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!

Kicking Off the New Season

The NFL (and pretty much every other sports league out there) has taken a back seat to the MLB in my eyes for the better half of a decade.  It has to do with my inability to focus on too many things at once.  

The change took place sometime in the during the 2010's.  I noticed I wouldn't really care about football or even collecting football cards until both the A's and Padres seasons had ended.  These days, it doesn't even matter if the A's or Padres are in the playoffs.  If both teams get an early vacation, I'll pick teams that don't bother me and casually root for them until a World Series Champion is declared.

Until then... the NFL season and my Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers fanfare are put on hold.  I'll check their box scores and watch highlights, but unless they are playing each other or the 49ers... I won't go out of my way to watch their games online until November.

But there was a time in my life when I would dedicate a serious amount of time following both baseball and football during the two-plus months in the fall when their seasons overlap.

As some of you might know... football cards don't generate as much interest on card blogs as baseball.  However sometimes I have cards I want to share with my readers.  So consider this my obligatory football post to kick off the 2021 NFL season.

Back in late July, I set up as a dealer for the first time in my life at my buddy's card show.  I spent a lot of time digging through boxes looking for cards that no longer fit my collecting interests.  One of the main things I targeted were "sticker-graphs".  I had an entire three-row super shoe box dedicated to them.  80% of the box was stuff most collectors have very little interest in.  Then there were the cards I pulled to sell at the show.  These cards were the bigger names who I thought people might be interested in.

The last group of cards were cards that I decided to keep... even though I have turned my back on signed stickers.  Today's post features the handful of football autographs I pulled from the box along with a brief explanation of why I decided to keep them.

#1:  2007 Triple Threads Autographed Relic Red #TTRA97 (#'d to 18)

Barry was one of those once in a generation athletes and sticker-graph or not, I'm holding onto this card.

One of the things that lured me back into the hobby was watching box breaks of products like Triple Threads, Exquisite Collection, and UD Black on YouTube.  These products were out of my league, but over the years I'd add a single or two from these products to my collection.  This card was purchased in 2010 for $90 (free shipping) on eBay.  Can't imagine spending that much on a sticker-graph these days.

#2:  Donald Driver Sticker-graphs

2008 Leaf Limited Material Monikers Jersey Number #10 (#'d to 50)

2009 Limited Team Trademarks Autographed Materials Prime #9 (#'d to 18)

2007 UD Premier Penmanship Bronze Autograph #PP-DD (#'d to 75)

2008 Donruss Classics Sunday's Best Jersey Numbers Autograph #SB-24 (#'d to 25)

Donald Driver is the Green Bay Packers all-time leading receiver... and he doesn't sign a lot for card companies.  That's why back in 2009, I went out and scooped up these four sticker-graphs for a little under $100 from three different sellers on eBay within a three week period.

I was actually surprised to see these sitting in the sticker-graph box.  They should have been in my Green Bay Packers PC box... which is where they reside now.

#3:  2005 Exquisite Collection Endorsements Autographs #EE-AB (#'d 01/15)

I had been looking for this card, because it's one of the nicer autographs in my Prime # PC.  I actually question whether or not this is even a sticker-graph, because Boldin's signature fits perfectly inside of this window.

This card has been safely transferred into my Prime # PC box.

#4:  2008 Donruss Classics Old School Colors Autographs #OSC-11 (#'d 01/25)

Steve Largent is one of my all-time favorite football players and I had absolutely no idea I owned this card.  Maybe I tossed this card into that box, because it was a Tulsa University card.  But I pulled it out, because it's a Largent and it joins the Boldin in my Prime # PC.

In addition to these two autographs, Reader X recently sent me another care package and inside were two more cards that were the first serial numbered cards in the run...

2016 Elite Extra Edition Emerald Status Auto #8 (#'d 01/25)

Quantrill actually fits into two collections: Prime #'s and Stanford PC.  I guess technically he's also part of my San Diego Padres PC, but he's currently in Cleveland.  He was part of the trade that brought Mike Clevinger to San Diego.

2019 Topps Factory Set Sparkle Foil #231 (#'d 001/162)

2019 Topps is my favorite Topps flagship set since 2015.  I bought and opened up one of these factory sets when they came out, but don't remember these Sparkle Foil parallels.  Most of the #1's in my collection are serial numbered to below 100, so it was nice to see this card in the care package.

The coolest card in Reader X's most current care package was this hard signed custom of him and his son:

I'm always excited to add a fellow collector's custom card to my Sports Card Smorgasbord binder.

Thank again Xavier!  There are still plenty from his numerous care packages that I need to write about.  There's a really unique item he added to my Oakland A's collection that I'll be writing about in the next few days, so stay tuned.

And as for the new NFL season kicking off this week...

Are you excited?  Are you rooting for any team in particular?  Favorite players?

Let's go football fans!  Sound off, because you might not see another football card post on here until after the World Series.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Four Forgotten Flea Market Finds

Hope all of you had a great weekend.  Yesterday afternoon, I spent about an hour digging through a box of slabbed cards I purchased a long, long time ago.

Back in January of 2013, I purchased a huge collection at the De Anza Flea Market for $160.  You can check out the photos here.  I'm not exactly sure if I ever summarized this purchase, but it's one of the best flea market finds I have ever stumbled across.

It was one of those deals that my buddy Mike and I still talk about to this day.  Anyways... within the collection were hundreds of slabbed cards.  They sat in my garage for about five years... and then a couple of years ago I brought them into my office where they've sat behind some shipping supplies.  I've sat down a few times and sifted through them... most recently yesterday.

Here were four that caught my attention:

1989 Donruss #561

At first glance, this is a hall of fame rookie card that received a less-than-desired grade from BGS.  However when I looked at it a little more carefully, I noticed that this is actually a buyback from a product I never purchased before: 2001 Donruss Anniversary Originals.

There's no buyback stamp or anything... so the only proof resides in the holder.

Next up a card that fits into two different collections:

2002 Playoff Prime Signatures #107

Chad Hutchinson is a two-sport athlete who pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals and played for the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears.  More importantly... he attended Stanford University... which I maintain a small PC of.

You'll also notice that this card is serial numbered #1/5... which means it also fits into my Prime #'s PC.  And yes... I know that the number "one" isn't a prime number.

I also found this graded Michael Jordan insert:

1990-91 Fleer All-Star #5

Yeah... I know.  It's not gem mint, but it still sells for more than you probably think.  It doesn't matter, because you should know by now that I rarely flip cards.

Plus I collect Jordan.

The last one is a card I may or may not have shown before.  I've definitely pulled it out of the box a few times and admired it.

1998 Bowman Chrome 50th Anniversary Refractor #95

Back in 1998, this would have been a pretty huge pull.

Like the Hutchinson, it's numbered to only 5.  Pulling a common would have been a nice pull, but back in 1998 Kaufman was coming off his best season and he was only twenty-five years old.  Raider fans were pretty excited about him lining up in the backfield.

That's it for now.  I know that most of you aren't into graded cards... but I can't only write about 70's Kellogg's and Topps Project 2020 cards.  Well... I guess I could... but I won't..

Happy Monday and sayonara!