My 5th Marshawn Lynch card, this one out of 2013 finest

The base cards out of 2013 finest are going to take the bulk of my posts over the next few months. Just adding one per day probably cuts back on the very expensive habit of busting boxes. That being said, box busts are really the most fun you can have in the hobby, it brings the element of surprise and the chase back into the game. I wouldn't have gotten my 1/1 pull this year (although it was not a very expensive card, still cool to find) and wouldn't have gotten my pack pulled autographs of Montee Ball and Knowshon Moreno either. Always much more fun to get personal PC items right from packs. I was really happy about my Portis SP Authentic finally coming back home to roost for probably nothing as well as that sweet hall of famer jersey card from one of the original charter members of 1963 even if it was a little damaged.

Using the Beckett Search function I was able to see that I had 5 Lynch cards in my collection including a rookie, a few base cards and a triple autograph from 2008 Spx.

2013 Topps Finest #32 Marshawn Lynch

Slinging Sammy Baugh and a very important Portis card

Here are this week's  notable pickups. First we got a Sammy Baugh "Majestic" Jersey card. Now, normally I wouldn't go all bonkers over a jersey card but this one has a jersey that could be at the youngest 61 years old because Baugh's last season was in 1952. That's pretty damn cool if you ask me. Initially I had bought this as resell card because I got it for very cheap a year or two ago. The card has some creasing on it and due to some recent bad experiences on Ebay where the buyer didn't read my description I've decided it's better not to sell damaged cards. Unfortunately people are idiots and even when you state in the description and take several closeups of the damage, it's still not enough.

So I'm keeping that one and it's still a great card. People get so caught up in condition but this isn't really something I'm a stickler on. I'd like to have the card look great but if there's a few flaws, so be it! If you look at really old cards, they have all kinds of round corners, bends and things like that.

The next card is a recapture of the SP Authentic card I had sold off a few years ago as I needed some extra cash and never repurchased. The original time I bought it (back in 2002) I remember paying 80 dollars for it. Now I got this one in a lot along with a Portis Contenders autograph AND a Finest Autograph for 30.00. Can't beat that anywhere. Now I have an extra contenders and a finest auto that I can sell off and probably end up getting this one for free. You gotta love wheeling and dealing on Ebay because great deals can be had that you'll never find at your local card shop. If I had to guess, these cards would have set me back over 100 dollars or more if I bought these from a dealer. Anyway, I'm stoked.

The final card I added was a Colin Kaepernick Topps Finest Refractor from this year. First card in my personal collection from the Kap although I had an autographed Inception card that I made a nice profit on last year when he went insane in the playoffs!

Time to get back to the "challenge" of the Football Challenge

While I like opening packs the idea of the football challenge was much more fun. Looking at eBay and finding the first card for sale, then trying to get that card at the best price is more fun to me than breaking a box and finding cards that aren't even worth 25% of the box price. So the next card I'll be hunting for is this one! 2002 Pacific Heads Up Josh Reed. Josh Reed was a rookie WR for the Bills that didn't have much impact. I doubt even the best of his 1/1's would top 100 dollars. The highest one went for an undisclosed price (a best offer that started at 29.99) of a press-pass jersey card numbered 1/25 two color. Not many of his cards have even eclipsed 10.00. So I'll be on the hunt for this and let you guys know when I win it!

Believe it or not, my first Cam Newton card

I input this card into my collection today and honestly wondered how in the world someone who collects all kinds of football cards could not have this player in their collection. I've been collecting a long time and have focused much of my attention to the older Spx football cards, I've got a whole set of 1999, 2000 and 2008 Spx cards. Since I used to be mainly a set builder (and still am at heart) I guess see how this might happen. Still a bit surprised though. Anyway, here's 2013 Topps Finest # 25 Cam Newton:

Today's card is a 2013 Finest Joseph Randle RC Autograph

Here's a nice patch card that I pulled from one of my boxes this year. It features a mostly blue patch from his jersey. Based on his output (just over 100 yards and 1 TD) you couldn't call him a star yet. DeMarco Murray's health issues make him a good insurance policy and he did have a monster career in college. Here's hoping he's the next Marion Barber and not the next Felix Jones. These patch cards are the nicest insert from the product, my favorites are the blue version numbered to 99 though as you get some really nice color contrasts with that color of parallel.

Troy.... I can't even spell this dude's last name

Here's today's "pickup". Actually I have a ton of cards that I'm just saving up from various box breaks I did this year, and I did a ton more this year than I ever have. I'm sort of going in order here on the 2013 finest. Out of two boxes I did not even pick up a base set which puts these boxes as somewhere between a "hits" based" and a "set" based product. The fact that the base set is 150 cards deep is somewhat surprising although 50 of these are base rookies (no auto, no jersey). Now, if the base card set was 490 cards deep that would be pretty crazy as this was the norm in the early nineties when I started collecting football cards in earnest.

Card of the Day! 2013 Finest Football Percy Harvin # 18

Here's my newest addition to the collection. The 2013 Finest set has similar problems that Topps Chrome of yesteryear had with "bowing". The card does not stay flat, probably has something to do with the manufacturing process. It's still a cool set and the two boxes I broke yielded most of the 150 card base set. Here's the card!