WOW Factor: A Crazy-Loaded Prize Package from Iron Lion Collectables

I mostly avoid high-end cards. I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than five or six bucks for a pack in my whole life and the idea of dropping hundred on a box of fancy-deal product with the hopes of landing something rare and cool just doesn’t do much for me. Of course, plenty of other folks do. And a brand new shop in Colorado Springs (home to more than just Brewers prospects with terribly skewed statistics) carries all kinds of this stuff. THE IRON LION is opening this Saturday, Feb 17. In the run-up to their opening, they have been doing a bunch of give-aways and breaks on their facebook page. Encouraged by the Daily Dimwit, I threw my hat into the give-away ring.

This happened right around the time I was called out of town for all that awful family stuff that has consumed most of the last three weeks. I had planned to watch a facebook break and give-away of some Bowman’s Best stuff, but got distracted and forgot about it. The next day, the Dimwit messaged me on Twitter telling me I had won, saying something like, “WOW!!!!”

Ok, I thought. I checked out the video on facebook when I had a moment, just glancing at it, and saw that I had been picked out of over 100 entrants. So maybe that was the wow? I hate to say that I didn’t care about the prize, but with everything going on, it just wasn’t a priority. It wasn’t until later, when I watched the video, that I understood the wow.

But let’s build up to that!

First off, it was two boxes.. or mini boxes or whatever the hell. A big stack of Bowman’s Best 2016 packs and a few packs of Panini Absolute football.

Some of these base card names I recognize…

And I certainly know Dan Fouts, one of the numbered cards I got. That Josh McCown is out of 25. I am unfamiliar with him, but know enough to be certain that if he is a former Browns QB… as in a QB that the Browns did not want anymore, he must be terrible.

In the Bowman product, the base is split between vets and rookies and prospects.

Here’s ol’ Mike Trout. I must admit, these cards are very sharp. The effects and photos are very well-defined and the foil shimmer adds to the almost 3-D effect.

Here is one of the prospect cards, Mr. Universeandbeyond, Aaron Judge. These use the same basic design as the vets, just with the team logo “slash” thing in the background going in the other direction.

And, of course, there were refractors. Lots of ‘em. I got some decent vets, including Trout, Rizzo, and this Kenta Maeda RC. I also the Scwarber and Aaron Nola RCs fractor-style.

And then some prospect fractos. Number 1 pick Mickey Moniak was probably the top find here.

And then some inserts.

And some more inserts, with one having that “cracked” foil effect. I think that’s what they call a “Superfractor.”

And a blue parallel of Michael Conforto, who had a pretty good season last year with the Mets.

And what I assume is the box’s promised base superfractor Atomic refractor.

And a pair of very cool 1996 Best tribute cards.

Now let’s get to the hits…

T.Y. Hilton patch card, numbered out of 25. He has made four straight Pro Bowls, so that’s not bad. UPDATE: This card has been traded.

Kenny G!!! According to Pro Football Reference, this fellow played for the Lions last year, but also signed a four-year deal with the Titans before the season? Anyway, he seems to have a sense of humor. UPDATE: This card has been traded.

G’s nickname is Babytron, a play (I assume) on Megatron. Laquon Treadwell is nicknamed Megaquon. He was a first round pick in 2016.

David Johnson ball/jersey/helmet(?) card. How do they cram a helmet sliver into a card? Anyway, he was real good in 2016, but missed most of last season.

Bowman’s Best promises four sigs per box. Here is sig one: Padres prospect Anderson Espinoza. (UPDATE: This card has been traded.) Not much I can say about him. This, honestly, is the kind of stuff I would expect from these high-end products. Cards shiny as hell, relics that look bonkers, and autographs of fringe prospects. If this prize package ended here, I’d be perfectly happy with it. But things are about to get crazy. Buckle up, kids.

Here was the big Panini Auto. I recognized the name, but didn’t realize he was the top draft pick last time around and seemed to impress people in his rookie season with the Bears. It’s numbered out of 100.

Nolan Arenado is just 26 and probably the best third baseman in the game. He’s a regular 2-3 win player on defense and has claimed two home run crowns and three Silver Sluggers over the past three years. An absolute stud.

And here is a World Champion stud! Carlos was just 22 years old last year and missed part of the season with an injury, but still hit .315 with 24 homers to lead the Astros to the world title. The sky is the limit for this kid, and I was thrilled to add his signature to my collection.

Back to football… A redemption card! I haven’t been in possession of a redemption card since I pulled a Signature Rookies voucher for a Shawn Respert autograph. This was back when I still followed the Bucks and I was thrilled to pull it. Sadly, Respert didn’t do much in the NBA and had his career cut short by stomach cancer. So will this yield me something better???

Whoa! A Dan Marino etched crystal card? Damn. And a one-per case insert at that. I’ve looked these up online and they look hella-sharp.

So what can top all of this stuff? How can this package get any better? Let’s count it down!

THREE

TWO

ONE…..

BOOM! ANOTHER Correa autograph, the Superfractor variety, numbered 25/25. This was pretty stunning. It’s probably the most valuable modern card I’ve ever owned. It’s the kind of card that makes one of these boxes actually worth the sky-high price tag. This, dear readers, was the WOW. UPDATE: This card has been traded.

And now, I don’t really know what to do. I def want to keep some of the Best cards and the Arenado auto and the first Correa auto. But I am more than willing to spread the other stuff around to those who would appreciate it more than I. I have no interest at all in football cards (save for Bo Jackson) and as long as I have one Correa auto to keep, I’m be glad to swap the fractory version.

So that’s a lot of product up for grabs! I’m not QUITE so generous as to do simple blind trades for the big stuff, but I’d be interested in creative swaps. I don’t want to sell them and I’d prefer to keep things within the blogging circle, as opposed to posting on a trading forum. I am in need of some major Topps baseball rookies for my set-building. Like the ’76 Eck, the ’79 Ozzie, the ’82 Ripken… oh, and that pesky 2011 Trout.

Any suggestions? Any offers? Anyone want to share in the WOW?

Dirty Box! My Last Goodwill Post

I think that I have finally exhausted by local Goodwill’s supply of cool baseball cards. My last visit there turned up nothing but junk-era basketball and a bunch of stuff I’ve already passed over a few times. But there is one last big batch I picked up that I thought I’d share.

But first! A few other items I forgot to mention earlier.

A box of unused Treat brand 9-pockets. 100 for just $3!!! This was a hell of steal for an old page-hound like myself.

And this box, half 1993 Triple Play (with the Gallery of Stars set) and half 1993 Topps Gold. If anyone is working on that Gold set, lemme know.

It was one of those mail-carrying boxes, about half full of stuff. It was a wide mix: baseball, football, and basketball. I’d had such a hot streak at Goodwill I thought it was worth a chance at $8. Unfortunately, it was mostly a bust.

First off, the cards were kind of dirty. It’s hard to explain, but they had a film on them that was heavier than dust. And they were tossed in the box with such abandon, that most were warped or damaged. I ended up pitching about a hundred of them right into the trash. 

 

Here is a stack of Topps base cards that I needed for my various sets. You can see they all sit a bit crooked in the stack.

Here was the “hit” of the box, in the Fairfield sense. I think I already sent this one along to the Million Cubs Card project, but I’m not sure.

One commonality of everything I found at this Goodwill was that the sets had all been stripped of Derek Jeter cards. So it was a bit of a surprise to find this one, which is one of those throw-back stock cards that was a retail exclusives if I recall correctly. Anyway, it has a pretty huge dent in the lower left corner. 

 

Thumbs up to this Deion Sanders, the coolest card of the bunch. Here he is, about to chopper from a Braves game to a Falcons game.

I dig this one. Looks like Bags is about to tackle himself. IN 3D!

This is the variation of this card found in later-issue packs that actually lists the date of Rickey’s record-breaking steal. Part of that brief period in 1991 where cards with players in tuxedos were hot snot.

A weirdo minor league card! I’d never say no to one of these. Looks like the dude has only one arm. Tom Ealy never made it past AA, although he debuted in pro ball at just 17 years old.

T-PLUSH!!! One of my all-time favorites for his electrifying 2011 season in Milwaukee and his constant annoyance of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Hey! Some old-timers, part of the Topps “card history” or whatever insert set from a while back. A cheap pair of HOFers is always fun.

And… that’s about it. There were maybe 1,500 cards in the box, about half of which were basketball and football. Maybe I’ll show those here someday… but probably not.

2018 Topps - The Big Breaks!

I want this to be a positive post.

You see, I kinda like 2018 Topps. I know it high-fashion to crap on the flagship (and I certainly do my share of that), but I dig this year’s design and too deep into the dorkdom of all this not to get excited about the new releases each year.

Just look at that… bright, bold, colorful, and lots of action. It’s great-looking set.

So, as I said, I want this to be positive. I’m going to ignore most of the insert sets…

… like this pair of Topps Fire knock-offs that will excite no one. Or the couple of other insert sets that I didn’t even bother to take pictures of.

And I’m certainly going to skip over this damn thing…

…which came in the blaster I bought.

Or this utter piece of stupidity…

… that was my “hit” in the hobby box I picked up. Why should I dwell on these rubberized manu-patches when I could instead showcase this awesome-ass Keon Broxton…

… now that’s what I’m talking about! That’s big fun!!!!

And under no circumstances will I breath a word about THESE…

…since it would drive me to speculate about who at Topps said, “Hey, you know those awful-looking cards were made of Derek “Since we can’t make Mickey Mantle cards anymore” Jeter this summer? The ones that look almost exactly the same? Yeah! Let’s reprint those at half-scale with some stupid sales numbers that only a bored Darren Rovell would every give two turds about and make them part of an insert set!!” I def don’t wanna think about that.

Like, I want to talk about how cool the ’83 silver pack cards are… usually I don’t go for super-shiny stuff, but these are nice.

So nice that it distracts me from the fact that EVERY CARD have the SAME write-up on the back that says nothing that any collector doesn’t already know.

Yeah. Like, who wants to think about that??

Um… where was I?

Oh, right, positivity.

Joking aside, I do think the base set here is pretty great.

And check out the color on this one. I know it’s probably filtered, but still. This one sticks with me.

And as for the inserts I didn’t hate…

I found some parallels. I guess I don’t HATE these, but I have no need for them. These, with the inserts above, are up for takes if anyone is interested. The ‘83s included.

I also found this guy, numbered out of 99. It’s a vintage stock parallel or something. Better than the rainbows and stripes varieties, but still of no use to me.

And I picked up a pretty nice SP, which is actually more S P’d this year, compared to last year’s update, when they P’d them not so S. Any Dodger fans interested?

And I found a home run challenge card of Michael Conforto. I haven’t looked too deeply into this promotion yet, but it sounds kind of fun. A bit of a throw-back to the old Upper Deck Crash the Game cards.

The one insert set that I really dig are the regular 1983s. For one, they have some damn stats on the backside, the bright, faux-vintage stock backsides…

…and a nice mix of current and retired players.

There are 100 cards in the series one set, which one can extrapolate to a 300-card year-long series (1, 2, and Update). I might challenge myself and try to put this one together. Right now, I’ve got #s 1, 5, 7, 13, 16, 34, 40, 56, 67, 83, 95, 100… so if anyone can add to that and wants anything I’ve listed above, HIT ME UP.

And I have some base set needs: 2 23 51 157 204 205 268 304 313. Willing and ready to swap for these as well.

So that’s my 2018 Topps adventure. I’m glad I got through it without saying anything negative!

My Favorite Card of 2018... A Cute Butt Memorial

This past weekend, my wife's mother passed away. She was a wonderful woman, kind and funny with a huge personality. She had been sick for a while, but about two weeks ago, things took a bad turn and we ended up where we are now. 

She wasn't really a baseball fan, but enjoyed it as a kind of background noise. She despised football and could not stand the sneaker squeaking of basketball, but baseball was OK by her. She even had a favorite player - former Brewer Scooter Gennett. It was, my wife told me, because he had a "cute butt."

As it happened, the day after she passed was the day I got my box of 2018 Topps in the mail. It was a nice distraction to have something to do in the midst of all of this. And then, a few packs into the box, I found this...

... and it made me smile. Although, I'm sure Nancy would have preferred an angle from the opposite side. Rest in peace, Nan. We miss you already.