Monday, February 8, 2021

All He Does Is Win

Football fan or not... what Tom Brady has done over the past two decades is incredible and as a sports card collector... I almost felt obligated to give him props on my blog.

Ten Super Bowl appearancesSeven Super Bowl ringsFive Super Bowl MVP trophies.

That's incredible.

When it comes to collecting his cards, I was on the verge of leaving the hobby back in 2000... and by the time 2001 rolled around I had sold the bulk of my collection.  So if I had any of his rookie cards... it was part of the sale.

Then eight years ago, I purchased a huge card collection at the De Anza Flea Market and was fortunate enough to find these four cards:




The two Fleer Tradition rookie cards are probably his cheapest rookie cards on the market, but they did a great job of summarizing him and predicting his future:


As for his Bowman rookie card... it's crossed over into the Four Figures Club.  I realize that many collectors out there don't care about card values...but ever since I was a kid collecting in the 80's... I've enjoyed seeing what my cards are worth.  And considering that I only own a handful of cards that can claim to be a member of this club, I'm pretty stoked.

2000 Bowman #236

Part of me just thinks it's insane how much cards have risen in popularity during the past year.  At the same time... I'm also in awe at Brady's accomplishments on the field and in the playoffs.  They're insane too.

Congratulations to all of the Tampa Bay Buccaneer fans... and especially Tom Brady fans out there.  And congratulations to football fans in general... because if you've watched even one game that Brady has played in during his career... then you watched history being made.

Happy Monday and sayonara!


Overtime

Since football posts are few and far between on this blog... I figured I might as well show off a couple of guys who were just announced as part of Pro Footballs Hall of Fame Class of 2021.  I might have missed out on collecting Brady, but I have a ton of Peyton Manning rookie cards.  My favorite is probably this one:

1998 Score Artist Proof #PP123

I also love this on-card autograph of his:

2009 Upper Deck Philadelphia Signatures #PS-PM

And here are two of my favorite Charles Woodson rookie cards:

1998 Bowman Chrome Interstate Refractor #181

Only one Interstate refractor was inserted into each box of 1998 Bowman Chrome, so the odds of pulling this specific card were one in 220 boxes.  There's just something so pretty about 90's refractors.

However the crown jewel of my Woodson collection is this Chrome rookie card I purchased on COMC back in April of 2019 for $38.

1998 Topps Chrome #44

Although two copies of this card have sold for four figures... I'm not officially making this card a member of the Four Figures Club since it's unlikely they'll continue to sell this high for much longer.

16 comments:

Dennis said...

Nice RCs of Brady and Woodson! That Woodson Refractor is sick too. I wish I could randomly turn up some Brady RCs for my collection!

The Diamond King said...

You have a truly incredible collection! Love all the stuff in this post, especially the Manning Artists Proof, very cool.

Jongudmund said...

I watched the game "with" some friends (on a Zoom meeting). One of my friends is a Buccaneers fan and was very nervous so we kept winding him up by saying "Oh they're bound to win it now" and he kept telling us to shut up. Good times.

Jimetal7212 said...

Considering I am still trying to build those 2 sets if you happen to want to part with one of them.....

Brett Alan said...

Do you think that Fleer card inspired the song by DJ Khaled? (A song I only know because it was used on Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist.)

Matt said...

That artist proof peyton is drool worthy

Peter K Steinberg said...

Very nice cards this week and what a find with the Brady rookies! Very swell.

Big Tone said...

Would Brady make your top 5 athletes of all time list?

night owl said...

Yeah, I'm the type who couldn't stand to have a card of Brady in my house no matter how much it goes for. I have a single card of his (from something from three years ago) and I wish I could get rid of it.

Jon said...

That Bowman has been heavily counterfeited for years now, and I can help but wonder if the production of fakes will go up even more (if they haven't already) now that everyone's into cards again.

cardboardhogs said...

WoW FuJi!!!! Great job on keeping those Bowman Brady RC's, they look great too.

Steve at 1975BaseballCards.com said...

I'd have no problem with having Brady rookie cards, and I'd be selling them now :-)

Nice work getting those, it's wins like that which offset sometimes overpaying so that's a bonus.

Fuji said...

dennis - there's a part of me who wishes he took the time to save more of his football rookie cards before blowing out the collection in the early 2000's. i'm not sure if i had brady rookies or not... but i'm very curious.

the diamond king - the manning artist proof is from my original collection from the 90's. one of maybe 500 cards i held onto.

jongudmund - lol. the zoom meeting is a great idea. i've only known one bucs fan. i'm guessing he's pretty stoked.

jimetal7212 - oh man. that bowman set build is gonna be a tough one (unless you're rich). the good news is the tradition is still reasonably priced.

brett alan - i'm gonna guess it didn't. but who knows. i'm not up to date with celebrities. maybe he's a big card collector. btw... local sports radio would play that for the warriors a few years back.

matt - thanks... i've held onto that card for 23 years. i didn't pull it, but i bought it when i worked at the card shop back in the day.

peter k steinberg - i was pretty stoked when i found them in that collection eight years ago.

big tone - good question. maybe? so hard to compare athletes from different sports. is he on yours?

night owl - there's a part of me who wants to start selling some of these cards... so maybe i won't have these bradys laying around much longer either

jon - counterfeits are a problem for a lot of high end cards. i should probably send it in for grading, but i keep thinking i'm going to do it and it never happens

cardboardhogs - sadly... i keep everything. the smart move would be to dump all of these cards while they're hot.

steve at 1975baseballcards.com - i know i should. along with my kobes, duncans, jordans, and pretty much the rest of my graded card collection.

Big Tone said...

I had a conversation with my nephew about it the day after the game. I got Ruth, Jordan, Gretzky and then Brady.

SumoMenkoMan said...

Man, the cards you stumble upon at the flea market are amazing! Definitely some sweet cards in this post!

Fuji said...

big tone - that's a solid mount rushmore of sports legends. this would be a fun blog bat-around

sumomenkoman - it's been a few years since i've purchased large collections. but that marvel box i picked up at the rose bowl swap meet is selling for over $500