My Unofficial Goodwin Champions PC Vol. 1: Older Hits

2009 Goodwin Champions Evelyn Ng Autograph..

After picking up things on COMC here & there over the years, it finally clicked with me sometime last year just how incredibly cheaply you can score a lot of great hits from Upper Deck's long-running Goodwin Champions brand.  Not only that, many of the subjects are hard (and usually much more expensive), if not impossible, to find anywhere else.

I've accumulated enough from the brand for it to almost qualify as a collection unto itself, and I am going to treat it as such here.  So strap in and enjoy.  This is the first in an at least five part series documenting everything I have scanned from the Upper Deck Goodwin Champions brand in my collection so far.

Most of what I've accumulated so far is from 2016 & 2017, but there are a few things from older sets, and that's what the first post will be about.  I know I have a blaster or two and a bunch of older base I won in a contest back in the day floating around here somewhere as well, but none of it seems to be scanned (or they died along with an old computer, I dunno which), so yeah, just the hits right now.

2012 Goodwin Champions Sonya Thomas Autograph..

Goodwin Champions started out as a baseball product in 2009 (the Evelyn Ng at the top of the post is from the OG set), essentially Upper Deck's answer to Topps' offbeat ultra old school brand Allen & Ginter.  It wasn't until UD lost their MLB license that it was eventually retooled into the even more offbeat than Allen & Ginter multi-sport/non-sport hybrid we know & mostly love today.

2011 Goodwin Champions Natalie Gulbis Relic..

I think I have an absolutely terrible looking Warren Moon relic from one of the earlier sets too, but I don't have a scan of it handy either.  This Natalie Gulbis from 2011 looks fantastic though!  She appears to radiating energy with the force of a thousand suns.

2013 Goodwin Champions Mimi Knoop Autograph..

I don't really collect any minis at all anymore (though I'm seriously considering a page of those magnificent Thor: Ragnarok minis you get out of the Dyson Cards), so I don't really have any from any year of Goodwin Champions to show.  They often have cooler and more diverse (& attainable, despite being technically rarer) parallels than A&G can usually muster, but very few, if any, mini inserts to offer.  They aren't typically one-per-pack either (usually 1:2-1:4, iirc). Win some, lose some.

2015 Goodwin Champions Miki Sudo autograph..

Closing out episode one with a trio of autos from 2015.  Like I said, I don't have a ton of pre-2016 stuff, but there will almost certainly be more in the future.  I'm especially fond of the design of these 2015's autos.

2015 Goodwin Champions Alana Beard Autograph..

Alana Beard is a name I knew, as is the final card in this episode (which is why I got them).  But for whatever reason, Goodwin Champions hits are exceptionally inexpensive.  The checklist is usually pretty quirky, but it's pretty much all on-card, and some years you aren't even guaranteed an auto in every box.  Crazy.  I think the Evelyn Ng up top might've been around $5, but I don't think anything in the rest in this post cost me over $2.

2015 Goodwin Champions "Ironman" Ivan Stewart Inscribed Autograph #'ed 4/298..

Much like A&G, you don't tend to find a whole lot of numbered stuff in Goodwin Champions, but a lot of it will be hand-numbered when you do.  The inscribed autos are usually much rarer (often /50 or less), but some signers just naturally have the inscription as part of their signature, and most of them get counted as count as part of the Inscription parallel.  I have two others like this numbered much higher in later episodes, and also a couple of the normal, much rarer variety.

That's it for part one.  I hope to be able to open a box myself someday, but they are typically well out of my price range.  I'm going to keep getting singles whenever I can though.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next...

Dyson Here

Incredible Hulk #104..

The only relatively major non-sketch card pickup I added to August's just-arrived art-heavy lineup was the above Dyson Card from Thor: Ragnarok.  They are basically rip cards, though much, much easier to pull than Allen & Ginter.  Lot cheaper too.  This one was the cheapest on the site at the time and set me back a cool $3.75.

The back (I didn't scan it until after I already opened it)..

I'm glad the cheapest one available was from the best Hulk story ever imo.  Planet Hulk is where Bruce Banner's story ends as far as I'm concerned.  As you can see, it's all perforated & much easier to open without obliterating your card than A&G rip cards tend to be as well.

Open card surgery..

Here it is open.  According to Cardboard Connection's checklist, the basic pull is "Mini Comics" (1:2 Dyson Cards), with an ever-so-slightly rarer acetate parallel (1:3), Comic Creator Autographs fall 1:6 Dyson Cards, with acetates at 1:11, and the big score: Actor Autographs falling 1:39 (Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson can both be hit in there, as well as director Taika Waititi).  COMC shows non-autographed characters from the movie too, but I don't see them on the checklist anywhere, so I can't give you any odds on them.

Anyway, my pull came in a mini sleeve glued to the inside of one of the flaps that open up.  That's mighty sporting of them.  So what did we pull?

The mini(s)?!

Immediately I noticed there were two cards in the sleeve.  The card itself, and a COA, which means...

Mini backs, feat. auto goodness!

We hit a Ron Garney mini acetate autograph!  He is a fairly prolific artist and very occasional writer, almost entirely with Marvel.  It's hard to tell in the scan, but this is a sticker auto.  It's all on it though and he has pretty solid penmanship.

There are some huge legends on the creator checklist (Walt Simonson, Sal Buscema, etc), so this isn't the biggest pull.  But it's probably an $8-10 card, which more than double what I paid for the Dyson card.  I think almost anything you pulled would probably be at least worth the price of admission though if you pick one up for under $5, so there's no fear in breaking these the way there is with A&G.  And the potential to hit a monster is still there.

But enough pondering of the potential monetary value of things.  I'm not inclined to part with this right now, since it looks rad as heck fits nicely into the unofficial mini-PC I have going of creator autos from various Marvel products (I also have a few from that one CBLDF set from... almost a decade ago now).  I've barely bought anything but singles this year, so this probably qualifies as my best pull of the year to this point (looking it up, this is only the second auto & 4th "hit" overall that I've pulled in 2018, which is actually not terrible for how little I've opened).

I need some food and then some sleep, so I guess that's enough jibba-jabba for now.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next...

Free Group Break Haul

Near the end of July, Colbey of Cardboard Collections fame held a free group break on Twitter/Periscope of a couple retail jumbo boxes of 2016 Donruss Optic baseball.  Of course, being that late in the month, I was too broke for even a free break (it was just $4 to cover shipping).  But, he let me pay up in August, and I ended up being able to get a team.  That team was the White Sox.  They barely exist within the set, with five base cards total and no rookies, but I still somehow managed to do pretty well.  So let's have us a look, shall we?

Blue Holo/Prizm/Refractor/what-the-heck-ever...

One auto was pulled from the two boxes, but the sox that player wore were the wrong color.  I did manage to hit one of the dozen-ish numbered parallels that came out of the break though.

 ...#'ed 134/149!

I'm pretty happy with that.  I have a few versions of Sale's Diamond King now, the rarest being the Carolina Blue /50.

HoloPrizmFractors..

I also pulled the basic shiny version of Abreu & Sale's base cards for the PC...

Purple people eaters..

...as well as a trio of purples!  Eaton and Frazier will definitely be available for trade, but I might hang onto this version of Sale's Diamond King too.  Maybe I'll eventually stumble my way into a rainbow or something.

Base..

So six out of my 13 cards were parallels, but I was also still able to complete the base team set, such as it was.

Couple more Abreus..

There were two base Abreus, which is nice. And we'll end the post like we started it...

Base Diamond Kings..

...with more Chris Sale Diamond Kings!  I just noticed as I was posting this that the one on the right much brighter & sharper.  I checked because I thought it might be a scanner quirk or that I missed a parallel or something, but it looks like that in real life too and doesn't have a refractory shine to it or anything. They're both just pretty freshly pack-pulled base cards and one has super vibrant colors and the just... doesn't.  Even the above parallels don't look that bright.  Yet another cardboard oddity...

So that about wraps up this post.  Thanks again to Colbey for holding the group and allowing me a little extra time to pay for the shipping.  Watching was a nice way to kill an hour on a lazy Saturday night, and doing well in it was a nice added bonus.  As ever, thank you for stopping by!

Until our next...

Oversized Action

My first COMC shipment in June had an unexpected $3.99 off, so I was able to clear out all my oversized items and have it still come to pretty close to the same price as a normal shipment.  And so here they are.  Well, all the actually oversized ones.  There were a few that were just regular sized that cost more because they were already top loaded or encased or whatever.  Anyway, let's do this.

Heritage 5x7" Mookie Action Variation #'ed 22/49..

Leading off with a monster of a Mookie.  I dunno why they didn't do the burlap pattern on these jumbos, but whatever.  This has a couple minor dings that weren't mentioned or visible on COMC, but at $2.80 I was happy to get a nice Mookie for well over $4 less than any other card from this release was available for at the time (and possible still may be, I haven't checked in awhile), and I doubt most of the rest were all that minty fresh either.  It just happens with oversized cards sometimes.

1964 Topps Giants trade bait x1..

There's a lot of vintage in the middle of this post.  These first three are available for trade.

1964 Topps Giants trade bait x2..

They aren't in the best condition, but they don't seem to be outright poor like the COMC claimed.

1964 Topps Giants trade bait x3..

That likely made them much cheaper though.  I wouldn't likely have even noticed them at all otherwise.   But anyway, stake your claim.

1964 Topps Giants keeper..

Billy is a keeper though.  He cost me a little more, but was still plenty cheap enough.

1971 Topps Super Fergie Jenkins..

Fergie is also a keeper.  He is also super thicc for such an old card.  I didn't know these things were so solid & sturdy.  Like, the card is genuinely hard.  You could use it as a coaster if you wanted to.  You could do some legitimate damage flinging it at someone's face.  Are these analogies getting weird?

Chico Carrasquel Exhibits..

I'm on the fence about whether or not to keep Chico.  Condition-wise, he's got a bit of water damage but otherwise seems to be holding up remarkably well.  While it's not as hard or thick as the Super Fergie, these are definitely made of a good solid cut of cardboard.  I'm tempted to commit some blasphemy and draw on the blank back, so I guess you better take this off my hands if you want to save him from my mediocre art skillz. 😂

Cool backs, bro..

Speaking of that, I guess I might as well show off the backs of ye olden timey jumbo cards, since they are pretty nifty.  They have that newspapery article feel to them.  For you younglings, newspapers were basically papery political & sports blogs, just without a comment section full of swearing and name calling.  Anyway, those are the trader baiter backs.

Mr. Freshman..

This card is weirdly misshapen..

And here are my dudes.  I guess I should post the back of Chico too while I'm at it.

Empty! For now...

There's nothing there right now, but only you offering up something for it can keep it that way. Mwahahaha... Although, I suppose you could also offer up something for me to draw on it for you too, now that I think about it.  I dunno, are you also feeling blasphemous today? 😉

Gold Label 5x7" Papi Class 2 #'ed 11/49..

Finishing it off with the other Topps Online exclusive I found around the same time as the Mookie at the top of the post.  This one was also similarly dramatically cheaper than the rest of its set-mates.  It also has no visible damage and only cost me 50¢ (+ the buck for shipping)!  I'm not keen to give up this or Mookie, but I could be talked out of them, I suppose.  I don't really have anywhere to put them right now unless I slide them down the front of a binder or something.

Let me know if any of the actual or potential trade bait hooked ya and maybe we can work something out.  That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next...

PC87

I know some bloggers have mixed feelings about Youtube boxbreakers.  I get it, but I do like them for the most part.  I mean, they must all be obscenely rich judging by the amount of product they break, but yeah, I think it's a worthwhile service and there are several pretty good ones.

The only Packers card welcome in my collection..

Packer Cards 87 is one of the more popular and easygoing breakers on the platform, so even though I question his taste in teams and don't even really collect all that much football these days, I still rarely miss an upload.  So when he mentioned these signed customs a few months back for the price of just a couple bucks for shipping, I jumped at the chance to pick one up.

The back..

I wasn't lucky enough to hit one of the chase parallels (I believe there were a few glossy variants and some signed in different colors of ink), but it's cool.  He seems to be doing a lot of good work in the community and bringing people back to the hobby though, so I'm just glad to add his signature to my collection.  Hopefully I'll be able to add some more blogger and Youtuber signatures in the future.

That's it for this one.  Just a short post today.  Thanks for stopping by!

Jordy, what up dude?!

A New Raven Appears!

So this is super cool.  I am very poor, so it's rare and usually only when I'm getting something in return, but I do like to donate to good people & good causes on occasion when I have the money at the beginning of months.  So for a little donation to her ACLU fundraiser, I was able to commission a painting by an actual celebrity.

Raven!!

You may not know the name, but Bridget McManus is an actress/comedian/writer/producer/director/all-around talent, and she can also kinda paint a little bit.  So yeah, this is rad.  I think this is only the second Raven addition I've had the chance to add all year.  It's 8x11" and I freakin' love it!

There was also this little note paperclipped to the painting.  This is cool because after... noting *ahem* how many people keep the notes that frequently come in packages, I realized I was a total dummy for not doing so myself.  So starting with July's arrivals, they will be safely filed away in a box when I get them.

I guess that about wraps it up for today.  It was a pretty short post, but a mighty fun one!  As ever, thanks for stopping by.  Here's the sign-off, which I finally get to use on a post it's relevant to for once.

Until our next...

COMC Odds & Ends- A&G Non-Sport Autos & Buyback Frankenset "Inserts"

I don't really have anything specific to post or show today, so you get a little sampling from my June & July COMC shipments that have been scanned so far.  As the title says, I picked up three new A&G non-sport autos & a few cards for my Buyback Repurposed Sketch Card Frankenset, and here they are.

2008 Todd Clever autograph..

Starting off with American rugby legend Todd Clever. Never expected to find this card so cheap because it was from the early days of Topps' Allen & Ginter line, but I'm very happy to have it.  All three were in the $5.50-$7 range, and this was the one in the middle.

1990 Bowman Buybacks..

We'll circle back to the Gintery goodness at the end, but before that, the buybacks.  I've mentioned I'm putting together a monster frankenset for artin' on in the past, and these are for the insert and hit pages.

Indeed, in addition to a 792 card base set, my set will also feature nine cards each of Bowman, A&G, miscellaneous football, non-sport, and autographed buybacks that are on stock that can be drawn on.  I'd do basketball, Donruss baseball, Topps Traded, & hockey too if I could, but I don't think there's enough of any of them out in the wild at cheap enough prices to worry about it (though my latest package from Jon from A Penny Sleeve... did include an '87 Traded card, so that page could end up being in play after all).

1989 Topps John Elway buyback..

It's hard to make out the stamping on this, but according to COMC, this is a 2003 Topps Fan Favorites Vintage Buyback.  Vintage used in the loosest possible terms, especially all the way back in 2003.  Seriously, 2003 is closer to 1989 than it is to 2018, and now we all get to feel old and miserable together.

The back..

It doesn't show up great on the back either, but yeah.  Obscure Hall of Fame buyback for under a buck.  I'll take it.

Topps Archives Autograph Buyback?!

Here is my first one for the autograph page.  Another oddity.  It seems to just be like any other stamped buyback randomly inserted into packs in 2016, even though it's an autograph you might pull from a box of the previous year's Archives.  Weird, but there are actually at least a half dozen other autos from various recent sets floating around the COMC ether, so it clearly wasn't a mistake on Topps' part.  None of the others are on drawable stock, unfortunately.  Nor are they near as cheap as this one was.  I only paid $1.20 for it.

Cheap Seats!

Getting into the home stretch of this post and back to the Allen & Ginter autos!  Both Sklar brothers signed for this set, but Randy was the only one in my price range at the time.  I must track down Jason someday though, because Cheap Seats is one of my favorite shows of all-time.  They also starred in the web series Back on Topps, which was also quite amusing and featured numerous cameos.

Classing up this joint with a lil legit A-List starpower..

And we'll close it out on a high with the autograph of a legitimate star for just $7!  From Hang Time to Kangaroo Jack to the self parody years of Law & Order to the present day and the wildly successful sitcom Black-ish, Anthony Anderson has been appearing on both the big and small screens on a pretty regular basis since the mid-'90s.  Absolutely stoked to have this card.

That's all for this one.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next...