Oklahoma City Thunder vs Portland Trail Blazers - Round 1 NBA Playoffs

The Portland Trail Blazers got the 3rd seed in the Western Conference Playoffs and as their prize play the Oklahoma City Thunder in their seven game first round match up.  The Thunder swept the series series after being swept during last year's season series.  This is a tough match up for the Trail Blazers.  They come in to the series without excellent center Jusuf Nurkic due to injury.  Late season pick up Enes Kanter, a former thunder, has played really well in Nurkic's absence and it should be fun to watch him against Thunder center Stephen Adams.  Still he isn't the player Nurkic is but is a more than capable replacement - good job grabbing him when they did.  The Thunder for their part will be without key defender Andre Robertson.  

The key to this series for me is defense and doing something to corral Thunder stars Paul George and Russell Westbrook.  You can't even pretend you'll stop either of these guys but you have to get them off their game.  I'm not sure how the Trail Blazers do it but the Thunder haven't been unstoppable this year.  Everyone will have to play good defense every possession to have any shot.  Portland has the offense as Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum can light it up with the best of them but the role players will have to step up on both ends of the court.  I'm looking at you Al-Farouq Aminu.  This should be a great series.  Hopefully Portland will prevail and I look forward to good games as the Trail Blazers look to scare away Playoff disappointment ghosts of years past.

  

Detlef Schrempf eBay Card Lot Purchase

The NBA playoffs start today so how better to kick today off than with a lot of Detlef Schrempf cards I recently purchased on eBay.  I was able to pick up 55 cards for just under $6.  Win!  I've just started paying more attention to my favorite players/personal collection guys and my Detlef collection was sorely lacking.  He's a top 10 all-time favorite NBA guy for me.  He was fun to watch, an easy person to root for and man can he rock the flat top.  Plenty of great and fun cards here.  Enjoy!      

Schrempf was a great player in my opinion.  He was a small forward who for his career averaged 13.9 PPG, 6.2 RPG and 3.4 APG over 16 seasons.  His season career highs were 19.2 PPG in 94-95 for Seattle, 9.6 RPG in 91-92 for Indiana, and 6.0 APG for Indiana in 92-93.

He is also someone who has used his place in life to help others which is wonderful.  He has been very charitable away from the court trying to help those who need it.  Good on him.   

A three-time all-star Schrempf was also named 3rd Team All-NBA in 94-95 for the SuperSonics.  He was also named the NBA's 6th Man of the Year twice in 90-91 and 91-92 while playing for Indiana.

I think his skills really would have translated well into today's NBA.  He could put the ball on the floor, rebound and pass as well as score.  Definitely a guy who would could help facilitate an offense with his skills.

In Seattle he started to shoot more 3's averaging two a game for the SuperSonics shooting 41% from the arc while in Seattle.  That included shooting 51% on 181 3's in 94-95.  

He played a total of 114 playoff games and reached the finals once with the 95-96 Supersonics.  Nice looking jumpshot, photobomb by Larry Legend, and I think the only smile I've seen, so far, on a card.

COMC is a great resource but eBay is still where I pick up sets and subsets for cheaper.  I know that isn't always true, and I just recently picked up a 12 card set on COMC for much less than I could find it on eBay.  This was a great buy and very happy to finally have a Detlef Schrempf collection worth showing off.

Go Trail Blazers!

BREAKDOWN:

55 – Total Cards

34 – Seattle Supersonics

19 – Indiana Pacers

2 – Portland Trail Blazers

Random Wax: 2018-2019 Upper Deck Hockey Pack

This great card of Marc-Andre Fleury is a perfect way to start off this 2018-2019 Upper Deck Hockey pack.  Again I'm not a big hockey guy but I like the sport and I really like Upper Deck hockey cards.

  Pretty cool Toronto Maple Leafs' jersey on Patrick Marleau.  Patrice Bergeron is another guy I've heard of and I don't know all the star players but I do know of Evander Kane.

Solid design and photos in this pack which is par for the course with Upper Deck.

I do claim the Calgary Flames and Boston Bruins as my NHL teams though I like the Maple Leafs and Sabres as well.  Buffalo is the only team not making the playoffs this year while Calgary won their division.  The playoffs are always exciting and this is a good way to kick things off.

Each pack comes with a canvas card that feels like a canvas.  Kind of cool cards and the only inserts I've seen in this set so far.  

BREAKDOWN:

32 – Total Cards
1 – Upper Deck Canvas

2012 NECA The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 2 Trading Card Pack

Most of you are probably shaking your head right now.  Twilight?   Yeah Twilight. My daughter was a huge fan back in the day so yep I've seen all the movies...and read all the books.  It was OK for what it was.  Nothing more nothing less.  I picked up this 2012 NECA The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 2 pack up as part of the buy I did from from eBay seller Bob Rewak.  Alice leads off this post.  She was a favorite character of mine from the series and this was definitely my favorite from the pack.

  The set contains character, story and poster cards.  I'm OK with the cards overall.  This was the final Twilight movie and we got to see the big battled we'd been expecting.  It was a decent fight though how it played out in the end didn't appeal to everyone. 

  The Volturi were antagonists and I liked their characters.  Dakota Fanning's character Jane (far left) was another favorite of mine.  Overall Twilight was designed for tweens and was fine for that audience.  The books were an easy read and the sparkly vampires, werewolfs and love triangle appealed to it's target audience.  

BREAKDOWN:

6 – Total Cards

2018 Donruss NASCAR Race Kings-Queens Set

I'm a Diamond Kings/Court Kings/Race Kings kind of a guy so the opportunity to pick up these 2018 Donruss NASCAR Race Kings-Queens set on eBay for cheap was a no brainer.  I thought they did a good job with the 2018 set though it really isn't that different from the 2017 offering.  Kyle Larson is a young driver I like who has finished in the top 10 of the season standings three seasons in a row.  He is 12th going into today's race at Bristol.  

Of course all the heavy hitters are represented including these now retired greats of the sport.

Kevin Harvick is a perennial contender for the cup title and is currently 3rd in the standings.  I've had luck of late finding complete subsets or insert sets on eBay for decent prices.  This one ran me just under $6 shipped and is definitely better than chasing individual cards.

  

This set contained 25 total cards.  Martin Truex Jr. (below) was the reigning champion and I'm a bit surprised he wasn't the #1 card in the set.  Seems like a good idea and they could actually order them by finish in the previous season. 

Danica Patrick was of course afforded the Race Queens title for her card.  The 2019 Race Kings design is drastically different and will also have retired greats.  Can't wait to see those in hand. 

BREAKDOWN:

25 - Total Cards

2019 Gypsy Queen Value Pack

The 2019 Gypsy Queen value packs come with three packs of six cards each and a pack of five green parallels for $9.99.  I've always liked Gypsy Queen and they did a good job again this year.  This was a really cool Rhys Hoskins card.  I thought it may be a variation, of which there are some cool ones, but it is not.  Still I really like the photo.

A Brave, Red Sox, and green parallel of a PC guy so I can't complain.  This set has more color than years past.  While not bright it does the trick.  The retro feel on these cards is always appealing and they did a good job leaving plenty of room for the photos to shine.

That Dylan Bundy is a logo swap variation.  Base versions like this one are found 1:29 packs.  The backs are OK for what they are.  Simple and clean.

You'll get to see players in their new unis as well like Andrew McCutchen and Robinson Cano.  I don't care if these are photo shopped or not - and I really don't know - but I like them.  They look  good to me.  I'll definitely pick up more of these as I get a chance.

I don't go in for different sized cards though I know many do.  Just not my thing.  If I have to pull one a reigning MVP and all-around great player is the way to go though.

BREAKDOWN:

23 – Total Cards
5 – Green Parallels
1 – Logo Swap Variation

The Haunting of Hill House - Netflix

The wife and I watched the Netflix original series The Haunting of Hill House over the weekend.  The scary movie genre is something we enjoy but we haven't sat down and watched anything new in quite a while.  This ten episode series came with very good reviews so we watched it over two days.  It was a very, very good series.  We both really enjoyed it.  They do a great job with the characters, story, and visuals.  There aren't a ton of "gotcha" moments but there are plenty of "creepy" moments that really help you enjoy the setup.  You'll get into the minds of all the different characters and they'll show the family after they've moved into the house and when they are older.  The house itself is pretty cool but it stars here as the protagonist.  Anyone interested in these types of shows should give it a go.  I think you'll like it.