Hut, Hut, Hike

Yep, football cards.

I'll admit, I'm not the biggest football person in the world. I enjoy watching the Bengals during the season and I'll watch other games here and there but I'm not into it like a lot of people are. I couldn't tell you which rookie ran the fastest 40 during the combine or who the top prospect from (insert college here) is but one thing I can tell you about are football cards. More importantly, I can tell you about football cards that I like.

While my primary football collection consists of mostly Bengals cards, from time to time I don't mind picking up football cards here and there, especially if they're decent cards. I hardly ever buy them in bulk though but bulk football cards is what I have here, consisting of the final batch of stuff from the community yard sale nearly two months ago.

I really like the design of 1988 Topps football. It's a lot more colorful and lively than its baseball counterpart. The team logo on the helmet and the colored border on the bottom is a pretty nice touch. However, the back is really what I think is neat ...

Take a look at the stats, see something interesting? Yep, that's stats from other leagues such as the USFL and CFL on the back of an NFL licensed trading card. That is super cool.

These are some of my favorite from mix and it's the first time I've ever seen these Live Action Football cards. The photography on them is just fantastic. Also, they're not in perfect condition, they've got some wear, some dinged corners. That just adds to the appeal to me.

Starting Lineup cards! Love me some Starting Lineup cards. I wonder, who's Randall Cunningham calling?

Here's a pretty neat Drew Bledsoe rookie exchange foil card. When I bought the lot, this was in a really faded and beat up screw down case. Now, it's freed from it's previous hard plastic prison.

I plucked out a nice batch of Bengals cards from the lot to add to my Bengals binder (which I'm planning on restarting here soon ... more on that to come in the future). In the interest of space though, I'll share two Bengals cards I didn't know I was looking for until I found them. First, this Boomer Esiason card from 1989 Topps. Esiason was the first Bengals quarterback I was ever aware of when I was growing up, I think which is why I'm drawn to collect him.

But here's the Bengals card I was super excited to come across. From the same 1989 Topps set, it's the Ickey Woods rookie card! This was probably my favorite find of the whole lot.

So there's a bunch of football cards from the yard sale lot and finally, I can put a bow on the whole yard sale cards. Thankfully, the community yard sales don't come around again until next May. I doubt my haul will be as impressive as this year though.

You've Got Mail #39: Wish They Still Came With Bubblegum

The secret underground mail service that feeds our habit can be a funny thing. Sometimes packages will take only a few days, while some take longer for whatever reason. Take this package from Jeff at Wish They Still Came With Bubblegum for example. He mailed this back in March and it finally arrived the day after Memorial Day after two return to sender deliveries and a long, hard life on the road.

Look at the date on the postage above, first it was sent on March 8 and then March 28. It's pretty crazy that it took this long to travel up I-75. It was worth the wait though as Jeff's package contained some pretty cool stuff.

Some nice additions of Big Red Machine players. The more I see old Allen & Ginter cards, the more I like them. Ginter really isn't the sort of thing I actively seek out but I won't complain when I get cards of old Reds stars.

Sweet, some minor league cards! My minor league card collection is sorely lacking so these are welcome additions. The Daytona Tortugas are a high A affiliate of the Reds. I've heard good things about both of these guys so it makes me excited to see them when they finally make it to the majors. My only complaint about minor league stuff is that I don't see a lot of Dayton Dragons or Louisville Bats stuff but still, these are really cool.

Seeing as Jeff is a fellow football collector, it seemed appropriate for him to throw in some Bengals cards, both old and new. I really dig the Donruss cards and this years Donruss football has a throwback feel to 1990 Donruss baseball in the design. I might actually have to go for some of that. Old school Bengals cards are super cool too, especially of players such as Boomer Esiason, Jim Breech, and Carl Pickens.

Thanks for the great cards Jeff, even though they did take two months to get here. These, along with ones I didn't show, were some great additions to my collection.

You've Got Mail #6: Sportscards From the Dollar Store

Happy December everyone! I'm back after a long break over the Thanksgiving holiday that went by way too fast. I hope everyone else had a nice holiday as well. I ate way too much turkey, watched way too much football, did zero shopping on Black Friday, and even made time for some hockey.

Speaking of hockey, Douglas, the fine proprietor of Sportscards from the Dollar Store, mentioned recently he was going to the Toronto Expo and asked if anyone had any requests. I asked if he could look for some Cincinnati Stingers cards since they are incredibly hard to find, at least in my area. He gladly obliged and sent these my way

These are fantastic. The top four are from the 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee WHA set and the bottom are from the 1975-76 WHA set. I really like the one of Robbie Ftorek in the Phoenix Roadrunners uniform. I'm only one card short of completing the team set from the 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee set now!

Stingers weren't all that Douglas sent, he also included a plethora of other stuff:

This nice Ben Bishop started it off. I became a fan of his during the Stanley Cup playoffs last summer and this is a nice addition to my growing hockey collection.

This Giovani Bernard die cut is awesome! Even though the Bengals aren't undefeated anymore, I still think they'll secure a nice playoff spot, maybe even a first-round bye.

Old school Bengals are the best, especially when it's Esiason and Munoz!

Here's a bunch more Bengals that Douglas sent over. All of these are really nice and will go well in my Bengals binder.

Thanks for the trade Douglas! Hope you enjoyed my return pack.

Bengals and Stingers and ... Other Stuff!

I had some extra cash a few weeks ago but I didn't have time to make a trek 45 minutes up the road to my favorite card shop. So instead, I picked up a few items from my COMC want list. My budget was $25 (including shipping), here's what I procured ...

 Two 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee WHA Cincinnati Stingers Cards

I finally got my hands on some Cincinnati Stingers cards and not only that, they're late 70s O-Pee-Chee cards, which absolutely no one has around here (believe me, I've asked). These are the best ones I could get for my budget and a good way to get my Stingers collection off to a nice start. My goal is to buy some Stingers cards every COMC order and eventually get all of them as this will accomplish two things ... 1) I'll have a bunch of Stingers cards and 2) I'll have a bunch of vintage hockey cards.

2011 Timeless Treasures Changing Stripes Materials Boomer Esiason

So far I've been pretty selective in purchasing cards for my football collection as I really don't want it to get watered down. This card is not only a dual jersey, but has both a piece of a Bengals jersey and a Jets jersey on it, the two teams that everyone remember Boomer Esiason playing for.

2014 Panini National Treasures Team Trios - A.J. Green/Andy Dalton/Giovani Bernard

THIS!! I couldn't believe this card fit into my budget! Not only is it #'d out of 99, it's three different styles of pieces of three of the top guys right now on the Bengals. Definitely a good find here.

2014-15 Upper Deck Ice Martin Brodeur 

As I've stated before, one of my collecting goals is to acquire all Martin Brodeur cards with him as a member of the Blues. This was the main card I wanted for my collection, and pretty much the only reason I've been wanting to buy packs of UD Ice, however I don't want to spend $15 on a pack. Thinking I'll just buy singles then.

2012 Gridiron Rookie Gridiron Gems Combo Materials Mohamed Sanu

Pretty nice card of Mohamed Sanu here, one that would probably be expensive if I bought it at the flea market or local card show. Double jerseys are always nice and this will display nice next to the triple jersey I mentioned above.

Other Stuff!

To cap off my order, I picked a random assortment of stuff, some UFC (Duke is a distant cousin of mine and Gracie won 3 of the first 4 UFC tournaments), some wrestling (Tazz was always a favorite of mine in the original ECW), an Aroldis Chapman numbered out of 299, a 1986 Boomer Esiason, and Oscar Robertson as a member of the long departed Cincinnati Royals even though I don't collect much basketball. 

I'd say this was a pretty successful order and once some more extra cash arrives, I'll pick up a few more things.