It's a Christmas Miracle!

This wrapping paper is simply... Marvelous.

Me. Me posting to the blog is the Christmas miracle. Sorry I've been away so long. It uh... It has been a year. But in catching with the Card Blogger Secret Santa at the last minute, I vowed to our fearless leader Jon that I would at least get my haul on the blog. I had hoped to do more, since I also had a 300 card (precisely 258 of which were for myself) monster COMC haul featuring 30 sketch cards and tons & tons of non-sport & multi-sport items. But of course, I screwed that up pretty quickly. Oh well, maybe next year. January will be another massive shipment that will be mostly major sports cards, so I will need to at least get December's scanned & filed away, even if I don't do anymore bloggin'.

The tin will get lots of non-trading card use..

But anyway! The Secret Santa haul! I only had the time & (not even really the) energy for photos for this post, unfortunately. Getting the post up was the most important thing though, so... Here goes!

Mainly for haulin' art supplies places..

My goodness, Collecting Cutch did such an amazing job with this in every way. The presentation was magnificent, and not cheap. I don't have the box handy, but I believe shipping was something like $8? Then there was the appropriately treasure chest shaped Christmas tin they came in, wrapped in that delightful Marvel Comics wrapping paper at the top of the post. Inside the tin, the cards themselves were even wrapped in small lots. I wish I'd had the money & energy to put that kind of care into mine, tbh. It *felt* like a Christmas gift. So cool!

Now for some cards!

All I could muster was what looked like a pretty typical trade package. I did repurpose a bit of the wrapping paper to partially cover the lot and wrote a lil note of holiday wishes, but it badly pales in comparison. Bryan went all out, and I am so not worthy of that level of effort.

More base Cubs..

As for the package itself, as you can see, there were a handful of random Cubbies. I think I had everything but the Heritage in these first couple pics, but these were mostly filler anyway.

Buntybois..

I think the Bunt cards may be entirely new to me though. I only ever bought a pack or two, and I believe my only Cub was a blue Lester parallel. Anyway, the design is really nice. Floaty ball pics are also cool.

More Buntybois & Schwarbers..

The black & White Schwarber may well go straight to his binder page & stay there. It just looks good. Hendricks could also make it in as temporary filler, at least. I like my single pages to be blingier, but I still don't have much in the way of fancier (#'ed, hits, tougher inserts, etc) stuff of The Professor yet.

Bryzzo..

Finishing the Cub run with a nice blue Walmart blaster parallel of Rizz & one last Bunt of KB. Good stuff. Happy to see there was plenty of useful filler in there. But now onto the meat of the package.

McCutchen!

Before we move on from the baseball, a little McCutchen-y goodness from the supercollector himself. The tree is an on-card painting! And given how thematically on-point everything else in this package was, the thought balloon being on the penny sleeve functions as a nice subtle homage to our host Jon as well. 😁

Brad Utterstrom Prints!

Apologies for the terrible pics on these rad Brad Utterstrom promos & prints. I didn't realize how badly they came out until I transferred them from my phone to the computer.

More promo/prints..

Adequately capturing the sheer quality would've been nigh impossible anyway, I guess. These things belong in a museum. I am making the these two cards available to whoever wants them, however. I like to spread the love around when I feel I've been treated far too kindly anyway, but also, zombie stuff just ain't my thing. And the Wampa should probably be in the hands of a more serious Star Wars fan than myself as well. So go ahead & claim them in the comments & email me your address and I'll send it your way PWE style sometime early next year. One per person. First come, first served.

Last of the prints..

I was initially confizzled as to whether or not this incredible Mickey Mantle and the landscape above were prints or real because this one felt like it had actually been drawn on, but Bryan confirmed they were prints over on the Twitters. It was mainly just so I knew which binder to put them in, because they are rad as heck regardless.

WWE Superstar "The Outlaw" Jane Russell..

Moving away from the art prints but still keepin' it artsy with some Breygent movie posters. They are kinda glittery! I dunno if these are parallels or just base cards or what, since I've never had anything but sketch cards from this run of sets. They're pretty cool though!

That growth on the side of his head ain't messin' around..

And one more for good measure. The hand growing out of ol' Stagger Lee's face is packin' heat! And now you'll never be able see or think about him without the vision of his massive gun-totin' face boil haunting the very depths of your soul ever again! Christmas!

Front..

Back.. 

Heading down the stretch with this AWESOME Carddass (really?) Street Fighter card of underrated G1 (or would it be Gen 2?) combatant Edmond Honda! Gotta find one of these of my girl Chun-Li now.

Thank you so much for sticking with me this long. Now comes the reward for your patience. It's hit time!

Careful Ems, there's a snake in that sand trap!

Outside the top tier names, Goodwin Champions are always pretty cheap hits, so Emily making is an easy choice for a smol budget Secret Santa event like this, but from what I can find, a Jessica Henwick auto would probably more than break the $10 limit all on her own! Aside from her role on GoT, she can also be found in the Star Wars & MCU franchises in somewhat similarly situated roles as pilot Jess "Testor" Pava and Colleen Wing, long saving grace of the lamentable Iron Fist series on Netflix.

If you didn't see why I felt extremely spoiled & felt the need to spread the love around, well...  We haven't even gotten to the sketch cards yet!

Multiple Man by Dave Strong..

First up, one of my fave underutilized X-Men dudes from the early serieseseses of Upper Deck's revival of the ol' Fleer/Skybox Marvel Masterpieces line. This is dated 2008 on the back, which makes this series two or three, I believe. So yeah, it's from a time long before the brand name went high end in the mid-2010s. This is also cool because I'm a huge sucker for multi-character sketches, even when they're just of the same one three times, lol (my favorite amongst my suddenly expansive Wasp sketch card collection is also like that).

Witchblade by Jon Racimo..

And Bobby Lastly but not Bobby Leastly (shoutout to the dude Tom Campbell), we have a Witchblade sketch card. Racimo is on the lower end, and I do have a couple by him from this set already from the massive 57 card lot I picked up a few years back. But I like this one way better than the ones I already had, so this will be the one that gets the binder spot!

That's it! What a haul. Thank you again, Cutchmaster B. You are a legend. I don't know when exactly it will be, but a thank you sketch of your dude has been dialed up in my art queue. May the force

Thanks everyone for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful holiday & rest of the year, and a pleasant 2020. Live long & prosper/May The Force be with you/May the odds be ever in your favor/etc/so forth.

Until our next...

Summer of Sketch Vol. 5: Randoms

This is the fifth and final episode of the Summer of Sketch!  As noted in all the way back in episode two, not all the sketch cards I picked up on COMC had a specific place in my collection in mind when I got them.  Some just happened to be cheap enough when I had the money or I just happened to like the style or what have you.  So today's post is dedicated to my most random pickups of the bunch.

Invisible Woman by Thony Silas..

Leading off with my favorite of the bunch.  This one is so good I probably would have eventually broken down & bought it at full price if the money ever lined up right.  Fortunately it dropped by more than half during the sale COMC ran concurrently with the National Sports Collectors Convention at the beginning of this month.

Another cool aspect of this card is that Fantastic Four Archives was the set I pulled my first sketch card on my own (I still don't think I've quite hit double digits yet).  Somehow I'd never manage to pick up anything else from this set in the probably seven or eight years since, so this is still only my second card from the set.

Black Cat by Eric Hutchison..

I have at least two or three other Black Cat sketch cards already, and while I like the character, I'm not really into her enough to want a full page.  I thought this one was pretty nice, so eh, why not?  Sometimes you just have to take what you can get when it's there.

Marvel Premier Wasp by Matthew Hirons..

Insofar as buying sketch cards can ever be a regrettable decision for me, these next couple might qualify.  I have a Psylocke by this artist that I really like, but Wasp isn't amongst my favorite characters (Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon version notwithstanding) and I don't feel like the lens flare effect works nearly as well here as it did on Psylocke.  I got antsy and paid slightly more than I would have liked on both of these too.

Cap 75th Anniversary Agent 13 by Cris Santos..

Agent 13 is another character I have little concern for and I didn't feel great about it for the price (I didn't break the bank over either one, but sketch cards are inherently more expensive than anything else to start with, so...).  I also already had a decent sketch of her already, but unlike Wasp, I am much fonder of the style on this one.  The character in question is just even more whatever.  I would consider trading either of these, or keeping this Agent 13 & trading the other, for a sketch card of similar quality of a character I like better.

Xena and Herc Animated Callisto by John Czop..

We'll end this post, and the series, on a high note with the new oldest sketch card in my collection.  This uncirculated gem is of major recurring Xena antagonist Callisto.  It's from the 2005 Animated Adventures set.  I vaguely recall an animated crossover movie when I was younger, but I'm certain it was well before 2005.  I dunno.  I loved both live action series though (and pretty much all of the many knockoffs they inspired, especially Sinbad).

The back..

And that'll do it.  Hope you enjoyed this series.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next...

Summer of Sketch Vol. 4: Character Pages

Part four of the Summer of Sketch series brings perhaps my most important pickups to the table.  These are the Single Page Sensations and full collections of specific characters in my sketch card PC.  I was able to make a half-dozen new additions to these collections, and here they be.

Daredevil Seasons 1 & 2 Echo by Marla Agunos..

This is arguably my favorite card of this bunch, which is why I'm leading with it.  It's all-around great, but there's something about the expression on her face that I'm particularly fond of.  So many possible emotions being expressed in such a simple way.  Brilliant!

The scans of this great sketch by Don Mark Noceda do not begin to do it justice.  I thought the first one was so washed out & a smidge blurry due to it being scanned with a couple of them there super thicc Marvel Premier sketch cards, but when I tried again this morning, well... It is slightly more in focus, but it's somehow even more washed out than the first one!  You can barely even see the splash of orange behind her head, but it is super vibrant & brings what is already a great card all the way together in real life.

Spider-Man: Homecoming Elekra by Marlo Agunos..

This Elektra is also by Marlo Agunos.  This wasn't love at first sight like her Echo sketch above, but it has grown on me quite a bit since I got it in my hands.  A most welcome addition to her page.

Agent Carter She-Hulk by Gilbert Monsanto..

I had no idea about the Agent Carter set even existed until I picked up these two She-Hulks (I think this one is She-Hulk?  Not too many green chicks running around the Marvel U, but it could possibly just an odd shading choice for a regularly-hued character...) from the set.  Honestly, I'm still not even sure what it's about.  COMC just has autos and sketch cards, so perhaps it was just a higher end and/or super limited release.  I dunno.

Agent Carter She-Hulk by Monte Moore..

This sketch card is done in black & white, but that's definitely She-Hulk.  I had already surpassed a full page before I got this trio, so I'm up to 13 or 14 now.  Aside from Raven, Rogue is the only other character collection I've broken the full page plateau on.  With one possible exception, that being Raven's Titans teammate/popular ship pairing Starfire, who I have nine of, I have no intention or expectation of going over on any of the others.  I'm not really even all that close with any other characters I have pages for anyway.

Premier Gray She-Hulk by Michel Mulipola..

Finally, I'm not sure what's up with comic book writers constantly feeling the need to make She-Hulk an overly serious character.  I mean, they aren't usually bad portrayals, but it just sort of feels like it misses the point of the character in a pretty major way.  I must admit I am deeply in love with the look of the gamma-scarred, hyper-muscular, PTSD-induced gray version though.  I was surprised to find such a recent character design in a set, but I'm delighted to have it.

That's all for now.  Stay tuned for the Summer of Sketch finale soon.  Thank you, as always, for stopping by!

Until our next...

Summer of Sketch Vol. 3: Manly Mans

We've reached the midpoint of the Summer of Sketch series!  As you've likely noticed, I'm mostly not in it for the dudes when it comes to sketch cards & non-sport/other sport stuff in general.  But I do have a place for my favorite male characters in my sketch card binder.  I singled out two pages apiece worth of male characters for both Marvel & DC to target a lone sketch card of, and here's the trio of new additions I was able to make to those pages.

Bombshells Superman Silhouette by Matthew Sutton..

First up, the only DC sketch card in the entire shipment.  They've had a steady card producer in Cryptozoic for the past several years now, but DC is still way, way behind when it comes to cardboard.  They don't have near as many sets to pick from, and the sets they do have are dramatically less elaborate Rittenhouse & especially Upper Deck's Marvel offerings.

Daredevil Seasons 1 & 2 Sleepwalker by Anthony Helmer..

I was stoked to find a licensed sketch of a character as ridiculously unique & obscure as Sleepwalker.  He had 33 issue solo series in the early-'90s and has only rarely been heard from since, usually in major crisis crossovers, likely owing to the uniqueness of much of his dream police powerset.

Premier Colossus by Uko Smith..

Uko Smith is has long been a favorite artist of mine, but I'd never managed to land anything by him until now.  I hope to stumble onto an Uko for my She-Hulk or Rogue collections that I can afford at some point, but this will more than do for now.  Premier is a super-duper high end release and the sketch cards are on crazy thicc stock.  They only just barely fit in binder pages, and not very comfortably.  But beggars can't be choosers, I guess, and I'm just happy to have it.

And that's it!  You've made it through another post.  Go you.  As always, thanks for stopping by!

I'm gonna hunts me some mans!

Summer of Sketch Vol. 2: Legends of Lucasfilm Lore

Today's edition of the Summer of Sketch is an impromptu celebration of George Lucas and the folks at Disney carrying his legacy forward & putting up with the asshole unpleasable fanbase he cultivated, while he gets to enjoy his retirement by rolling around naked in the numerous piles of money and cocaine he got for selling out.  Enjoy that mental image!

Four of today's five-spot of cardboard curiosities hail from a galaxy far, far away, and the fifth belongs in a museum (of bad art).

My beloved Hera... 😍

Rebels came after Lucas sold out, but it's probably my favorite tale from the entire history of the franchise, and Hera is probably my favorite character.  I couldn't pass this up, though even being marked down a decent amount, it was still a lot more than I would normally pay for anyone not named Raven.

George "Mac" McHale by Zack Giallongo..

I was probably being a too harsh with that museum of bad art line for this.  It's very simple & couldn't possibly have taken more than a few minutes to do, but the Indiana Jones sets (and the rest of Topps non-sport lineup from around that time) were infamously overloaded with much, much worse than this.  And seriously, I only paid $2.25 for it, so I can't complain.

Mac (as portrayed by the great Ray Winstone) is also arguably the best character in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, so that's cool.  I may catch hell for this, but I watched this movie almost exactly a year ago, and I genuinely enjoyed it.  Having seen all four Indy movies, it probably ranks as my second favorite after Temple of Doom.

I don't know who this is..

Yeah, no idea.  I thought it could be Hera.  Rebels was on the air by this point and I've seen sketches of other characters from the show in this set.  But no goggles, so I dunno.  I've never been all that into Star Wars, if we're still being honest.  I think the quartet in this post came pretty close to doubling the size of my Star Wars sketch card collection.  Couple cheap Ahsokas, the Phasma I hit in a blaster, Luminara, and a forgettable Padme from forever ago was about all I had before, so yeah.

But anyway, whatever.  This was pretty cheap, it's the only High Tek sketch I own, and it's easily my favorite card I've ever come across by Bruce Gerlach.  I'm just not typically a fan of his style.

Battle Droid by Jessica Hickman..

Here's another kind of whatever sketch card.  I only care very much about a select few Star Wars characters (pretty much just the crew of the Ghost, Ahsoka, Rey, Finn, and Rose), so a random battle droid doesn't do much for me.  But this was under $5, is very nicely detailed as Star Wars pencil sketches go, and Jessica Hickman is an artist I like & I feel fortunate to already have a couple other sketch cards by her.  Anyway, this & Mac might be available for trade if you have something I might like better.

Zoinks! Yung Obi-Wan by Carla Rodrigues..

Finally, I also lucked into this phenomenal sketch for under $5 as well!  I love the somewhat cartoony art style.  It sort of reminds me of the classic Scooby-Doo art style a little bit, and that is a wonderful thing.  I wasn't sure until I got into my saucy little mitts, but this one is definitely staying in my collection.  It is fantastic.

And that wraps up the second volume in my Summer of Sketch series.  Hope you enjoyed it, and thank you for stopping by!

Until our next...

Summer of Sketch Vol. 1: Baseball!

As noted at the top of my latest post, my small-but-legendarily-mighty August shipment from COMC has arrived, and with it, 24 new sketch cards have officially entered my collection.  So I'm gonna show them off over the course of a five part series that will switch on & off with my unofficial Goodwin Champions PC posts and maybe a couple other things.  We'll start it off with a bang with my haul of 2009 Topps baseball sketch cards!

Kenji Johjima by Jay Pangan III..

This amazing Kenji Johjima was the second cheapest card of the quartet, and my absolute favorite of the bunch.  It's just a an amazing, highly detailed, full body pencil sketch by one of the very best in the business at drawing realistic, portraity sketch cards.  I know there are some folks out there with particular fondness for collecting Japanese ballplayers and geared up catchers who will likely enjoy the heck out of this card.  Looks like there's a play at the plate about to happen too.

Nick Markakis..

Nick Markakis is still getting it done!  While always a durable, reliable, and all-around competent player, he's pretty much never been a standout performer.  After a couple of rough seasons where lingering issues from old injuries didn't keep him out of the lineup, but likely significantly hampered his production, dude's having a borderline career year at age 34.  He finally made his first all-star team in his 13th season, with a batting average hovering around .320 or better all year, and is currently leading the NL in hits & doubles.  With a healthy and generously slow decline as he enters the twilight of his career, he has a very real shot at 3000 hits, having just passed 2200.

Brandon Webb..

I must admit, I'm terrible with artist's signatures and I've never been especially good at sniffing them out on my own, so I don't actually know who the rest of the artists are, even though 2/3 of them are at least legible.  This Brandon Webb sketch is only one I can't begin to make out.  The benefit of buying sketch cards on COMC is they tend to have the artist (and character or player) listed at a much higher rate than sellers on eBay, but no such luck with these.

Chris Young..

The last one I had to figure out the player on myself too.  I think I was somehow able to hunt down the image this was likely based on in order to confirm that it was Chris Young & not, as I initially thought, Justin Upton.  If I was that good and/or lucky with figuring out the signatures, I'd really be in business!  I really like that each of these cards manages to have their own unique artistic voice under the very limiting circumstances of this type of set.

Backs..

Here are what the backs of these cards look like, for those interested.  No major superstars here, and there don't seem to a whole lot from this set in general.  It seems like Topps was weirdly coy about doling out photo reference of the top guys.  Everybody in this bunch had their moments though.  Webb was a legitimate ace who won a Cy Young & made three all-star teams before pretty much vanishing without a trace at 30.  Johjima was outstanding in his first couple seasons with the Mariners & managed to post positive WAR even after his offensive production fell off a cliff after that.  Young never quite put it all together, but had a few nice seasons early in his career, earned an all-star nod, & became a reliable power bat & above average defender at all three outfield positions off the bench after that.  And as noted above, Markakis could very well sneak into the Hall of Fame discussion before it's all said & done.

That's wraps up another post.  Hope you all enjoyed it, because outside of a buyback post, there most likely isn't going to be much more major sports action around here for the foreseeable future.  So if you're still planning to check out what I'm posting in the coming weeks, I am especially thankful for you stopping by.

Until our next...

The Trading Post: Breakdown Cards

It took a long time, but I finally managed to get a few long overdue trade packages out this month.  Gavin was the first one to hit me back with something and here (almost all of) it is!

2017 Diamond Kings Artist Proof #'ed 85/99.. 

Starting off with one of the cards I knew was coming.  I love Panini's current run of Diamond Kings, but aside from a couple blue frames from 2015 and three discount blasters worth of 2016 (where I scored that sick Corey Seager auto/patch /10 from my All-Autograph Team post), I don't have very much of it.  Money has only gotten tighter since those discount blasters, and they were hard to justify even then.  So it's nice to get a little taste like this once in awhile.

2005 Absolute Memorabilia Absolute Heroes #'ed 205/250..

These first two cards nicely highlight what I said about keeping my Fergie Jenkins collection in the Pick Five Blog Bat Around post the other day.  While the career run collection can feel like a futile, endless grind, he has tons of fun modern stuff to collect that keeps it interesting.  Though his post-career stuff is probably at least 95% Cubs & Rangers (Donruss absolutely loved him in a Rangers uni), playing for four different teams in his career helps vary it up just that much more.

2017-18 Panini Status D-Rose "Red" #'ed 190/299..

The checklist over on Cardboard Connection says this is a red parallel, but it looks way more pink or magenta to me.  But anyway, I love Status & still needed a couple more cards to complete my Rose page, so this a great addition.  I don't remember if I claimed at some point or not, but it's a really nice addition.  Seen approximately a pretty good number of people say this reminded them of early Skybox and I am 100% on board with that assessment.  These are on foilboard and all have the same background design, but the computer generated graphics on a stark white void (when the bottom half isn't mostly colored in reddish-pink) does feel noticeably nostalgic to me.

2008-09 Topps Tip-off Gold #'ed 66/99..

This is another one I'm unsure how I ended up with, but it's a worthy inclusion on the Laker page if I ever decide to go through with my idea of making binders of team pages out as a way to organize the nicer random baseball, basketball, & football cards I'm not too attached too but can't seem to and/or don't really want to get rid of.

Kris Bryant sketch card!

Of course I can't let a single post go by without sneaking a sketch card in there.  But seriously though, getting back to the baseball with this sweet Gavin original of Kris Bryant!

Prizm Draft Schwarber..

I think I have at least a couple of these already, but extra early Schwarbers are never a bad thing to have.

2006 Topps Rookie of the Week..

I have no recollection of this program at all, how hard they were to come by, or who the rest of the checklist consists of (this is card 24 of 25), but Ryno on the '83 Topps design is all I really need.

2011 BowChro Trey McNutt Prospect Auto..

I've never been much for prospecting, but even in the most meh designs with the most forgotten failed prospects, Bowman Chrome autos are always nice & clean.  McNutt topped out at AA and is currently trying to keep his career alive on the indies.

2015 BowChro Prospect Purple Refractor #'ed 225/250..

Here's a nice purple refractor. I'm not sure yet, because it's mighty tempting to keep it for myself, but I might add it to my mom's pink & purple parallel binder whenever I'm next over there.  Sands was a fairly high draft pick in 2014 and started strong, but injuries, ineffectiveness, and an influx of newer, much readier draftees lead him to being released this spring.  As far as I can tell, nobody has picked him up since.  He's only 23 though, so the clock on his career hasn't ticked down nearly as far as some of the other names in this post.

2015 BowChro Bruno Prospect Refractor Auto #'ed 199/499..

Another nice Cubs prospect auto, this one a numbered refractor version.  Bruno is closing in on 28 and seems to be struggling mightily at AAA this season, so unless he comes on strong and can catch on elsewhere, he might be independent league bound as well.

2014 BowPlat Green #'ed 128/399..

This might be another dupe, but I'm not sure.  This is from the last Platinum set before the brand went on a short hiatus, returning a couple years later as an only slightly retooled Walmart exclusive.  Alcantara made the show with the Cubs but couldn't hit enough to stick on a team that was suddenly about to start contending.

2009 BowChro Prospect X-Fractor #'ed 179/250..

I'm typically not a fan of X-Fractors, but this version from 2009 is legitimately amazing.  I wouldn't be nearly as dismissive if they all looked more like this one.  Despite putting up generally respectable numbers, Rosa has bounced around the minors, independent, and international leagues for over a decade without ever being all that close to making the show.

Inception Magenta #'ed 80/99

I've owned maybe a half-dozen (counting football) Inception cards ever because it's typically a higher end prospect product with barely any cards per box and is frequently quite hideous to boot.  But the 2017 version looks decent, at least in magenta parallel form, and I'm happy to add any new #'ed Javy regardless, especially now that he's starting to fully realize his potential.

2005 Benchwarmer AJ Almasi/Laura Davis dual auto..

Finally, closing it out with some pretty ladies in very little clothing.  This sweet dual auto is arguably the centerpiece of the package, and I am excited to finally have it my possession.  And remember what I always say about Benchwarmer cards...

Backside..

Always scan the backs, because they are the gift that keeps on giving!

Haha, anyway, thank you Gavin!  As of my June shipments, I finally have all the trade bait I picked up for you & others last year on COMC in-hand (so many Christmas cards!), so I expect we'll be trading again soon.  Hopefully it won't take me 18 months to get send stuff your way this time.

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next...