All Hail the King! (a Box Break)

Nice try, Topps.  I will never forgive you for the trespasses you have committed against me in the past.  This box of 2013 Topps Chrome Baseball was quite nice, nevertheless.  I don't buy as many baseball hobby boxes as I used to - namely because I feel Topps is uncreative and doesn't provide enough value, while Panini and Upper Deck aren't as desirable because they lack MLB licenses.  Consequently, I've gravitated toward buyback, oddball, or prospect boxes like what Leaf or Pastime has been putting out.

This type of purchasing behavior doesn't help people like my friend "J," though, who owns a brick and mortar sports card shop in Northern California.  It's just easier and cheaper for him to stock and sell Topps (and Panini and Upper Deck to a lesser extent) products to the masses than stuff from lesser known brands.  So, once in a while I'll visit his store and buy some Topps (usually Bowman) cards from him.  Solidarity!  Bros!

Here's some highlights from a semi-recent 2013 Chrome Baseball box I got from my friend:

Todd Frazier desert camo refractor numbered to 15 and a Joey Votto black refractor numbered to 100.  The camoflage border is different.  I like it.

 Rookies!

This Darin Ruf rookie autograph was actually the last hit I pulled.  At that point the card was just a third "bonus" hit to me.  You'll see why.  (Yes, indeed, three hits.)  The Ruf auto is in my trade bait.

Paco!  This was the first hit I pulled out of the box.  Man, what a year the Dodgers had.  Also, what great rookies we had this season.  I wanted a Paco Rodriguez rookie autograph card, and I pulled this redemption.  I still don't technically have it in hand, but I eagerly await the arrival of the actual card from Topps in like 12 years.  It's a "variation" too, so I imagine it's a refractor of some sort.  I already own a Yasiel Puig prospect auto.  It'd be awesome to have Hyun-Jin Ryu's rookie auto too.

"HUURRRNGH!" I believe was the reaction when I pulled this beaut.  "King" Felix Hernandez bigass four color patch auto, #'d 03/10.  What a monster patch!  This makes for my second Felix autograph card.  I didn't even know these existed in 2013 Chrome.  Imagine my surprise when I opened the surprisingly thick pack and found this dude in there.  Awesome!  I think the patch is from the Seattle Mariners away jersey?  What portion exactly?

Speaking of the Mariners... it'll be super bananas if they manage to pull off signing Robinson Cano!  Payday.

Pair o' Dodgers Hurlers

Showing off some loot:

Left: 2004 Fleer Greats of Game, Johnny Podres autograph, #GBA-JP2.  Right: 2001 Fleer Greats of the Game, Carl Erskine auto.

The Podres auto is a sticker and the Erskine signature is on card.  I love autograph cards of old timey (at least, old timey to me - I was born in the 80's) Brooklyn Dodgers.  Both Carl Erskine and Johnny Podres were part of the 1955 World Series winning Dodgers team - and what a team that was!  I just noticed I subconsciously put the lefty Podres on the left and the righty "Oisk" on the right in the photo.

Anyone paying attention to all the wild hot stove action the past day or so?  I wonder if the Dodgers will make any crazy moves soon?  Think we'll make a serious play for David Price?  MLB Trade Rumors is a daily read for me.  I recommend it!

Trade bait!

Holy Grail Card: Reign Man

I've been a fan of Shawn Kemp since the 3rd grade, back when I used to collect all his cards.  Up until I started collecting sports cards again in 2009, the most I ever spent on a single card was one of Kemp.  I paid a whopping $10 for it on a playground.  I remember my Mom got me a Shawn Kemp #40 Sonics jersey for my birthday when I was a kid too.  I don't have the jersey anymore, I think, but it's still probably the coolest present I've ever received.  Even as a kid I wanted a Shawn Kemp signature, and now I own what is undoubtedly one of my all-time top-five "Holy Grail" cards:

2012-13 Leaf Metal Basketball, Shawn Kemp prismatic autograph, #'d 08/50.  Reign Man!  Original Lob City.

I spent a little over $20 for this card.  Hell, I would've gladly paid more than that to acquire a Shawn Kemp auto.  I'm happy that Leaf got him to sign though, because it was pretty tough to obtain Kemp's autograph cards at a reasonable price prior to this.  Now to get a Gary Payton autograph card to complete the awesome duo?

Some Fan Favorites

Favorites of fans, indeed.  I was trying to get a Davey Lopes autograph card from the recent Archives Fan Favorites set but ended up with three signatures instead:

Very nice.  The on card autos are pretty sweet!  I'm definitely keeping the Lopes.  Not sure about the other two yet, but I really dig this kind of thing - old-timers and clean-looking on card sigs.  (Enlarge for awesome.)

Like many of you, my fellow collectors, I love reading stats and being reminded of great sporting feats.  Lopes, the Dodgers' current first base coach, stole 38 consecutive bases without getting caught in 1975.  That year Davey stole 77 total bases.  Hell, he stole 63 the following year in '76.

Go Dodgers!  Not gonna lie - the SF Giants being in last place kind of makes me happy.

Zombie Wes Welker

I'm a great fan of the "GRITTY WHITE RECEIVER."  Wes Welker is perhaps the prime example of this archetype in football.  I recently picked up a Welker signature card that features a slightly unsettling portrait of the former-Patriot, now-Bronco:

2009 National Chicle, West Welker autograph card.  Sticker auto, but I'm happy to own this card nonetheless.

Apparently the artist decided to paint Welker as a zombie.  His skin tone in the portrait is slightly greenish, grayish, and ashen.  It's a bit creepy.  Zombie Wes Welker has come to feast upon human flesh!

Bo Knows

Well, it's been 2+ months since my last post.  (And that last one was quite monumental.)  I really should try to post at least semi-regularly and with more frequency, perhaps starting now.  Work is very busy.  When I get home I try not to use the computer at all, since I've been having some carpal tunnel and lower-arm muscle issues again.  Weekends are for vegging out.  I do have a pretty spiffy card to show off, however.  It's a card that depicts one of the greatest athletes of all time:

Bo Knows!  2012 Press Pass Legends Hall of Fame Edition, Bo Jackson autograph, #'d 54/75.  I pulled this from a box I purchased at All Star Cards in Santee, CA (essentially, San Diego).

This wasn't necessarily the best or rarest card from the pack, but it is undoubtedly my favorite one.  Another one off the wish list, on to the next one!

Mail Forwarding

Man, it is a pain to manage multiple addresses.  It was easy to decide where to have my recent sports card purchases shipped though - to me!  These are some recent pickups:

 My main rule of buying prospect cards?  Get them for cheap!  I sure missed the boat on Matt Harvey and Shelby Miller, as I half-assedly tried to obtain their prospect autograph cards for the better part of two years.  Nevertheless, Wil Myers is a good one to have!  I like ITG products.

I was so pumped to have a job again (that is, money) that I went a little crazy.  Here's a graded Jurickson Profar prospect auto.  It is, indeed, a very nice card in very nice condition, Beckett grading be damned.  I'd consider busting this thing out and sending it to SGC purely out of spite.

So, how 'bout dem Dodgers?  Losing.

A Triumphant Return?

I'm back!  I guess.  I have barely been up here in northern California for a month and I've already had some incredible ups and downs in my personal and professional lives.  Maybe semi-regular crad blogging will signal a preliminary return to normalcy?  An awesome thing I should mention though - I just got back from a metal show at Slim's in San Francisco where I met James Hetfield of Metallica and shook his hand.  Very cool!  He was in a rush to get into a black SUV with tinted windows, so my friend Jake and I had no time to get a photograph with him.  Still, it was pretty awesome nonetheless.

For this, my first blog post after moving back to the SF Bay Area (boo), I have decided to post a holy grail card I very recently acquired:

2011 Panini Playoff National Treasures, Aaron Rodgers Super Bowl MVP on-leather autograph, #'d 15/27.  YEA!

Well, now I can stop collecting.  I (mostly) kid, though.  As we collectors are wont to do, I'll inevitably find something else of interest to collect.  Next up, an Aaron Rodgers rookie auto?  Also, the Dodgers are playing poorly.  At least Matt Kemp still finds a way to be awesome.

Metallica!

2012-13 Panini Select Basketball Box Break and Review

I should start off by mentioning that Panini is one of my favorite card companies.  They consistently release products that offer great designs, good collation, and decent value - all backed with excellent customer service.  However, just because Panini is one of my favorites does not mean that they can do no wrong.  You often see this with unapologetic Topps fanboys.  In fact, it is your unalienable right as a consumer to be able to fully and honestly speak your mind about the things you purchase.

I do know that my expectations were very high for 2012-13 Panini Select Basketball.  Hell, it's called "Select," and the dude that sold it to me seemed pretty stoked on it.  I probably shouldn't have pumped myself up for it so much.  I also should have looked at some of the press releases.  Unfortunately, Select was ultimately underwhelming.  A tale of the good, the bad, and the ugly - told with pictures:

We'll start off with the good.  I love the base cards in Select.  The cards are classy and the players are elegantly displayed.  There is a museum portrait-like quality to the regular base cards, with their  cohesion of silver/gold borders, color-matched backgrounds, and cropped action poses.  I bet these would look awesome as a completed set.

I hate James Harden's beard.  Hate it!  Here are two Prizm parallel base cards.  I did not pull any of the gold or black Prizms, respectively numbered to 25 and 1.  The Prizm technology makes the base cards pop even more.  Very aesthetically pleasing.  I am suddenly kind of inspired to collect a complete base set of Select Prizms.

Here's where it gets a bit ugly.  (Yes, I'm aware that I am going out of order.)  The inserts in Select are plain ugly.  They look uninspired.  That Patrick Ewing card on the left looks heinous and ridiculous.  The Chris Paul insert on the right is boring.  Panini did such a good job on the base cards that the insert cards became so underwhelming for me.

The elegance is gone.  Nice players, but these cards look like posters that would be hanging in Guy Fieri's man cave.  The cards above might be much improved without the shoddy flames in the background.

I like the idea of the "In Flight" set (see Ricky Rubio on the left), but the execution was bad.  It looks like an in-flight magazine ad, not a sports card.  "White Hot" bollocks.  Pointless inserts.  You might be able tell that my photography quality went down for the insert cards because I stopped caring.

This is just bad.  Really, Panini?  Apologies to Royce White, but no one wants this.  Goddamn you.  I guess at least one hit is always going to be a "garbage" hit.  At least the card looks nice.  In fact, the rest of the hits are as excellently designed as the base cards.  Rookie Prizm auto #'d 004/199.

Kyle Singler, rookie Prizm auto-relic, #'d 012/199.  Singler went to Dook.  The team logo could be bigger on these cards.

Tobias Harris, on-card rookie autograph, #'d 002/299.  This kid is tearing it up.  Not a "garbage" hit, indeed!

This card is sweet!  J.J. Redick, Select Stars prime Prizm autograph-jersey relic, #'d 10/10.  I have been searching for a nice Redick auto for a while, and what do you know, pulled one here.  I believe there are only 25 players in this subset.

I feel that Panini could have been, well, more selective for a higher-end basketball product like Select.  Royce White was taken in the first round, yes, but come on.  Also, I thought the inserts were completely awful.  I probably would not be so underwhelmed if I had tempered my expectations too.  All things considered, I guess 2012-13 Panini Select wasn't so bad.  It could have been a Topps hobby box where half the cards are damaged and you get shorted a hit.

I leave you with the Kobe Anthology pack that came with the box:

These make for much better inserts.

Please make the playoffs, Lakers.  More Nash.

A trade with GCRL

I've been hanging around and partying hard for several days, so my blog has been a bit ignored.  Here's a quick post to make up for that.  I recently completed a trade with GCRL.  It was cool to trade with him, as Jim is one of the longest-standing and most prolific Dodger bloggers around.  I sent him an Adrian Beltre autograph from 1999 Gallery (plus a few extras) that I originally posted at the Blog of Trade Bait.  This is what I received in return:

2004 Upper Deck Legends, Timeless Teams #181 Pedro Guerrero auto.  On card.  Sweet!

I don't have many Pedro Guerrero cards, but this is a great one to own.  Opening Day is today.  Baseball!  Yaaay!

I accepted an offer to work for Pinterest.  So, I will be moving back up to the shoddy half of California soon.  I will definitely try to fly back for some ballgames at the new and improved Dodger stadium though.  Go Dodgers!

A trade with Brad

I recently completed an awesome trade with Brad of Brad's Blog.  You can see some of what he got from me at his blog.  Brad's a rad dude and he was very easy to deal with!  I forgot to take a photo of the 1989 Fleer #616 card of Bill Ripken that Brad sent to me in the trade.  However most, if not all of you, should already know what that infamous "Fuck Face" card looks like.  Here are the hits I received (Brad sent an awesome chunk of Dodgers cards, which I will post separately):

2012 Chrome, Yu Darvish sepia rookie refractor, #'d 66/75.  As I mentioned to Brad, I have an odd affinity for collecting cards numbered "66."

2011 Chrome, Brandon Beachy base rookie autograph.  Beachy is one of my favorite young gun pitchers, both for spectating and in fantasy baseball (when he's healthy).  This card is an upgrade over my first Beachy rookie auto, an ugly dud from Tier One.  He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2012, but should return this upcoming season.

Here is a gorgeous 2012 Chrome blue rookie refractor auto of Jesus Montero, #'d 055/199.  Brad actually sent me both Montero rookie autographs that he owned - a black and a blue refractor from this set - so that I could choose which one I liked best.  A class act, that's what Brad is.

This card is the highlight of my trade package.  2012 Five Star Fergie Jenkins auto, #'d 17/25.  I've always wanted an autograph card of Ferguson Jenkins - first Canadian enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cy Young winner, member of the 3,000 strikeout club, and a Harlem Globetrotter.  Sweet!  On card signature to boot!

Thanks for a great trade, Brad!

It's My Burfday! Here's a Holy Grail card!

Happy baseball birthdays to Tom Glavine and Hyun-Jin Ryu!  Also, happy birthday to Jim Lovell, Elton John, Tatjana Patitz, Anders Fridén (\m/), Bob Sura, Wladimir Klitschko, Lee Pace, Danica Patrick, Arnošt of Pardubice, first Archbishop of Prague (only included him because his name contains "Arno"), and many, many others!

I thought I would wait until today, my birthday, to post a recently acquired baseball card of most epic proportions:

1998 Donruss Signature, Significant Signatures #R3 Sandy Koufax autograph, #'d 0905/2000.

"Yurp," believe what you are seeing ladies and gentlemen!  Gaze upon madness.  Gaze upon prismatic card-stock perfection.  Indeed, I obtained a "Holy Grail" card of mine.  It is quite possibly a "Holy Grail" for many other collectors too.  No, I did not purchase this Sandy Koufax auto for my birthday.  I received a substantially large tax refund this year because I apparently overpaid thousands in taxes last year.  This card represents my big refund splurge.

I bought it a few weeks ago, in fact, at All Star Cards in Santee, CA.  They are one of my favorite card stores in California, so check them out if you happen to be in the San Diego area.  My girlfriend and I were in the card shop when I noticed an Albert Pujols signature card.  I said, "Man, I should just buy that instead of a risky box of cards."  However, I then looked behind the Pujols autograph on the shelf and saw the beauty you see above.  It was an epiphany of sorts, and love at first sight.  The awesome father-daughter team at All Star Cards even knocked several dollars off the asking price.  The black ink of the "K" and "O" in "Koufax" is imperfect, but to me the card is perfection in cardboard form.

I got my Koufax!

(Sweet trade post from Brad to come soon.)

Two Bees

2B's, that is!  I have a tendency to acquire cards of players I own on my fantasy sports teams.  As a collector, it just feels right to obtain cards of players I follow throughout an entire season - even if they are not usually players or people on teams I usually collect.  For example:

I certainly don't loathe the Padres like I do the Dodgers' other divisional rivals.  In fact, I like the Padres second best out of all the teams in the NL West.  I do feel bad for the city of San Diego, with their relatively poor sports teams and the constant threat from those teams' owners to move elsewhere.  I have Jedd Gyorko on several of my fantasy baseball teams.  I think Gyorko could have himself a breakout year.  Prices for his autograph cards have risen quite dramatically over the course of spring training.

I am a fan of Jason Kipnis' combination of speed and power.  Second base is a pretty thin position for fantasy baseball in 2013.  I really like Kipnis' signature.  Awesome!  This card is an upgrade over my other Jason Kipnis rookie auto, a sticker from Tristar OBAK.

I dread the eventual day I will have to move back to the SF Bay Area for work.  So many Giants fans again.  I shudder to think it.

My Get from a 2012 Triple Threads Baseball Group Case Break

I participated in a group case break of 2012 Triple Threads Baseball last week at Rip Kings.  There were 9 boxes in the case.  I had a $5 credit from Rip Kings toward a break and saw that a few good teams (well, "good" in terms of box breaking) were available at a reasonable price, so I purchased the Kansas City Royals team slot.  The Royals are like a fifth team I root for, and they have some decent players and hits in the product.  I was hoping to score a George Brett autograph.  I did not get one, but I think I still did quite well for myself:

Hey, still managed to get some sort of George Brett card!  What do they call this, a sepia parallel?  Brown?  Not an especially aesthetically-pleasing color combination here.  Looks like a big dust storm is about to engulf the Hall of Famer, Brett.

Country Breakfast!  Sweet.  Billy Butler auto-relic, #'d 2/9.  The blue ink on the sticker is a bit imperfect for some reason.  Maybe the pen Butler used was drying up.

Cool beans.

Happy St. Paddy's!

I sort of celebrated St. Patrick's Day yesterday.  I definitely have not been partying today.  In fact, I have to make a same-day, roundtrip flight to San Francisco and back tomorrow.  I usually make the mistake of drinking too much booze the night before I travel.  Being super hungover on an airplane is one of the worst things ever.

A few months ago I opened up two boxes of 2012 Leaf Memories Baseball.  It is an awesome product.  From one of those hobby boxes, I pulled an on-card autograph of one of the greatest Irish-American baseball players (and, well, I guess one of the greatest American ballplayers in general for that matter):

This Texan is #'d 32/34.

Yipee-ki-yay!  A high quality photo looks much better than a supposedly HD video box break, no?

By the way, I have a bunch of cards up for sale on EBAY this week.  Also.

It's Good to be King

King Felix, that is.  Not as good to be the Mariners organization, I suppose?  I read today that the Seattle Mariners only gained a profit of less than $5.9 million in 2012.  You can check out the same blog post at Yahoo! Sports' Big League Stew here.  With that kind of profit margin, they could sign... an NBA player that never plays!  $5.9 million is less than a third of Felix Hernandez's yearly salary under his hefty new contract.  This card definitely did not cost anywhere near those numbers:

2005 Series 2, Felix Hernandez rookie autograph.  On card!  Sweet scrawl there.

I purchased the above card a few months ago at a very reasonable price, almost exactly a month before Hernandez signed that massive contract.  It sure took me a while to post!  The prices for Felix's signatures seem to have risen gradually yet substantially since then.  Now, if only that elbow anomaly or what ever they found in his physical does not become something serious or detrimental, then the "King" will live long and prosper indeed.

There was a moment when I was concerned that the card actually depicted someone named Hernandez Felix and not the Seattle ace as I expected.

Two Morrows

After many tries to acquire a Brandon Morrow rookie or prospect autograph card, I have finally obtained one!  Well, two actually:

2006 Tristar Prospects Plus, Farm Hands Brandon Morrow signatures.  The one on top is a gold version, #'d 02/25.

As you can probably see, I was overzealous when bidding on these two cards.  My perseverance paid off two-fold.  Morrow is a good pitcher, with high heat and strikeouts, though if he could only stay healthy...

Los Angeles Catchers

Here are your two Dodgers catchers for this season:

Yaaay!  On the left: 2012 Update, Golden Moments, A.J. Ellis autograph.  On the right: 2011 Heritage Minors, Tim Federowicz auto, #'d 210/861.

I tried to acquire the Ellis signature the moment I realized it existed.  It took a long while, but I have obtained one!  Now I jealously hoard it away, as I return to Valhalla, to slumber and feed.  (Bonus points if you guess that reference.)  Tim-Fed's mustache makes him look kind of creepy, but I'm really just sullen and vexed because I can not grow one of my own.  Super catcher team, go!  Go Dodgers!

COMC Pickups

There was some confusion for me at the switch from CheckOutMyCards.com to COMC.com.  I was certainly unaware of any major differences at first.  Did this happen to anyone else?  I bought a few cards from CheckOutMyCards then switched to COMC for my second half of purchases.  To my dismay, I discovered that there are different shipping and handling costs associated with either site.  So, make sure you are using only one site or the other when making purchases!  You can't get the $3 flat rate shipping on COMC if you have items in your order from CheckOutMyCards.  I feel like COMC could have made more of an effort to communicate their changes to their customer base.  Or maybe I just ignored them.  That is entirely possible.  Here's what I got:

I love Flair cards!  If I get a job (ugh, taking forever), maybe that will be my new collecting project - making a Flair set or two.  This is a 1995 Flair #155, Mike Piazza.  Those are quite some faces you are making there, Mike.  I met Piazza not too long ago.

Here are two MMA (mixed martial arts for the uninitiated, though I can't imagine anyone not knowing about the sport by now) autographs.  On the left: 2012 UFC Finest of Dustin "The Diamond" Poirier.  On right: 2010 Leaf MMA base auto of Gabriel "Napão" Gonzaga.  Poirier, a Louisiana native, is one of my favorite up-and-coming fighters.  "The Diamond" has an excellent ground game and technical striking, and he just had a barnburner of a fight with Cub Swanson at UFC on Fuel TV: Barao vs. McDonald.  Gonzaga is a one-time UFC heavyweight championship contender.  "Napão" has been on a tear of late because he is finally using his considerable, world-class grappling skills to finish fights.

Jordan Hill!  He was doing a meet-and-greet and signing in Glendale this past Saturday.  I originally planned to attend, but I got lazy and just drank beer and played Halo 4 instead.  Besides, I already have these two autographs of him.  I would have missed out, yes, if Hill was like, "Arno, the Earth needs us, we must take my rocket ship to space and blast some fucking asteroids."  Then, yes, I would totally have driven to Glendale for that.  Top: 2009-10 Limited #157, Jordan Hill rookie jersey auto, #'d 80/299.  Bottom: 2009-10 Timeless Treasures #107, Jordan Hill rookie auto on white ball leather, #'d 240/299.

Left: 2007 Upper Deck Inkredible, Zach Miller autograph.  The Seahawks have underutilized Miller as a receiver, mostly using him as a blocker.  Right: 2010 Panini Ceritifed, Mirror Gold Signature rookie auto of Riley Cooper, #'d 03/25.  Cooper turned down the Phillies and Rangers at different times to play football.  We'll leave it at that.

On left: 2012 Chrome Purple Refractor rookie card of Wei-Yin Chen.  Chen had a nice season last year.  Also, his arm did not fall off nor did he have some other crazy injury that Taiwanese pitchers in the MLB tend to develop.  Here's hoping Chen stays tip-top!  Seriously, these Taiwanese pitchers are already beat up and damaged by the time they hit the bigs because they are likely being handled irresponsibly with a heavy workload when younger.  I can't tell if the purple and orange combination on this card is hideous or not.  I guess it works for the Phoenix Suns?  On right: 2011 Lineage 1952 Matt Harrison autograph.  Both of these dudes will probably end up on my fantasy baseball teams this season.

Finally, more Dodgers.  Left: 2011 Donruss Elite Extra Edition, Chris Reed prospect auto, #'d 103/500.  Reed is a top-five Dodgers prospect and the 16th overall selection in the 2011 draft.  He went to Stanford, which is a shitty, garbage school (fuck Stanford, go Bears), and should be at very least a serviceable starter in the future.  Right: 2012 Heritage Minors, Joc Pederson Real One Autograph.  Top-ten prospect Joc has a cool name and should be a serviceable outfielder in the future.  Fuck Stanford.

Not pictured are the Brandon Morrow rookie autograph card (I have been trying to get one to no avail for the past two years) and Scott Baker auto I bought because they were damaged and I returned them to COMC.  My only problem with some cards from COMC is that occasionally they have damage you can only see side-on and not in the scans.  That said, COMC does have great customer service and are always friendly and patient when I make crazy requests of them.

I also purchased the second to last card I needed to finally complete 2009 Allen & Ginter, an Aubrey Huff SP #349.  I only require the Jordan Schafer RC SP, #339, to finally complete that set.  You will be mine, Schafer card.  Your fate is inexorable!  So yea... let me know if you have it.  Cool beans.

A Lifetime Supply of Cuban Sammiches...

...is what it would take for me to trade this card (or a Koufax, almost any card for a Sandy Koufax signature):

2012 Panini Signature Series Baseball, Rated Rookie manu-patch autograph of Yoenis Cespedes, #'d 177/299.  He has a cool scrawl.

Because it took so damn long to get a Cespedes rookie auto at a reasonable price.  Hell, I still think I overpaid a bit.  Nevertheless, done and done deal.  I alluded to this card in my previous post.  Ain't she a beauty, Fuji?