EJ Manuel RC Topps Finest #115

Today's card going down the line of base rookies I pulled is one of the better ones of the product. This one and Geno Smith are the two quarterbacks you want to pull. Eventually we may find one of the other QBs drafted this year was actually the best one once given a starting role, could be Landry Jones or who  knows, even Zac Dysert? You never know what with injuries, trades or starters getting benched due to poor play. Put the right guy in the right situation and he could blow up. EJ struggled down the stretch but you could say he has promise if you ignore the fact that the last successful QB to come from Florida State was Brad Johnson. And wow, was that a long time ago.

Couple of Sick (for me anyway) adds from 2012 Spx Football

Pretty sweet adds here from my slowly growing 2012 Spx set. Although neither one of these guys plays in the NFL anymore it's pretty cool to get autographed rookie cards for next to nothing. If you bought a box of Spx (which would run you more than 100 dollars) you could have gotten these two cards, a Jersey auto Rc of Jeff Fuller and some shadow slots as your hits. In other words, finding these in a box today wouldn't be very nice. Since I'm putting together the set (about half-way there) I'm happy to pick these up for a couple of dollars a piece. Besides, I'm pretty sure this is the first "Richmond Spiders" autograph I have in my collection, and FOR SURE the only auto with the spider logo on it. That's why my allegiance to the Spx brand has continued even though they lost their license. The quality and design work of the cards is still there, perhaps even stronger than in years past.

Couple days adds. One Topps Finest RC and one Old Timey Rookie from a card show about ten years ago!

The first card is just me making my way through the massive group of cards I got from my 2 box break earlier last year. The second one I've had for at least 10 years but have never officially "added" it to my Beckett Organize. This is my only 2003 Sp Authentic card. If I remember right I bought it for about 3-4 dollars even back then which is about what it's worth now. People will still pay a few bucks for these very common rookies just because of the beauty of the card and the fact that it is serially numbered and has a jersey swatch. I figure that everyone that wanted a 2003 Sp Authentic Football set already has one by now. You have to remember that these cards were the "box hit" out of a very expensive (for the time) box. Back then you did not have boxes running much over 100 dollars, now it's pretty commonplace because collectors expect more out of their breaks.

The vertical layout was kind of odd and it looks even more odd for the autographed rookies out of this set; from my memories of constantly browsing this set in the mid 2000's, Carson Palmer, Terrell Suggs and Byron Leftwich were all autographed. The pens used for this set were often very hit or miss and you see bubbled up autographs that didn't transfer all that well to the sticker material they used that year. Looking back on this set it might be a kind of fun one to put together if I stumbled on a large lot to get me started. So far this is the only one from the set that I have.

Today's card, 2013 Finest #110 Matt Barkley

Here's today's card, a beautiful Topps Finest RC card of USC star Matt Barkley. He was teammates with the guy on my card addition yesterday, Robert Woods and according to the back is USC's all time TD passing leader. Kind of hard to believe with all the great USC college Qbs that have preceded him. Matt Lienart is one of the first ones that comes to my mind. Based on the few chances Barkley got this year he didn't prove much throwing for 4 interceptions and 0 touchdowns.

Robert Woods, an emerging star and today's addition to my collection.

This beauty is card #107 in the Finest set. Looks like these generally sell in the 1-2 dollar range on Ebay so it's not a huge card by any means. He was one of the better rookies in 2013 although we all know Keenan Allen was much better and is probably as close to a lock on rookie of the year as you can get. Early on it looked like either Eddy Lacy or Giovani Bernard; two dynamic running backs were going to be the RC of the year but both kind of fizzled out at the end of the season whereas Keenan Allen only got better for the Chargers.

I did manage to pick up a couple of RC autos from Spx 2012 on the cheap from Ebay and they came in looking nice and mint. I really like this set even though it's all college uniforms because I still really love the Spx brand.

Working on the Rookies, here's a Texan for ya'll.

Today's card is #103 from the Finest Set, DeAndre Hopkins from Clemson. 27th overall in the draft he had some pretty good plays this year and I'd expect him to be even better next year. The Texans will have the number one pick in the draft in a few months so we'll see if they go with a traditional pick or reach for someone like QB Johnny Manziel to possibly try to ignite the franchise again. Most mock drafts have Manziel going at number 4 to the Browns which makes alot of sense too. I honestly think the Texan's season was a statistical anomaly in that they were much much better than their record shows. They lost quite a few games by 7 points or less and Case Keenum looked spectacular at times. 

The rookie cards are cool in that they show college stats on the back, while many card sets do that I've seen some that have zero stats when they are rookies.

Final Base card for 2013 Finest, First Rookie

Cards number 100 and 102 in the Finest set. Looks like I did not pull #101, Mike Glennon the rookie QB from the Bucs from my two box break. Ertz had a solid rookie campaign with 36 grabs and 4 TDs, pretty decent stats for a rookie TE. What more can be said about the Rodgers card other than he is steadily supplanting Favre as the best QB that Green Bay has ever seen and you just can't have too many cards of him in your collection.