2024 Series Custom Card Giveaway: Duck Race Winners

A couple of weeks ago I finally posted about the series of custom cards I designed in 2024. Better late than never, because it gave me the opportunity to create another giveaway. (And a duck race.) The first five finishers of the race would win a custom card of their choice from the 2024 series.

I was happy to see that 12 people entered the giveaway within the entry period. That's a good flock of ducks!

Here's a list of the competitors, and a link to their blogs or other trading card–related social media sites if they have any:

 

Jay Wigley (TCDB: jaywigley)

Tom (Batting Out of Order)

jlcre2003 (TCDB: jlcre2003)

RJ Sahl (TCDB: rjsahl)

POISON75 (S.R. '75 Cards)

Rod (Padrographs)

Matt (Cards over Coffee) 

Matt (Diamond Jesters) 

Sean (Baseball Cards In Japan)

Red Cardboard (Red Cardboard)

Mark (The Chronicles of Fuji) 

Derek (TCDB: CollectorTBNL)

 

 

Twelve competitors. Five prizes. That means you have more than a 40% chance of winning one of them!

If you haven't seen the duck race in action, or don't remember it from last time, here's how it works: 

Each entrant is represented by an animated rubber duck that is sitting at the starting line on an animated river. The starting gun fires, and all the ducks begin floating randomly along the river as the screen scrolls horizontally. Eventually the finish line appears, and the first duck to cross the line wins. 

 

Yesterday I ran the script and recorded the action. Want to see how it all turned out? 

 

Play the video, find your duck, and here we go. (You'll see a list of the top 5 finishers at the end of the video.)

Wow! That Batting Out of Order duck really turned on the jets at the end. And full credit to Fuji, who somehow managed to make it into the top 5 after blowing a tire around the 19-second mark.

Anyhow, as shown in the scroll-down list at the very end of the video, here are the top five ducks:

(1) Tom (Batting Out of Order)

(2) Rod (Padrographs)

(3) Red Cardboard

(4) Jay Wigley

(5) Mark (The Chronicles of Fuji)

Congratulations! All five of you will receive a custom card of your choice from the 2024 series. Here's the list again. Click on each card to see what they look like, and to read about them. Then make your selection.

Standard Set 

1956 Jerry Seinfeld

1956 Cosmo Kramer

Beastie Boys In Action

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

The Princess Bride

Mel Gibson Film Stars

Top Gear Future Stars

 

Sitcom Subset

The Golden Girls

Married with Children

Seinfeld 

 

If you're a winner, just let me know which card you'd like in the comment section.

If you've never sent me your mailing address, or if it's changed recently, please do send it to me. You can find my contact information on the blog here, or you can message me through TCDB here.

Thanks again to all of you for participating. Hope you enjoyed the race!

Stunners from the 1930s

So far this year, I've focused on adding more vintage cards to my collection. But I'm not talking about baseball, or any other major sport. It's the other stuff I've been after. And even more specifically that that, it's got to be real eye candy.

 

First I found a few cards from a 1956 set released by Gum Inc. called "Adventure". A couple of months later, I picked up a few more beauties from that same set.

 

Now I want to share a few cards from an even older set. I didn't know anything about it until the following image came up in a random online browsing session. 

 

 

I was floored. 

 

It's just such a cool scene. Three archers in uniform with bows drawn and aimed toward the sky, displaying their technique. On a trading card.

 

I had to do more research.

 

It turns out that the card was issued by a German margarine company called Sanella. One card was included inside each margarine wrapper, and there were 112 cards in the set. They measure 2 3/4 inches by 4 1/8 inches.

 

Here's another example: 

 

 

 

Total stunner.

 

And that's the thing about great artwork. It captivates you by freezing a moment in time. Think about it. If this card were an 8-foot by 4-foot painting in a museum and you saw it from across the room, it would stop you in your tracks and almost force you to take some time to look at it and appreciate it.

 

Here's another fantastic example: 

 

 

 

Great vantage point, right?

 

Now here's what you'll find on a card back:

 

 

 

Here's the first three lines of text, translated by online software: 

 

German fencing champion Helene Mayer (front right) against Hungarian champion Miss Bogen

As for the text after that, you're in for a pretty cool surprise. Check this out:  

 

The space for pasting in this picture is left blank under the keyword "Fencing" in the Handbook of Sports section.

Yeah, that's right. Back in 1932, you could have obtained a handbook of sports from Sanella, and slotted each collector's card into its very own section!

 

I found some images of it online. Here's the front cover:

 

 

 

And here are a couple of interior pages:

 

 

 

 

Now more translation from the card back:

  

This handbook, which contains space for 112 different colorful collectible pictures, provides alphabetical information on the entire field of sports on 120 pages and is also equipped with more than one hundred monochrome illustrations. It will be delivered postage-free upon receipt of a 70 Pfennig stamp addressed to "Sanella," P.O. Box No. 125, Berlin C2. Please clearly indicate your address.

These sports pictures are available when purchasing Sanella margarine, one picture for every half pound. A special exchange center will allow the exchange of any missing pictures starting in February 1933.

 

If you collected baseball stickers in your younger days and had the accompanying album to stick them in, those paragraphs will sound quite familiar.  

 

But back to the cards now. Here's the fourth one I purchased:

 

 

 

What a great study in light and dark, big and small. That climber is just a tiny speck of life, dangling in the shadows, compared with the enormous range of mountains surrounding him. I think the only sound he'd be hearing right there is the wind, and an occasional creaking of the rope that he's rappelling down. How much farther does he have to go? We've got no idea. But he's probably never breathed such fresh oxygen or felt more alive and aware.

 

And that's what I've been adding to my collection lately. These particular cards ran me between $5 and $12 each, which is quite affordable considering their age and foreign origin.

I think the next step is creating a binder for my growing vintage multi-sport and non-sport collection. Some of them, like these Sanella cards, are cut at an unconventional size, so I've got to find pages that will accommodate them. Might take some research, but it'll be worth the time spent. Cards like these need to be in a binder, not tucked away in a box somewhere.

How about you readers and collectors? Are you fans of the more obscure vintage cards like these? 

 

Let me know in the comment section, and thanks for reading! 

2025 Series Custom Cards: PRINTED (Plus a Giveaway)

Did you think all of the "2025 year in review" content out there on the internet was finally over?

 

Well, think again!

 

You're looking at a collage of the custom cards that I shared on the blog in 2025 (or thereabouts). Here's the list:

 

Standard Set 

1956 Jerry Seinfeld

1956 Cosmo Kramer

Beastie Boys In Action

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

The Princess Bride

Mel Gibson Film Stars

Top Gear Future Stars

 

Sitcom Subset

The Golden Girls

Married with Children

Seinfeld  

So, that makes 10 cards total, which is not quite up to the usual Nine Pockets numbers. However, I did create quite a few one-off customs for clients throughout the year, and I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out, so that's a plus.

 

Here's a closer look at a card front and a card back:

The Sitcom subset received special card backs that more closely resembled the style of the original set. Here's an example:

 

 

Those are always fun to do.

And as always, I'd like to get some of these cards into the hands of you fellow collectors. So let's do a giveaway.

The duck races that I've held for a couple of previous Nine Pockets giveaways seem to go over pretty well with readers, so I think I'll do that again. If enough folks enter, I'll award a custom card from the list above to the top 5 finishers. (Feel free to share this giveaway with other bloggers and collectors who might enjoy it.) Winners will get to choose which custom card they'd like.

To enter the giveaway, just add a comment to this post. That's all you have to do. I'll keep the entry period open through next Sunday, June 21st. Then I'll close it out and get those ducks ready to race. Results will be posted here on the blog on Sunday, June 28th.

  

Thanks so much to all you readers, fellow collectors, and fellow bloggers for spending some time here at Nine Pockets. You guys continue to provide great inspiration and entertainment, and I look forward to holding the giveaway and getting these custom cards out to the winners.

 

Great Hockey Photos AND Wise Advice? I'll Take It!

You know what I enjoy?

A good 1980s hockey police card set.

For one, they're rather plentiful.

They also provide excellent information on the card backs. Local police departments at the time would encourage kids to exercise, study hard in school, and develop self-esteem. They also warned us sternly about the dangers of hanging out with the wrong crowd, and of drugs and alcohol.

And a third reason? 

 

You'll find some surprisingly good photography. Check out this shot from the 1986-87 Washington Capitals Police set:

Now that's hockey action. 

Bob Carpenter is waiting for a shot to come in from the point. He'd love to try and redirect it with his stick blade or shaft and score a goal that way. But at very least, he's succeeded in making life difficult for Islanders goaltender Kelly Hrudey. Just look. Hrudey is trying his hardest to keep an eye on the play in front of him by crouching down and looking around Carpenter, while maintaining some sort of angle with the shooter. With all of that happening, the crowd behind the glass knows a scoring chance is coming. Just look at their focus!

Can you find this same kind of action in the 1986-87 Topps flagship hockey set? Fat chance!

And that's not all. Check out this next card:

 

 

 

I think more goal celebrations like this one should be featured on hockey cards. I love it because Lou Francheschetti and his teammates are not elated. They're not exuberant. They're just some blue collar players getting together after scoring a goal. 

 

Good job, guys.

 

And then it's back to work. 

 

The camera angle and proximity almost make you feel like you're celebrating right along with them. Fantastic.
 

 

Both of those cards are now in my collection, thanks to a small trade on TCDB. Here's the third card that was part of the trade.

 

 

 

Mike Gartner scored 708 career goals. He's a member of the Hall of Fame, and was selected as one of the NHL's 100 greatest players during the league's 100th anniversary in 2017-18. He was also one of the fastest skaters of his generation. Despite all this, I feel like he's underrated—or at least a little bit underappreciated. For all those reasons, I snatched up the card. I like how the image shows him in action, using that speed. 

 

Now here are the card backs, featuring some of that wise advice mentioned earlier.

 

 

Do police departments still have these kinds of programs today? If not, I think they should.

 

Regardless, I'm pretty happy to have these cards in my collection, and I think I might search around for examples from other teams to add.

 

With all that being said, however, I think it's only fair to mention that not every card in this police set is fantastic. The TCDB member I traded with was kind enough to add an extra card for me in the envelope. 

 

 

Who's there? Michal? Is that you? Tap your stick on the ice three times if that's you. 

(Taps stick on ice three times. Sound echoes through empty, dark hockey rink.)

 

Yep, that one's kind of a stinker. But think back to those flagship Topps and O-Pee-Chee sets of the era again. You'll find image after image of players standing around in warmups, or waiting for a face-off to start. So even with the few stinkers, you've still got to be impressed with police sets like these.

 

How about you readers and collectors? 

 

Do you have any police cards from a local team, be it hockey or another sport? Do any of the cards boast surprisingly good photography? 

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!