The Price Was Right

Don't worry.  The Chronicles of Fuji isn't turning into a football card blog.  I realize there have been a lot of posts lately focused on football, but this one should tie up some loose ends so I I can get back to writing about baseball.

One of the loose ends were some dollar box cards I purchased at the Serramonte Mall Sports Cards, Toys & Collectibles Show that took place earlier in the month...

1997 Skybox Autographics #NNO

1997 Skybox Autographics #NNO

First up are a pair of on-card autographs for my Bay Area PC.  Neither of these guys had long or memorable NFL careers, but I do remember Pat Barnes.  Brian Manning?  Never heard of him.

2004 Playoff Honors Game Day Souvenirs #GS-1

Ahman Green is the Green Bay Packers' career rushing leader.  He also has the second most rushing touchdowns in franchise history behind hall of fame running back, Jim Taylor.

2014 Topps Valor Jumbo Relic #VJR-EL

Eddie Lacy rushed for over 1,100 yards in each of his first two seasons with the Green Bay Packers and won the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award in 2013.  Injuries hampered the rest of his time with the Packers.  Haven't heard his name in years, but this is a pretty cool looking relic card for a buck.

2018 Donruss Optic Rookie Threads #RT-RP

Rashaad Penny wrapped up the 2021 season with three monster games.  Not sure he'll be back with the Seahawks, but I'm hoping he (and Russell) will be in the Hawks huddle in 2022.

By the way... the title of this post stems from a post over at cards as i see them last week.  Jim mentioned that he finds most relic cards these days irrelevant.  I think most collectors feel like him, but I commented that I'm still intrigued by them if the price is right.  In the case of these three memorabilia cards, they were.

The second half of this post are highlights from 4 PWE's I received from Elliptical Man over the course of a few weeks.  Two of them were for two separate NFL Playoff contests he held over on his blog, The View from the Third Floor.  I'm guessing the other two were just generous mailings.  If I'm mistaken Elliptical Man, please let me know in the comment section down below.

Let's start off with some football he sent my way...

1983 Topps #389

If you're sensing a little déjà vu, it's because I showed off another 1983 Topps Steve Largent in a post a week ago.  I'm totally okay with receiving duplicates when it involves Topps base cards of my favorite players... and this was hands down the coolest card out of the four PWE's.

Here are four other cool Seattle Seahawks cards Elliptical Man sent my way:

I grew up rooting for Dave Krieg during the 80's.  Did you know he connected with Steve Largent for 46 touchdown passes?  Krieg was the quarterback who threw the most touchdown passes to Largent... and Largent was the receiver who caught the most touchdown passes from Krieg.

The Topps base card of Beast Mode was much appreciated.  I may or may not eventually get to him one day for the Topps Base Card Run Project.  And I'll gladly provide a loving home for any unwanted Russell Wilson cards... even if there's a chance he's not with the Seahawks next season.

Up next are some Green Bay Packers...

2011 Topps #247

This card commemorates the Green Bay Packer's last Super Bowl Championship and features a WWE World Heavyweight Championship belt cameo.  Ahhh... good times.

Charles Woodson is arguably one of my favorite defensive players of all-time.  I've never created a list, but he's up there in the Top 5.  The 2011 Topps base card of Rodgers is awesome... for the same reasons I sited for the Beast Mode card.  And just like Russell Wilson, I will never turn down Aaron Rodgers cards.

Okay baseball fans... thank you for your patience.  Elliptical Man also sent me four cards for my Japanese PC:

And he hit a grand slam, because I needed all four of these cards.  Not going to lie... usually when I receive cards of Japanese MLB players, I'd say 50% end up going into my duplicate box.  Not this time.  All four made it into the binders.

By the way... if there's anyone out there who also collects Japanese baseball players, please comment down below.  I have hundreds of duplicates that I'd love to pay it forward.

Last but not least were some cards for my Damaged Card PC.  Let's start with the card that made it into the binder:

1983 Donruss #4

It's hard to tell from the scan, but this card is pretty mangled.  Here's another view:

I'm pretty picky about which cards make it into the binder, but ultimately this card made it in because of my love for 80's Diamond Kings and hall of famers.

The other card that caught my eye was this Maury Wills:

1972 Topps #438

This card is very off-centered and has a printing mark running down the middle of the card, but I decided it fit my vintage binder better than the Damaged Card PC.

The back of the card is interesting, because I was expecting to see a blurb on Wills or one of those Topps advertisements.  Instead it talks about Graig Nettles and his single season record for double plays turned as a third baseman (which still stands to this day).

After doing some research (with the help of COMC and Baseballcardpedia), I discovered that 11 of the 12 In-Action cards from 1972 Topps Series #4 feature these highlights from the 1971 season.  The lone exception is card #444 Ken Henderson which has an advertisement for the Series 5 & 6 puzzle backs.

Thank you Elliptical Man!  Not only for sending me these cards, but for always taking a few minutes out of your day to comment on my posts.

February Break is over... and it's back into the classroom again.  Happy Monday and sayonara!

On the Podium

It finally happened.  I sat myself down in front of the computer and started cataloging cards on TCDB.  The inspiration was the large donation of Steve Largent cards that Corky (Pack War) generously sent my way recently.

To put things into perspective... before Corky's care package I had around 70 different Largents.  Now I'm sitting at:

At first, I was staring at two large stacks of penny sleeved Largents.  I began to sort them by year.  Then I added my stack of cards to the mix. That's when I decided I had enough cards to give him his very own binder.  After carefully sliding them into brand new Ultra Pro 9-pocket pages, I sat down in front of my computer and debated whether or not I wanted to open the door and travel down the TCDB path.

Obviously... I did.

But for now I'm only going to track my Largent collection.  Ultimately there isn't enough time in the day for me to commit to uploading all of my other player collections.  Maybe this summer?  Probably not though.

Behind only twenty-three cards to the current leader, I was inspired to pick up a twelve card lot on eBay which should get me ten steps closer to #1.  I'll show them off as soon as I receive them.  In the meantime, I scanned some of my favorites cards from Corky's care package:

1987 Topps American/UK #42

This card deserves its own post, because I enjoy it on a few different levels.  Maybe one day.  Moving along...

2005 Donruss Elite Back to the Future Green #BF-5

2005 Donruss Elite Back to the Future Blue #BF-5

2005 Donruss Elite Back to the Future Red #BF-5

It's not very often I receive a complete rainbow in a care package.  Actually... this might be the first time.

During Jackson's seven seasons with the Hawks, he either led or was 2nd on the team in receptions six times.  Here's a quick comparison of him and Largent in regards to Seattle's receiving leaders:

Steve Largent:  819 Receptions (1st), 13,089 Yards (1st), and 100 Touchdowns (1st)

Darrell Jackson:  441 Receptions (6th), 6,445 Yards (4th), and 47 Touchdowns (3rd)

Next up are a pair of low serial numbered cards:

2007 Leaf Limited Bronze Spotlight #191 (#'d 03/32)

2015 Panini Immaculate Gold #99 (#'d 22/25)

There were a bunch of serial numbered cards that Corky sent my way.  These two were the rarest.

And you know how much I enjoy food and restaurant issue oddballs, here are three really cool ones:

1979 Seattle Police #NNO

Well... this isn't a food issue, but it was sponsored by Coca-Cola.

1986 Jeno's Pizza Rolls #56

This card is a blast from the past.  I loved pizza rolls back in high school and college.  I wonder if these things are still around.

1986 McDonald's Seattle Seahawks (Tab Removed) #NNO

I've written about these McDonald's cards before, since I grew up collecting the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders cards.  I picked up the complete Green Tab set back in 2010.  Now that I'm clawing at the #1 position on TCDB... maybe I'll look into picking up the other three sets.

I'll wrap things up with a relic card:

2010 Absolute Memorabilia Tools of the Trade Materials Red #15

I'm one of those collectors who still appreciates relic cards.  This is the 6th addition to my Steve Largent PC.  Considering I don't like to spend more than a few bucks on memorabilia cards, I don't think I'll be adding anymore in the near future.

Thanks again Corky for this awesome care package and for inspiring me to track my Largent collection on TCDB.  Your generosity single handedly allowed me to jump into the Top 3, but now I'm hungry to get to the top.

Today's question of the day...

Do you track any of your collections on TCDB?

Are you ranked in the Top 10 for any of the players you collect?

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Computer Simulated Data

As much as I love collecting baseball cards... I've only been casually following the MLB lockout negotiations.   Maybe that just makes me a casual fan.  Anyways... I hope they can settle their differences and find a place where both sides are at least semi-content... so fans don't miss out on any games this season.

1995 Topps #431

But if things don't get worked out in time and fans are faced with a shortened season, I wonder if Topps will bring back their Cyberstats parallels in 2023.

1995 Topps Cyberstats #228

For those of you who are scratching your heads, Topps created a set of cards in 1995 that paralleled part of the Topps flagship set.  The fronts used the same images.  However each Cyberstats card was given a metallic finish.

The backs were completely different in design and were the key to this set, because they featured "computer simulated data" for the player as if the 1994 season hadn't prematurely ended.  The numbering doesn't match, because Topps did not create a Cyberstats parallel for every player in the set.

For example:  Chipper Jones and John Smoltz have base cards in the 1995 Topps set, but do not have Cyberstats cards.

Anyways... I'm sure there are plenty of collectors who found this set to be "gimmicky".  However... I actually applaud Topps for thinking outside the box with these parallels.

Here are a few more I had sitting in player collections:

1995 Topps Cyberstats #1

1995 Topps Cyberstats #158

1995 Topps Cyberstats #335

I don't remember where I acquired these, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were discovered in dime or quarter bins... since they were inserted into Series 1 and Series 2 packs at a 1:1 ratio.

Last weekend though... I dipped a little further into the wallet and made this the third card in my 3 for $1 flea market purchase:

1995 Topps Cyberstats #360

Now we just need to sit back and wait to see if the 2022 MLB season will be shortened.  If it is... here's just one more way for Topps to live in the past and rehash something they've already done.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!