Remember Brandi Chastain?

I've said it before... I don't follow soccer on a regular basis. But over the years, I've slowly warmed up to the sport.

Last summer... I dove head first into the 2010 FIFA Men's World Cup hoopla, cheering for Team USA and the Blue Samurai of Japan. Sadly... both teams were eliminated in the 2nd round.

But that didn't stop me from watching the rest of the tournament, which ended in Spain winning. By the time the tournament was over, I had learned several key names... a few rules... and even discovered my favorite player: Keisuke Honda.

But today's post isn't about him... or men's soccer. It's all about the ladies of futbol.

On Sunday... the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup will kick off in Germany. And just like last year... I'll be pulling for The Yanks and Nadeshiko Japan.

I'm a little embarrassed to say this... but I've been a fan of women's soccer longer than men's soccer. I've been living in theBay Area my whole life... and in 1999... the Women's World Cup craze arrived. Several games were played in Spartan Stadium and the semi-final game involving Team USA was played at Stanford Stadium, so it was impossible not to get swept up in the hype.

The USA vs. Brazil semi-final game in Palo Alto was the first time I ever watched a full soccer game. But that's not the game most Americans remember.

It's the USA vs. China Final's match that most people remember... and more specifically... it's Brandi Chastain scoring the deciding goal in the penalty shootout to win the game for Team USA, then pulling off her jersey in celebration. And although she was already a huge name in soccer... this event made her a household name in the states. The memory was captured on numerous magazines and newspapers throughout the country, including Sports Illustrated:

But... I actually was a fan of Brandi... long before that historic day. I went to high school with her brother Chad and remember seeing her name in San Jose Mercury News since her days at Santa Clara.

Sadly... my only soccer card of her is this 1999 Roox U.S. Women's Soccer card that I picked up a few months after they won the cup.

Then a couple of months ago, I picked up this gem:

It's an autographed Nike soccer ball authenticated by Steiner Sports. If you follow my blog, you might remember my Ryan Miller puck purchase in April. It was part of a 3 autographs for $99 promotion. Well... this Brandi Chastain autograph was the second item in the deal.

I'm currently looking for a reasonably priced soccer ball display, so I can put it up on one of my bookshelves in my office.

Okay... moving on to the contest. Here is today's Question of the Day:

Brandi Chastain... along with James Jones (of the Green Bay Packers), Dave Stieb (former pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays), Andre Carter (of the Washington Redskins), and Mark Grieb (of the San Jose Sabercats) are all hometown heroes.

Who are some of your hometown heroes?

Oh... and I almost forgot. I promised to add another prize this week... and here's what I have for you guys.

It's a complete set of 1999 Roox U.S. Women's Soccer cards. The set contains 19 cards and features Mia Hamm, Brianna Scurry, Kristine Lilly, Julie Foudy and of course... Chastain. I'm sure it's not for everyone... but the worst case scenario... you use it as trade bait.

I'll cut off the comments for Monday's post right now... but I won't have a contest update until later on this evening.

Well... I'm off to work. Happy hump day and sayonara!

Hobby Hero(es) #5: Doug, Rob, & Dmitri @ Card Corner Club

I love sports cards. I love collecting them. I love sorting them. I love trading them. I love talking about them. I love writing about them. And I love listening to people talk about them.

Right now... I check my iTunes on a weekly basis for these three sports card podcasts:

The Hobby w/Mike Schopp

The Sports Card Show w/Colin & Ryan

Card Corner Club w/Doug Cataldo, Rob Bertrand, and former MLB all-star Dmitri Young

All three are informative, entertaining, and are excellent sources of cardboard news and discussion. I've written about Colin & Ryan in the past... but today I'm going to write about Doug, Rob, and Dmitri... and why I think of them as hobby heroes.

Every time I listen to their podcast, it's an opportunity to take a break from the real world and just soak in some great cardboard discussion. The banter that goes on between Doug and Rob is both legendary and comical. I look forward to hearing what they're going to argue about next... and more often than not... I find myself shaking my head at some of the things Doug says, and agreeing with Rob. Regardless, both men stand up for the rights of card collectors.

Then there's Dmitri. Over the past few months, I've slowly grown to admire Dmitri Young as a fellow card collector. But it's not for reasons you might think.

My Dmitri Young Sports Card Trifecta

It's not because he has one of the most impressive rookie card collections out there, nor is it because he shares an MLB record with George Bell & Tuffy Rhodes as being the only players to hit three homeruns on Opening Day.

Both of these these things are awesome... and make me envious... but they're not the things that make him a hobby hero (along with Doug & Rob).

Nope... it's the fact that underneath those two things which make him famous... he's a human being...just like the rest of us. A human being who shares a common interest. A human being who stands up to his personal battles, doesn't back down, and overcomes them to share with others. A human being who is a positive role model to not only his own children, but for others who want to play sports and/or collect cards.

Merriam-Webster defines "hero" as a man admired for his achievement and noble qualities.

My definition of a "hobby hero" is a person who has a positive impact on the sports card collecting community. And these three gentlemen do just that.

And before I forget... I encourage you to go check out their blogs:

Dougology

Voice of the Collector: The Anti-Beckett

Da Meathook

Now it's your turn...

Based on my definition...

who would be some of your hobby heroes?

Besides the Card Corner Club cast... here are the other members of my Hobby Hall of Fame:

Mario @ The Wax Morgue

Colin & Ryan @ Sports Card Radio

The Legendary Don West

arfalc77 (aka 7's) on YouTube

I've been pretty busy... so I'll have to update the contest scores this afternoon. I appreciate all of the comments... it's been fun reading all of them.

Have a great day... and enjoy the rest of your week. Sayonara!

A bike ride lead me to a Montana rookie... and a whole lot more!

This morning I took my cruiser for a little ride into my childhood neighborhood (about 3 miles from where I live now). It was weird seeing the house I grew up in completely remodeled and upgraded. In fact, most of the houses in the neighborhood seemed to go through the home improvement phase.

While riding home, I came across a garage sale. I had seen a few earlier in the morning, but didn't bother to stop. But this house looked to have some Star Wars stuff, so I decided to check it out.

There wasn't anything I was interested in and just as I was about to leave a woman asked me if I was looking for anything in particular. I asked her if she had any sports memorabilia or cards and she told me she did.

Her brother had passed away and was an avid collector, so she was selling his cards. She hadn't put them out yet, but she had them spread out in her dining room. I guess someone had gone through the stuff last night and spent $300 on a bunch of vintage.

At first glance, it looked like your typical collection of overproduced 90's cards. A few Shaq inserts caught my eye, so I decided to look through the boxes. I'm glad I did, because buried amongst the piles of cards were some real sweet treasures.

There's way too much to list. Some of the cheaper items, I'll share in future posts... but today... I'll just post the highlights of my purchases:

Inserts

94/95 Upper Deck "Slam Dunk Stars" #S12 Shaquille O'Neal

94/95 Ultra "Scoring Kings" #5 Shaquille O'Neal

94/95 Flair "Center Spotlight" #4 Shaquille O'Neal

93/94 Ultra "Scoring Kings" #8 Shaquille O'Neal

94/95 Ultra "Jam City" #8 Shaquille O'Neal

95/96 Flair "Hot Numbers" #11 Shaquille O'Neal

95/96 Finest "Refractors" #252 Magic Johnson

1996 MotionVision "Limited Digital Replays" #LDR7 Brett Favre

1996 MotionVision "Limited Digital Replays" #LDR8 Brett Favre

Autographs

2006 Press Pass Bronze Autographs #15 Maurice Drew

Vintage

1975 Topps Mini #660 Hank Aaron

1975 Topps Mini #370 Tom Seaver

1969 Topps #100 Hank Aaron (writing on back)

1977 Topps #650 Nolan Ryan

1974 Topps #20 Nolan Ryan

1952 Look N See #11 Nathan Hale

Rookies

1990 Action Packed Rookie Update #35 Emmitt Smith

1984 Topps #123 Dan Marino

1984 Topps #63 John Elway

1981 Topps #216 Joe Montana

1982 Topps #21 Cal Ripken Jr. (x2)

1980 Topps #482 Rickey Henderson

1983 Donruss #277 Ryne Sandberg

I'm pretty stoked about finally adding a Joe Montana rookie card to my collection. The other card that stands out for me is the Shaquille O'Neal Hot Numbers insert. Actually... who am I kidding...I'm pretty stoked about all of them.

The lady mentioned that she didn't know much about cards, so I went home and brought her a price guide. I taught her how to look up prices and how to find BV's on COMC. I also told her that BV isn't necessarily accurate and suggested that she search "completed listings" on eBay.

It may seem like I bought a lot of stuff, but I barely scratched the surface. She had a ton of vintage star cards: Nolan Ryan, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Pete Rose, etc.

I can only imagine what the guy from last night hauled in. Mantles? Tobacco cards? Anyways... I explained to her that she had a gold mine in her possession. And after a couple of hours, I had helped her sort her treasures from her trash.

I left with a few more cards... some of them PC additions.. and part of them were "thank you" gifts for helping her out. I gave her my phone number and told her I'd help her out when she's ready to post some of the bigger cards on eBay. The rest she plans on selling at the flea market next month.

I won't go into specifics on what I paid, but it was definitely worth my time to stop by and check out her stuff.

It's crazy to think that this morning I figured I'd do something different for once and get some exercise... but in the end... it lead me back to sports cards. The only downside is I might be addicted to garage sales now.

Here is Saturday's question of the day:

Do you ever go to garage sales?

If so, what's the best thing you've ever found?

Oh... updated contest standings have been posted. In the next few days... I'll be adding something to the prize list as promised. Until then... enjoy the rest of your weekend. Sayonara!

Set Showcase #14: 2008 Popcardz

As the annoying Rebecca Black once said...

It's Friday, Friday... gotta get down on Friday... everybody's looking forward to the weekend.. weekend.

Wow... I can't believe how many little kids actually like this song. I went on YouTube to listen to it, so I could grab the above lyrics... and I couldn't listen to it for more than 30 seconds without clicking "pause" and fast forwarding to the chorus.

I tried to download it for all of you to enjoy this morning... but it disappeared. So maybe today is my lucky day.

Anyways... this post isn't about Rebecca Black. It's about showcasing another set that I have.

It's another one of my non-sports card sets called Popcardz and it featured some of the hottest pop culture stars back in 2008.

I picked up a few blaster boxes of this stuff (for a little over $4/box)... because you were guaranteed a memorabilia card featuring a swatch of clothing worn by a celebrity. There are a total of eight memorabilia cards in the set and you can find full sets of these on eBay for under $40 delivered.

Another thing you'll find in boxes are gold parallels of the base cards. I pulled a few of these, so they are a little more common than the memorabilia cards. From the looks of it... there was a time when you could go to their website and enter a code found on the back of these gold parallels for a chance to win prizes. These days... the only thing I found was a Facebook fan page that nobody bothers to use anymore.

Finally... the base set is made up of forty cards. I was able to build one set... but came up four cards short on a second set. I created a post on Sports Card Forum and was interested in trading for the cards... but just this week I received a package with the four cards I needed from a generous member.

And you know what that means... now I can give a set away to you guys. In addition to a complete set, the winner will also receive an unopened pack of this product.

Here's what the cards looks like:

The card fronts feature a simple design, a close up picture, and the name of the celebrity. While the back contains their birthday, hometown, the charity they support, along with a list of their favorite things.

Since the set is pretty small, I've taken the time to scan all 40 cards.

As you can see more than half of the set is made up of woman and if it were published in 2011... no doubt Ms. Black would be included.

My personal favorites (for obvious reasons) would have to be Hayden Panettiere, Jessica Alba, and Eva Mendes.

Well... there you have it. Here's proof that sometimes I'm a millionaire who likes to throw away money on worthless products... or maybe I'm just a teacher who lacks self control. Either way... at least you have the opportunity to grab this set for free.

On a side note... today I realized for the first time that I've collected non-sports cards longer than I've collected sports cards. My cardboard collecting days began in 1977 when I started busting packs of Topps Star Wars. And now that I think about it... I actually got in on the ground floor... because I distinctly remember owning some of the blue border cards... which were the first series cards. Too bad I didn't save any of those from my childhood.

Today's question of the day:

If you could have dinner with any celebrity from this set, who would it be? Why?

Although it'd be tempting to hang out with any of the three ladies mentioned above, I'd probably end up picking Jon Heder... a.k.a. Napoleon Dynamite. It's one of my favorite movies and I'd love to hang out and talk to him about it.

Bonus question of the day (worth an extra point):

Have you ever collected non-sports cards? If so... which ones?

Well... have a great day everyone... and remember... It's Friday... Friday!

Cheap Cool Cards #17: 1993 Stadium Club "Master Photos"

Are you a fan of oversized cards? How about 90's inserts? What about Stadium Club's premium photography? What about rock bottom pricing?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions... then you might just enjoy the oversized 1993 Stadium Club "Master Photos" inserts, which each measure 5" x 7".

According to Beckett... the baseball singles were available two ways. A redemption card was inserted into one out of every 24 packs, which could be redeemed for three Master Photos. In addition to redemption cards, these cards were inserted at a rate of one per hobby box. There were three different series of 10 cards to go along with the three different series of Stadium Club baseball in 1993.

The complete 30 card baseball set books for $24, but you can pick up one of these on eBay for under $17 shipped.

The football version of these were only available as redemption cards and came in both the first and second series. However, instead of 10 cards in each series, there were 12. Another difference between the football and baseball set is that the football set features an informative, numbered (not serial #'d), and fully colored back, while the baseball set's back was fairly plain.

Beckett currently lists the first series football set and the second series set at $15 a piece, but you can grab all 24 cards for less than $15 shipped on eBay.

I can't remember where or when I acquired these... but one thing is for sure... they were cheap. You might be wondering... how might I possibly know this. Well... there's a couple of reasons.

A. I didn't collect these in the 90's. I remember seeing them in my local card shop, but I never pulled one... nor did I ever buy any... so I never paid "top dollar"... whatever that may have been... back in the day.

B. They were most likely a flea market or Craigslist purchases. What does that mean? It means that they're cheap. I never buy things from either one of these places... unless it's something I'm really craving... or unless it's super cheap.

Oh... and if you're a fan of either basketball or hockey... they produced Stadium Club "Master Photos" for you too. The hockey set is similar to the football set. There are 24 cards in the set and both were available as redemption cards.

The basketball set is broken down into two team sets: the Houston Rockets & the New York Knicks. Each team set was the reward for pulling the respective Stadium Club "Super Team" insert card out of the 1993-94 series one packs.

Unfortunately... I don't have examples of either... but I do have an example from the 1992-93 Topps Archives "Master Photos" set.

Similar to the Stadium Club versions... they were found as a redemption card. The set highlights the #1 NBA draft picks from 1981 to 1991 (Topps missing years).

Well... what do you think of these? Are they your cup of tea?

More importantly...

What's your favorite 90's cheap insert set? Why?

Okay... time to add a little spice to the contest. If you want to play it safe... then just answer the question above and receive your point.

However... if you want to have a little fun... try to guess how many of these oversized "Master Photos" cards I own. Here's hint... it's between 5 and 20. If you guess the number correctly... I'll give you all of them except for the three I have shown (they're part of my PC). If there's more than one winner (yes, that means you copy someone else's guess), I'll enter your names into random.org and pick a winner that way. And if nobody guesses it correctly, then I'll choose the person who's guess is closest (doesn't matter if you go over... and I'll use random.org if that's a tie as well).

But there's a catch... incorrect responses will cost you two points (if you answer the question above, then I'll only take away one point... since things will balance itself out).

By the time this has been posted... I should have an updated contest post up too. And wow... those comments in the last post about rings and legacy were pretty amazing. Thanks for your participation!

Well... I'm headed off to work. Have a great day... and sayonara!