Now This is Lin-Sanity

I'm sure you've heard by now that some of Jeremy Lin's cards have hit astronomical prices.  Well, I just saw an auction that takes the Lin-Sanity to a whole new Lin-evel.

Here is the auction.

And here is the write-up and a picture of the card.

2011 Panini Absolute Jeremy Lin Auto MAJOR DAMAGE

 I'm an idiot.

6 months ago I had this card in my ebay stack, just like everyone else.  It fell off the stack and got rolled over by an office chair.  I wasn't too upset back then, but then all this maddness happened. 


Check the damage, it looks just like you would expect a card to look like after a chair rolls over it. 


Running this at auction, so you crazy people can bid it up.

Out of curiousity, I kept the card in my watch list to see where it ended up.  When I left for work this morning, it was at $40, which is where it had lingered for a few days.

Imagine my surprise when I got home and saw that it had ended at a whopping  $192.51!!!

People be crazy!

The good news is that, if the seller is to be believed, 100% of this nearly $200 for a crappy card will be sent to the Make a Wish Foundation. 

Thoughts?

2012 Topps Hochevar Rainbow: I Leapt at This Card

Happy Leap Year!

When I saw this 1/1 Blank Back card in the Topps Vault store on eBay, I LEAPT at the chance to own it.

While it doesn't show in the scan, Topps made a huge improvement on their blank back cards by stamping/embossing the Topps Vault logo on the front of the card.  A very nice addition to these great 1/1 cards.

Also great, the 1/1 logo isn't hand written this year, but is a part of the sticker on the back.  Another great touch that adds a level of class to these kitschy cards.

Double NYU

I recently bought a 22-card lot of T51 Murads for $12 and thirteen of the cards are new additions to my collection.  Here are those cards, one at a time, so that I can milk as many posts out of this purchase as possible.

HAPPY LEAP DAY!!!

I thought a couple of New York University high jumpers, pre-Fosbury Flop, would be a fitting tribute to this once-every-fourth-year-day.  While I'm not a high jump junkie, it would appear that these jumpers are utilizing the "western roll" technique.  Definitely old-school.

2012 Topps Hochevar Rainbow: Golden Moments

I love the gold sparkley, but I'm not sure I'm IN love with the gold sparkley.

But I am in love with the small line of blue surrounding the photo.  It's a great touch.

Bowdoin

I recently bought a 22-card lot of T51 Murads for $12 and thirteen of the cards are new additions to my collection.  Here are those cards, one at a time, so that I can milk as many posts out of this purchase as possible.

A track star from Bowdoin College.

With this card, the set is 38/150 complete, which means that I now own over 25% of the set.

2012 Topps Hochevar Rainbow: Walmart Blue

The Walmart blue boarder really makes the Royals' jersey pop.

Sweet Home Chicago

I recently bought a 22-card lot of T51 Murads for $12 and thirteen of the cards are new additions to my collection.  Here are those cards, one at a time, so that I can milk as many posts out of this purchase as possible.

University of Chicago

This is one of the few times in the set where the college name is prominent and easy to read.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.  Sometimes it's fun trying to find the Easter egg in the card.

With this card, the set is now 37/150 (24.6%) complete.

2012 Topps Hochevar Rainbow: Target Red

A very patriotic looking card, thanks to the Target red boarder.

Sigillum Universitatis Bucnellensis

I recently bought a 22-card lot of T51 Murads for $12 and thirteen of the cards are new additions to my collection.  Here are those cards, one at a time, so that I can milk as many posts out of this purchase as possible.

Sigillum Universitatis Bucnellensis

My Latin is a little rusty, but I believe it translates into "One-piece Bathing Suit University".

Set is now 36/150 (24%) complete.

2012 Topps Hochevar Rainbow: Base Card

My 2012 Topps Series 1 Luke Hochevar cards have been slowly making their way into my collection over the past few weeks.  I think I have enough of the rainbow to be able to start showing it off.  First, the base card.

Looking back at Luke's Topps cards over the years, this year's photo is definitely my favorite, followed by (in descending order of favor) 2011, 2009, 2008, and, bringing up the rear with the least flattering pic of them all, 2010 .

 
Not only is the photograph a vast improvement, but I didn't have to wait until Series 2 to get my Hochevar fix like last year.

And, of course, I love that Fowler, CO, is listed as his "Home".  Anytime my town gets baseball card love, I'm a fan.

Tomorrow, I will begin to work my way through the parallel versions of the card that I've picked up.

Fave Five: Surprise Bubbler from Angels in Order

Tom of The Angels, in Order, not to be confused with the less interesting The Angles, in Order (SPOILER ALERT: the 90-degree angle gets WAY more coverage than it deserves), sent a great care package to me this week.

Here are my Fave Five from the bubble mailer:

FIVE: Diamond King Walker

FOUR: Ribby King

THREE: Lucky 13

TWO: The Golden Boy

ONE: Big League Minis

Thanks for the cards Tom!

He's an Officer, but is he a Gentleman?

He'll never tell.

(circa 1890's, N224 Kinney/Sweet Caporal Military Uniforms)

Saint (Joey) Lawrence

Another T51 Murad?  Whooooaaaaa!

This St. Lawrence card has the worst back of any of the 35/150 cards I have.  At first glance, I thought it was paper loss, but it actually appears to be the paper from which the card was glued.

Double Duck Hunt

Added another duplicate Murad T51 card to the collection.  This time it's Drake University.

The second one is severely trimmed, but cool none the less.

The set is now 34/150 (22.6%) complete.

Framed

In honor of pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training Valentine's Day, my wife completely surprised me by getting my Luke Hochevar Topps Heritage watercolor painting framed for me. 

And it look amaze-balls!  Don't believe me?  Take a look for yourself.

My corner of our office is starting to look quite manly, although the Hochevar jersey will be coming down from its off-season resting place and onto my broad shoulders every 5th start, as has been the tradition since my wife bought it for me.

Thanks again to my sister for the painting and thanks to my lovely wife for the great frame. 

The Lion

I have never been very interested in astronomy or constellations, but this card is great.

This Mechanized Age

Acting as an aerodrome and mother ship of naval 'planes since 1918.

Special (President's Day) Edition

Happy Commander-in-Chief Day!

Thank God the leader of our fine country doesn't live here any more.

Golden Oldie

More John Stockton goodness that I missed out on during my years away from the hobby.

Visiting An LCS

This time, it wasn't the traditional local card shop LCS, but rather, a Local Card Show.  My wife and I made a trip up to the big city of Colorado Springs to have a (belated) Valentine's Day lunch at Biaggis, some antiquing in an attempt to find a hutch for the kitchen, and I somehow convinced her to go to a 20-table card show.

Nick of Dime Boxes had a great list of tips for how to enjoy a card show without going broke, so I was inspired to go dime box digging.

So imagine my disappointment when I found the hotel basement conference hall filled with a 5:1 glass case filled with hits to dime box ratio.  And it seemed that football was king of this show as there were hardly any baseball cards in the displays.

Since I didn't want to bore the wife too much, I casually surfed the glass cases until I got to one seller who had his Colorado Rockies separated by player.  I walked away three cards richer and $12 lighter in the wallet.

First, I found a Todd Helton that I knew I didn't already have.  While it wasn't a dime, I felt comfortable giving seventy-five cents for this card.

Then I found two Dexter Fowlers that I knew I couldn't leave the show without.  First, a 2011 A&G mini for a quarter.

And then I shelled out $11 for this beauty (which was marked $15 but the seller was cool and gave me a deal on it).  It's a 2009 Heritage Chrome Black parallel, #'d 46/60

Sure, it's majorly miscut, but I'd never seen one of these for under $20 so I knew I had to get home with it. 

Big thanks to Nick for inspiring me to get outta the house, off the bay, and doing some in-person card hunting. 

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

After my wife graduated from law school this past summer, we decided that she'd take the Colorado Bar Exam.  Since she didn't have a job lined up yet (since she hadn't passed the Bar), my parents offered to let us live in my Grandma's old house, which they and my uncle had inherited after she died in 2010.  It was great to be back in my home town and it was actually quite fun living in a house that carried so many fond memories of my childhood.

To make a long story short, my wife got a job in a nearby town, I found a teaching job in a nearby town, and we bought the house from my dad and uncle.  We've spent the past six months installing new flooring, painting the walls and molding, and remodeling the kitchen.  I think it has finally become "our house" and not "grandma's house" which is kinda cool.

While we were cleaning, we found this button that Grandma would wear to my high school basketball games, and, in typical Grandmotherly fashion, had safely stored away in her junk valuables drawer.

And why wouldn't she?  This freshman would eventually become a senior, and they'd HAVE to let him play then, right?  (Well, they'd let him start, but he would be subbed out by some Hochevar kid minutes into the game or after one bad pass, which ever came first).

And I'll give you one guess what my jersey number was.

Colorado Collection: Nate Solder (Part Two)

It's just my luck that the day after I posted a Nate Solder card, my second card of his would arrive.  I was hoping to put both cards into the same post, but que sera, sera.

While I was looking for Nate Solder cards for my Colorado Collection, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to own a card of him in his CU jersey.  Also, the autograph is WAY better on this version and it's on-card to boot.

And, just for giggles, here are my Colorado Collection cards that feature the player in a Colorado-based uniform.

Coincidentally, all Upper Deck cards.

Colorado Collection: Nate Solder

While watching the Super Bowl, I noticed that one of the Patriots claimed to have attended Colorado University.  So, I dug a little deeper and found out that, Nate Solder was indeed a Coloradoan and I instantly began a search for one of his autographs.

I ended up with this 2011 SAGE First Round Selection Dual Autograph Nate Solder/Ryan Kerrigan, which is serial numbered 40/200.

Born in Denver, Colorado, Nate played left tackle for the CU Buffs and was the 17th selection in the 2011 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots.