I got my lunch box full of cards!

Just...

...look...

...what I...

...got!

Now I'm ready for lunch time! (in a few hours because first I have to eat my breakfast...)

Ah! Megami-Sama! (Kami-Sama was busy...)

I know I've been away from the blog, both posting and reading/commenting.

But you see, I have other hobbies than just card collecting and right now there is one that is pulling me into it like gravity!

Manga and Anime.

I don't read/watch all of them, but I have a few that are like magnets and work like triggers.

Excluding my top favourite series - Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball - I have other series that made me melt.

Ah! Megami-Sama! or Ah/Oh! My Goddess (it depends who's translating it) is one of them.

I watched the original OVA wayyyyyyyy long ago (on the Locomotion TV channel), so long ago that at the time I had a 56K modem to connect to the internet so I could not get to watch fanvids or read the manga...

Well...back then there were none of the video and manga read sites we have now...

That is to say that back then I got to find a couple of images on the internet and got to tape (VHS was the hero back then!) the 5 OVA episodes.

After that I kept Keiichi-san and Belldandy locked in my heart but...

...last Christmas I had this finding!

I went to a store which usually has some Anime DVDs and so I found it.

Ah! Megami-Sama original OVA DVDs!

And only for 5€ (that's around 7/8$).

I felt such a winner that it did it.

I got my trigger to make me launch onto the net and see what could I found!

And I found that back at 2005 they started the TV series and made a couple more OVAs, and the Manga, it seems, is still alive!

So, right now I'm watching the TV series, reading the Manga and reading one of my guilty pleasures...fanfiction!

But sometimes I think, with the series itself that I don't 'quite' need to read that much of fanfiction...




PS: Meanwhile I'm waiting for my cards to arrive and I'm getting impatient...

Slow motion

These cards are like low-end holographic cards.

Low-end because they miss the holographic part.

But everything else is there!

When you jump and has to make a U turn

Everytime I look at my 2004 Upper Deck First Pitch cards I see beauties like these.

You have a huuuuuuuuuuuuge Rafael Furcal jump on a possible double play at 2B.

And you have Rickey Henderson probably starting to run for the base steal but making the abrupt stop and preparing to U turn and get back to the base (1B I think...)

It's a simple set without all those parallels and inserts but has the best of Upper Deck: Great photography in a clean design.

There are knees and knees

Usually you see some players getting so low to bunt a ball that they go down in one knee...

...others think they are playing some kind of volley/baseball mix.

Under your legs

There are cards out there that really makes me go 'Awwwwwww'.

1998 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Series 1 Baseball Retail 25 Pack Lot (In 1999 Retro Tin)

After some good input (from The Dutch Card Guy) about dacardworld I decided to try and order one of the boxes they are selling on ebay.

Since I'm a fan of Collector's Choice I decided to try this box first. And it is a special box. The packs come in a tin!

That's the most fashionable way to keep your cards.

Lets just hope everything works fine and I get it in no time!

I must be colourblind

In one of those so loved repack boxes I got a couple of Upper Deck Baseball Heroes packs.

They are good looking cards. Thick and shiny.

And they are in so many different colours I don't think there is rainbow enough after this set.

When I was updating my cards list to add these cards I put, as I usually do, the details about each card.

The main detail here is the colour.

The two top cards, Mauer and Utley, I put as 'brown'.

And this combo card of Pujols and Musial I put as beige.

Since I got a black one I went to COMC check the other possible colours.

And there I found out that the cards stated as being 'brown' were serial numbered.

The thing is that none of the two cards, Mauer and Utley, are serial numbered!

I looked on tradingcarddb as well but there, as in COMC, the common cards are like the beige one and the brown ones are serial numbered.

The thing is that or I'm colourblind and never knew until now or the cards are brown and some one at Upper Deck forget to put the serial number.

Is there anyone out there that can help me here?

I'm starting to thing the sky is blue and the grass green.

When you look form above you see so many people

This is one of my favourite card of a pitcher.

And in one of my favourite sets.

You sometimes have such a combo card that you like everything about it.

I love UD Collector's Choice set and especially the silver border parallels. Way much more than the golden border ones.

The player signature looks awesome and like they truly had signed it with a silver colour pen.

But forgetting all this great stuff about CC set we have what they are quite well known: the gorgeous photography.

I think this is is the only card I have in my collection with a photo taken floating over the pitcher.

That's quite the perspective!

I think this might have been taken while John Smiley was warming-up on the bullpen. It's the better place to take a picture like this. I cannot imagine a flying photographer flying over mound during a ball game.

It would be fun none the less!

I just know I can 'lose' a great deal of time just looking at this card...

And for the greatness of a single main character card we move on to a crowded card.

The perspective the photographer give in the photo makes us feel right in the middle of the action!

You see the batter swinging (probably striking for what it seems...).
You see the catcher with the glove arm stretched to get the ball.
You see the home-plate umpire ready to shout 'strike!' or 'ball!'.

If the angle was a bit more open and more from behind and we could get to see the pitcher. And I've seen cards like that but I think this card is all about the feelings going on at the home-plate.

Great great!

Now I'm thinking of making a wallpaper using UD Collector's Choice cards theme.

I'm missing something...

I haven't bought a single pack or box or card for such a long time...

I'm in deprivation state!

The good thing about it is that I have spent more time paying attention to the cards I have.

And I find all time of cards.

Look at this 1988 Fleer Dick Schofield.

And Schofield is just one letter away of:

Yeh!

After this great moment let get to where I intended to go at first...

I like the diagonal design some cards have. Specially because in the pitchers cards sometimes the mound is showing with the same inclination as the bottom design line and it looks great.

But!

The top.

Fleer here had to make some tough decisions.

The top diagonal line will cut the photo:

#1 - Reduce the photo to have it all in side the design.
#2 - Cut off the head! Who needs a head anyway!?
#3 - Lets pretend that Schofield plays with a junior bat.

We all can see the result.




PS: I think that in my subconscious I want to do the post only because I wanted to post a tatooed Scofield photo in the blog eheh

Great Backs - Season 1 Episode 1

Lets start a new series of posts.

Upper Deck is, in my opinion, one of the greatest...in cards back.

It's quite possible that almost all of the cards I'm showing in the series will be from Upper Deck, but lets wait and see...

I start with a 1991 Upper Deck Brett Butler card.

That's a strange way of celebrating doing the 'L'(oser) sign...or was it something else?

Eusébio

And the great Eusébio has died today.

He was the greatest Portuguese football player ever.

He was the Benfica symbol...

...and will always be.

Rest in Peace 'Pantera Negra'.