trade bait...part one

Ohhhhhhhhhhh goodness. The trade bait is here! Well....sorta. In this post is everything that is non-MLB related (except two cards). I wanted to get these guys out of the way before I started posting up actual teams. Lets have a look shall we?

Baseball stuff:

The Brian Johnson auto comes from 2010 Topps Chrome (I believe the USA autos were case hits) and the two purple fellows next to him are from 2010 Bowman Platinum retail rack packs. The other two cards are part of the Topps Archives series. The 1994 prospects card is from the 2002 factory set (card 2 of 10) and the Bench/Allen is part of the actual 2001 Archives set (card 437 of 450). I figured they were unique enough to have up here.


Basketball:

My one, lone basketball hit is of the Bulls Joakim Noah and is numbered 13/25, looks like a nice swatch though.


Football:

Hey, I know what you're thinking, "What are you doing with those two fancy Joe Montana rookies?" Well, yes they are indeed 1981 Topps Joe Montana rookie cards. One catch though: They've been LAMINATED! Why anyone would do this is beyond me but I won these as a door prize raffle at the local shops annual Super Bowl trade party. They were laminated about an inch apart, as to make it like one big card. I have carefully cut them to regular card size but you cannot remove the laminate without destroying the cards. So they are what they are. Montana rookies. Laminated. The Jerry Hughes auto is numbered 159/250 and is from 2010 Certified. As is the Carson Palmer jersey, numbered 07/50 (some nice orange paint on that swatch there).


Politics or historical figures:

Hillary comes from 2008 Topps baseball, while Calvin Coolidge's seat relic (from Griffith Stadium), comes from 2009 Topps American Heritage. The other two (Grant, Washington) come from 2009 SP Legendary Cuts and are numbered short prints.


Celebrities:

Oh man, talk about saving the best for last. Upper Deck loves loves loves celebrity mumbo jumbo. Here we have an autograph of Matt Prokop. Apparently he is an actor and your kids can probably tell you he is from High School Musical 3 and Hannah Montana. The top card is an authentic piece of Hollywood Memorabilia, as once worn by Sean Penn in the movie "21 Grams" (never saw it). The final two big letter manu-patches come from 2009 UD Icons of world champion poker players, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth. Sweet!

If you see anything you like here, simply leave a comment claiming which cards you like and I'll get to you with an email and we'll work out a deal.

Oh yeah, fellow collector 'axemanohio', I need you to send me an email with your series 1 needs (my email can be found in my profile there). I can't find your email address and I can't reply to the comment you left. I'll be more than happy to help with your set, I just can't contact you.

hot for teacher

I had planned on writing something about grading a little while back, I just never got around to writing it. This article from Sports Cards Uncensored sums it all up perfectly and is way more on point than I would ever be. I can see some benefit to grading but overall I feel it detracts from the hobby as a whole. If you read this regularly, you'll notice that I buy some pretty beat up vintage cards. I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't need a "perfect" 10 graded 1954 Jackie Robinson, my old ratty one suits me just fine. Sure if it were graded 10 and slabbed up, theoretically no one could make it less than a 10 by damaging it, hence keeping the value up seemingly forever. It never sees another hand or greasy fingerprint. It won't get thrown at a wall or put in bike spokes to make a cool noise (kids don't do this anymore to their cards...I don't think anyway). Nope. It will remain in its little plastic tomb forever, never to be touched again. How fun. No binder. No penny sleeve. Just a 'here's my big hunk of plastic with a card inside, wanna look?', when shown to all your collecting buddies. Fooey I say! Let your cards breathe and interact with the others the way they were supposed too!