Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Today I decided to just go with some recent pulls and purchases. Admittedly I got sucked in to the Bryce Harper hype and grabbed up some packs of Bowman hoping to pull a Harper card or two (Plus a very cool Ichiro Bowman Best).



I posted up the Alex Rodriguez card before; I am still considering whether I should put it up for auction to see what I can get for it. I have disliked him since he left the Mariners with his “I am not leaving for the money but for the opportunity to win”. How did that work out? The Mariners won 116 games in 2001 and won 93 games in 2002 & 2003 while the Rangers went to 3 straight losing seasons averaging 90 losses a season, good plan… But I guess it worked out in the end when the Rangers sent him packing with his $25 million/per year to one of the only teams that could afford him and he eventually won a title in New York.


I am just not feeling the whole football thing right now, this time of year ESPN should be ripe with mini camps and primadona player holdouts but no, instead we are reading stories about how teams and player reps are meeting in secret with no updates. To pass the time I have picked up 2 packs of 2011 Prestige Football and was fortunate enough to pull a decent Mike Williams event-worn relic. I do not like that companies are using event-worn jerseys, but that is a conversation for another day.


In my pursuit to complete the Topps UFC Title Shot set I have picked up a number of rack packs, still 13 cards from completion, and pulled this sweet Brian Stann auto relic card. Stann, a retired USMC Captain (a true American hero who won the Silver Star after his platoon survived a 6-day insurgent attack with no casualties), began fighting in the WEC in 2006 winning the Light Heavyweight belt in 2008. He has a very solid 11-3 record and is ranked #6 in the UFC Middleweight category. I also pulled a Forrest Griffin Belt card, I am a bit disappointed with these compared to the preview images, and a Rich Franklin Mat UFC 56 relic card.



Adding to my MMA collection:

I picked up a Randy Couture Ring King relic. I am not really a fan of the foil board used on these cards but I like the Ring Kings insert otherwise.



I had to pick up this Tank Abbott autograph card from the 2010 Topps Knockout set. He was never an MMA star but I like him because he is a throwback to the early days of UFC when fights were done in a tournament style with most fighters having more than one match per night and to add to the pain there was only 1 round which lasted until one fighter beat the other, this was a time when UFC was actually banned in most states. Tank had a more successful career during his first tenure in MMA going 8-7 before heading to wrestling; he is 10-14 overall including a loss to Kimbo Slice.



I like Leaf’s MMA set and I am looking forward to their MMA Metal release, which has been delayed. One of the things I like about Leaf’s release is that they include fighters from all over the globe including female fighters, something that Topps has not picked up on yet. Carina Damm may not be as well known as Cris Cyborg, Sarah Kaufman or Miesha Tate she has a decent 16-6 record and can prove to be a contender some day.


Speaking of Sarah Kaufman I came across this MMA Champions auto for under $2 and decided to grab it up. I like the MMA Champions set, the leaf laurel around the fighters along with a stone like design is pretty cool.


And why not end it with a Harper sketch card.

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