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: 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.

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.

Washington Wednesday: A Bullet in Triplicate

A Bullet in Triplicate

It has been quite a while since I've done one of these (somehow that sentence seems to be used a lot around this blog and for semi-regular segments like this one). OK so I had to check the old TCC blog archives for the details on this catch. In one of my insane Sportlots auction splurges I came across this 1990 Fleer Basketball Update U-97 Pervis Ellison Bullets card.

As you can see from the image under the WW Masthead I got not just one copy, not just two but THREE copies of Mr. Ellison's 1990 Fleer Basketball Update card. I wish I could say that each was a slight variation but no they are all standard base cards. I debated a little bit as to whether or not I should pull the trigger and get this trio and finally decided what the hay, even though I am not concentrating on Basketball cards much. ON that note I did just recently get a huge package of some mostly 1990s Bullets/Wizards cards from the blogiverse. That could be the next installment of WW, I'm not sure yet these things usually end up being random.

So the sordid details of this purchase I received it on Tuesday 19 Feb 2013 from Sportlots.com as I mentioned earlier. It was one auction for the three cards so there wasn't much of a choice, unless I had searched for the card individually and for Basketball I do that very rarely. I got them for the opening 1-2-3 bid of .25¢ + $2.50 shipping. I don't recall what type of package they came in as it was over two months ago and I have since received many many card packages and some card PWEs.

Anyway here is the card in all it's single glory:

1990 Fleer Basketball Update U-97 Pervis Ellison Bullets

(Front and Back) 

Washington Wednesday Won

Starting with this post I've decided to have a specific name for when I post about my Homie Washington teams only, and try to limit it to Wednesdays. I was going to limit it just to when I did Redskins stuff I thought of calling it "Wednesday Wedskins" or "Wedskins Wednesday" but thought that was too much of a punt. Then I thought "What if I mention Capitals cards or one of the other Washington teams?" I already have a Nationals specific blog Curly W Cards so I will rarely mention them here. Then the title "Washington Wednesday" hit me. I like it, I'll use it until I tire of it. Not sure if I'll make it as weekly as my Mascot Mondays but we will see. So for the first installment I will show this six pack of 62 Skins. They were a few years before my time so I don't know much about them. I suppose I could look them up but for this blog I just like to show the cards not talk about all the stats.

 1962 Topps Football 165 Dick James Redskins

(Front and Back)

 1962 Topps Football 167 Sam Horner Redskins

(Front and Back)

 1962 Topps Football 168 Bill Barnes Redskins

(Front and Back)

 1962 Topps Football 169 Bill Anderson Redskins

(Front and Back)

 1962 Topps Football 170 Fred Dugan Redskins

(Front and Back)

 1962 Topps Football 172 Bob Toneff Redskins

(Front and Back)

Redskins Mentioned in this Post:
Bill Anderson
Bill Barnes
Fred Dugan
Sam Horner
Dick James
Bob Toneff

Going to the Polls

I set up a couple of polls here concerning group box breaks. I'm seriously toying with the idea of hosting a Baseball one right here on my blog. I was thinking of hosting a Baseball group break on one of my regular card forums. I'm not sure if I want to do it there since there are some simple guidelines you need to follow and I don't want to mess them up. Plus with forum breaks you usually need to poll the members about what boxes to break before collecting payment, when to do the break, how to do it etc. You also usually need to have just about every single type of card supplies available and I don't have some of the larger toploaders for the thick GUs. I usually have some of the slightly larger than normal toploaders for regular GU but lately it seems GUs and Artifact cards have gotten really thick.

I have seen other bloggers host box breaks so I began toying with the idea here. The advantage to doing a break via your blog is the "Your Blog Your Rules!" rule. For my breaks I would be fair, but I would feel more comfortable having the product in hand before filling the break. The drawback to doing it this way is initially I would eat up the cost of the boxes, which is often why many breaks collect money around the time the boxes are being decided and they fit the boxes to the budget. I guess I want to fix the budget to the boxes.  Many forums as I said above you need to consult the members for every little detail to be the fairest. In my breaks I will try to include a variety of product and I would even include some products I don't personally like but are popular.

For many of these breaks I would buy a team myself, even if I did a Basketball break I would maybe take the Wizards/Bullets (the only basketball I really do). I figure if I do some breaks here and get used to hosting I would feel more comfortable doing a break for one of my forums.

The first break I am thinking of doing is Baseball. Now for baseball my teams are Nationals and Orioles, but for many of these breaks I will take just the Nationals, sometimes just the Orioles. For football I will take the Redskins most of the time, sometimes just the Rams with the  occasional change up of the Ravens. For Hockey my only team I'd take is the Capitals so they will rarely be available. Basketball I'm only Bullets/Wizards so if I did any of those breaks I'd take them sometimes or no team at all.

For most of the breaks I would do the one slot gets you 2 teams one you choose and one random. I would host the breaks on Ustream.com and save them there since I have an account there and am used to the way it works. I would post the big hits here in my blog and try to put up scans before sending them out. I will at least mention what hits were pulled.

Important Shipping Note: Due to shipping costs and mailing customs and speed of delivery etc etc I will only allow members who live in the US and Canada to participate at this time. After I get used to doing these things maybe I will open things up to the rest of the world. If I do decide to go "International" Foreign payements would be limited to Paypal International USD funds ONLY.

Also due to my current work schedule the only day I get a chance to get to the post office in time is Saturdays. So Saturdays would be shipping day which means the breaks will be held on Thursday or Friday Nights.

I will make a static page of my group break rules soon. It is in develpment.

That was easy, Don'tcha Know!

(Sarah Palin picture snagged from The Ryno's Horn)

1977-78 Bullets and a Rocket Boost

From the Ebay Bullets package I got on 11 Feb 2012. Here is a group of three cards from:

1977-78 TOPPS BASKETBALL

 

 1977-78 Topps Basketball - 40 Elvin Hayes - Bullets

OK so this card looks a little weird because Mr. Hayes appears to be slam dunking but his team-mate Mitch Kupchak appears to be walking on air? 

Bullets #25 Mitch Kupchak

Photo from Bullets/Wizards Alumni webpage

They must have lowered the basket or used a small kiddies basket that is only about 6 feet off the ground (Edit That can't be right either the players are 6 feet plus) instead of the standard 10 foot regulation height baskets in the arenas. I didn't notice that until I started commenting on this card in this post.

1977-78 Topps Basketball - 75 Wes Unseld - Bullets

The way Wes is leaning here it looks like he might end up on the floorboards. Anyway if I recall some of my childhood basketball memories correctly, despite starting to hate basketball sometime during the early 1980s, Mr Unseld was my favorite or one of my favorite Bullets players. I'm not sure where I have it but somewhere I have a mini poster circa 1976 from McDonalds of Wes and Coach 'K.C.' Jones from a series of mini posters they sold. The posters were one of the premiums that if you bought a certain sandwich (probably a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder) or "meal" you got the poster free, or you could buy the poster for $1.00 I think was the price. Each poster had 2 players pictured on them, there were 4 posters in the set. The "pictures" were caricatures of the players. I noticed someone on Ebay is selling the full set for $275.00 with $6 shipping.

1977-78 Topps Basketball - 124 Moses Malone - Rockets

OK so Mr. Malone is not a Bullet on this card, so why did I get a Non-Bullet card? It won't be until 1986 that he gets traded to DC. My collecting criteria for Basketball cards includes players that at one time in their careers played for the Bullets (Wizards not so much). If that wasn't the reason then the short easy excuse could be there are some Bullets pictured with him by sheer coincidence it happens to be the Two Bullets I have featured here and have their cards of Mr. Unseld and Mr. Hayes. How frackin' cool is that? It was totally unintended and again it wasn't until I was preparing this post that I even noticed the fact.