2015 Upper Deck CFL Football Box Break: Part 2

(Part 1)

Here is the pack-by-pack play-by-play Box Break of 2015 Upper Deck CFL Football: Part 2.

Box Break: Opened packs starting form bottom left stack working down top to bottom, then to bottom right stack working down top to bottom, then to top left stack working down top to bottom, and finally to top right stack working down top to bottom.

Pack 1: (7 cards including only box HIT)
156 All-Stars Clarence Denmark West Division Blue Bombers

Game Jersey GJ-CK John Chick Roughriders all-green swatch
63 Matt Nichols Eskimos
31 Terrence Toliver Tiger-Cats
43 Jerome Messam Roughriders
24 Jordan Lynch Eskimos
83 Greg Ellingson Reblacks

Pack 2:
138 Jerald Brown Alouettes
White Blank Decoy
51 Devon Bailey Eskimos
94 Pierre Lavertu Stampeders
O-Pee-Chee Retro 33 Ricky Foley Argonauts
56 Samuel Giguere Alouettes
34 Terrell Sinkfield Jr. Tiger-Cats

Pack 3:
Star Rookies: 189 David Beard Eskimos
White Blank Decoy
18 Chad Owens Argonauts
93 Jeff Keeping Argonauts
3 Weston Dressler Roughriders

29 Brandon Banks Tiger-Cats (Redskins NFL)
15 Fred Stamps Alouettes

Pack 4:
103 Trsitan Jackson Roughriders
74 Danny O'Brien Redblacks
52 Chris Williams Redblacks
O-Pee-Chee Retro 46 J.C. Sherritt Eskimos
44 James Rodgers Alouettes
72 Jeremiah Johnson Redblacks

Pack 5:

Star Rookies: 184 Jeff Mathews Tiger-Cats
White Blank Decoy
10 Anthoney Allen Roughriders
42 Kendial Lawrence Eskimos
14 Vidal Hazelton Argonauts
99 Brendon LaBatte Roughriders
46 Rob Bagg Roughriders

Pack 6:
All-Stars 158 Adam Bighill West Division Lions
White Blank Decoy
77 Brett Smith Roughriders
23 Clarence Denmark Blue Bombers
6 Austin Collie Lions
47 Brad Sinopoli Redblacks
92 Chris Van Zeyl Argonauts

Pack 7:
128 John Bowman Alouettes
White Blank Decoy
67 Chad Simpson Eskimos
28 A.C. Leonard Lions
59 Nick Moore Blue Bombers
38 Johnathan Crompton Alouettes
84 Trevor Harris Argonauts

Pack 8:

All-Stars Brandon Banks East Division Tiger-Cats
White Blank Decoy
57 Kenny Stafford Eskimos
91 Tyler Holmes Argonauts
O-Pee-Chee Retro 21 Chris Williams Redblacks
25 Henry Burris Redblacks
36 Jamel Richardson Roughriders

Pack 9:
146 Greg Jones Argonauts
White Blank Decoy
33 John Beck Lions
89 Tiquan Underwood Tiger-Cats
20 Jeff Fuller Stampeders
64 Cody Hoffman Alouettes
53 Darvin Adams Blue Bombers

Pack 10:
Star Rookies: 199 Kevin Elliott Argonauts
White Blank Decoy
82 Tryell Sutton Alouettes
70 Stefan Logan Alouettes
96 Stanley Bryant Blue Bombers
37 Mossis Madu Tiger-Cats
48 Mike Reilly Eskimos

Pack 11:
124 Swayze Waters Argonauts
White Blank Decoy
61 Wallace Miles Eskimos
95 Jeff Perrett Alouettes

O-Pee-Chee Retro 11 Chris Getzlaf Roughriders
39 Manny Arceneaux Lions
68 Darian Durant Roughriders

Pack 12:
All-Stars 174 Swayze Waters East Division Argonauts
White Blank Decoy
80 Curtis Steele Argonauts
12 Nate Coehoorn Eskimos
22 Brandon Whitaker Argonauts
69 Tim Brown Stampeders
13 Travis Lulay Lions

Pack 13:
Star Rookies: 176 Alex Mateas Redblacks
White Blank Decoy
87 Julian Feoli-Gudino Blue Bombers
5 Bo Levi Mitchell Stampeders
O-Pee-Chee Retro 39 Ted Laurent Tiger-Cats
45 Matt Carter Redblacks
71 Paris Cotton Blue Bombers

Pack 14:

119 Kyries Hebert Alouettes
White Blank Decoy
98 Josh Bourke Alouettes
85 James Franklin Eskimos
41 Taj Smith Roughriders
100 Checklist cards 1-100 Zac Collaros Tiger-Cats and Jon Cornish Stampeders
19 Chevon Walker Redblacks

Pack 15:
132 Shea Emry Roughriders
White Blank Decoy
35 Cameron Marshall Blue Bombers
90 Peter Dyakowski Tiger-Cats
54 Ernest Jackson Redblacks
16 Drew Tate Stampeders
27 Andre Durie Argonauts

Pack 16:
114 Keon Raymond Stampeders
White Blank Decoy
Three miscut cards don't know card # (guessed using checklist)
?75? Anthony Parker Stampeders
?62? Rob Cote Stampeders
?9? Brian Brohm Blue Bombers
100 Checklist cards 1-100 Zac Collaros Tiger-Cats and Jon Cornish Stampeders (dupe)
19 Chevon Walker Redblacks

Pack 17:
All-Stars 162 Rob Maver West Division Stampeders
White Blank Decoy
Two Miscut cards
?78? Drew Willy Blue Bombers Miscut card
?32? Anthony Coombs Argonauts Miscut card

O-Pee-Chee Retro 2 Luke Tasker Tiger-Cats
76 Andy Fantuz Tiger-Cats
7 Adarius Bowman Eskimos

Pack 18:
140 Khalil Bass Blue Bombers
White Blank Decoy
55 Maurice Price Redblacks
88 Cory Watson Eskimos
Miscut Card
?1? Ricky Ray Argonauts Miscut card
60 Joe West Stampeders
26 Ryan Smith Roughriders

Pack 19:
Star Rookies: 193 Brendon Morgan Blue Bombers
White Blank Decoy
Two Micut Cards
90 Peter Dyakowski Tiger-Cats miscut card (dupe)
54 Ernest Jackson Redblacks miscut card

O-Pee-Chee Retro 9 Bear Woods Alouettes
99 Brendon LaBatte Roughriders (dupe)
46 Rob Bagg Roughriders

Pack 20:
134 Bryant Turner Jr. Blue Bombers
2 more miscut cards
?65? Nik Lewis Alouettes miscut card
?66? C.J. Gable Tiger-Cats miscut card
O-Pee-Chee Retro 20 Tim O'Neill Tiger-Cats
16 Drew Tate Stampeders
27 Andre Durie Argonauts

Pack 21:
Star Rookies: 187 Brandon Bridge Alouettes
White Blank Decoy
?73? Rory Kohlert Blue Bombers miscut card
?97? Jovan Olafioye Lions miscut card

?81? Eric Rogers Stampeders miscut card no number can't even see first name
45 Matt Carter Redblacks
71 Paris Cotton Blue Bombers

Pack 22:
136 Chip Cox Alouettes
White Blank Decoy
11 S.J. Green Alouettes
40 Shakir Bell Eskimos

Grey Cup Moments: GCM3 Brandon Banks Tiger-Cats
21 Zach Collaros Tiger-Cats
50 Bakari Grant Tiger-Cats

Pack 23:
Star Rookies: 181 Rakeem Cato Alouettes (right bottom corner a bit nicked)
White Blank Decoy
49 Marquay McDaniel Stampeders
2 Jon Cornish Stampeders
O-Pee-Chee Retro 6 Zach Collaros Tiger-Cats
79 Courtney Taylor Lions
8 Luke Tasker Tiger-Cats

Pack 24:
113 J.C. Sherrit Eskimos
White Blank Decoy
58 Shawn Gore Lions
4 Chris Getzlaf Roughriders
17 Andrew Harris Lions
30 Kevin Glenn Roughriders
86 Marco Iannuzzi Lions

Totals:
23 White Blank Decoys: So one in each pack without a hit.

145 cards (1 extra)
Base: 134: A full set is 200 cards so you need at least 2 boxes to maybe get a full set. Due to the randomness there is no guarantee of that even.
Protrait/Vertical: 120
Landscape/Horizontal: 14
5 All Stars: Average 6 per box
7 Star Rookies: Average 6 per box
10 Duplicates

Inserts:
9 O-Pee-Chee Retro inserts: Average 8 per box.
1 Grey Cup Moments
1 “Hit" Game Jersey: Average is 2 per box but not guaranteed

13 Miscut cards - That is way too many. They fell mostly in the second half of the box 8 in 4 consecutive packs and then later 5 more in 2 consecutive packs.

2015 Upper Deck CFL Football Box Break: Part 1

My last post was a little cryptic. I have done my box break and started to sort the cards, posted a little late and well now the cat is out of the bag.

OK where to begin?

The Beginning why not?

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” OK Wrong beginning.

Some weeks ago I got a surprise email from one of Upper Deck’s Marketing people. It began with a short introduction and then the attention grabbing “I wanted to reach out to you because I love what you do regarding your Upper Deck card set.” I’m not sure exactly which set is being referenced or what special thing I did to get on the marketing department’s RADAR. I just hope I stay there so I can get more goodies. (Topps, Rittenhouse and Panini would be Super as well)

Anyway continuing…

“We would love to connect with you regarding some other sets including 2015 Upper Deck Canadian Football League, 2015 UD Turkish Airlines Euroleague Basketball, and 2015 UD USA Football...I have a couple extra media review copies and wanted to see if you would be interested in receiving one each as long as you would write something up on the product to share with your audience.”

I replied positively to the email and included my mailing address. A few weeks later, on Wednesday 23 December 2015 the Eve before Christmas Eve I got my package from Upper Deck. In a sea of pale pink packing peanuts was this fine hobby box of 2015 Upper Deck Canadian Football League cards 24 packs with 6 cards per pack. Those other products would be fun to bust as well, but Oh well.

Since there are 24 packs I will have to post the pack-by-pack listing separately to keep this from being too long a post.

First off I really enjoy this product mostly for its simplicity. My box breaking experience has some positives and negatives that I will cover with this post.

The base set consists of 200 cards. Inserts include retro O-Pee-Chee cards (50 card set), autograph cards, game used jersey cards, #d GU patch cards, and team logo patch cards. Cardboard Connection has the full checklist and basic product details at this link http://www.cardboardconnection.com/2015-upper-deck-football-cards (you will have to click between product details and the checklist)

I like the plain simple design with the bottom corner framing and the opposite corner flush with the edge. I am glad there is no annoying silver or gold foil that is impossible to read. Sadly there is some white lettering on silver background where the player’s position is listed. 

The front of the base cards has a large picture of the player mostly in-game action shots. The Upper Deck logo is in the upper left corner and the top and left sides of the card the picture hits flush on the edge for the “full picture” feel. The Right hand border is a white background with some light gray/silver shadowing and some team color hashlines top and bottom with the player’s position in white lettering (hard to read and gets lost) in both English and French. The bottom edge has a border that matches the teams main color with the Player’s name in white letters (the name could be a bit bigger) under the player name is his team name in gray/silver, very tiny a bit harder to read than the player’s name. And in the right hand corner of the colored border is the team logo.

The back is pretty standard they repeat the head/bust part from the front picture. There is some matching of team colors with the general design.

Most of the base card fronts are regular portrait (vertical) orientation, but there are a few landscape (horizontal) oriented card fronts, the backs are all portrait. The Checklists have two players on the front in the landscaped orientation, with the checklist on the back in regular portrait orientation. I am glad there are no multi-parallels, and that the number of insert sets, are kept to a minimum.

The inserts sadly don’t list the team names, but do have the team logos on the fronts. There are two main insert sub-sets “All-Stars” and “Star Rookies”. Oops those are also base cards. Well they have a slightly different look so I mistook them for inserts they are actually two “sub-sets” within the main base set numbering.

The All-Star Cards divided in their coloring by East (red border) and West (blue border) Divisions. The color border runs along the top, left and bottom edges with the right side having the player’s picture flush against the card edge. Again the Upper Deck logo is in upper left corner. Top right of the card kind of hard to read is the Division (East or West). Left side again in tiny lettering is the player’s position. On the bottom is a gray/silver banner with All-Stars in black lettering with the player’s name in white lettering underneath, and team logo on left hand side. Oh and I just noticed the player’s number in the bottom right corner how nice, didn’t see it before.

Backs are nicely done, except nowhere is the team name actually written out, just the team logo on front. After opening a few packs I got used to the various teams. I don’t follow CFL as closely as I do the NFL so I am not as familiar with the 9 teams in the league. I really wish they would do some expanding and have 12 teams to make things a little more exciting.

The Star Rookies cards again follow the regular base card team colors design. The front player picture is flush with the top, bottom and right edges the left edge has a color bar that matches the player’s team colors. The usual Upper Deck logo in left corner Star Rookies reading bottom to top vertically along the bar and team logo bottom corner. Player’s position reads “under” the Star Rookies “banner” along with a series of stars. The player’s name is in silver across the bottom. Team name not listed just team logo in corner.

Back looks like the regular base backs.

The Retro O-Pee-Chee cards remind me of a cross between the 2009 Philadelphia retro cards and 1960s cards. They have an all white border, the upper left corner has a retro looking OPC logo, The player’s photo outlined in white against a solid color background. The player’s name is in white letters on a black bar above a white bar with the player’s position in black. The team logo is in the bottom right corner. The team name is not mentioned.

The back is raw cardboard brown with black lettering. I really like this insert set and plan on building it.

Here are my basic totals from the box:

Totals:

23 White Blank Decoys: So one in each pack without a hit.

145 cards (1 extra)

Base: 134: A full set is 200 cards so you need at least 2 boxes to maybe get a full set. Due to the randomness there is no guarantee of that even.

Protrait/Vertical: 120

Landscape/Horizontal: 14

5 All Stars: Average 6 per box

7 Star Rookies: Average 6 per box

10 Duplicates

Inserts:

9 O-Pee-Chee Retro inserts: Average 8 per box.

1 Grey Cup Moments

1 “Hit" Game Jersey: Average is 2 per box but not guaranteed

13 Miscut cards - That is way too many. They fell mostly in the second half of the box 8 in 4 consecutive packs and then later 5 more in 2 consecutive packs.

(Miscut cards Shown here fronts and backs)

All-in-all I liked breaking this box. It is a fun product. Being a football fan that is more NFL than CFL it did teach me a few things, or reminded me of a few things. Like a fave homie player that I had forgotten plays in Canada now. Let’s see the positive:

• Nice design. Not to busy or complicated. Some little reading problems but not like the years when silver or gold leaf/foil is used
• Bright colors in design. Very few variants in design features
• Inserts fun and also bright colorful designs
• OK correlation, low percentage of duplicates

Now the negative:

• Player position very difficult to read with color design
• Insert cards don’t mention team name, only show team logo
• My box had a very high percentage of miscut cards. 13 total from 6 packs
• Player vitals read vertically
• Back picture takes almost the full top half of back and is duplicate of front picture (I don’t mind that too much but some people do)

I will keep a handful of the base cards, the Brandon Banks cards because he was a Redskin, and one of the best punt returners they ever had. They never should have gotten rid of him. I am also keeping the OPC Retro cards I plan on building that 50 card set. I will be trading or giving away most of the remaining cards.

My next post will have the pack-by-pack play-by-play and will show some of the cards I didn’t show here.

Something Is Gonna Break.

???

OK I will be a bit mysterious for now. In a day or so I will bust open a box of cards I got recently. I will then post some scans of the box break; the box, a pack, a sample of a base card, some or all of the inserts and of course all the hits. I plan on doing a review of what it is and give a little backstory of how it came to be. Actually how I got my grubby little hands on it. I might just end up giving away all the cards, or at least a good portion of them.

Why the mystery? Why not? Seriously though it is mostly just to insure I get a December post or two in on this blog. Also being a bit mysterious with a planned future post tends to get more people to read a blog, or get them excited about it a little.

In the meantime here is An Alex Ovechkin card I haven't shown. I got it from a group box break. I don't recall exactly when, but I think it was one of the last hockey ones I was in earlier this year. I cut back on all the breaks I was participating in. Now-Days I am only in one Baseball break that is taking December off. I may or may not continue with that one. I like group breaks but it just gets too expensive to stay in them month after month, especially if you are in more than just one or two. Plus the groups tend to repeat some of the products they bust, or they bust stuff you really don't want, or they only bust the high end stuff and your team is rarely in the expensive 5 cards or less 1 pack boxes. I digress.

Notice this card is one of those plastic acetate "see through" cards. Well it looks like it's white but that is the background of my flatbed scanner, actually the padding on the underside of the scanner cover. I tend not to like this type of card, but this one has grown some on me. At least it isn't a die-cut one with weird angles and shapes.

 2012-13 Panini Rookie Anthology Hockey: Intensity Elite Acetate:

I-16 Alex Ovechkin Capitals #258/500

(Front and Back in front of scanner's white background)

???

Card of the Whenever: Merlin Olsen

1971 Topps Football Game Insert: Merlin Olsen

Sadly this sort of last minute post on the very last day of the month has become a sort of standard thing for me lately. I hate that. Anyway for lack of any other enthusiastic energy to make an entertaining post. I present one of the cards from the 1971 Topps Football Game Inserts. I'm not sure if I have all of these. I think I finally finished it up. That or I still have about 5 or 6 cards to get. It has been way too long since I've updated my Zistle. ACK!

So here is card #27 From the 1971 Topps Football Game Insert Cards Merlin Olsen Los Angeles Rams

 1971 Topps Football Game Insert 27 Merlin Olsen Rams

(Front and Back)

EDIT: ACK! I was totally wrong I need a bunch of these: 1971 Topps Football Game Insert Cards
1971 Topps Game Inserts: 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38, 40, 43, 44, 45, 48

Card Of The Whenever: Deacon Jones Kellogg's Style

1970 Kellogg's Football: Deacon Jones

I love vintage and I really love the Kellogg's 3-D cards from the early 1970s. It is odd because the three-dimensional effect that these Kellogg's cards have is sort of an ancestor of today's Chrome and Refractor cards. I love the vintage 3-D cards but don't like the modern Chrome Refractors much. Weird. Speaking of weird Mr. Jones has a weird look on his face. It is probably just the camera angle on the way he is looking up.

1970 Kellogg's Football 38 Deacon Jones Rams

(Front and Back)

Trading Card Art Project

Remember this from 2010?

Yes in 2010 Topps had a major giveaway of cards. Collectors that were lucky enough could get some very good and very old vintage cards or they could get some sucker of a card from the Junk Years. Personally I had gotten a handful of cards (7) from that giveaway. They issued these code cards in all the packs of baseball product that year.

I still need a few of these to complete my set:
TMC: 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20

To unlock whatever card you won you had to go to Topps website enter the code on the card and find out what card you unlocked. You could trade cards with other collectors. You needed a credit card to have the cards shipped to you in the long run.

But I'm not here to talk about all that. I have mentioned these insert code cards in the past: Topps 2010 Million Card Giveaway Code Cards, 2010 Topps Baseball Million Card Giveaway, Million Card Giveaway Bust. The title of this post says "Art Project". Huh?

Look at a few of these cards:

Do you see it?
The Pattern?
The Design?
The card design for this first huge giveaway (via their website) Topps focuses on a single card that is part of a larger display. The first time I saw these cards I thought the concept was cool. Once I had more than just one of these cards, and I had a card that matched the border of another card the idea for this art project developed. I'm not sure how big I'm going to make the thing but I figure I need SEVERAL of each of the cards. For some of them I already have 2 or 3 extras that I can use.

The project is to make a huge collage using all these cards, following the cards that border each card. I will of course have to GASP! cut up these cards. That is why I need multiples of these. I still need a single copy of each for my PC but many of the extras will be used for this.

Once I see the full pattern with ALL the different cards I can decide on how big to make the thing. In just doing some rough matching up of some of the cards I do have they weren't exact with their design, some of the cards seem to be duplicated. That could be just an illusion since it is an "infinite" design. I'm not sure if anybody else has tried to do this with these. Maybe, maybe not. I haven't seen anything online that mentions this project or one like it.

So I still need a bunch more duplicates of these cards. Donations to the project would be appreciated. I would prefer not to have to buy all of them. I have bought a few dupes for the project but on a matter of the spirit of the hobby I don't want to HAVE to buy all the cards for this. I'm sure there are some collectors out there that have a ton of these who were planning on dumping them anyway or not sure how to get rid of all the ones they have.

I'm not sure when I would even get around to building for the project. I need the building blocks or bricks for it first.

Topps has done a few similar giveaways with similar designs, except they only show one card. I won't be doing an art project for these other sets but I do need many of the cards to complete the sets.

2011 Diamond Giveaway cards.

I need a bunch of those:
TDG 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30

2012 Golden Giveaway Cards.

 

Image from The Trading Card Database

Image from Google search from Ebay Auction

I need all of these:
GGC 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30

Thoughts On Card Collecting

Where to begin. Warning this might be a long read. I got an email from an online auction site (Invaluable.com) asking about my card collecting and if I'd like to participate in their collectors survey project. I was skeptical at first, but thought "well why not?" The company has an interest in collectors and how people find their collectibles since they have a variety of items in their collectibles section.

Note: There is also some contest on a blog about how you got started in collecting I'm not sure if these are related or not but for once I seem to be in the midst of some kind of blog trend while it is still kind of  a hot thing. Maybe both are done now, who knows?

I asked if I had to buy something, sell something, join something, download anything, test something, whatever something and the only requirement seemed to be to write about collecting in general and what it means to me. Then post it and maybe twitter tweet twit it to them. I'm not sure but it seems you don't even have to twitter it to them. At any rate, how about five and a half percent? Thank you George Carlin. It can often be difficult giving the whys and wherefores of my collecting, but I will attempt to do it here.

Lets see it all began a long time ago in a galaxy far far away... no wait... I was born a poor black child... nope...It was the best of times it was the worst of... that isn't it either. It was a dark and stormy night... Oh goodie some questions to shine some indirect light on my collection and help guide me at night, one if by land, two if by sea, three if by space, and four if by time.

How long have you been collecting for?
Pretty much my entire life, but I have taken a short hiatus or two. I have older siblings who had started collecting things including trading cards so there have always been collections of something around me. My first card collecting memories were around when most of my first memories began at about age 5 (circa 1970). One of my brothers and I had matching hard plastic trading card "lockers". One was blue the other red they were about shoebox sized with two rows or columns and adjustable shelves. They were designed to look like gym lockers. The memory I recall is a trading session that I think included a 1970 Topps Fergie Jenkins for a 1968 Topps Willie Mays, or maybe for a 1965 Topps Ernie Banks. I don't recall if it was an actual trade or one of those temporary for the day only things ("no-keepsies"). It might not have even been those cards but those are some of the cards I still have from my childhood. I seem to think of those 3 cards my brother had all of them at one time, and I think the Jenkins was duplicated at one time. I don't recall how many times we traded I just have the one vague memory that included the lockers.

That thought also reminds me of how I would "identify" my cards from the cards my brother had that were the same or similar. I would use a red ball point pen, or a black magic marker (like a sharpie or its late 60s early 70s equivalent) and make a big "K" for "Kirk" on the front (red ink) or back (black magic marker). Other cards I would color in the cap or the cap logo front or back. The 1970 Topps Manager's cards were prime targets for that on the back, also the 1971 Topps back portraits got many a coloring of red. Some how Willie and Ernie escaped the marking, but poor Fergie got the big red K. I still have some of those cards I had marked, but the majority I had tossed away in a collection purge in the mid 70s I think. (see this post)

What do you look for in collectibles?
First the subject matter has to be something I'm interested in. For sports cards it is the sport and the team usually my Homie Washington/Baltimore Teams or a player I like. For non-sports it maybe a TV show or movie, actor or genre (like sci-fi or weird parody), or beautiful woman. Obviously I try to get the best condition I can afford or find, and overall quality as well. I will occasionally get some poor old cards that others ignore due to them being in such a poor condition. I am also a bit of a set collector so if a set design attracts my eye I want to go for the entire set. I have a ton of sets to build and complete. Getting a full set is more attainable for non-sport sets than sports sets. Unfortunately the card makers now-days make set collecting more a thing of the past. It seems to be player oriented now since it seems that each player has a thousand cards come out each year.

Where do you find most of your items?
Lately online usually for as cheap as I can get either through Ebay, or Sportlots. Sometimes trading or buying through the card forums or from other bloggers. When I was a kid you could find trading cards in grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies (aka: Drug Stores), news stands and toy stores. I am fortunate that there is also a local card shop near me (House of Cards) that I go to occasionally. I discovered it in the late 70s from a school chum of mine who took me there shortly after it had first opened in the back of a used book shop. It quickly became my homie card shop. Over the years they had expanded their space and moved a few times. For a while in the late 90s I thought they had closed for good but they had only moved across town. A few months back they moved and are now closer to me than they were from about 10 miles away to just about 4 but not as close as when I first discovered them about a mile and a half from home.

What is the centerpiece of your collection?
This is a difficult question for me to answer. I have so many cards, and memorabilia pieces I like for many reasons and many I have had for as long as I can remember. If pressured I'd probably have to go with either something Frank Howard, Sonny Jurgensen, Roman Gabriel, John Riggins, or most likely my 1965 Topps Baseball Ernie Banks card.

The 1965 Topps Baseball is a set I am desperately trying to complete. I wanted to have it done this past April since it is the 50th Anniversary of it, but I am only 1/3 of the way complete.

There is also my circa 1969/70 Frank Howard Team Issued portrait photo.

I know it isn't a "card" but it is part of my Washington Senators baseball/sports memorabilia collection. I'm looking for an upgrade to go with this sentimental favorite. Would also love to find the full team.