My Unofficial Goodwin Champions Collection Vol. 5: Goudey Greats!

Time for the final installment in my Goodwin Champions PC series!  This one is all about that Goudey goodness.

CP Munk (look it up)!

Starting things off with my third most expensive card from Goodwin Champions, CM Punk at his most Wolverine-est!  I want to say WolverPunk was right around $9.

Some race car man..

Goudey was Upper Deck's first answer to Topps' Allen & Ginter.  It ran as its own brand from 2007-2009 and it was... mostly good.  Year one were entirely the small square size of original 1930s Goudey, and had a weird duality gimmick to them.  2008 was the best version, though like with any artsy set, there were a few Dick Perez specials.  2009 had a serious flaw in that much of the set looked like horrifying waxy, plasticy abominations of nature, but if you can get past it, it was still as fun a rip as any other.

Later years used the original Goudey/Sport Kings size for minis.  I don't know for sure if they were one-per-pack in 2008, but I vaguely recall them being every other pack in the blaster of 2009 I picked up a few years back.  I dunno though.  I'd love to bust some more of the original run someday, but I haven't come across any since that blaster.

Former Blackhawk great Jeremy Roenick..

Goudey likely would have continued as its own brand had Topps not ruined the entire card industry forevermore by nabbing an exclusive license to lord their boring garbage products over the rest of us with.  Now pretty much every sport except soccer (& maybe hockey still?) are exclusively produced by a single company and, pardon my language, but well... it fucking sucks.

Non-autos? So that's just like inserts then..

Fortunately, UD was eventually able to find a place for the brand within Goodwin Champions line.  I'm not sure, but I might not actually have that Miesha "Flukiest Champion in the History of Sports" Tate anymore.  I might have sent it to the currently hiatusing(?) Raz in the package I sent him in July.  If not, and I can find it, it'll go to him next time.  I think it's fair to say I don't think much of her as a fighter.

One more 2016 insert..

And a 2017..

While I like the simplicity and colorfulness of 2016's Goudey inserts, I love the look of 2017's.  It's better to me in every way.  This looks like it could be the base set design for a standalone Goudey product, and I am feeling it.

So much MMA!

Here it is in autographed form, with professional asskicker Amanda Nunes.  I like that the brand/nameplate and space for the autograph take up considerably less room, and that they used fuller body photographs in this iteration.

Mo' 'Manda..

Finally, an important aspect of the original Upper Deck Goudey run was the Sport Royalty subset, which was a part of the run of shortprints.  As the name implies, it featured stars from other sports.  I tried to complete the 2008 set, but I didn't make it too far.

Presidents, certain base legends, black & white photos, and Heads Up cards made up the rest of the shortprint run over the brand's lifespan, but I think Sport Royalty may have been the only consistent SP'd subset across all three years.  You could also pull the SPs in mini form in all the various hues of parallel.  I'm not sure about relics, but I'm certain it was possible to pull autos of at least some of the subjects.

That puts a bow on this series for now.  But once September's shipment arrives and gets scanned & edited into bite-sized chunks, I will likely have the means to produce at least two more installments in this series.  So look forward to that.  Or don't.  The flake-out is inevitable, after all.  Thanks for stopping by though.  I really do appreciate it.

Until our next...

My Unofficial Goodwin Champions Collection Vol. 3: The Hottest Hits of 2016

Time for the third installment in Goodwin Champions collection breakdown.  We're getting back to the hits in this one.  As the title implies, today is about my hits from the 2016 set.  There's a lot to get through, so let's jump right in!

The Hitman!

This is arguably my best hit from Goodwin Champions period.  Crazy to be able to get an on-card auto of one of the five greatest wrestlers of all-time for $9.99 (insert WWE Network joke here).  This is the most expensive Goodwin Champions card I've bought to this point, so I managed to amass the huge mess of stuff in this series without ever paying double digits for any of it.  I didn't even realize that, but it's a pretty cool stat.  Oddly, this is one that could have qualified as one of those high-numbered inscription autos, but for some reason it didn't get the hand-numbered treatment.

Inscriptions!

This one did though.  I mentioned I had a couple of the other super high numbered inscription, and this is one of them.  I love the arrow in her signature.  That's a great little personal touch.

Not enough licensed SI swimsuit issue model autos out there..

Melissa Baker makes her return from the previous episode, this time in autographed form...

...as does Kaylyn Kyle.  There will be a lot of repeats from the red & blue post.  The six in her signature being at the same odd angle as the one on her shorts is amusing the heck out of me for some reason.

One of the cooler cards you'll see in the whole series..

It's not all autographs, I have a couple relics too!  There aren't enough pink swatches in this world.  Also, what a kickass photo choice!

This may look like an ordinary plain white swatch, but I assure you, it's so much better.  I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it has a rubbery feel to it.  That was a super exciting revelation back when I was organizing the shipment it came in for scanning.  I'd consider doing a whole page of this relic (and the DiGiulian in all its forms cuz the photo) if I can find 'em cheap enough.

Haley Anderson auto..

x2!

Back to the autos.  I have two of Haley, because I can I guess.  I suppose one could be available for trade if anybody has a mighty need.

More Inscriptions!

I have two of Paige Selenski too, but I need them both, because the latter is another inscription!  This one is more representative of the typical rarity for inscriptions in this product.

And that does it.  I have a few more from 2016, but they'll be showing up in a later installment.  You'll understand why then.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next...

My Unofficial Goodwin Champions Collection Vol. 2: Red vs. Blue

2016 Royal Red Aly Raisman & Stefanie Johnson..

The second part of my unofficial Goodwin Champions PC series is all about the parallels.  There isn't much extra going on with the base set, but 2016 & 2017 featured photo variations, shortprinted black & white high numbers, and the red and blue parallels I'm here to give you the good word on today.  So strap in because, the formatting is about to get hella wonky! 😆

Royal Blue Xue Chen, Carla Esparza, & Wu Minxia..

Told ya!  There wasn't much rhyme or reason to the direction of how I scanned things, and there won't be much rhyme or reason to where they go in this post.

Paige Selenski horizontal...

...and vertical!

Because of my editorial laziness, I don't even have enough blues to switch the colors on & off.  Oh well...

Royal Blue Quincy Davis B&W & color, and Eugenie Bouchard..

I do like the blues a lot more than the reds though.  The reds are actually kind of painful to look at, while the blues are much more welcoming, despite still being a fairly bright shade.  Also, Eugenie is in Allen & Ginter this year, after being in Goodwin Champions in 2017.  Topps got scooped!

Royal Red Kaylyn Kyle & Melissa Baker..

But why are they all women, you seem to be asking.  And to that I would answer, why not?

Vertical Aly & Melissa..

Most of these ladies are world class women of sport, but Melissa Baker is a model.  Thus is the mystery and wonder of Goodwin Champions.

CLB..

You can find all manner of athletes, celebrities, historical figures, politicians, random animals... It's one of those sets, and I am grateful for its delightfully strange and borderline incoherent existence.

2016 Royal Red Haley Anderson..

I hope to have a supplemental installment of a page worth of the aforementioned random animals to show you somewhere on down the line.  Athletic beauties and exotic animals are pretty much all anyone need in life, tbh.

2017 Royal Blue Felice Herrig..

One last blue to close it out, and that does it for episode two of my Goodwin Champions collections series.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next...