What Size Case Fits The 2010 Upper Deck Exquisite Rare Materials Cards?

2010 Upper Deck Exquisite Rare Materials

I recently bought this 2010 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Rare Materials card of former Buffalo Bills QB Jim Kelly. It's a cool card with the four pieces of game used materials. I also really like how Upper Deck utilized the gold foiling, but I have one sort of major issue. I like to keep many of my cards in snap magnet cases. I keep a good number around of different sizes so I have a case for when I get a new card in the mail. However, I have not been able to find a case that this ultra thick card will fit into. Not even a 180pt will do. So I thought I would check before I go out and buy any more cases. Does anyone know what size cases will fit these Rare Materials cards perfectly? Thanks for the help and… "Enjoy Every Bounce of the Ball".

Big Thanks To Fuji Over At The Chronicles of Fuji

I'm back from a brief holiday hiatus and have tons of cards, posters, sports books and auto's to blog about over the next couple of weeks. I'll start with an awesome package I got in the mail last week just before the holiday. I guess it was Christmas come early. I lost a friendly bet between myself and Mark over at The Chronicles of Fuji several weeks ago when my second favorite football, the Minnesota Vikings, lost to Mark's Green Bay Packers. Since my team lost, I sent Mark a few cards he wanted (click here). Even though I lost, and badly I might add, Mark sent over a few really cool cards:

Here are some '93 Topps Gold cards of some of my favorite Buffalo Bills players. There's also a very cool Randall Cunningham who was the "Ultimate Weapon" back in the day. I've always liked the Topps Gold cards or really any foiling of any kind.

Before there was Josh Cribbs, there was Joe Cribbs. This 3-time Pro Bowler with the Bills is the uncle of Cleveland Browns player Josh Cribbs. The Marcus Easley card is also pretty cool. It's always fun to get jersey cards. Easley is a bit of an enigma here in Buffalo right now. He was a 3-year walk-on at UCONN before earning a scholarship his senior season. The work ethic will certainly go far here in Buffalo, but he has yet to see any playing time due to a season ending knee injury in late august. However, I have high hopes and am happy to add this card to my collection.

I saved the best for last. This '99 Upper Deck SPx RC Auto of Troy Edwards is one of the best looking cards I've seen in quite awhile. The foil background is almost like a Topps refractor and the auto is nice and big. As many of you know by now, I collect a lot of 90's inserts. The '99 UD SPx RC Auto set is the only football insert set I'm currently trying to put together. This is a nice piece to the puzzle.

Once again, thanks Mark for the cards. It was very nice of you to send me some very cool cards even though I lost the bet. Thanks for reading and… "Enjoy Every Bounce of the Ball".

'08 Upper Deck Ultimate Legends Jim Kelly Autograph

Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills of the 90's are legends here in the Buffalo/WNY area. Sure, they didn't win "the big one or four", but it sure was one heck of a ride. Those were fun times for Bills fans. Every game was exciting, and those teams were loaded with talent and characters. Kelly was certainly one of those talented characters. He had a gun of an arm and was tough as nails. I think I can speak for Bills fans everywhere when saying he is missed on he field.

Although missed here on the field, Kelly is still active in the Buffalo/WNY area. He's a resident of the area and is active in a number of charities including his own called Hunter's Hope. Hunter's Hope is a foundation setup in remembrance of Kelly and his wife's late son Hunter. The mission of the foundation is to bring awareness to Krabbe Disease and related Leukodystrophies. In addition to his charitable work, there has been talk of interest in purchasing the Bills from a group lead by Kelly and other former players. Then again, there's always whispers of the team being sold or even moving.

As for the Ultimate Legends Kelly Auto, it came in earlier this week and is one sweet looking on-card Kelly auto. These Ultimate Legend auto's are highly sought after by collectors every year and for good reason. They feature auto's of the best players from past decades on a cool foil surface. Upper Deck finally released a basketball version in their Ultimate basketball product, but that's a story for an upcoming post. For now, I'm just going to enjoy a card of quite possibly the biggest Bills legend of them all.

Hoopography Top 25

Just before I made the switch from iWeb over here to Blooger.com, I started a little series of posts counting down my favorite 25 cards I've been luck enough to add to my collection called, "Hoopography Top 25". I started the countdown off with an honorable mention post, consisting of cards that just missed being in the top 25. Those honorable mention cards can be seen in the image to the left. Most of those cards are Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'neal 90's inserts with an Iverson RC refractor thrown in for good measure.

It's really fun going through a countdown like this because it gets collectors to really appreciate the cards they have, instead of the cards they wish they had. I've been lucky enough to add a number of really great cards with a limited budget. No card in my entire collection has cost over $35 and no card you see in this post cost me more than the one outlier at $23. In fact, many of the cards in the countdown I purchased for right around $7 - $12.

I got all the way to number 18 in the countdown before I made the switch over to Blogger.com. The first third of the countdown is pretty diverse. There're some cool old school basketball auto's (early 90's is old school to me), some NY Yankees cards and a few of my hometown Buffalo Bills cards. With some of these cards it's really about the player like the Hoops Dreams co-star, Arthur Agee, but it's also about the card design for a few of the others. I love the '97 SPx Cornerstones Jeter/A-Rod design. It's basically the same as the '97 SPx ProMotion basketball and football sets that I'm currently attempting to put together. The '98 EX-2000 Credentials card of Andy Petite also features one of my all-time favorite card design. All-in-all, these are some great cards and they were really fun to add to the collection.

So these are some of my favorite cards, what are some of your own favorites that you've been able to add to your collection? Stay tuned for a post on number 17 in my "Hoopography Top 25" countdown!

The '09 UD Exquisite Football Collection Experiment

UD released its 2009 Exquisite Football Collection in late March. Since then, I've wondered if I could actually add one or two of these awesome cards to my collection. Let's face it, these Exquisite cards aren't too cheap. They feature beautiful designs, great multi-colored patches and on-card auto's all on a thick card-stock. In addition to all those great qualities, they also carry hefty price tags. Whether you're lucky enough to buy a case, box or some singles, you're going to spend a pretty penny. Still, a collector can dream.

Lucky for me, my birthday came around earlier this summer, and I saved a few extra bucks for a birthday gift. I was going to by a box of basketball cards, but I'm like a kid in a candy store when I see new products regardless of sport. Actually, I'm like me in a candy store (Nerds and Vanilla Charleston Chews). So as my birthday approached in June, I decided to use my self-appropriated funds to buy a few '09 UD Exquisite Football cards instead of a box of hoops cards.

I had $100 saved up for my birthday basketball box, so that meant I now had $100 for a few Exquisite Football cards. My goal was to buy five or six cards with that money. So far, I've spent $53 on five cards (including shipping) from that original $100. I think I've done a pretty good job of finding good deals and nice cards that I'm excited to add to my collection. I'm no math major, but that leaves me $47 to add one last really sweet Exquisite card. Here're the five cards I've added to my collection thus far:

('09 UD Exquisite Lee Evans Auto-Biography Hinged Booklet)