wax Wednesday segments are really cool.

Stay tuned for that and more Collectin' Griffey Segments ahead.

Sunday's With Rodney:1997 Pacific Revolution

Foil and sparkle, you have my attention.

One of my favorite late 90's bust was Pacific Revolution. The 150 card product featured color photos of the featured player with holographic foil, etching and embossing. There was the team logo up in the top right corner which sometimes seemed lost or misplaced to me. But, the blend of design looks nice and even better in person. Pacific made some impressive base cards.

The back of the card has a small player head photo, which doesn't look good here especially since they didn't match that size with the Giants logo below it. Feels like a floating head to me. The back also covers some of the players career highlights.

 

 

A big thanks goes out to Jammin JDcards for helping me add this one to the Hampton Cardboard Craze. If you would like to help it out and have some unneeded Rodney Hampton cards that are collecting dust, check out my major want list right HERE and support the cause.

What are your thoughts on 1997 Pacific Revolution?

Bloggers, Do I have You?

Hey guys,
This morning I was looking around at my traffic sources and noticed that one of the places I got traffic from was a blog called Pack War written by Corky. Then I realized, man, I don't have him on my blog list yet and he comments all of the time on mine! That can't happen!!! So Corky, you are now on my blog read list. I have checked out your blog, cool stuff and I look forward to new reads.

Now, I am wondering, how many of you am I missing that have me on yours? If I have missed you, please comment below with a link to your blog. If you are new to my blog and haven't added me, please do so and I will do the same. Please put that in comments as well along with your link. I am always looking for new reads and we are all one in this hobby.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and if you have any other thoughts to add, the floor is open to those as well.

SCC

Mail Day Saturday:Reader's Mail Day Part 3:Football Giants

We are closing in to the final part of this latest mail day from reader Grady M, I promise that one will be Shine-tacular.

Today's, well, we are showcasing those who play on the gridiron.

A nice group of rookies and inserts from a variety of products here. Best rookie of the group is Ha Ha Clinton-Dix who also has one of the best names in football.

Oh no! Just realized one of the shiny objects found their way into this group, well, that is an early preview. Some good stars here in Aaron Rodgers, Steve Young and Eric Dickerson.

NY Giants! Lots of Eli, some rookies and Cruuuuuuuuuuuuz

My first cards from 2015 Topps Fire. Such a sharp looking product. It's too bad we won't see this ever again on the football market with Panini's exclusive taking over.

This was a very nice looking product too. It's another one I didn't get the chance to open yet but glad to add a few key Giants of.

Two things about this card, one, yes I know it's shiny but I intentionally put it here with the rest of my Giants. Two, how do you make Topps Heritage look even better, you rainbow foil it. These are so sharp in person.

I also like that it's Collins rookie to. This guy will be a beast next season just wait and see.

 

Some nice additions in here. I should try to put some of those 2015 Topps flagship insert sets together with my purchases and with the additions from Grady. Its trying to gather them all into one place that will be the challenge since I have multiple insert binders.

Thoughts on today's mail day are welcomed!

Redeeming Gurley:A Quick Redemption Story

The title of this post is very creative I must say.

One, I pulled this SICK 2015 Contenders Todd Gurley Rookie Ticket Auto variation redemption card a few months ago.

 

Two, I redeemed it.

Three, I am way behind on posting it due to some changes I made on the blog . So this is the little story you

Four, when it comes to redemptions, I will say this card arrived very quickly to me as it was within three weeks after redeeming.

 

By far my nicest card from Contenders after 18 years of buying it. I wished Todd would work on his signature a bit more but overall I am not complaining.

Speaking of complaining, I know a lot of that is usually about redemptions, so I gotta ask, what was your fastest redemption turnaround?