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.

My Latest Non-Sensical Collecting Focus

I'm 60 and I love fruit snacks. There, I said it. I especially love them when there's a card in the pack. 

 

My wife was in Florida visiting a daughter and went to the store to buy her some snacks. She found these good-for-you fruit rolls and bought a box. She might not have realized that there were cards included since she tends to focus more on ingredients. When I came to visit later, my other daughter who was also there visiting showed me the cards that she had already pulled. "Sweet! I want them all" was my immediate reaction.

Twelve packs, or better yet, twelve cards per box.

The packs come with two fruit rolls and one animal card.

(I had to promise my wife that I wouldn't eat them all at once, that I'd only open one pack a day!)

I can't remember the last time a food issue was easy to collect in my area. My only other non-sport collections are Animated Batman and some other comic cards, but the artwork on these really caught my eye. And hey, it's a food issue. How can you NOT be sucked in to going after the set?

Each back has a different fun game.

Currently I have 23 of the 60 cards, these are my top 9 favorites so far, although the Eagle above will probably replace one of these.

I've already pulled a few dupes, so after you rush to the local Wallymart and buy up all the stock, let me know about your dupes and maybe we can trade!

Newly Acquired: 1955 Topps

 

Don Mossi RC, if anyone was wondering.

Newly Acquired: 1954 Topps

 

Jim Lemon RC.

Interesting that Rosen and Lemon are wearing different uniforms. 

Home and away I'm assuming.

Severely trimmed and worn.

I used to have a decent copy of this card, which is really beautiful when in better shape.