Free Stuff Friday #18 . . . A Clip Show?!?!

In the ways that really matter - things are good right now. I have access to food, my parents are safe and cared for, I am safe in my neighborhood... In a trading cards sense, however, things are . . . not great. The nearest post office to me burned down, and the USPS for safety reasons (both for letter carriers and the public) have temporarily and indefinitely removed all the blue mailboxes. I can still get letters out by handing them to whoever is delivering the mail, but I feel like those folks have already given so much. I am more or less saying that I won't be sending outgoing mail for a little while here. Tomorrow I am going to see if there is a box available just over the bridge in Saint Paul. 

Long story short - I decided to still do free stuff friday, but most of these cards are "re-runs" unclaimed from past Fridays. Perez is from the Royals Team set, Gallo is a refractor numbered to 250. 

I added three inserts here - Jordan Hicks is the only holdover from the inserts. People like their inserts!

I have a good idea now about which years of hockey are just not popular- I added a couple new ones here.

The football is all "New" - I didn't realize that folks have claimed all the football so far, unless I am missing a stack somewhere... 

Mixed in a few "new" basketball cards here, though several of these were held over.

I normally finish with a mini collection - instead I decided I would just go for "potpourri" - Maybe you missed these that week, maybe you've changed your mind... 

Feel free to go back to earlier posts and make claims, I've kept the stack of unclaimed freebies separate so it can be drawn from at any time! 

Claim one or claim them all! I will make a stack for you or add to an existing one. Either way, you'll get these eventually! 

Free Stuff Friday #16 Sweet.

Another Friday! This is now month #4 - 16 weeks of free stuff! We start with what little 2005 Topps I have- I even had to sneak in an Opening Day card to make it 9.

Parallels! Karkovice is Gold, Peralta is rainbow foil.

Inserts!

Basketball! see if you can spot MJ. Did you watch "The Last Dance"?

Hockey from different Eras

It's amateur hour for football this week. You never know what might fit someone's collection.

Some Hall of Fame guys. Note that the 79 Carlton was in someone's bike spoke. I upgraded my copy, so you can claim this one for free!

Claim one card or claim them all! If we've never traded, or haven't traded in over a year, please send me your address. I have stacks for GTT, Blog Reader Bruce, and John Sharp that are just waiting for an address.

Contact form is on the blog sidebar (you might need to view the desktop version to see it).

Free Stuff Friday # 15 - A Little Bit of Everything

It's Friday already! That means free stuff. Every 5 weeks, I try to add something extra- we'll see how it goes. We start with 2006 Topps. Mathieson at the bottom right is from the Updates/highlights series.

Parallels!

Inserts! Technically Barry is not part of an insert set, but the Sports Illustrated Covers always looked like inserts to me.

SICK HITS

Well, here's some football - I don't have much of it to pass around, but maybe there is something that strikes your fancy.

Basketball! These are '79-'80 Topps.

Hockey time - Some newer stuff, some junk wax stuff, some older stuff.

Important Note on these to temper your expectations, I bought this box set, but every single card is dinged up in the top right corner. But hey, free is free.

Claim one card or claim them all! Please send me your address if it is your first time claiming or if we haven't traded before or in a long time.

COMC Haul - Tip Off Event!

With the NBA Finals starting tonight, I thought I would share the small stack of basketball cards I added from my most recent COMC splurge. I took full advantage of the recent spring sale (I even sold 5 cards!), and added a ton of cards to my 1959 Topps set build. But I also went off on a few tangents, including a trip down memory lane to a couple of my favorite basketball players.

Allen Iverson is relentless. Tenacious! Gritty! The man's got heart. I understand some people don't like Iverson for whatever reason, but I have to disagree with them. I wouldn't call myself a Sixers fan, but I definitely was a big fan of AI.

One reason I couldn't call myself a Sixers fan was this man right here. In many ways, Iverson and Garnett were two sides of the same coin - intense competitors whose play on the court rose the quality of play of everyone around them. Garnett was like a 6'11" Allen Iverson! Even though he had to go to Boston to get it, I was so happy for KG when he won the NBA championship and shouted "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!" Just a great moment.

I'm making it official- I want to build a 1957 Topps Minneapolis Lakers Team Set (I already have the toughest card, HOF rookie Vern Mikklesen), so this card is an appetizer.

For the 50th anniversary of the set, Topps re-created it, right down to the fun card back showing the sample ballplayer in front of a giant ruler.

I don't watch nearly as much NBA basketball as I used to, but with the Wolves playing well again (making the playoffs last year, narrowly missing this year in a tough West), I made a point to catch a few games. I was blown away by reserve guard Josh Okogie - he's probably 8th or 9th on the depth chart, but he had several games last year in which he would take over for several minutes at a time. He would get a steal and go coast to coast, lock down the opponent's top scorer, get a key blocked shot, or knock down a clutch three point shot. He's a fan favorite for sure.

Since he's not Karl Anthony Towns (or even Andrew Wiggins for that matter), this jersey / autograph combo was under $5 bucks. Game 1 of the NBA Finals is starting soon - are you rooting for Toronto or Golden State?

Shopping for cards at a Vintage / Consignment shop

Just a few blocks from my house is a long string of antique and vintage stores, probably 6 or 7 in a row over 4 blocks. I'd been in them all over the last few years, rarely if ever found anything sports related. One of those shops just relocated even closer to my house, so on Saturday afternoon, I wandered over to investigate, and maybe find a little something extra for my mom for Mother's Day.

To my surprise, there was a wall of trading cards, including a box filled with vintage hockey. No Gretzky, but I did find the Oilers' goalie from that season, Dave Dryden. He was one of the league leaders in . . . autographs? Closing off the net is a good skill for a goalie to have, and his Goals Against Average was not too bad. Dave's brother Ken was Montreal's great goalie, winning his 5th Vezina (best goalie) and 6th Stanley Cup in his 8th and final NHL season in 1978-79. Dave was the WHA standout that year, leading the WHA in games, GAA, and shutouts. He was an All-Star, and winner of both the Top Goalie (Ben Hatskin award) and the league MVP award. The Oilers won their conference championship, but were runners up in the WHA finals to the Winnipeg Jets.

The vast majority of the cards were from the 73-74 Topps Set, including the 4 beauties.

You can still watch hockey on NBC, some things never change... Ed Giacomin is a Hall of Famer, mostly for the first 5 seasons of his career, when he was the Rangers' netminder and perennial All-Star and Vezina Trophy contender. I like the juxtaposition of him being the last goalie to not wear a mask, and wanting to be the first goalie to score a goal during an NHL game. That honor ended up going to Billy Smith of the Islanders, sadly because he was credited with an own goal. Ron Hextall of the Flyers (Bryan Hextall is Ron's dad!) scored the first Goalie goal against the other team.

Garry Unger was interesting to me for being hockey's Iron Man, playing in over 400 straight games at the time the card was made. He'd retire as the All-Time leader, playing in 914 straight games. He'd be passed by Doug Jarvis, who started his career with 964 straight games played.

Added one more for the sweet panoramic shot. Terry Harper was a long time Montreal Canadien, and was on 5 Stanley Cup champions.

The vintage store also inexplicably had a box of 1991-92 Fleer basketball packs. Checking the background for possible murderers or kids who grow up to be professional athletes... no luck so far, though the gentleman in the first row on the left appears to be winning the game of impressive mustaches.

I actually kind of like the backs of these cards, with the hardwood background, the Fleer Ultra style action shot / portrait, and the per 48 minutes stats are a nice Fleer touch, reminds me of the stat splits on the back of their baseball designs in the 80s.

I won't show the whole pack, but here are the biggest names I pulled. If you look closely, I'm pretty sure Joe Dumars is being guarded by Michael Jordan. All in all, it was a fun trip to the vintage store, I ended up finding a couple fun things for Mom too, but this is a card blog, dang it!

More Vintage Hoops from COMC

At the last monthly card show, I grabbed a few random basketball cards from a vintage table - they were actually dessert. I was on COMC earlier last month and decided that I hadn't paid any attention to the other sports besides baseball. I went over to the Basketball section and made some budget purchases.

Check out Dr. J with cameos by McHale and Bird!

Check out Rick Barry with the Granny Style Free Throw!

James Jones is bemused.

I went for some fun names - I think Corky Calhoun was a Christopher Guest character's name. Doesn't get any manlier than Butch Beard.

Big hair and big personalities. The ABA was almost entirely made up of teams I'd forgotten about or never heard of! The Harlem Globetrotters have had numerous sets over the years, this set was just the players messing around in a photography studio.

I should share at least one back - this was one of my favorites. Ollie Taylor of the San Diego Conquistadors. He jumped cars! He was a 6'1" center? / guard.

Before you say anything, just keep in mind that this man is seven feet tall.

Just One Pack of.... Basketball?!?! Topps Archives

Remember this box? No worries, I forgot about it too...

I purchased this box in Chattanooga during my road trip to save it for a rainy day.

 A box topper? Not quite, it's a standard card sized advertisement for buying Master Photos.

 Here's what the pack looks like.

 Each pack has one card from this insert of #1 Draft Picks - A pretty unobtrusive design.

 Base cards take the design from each player's rookie year. Kind of a reverse version of Stadium Club. The backs show a "current" photo of the player on his 1993 team.

Pretty good photography! This was my favorite basketball set as a kid, I probably would have loved Topps basketball in the late 80s / early 90s, the designs would probably have been a little different from the baseball versions, though. I'm going to see if I can build the set with this box, but I've already found lots of doubles. If you are interested in any cards from the set, let me know! We can probably trade.