And a great day it was...

Well, Portland just clinched a playoff spot with a mammoth win over the Knicks.  Currently, the Blazers are in the 7 spot - but there's still plenty of opportunity to move up.

The game vs. the Knicks (no offense Charles) was brutal.  The Blazers finally were beating down an opponent and stayed in the game long enough to step on their throats and not let a lesser team back in.

Oh, and Batum had 20 points and 5 boards.  It was a good game to watch down to every man on the roster.  Tomorrow will bring the Nuggets, and it's looking like a more winnable game now than the previous meetings.  The current starting lineup the Blazers have is now 13-2 when starting together.  The team is finally developing that chemistry that it lacked early on.

And despite all that has beset the Blazers this year, it's looking probable that the team will hit 50 wins again.  I don't have any scotch to toast this momentous day, but I've got some Mountain Dew.  It'll have to work.  For this team to make the playoffs...it deserves some kind of toast.

It's shaping up to be a great sports day...

Well, today is my new Saturday.  To be clear, that just means that my days off are now Wednesdays and Thursdays.  I actually prefer to have midweek days off.  So much more going on.

And right now I'm sitting down to watch UEFA League soccer - Barcelona vs. Arsenal.  Seriously, if you're "soccer curious", and you haven't really seen a good game to make you want to watch soccer, tune into Fox Soccer and watch this game.  It's pretty much as world-class as you're going to find on a lazy Wednesday morning.

And then later in the evening we have a full-card of basketball coming your way as well.  And this includes the Blazers lying in wait to trounce the Knicks to try to secure something a bit better than an 8th seed in the West.

And somewhere in between all of that, I'll have to hook up the FIFA '10 and dominate the global competition with my Everton team on online play.

Really, a day off just doesn't get much better than this.  And I've got my munchkins at my side - my personal little cheerleaders.  Hopefully some of my card purchases roll in today as well so I'll have some more pieces to the Murad puzzle to post later on.

By the way, I've got Barcelona beating Arsenal on my Beat the Streak today.  Join and take me on...

New ESPN game

So I've created a group, Card Collectors United, in the ESPN game, Streak For The Cash.  Basically it's a game that gives you a list of games from a whole slew of sports going on any given day.  You pick one event a day.  And based on how many correct events you pick in consecutive days, you build your streak.  You get the idea. 

I like it because they have all sorts of stuff - English soccer, all forms of basketball, baseball, point lines and prop bets.  The whole deal.

Sign up and play along.  Interestingly, I haven't picked a correct event yet.  But I will.  It's inevitable.

Also, you should have an ESPN.com membership because I'm going to have a World Cup Soccer bracket as well.  I've already got it set up.  And for that, there may be a prize.

Searching for Tony Bennet - reader submitted article

This article has been submitted to the site from reader Zach L. 


Searching for Tony Bennett


Former Charlotte Hornets guard Tony Bennett will always be one of my favorite basketball players. We have a unique connection in that we both attended the same high school and college (University of Wisconsin- Green Bay). Bennett’s career college three-point field goal percentage of 0.497 still stands as an NCAA Division I record. He was the first UWGB player to be drafted by an NBA team and played three seasons for the Hornets before a foot injury cut his career short. He has since found success as a college basketball coach, winning the AP Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year in 2007 while at Washington State. Currently, Bennett is the head men’s basketball coach at Virginia.


In recent months, I have been tempted to buy a few Tony Bennett singles on ebay. However, almost any single comes with a $2 price tag when shipping is taken into account. Instead, I opted to buy a lot of 400 Charlotte Hornets basketball cards for $2.79 (shipping included) and take my chances. How many players could have suited up for the Hornets during their fourteen year stint in Charlotte? The odds of finding a few cards of #25 clad in short teal shorts were pretty good.


In actuality, the lot yielded a total of seven different Tony Bennett cards. Score! That’s less than $0.40 per card. The 145 Larry Johnson cards that came in the lot were just a bonus (good player, peaked at Space Jam). A scan of my favorite cards appears below. It’s a shame that Bennett never recovered from his foot injury. He could have been one of the great role players of the 1990s. You can have Steve Kerr and Robert Horry. Tony has always “been it” for me.

I guess I've been nominated...

So, I got an email from Charles at Hoopography.com (who has a great article about Portland Basketball Websites up right now - check it out) and he told me that I was nominated on Upper Deck's website for Best Blogger.  I had only question marks in my mind for a minute.  I didn't really know that there was an award being given out right now.  But somehow or another, I'm one of 14 sites nominated right now on Upper Deck's site.

So I guess you could go ahead and vote for me if you don't have anything else going on.  Pretty stiff competition - some good sites on there.  I'm not really concerened with winning - but more with representing the basketball side of the hobby.

http://www.upperdeck.com/

or

www.yourfreepoll.com/spsavmyesp.html

Pretty cool I guess.

Making Connections

In the beginning, I started this blog with the sole intention of talking about a hobby - well, a section of the hobby nobody else was giving much love, that is.  I had no idea how quickly I would make so many connections with people from all over the place.  And I'm not talking 257 Facebook "friends" kind of connections either.  But I've had genuine conversations and correspondence with people who are into the same hobby as I am.  It's been pretty cool.

If it hadn't been for meeting Walker at the Blazer Blog, for instance, I never would've known that Nic Batum was having an autograph session.

Meeting TJ at All Your Base Cards let me see that there are other guys in my exact situation - relationship, kids, job, rent, etc - just trying to scrape together a few bucks to enjoy a hobby while staying afloat in day to day life.

If I'd never made a connection with Big D from Hey That's Mine, I would've never had a custom Nic Batum card that will be on the top of my list to get autographed by Batum in the future.

I've also been writing on Nick's site, Basketball Card Pro, and have enjoyed working with another young writer just trying to get his foot in the door.

And the list just goes on and on.  Hell, if I'd never encountered Stackhouse guy, I wouldn't have to defend my point of view - that too can be important.  But recently, most of my connections are being made in my inbox.  I'm really shocked about how much "fan mail" I get.  People from all over the place just write me up to say that they read my stuff everyday.  Even though they don't comment on the site, they just drop a line saying that they've made my site a part of their daily routine.  And that's pretty cool.

One new connection that I've made in recent weeks is reader Zach L.  Zach sent me some Blazers team sets from a couple of releases that I didn't have yet.  And we've kept up a semi-routine correspondence.  He's a Bucks fan, so it's always nice having a dialogue with somebody who roots for the East. 

He recently sent me an offer to be a fill-in writer if I ever need a day off or so - and I'm sure that the way my life goes, I'll need the help in the future.  He also gave me an article for the site - which will be tomorrow's morning article on the site.  So look for that.  He comes from the point of view of a player collector - which is the best kind of collector, by the way.

So the site continues to evolve.  I'm just glad I'm getting as much out of it as I put into it.  I hope we all continue to enjoy it.

Sunday Morning Pack Battle - March 28th, 2010

I haven't done a pack battle in some time, so I guess it was due.  And today, I found a couple of retail packs.  And one of the packs I was VERY keen to open for some time.  I'm actually surprised that they made retail packs of the latest Star Wars release.  So yay me.

First the basketball though.  It is a basketball site after all.

In one retail pack there really wasn't anything spectacular in it.  I picked the best photography cards though.

Really I'm never dissapointed with the cards I pull from the 09/10 Topps packs.  The photography is just never sub-par. 

But really, this pack battle isn't even about 09/10 Topps.  It's about our new challenger.





And it's starts off pretty well for the Star Wars.  I'm definetely pleased with what I'm seeing.  There were seven cards in the pack.  Here's the first six:

First off, there are varying types of art in the cards.  There's traditional comic book, manga, the 'Unleashed' art, propaganda art and Cartoon Network stylings.  And that's just in the one pack.  I love the Unleashed looking Yoda card.  That card would normally be my favorite.

But there was a surprise in my pack that I'm definetely glad I pulled.  The front of the pack offers up that 'foil etch cards' are randomly inserted into packs.  And wouldn't you know that I got one?  They might not be the rarest thing on earth. 

But I pulled a really cool one.

The foil makes it hard to see the detail on the front of the card.  But it's really cool.  It's a picture of some of the more famous bounty hunters in the Star Wars universe.  It's really cool.  I'm totally geeking out over it. 

Winner:  Easily Boba Fett and the Star Wars Galaxy Series 5.

Going random...

Truth be told, I've been off work for the last four days with family for a mini-vacation.  Everything was hard today going back to the normal schedule.  Now I realize that writing on the site is kind of dependant, if not intertwined, into my normal routine.  So now trying to get back to the grind, I'm having a hard time being very creative at the moment.  So I'll just go random and stay with the day's trend.



Today's Random Card:

Forgive the quality of the scan, first of all.  It's not really a scan - it's a photo.  I wasn't really invested into cards when I first had it.  It's an 07/08 Trademark Moves Magic Johnson Auto.  I no longer own this card, but it's really kind of one of the original cards that got my interest in collecting basketball going again.  I've told this story before, but when I got back into collecting, I started doing baseball.  But basketball was also real high on my list. 

I got this card from one of ARPlatinum's group breaks on youtube.  It was literally my first group break I'd ever done.  And my one team in the break was the Lakers.  Talk about luck.  So I ended up getting two Kobe relics and a Magic auto.  And it was also this Magic auto that got me into selling on ebay.  And once those things fell into place, I really started to get into the basketball side of things again.

I'm actually surprised that I still had this image on my CPU.  Oh well.  See?  Random.

The Murad mini chase just became a bit easier

Big thanks to Mr. Travers at Offy's Sport Site.  We made a trade a while back and I'm reaping the benefits of a great deal.  He sent over a ton of Murad minis that I needed.  And it really does inspire me to get that piece done now.  Now that part of the collection has "substance".  It doesn't feel quite as far away now.

Big thanks to him.

And now, on my ghost writing job at Basketball Card Pro, I've documented my third installment in my journey to convert old jersey swatch cards I've recieved from group breaks and the such into a bit of currency to collect more Murad.  Nick at that site is still studying away, so I'll be posting some over there for at least another week or two.

The greatest Batum card you haven't seen yet

So I went to the mailbox yesterday - and this is a funny story - because I knew I had some Bowman Batum cards coming.  I had purchased a Batum X-Fractor and a Refractor purely by accident.  There was an auction for the pair of cards going on, and the bid was ridiculously low on the cards.  I had no intention, zero, of buying these cards.  I had my mind set on building up the Murad first and then focusing on the Batum stuff.  But there was no way I was going to let some other schmuck take an X-Fractor for dirt cheap.  So I bumped up the bidding a bit to at least make him earn it.

I know.  It's a cheap move.  And it's only something I do for Batum Bowmans.  If I can't have them, nobody should have them mentality.  If you're an insane player collector, you know the feeling.  In any event, by being a bit of a jerk and bumping up the price I won the auction myself.  Granted, the price was still low by Batum Bowman standards, so I wasn't too put out by it.  And this was all pre "no funds" in March Experiment, so it was still a legal move. 

So back to my point, I'm going to the mailbox and I know by the tracking numbers that these cards are coming.  So at least I knew I'd get a bit of Manila Envelope Love.  And that's always fun.  But - and this is a huge but - waiting for me was a package from Big D.  And I knew that we hadn't decided to trade anything.  I figured maybe he saw a Murad mini he'd found or something.  But the contents of the package were much much cooler than that.

Behold, the Big D Bold Batum card:

Try to imagine my surprise at opening the package and seeing one of his Big D Bold's looking back at me.  And the quality of this card is insane.  I'm baffled that he could actually make something like this.  And it is a one of a kind.  I'm stoked to be able to have this, and I'm glad I'm one of the people he decided to make a card for. 

So a big big thanks to Big D.  This card really does mean a lot. 

George Karl may be out until playoffs

It's no surprise that I hate the Denver Nuggets.  I hate them as much as I hate the Rockets, Jazz, Spurs and Lakers.  You get the idea.

But I do feel for George Karl and his battle with throat cancer.  And it's looking now like the earliest he could be back to the team is the playoffs.  And with cancer treatment, even that isn't a guarantee.  And that's bad news for the Nuggets.

The Nuggets and the Mavs are tied for 2nd in the West right now.  And without Karl running the show, the Nuggets could drop down a few places in the standings.  I mean, they just lost to the Knicks.  So that leadership and guidance that Karl brings could start manifesting itself in a loss here or a loss there.  And those losses could add up.

And I'm not for any team moving up past Denver because of the Karl situation.  It just doesn't feel right.  But it's the reality we're faced with.  The Nuggets just won't be the same team without their coach.  And nor would anybody expect them to be.  I know that many teams and GM's are probably looking at Denver and waiting for them to fall back of the pace they'd set earlier in the year.  After all, a spot in the top 4 in the West gives you home-court advantage.  So it's really possible that Denver could fall to 5th or below by the time this all shakes out.  Especially with their upcoming schedule.

But I don't like it.  Standings and rankings should be made out on the floor by the players.  As much as I don't like the Nuggets, I really wish their coach would come back to make them a whole team again. 

Is Portland coming apart at the seams?

I don't have any cards to show off today.  But it's just as well.  I've got a great sense of foreboding regarding my team, the Blazers, at the moment.  And I just don't feel like cards at the moment.  I feel like screaming at the Blazers management to get it together already.  The whole city is looking at you.  And we're shaking our heads.

Depending on who you read or listen to, the Blazers have absolutely no problems - or they're in danger of complete ruin.  I'm thinking it's somewhere in between.

The controversy surrounds Kevin Pritchard, the GM of the team.  Reports are that he could be on his way out.  And I'm baffled.  The team fired his assistant and team VP, Penn, earlier this week in a surprise move.  And now it seems Pritchard might be on his way to the Unemployment Office too.  I hope not.

Pritchard has been so vital in redesigning the Blazers.  We're no longer the Jail Blazers.  I just hope this blows over quickly.

There's like 12 or 13 games left for the Blazers before the playoffs.  And they couldn't wait until the offseason to do all of this?  Something is really wrong with the picture.  Hopefully my spirits are higher tomorrow regarding basketball, basketball cards and the Blazers.  Right now I just feel like, "are you F'ing kidding me?"

TJ Ford, welcome to the collection

I'm going to be honest, I'm not a TJ Ford fan.  I've watched him play several times, and he's just got a poor attitude.  It's pretty obvious that many of his teammates don't like him.  Or at least they don't like him when he's throwing them under the bus for a mistake that he made.

But in any event, he's part of the Murad auto collection.  So had it not been for Murad, I wouldn't have ever owned his autograph.  Don't get me wrong, he's got a great talent, just a poor attitude.  But a lot of players in many sports fit that profile.  He's still making more money than I'll ever see, so I guess he can have whatever attitude he wants. 

Also, this card was purchased a while ago and is just now arriving.  It's not part of my "no funds" in March Experiment that I'm documenting on Basketball Card Pro - and as a matter of fact, my latest entry on that site is from today.  So check that out too. 

Totally non-basketball related post - about soccer

In the midst of the baseball spring training, March Madness, and NBA teams jockeying for playoff position, there was a news story that definetely didn't get any front-page love.

Major League Soccer and the players' union have reached a deal that will cover them for the next five years.  That's huge.  A league that young couldn't handle a labor strike.  Especially since all of the league's best players would just find work in other leagues anyway.

The MLS season kicks off in four days.  So they just barely made the deadline.  But there are other leagues, the NFL and NBA in particular, that are looking at new collective bargaining problems in the not so distant future.  It's always interesting to see how things shake out when all is said and done.

Personally, I'm thrilled the MLS is back.  Portland's MLS team is debuting next year.  And that will be insane.  I may have to make another site just for all the soccer pandemonium that will be overtaking the house. 

It's been a great soccer year in this house.  The US qualified for the World Cup, Everton in the EPL has had a great second half of the season - that included Landon Donovan, and now the MLS is going to be assured in our town for at least four years.  Not bad.  Not bad at all.

There actually are MLS cards out there.  I believe UD was making them.  It remains to be seen if UD will continue to produce MLS cards after all of these problems have beset them.  I'm actually hoping that Panini takes over the license and makes a decent product with autos and game-used.  Panini has been doing soccer for a lot longer than they've done basketball.  It'd be a natural fit.  Let's hope.

Saturday March 20 - The day my bracket died

Who had Northern Iowa making the Sweet 16?  "Not I," said the brown Guy.

So Kansas loses 67-69.  I did feel good for those kids from Northern Iowa though.  It was genuinely fun to watch them take down Goliath.  Every tournament needs a Cinderella story - and it doesn't get much better than a 9 seed knocking off the 1 seed to get to the next round.

My bracket doesn't look that bad, though.  Of course, now that Kansas is out it's all kind of moot.

It's looking like Washington is going to make a run too.  And being in PAC 10 country, that's going to be big news come Monday.  In case you hadn't heard, the PAC10 was dreadful this year in regular season play.  I don't think that Northern Iowa can pull off the complete miracle, but I'll be watching Washington to see how far they can advance.  Washington will play the winner of Missouri and West Virginia.  Obviously, it would be better for them to play Missouri.  But I figure they'll play the number 2 seed W. Virginia. 

Oh well though.  It was the one and only bracket I filled out for the year.  I've yet to pick a tournament winner since I've started filling out a bracket a couple of years ago.  Maybe next year.

Finally...the Murad Base Set is done!!!

Well, the first real step into completion of this set has been knocked out.  I've finally finished the base set.  It was a long journey to even get this far.  But having this part done in a way is a blessing because now I can be even more specific about what I need to focus on.

The base set is comprised of 200 regular cards from stars, rookies to legends.  And cards 201-230 are the SP's ('short prints' for those not in the know).  I can't attest to how much shorter their printing scale was, but I can say that on average I found an SP one in every seven or eight packs or so.  So, I had to track the SP's down mostly through ebay.

And that was tough.  A lot of sellers seem to think that anything "SP" means that they can charge you 10 dollars.  So it was frustrating to see a card you need sitting there in a crazy price range.  In the end, I used http://www.sportlots.com/ to finish off the set.  The SP's were still pricier, but the regular base I was missing was around the $.20 a card mark.  So it was really affordable in that sense. 

And now, for your viewing pleasure, all of the SP's together in one place:

It's a really colorful set.  The entire full binder of the cards is just a great visual experience. 

Now, I'm onto the minis and the relic set.  The minis will be tough, especially the SP's.  And lastly, I'll do the auto set.  Of course, there are some silk cards still out there that might be fun to do....  But that's getting way ahead of myself.

Tonight I'm posting a definitive list of the minis I need.  If you see some that you have, please contact me.  I've found that trading is really the most economical way to get this set together.

I'm making a cameo appearance on a fellow blog

So, Nick from Basketball Card Pro asked me to write on his site to keep it up and keep it fresh while he takes a break for some studying.  I was happy to oblige.  We need more basketball writers around here, and I'll gladly do my part to keep a budding blog going.

I'm going to be writing a semi-regular piece for him for about a month.  I'm doing an all-out ebay selling experiment to see how much I can raise for my Murad set in the next two weeks or so.  It's really just a motivator to get me to sell a bunch of my stuff that's filling white boxes that should be full of Blazers or Murad.

So check him out.  Read his past articles too.  He's got the stuff to keep a good blog going.  And he's not a Blazer honk like so many of the rest of us basketball card bloggers.  So that's a nice change for the rest of you, I'm sure.

PS

I'm waiting on five or so cards for the Murad base to be complete.  I thought they would be here today so that I could show them off and have a celebratory drink.  But no such luck.  I'll just have to content myself on the Montana / New Mexico game instead of leafing through my Murad binder.

It's Wednesday the 17th - have you filled out your bracket yet?

I admit, I'm a basketball honk.  But I hate college basketball regular season.  Can't stand it.  Don't watch much of it.  And I don't have a team.

But I love me some March Madness.  There is no greater 'one and done' style tournament out there.

Now, in college sports I follow players, not teams.  I follow players because they'll be future NBA stars.  But as far as rooting for a team, I could really care less.  Actually, I take that back.  I love to root against certain teams. 

I love to root against Duke.  And UNC.  Pretty much I'm tired of ESPN jamming that rivalry down my throat like it's something I should really care about.  Hello, I'm not from North Carolina.  Never plan on going to North Carolina.  Enough already.  And it's spelled Sheshefski.  Really if one guy butchered the English language rules for a name worse than Brett Favre - it's coach K.

But I digress.  I love the Cinderella teams.  This year, my home state of Montana is being represented in the big Dance.  So that's fun.  I put them beating New Mexico on my bracket.  Do they have a chance?  I don't know.  Name the starting five on New Mexico from memory.  If you can't - does it really matter that I picked a number 14 seed to beat a 3 seed?

But that's really the only nonsense pick on my bracket.  I of course have Kansas winning it all.  And I have them beating Baylor in the final game.  Yeah that's right - Baylor.  I went a bit crazy this year.

I only fill out one bracket a year.  Because in the spirit of the tournament itself, I think that 'one and done' is a pretty appropriate way to approach a bracket.

But if you're not like me - and you want to pick another bracket, I'm in a public group league on ESPN.com called IAmATrailBlazersFan.  You can signup there if you want.  I'm under Basketball Card Blog as my username there too. 

The Complete Certified Imports Insert Set

Well, here it is.  All 15 cards in my favorite insert set of the year so far.

It's a very cool looking set in my opinion.  The most expensive card in the set was the Casspi.  It cost me $4 dollars.  All told, with shipping included, the set cost me just under $28 dollars.  I scoured different sites looking for deals and looking for as many ways as possible to combine shipping costs.  And here's the result. 

It's an appealing releases for an affordable price.  Collecting doesn't have to mean building the whole set.  Find something you like, and take it.  You'll be surprised by how thrifty you can be when it really comes down to it.

More Murad...over half way on the relics!!!

Well, first off, by tomorrow or Wednesday, I should have all of the regular and SP base done for Murad!   That's huge.  It'll allow me to really focus on chasing the minis and the relics - and the occasional auto if they're not too spendy.

So I sold some old baseball card stuff on ebay, and immediately flipped the proceeds (as is now my habit) on some more Murad. 

I got these three from the same seller.  All cards were wonderfully priced and the shipping cost me $2.50.  So you really can't beat that. 

I got Steve Nash, Tracy McGrady and McCants' auto.  The T-Mac is numbered to /51.  And that was a $4 dollar card.  So I did really well on that one.  It's funny, people word their cards so differently in their ebay auctions.  For example, if I type in 'Murad relic' I won't get the same list of items as I would if I type 'Murad jersey'. 

I've been playing with the wording of my searches lately and I've really unearthed some Murad gold.  Who knows how long this stuff has been sitting in the BIN sections waiting for somebody to stumble across a certain wording to find them.  So I'm glad it was me that cracked that code.

And hey, no white jerseys!

And I now have 26 of the 50 relics.  Feels good to be on the downhill side of this section of the set.

A Murad collection that I'm jealous of

Check out this little gem that just dropped on ebay.  I thought about trying to really go for the gusto on this Murad set - and this guy really did it up.

He's nearly collected all silk cards from the Murad set.  If you've never seen a silk card, it's quite a bit like the jersey pieces, but the entire mini card is actually printed on a piece of silk.  Or woven.  Or however the hell they do it.  Very cool.  And each player has only 25 copies of the silk variation card.

This guy got 231 out of 251 cards.  He's so very nearly there.  And for this set?  He wants a cool $2500.  No joke.

I'm not sure he'll get there, but it's probably worth close to that when you figure how much each silk card individually is worth on the open market.  Pretty insane.

I guess I can always dream.

When you meet your basketball hero...

First, thanks again to Walker from the Blazer Blog for giving me the tip.  I saw Walker at the signing, but I had four kids with me and didn't really have time, or the ability, to go over and properly introduce myself.  But really, thanks to Walker for keeping me in the loop.

Well, we were told that the autograph signing was going to be at Fred Meyer.  And also, there was a basketball session with Nic Batum for the kids.  The day was great.  Not only did we get to go to a card show in the morning, but things worked out so that we were literally one of the first families to show up for the event.  By the time that the things got going, this line was FULL of kids and crazy parents jockeying for position.

The event was sponsored by Adidas, who Nic is affiliated with.  They custom make his "Frency 88" shoe for him.  Google it.  Awesome shoes.  My kids by this time were into it.  They knew who Nicolas Batum was.  And meeting him made perfect sense in their little heads.  Why watch him so long on TV without just going and meeting him?

  And after waiting for about a couple of hours in the parking lot, all of a sudden, Nic was there.  Super excited moment when he came walking out of the store towards the pavillion.  Nic said a couple of words to the crowd and we got ready to get the girls in to play with him.

But this being real life, my 4 year old daughter had to go the bathroom.  Immediately.  So she got to see Nic come in, but my wife had to take her and the baby into the store to go to the bathroom.  But at least my wife got to hold our place in the autograph line that way.  So it did kind of work out.

My oldest daughter (right, in the pink) did get to play with some kids right next to Nic.  Nic was supposed to do a clinic for the kids, but the younger kids just played a scrimmage while Nic officiated the games.  I got a good amount of video of my girl playing right next to him.  It was really cool - and she was quite excited about the whole thing.  They let the kids play for about 5 minutes a group. 

It was really a good atmosphere for the kids.  Very mellow and personable.  Nic was great with the kids.  You can see the security guy in the back of this picture.  Adidas made a big deal of the security they brought for him.

The Adidas rep, Rod I think was his name, was really cool with the crowd.  In fact, I gave him most of my Bowman Base Batum RC's to give to kids to have Nic sign later.  Funny, Rod had never seen a Batum RC before.  I didn't want to go up to random kids and hand out cards - that's just weird.  So I let the official guy do it.  And I felt good about doing it.  Kids should have a RC of their favorite player. 

So after the game, the crowd moved inside for the autograph session.  And that's really where the mood changed.  Nic was still great.  Really affable sort.  But the organizers of the event (either Adidas or Fred Meyer) were really hurrying people through the line.  It was really kind of rude at some points.

People could only take pictures of friends in front of them.  No posing with Nic at all.  No second pictures either.  Nic handled it well.  He deferred to the people in charge.  It was a free autograph session.  Before I was worried they might charge.  And now, I kind of wish they had.  I would've rather paid 20 or 30 dollars and had a photo with him and a two minute conversation rather than being hurried through.  Maybe next time.  But one person in front of us had Nic sign a Gatorade bottle.  A fee would've prevented that clown from gumming up the works.

There's my two daughters (hard to see - but you only get one shot) with Nic.  They each had a Bowman of mine for him to sign.  I gave the oldest a Blue border /499 to sign and the middle child only a base card. 

Tip:  Tell kids not to touch the signature when the ink's still wet.  You'll see.

This is my best friend's boy.  This picture turned out really well.  He's now the proud owner of an on-card Batum autograph. 

Some day he'll thank me.

And then it was my turn.  My wife took this picture.  She wanted me to turn around to pose.  But with the pace of the session, I didn't want to waste my twenty seconds on a pose - which I can rarely pull off well anyway.

So what do you say when you're right next to your basketball hero?  First, I handed him an Orange border /299 card for him to sign.  The first Batum card I ever bought was an Orange border numbered 88/299 (his jersey number).  So I thought it was fitting to have him sign an Orange copy.

And I took my time to tell him that the whole family was a fan of his and wished him good luck on the rest of the year.  He just smiled and said, 'thanks' in his really thick French accent.  And then it was done.  Very quick.  I really wish I had another minute or two.  But I'm sure me and the family will see him again in the future as some other event.

My wife was right behind me and she had a Chrome refractor for him to sign.  I only brought one Chrome card - since I didn't know how well it would turn out.  I'm glad I had the foresight to think about that.  And since there was nobody behind my wife to take her picture - which bummed her out, she snapped a pic right in Nic's face.  Kind of rude, but he didn't mind too much.

Good sport, that Nicolas Batum.  And that was it.  Still kind of feels surreal.  You invest so much of your time, and sometimes your money, into a favorite player, and it all becomes real in an instant.  But I'm glad we did it.  I'll always remember it, and I hope the kids do too.

And here's the cards we had signed:

Really, the Orange auto came out great, so did the base.  The blue would've looked nice, but my kid touched it while it was still wet.  It's ok, it'll be a great family story for years to come.  And the Chrome Refractor didn't smudge, but the sharpie didn't take as well.  I'm VERY glad I didn't bring all Chrome cards for him to sign.  I would've bee devastated if all the autos looked like that. 

It did dry though, and it's not bad.  But the regular card stock is much better. 

You know, getting these four cards, signed in person and being on-card, really just makes sticker autos look so much more ridiculous.  Right now, the only liscensed Batum cards that feature on-card autos are the Exquisite RC's.  And those run $100+ on ebay.  So these to me are priceless.  I couldn't be happier with the day or the cards I have now.

Great day all around.

4 Separate Contests at Offy's

In case you haven't subscribed to Offy - you should.  He's got 4 contests going on right now.  Check it out.

Really, he's one of the guys I make sure to read everyday.  Good writing style to go along with his passion for the hobby - that's important.

He's a Boston honk - but I don't hold that against him.  He's where you send all of your Celtics cards you don't want taking up space in your closet anymore.  Everybody wins.

Check him out.

Card show Murad

Let me just say that the Murad you get at the card show is the best.  It's price is negotiable - and you find ones that you wouldn't expect. 

One vendor even had some Murad silk cards.  But they weren't for Blazers players, so I passed.  There was a guy selling Murad retail packs for a buck a pack.  Very nice deal, since retail packs don't all come with checklists.  In fact, I bought six packs, and only got one checklist.  And I pulled a SP Billups and a mini Bogut SP.  So that there was already worth more than six bucks on the bay.

Plus, I picked up a couple of Bowman Batum variations that we got hand signed by the man later in the day (those scans will be up when I write that article).  So, in addition to the Murad packs, I got an Iverson relice and a Jarrett Jack auto.

Not bad.  I went in with 20 bucks.  And I actually had to use the Murad packs to round out the twenty.  So it was a great deal for what I was collecting.

Coming tomorrow - card show pick-ups and Nic Batum autograph session!

What a great day.  Went to the Portland Card Show, got some cards I needed.  Watched my daughter play basketball with Nic Batum and then we all got his autograph.

I'm beat now though.  I'll get all this fun stuff up tomorrow. 

It was a blast.

It's true!!!

Tomorrow, Nic Batum will be at Freddy's.  I'm not sure if I can even go yet though.

Big thanks to Walker at the Blazer blog.  I wouldn't have known about it otherwise.

Massive Murad Haul

Well, maybe not so massive, but it's a definite lift up in the conquest to conquer the Murad Monster.

I tried a different route this time around.  I went to Check Out My Cards to get these.  I like the way the site works.  It's not auction style - but I know by now what's a decent price for Murad relic and lower level autos.  And I like the fact that the site let me buy them and save them until I had enough built up to ship them all at once to save on shipping.

Seriously, I'm becoming a shipping miser.  It's amazing how much farther a couple of bucks can go when you can combine shipping.

In any event, here's what I got in this go-round.  The needs-list has been updated.  Please look to see if you have anything I might need.

In this round, I got the Manu Ginobli relic, Michael Redd relic, Earl Monroe relic and the Maggette auto.

I really like the Monroe relic.  I like the old school players' look on these cards.

The Maggette card was an easy pick-up.  The lower level autos are surprisingly cheap.  I watched a Bill Russell Murad auto sell on ebay....and let's just say that that card alone may have taken out six months of my collecting budget.  But I'm not discouraged - it's just another challenge that I'll have to overcome.

SIDE NOTE:  I can't believe this has happened to me.  But after writing this post, and going through my binder, I found out that I bought Manu Ginobli twice.  I have no idea how this happened.  I'm usually so careful.  If there are any Manu fans out there, let me know - I'll just shoot you the card.  If I don't have any takers in the next couple of days - I'll have to relist it.  Of all the cards I'd love to have two of, I got freaking Manu. 

Reader Zach is outdoing himself

Today in the mail I got a second package from reader, Zach.  Seriously, super-thankful for the Blazer love.

Here's some of the highlights.  Even a blue parallel LA card.  Zach, you've outdone yourself.  Thanks so much.

Again, with what I'm collecting right now, I wouldn't have had a chance to own these cards otherwise.

Big thanks to a reader!

Just wanted to say thanks to a reader named Zach.  Earlier this week, Zach said he had some Blazers stuff to unload on me.

He sent two Blazers team packs - complete team packs - from two releases last year.  I got the Blazers team sets from 08/09 Fleer and UD First Edition.  And, believe me, I'll be looking for some Bucks cards (team he follows) in my little treasure chest to send back in thanks.

It's really fun getting these cards, because I know that I wouldn't have gotten them any other way.  The way it is right now, I'm so focused on Murad and Bowman Batum, that I just don't have the time, nor the funds, to go back and collect the Blazers cards from this year, much less from years past.

So the cards are greatly appreciated.  It's like having a little piece of card history.  Big thanks to reader Zach, it won't go without a bit of repayment of some kind. 

Another LCS failure

So, I found a different card shop to go to today.  And all I really wanted to do was find the last stragglers of the Murad base set.  No such luck.  The card shop owner said they never opened Murad.  Well, cool.

So I looked around a bit to see what there was to see.  At least this card shop had an open air feel to it.  It was clean and had ESPN on.  The box prices were about 10-15 dollars more than online pricing.  Really, that's not so bad.

But he had a ton of Blazers singles that were just way overpriced.  Any auto - even regular GU's - were being sold at about 20 dollar starting points.  Ugghh.

So, no Murad completion today.  The good news is that I'm in a metropolitan area, somebody will have Murad singles out there.

I just will never figure out why these card shops continue to have glass cases completely full of singles that never sell.  If the Jerryd Bayless jersey swatch cost five dollars instead of 20, I probably would've picked one up for the PC.  The irony is that he had a computer open to ebay the whole time.  He knows what those cards sell for - but I guess they're just more cozy in the glass case.

Giving credit where credit is due

This is a site about basketball cards.  And it's a bit heavy handed on the side of the Blazers at times.  But it's hard to find a site writer who doesn't inject his team a bit more often into their articles. 

But today, I have to give credit, as much as it hurts, to the Dallas Mavericks.  This team is for real.  In fact, after having watched Denver and Dallas, I'm leaning more towards Dallas now as the team to beat the Lakers.

Dallas has won 12 straight, moved a game ahead of Denver for 2nd in the West and only trail the Lakers by 2.5 games.  It's actually a real possibility that the Lakers don't go in as the top seed at this point.  When the margin is only 2.5 games, the first team to blink is taking the lower seed.

Nowitzki, sweaty hair and all, is just an incredible player.  Kidd doesn't seem to realize that he shouldn't be playing that well this late in his career.  And the trade catapulted them to the next level.  And there's a certain French player, Beaubois, that's just showing a great overall talent. 

Damnit, I should just learn French already.  All my favorite players are French.  How does that happen to a small town kid like myself?  I just don't know.

So there.  I said it.  Dallas is great this year.  And they're looking to be great next year too.  I hate the Lakers, I hate them enough to hope that Dallas can take them out.

But what does Dallas' success mean for the Blazers?  It means that the Blazers need to move past a couple of teams to try for the 5th or 6th seed to avoid them first round.  And would somebody please tell Mark Cuban to sit the hell down already.  Really, they have a camera trained on him at all times for his reactions.  Someday they'll have TV's that go both ways.  Then he'll be able to see my reactions.  Less than flattering that they are.

An ebay rookie mistake

I can't believe what I'm seeing in my mailbox today.  Instead of the manila envelope due to me, there is a piece of paper indicating that I have a package at the post office. 

SIDE NOTE:  Remember when postmen actually walked to your front door, knocked and delivered your packages by hand?  I guess that .44 cent stamp doesn't buy customer service anymore.

In any event, there is a package waiting at the post office for me.  I checked quickly to make sure there wasn't some postage due or some other reason why I would have anything in the P.O. instead of my mailbox.

And then I see that my package is international.  International? 

How international you ask?  Is this a Canadian international?  A Mexico international?

No, this is a TAIWAN international.  Freaking Taiwan.

I run to the google machine and hurriedly look at my purchases on ebay.  My stomach sinks.

In my quest to put together the Certified International insert set, I found lots of great deals - and made a rule to combine shipping on as much as possible.  I wanted to show readers how effectively, and cheaply, I could put together an insert set.  I wanted a real dollar value to pass along.  The reasoning is that I thought that people might want to put together more fun little sets if they didn't get dinged on shipping all the time.

But here's where my mistake was.  I combined two lots of cards.  The first lot, which is apparantly waiting for me, had two cards.  Two cards shipped for 4.98$.  Now that's .99 cents a card with 3.00 shipping.

SIDE NOTE NUMBER TWO:  How does anybody from TAIWAN ship cards for 3.00?  Really, the price is the same as domestic shipping. 

So, good deal on the first lot.  That lot had Boris Diaw and Steve Nash cards.  The second lot I bought a day later and it was from the same seller.  And that lot had three cards (Nowitzki, Azubuike and Bogut).  Again, I got all three cards for .99 cents and 3.00$ shipping.  Really good deal.  I got five of the 15 cards for a buck a piece plus standard shipping.  With prices like that, it's a very buildable and appealing set.

But in my haste, I had no inkling to look at the seller's location.  And that's odd to me why I didn't do that.  I do that with EVERYTHING I buy off ebay.  There's a Nic Batum gold refractor (Topps Chrome - not Bowman Chrome) selling for a good price.  But the seller is in the UK, so I'm not going to risk it.

I bought a wii controller on ebay.  But it took me about an hour to find a domestic seller and not one from Hong Kong.  So the location is something I check.

In the end, I think it just was meant to be.  The insert set is called Certified Internationals.  And Taiwan is about as international as it gets.  The first lot is here, let's hope that the second lot is shortly behind it.  I will label this post under 'irony'.

Blazers vs Nuggets...ugghh

Brutal.  And Captain Rotation 'Guru' struck again.

I understand that Batum was cold from the floor last night, but then again, so was the whole team outside of Rudy Fernandez.  Roy went 3-14, Aldridge went 6-16 and so on and so forth.  So in that respect, I can understand Batum's numbers in the shooting category.  But c'mon, Nate.  In the 4th quater, you're going to let your best defender sit on the bench?

This team in the 3rd quarter cut a huge Denver lead down to a manageable size.  And then Capt. Nate crapped all over it.

But on the brighter side, it's good to see George Karl actually coaching games.  That guy is going through radiation and chemo and still find the strength to deal with media, coach his players and run the game.  I wasn't a huge Karl fan before - but that dude has something that's special.

'Melo might have scored 30, but game ball definetely goes to coach Karl.

Joel Przybilla goes down, re-injures knee

Seriously?  Is this a joke?

So Joel breaks knee, has it repaired, is out 6-8 months and is rehabbing knee back home.  And then he takes a dive in the shower and broke the same knee.

I'm beyond words at this point witht the Portland big men.  It's looking like Camby may be a more permanant fixture than we had all bargained for.

My absolute favorite basketball website

They say that baseball is the love of mathematicians.  Stats and more stats.  I love baseball.  Everybody knows the quality of hitting .300 for the season.  Baseball fans know how special it is if a pitcher goes a month with an ERA under 1.00.  It's as much math as it is athletics.

I really couldn't find the level of geek math that you find in baseball in basketball.  Until now. 

And the thing is, it's a pretty popular site.  I'm talking about the ESPN's Hollinger PER (Player Efficiency Rating).

It's blowing my mind. 

And......AND, it's giving me some serious justification for being a Batum honk.  Turns out, when the math is put in, Batum is pretty good.  Very good actually.

What is the PER, you ask?  The player efficiency rating (PER) is a rating of a player's per-minute productivity.  It allows you to compare players against a league average essentially.  Hollinger sets the league average (from a really complicated formula) at 15.00 every year.  So, if you're favorite player is at a 15.00 rating - it means he'll have a job next year, but he's no All-Star.

Of course, Lebron is number 1 in the rankings.  His rating is 32.03 - that's really good.  Best player in the league.

So I started looking at my Blazers.  Oden still leads the team with 23.31, and that's good enough for 8th in league.  Damn, he was having a monster season.  I really wish he could stay healthy.

Second on the team, and 16th in the league, is Brandon Roy with a 22.10 rating.

Third on the team?  Anybody, anybody?  Nicolas Batum.  Rates at 18.52 - for 43rd best in the league.  LaMarcus Aldridge (who I thought would be higher) is two spots down at 18.24. 

But, there are other stats.  I love stats!  And Hollinger has a True Shooting % stat.  And that is what a player's shooting percentage would be if we accounted for free throws and 3-pointers. True Shooting Percentage = (Total points x 50) divided by [(FGA + (FTA x 0.44)]  Math!  This formula almost feels like baseball.

And for qualified players, guess where Nicolas Batum is ranking in the league?

He's at number 2, baby.  His TS% is at .682 - and Mike Miller is at number 1 with a .683.  So that means, if Batum goes on a tear again, he'll be tops in the league.

I've watched sports my whole life, and I just knew Batum was going to be special from Opening Day tip-off last year.  I'm so glad the math is backing up what my eyes were telling me.  I should be a damn scout. 

And class is adjourned.

No cards today, just sports

Brief news recap from stories from the day:

1) Marcus Camby goes down with ankle injury in practice.

Seriously, coach McMillan, what the hell?  Is it possible to lose the whole team to injury in one season?  Maybe you guys should just watch film for three days.  Take it easy or something. 

X-Rays were "negative".  I have no idea what that means anymore.  Just hollow words to a Blazer fan.

2) Ben Roethlisberger accused of sexual assault...for the second time

I don't even have all the facts on this story.  But I'm a huge Big Ben fan - and I hate that this has happened again.  I'll hate it even more if it's true (though he's not been arrested at this point).  Ben needs to travel everywhere with a family member or something.  He needs somebody at his side to a) be a witness in case of accusations, and b) to stop him from getting into these kind of situations in the first place. 

Ben's worst enemy is the off-season.  Motor cycle crash, sexual assault allegations and more sexual assault allegations.  Really, maybe the team could just build him a house next to the stadium for the off-season.

3) The Mavericks are going for 10th win in a row tonight

Incredibly, the Mavericks have looked like the best team to take on the Lakers these last couple of weeks.  Their trades are paying huge dividends.  If I'm not mistaken, the Mavs come to Portland on the 25th of this month.  Hopefully they'll have cooled off by then.

4) FIFA 2010 for the Wii is the best soccer game ever

OK, so that's not news.  But I just got that game last night, and I'm hooked.  Online play is awesome, and the whole game engine has been revamped.  So on that note, I'm trading in basketball for the next couple of hours for some Everton simulated domination.

If anybody else is playing it, my online ID is guymoses.  Come get some and feel the domination of Louis Saha smacking it in your face.  What the hell is my deal with French athletes?

If you didn't know who Louis Saha was - or that he was French - look him up.  Superstar.  Straight superstar.

I think Panini is starting to get better at this

Really, say what you will, but this stuff is really starting to look nice.  There's been a couple of early Panini releases that all kind of blurred together.  Threads had some nice inserts, obviously I like some of Certified, but the earlier stuff didn't 'pop' for me.

Panini sent over these images today of Absolute Memorabilia, and I have to say that the Kobe card may be one of the best auto card designs I've seen.  Seriously, not too shabby.  It's due to release in May, so it's good to see that Panini still has some basketball for us to collect going forward in the year. 

I might not collect every release that comes out, but I do look for insert sets.  In fact, when I'm done with the Certified Imports, I'm thinking about going back and collecting the mini-jerseys in Threads.  I don't know why, but I love those little things.

Seriously, if Panini could go ahead and produce a couple of Blazers auto cards like the one above, they'd have a life-long collector.

Some swagger for the Batum Bowman collection...and other gems

Finally, the mail from the Bay drifted my way.  Nothing worse than going to the mailboxes and not seeing manila envelopes due to you.

First in a trade to Kerry from Cards on Cards, I got this Sam Young Panini Limited Jersey Auto numbered 1 of 5.  Our favorite Cardinals fan wasn't a huge fan of our Sam Young.  I've watched Young play a bit through out the year in Memphis and I think this kid has huge upside.  I traded a manu-patch auto (signed on patch) of Dante Cunningham for the card.  Ordinarily, I wouldn't trade away a Blazer, but I pack pulled another Cunningham auto in Panini Flagship.  Though the auto wasn't as nice, I pulled it personally.  So I kept that one.  Either way, I know I sent Sir Dante's (my nickname for him - pass it around) auto card to a good home.  And I'm still happy with what I got.

Next, on the cheap, I picked up the Andrei Kirilenko base version of the Certified Imports set.  I'm really glad that these cards aren't costing more.  They're a really fun quirky subset to put together.

And lastly (drumroll please) I got a four-pack of Batum cards in the same auction.  Leave it to the opportunists who waited for Batum to have a huge game to release some cards on the market.  Either way, I made out like a bandit on this one. 

A blue regular (369/499), an orange regular (084/299), a chrome refractor (232/499), and one of my favorite cards ever made, the Blue Chrome refractor (47/99).

Even though I still haven't bought a gold chrome, or the red chrome for that matter, the blue chrome are my favorite cards.  And now I own 4 of the 99. 

Take that Batum Bandit of the Bay (my personal enemy - and fellow Batum fanatic who battles me on every Bowman Batum auction)!  I don't know your identity, but I won.

I hope BBB (shortened acronym for my enemy - or Triple B, if you like) is a married man.  And I hope that his wife nags him constantly about collecting Batum cards.  And I hope he chooses to save his marriage, and in doing so, puts his Bowman Batums back on the market.

There was only one gold chrome refractor I've ever seen offered on ebay - and he sniped me.  Kindly put the gold - and any other variations back up for sale.  It's safer than alimony.

What does DA Card World know that we don't?

I was just on the site looking at boxes of pretty much all the 08/09 stuff (Murad and Bowman purposes).  And what I found at DA Card World was actually pretty shocking.  Just look at the prices of pretty much anything Upper Deck.  SP Rookie Threads is always super spendy.  And now it's half off?  Even other UD offerings from the year are at rock bottom prices.  Some of the formerly 70 dollar boxes are selling at 20 dollars.  Really.

Why is that?  Well, it must mean that certain boxes are just not going to have redemptions redeemed.  Really, what else could it be?  I've never seen 20 dollar boxes for Upper Deck....anything in basketball.

But are there deals to be had then?  I'd say yes.  If you're a set builder, I'd say buy.  And, if you don't mind getting shorted a hit or two in a box due to redemptions, you could also go pretty safe in that route.  It's not like the boxes are completely devoid of value, after all.  There will be hits.

But if you're thinking about going for the box shown above, beware.  When's the last time you saw 13 or 14 hits in a box without a redemption?  And the redemptions are often times the better cards - not always, but more often than not.  Either way, if you were ok getting 10 hits for your money, it might not be a complete loss.  There's still some nice stuff in there.

Just thought I'd let you all know.  I'm so focused right now on Murad and Bowman Batum, that I'm not going to delve into UD sets, even if they can be had for rock bottom prices.

Is Louis Amundson a vampire?

Seriously.  Just saying.

Maybe one of the Daywalker variety.  We should look into it.

Eastern Conference News

I don't often cover Eastern Conference stuff - as I don't really live in the East.  But this morning the East is dominating the newsreel.  And since I don't get mail now until about 4pm (I have no idea why, but not cool USPS), I figured I'd start the day off with a recap of what's going on in the Association.

1) Iverson is done for the year - maybe his career.

Really, Allen Iverson going back to the 76'ers was the feel good story of the year.  A city wanted him back, and he felt like he had a good deal to give.  But his daughter is really suffering with an illness and it's kept him away from the team.  So the team and Iverson have decided to shut it down for the year.  It's not clear if he'll be back next year.  Really too bad.  Iverson was a draw in Philly - it would be a shame to see him go out without a proper sending off.

2) Lebron is changing his number.

Well, at least he's put the paperwork in to change his number.  He wants the number 6.  Good for him.  He says the move is out of respect to MJ to switch from 23.  Personally, I think that James is a really smart guy.  I think this move has so much more to do with Lebron than with MJ.  Really, the number 23 is synonymous with MJ.  I think that Lebron is at the point that he wants his number to be his own.  This is about an impending free-agency and a fresh marketability.  Like I said, he's smart.  He's only going to have one summer of 2010 (and it will be huge) - might as well cash in all the way.

3) Shaq has thumb surgery, may be out for the season.

Really?  A thumb?  In the days of big men breaking down with knees, hips and feet, it seems that Shaq is being done in by a thumb injury.  I'm not sure how much he used the thumb - it sure as hell wasn't used to make free throws.  Did he try shooting free throws with the broken thumb?  Maybe it would've helped.

But seriously, in all of the scenarios of Shaq being hampered by age and weight, the thumb injury is a bit of a curve ball.  And this move pretty much guarantees that Ilgauskus will be coming back to Cleveland.  As if there were any doubt of that.

If Shaq is done for the season (it's only a possibility at this point) will he be back next year?  Lebron may or may not be in Ohio.  And Shaq only wants to play for contenders.  It's really up in the air at this point.

After much cheering....and much scotch, the Blazers prevailed.

First off, my apologies to Nick at bballcardpro.  You see, he's a Memphis fan.  I'm a Blazer fan.  And the Grizz played the Blazers tonight.  One team had to lose.  I'm so thankful it wasn't the Blazers.

The Blazers were down by 12 at the half.  I wasn't so pleased with the situation.  Scotch commenced.  Yes, scotch is a verb.  Such is the price of the super-fan.  When the team is down, scotch happens.

In any event, the Blazers stormed back.  They built a lead.  From 12 down, they built a lead.  Then they took Batum out.  Lead failed.  Batum came back, and the lead was secured.  Funny how that happens.

So Stackhouse guy, does 21 points, 3 rebounds, a steal and a block still count as a fluke?  Or do the Grizz not count as legitimate competition?  Or could it be that the powers that be have taken their collectives heads out of their arses and have realized that leaving Batum in to play is actually a good thing?

The Blazers just went 4-1 on this road trip.  And Batum was a huge part of that.  And so what if I have a man crush?  Stackhouse was born in '74.  At least I don't have a geriatric man crush.

That may be the scotch talking.

Murad train back on the rails

I've still got some Certified Imports on the way - and some Bowman Batum's I snagged while trolling the Bay (I can't wait for that to come in) - but finally I got some more Murad rolling in as well.

The Arenas jersey I got for dirt cheap - in fact the guy may have paid me to take it.  Not a lot of demand for Arenas GU now days.  But it's still a card I need to fill the set, and I was glad to get it cheap.

Also, got several base in a trade with Nick from Basketball Card Pro.  If you haven't seen him listed in my blogroll, you should check him out.  The basketball sector of the hobby is growing one site at a time.  And hey, he's not a Blazer fan.  He's a Memphis guy. 

And in a twist of fate, one of the cards he sent that I needed was this:

This is Jerry Stackhouse.  He's a really good player.  Ask Stackhouse guy.

Card number 111 of the Murad set is immediately shooting to the top of the list as one of my favorite pick-ups.

Oh, and there's the Arenas relic I mentioned above. 

Again, I've said it before, if I wasn't building the entire set, I never would've had any reason to own an Arenas relic card.  So in that respect, I'm glad I have the card.