Happy Nap-oween

 Celebrating Mike Napoli's 43rd birthday today!

Y, It Probably Doesn't Exist

You might know that I'm a big collector of Special Offer, Redemption, Sweepstakes, Mail-In, Informational, Ad, etc. cards. But only for baseball. Years ago though I pulled this card below from a 1997 SkyBox Premium football pack and I was so blown away by the color and graphics that I decided I would try to collect all six cards.

That's a beauty.

The cards would spell out SKYBOX and if you got all six you could send them in for a prize.

Notice that I'm missing the "Y" as I've never been able to track one down.

Since this was a contest where you needed to collect all six letters, I have to assume that only one Y card exists, and chances are good that I will never find it to complete the set.

The winner would have gotten (or got) a complete 1997 SkyBox Autographics Football card set.

The back doesn't mention how many winners there could be for redeeming the six cards, so again, I have to assume there was only one "Y" available.

Anybody out there got the Y card?

Newly Acquired: 1958 Topps

 Here are some of the 1958 Topps I recently came into.

I'll have to get a nicer copy of this Pafko at some point, it's such a beautiful card.

It's a good pose, and not a head shot, and the colors are great.

Not a fan of the big head shot, but it is an Aaron card.

Most of the cards in the lot were Dodgers (19) and Braves (26) for some reason.

I'm going to assume that the prior owner traded for those two teams in particular.

That Bobby Richardson is a nice-looking card as well.

Completed Entry Form Set

 2000 Upper Deck - Upper Deck Collection Entry Forms

These cards (10 different) were inserted one per pack.

You could win a pretty cool piece of memorabilia.

Note that I have 2 cards each. That's because there is a variation for each card. 

One variation has Pee Wee Reese "1958 Brooklyn Dodgers Jersey" while the other has "1958 L A Dodgers Jersey" in the side bar, and also as the photo label on the specific Reese jersey card:

If it's the '58 jersey to win, then the Los Angeles card is the correct one since 1958 was the Dodgers first year in California.

Interesting that the hologram is situated to match the horizontal front and not the vertical back.

Anyone remember entering this contest?

Junk Mall Junk Wax Wednesday

 Let's rip some racing!

I'm not into racing cards but I found this pack for less than the listed price and figured I'd give it a go.

Pack contains 23 cards with a chance to pull a Davey Allison stamped card, Silver Series '93 stamped parallel cards, Alan Kulwicki memorial card, or a Davey Allison hologram.

A mechanic names Knuckles, how appropriate.

Richard Petty. 

That's got to be a good pull right?

Looks like his driving days ended the year before as this card has him listed as an owner now.

I remember when Jeff Gordon and the Du Pont car were all the rage back in the 90's.

Father-son pack!

These are the two Silver Series '93 parallel cards in the pack.

And one from the 15-card Davey Allison set.

Complimentary brochure/entry form/MRN Broadcast Schedule.

Any racing card fans out there?

Newly Acquired: 1957 Topps

 These are the better of the 1957 Topps that I acquired.

I've overlooked these in the past, but I have a new appreciation for the design and the photography in the set.

It Was One I Needed

 Just got back from my local HPB where I picked up this:

Because I knew that I needed this:

1988 Classic Red #179

Sweet card.

There were tons of stars in the set:

There's an error version of the Ripken card (Ripkin), this isn't it.

And these three different Phil Niekro in three different uniforms:

Pretty cool.

I don't need any of the cards other than the Ryan (I might keep the Murphy too, oh and the McGwire/Canseco since it's a NNO instruction card), so these will be available on TCDB.

Here's the checklist

Newly Acquired: 1956 Topps

 

White back variation

One of the great baseball names.