Panini Redemption

 I seem to recall hearing or reading about Panini making an effort to fulfill outstanding redemption requests. Well it had been ages since I had filled out any such request and honestly didn't think I had any outstanding. Guess I was wrong. On 14 Nov 2022 I got a small card package. I hadn't been expecting anything except maybe my Nationals lot from the latest group break I was involved in that had just done its November break, that package also arrived that day (there is a 99% chance it will be the Nov post for my Curly W cards blog). I saw the return address was from "customer service" from Panini America. I'm not sure what product I had been on the waiting list for, anyway the note in the package said the card included was a replacement of equal or higher value.

Here is the replacement redemption card: 

2020-21 Panini Noir Basketball Rookie Private signings Association Version

PSA-GRI Grant Riller Charlotte Hornets Autograph on-card blue sharpie

If interested in this card please send an email offer to my yahoo address.

Golden Flying Hall Of Fame Ram

 OK so the title of this post is a little vague but hints somewhat about the player. This is a case of a very well known player who played 99% of his career on one team and then in his final season played for another team before calling it quits. As a result there are no trading cards from his playing days showing him in the second team uniform. It doesn't help that he only started 4 games his final season.

So Who is this mystery player? It is none other than "Broadway" Joe Namath. Who finished off his NFL career playing for the Los Angeles Rams with a wimper. So "Hollywood" Joe wasn't as successful as "Broadway" Joe.

Here is one of the rare cards that shows "Hollywood" Joe in his Rams uniform. It is from the 2011 Panini Gold Standard Football set. The "Black Gold" variant that is serial numbered to only 10. I wish the picture on the front was in color instead of the black and white. I think Panini did that for all the cards in this set. The whole showing "Legends" in glorious Black and White to make them seem more vintage I guess. I probably should try to get the other variants of this card sometime.

ENJOY.

2011 Panini Gold Standard Football 127 Joe Namath Los Angeles Rams

Black Gold Variant sn# 8/10

Washington Wednesday: R.I.P. Wes "Mr. Bullet" Unseld

R.I.P. WES UNSELD 1946-2020

On Tuesday 02 June of this year 2020 while doing my daily routine of checking out the main page of TCDB (Trading Card Database) for the random card of the day, new forum posts, born on today and then finally In Memoriam I saw the image of a familiar RC. (I don't have the card but am familiar with it). That of perhaps the most iconic Washington Basketball Player of All-Time Wes Unseld. I was beyond shocked another of my childhood sports idols passed from this Earth. I think it was during the years between his playing career (1981) to his coaching career (1988) that I drifted away from being a basketball fan and would eventually stop caring about the sport until a few years ago. Plus I was more attached to football at the time, as the Washington Senators were long gone, and the Washington Capitals were not very good yet.

1969-70 Topps Basketball: 56 Wes Unseld Baltimore Bullets

Image from comc.com

OK so his rookie card was when the Bullets were still the Baltimore Bullets, but the man would play his entire career with the Bullets Franchise, work with the front office and then later return to the court as Head Coach. He then moved onto General Manager for the team on into the transition to the name change to Wizards and a few years after that.

Here are some (but not all) of my Unseld Cards as a tribute to one of my childhood Icons. For the most part I have already shown these cards on this blog sometime previously so I don't need to explain them.

The following items are a few gems in my collection:

Next is a "card" in my collection that is more of a mini poster than a real "card" it is from 1969-70 Topps and they call it a "ruler" it is only 10 inches by 2.5 inches so not a true ruler but hey it is only paper. I got it from Ebay I think some years back for I forget how much I might have mentioned where and when some posts back a few years back.

1969-70 Topps Basketball Ruler: 22 Wes Unseld Baltimore Bullets

Finally here is a photo of an item I have from my childhood, the photo is actually from an image search I did a few years back and from someone's Ebay auction for which they had I think the whole set was listed for of course way too much money. I forget if they sold or not. Anyway as I said this is something that I actually have but not my copy in the image (I haven't scanned or photographed mine). It is a mini poster that was available from McDonald's in 1976. The size is 12" x 16" One of those premium things during the basketball season that year. Each week they featured a new poster that had two caricatures of Washington Bullets players. There are a total of 4 mini posters. This is the one with Wes and K.C. Jones.

1976 McDonald's Washington Bullets mini poster: K.C. Jones and Wes Unseld

Washington Wednesday: By The Classic Numbers

Washington Wednesday: By The Classic Numbers

10 Oct 2018

When I first noticed this pair of cards on Ebay I was a little leery of their authenticity. What with the odds of one seller "pulling" these specific numbers from a pack and the sellers other auctions for cards with some of the more sought after serial numbers. D'oh OK so one of the special things about the cards I purchased were they are serial numbered. Another thing that chased the warm fuzzies away was the auction title calling them 1/1s. This seller has a bunch of listings using the 1/1 keyword. Even though the auction title also had the actual serial numbers shown it was titled as a "1/1 lot" indicating each card in the lot is a 1/1. OK semantics I guess. Even with the red flags and warnings going off I decided to grab this pair before anyone else did.

2018 Panini Classics Football: Timeless Tributes Gold: 188 Joe Theismann Redskins #d 07/99 and 99/99

The pair of cards I got are these 2018 Panini Classics Football: Timeless Tributes Gold 188 Joe Theismann Redskins #d 07/99 and 99/99 from Ebay for $14.99 Free Shipping. Like I said the seller titled the auction using their serial numbers and using the old "Ebay One of One" labeling trick. The serial number is on the front hard to see left hand side under the "Classics" logo near the top.

2018 Panini Classics Football: Timeless Tributes: Gold 188 Joe Theismann Redskins 07/99

2018 Panini Classics Football: Timeless Tributes: Gold 188 Joe Theismann Redskins 99/99

The dealer also sent these 5 Chiefs cards as a bonus. ?Redskins and Chiefs? Guess it is an Alex Smith connection, or the Indians Connection, or the seller just got confused and thought they were all the same team.

That one is vintage so it is a keeper by default.

1974 Topps Football: 34 Elmo Wright Chiefs

Then we have a card from the "Wave of the Future" insert set of 6 cards to the 1994 Fleer Flair Football set. I was going to toss this into the tradebait pile but in checking the player's team history saw he played for the St. Louis Rams in 1998 so it is a keeper.

1994 Fleer Flair Football: Wave of the Future: 3 of 6 Greg Hill Chiefs

Next up one of those annoying "two sided" cards that is a card with two players sharing the card one player on each side. Confusing the collector as to which face is the "front". Not really since this is a serial numbered insert and at the time the serial numbers were put on the back of the card, but that practice varies from company to company and from set to set it seems. I don't normally like this kind of card so again it is one of these was going to toss in the tradebait pile card but one of the players was a Redskin in 2001. The "front" player Donnell Bennett.

2000 Donruss Quantum Leaf Football: Double Team: DT-13

Donnell Bennet and Elvins Grbac Chiefs #d 0475/1500

The final two cards are tradebait and technically are the "same" card. You can't tell from the scans since they are separate scans but one is the mini variant of the other.

2014 Topps Chrome Football: Fantasy Focus: FF-JC Jamaal Charles Chiefs

2014 Topps Chrome Football: Fantasy Focus: Mini FF-J Jamaal Charles Chiefs

Out of five cards I originally didn't want to keep I am keeping 3 of them for now. The vintage one (wasn't ever really tradebait since it's "vintage") will be added to my 1974 set build (if I don't already have it). The other two "keepers" are just keepers for right now. 

UPDATE: 10 Mar 2021 - The 2 Jamall Charles cards have been traded away. One a few months ago and the other one just recently.

Washington Wednesday: A Couple of Unseld Autos

 Washington Wednesday: A Couple of Unseld Autos

It seems like there is always a long time between my Washington Wednesday posts. I should fix that. Hmm when was that Last one? You can click that link to find out. Moving On!

In this episode I will actually mention and show the cards that I briefly blogged about on my Kirk's Knook blog to make my self appointed minimum monthly posting quota way back in April of last year 2017. What I mentioned cards over there? And in APRIL? LAST YEAR? Egads Man PROCRASTINATE MUCH?

On Friday 21 April 2017 as part of my mail day one of the two packages contained an Ebay BIN single card $4.90 + $3.25 Shipping. Bidding had started at only $1.99 but got dangerously close to my max bid of $5.00. Was it a shill? I don't think so, but sometimes when I win auctions very close to or at my max bid I do wonder.

So here it that beaut:

 2015-16 Panini Excalibur Basketball: Regal Endorsements Autograph:

RE-WUN Wes Unseld Bullets on sticker blue sharpie #d 135/200

Then that following Wednesday 26 April 2017 on a single package mail day coming from Ebay. A BIN auction for a single card $1.99 + $4.99 shipping. Short story with this one that I first posted on my regular blog (Kirk's Knook Blog as linked at the beginning of this post). It was mainly a rant about ordering from Ebay without checking out the seller and where they were located. Which was why I posted it on that blog. I knee-jerk bought the card without seeing where it was coming from. It was from a dealer in China. Sometimes that means you will get some kind of counterfeit product. Original tracking information said it would arrive sometime between early May to early June. Fortunately it arrived well before the estimated date.

It was this beaut: Looks like a Dave Bing Cameo. I played some with the post-scanning photo editing to help bring out some of the features. I am far from a pro at it.

2015-16 Panini Threads Basketball: Century Signatures:

CS-WUN Wes Unseld Bullets on sticker autograph blue sharpie #d 137/199

The seller included 3 bonus cards: Fortunately all basketball. I like surprise bonus cards when it makes sense like these from the same sport, but I don’t like it when you order non-sports and they send sports or vice verse, or they send different sports than what you ordered. I like all (well most) sports but some people are just one sport collectors, or Non-Sport only.

2016-17 Panini Donruss Basketball: At first I thought these were special “gold” versions turns out the regular base has the gold/bronze coloring.

142 Marcin Gortat Wizards - Hey they sent the “same” team.

Yes Gortat was the subject of  the previous WW episode.

197 Tyrone Wallace Jazz

2016-17 Panini Select Basketball: Yes I did have to play with the post-scanning settings for this "chrome" card. I didn't realize until after the initial scan that the right side edge and some of the left side had some kind of smudged schmutz on it as shiny chrome cards tend to have if not wiped as soon as gotten and put into a penny sleeve. I wiped the card of the smudge but haven't sleeved it yet.

9 Zaza Pachulia Warriors

The Wallace and the Pachulia cards are of course up for trade.

CK42 Trade Post: Walking Dead And Hoops

 CK42 TRADE POST:
THE WALKING DEAD AND HOOPS
30 Nov 2017
Updated 06 Oct 2023

Trade Info | Master Want List| Trade List| What I Collect

New Offerings:

Yeah that says what it means.

For this quick and dirty trading post I am tossing into the trade ring a smallish lot of The Walking Dead Non-Sport cards. I don't watch the show so they hold no interest for me. I had gotten them from of all things a football team trade. The other trader included them as the bookend cards at the ends of the team bags, or outside the team bags. At any rate they were the outside cards from the little bundles of cards in the package. They are produced by Topps in 2017.

2017 Topps The Walking Dead Season 6: CLAIMED

10 JSS

20 The Cheesmaker

24 A New Leader

25 Ambush

26 Separated

27 Good Guy Daryl

28 Howdy, Gentlemen

31 Chasing Enid

33 Crazy Idea

34 Being Stalked

38 Born This Way

Also I have a smattering of 2015-16 Panini Complete Basketball. 4 cards and a wrapper.

2015-16 Panini Complete Basketball: TRADED or RAC'd*

42 Shabazz Napier Magic

47 Jonas Valanciunas Raptors

175 Marcus Morris Pistons

285 Terran Petteway Hawks

Previous Offerings: 

Previous posts/offers are listed here.

CK42 Trading Posts:
A Lot of Oilers: A 50-some card lot of Houston Oilers cards.
Previously Trading Thursday: A couple of pack lots. One 6 packs one 9 packs.

Trading Thursday Posts:
A Set And Singles: 1993-94 Classic Draft Basketball

The Return?: 2015-16 Donruss Basketball from pack pulls

This One Is On Eleven: Basketball, Football and Non-Sport tall boy sized
A Fifth Of February: Mixed bag of Baseball, Basketball and Football
Experiment Number One: 3 cards total 2 hockey relics, 1 baseball auto

CFL Trading: 2015 CFL Football cards from a single box break

The cards listed in this series of posts are for trade or sale. If I don't mention a price feel free to give a reasonable offer. In some cases I might just feel like giving the cards away to a good home that will appreciate them. Not that I don't appreciate them, but the cards I list no longer fit into the scope of my collection. I don't "trash" cards anymore. It makes me cringe when I hear people talking about throwing trading cards into the garbage. If I can't find a home for cards I no longer want cluttering up my card hoard, I will have to toss them into the recycle bin.

*RAC = Random Act of Cardness

Trade Info | Master Want List| Trade List| What I Collect

Blogged But Not Blogged: Rookie Ram Circa 2010

This is the type of post that I have probably done many times before, I call this type of post "Blogged, But Not Blogged". Long story short since Aug 2007 I have been blogging about my card mail days over at TCC on my blog over there and since July 2012 duplicating those posts in a mail day thread at the TCZ forums. There are many cards I have mentioned in detail at those sites that I have never blogged about here on what I consider to be my official trading card blog. A few times, mostly in the early days, I mentioned a card in my mail day and even scanned it (at least the front) but never blogged about it over here.

This is the story of one such card:

This card I have shown a few times online. I am surprised I never showed it here.

27 Apr 2013:
One of the first mentions of the card I'm gonna show I posted about on TCC in a post called "Football Break plus a couple of Harper Sketches".*  I also made a small rant about it. "Sort of tired of the card companies making all these minute variations of cards that you have to search 20 different levels of variations just to realize your card is considered the "base" version (even if they do seal it in a hinged case)." Strange I didn't show it on that post, but showed the Bryce Harper sketch cards.

28 Apr 2013:
From TCC Forum post #81 in CaptKirk42's Collection thread. 

Got some cards from a group break over at TCZ (a sort of younger cousin of TCC cause there are loads of TCC folk there). I'll only show two of the cards from the break I got about 14 more I had Rams/Ravens plus draft teams of Bears/Vikings. Products were:
2012 Panini Absolute
2011 Donruss Elite
2010 Panini Plates & Patches

I got at least 2 cards from each product, most of it was Elite base.

Here are my two fave cards. I'll let the cards do the talking both are from the 2010 Panini Plates & Patches. 

89 Danny Amendola Rams Base #d 016/499

And the Sweet one:

Mardy Gilyard Rams Auto (blue sharpie on cut card)

3 color GU (Gold, White w/stitching, Blue) #d 470/699

Notes:
* The Bryce Harper sketches I mentioned in the original TCC post I blogged about here at Curly W Cards.

Washington Wednesday: The Magical Wizard of Lodz

The Magical Wizard of Lodz

This episode of Washington Wednesday I am featuring a card I hinted at in my Trading Thursday post that had the 2015-16 Panini Donruss Basketball cards I pulled from two packs I had gotten from my local Dollar Tree store. If I recall correctly the first pack wasn't too thrilling for me. The second pack though started off with a Bang er Zap?

I pulled a Homie Wizard card. The Starting Center for the Wiz Marcin Gortat. Gortat was born or rather grew up in Lodz (Łódź), Poland. He began his professional career in Europe and was drafted by the Phoenix Suns round 2 in 2005, but continued to play in Germany til 2007. His rights had been traded to the Orlando Magic in 2007 and he made his NBA debut with the Magic in 2008. He was traded to the Suns in 2010 and from there traded to DC in 2013.

2015-16 Panini Donruss Basketball: 69 Marcin Gortat Wizards

Here are three other Gortat cards I have for my PC. I pulled them last year (2015)  in my blog group box break. Probably the last time I'll do one of those too much work and responsibility. It wasn't until I pulled these cards out to scan them that I noticed that I had a nice run of recent years without skipping a season.

 2012-13 Panini Prestige Basketball - 59 Marcin Gortat Suns

 2013-14 Panini NBA Hoops Basketball - 76 Marcin Gortat Suns

 2014-15 Panini NBA Hoops Basketball - 152 Marin Gortat Wizards

Back in October on my Mascot Monday post I mentioned I needed to find the Washington Redskins card from the 1992 Pro Set Football Spirit of the Game sub-set I featured in the post. I have since acquired that card. It was going to be the next Washington Wednesday post, that is this post, before I had pulled the Gortat card at the beginning of this post. I haven't scanned it yet, but anyway I guess there is no real surprise what the next WW post will be about.