Accomplishing A 2012 Collecting Goal

And, it happened before the All-Star Break, which is great.

This University of Oklahoma shooting card is the card that officially makes my Murad collection 50% complete.

University of Oklahoma -- 75/150, 50%

Just Looking Through My New Hochevar Cards.

What's new with you?

Do you know which state is hosting the MLB All-Star Game?

74/150, 49.3%

When I was teaching, one of my favorite things to do was to ask my students to name the states that have multiple NFL/MLB teams located within their boarders, because they almost always missed Missouri.

Speaking of the All-Star Game, is anyone going to partake in the All-Star Game Memorabilia Auction?  There are tons of great items listed, but they obviously carry a big premium. 

Get Out The Vote

EVERYONE needs to go The Magazine-Whose-Name-Shall-Not-Be-Spoken's blog and vote for our very own Greg Zakwin (you know, the Sweatered Plaschke guy) because he's competing against two other people to win a Sandy Koufax autographed card.
Voting ends today in a month (August 7th) so, go, vote, and spread the word!

Unknown Parallel

One of the nice things about being an "expert" about my player collection is how often my "expertise" is put into question by my discovering a previously unknown parallel.

Take this 2008 Upper Deck SP Authentic card.

I've spent three years heavily collecting Hochevars and never knew this "gold" parallel numbered to /50 existed. 

And, just like a modern day explorer, I keep treking into the trading card jungle, hoping to spot, bag, and tag a new species of card.

Cinci

The University of Cincinnati's  Murad card is surprisingly dull considering how ornate the background and crest are.

73/150 -- 48.6%

Also from Cincinnati:

My second favorite way to eat chili, Cincinnati chili.

My second favorite young stand-up comedian, Josh Sneed.


And my second favorite touchdown dance, the Icky Shuffle.

Number 14

One of the cards that I won't be receiving in the huge Hochevar collection that my wife so graciously allowed me to purchase is a 2012 Topps Series 1 black bordered card.  Luckily for me, I found one on eBay. 

Serial numbered 54/61, this is the 14th version of this card I've added to my collection, which means I now own 23% of this parallel set.

Fireworks Free

This may be one of the first times I can remember the fine citizens of my town abiding by the fireworks ban that's been put in place due to the heat and drought.  And after the destruction the Waldo Canyon fire caused in Colorado Springs, I couldn't be happier to be living with such law-abiding citizens.

So, how about some patriotic themed cards of my favorite players?

And what's a post without Old Glory?

Let freedom ring!

Let Your Flag Fly!

Hope everyone has a great Independence Day!

Illinois -- 72/150, 48%

Buy-out

Yesterday a fellow Luke Hochevar fan and mega-collector contacted me.  He had decided it was time to get out of the card game and wondered if I would like to buy his Hochevar collection.  After about twenty emails back and forth we came to a fair price and we are both happy to know that later this week I'll be absorbing his 150+ Hochevar cards into my collection (30+ of which are cards that I need).  His collection has tons of great cards, dozens of which are super-rare low-numbered eBay-1/1 type cards.

But, with this purchase, I'm growing one of my main collections by investing a huge chunk of money, which means I need to trim some of my other collections and see if I can't recoup a part of this investment.  So I spent some time last night listing cards on eBay.  If you see anything you like, please bid and if you win, let me know that you follow my blog and I'll include as many extras as I can as a thank you for reading and supporting my blog.

I've listed a couple of the manupatch sets that I've started but have not completed, including my NBA, NFL, and MLB logo patches, as well as the autographed letter patches that I'm not using in the family-name nameplates.  I've also posted a bunch of KC Royals autographs and relics and will be adding all of my non-Murad tobacco cards later today.

It's going to be tough mailing off my manupatches, but it's worth it in the long-run to be able to grow my Hochevar collection like this.

So be sure to bid early and bid often!

Trade Report: More Like 'Fantastic Cards'

When Superduperman99 of the blog Fantastic Catch told me that he had some Dexter Fowlers that I may need, I was super pumped to work out a trade with him because for some odd reason, I'd never traded with a Cardinals fan and had a huge stack of Cardinals cards to send him.

In return I received the Dexter Fowlers he told me about.  And sure enough, I needed all three for my collection.

But, in true blogger-trading fashion, there were a couple of extra special cards tucked between the Fowlers.  Turns out, Superduperman99 is a custom card maker and made two for me featuring my two favorite players.

I dig the hand written backs, especially the logos.  Thanks for the great trade and I can't wait to unload another pile of Cardinals on you in our next trade!

Suri Cruise?

Noooooooo!  Sy-ra-cuse!  Today's 'Morning Murad' is of Syracuse.

I was gonna be so pissed if this card had any color other than orange on it.  Just wouldn't seem right.

And, how about a quick little contest?  I'm not sure what to think about the above "athlete".  In the comment section, tell me what you think is going on in the picture.  The one that I enjoy the most will win their choice of one of the Murad duplicates I have, and I'll mail it to them in a PWE later this week.   

Here Comes Treble

Cornell University -- 70/150, 46.6%

This was one of the Murads I was most excited to see in my mega-lot, because I knew with this card I could, with good reason, post the following videos of Cornell's most famous son, Andy "The Nard Dog" Bernard. 

Class Day

One of the traditions from the east coast universities that I'm sad never made it to my southeastern Colorado alma mater is the class day speech. 

Yale University -- 69/150, 46%

And Yale's had some good ones recently.  I can't imagine how cool it would have been to have one of these famous figures speak to my graduating class.

Tom Hanks



Bill Clinton



Christopher Buckley



Tony Blair

Purple Pride

I was able to slay another one of my white whales this week when I added a 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes autographed purple parallel, which is serial numbered 1/5.

It's a great looking card and I love the purple background.  It's a regal color and is fitting for such a low numbered card.

I had no clue that there was a purple #/5 parallel in this set until the moment it popped up on the bay.  Until that point, I assumed that the #/10 red parallel was the lowest numbered card.  Sometimes it pays to constantly troll the bay.

The rainbow is coming together nicely.

Cal

My neighbor's name is Cal.  The college below's nickname is Cal. 

California -- 68/150, 45.3%

Coincidence?  I think not.

River Rat

When my wife saw this card, she was reminded of our rafting trip down the Arkansas River a few weeks ago.  The odd thing is I wore this exact outfit on our trip.

University of Texas -- 67/150, 44.6%

Well, maybe not, but it was fun none-the-less.

 Me, Rachael, Ryan, and Scott

Sadly, the best picture from the trip is the pre-adventure picture.

Yard Sale "Junk"

My in-laws love yard saleing (as do I, but I've yet to find anything blog-worthy at a yard sale in my small town) and since they know I love cards, they always keep their eyes peeled for something to add to my collection.

About a week ago, they stumbled into four big boxes of cards and snapped them up for me.  I finally got around to sorting them out (of course I did a cursory flip through the boxes the moment my wife brought them into the house) and I was quite pleased with their purchase.

Of course the boxes were filled to the brim with "junk wax" era cards, but I am pumped to add them to my library card file cabinet.  The tall piles are made up of your usual late-80s and early-90s Upper Deck, Topps, Leaf, Pinnacle, and Donruss.  And everyone knows what that means:  MUSTACHES!!!

The above beauties will be immediately filed in my 2012 Mustache Portraits Set drawer.  And I am certain that the four boxes of yard sale "junk" will give me the last three mustache cards I need to complete the 2011 Mustach Franken-Set.

I can't wait to dig deeper into each pile of cards and I definitely can't wait for my in-laws to stumble into more cards for me.  Thanks for the cards Sandy and Richard!

What Can Brown Do For Me?

For starters, it can push me to the 44% complete point in my Murad T51 set.

Also, this is the first card that I have received that features a black-and-white athlete.  It is quite striking how different the card looks with the statuesque athlete rather than a colorful figure.

French for "Our Lady"

At least, that's what wikipedia claims Notre Dame means.  I'm guessing Ron Burgundy has heard a different translation.

With alumni including Condoleezza Rice, Regis Philbin, Phil Donohue, Joe Theisman, Joe Montana, Jerome Bettis, Knute Rockne, Hannah Storm, Tim Brown, Megan Duffy, and Rudy Ruettiger, Notre Dame is one of the most prestigious colleges for which I have a Murad card.

Notre Dame -- 65/150, 43.3%

Also, I am continually flabbergasted by the athletic footwear of the 1910s.  I would love to see today's athletes wearing a pair of boots while competing.  We've come a long way, baby.