2014 You Complete Me #3: Score (off the) board

Last Sunday I showed you the first chunk of cards from my Sportlots purchases that led to a couple completed sets, and today I'm back with the ones that hadn't arrived until the other day.  These cards hail from 2013 Score football:

There were 30 in all spread out over a few packages, and these six featured the most exciting photos, which is really no surprise since the horizontal layout gives you better options.  What I thought was most interesting is that Score did a great job with the Derrick Johnson card, giving a great view of a menacing LB staring across the line of scrimmage; cards like these might make defensive players more collectible!

Some of you might vaguely recall that I dipped my toe into collecting this set last June with a few rack packs, grabbed more, and also got some help in multiple trades, including Screaming Line Drive and My Cardboard Mistress (thanks again, guys!).  One of the most productive parts of this quest was nabbing a huge chunk of the rookies last July, meaning I mostly just needed base help, which I got in abundance thanks to several trades.  When I got down to needing just 30 cards, it was off to Sportlots to shut the door on another set--and it didn't even take me a year!

Just three sets remain on my football set wants, and I'm as motivated as ever to knock those off soon too!  Until then, here's to another one scratched off the list.  And some nice photos, there's that too.

2013 trade package #30: MCMmmm mmmm good

As many of you already know, Adam of My Cardboard Mistress is back in the game, and he was nice enough to send me a pretty sweet trade package recently, which I'm finally getting around to showing after having to get over a lack of desire to go through the hassle of scanning stuff (I call it scannertia).  I owe it to great traders like Adam (and others, posts pending!) to put in the effort if they're willing to go to the trouble of sending me stuff, right?  RIGHT!

Here's the TMV half of what Adam sent (and as always you can catch the rest on TMM this evening):

12 base cards from 2013 Score football.  We're both working on the set (and I just sent Adam a bunch for his), and out of these I still needed 10, which knocked out more than a quarter of the 39 I had left:

Before:
2013 Score:  2 13 15 21 28 43 49 60 72 87 97 99 107 109 112 114 129 146 148 150 154 175 184 193 200 206 212 214 226 233 254 264 268 274 278 281 291 302 330

After:
2013 Score:  2 13 15 21 49 60 72 87 99 107 109 112 114 129 148 150 154 193 200 206 212 214 226 233 254 264 278 291 302 330

That's one case where shrinkage is a plus!  He also threw this in:

Laugh it up, Spankee, the Motor City Felons are in first place somehow!

Ok, back to sports that matter in Detroit:

This is a pretty good quartet of Tigers.  I hope Detroit holds onto Porcello and he turns into a good #3 or 4 starter.  Sandwiched between his cards are a guy who's no stranger to sandwiches, 2013 playoffs LVP Prince Fielder, and a guy who's earned all the sandwiches he can eat, probable 2013 AL MVP Miguel Cabrera.  Adam would have sent a Fielder mini but he wouldn't have fit on a card that small, though his ALCS stats would.

And then there was THIS surprise:

Cecil Fielder 2013 Topps Allen and Ginter Framed Mini Relics bat

Very cool, my first hit of Big Daddy!  I'm glad it's a bat, as that's what he'll always be remembered for in Detroit.  I still remember being a young Tigers fan the year he clubbed a pair of homers on the final day of the season to eclipse 50.

Oh yeah, and this popped out too:

Barry Larkin 2002 Upper Deck Championship Caliber Swatch jersey

Nice!  It's a Barry Larkin relic I didn't have.  I'm always happy to add anything of his, hit or not, so this one, my 13th hit of the HOFer, is very much appreciated.

Thanks again for the trade, Adam, let's do it again soon!  Readers, head on back to My Cardboard Mistress to get caught up on Spankee's catching up posts.

11/10 card show report: wait, that's it?!

I made the trip down to Taylor, MI, once again this afternoon for a card show, and if I expected it to be even more disappointing than usual, I wasn't disappointed!  The lack of quantity and quality is just apparent from the moment you walk in.

Still, it wasn't entirely fruitless.  I made two purchases for a ridiculously low total of just $25 (plus a bit more for some top-loaders, which are supplies and don't count towards my card spending).  The second haul can be seen over on TMM this evening; here's what I got for $5 from another dealer:

They're the six 2013 Score rookies I still needed, leaving me just 39 base cards short of the set (not taking into account the contents of a trade package yet to be posted!).  The guy basically quoted me $1 per card I needed, and since he had all six, I snagged them for his $5 price.  On a related note, I tried to package in a 2013 Topps Denard Robinson variation auto, hoping to bundle everything up for $15 or $20.  This guy's older, more clueless partner explained that "It books at $40, so I'm asking $24."  I don't know on what planet that card goes for $40, or even $24, but it sure ain't this one.  I think the highest eBay price I found was $10 or $12, and that was in the minority.  Congratulations, clueless card show seller, you're an idiot.  Anyway, it's great to have that rookie subset completed.

Since I spent so little at the show and had to stop at Meijer, where cards at 20% off this week (as well as around Black Friday again, fellow midwesterners!), I decided I'd finally get back into the retail pack game:

These three 2012 UD Football racks set me back just $9.58 on sale, which I thought was decent considering the number of cards I was getting.  Your highlights:

Up top you have Wolverine David Molk (I think I already have one or two of those) as well as young standout QBs Case Keenum and Russell Wilson.  Next you see four of my guaranteed six (two were dupes) inserts of Tim "Megabusting for Jesus" Tebow.  Finally, I landed a pair of SPs, both '93-style:  one of Arkansas WR Joe Adams and the other of former Oklahoma QB and Heisman-winner Jason White.  SP featured some cool designs back in the day so those are a nice touch.  And of course I love the college unis, which is why I skipped over everything else in the card aisle today.  I may put together the Star Rookie set, you never know!  The inserts and SPs are all available, though, as are any doubles I pulled if you have a wantlist handy.

As I mentioned, please check out TMM for the bulk of today's card show haul.

2013 trade package #29: SCFtDS Scores again

Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store seems to send me a new trade package almost every week (which is about 1.5 weeks Canadian), while I tend to pile up things into one large envelope at a time.  In the end we're both happy and end up with tons of great stuff, and that's probably why this is already my SIXTH package from him on this blog alone!

As usual the highlights are over on TMM, but Doug was nice enough to send along some set help as well,

specifically these six cards from 2013 Score Football.  It's been a fun set to put together, and the cards consistently including interesting and exciting photos, like the ones you see above.

These six put another dent in my wantlist and finally get my needs under 50, all the way down to just 45 left.  That's not bad considering this is a fairly large set.

Thanks again, Doug.  I'm betting you're already enjoying the latest package I sent your way, and if I'm smart I'll start working on another one soon!

9-15 card show report: pack busted

I hit up my usual card show location in Taylor this afternoon since I had a bit of breathing room in my monthly budget and hadn't gone to a show for a bit.  Although I ended up spending under my average--around $64 today--I still ended up doing pretty well.  You can see the rest of my haul over on TMM this evening, and this post won't include a bunch of cheap but very useful trade bait cards headed elsewhere, but here's what I scored today:

Am I dumb for dropping $28 on these three packs?  I'd wanted to try the RA hockey pack ($9) since it has a couple Michigan guys I'm chasing and looks pretty good regardless.  Score '13 football jumbo ($9) was a repeat from last time, but my pack then was so good that I thought I'd give it another whirl, plus I'm still working on the set.  And although I remain annoyed with Topps and their anti-collector ways, I was curious enough about the '13 Topps set to grab a jumbo of that ($10) as well, hoping to find Denard Robinson, not to mention a hit.  Here's how I did with each:

RA proved to be the best of the trio:  not only did I pull Wolverine Max Pacioretty, I also landed a nice #d rookie and an autograph.  The two goalies will be heading north of the border in a trade, but if any Nash fans would like his base card I'll be happy to send that out.  The autograph is of the Sharks' John McCarthy, a Boston U alum.  Since he played college hockey he's ok in my book.  That's also available for trade for now, though I might try to sell it elsewhere before long.

This time I got nothing exciting in my Score jumbo pack, but I did knock eight more cards off the wantlist, so that was a positive development.  Two of them were even Calvin Johnsons, and regardless of my shunning of the Lions I'm happy to get anything of his I can.

I also landed five more Rookies, none of which I needed, (so they're up for grabs for you guys building sets, and as a reminder I still have a decent amount of base left!) and a couple uninteresting inserts:

Having seen the baseball edition of 2013 Topps, I pretty much knew what to expect from the football edition.  I pulled nine RCs (none of guys I wanted!) and thought I'd show those off:

I also ended up with seven inserts, only two of which appealed to me:  the Gold parallel (as usual) and the Mini, which continues to be fun.  I don't know if I'm going to chase this set, but for now, everything from the pack (included the base not scanned) is available.

Just because I spent most of my money on trade bait, packs, and Michigan PC stuff doesn't mean I didn't buy a couple Detroit cards, though!  A guy from whom I scored some trade bait had some interesting stuff for $1, $2, and $5, and from those I managed to find a Red Wing and Tiger to bring home:

Ray Sheppard 2012-13 ITG Motown Madness auto

I never have been able to explain why Sheppard was one of my favorite Wings, but it probably has something to do with the classic Sega NHL games (especially '93-'95) my brother and I would play for hours on end.  This is my first card from Motown Madness, which sounded like a fun idea as soon as I heard about it.  The guy had a pile of autographs from the set for just $2 each and Ray was the only one I found interesting, but I look forward to finding more.

Alan Trammell 2002 Stadium Club World Champion Relics bat

I usually don't like spending this much on relics at this stage of the game, but I had no problem throwing down $5 for this Trammell bat celebrating the '84 World Series win.  After all, he was the Series MVP, hitting .450 (9-for-20) with two HR and six RBI.  I have to say that Topps came up with some cool relic ideas back when they were the flavor of the month, and these further highlight the hole the company left when they ditched Stadium Club in favor of the crap we get today.  Anyway, I now own four Tram bat relics to go with a pair of autographs, and this one moves to the top of the relic heap.

Not bad, not bad at all.  Please head over to TMM for the rest of the day's recap.  As for this here blog, stay tuned for some more trade postin' and other features whenever I get around to them!

2013 trade package #24: a Screaming Line Drive that knocks in 23

Before I get to today's INcoming trade post, here's a look at what went OUT today:

That's right--I finally got around to sending pretty much everything I'm aware of that I owe, plus a few surprises.  Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, Screaming Line Drive, and reader Jeff W. have all been notified about theirs, but the rest are a mystery.  Well, not to me since I sent them, but to their recipients.  So watch your mailbox in the next 10 or so days as you might be getting something fun from me!

So, speaking of Screaming Line Drive, DC's own daddyohoho (Sean) caught my YCM post covering a big haul of 2013 Score Football last week, and he decided to help me out while shooting me his own wantlist.  Sean was able to knock a scorching 23 cards off my wantlist of that set.  Of course I'm thrilled to be able to make that kind of a progress through trading, especially since set-building is one of my favorite kind of card swaps (and I'm always willing to look at others' wants as well!).  Here's some of the highlights of what Sean sent me: 

I'm pretty sure Score's photographers captured every dive in the NFL this year, including the two of the Steelers.  I put the pair of future-HOF 12s together on purpose, right above Buttfumble.  James looks so wide open in his photo I have to assume it's from practice.  His teammate and QB is certainly pretty tatted up, right next to fellow QB Stafford, who is surely throwing a pick here.  And Celek has clearly been eating his Wheaties, or maybe those of Ryan Braun....

As usual when I can, here's the damage before,

2013 Score:  2 5 13 15 21 28 31 34 43 48 49 56 57 60 68 69 72 75 84 87 97 99 107 109 112 114 117 125 126 129 134 146 148 150 153 154 160 163 169 170 175 178 184 189 190 193 200 206 212 214 226 233 238 239 242 246 248 250 251 254 264 268 274 277 278 281 287 290 291 302 304 315 318 324 326 330 336 370 381 404 418 437

and after:

2013 Score:  2 5 13 15 21 28 31 43 48 49 57 60 69 72 84 87 97 99 107 109 112 114 117 126 129 146 148 150 153 154 175 178 184 190 193 200 206 212 214 226 233 254 264 268 274 277 278 281 287 291 302 326 330 336 370 381 404 418 437

Now that's a nice dent!  That's not all Sean sent my way, though, as he included these: 

It's a pair of Panini cards of former Iowa and current Lions T Riley Reiff.  The autograph card is about as thick as a Hawkeye linenam, which is pretty cool, and seriously, who doesn't like Elite?  These will likely go into my trade bait but are still very much appreciated.

Thanks again for letting me engage in one of my favorite kinds of trading, Sean!  Your package went out today, and if you didn't see my email, I did find a bunch more rookies to include to thank you for the Reiffs.  Let's trade again soon!  Readers, please head on over to Screaming Line Drive and send Sean your Phils, Sixers, Eagles, Flyers, and Nats, but DEFINITELY not your Redskins.

The return of You Complete Me! Part 2: a big Score

Today's package actually came at least a week before I was even considering the return of YCM and picking things up on COMC and SportLots.  You all know that I bought a nice number of 2013 Score football racks plus a hobby jumbo, and I decided that I wasn't going to make any further progress with packs at this point.  Still, I was in need of a LOT of the short-printed rookies.

Enter eBay.  For about $33 delivered I nabbed a lot of 99 different rookies, which was huge since there's 110 overall.  Granted, I already had some of these, but the purchase still paid off handsomely, as you'll see shortly:

Package #1 (eBay):

Out of the 99 I needed 73, which was still most definitely worth the money.  Since I didn't feel like scanning that many, I decided to show some of the higher-profile players, or guys with interesting names (hey, I mean Slay is a Lion, how good could he be?).  This group includes five first-rounders and a couple QBs, including the vastly overrated Geno Smith.  It also features a pair of stud RBs that were chosen lower than they were expected to go before the 2012-13 college season kicked off.

Oh yeah, there was another pretty significant card in the bunch, which ended up being my favorite:

This is my first ever Denard Robinson card, and I'll have you know that I'm duly excited.  I'm also happy to have a college shot of him, even though there's no iconic winged helmet to cement the deal.  It's certainly going to be strange seeing him playing for Jacksonville, a team with much different colors, but I think Shoelace will make the rest of the league look ridiculous for choosing him so low.

Just as significantly, my wantlist went from this,

to this:

I now need just six of the rookies!  By the way, if anyone else is working on this set, not only do I have a nice number of base for trade, I also have a pretty good cache of the rookies now, so please send me your wantlists.

# of cards:  73
# of sets added to:  1
# of sets completed:  0

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  1
• Total cards:  73
• Sets added to:  1
• Sets completed:  0

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  2
• Total cards:  76
• Sets added to:  2
• Sets completed:  1

I'll be back earlyish this week with another SportLots package that arrived on Friday, which ended up being a large one.  Tomorrow you'll be treated to a trade post with some very timely content!

2013 trade package #22: Score cards from the Dollar Store!

June was a new month, so I think I was long overdue for a new package from hoser Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store.  Fortunately, one arrived late last week, and as always--for the fourth time now--I was NOT disappointed!

Again, per usual the best stuff can be seen over on TMM tonight, but Doug didn't neglect some of my other collections:

He included 10 Red Wings cards, but that's not scanner-friendly, so here's nine of them (you miss out on a base of Mike Commodore, who played in a handful of games two seasons ago).  Doug really hit on some outstanding Wings, including pairs of stars Datsyuk, Lidstrom, and Zetterberg, not to mention a pair of pretty good goalies.  The Certified Lidstrom is my favorite here.

Moving on to football, he included one 2008 Score football base from my wantlist, as well as 20 new 2013 Score base, which I tried to highlight with a few more examples of fun/cool photography.  The Franklin is the biggest pickup since he's one of the set's 110 rookies.  In related news, today I picked up a huge lot of 99 different rookies from this set on eBay, which will hopefully knock most if not all of the rest out in a fell swoop.  That makes Doug's contribution to the rest of the set even more timely as I strive to put this one to bed for good!

Thanks again for furthering diplomatic relations between our countries, Doug!  I promise to have a return package out to you this month pending another COMC run, and I already have plenty of other cool stuff set aside for you.  Readers, please put an extra cup of maple syrup on your Canadian Bacon and head over to Sports Cards From the Dollar Store for some quaulity caurd coullecting wruiting!

2013 card show #2: 6-15, part 1: inserts and a pack!

Today I attended my first card show since late January, and while last time I really couldn't find much (I spent less than $40!), I had much better luck this time.  I especially lucked out in picking up some trade bait for a select few of you, so watch out for packages pretty soon.

My first stop was the usual one to my guy that heavily discounts well-loved vintage, and you'll get to eyeball those tomorrow.  I also did very well picking up some relatively cheap Michigan stuff, which you'll see on TMM pretty soon.  But many of you will be happy to know that some of my best successes today came courtesy of the lower-dollar boxes, including a bunch of $0.25 cards!  Most of those will be trade bait, though.  Today you'll see what I pulled from a last-minute pack, plus some nicely discounted inserts.

The pack was actually the last thing I purchased; as usual I hit up my supplies guy on the way out, and since I still had enough left in my pocket to crack something open, I went a bit down the first row to a guy that specializes in packs and boxes.  He didn't have any loose 2013 UD Football packs available, but he did have a freshly-opened 2013 Score Football jumbo box there, and packs were $10.  Knowing the chances for a hit were high, I grabbed one of those, and still made it home with money in my pocket!

I actually did pretty well, and easily got my $10 worth.  Besides 30+ new cards for my set, including a bunch of RCs, I got one other insert, and then saw these two gems:

This is Malcom Floyd's Black parallel and is #d 1/6!  I thought that was an especially nice pull, but then I pulled this from the group of rookies:

That's former Oklahoma QB (and Sam Bradford's successor) Landry Jones' autograph.  Sweet, I nabbed one of the guaranteed hits!  I quickly put both up for sale on Blowout, but if anybody reading this would like to trade for either of them before they get taken, please let me know.

Considering how well I did I might have to see about grabbing at least one more jumbo pack if I get the chance; for now I think I'll try a small handful more racks and then try to trade for my wants.

Earlier in the day I plunked down $33 for a massive lot of cards including a ton of the $0.25 variety I already mentioned.  Here's one that's not necessarily destined for a trade package just yet:

It's Chris Davis' 2009 Bowman Orange parallel and is #d 135/250.  While I didn't quite get this to flip it for $100, I thought it was a steal at just a quarter, and I don't think the guy selling it realized that this is the same player hitting all those HRs in Baltimore.  If anybody would like to trade for it, please go ahead and claim it, otherwise it'll make its way to COMC eventually.

The rest of that purchase included these six cards that were $2 each or six for $10.  I quickly found a pair of inserts each for three of my favorite players, and was even able to key in on a few inserts from one of my favorite all-time sets:

Ken Griffey Jr. 1998 Topps Chrome Clout Nine

Ken Griffey Jr. 1998 Topps Focal Points

Greg Maddux 1998 Topps Focal Points

Greg Maddux 1998 Topps HallBound

Cal Ripken Jr. 1997 Upper Deck Hot Commodities

Cal Ripken Jr. 2006 Topps Rookie of the Week

The 1998 Topps inserts came from a golden age for me in Topps' history when box prices were fair and 36 packs easily provided a complete series plus some interesting and fun inserts.  I was excited to be able to pick up representatives of two of my favorite players in three of those inserts:  Clout Nine, Focal Points, and HallBound.  Of the three, Focal Points was my favorite, and at one time I had considered putting the set together, but they were just too expensive.  I could still look to do it, but now I can at least be happy that I have Griffey and Maddux to go with my Ripken version.  And speaking of Cal, I did manage to pick out a couple that I'm pretty sure I didn't have yet.  The '06 RotW card is one of those that bugs me a bit since it plays at revisionist history by editing out the other two players on the original.  Still, it's not bad for another Topps reprint.

Those Maddux and Griffey cards remind me that I've been wanting to create Picasa albums for them as well so I can get on scanning some of my favorites of each as I've done with Ripken.  More to keep me busy!

Come back tomorrow for a look at some beat up but significant vintage RCs.

2013 Score Football rack packs (x4)

I've been searching high and low for 2013 Upper Deck football packs at my various local Meijers, and while I haven't found them yet, I did turn up some racks of 2013 Score today instead.  From what I'd seen get pulled from these, they were worth a flier, so I nabbed four of them for $4.99 each.

Score promises 52 cards in each pack, which appeals to the set-builder in me, though to be fair, a ton of those are rookies.  Here's the pair of Wolverines I picked so I can show off vertical and horizontal fronts:

I like the design again this year (as usual), which actually incorporates foil for the first time in a while--that can be found in the bottom score logo and designs around that part of the card, though it comes up darker in the scans.  I don't love how the name/position/team/logo bars come out when oriented vertically on horizontal cards because they just look dumb, and I also think they take up too much real estate overall, but those nits aside I think Score did well here.

Here's a look at a card back.  Quite a few look like this due to players having been in the league for quite a while, but kudos to Score for getting every year on there.  On cards where space isn't at quite so much of a premium, the card numbers appear in horizontal ovals.

One thing I tend to love about Score is that the way they arrange their sets, and as is standard, teams are grouped and sorted alphabetically, starting with the Cardinals.  This year, they incorporated a few subsets, two of which used to be (lame) inserts:   "Franchise" and "Future Franchise."  "Airmail" shows off top QBs while "Road to the Super Bowl" focuses on last season's champs.  Cards 1-220 are normal base, the Airmails fall 221-252, Road to the Super Bowl 253-266, Franchise 267-298, and Future Franchise 299-330.  Again, I love how these are grouped instead of strewn about the set all willy-nilly (TOPPS).

This year's set features some truly outstanding photography.  Topps usually seems to have some nice enough photos, but these are just crazy good--look at that action!  This is where the horizontal cards especially shine, and shots like those are enough to overcome the terrible layout of the components next to them.

I pulled 13 "regular" rookies, and you see the first nine here.  As is traditional, these are card #s 331-440, making for a huge rookie set.  Every image appears to be a close-up shot of a player in his (airbrushed) college unis, and while the lack of logos is a downer, the throwback to Score's old rookie design is a plus.

I included the back of Fisher's rookie here, plus the other four normal rookies, a pair of Blue parallels, and the two other inserts I pulled, "Hot Rookies."  I don't understand why inserts have the "RC" logo on them, but if someone wants to believe that's what they are, more power to them.  I didn't really care about the relative dearth of inserts here because I appreciate the base set more, and Score's inserts have traditionally been pretty low-end anyway.

Out of my four packs, I pulled 161 base cards of the first 330, plus an additional 13 rookies, for a total of about 40% of the set--not too bad from four racks.  I also ended up with 31 dupes, which isn't awesome, but not quite Topps bad either.  I'm thinking I may grab a few more of these, maybe if I can wait until Meijer has cards 20% off again.  I would like to finish up the set, though I'm sure I'll take my time with the rookies as they surely won't come cheap.  You know I'll want to grab Denard Robinson's soon, though!

Here's a quick summary of what I thought was good and bad:
+ Pros:  GREAT photos, pretty good design, nice backs, solid player selection, very few lame inserts, set grouped by team and subsets, pretty good value.
- Cons:  Horizontal design is weird, bottom/right portion of card takes up too much space, TOO MANY ROOKIES.

The four inserts are available for trades as well as my dupes, some of which will head out in future trade packages.  Don't forget I may have more in the future as well!  If you're working on this set now, though, please feel free to shoot me a wantlist.

While I'm talking about Score, I also picked up some 2008 clearance racks in the last couple of weeks and you can find my current wantlist on the football wantlist page.  I also have a TON of extras from those and would love to trade!