GM Giannis & Finest Addition

Watching:  Bucks vs. Mavericks on Fox Sports Wisconsin

No post yesterday - no trades, no purchases, no pack stash.

Giannis and Lebron drafted their NBA All-Star teams last night.  I caught it after-the-fact last night on Facebook.  It was actually pretty entertaining.  Certainly drummed up quite a bit of interest of buzz.  Giannis could use a little work on his GM skills though.  I feel Lebron got the better of him.

One package today - a "Best Offer" eBay purchase made at the beginning of the week.  I picked up a lot of 20 1997-98 Finest Silver base cards.  14 of the cards go toward the set and bring my completion rate up to 72%:



The remaining six cards are dupes I will post to my For Trade list:

Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Commercial & Two Trades

Watching:  Wizards vs. Bucks on ESPN

Two packages arrived today - both trades with TCDB members.

Am I the only one seeing this Jerusalem-Tel Aviv tourism commercial about a dozen times each evening?  Sunny...  It's nice to see those young women soaking up all of the history Israel has to offer.  How convenient that it can all be found at the local beaches and clubs. 🙄 Hmmm, perhaps a tad too cynical on my part...

Reports are the Bucks and Pistons agree to swap Thon Maker and Stanley Johnson.  There simply weren't minutes for Thon with the Bucks.  Thon's a good kid.  Hopefully he can get some floor time with the Pistons and show some growth. 

1.  My first trade with family1 was small but very fruitful.  I completed the 1989 Donruss Baseball's Best and Topps Mini sets, as well as two 1990 Fleer insert sets (All-Star Team and Soaring Stars).



2.  Next up my fourth trade with karsal.  Our trades are usually a nice mix of the big four sports, but this one is hockey heavy.  A single basketball card that brings my 2016-17 Prestige rate up to 96.5%.



The remainder of the trade is strictly hockey.  One half of these go toward the Michigan collection:



While the other half is destined for the Hawks collection:



Bucks put up a 50 spot in the first quarter.  Nice.

More Finest Additions

Watching:  Michigan vs. Rutgers on BTN

I don't have anything clever, creative, amusing, etc. to share tonight.  Chalk it up to posting later than usual on a work night.

One package in the mail today, a trade with TCDB member Dantheman.  This is already our third trade in 2019.  I continue to chip away at Dan's stash of 1998-99 Finest traders.  Here are the 18 that arrived today:

 

These additions push my completion rate up past 40%.

Greatest Living American & Two Trades

Watching:  Bucks vs. Nets on Fox Sports Wisconsin

Six time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady - the greatest living American.  Wow.  I remember watching Tom Brady at Michigan.  The disjointed Brady-Henson two QB experiment was a mess, but Brady eventually took the horns.  I can still remember sitting there at the Big House 20 years ago watching him lead UM to a comeback victory over OSU on my birthday.

Two packages in the mail today - both trades with TCDB members.

1.  Starting things off my first trade with jimetal7212.  The lone baseball card included in these two trades is a 1990 Fleer insert.  I now have 10/12 from the set. 



We move on to the football cards that will go toward sets.  We have two 1989 Topps Traded, one 1990 Topps Traded, and seven 2018 Score.



The trade concludes with one for the Bama collection and six for the Michigan collection (Biakabutuka, Breaston, Henne, and Shoelace).



2.  My second trade of 2019 with Thunderfoot is up next.  A nice assortment of football cards in great condition.  Football set builders start us off and include 1989 Score, 1989 Topps Traded, and some 1990 Topps VAR.



Then we have three to add to the Bama collection:



Some Michigan collection additions up next, including Alexander, Askew, Bunch, and Edwards:



And finally, the night concludes with 19 Coach Harbaugh cards to add to the Michigan collection.  There's even some Stadium Club editions in here:

Fairfield Repack

Listening:  Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, Mecca and the Soul Brother

Sunday Funday.  I saved a Fairfield repack for today.  Every now and then I will stand at the Target card display for far too long as the current inventory is either sparse, stale, boring, and/or pricey.  On those days I pick up some form of repack.  I didn't buy any cards for twenty years so I always find something I need in these repacks.  Today's Fairfield repack is the one that contains four packs, a box of 50 cards, and a "bonus".  Ooooohhhh, bonus!



The four packs include 1992 SkyBox USA, 1993-94 SkyBox Series II, 2015-16 Threads, and 2016-17 Complete.  A TeenyMates pack serves as the "bonus".  It's always a TeenyMates pack.



Opened and sorted all the contents and it breaks down to roughly half of the cards are keepers with the other half going to the For Trade list.  The keepers include the following:





I scored a 2004-05 Fleer Tradition Dwight Howard RC.  Pretty good hit - I'll take it.  Good luck with the packs, for the most part.  Keeping all of the cards in the SkyBox USA and Threads packs, and four of the five in the Complete pack.  I already have all of the SkyBox Series II cards.

I won't bore you with the traders.  Basically, it begins with 1989-90 Hoops and ends with 1995-96 Topps.  Heaviest seasons are 1990-91, 1992-93 and 1993-94.



Three of the cards fall into Multi-Sport sets, including one hockey card, because why wouldn't you include a hockey card in a basketball repack:



And finally, I know, the suspense is killing you... the TeenyMates!



Spurs and Wizards.  Two franchises on opposite ends of the success spectrum over the past 25 years.  If anyone collects these please let me know as I now have about a dozen.  The trick is tracking them all down.

Misplaced Billfold found in El Segundo

Listening:  A Tribe Called Quest, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

Attended a junior high basketball tournament this afternoon.  Apparently, once you receive the ball your goal is to dribble until you find yourself triple-teamed.  At that point one of three events will occur; this is the order of those events beginning with the least likely:  1) successful pass to a teammate, intentional or unintentional, 2) five man scrum on the floor resulting in a jump ball, and lastly 3) a turnover.

No packages today, but don't despair.  I have generated a little pack stash for such days.  This evening I ripped two more fat packs of Contenders:



22 cards in each pack (18 base and 4 inserts/parallels).  36 base cards included in the two packs.  23 go toward building the set:



While the other 13 are dupes heading to the For Trade list and hopefully good homes:



Two Green parallels and six inserts round out the opening:



Kyrie die-cut is a decent pull.  I really like die-cuts.  These were just becoming a thing when I stopped collecting in the '90s.  SP immediately comes to mind when I think of die-cuts.

Four Package Prizmatic Coincidence

Watching:  Michigan vs. Iowa on FS1 (muted because the Hawkeyes are really taking it to UM tonight)

Listening:  Death From Above 1979, You're a Woman, I'm a Machine

The Bucks won in Toronto last night.  They took the season series 3-1 winning both games in Toronto. 

A weird coincidence today.  I made four relatively cheap single card purchases last week and into the weekend on eBay.  All four are 2018-19 Prizm parallels of Chris Webber and all four arrived today.  The polar vortex likely played a role.  I know, I know... I recently railed against the (alliteration alert!) plethora of Prizm parallels, but when your silly goal is to try and collect all cards of a player, well, you have to pick up cards you think are ridiculous.

1.  First up, the Pink Ice version:



2.  And the Red Ice version as well:



3.  The we have Fast Break Blue that carries a SN175:



4.  And to close things out, a Purple Pulsar that is SN35:



So four more Webber cards to added to the Michigan collection.  Now let's see if UM hoops can make a second half run.