Just Some Old Basketball Players

I have been on this big kick lately with finding older baseball cards of players who appeared on the Durham Bulls several decades ago.  Since I dabble in basketball cards, I decided to do a similar thing with that part of my collection.  A little bit smaller scale, maybe slightly more recent cards, but these weree all enjoyable finds.  There are a few NC State cards, but also a few of the players that I watched while I was living in St. Louis.  

Let's start with the NC State players first.  I have added two good State cards, both are household names in there parts that many are likely to recognize.  First up, is the greatest of the greats in Raleigh. 

 

 

This is actually my second copy of this card.  I picked this up while I was working on baseball cards.  Found a guy who was unloading some Rays/Durham Bulls in a Facebook group.  My Facebook profile is an NC State logo, so he asked if I would be interested in this David Thompson card.  I cannot say no to a good deal, plus I love getting combined shipping on cards.  

 

Next.  From the promotions table at NC State, to someone's house, and eventually into my collection.  

 

 

I am usually pretty good about checking out the promotional tables when I go to NC State games, but for some reason I missed out on this T.J. Warren card.  Serious, it's T.J. Warren.  He slimmed down a bit in college.  There is not much evidence of this version of T.J. Warren ever existed outside of this basketball card and 90 second clip of him getting a lay-in and a dunk against UNC. 

On to other schools.  The rest of the cards are players from Mizzou or SLU.  I will go in order working from newest to oldest.  

First up is Keyon Dooling.  He had a fairly long career in the NBA as a back-up guard.   Pretty versatile, could play both the point and shooting guard positions. 

 

Keyon has worked in the front office for the Utah Jazz since retiring a few years back, but recently got added to the coaching staff as an assistant last month. While Keyon may not have it listed on his resume or LinkedIn page, I have been employing him as a gif in PowerPoint and Google Slides in my classroom for five or six years now.  

This incredible gem is from a charge call against Kansas.  He didn't quite jump over the KU player while dunking the ball over him, but came really close.  

If you are a teacher, this gif is great for 

"The schedule changed because of an assembly"

"Someone thawed our freezer pops by moving them to the refrigerator" 

or the classic:

"It's picture day and the cafeteria is serving spaghetti. Don't do anything that results in your mom emailing me after school because you are doing picture retake day next month"  

Let's move on.  

 

 

Larry Hughes is from St. Louis.  He's a little younger than me.  I saw him play in a high school Christmas tournament his senior year while I was a freshman in college.  He actually played with Jayson Tatum's father, Justin Tatum, at a small parochial school.  Hughes and Tatum both committed to stay home and play at Saint Louis University.  Hughes played one year and left college for financial reasons connected to his younger brother's health.  Tatum sat out at least one year, might have been more, because he had a diagnosed learning disability that allowed him to take the ACT without a time limit.  The NCAA was even ridiculous in the 1990s.  

Rest of the players are from when I was in high school and middle school.  A little nostalgic for the old Big 8 Conference here.  

 

Another long-time NBA player, Peeler had a good career as a offensive spark plug coming off the bench for the Lakers and Timberwolves.  A few other teams mixed in there too.  He was a great college player.  I believe he was an All-American and the Big 8 Player of the Year his senior season.  I liked this card because it shows Peeler in his college uniform.  There are not too many Anthony Peeler cards in a Missouri uniform floating around out there.  

It's a little odd that they have Peeler in his college uniform, logos and all, but they airbrushed out the defender.  You can still make out the T from the Texas A&M logo on the shorts.  I know the Big 12 was not around in the early 1990s, but Mizzou played them Peeler's senior season.  The Tigers won by 30.  I would try to find Peeler's stats for the game, but I am guessing he sat on the bench in his warmups for a large portion of the second half. 

Next up is a Mizzou player that is new to my basketball card collection.  I was surprised that I did not have a card of this guy.  Great college player, not so great in the NBA.  Let me say it again, great college player.  

Two Doug Smith cards.  

Smith was this huge guy, with a huge frame, but he was really quick.  He played before Greg Ostertag and Bryant Reeves were in the Big 8, but there were a lot of other lumbering centers and power forwards that Smith would just blow past on his way to the basket.  He also had a nice mid-range jumper, so when defenses started sagging off of him, he could knock down some shots.  Only player in the school's history to score 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds. 

 

 

Smith and Peeler's time in college had some overlap, but Smith was older.  He was also an All-American player, won the Big 8 Conference Player of the Year award twice.  He got selected as the sixth overall pick in the NBA Draft, but never panned out.  I read this interesting take on a Celtics website about Smith in the NBA.  He ended his career in Boston after they tried to turn him back into the Doug Smith at Mizzou.  

To summarize, Smith was a big man (6'10), but his quickness and athleticism were what made him a great scorer in college.  The Mavericks drafted him, thought they were going to put muscle on his large frame, but that just made him slow and he couldn't score anymore.  How many good college players did the Dallas Mavericks wreck in the early 1990s?  Apparently it was a long list.  The Mavs were thinking Karl Malone when they should have been thinking about Julius Erving. 

This Mavericks card is alright, but I really like this Kellogg's card below. 

College Basketball Greats.  This seems like the perfect Doug Smith card.  Look at that positioning under the basket.  This is the Doug Smith that I remember.  He's got the big guy sealed behind him and some little guard trying to come down on a double team.  At least that what I think is happening.  Is this against Nebraska?  Doug probably scored a ton of points in this game.  Save for Eric Piatkowski, the Huskers were terrible at basketball when I was younger.

Last card.  

Anthony Bonner was in the NBA for awhile with the Knicks and Kings. Really good rebounder and defender in the NBA.  The talent level at Saint Louis University was not very good until the mid 1990s when Charlie Spoonhour got hired.  Bonner was sort of the lone bright spot during the 1980s  I have no idea about this brand "Star Pics".  I feel like I might have bought one of those novelty sports cards that you can buy at Walgreens photo. 

Weekend Countdown: My Favorite College Basketball Cards

This was the weekend that we were supposed to be watching the NCAA Final Four.  I spent my weekend sorting cards, planning some online lessons for my students, and also wrangling my own kids.  Somewhere in there, I had a little bit of time to sort through my basketball cards.  

Here is this week's single rules:  

• Cards have to show the player in their college uniform, no airbrushed out logos, or NBA cards. 
• Multiple universities are represented on my list, it's not just my 10 favorite NC State cards.  

Let's go.  

10. 2009-2010 Upper Deck Brandon Costner 

He played at NC State while I was in college there.  Good player.  He was a power forward who had a nice outside jumper, even shot some threes.  He ended up playing in Spain, China, and the G-League after college.  His claim to fame at NC State was that Tyler Hansbrough once got a technical foul for trying to slap him after grabbing a rebound.  

  

There is an autographed version of this card out there somewhere.  I don't own it.  

9. 2016-2017 NC State Basketball Card Set Dennis Smith 

There is a table at all of the NC State sporting events that is covered in posters, schedules, and all sorts of free stuff.  For a long time they gave away basketball cards, though they have stopped in recent years.  Generally they did one or two players per game, each player was available for a game or two.  

Here is the card.  

Never quite sure how to view Smith.  He was a great player, but State was a terrible team the year he played there.  Plus, he took money on the side from Adidas, and is likely going to get State put on probation here in the next year or two.  

8. 2012-2013 UD Black Lorenzo Brown Autograph 

Lorenzo was a freshman the last year that I was in college.  Great point guard.  Great vision.  He was on a team that ended up in the Sweet 16, and probably did not get the credit he deserved.  Plays like this......

Everyone is looking at the result, which was a dunk over a defender, but miss the fact that the pass was threaded through 3 defenders.  

  

This is a nice card.  

Lorenzo played on the 2018-2019 Toronto Raptors NBA Championship team, but has bounced around the NBA and a few other professional leagues.  I believe he played last season in Europe.  

7. 2009-2010 Upper Deck Courtney Fells Autograph 

The sad part about NC State's basketball team while I was in college was not the fact that they were bad, it was the fact that they were bad and they had talented players.  Courtney Fells only averaged a dozen points or so during his time playing in college, but he was the player on the team that would make plays that would have to watch a few times when you got home to figure out how he made the play.  

I have no idea how he blocked this shot.  

Fancy in game dunks.  Steph Curry bricks the shot that leads to this fast break.  

 

Loved watching Courtney play.  

6. 1995 Classic Rookies Autographs Erwin Claggett 

The last few years I was in high school, Saint Louis University was really good.  SLU played in the Kiel Center with the Blues, so there were always plenty of tickets.  They were coached by Charlie Spoonhour, who played four guards and a forward, and the offense relied heavily on three pointers.  They made the NCAA Tournament a few times, and played a really good game against Wake Forest in the second round while Tim Duncan was in school.  Claggett was one of the better players on the team.  I am not sure if I would classify him as a shooting guard or point guard, but he was a good player. 

I wouldn't watch the whole clip, but he is in here a few times if you watch it for a minute.  

 

I did not even know this card existed until a year or two ago, when I saw someone I follow for Cardinals cards tweeted out a picture of it.  I thought it might be a custom card of some sort.  Nope, it was real.  

5. 2017 Panini Contenders Dennis Smith Autograph 

Again, mixed feelings about Dennis Smith and his time at NC State, but this is the only college basketball card that I have ever really tried to chase down.  The rest of the cards on this list were just sort of there, and I bought them for small amounts of money.  This was an expensive card for a long time, and then he got traded to the Knicks.  

As the only college basketball card I have ever worked hard to add to my collection, I can rank this card in the middle of my list.  If NC State gets a punch of penalties, I will never speak of this card again.  

4. 1992 Classic Anthony Peeler 

I get frustrated talking to people in North Carolina about Anthony Peeler.  What do most people remember Anthony Peeler for?  Punching Kevin Garnett in the face.  

 

I assure people he was a great college player, not just an NBA role player who punched a really good player once during a playoff game.  He was the Big 8 Player of the Year, an All-American, and I believe he is the school's all-time leader in a few different categories, maybe steals and assists.  I think Steve Stipanovich might have scored more.  There is a name for you.  

Long highlight, but here he is dropping 43 on Kansas.  

and here is the card.  

I have no idea how his jersey is not retired, or honored by Mizzou.  

3. 2014-2015 SPX T.J. Warren Autograph 

Easily my favorite player I have watched at NC State. T.J. Warren won the ACC Player of the Year his sophomore year, which was his final year in college.  He scored a ton of points, that was his thing.  Warren was nicknamed "Tony Buckets: in college.  I don't think its stuck in the NBA.  Kind of a throwback player in that he scores a lot of his points on jumpers and runners inside the three point line, but he is not someone who is really aggressive driving at the rim. 

I think this basket kind of exemplifies what he does well.  He is doing this same stuff for the Indiana Pacers, only he's gotten better at shooting 3s since going pro.  Scores just under 20 a game in the NBA.  

This was one of my first cards I got of T.J. Warren 

2. 2016-2017 Panini Black Gold Collegiate Basketball Cat Barber Autograph 

Cat is my second favorite NC State player after T.J. Warren.  He was on a Sweet 16 team while he was at State.  Barber was the point guard on the team that upset Villanova, which led to the crying piccolo player.  

Classic.  

Barber was quick, had a nice jumper, and a good feel for the game.  

I think he is too small and slight for the NBA, but he has played professionally in Europe and the G League since leaving State.  Great college player though, and I am happy that Panini gave him a college basketball card.  

All of his autographed cards are signed "Cat".  

1. Upper Deck Exquisite Collection T.J. Warren Autograph 

I know there has already been a T.J. Warren card on the list, but this one is even nicer.  

Does anyone else collect college basketball cards?  

What are your favorite college basketball players?  

Vacations Are Good

I feel like I have not had a break in awhile.  I know there are plenty of people who go long stretches with no vacations, and I am a teacher so I often hear the, "you just sit around all summer" line more times than I can count.  Actually, I usually teach for a two to three month stretch before I get a vacation that usually lasts for roughly three weeks.  I have been on the same schedule for more than decade, my clock is sort of used to the schedule by now.   

I am now going to yell at a few clouds, but before I do here is a Stadium Club autograph of Brandon Lowe that I picked up.  I had not posted it yet, but here it is now....

I drove more than 3,000 miles this summer.  I went from Raleigh to St. Louis, to mid-Missouri, and then on to northern Michigan.  Eventually I ended up in Grand Rapids for a wedding before driving home (13 hours with 2 kids) the day before the beginning of the school year started.  I switched grade levels, moved classrooms, and ended up running a committee.

I feel a little stretched thin.

This is a Steven Souza autograph that I also did not get a chance to post.

This card cost me $2.00.  It's Steven Souza, but he once won the International League MVP Award in a season where he only played 90 games.  His numbers were insane. 

Friday was my last day at work for the next three weeks.  I am not going anywhere, or doing anything the least bit responsible during that time.  I am going to spend some serious time doing non-work things.  Kids going to parks and museums, home improvement projects, and baseball cards.  I have actually been planning on doing some writing on a project I have been working on for awhile with my baseball cards.

I am pretty excited about it.

This is Tanner Houck.  I once saw him pitch a no hitter.  I didn't have time to post this when I got it a few months back. 

Definitely needs a post or two next week since the project has been six years in the making.  

This picture was from way back when I started a project with my cards.  The original post is here.  My baseball card room used to be really red.  It's not that color anymore. I am going to get a little bit of rest and probably take my kids to the park first.  

Matt Olson And His Chrome Friends

I had set my sights on adding a few Matt Olson cards late in the baseball season.  I was able to track down a few pre-2017 autographs before they took off in price, but I didn't think that I would get around to adding any of newer cards.

Welp.  I managed to pick up a Topps Chrome autograph, roughly two months ago, and paid the whopping price of $3.25.  It's been sitting on my desk for awhile, which is the price I pay for posting less often than I used to.

The card.....

is really nice.

I almost always pick up a few Chrome autographs every year.  Usually I target a card, win it in an auction, and then I can often find a few other Chrome cards that the seller has cheap that are ending close to the same time.

This year's winners are......

Mets fringy pitcher Seth Lugo.  I picked this card because it cost me $0.99 and I watched a game this spring where he pitched in the World Baseball Classic.  He did a pretty good job.  I can live with this card for $0.99.

Yes, Rob Zastryzny is a Cub, which would seem like a stretch for my collection as a random addition as a cheap Ebay card.  However, he is also a Mizzou alumni, so going to one of my preferred college rooting interests makes it a pretty good find for essentially a dollar.  

Brett Phillips is my last Chrome card.  He seems like a decent everyday player for the Brewers.  I was first introduced to Brett Phillips two years ago when he was apart of an on-field animal incident in the Minor Leagues.  All on-field animal incidents are usually pretty sweet......

Phillips running an opossum off the field is no different.  His card cost slightly more than the Zastryzny and Lugo cards, more like two dollars, but I am sure many other collectors also want this card for his ability to hit and run off animals.    

Black and Old Gold Scherzer

I don't have a collection of Max Scherzer cards and I am not going to start one anytime soon.  Still, I have been on the lookout for one of his cards for a few months now.  Different things have gotten in the way during that time.  Me not paying attention to the end of Ebay auctions, getting sniped at the end of Ebay auctions, and me not willing to spend $79.99 on a Buy It Now for a Max Scherzer card.  

The card I have been on the lookout for features Scherzer during his time at the University of Missouri.  I went to another public university in Missouri, but I grew up rooting for the Tigers.  I went to basketball and football games, had siblings attend the school, and many friends from high school.  

I was living in North Carolina the majority of the time that Scherzer was at Mizzou, but I did get to see him play with play with the USA Baseball College Team.  

I have always thought it would be cool to have seen Scherzer actually pitch a game for the Tigers.  There is no going back at this point, so I have dabbled in Scherzer cards at times when I have had a chance to add a copy of him wearing the black and old gold.  I think my first Scherzer card in a Mizzou uniform was out of the 2007 Donruss Elite set, I will post it on another day.  

So, here is my second....

I love the picture of Scherzer in the Mizzou uniform obviously.  The design of the card is really simple, but I like the fact that it draws your eye towards the signature and the picture.  Yes, the signature is a sticker autograph which is always something I try to avoid, but in this case I am making past it just fine.  

The Best Ryan Howard Around

I found this really sweet Ryan Howard card last week.  Being a St. Louis native, having a few St. Louis collectors left in my circle within the hobby, that's always been a pretty popular name.  There is that one Ryan Howard who is from the western part of St. Louis County, went to Layfette High School, and then played at Missouri State until the Phillies drafted him.  Yes, that Ryan Howard is a pretty popular player, lots of baseball cards of that guy.

A few summers ago I ran into Ryan Howard.  He was playing at USA Baseball.  Always good to see a player from back home in person.  Here he is......

the other Ryan Howard.  

The other Ryan Howard is also from the metro St. Louis area hailing from St. Charles County, which is just across the Missouri River from St. Louis County.  He played his college baseball at Mizzou and also appeared on the USA Baseball Collegiate team. 

Playing for Team USA means baseball cards.  Howard has several, but I went for an autographed version.....

There are actually several different Ryan Howard USA Baseball autographs, but this is the only one that has an on-card autograph.  Although he does have a nice looking one with a signed acetate slab.  I know it's a short cut around a sticker, but they look nice....

Maybe if I can find one that is a little bit less expensive I will go for it.  In the meantime, he became a former college player last summer when he drafted by the Giants and made his debut playing in the short season Northwest League.  He even had a card in Bowman Chrome last year.....

I am hoping that he will get a few more cards at some point this summer.  Maybe even an autograph in something?  Even if the other Ryan Howard gets shut out of baseball card sets for the first half of the summer, he is currently hitting .317 with the Giants High A team in San Jose.  That's worth a few baseball cards, right? 

Looking forward to more of this Ryan Howard, who just happens to be at the moment, the best Ryan Howard around.  

A Venerable Old Card Part 54

A little non-baseball post for your Monday morning flashing back to my high school years growing up in St. Louis.  I was a college basketball fan back in those days even though Missouri isn't necessarily the hoops hotbed that is North Carolina.  St. Louis has had some really talented players over the last twenty years, but the basketball program at Mizzou has done almost nothing to keep any of that skill in state.  Larry Hughes, David Lee, Jayson Tatum, and Bradley Bealare just a few of the examples.... The program has even struggled to keep players from other parts of the state around like Tyler Hansbrough and Otto Porter.

Not to say every year over the past two decades has been terrible, but there haven't been many bright spots.  When I was a kid it was sort of the opposite situation.  The school employed Norm Stewart as their coach, he's in the Basketball Hall of Fame, and he generally had competitive teams.  The best Mizzou team that I got to watch was the 1993-1994 team, which was one of the last years that the Big 8 existed.

A brief summary of the season:  The Tigers lost their opening game to Arkansas by 52 points.  The previous season's Most Valuable Player from the National Junior College Athletic Association's Championship game, one Paul O'Liney, watched the game and decided that he should go to Mizzou and help out their basketball team.  The senior heavy team then rolls off the rest of the regular season with only one more loss, which took place against Notre Dame, in January.  They ran the table in the Big 8 becoming the first team to do it since the 1971 Kansas Jayhawks.  Since the conference does not exist anymore, it's safe to say that they will be the last to do it.

The team was led by senior guard Melvin Booker who ended the year as the Big 8 Player of the Year and a first team All-America selection.  Previous to the 1993-1994 season he had also earned All-Big 8 honors during the 1992-1993 season.  While Booker was a great college player, he only managed a total of 32 games in the NBA with the Rockets, Nuggets, and Warriors.  

Still, the great college guard ended up with a few basketball cards.  I ended up with a copy of one just the other day.  It's even signed.....

I don't really know much of anything about this product, but it seems like there are tons of cool college basketball players in here.  I ended up with a couple of these cards, but I really liked this Booker card the best out of the lot of cards I picked up from this set.  Happy to have a card of one of my favorite college basketball players from my past.  

I hear his son is a fairly good basketball player too. 

  

Back to baseball tomorrow.  

One Third Of A No-No Part 2

A few summer ago I was fortunate enough to witness a combined no-hitter by three pitchers on the USA Baseball College National team in a game against the Cuban National team at the USA Baseball Complex in Cary, North Carolina.  The stadium is a few minutes from my house and a must stop at some point every summer.  The College National team is usually chalk full of some of the best draft prospects, so even if you don't get to see a no-hitter you still get to witness a slew of first round draft picks.

Previously I have made posts about Florida pitcher A.J. Puk and Texas A&M pitcher Ryan Hendrix who pitched the last two legs of the no-hitter, but I was still missing an autograph from the starting pitcher from that game.  

The starter for that game was Mizzou pitcher Tanner Houck......

Of the players I saw in this game, I was actually most excited to find a card of Houck.  Growing up in St. Louis, I spent a lot of time watching Mizzou football and basketball games.  There are not a ton of Mizzou baseball cards floating around, but some of the ones that are out there are kind of pricey.  Max Scherzer is the most notable player who came out of the program.  He has a few recent cards in Panini products wearing the old gold and black along with a Donruss Elite card from back in 2007 when it first became a amateur baseball product with draft picks.  

Houck cards can be a little on the expensive side too, at least for my tastes, so I had to wait a bit.  I was honestly hoping that I could also find an on-card autograph too since all of his Panini autographs from last year's USA Baseball products featured stickers.  In the end, the price dropped a bit, but I still ended up with a sticker autograph..........

This is my second card from the Elite Extra Edition Panini cards after I added a Seth Beer card a month or so ago.  These are really nice looking cards with the large jersey swatches and player pictures in their USA Baseabll uniforms.  I am trying to decide what number Houck signed next to his name.  From the picture and card above, he wore 31with USA Baseball, but he wears 11 while he is pitching at Mizzou......

Either way, 11 or 31, I am happy to finally land an autograph of the third player from the no-hitter I saw almost two years ago.  Houck will be a high pick in this summer's MLB Draft, so I am also looking forward to possibly finding a few more of his cards over the next few years.....

Virtual Dunk

I am a pretty big college basketball fan.  I have lived in North Carolina now for almost a decade.  When I first moved here I was pretty adamant  about not latching onto one of the big four ACC schools that are within 100 miles of my front door.  Three of those, Duke, North Carolina, and NC State, are all within 30 minutes.  My neutrality went out the window at some point about seven years ago when I went back for a Masters Degree and attended NC State.  Go Pack!

I've followed a few former NC State players in the NBA and will occasionally also check in on a few other players I watched in the ACC conference, or Mizzou players.  I grew up in Missouri, so I stay loyal to the Tigers, but their games are not on here very often.  I will also check out the Hornets on occasion, but I cannot say that I am a regular watcher.  My favorite NBA players to watch at the moment are Phoenix Suns forward, and former high scoring ACC Player of the Year, T.J. Warren and former Mizzou guard Jordan Clarkson.  I miss T.J.....

Anyway, I recently decided to try out something a little bit new with the NBA on the recommendation of a few other collectors around the internet.  Yes, it's more digit cards, but they are really cool.  Don't be a wet blanket about this post.  Read on....

I have been on the Panini Dunk App for a little more than a week and I have to say that it might be better than the other two card collecting apps I have on my phone.  The other two apps, just for reference, are the Star Wars Card Trader and Bunt.  I have bad luck with Bunt, still fun though and baseball cards will always be number one in my hobby interests.  Star Wars is fun, and I have some good cards, but it gets really complex at times.  The Dunk app is great because it is simplistic.  Don't blow it Panini.  Here's what I like about it.  

The cards have a decent design.  I realize that some of this product is geared towards kids and I sure that kids probably really like the looks of these cards.  I can accept the fact that I am a thirty something playing with an app for kids, no shame.  The base card design is not really a deciding factor for me on this product.  In my opinion the best feature of the card is the back.  

Star Wars card obviously do not have stats, but neither do the Bunt cards.  I have stopped even flipping the Bunt cards over to the back.  I know there is a bunch of fantasy points and the what-not that I am not interested on the other side.  The Panini Dunk cards have actual basketball stats and include the players performance in their latest game.  While there are stats on the back, they are not overly complicated.  See kid friendly, again.  Stats on the back is a plus.  

One of the other pluses for me, don't blow it Panini, is the fact that the main emphasis of the app seems to be to put together a complete set of basketball cards.  Imagine that.  Dunk includes a checklist that is broken down by team showing the percentage of cards from each team that the collector has in their collection.  You can also see your progress in chart form......

Again, this seems really kid friendly with the circles and the pie pieces around the edges to indicate whether or not the collectors have finished the team sets.  Again, the fact that the product places a square focus on collecting a set is a real positive in my book.  This concept seems to be lacking in most of the digital products I have experienced.  

Let's talk about the subsets and inserts.  The subsets are all draft related and count towards your completion of the set.  The Karl-Anthony Towns card shown in the picture below is one of the Draft cards in the set.  

The inserts are not bad to collect either.  It seems like Topps and Star Wars Card Trader have new inserts daily.  Right now, Panini Dunk has the Prestige set.  It has the feel of a parallel set, those things that Topps overkills with pink and camo, but not every card in the set has a Prestige parallel.  Does that make it a skip parallel?  Collectors can use credits to upgrade base cards to get the Prestige cards, pull them out of packs, or trade for them.  There is a trade area on the app.  Here's a look at the Prestige cards....

Overall, this is a really nice app.  It's definitely got a lot of kid appeal to it, but set that aside and consider the fact that it is the only card app that focuses on building a set.  The cards have actual stats on them.  The inserts and subsets are simplistic and not difficult to find.  Best of all, this is a free app.  If you have not checked out this item give it a try.  

Another Trip To Big D's Sports Cards

It had been awhile since I had managed to make my way into my favorite local card shop, Big D's Sports Cards, in Raleigh.  I do not have school on Monday and little responsibility for the next five weeks I am tracked out of work, so it was a no brainer that I needed to hit up the card shop.  Jimmy had a couple of things waiting for me.  Some of the cards he had found and set aside for me, while a few of the cards I picked up in a trade with a local collector. 

So, first up is a small side project in my collection.  A few Michael Sam cards from different Topps base sets.  The one card would appear to be a variation, but I might be wrong on that.  I actually know almost nothing about football cards, but I like picking up a few things from Mizzou and NC State guys here and there.  Sam was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year last year and was drafted by the Rams in this year's rookie draft.  

I also picked up a pair of Hak Ju Lee autographs which were signed in person while he was a member of the Durham Bulls.  He should be back in Durham next year, but the Rays seem to be working pretty hard on trading away everyone this offseason.  He will probably end up on the Padres.  

I love the Bowman autograph on the right hand side.  That is kind of the quintessential Hak Ju Lee defensive pose.  Spend five minutes watching the Bulls take infield practice before the game and you will see that pose half a dozen different times.  On to more serious things.  

I have been trying to work on a few new player collections.  The statement above about the Michael Sam cards being a side project should have probably been typed in blue (for sarcasm).  I am really trying to develop a player collection away from baseball cards, but let's face it: I am not a football person.  

As a resident of central North Carolina it is hard to go wrong with collecting something basketball.  I like basketball and I graduated from one of those North Carolina basketball schools.  So, I am happy to add a second autograph to my collection of T.J. Warren cards.  This time he is wearing a Suns jersey and not NC State.  Well, he's at least holding a Suns jersey.  Roll Pirates Roll.  (Google Riverside Durham)  

While I was in the shop I also decided to pick up a copy of a Trea Turner autograph that looked really sweet.  It is from Leaf Valient and is a die cut autographed serial numbered out of 25.  Turner went to NC State and was drafted by the Padres 13th overall in the draft this summer.  He was in the Will Myers trade last week, but since he has not played for a full year he's in some sort of baseball purgatory.  This was too cool of a card to pass up.....

Last two cards for this post came in a trade from a local card collector who traded me a pair of Cardinals for an autograph of Red Sox prospect Henry Owens from his days as an amateur with the USA baseball program.  I thought I was only getting an Allen Craig.  Looks like I owe you a card on the next trade. 

The Edmonds patch card is a great throw in for a card for a card trade and I love the Allen Craig card.  The PinchMe phrase is in reference to his appearances off the bench for the Cardinals during their 2011 playoff run which resulted in the team's 10th World Championship.  Craig pinch hit playing in Busch and was the DH in Texas.  He started game 7 because of an injury to Matt Holliday and ended up hitting the go ahead home run.