Showing posts sorted by date for query jimi hendrix experience. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query jimi hendrix experience. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Sunday, June 28, 2026

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)
jlcre2003 (TCDB: jlcre2003)
RJ Sahl (TCDB: rjsahl)
POISON75 (S.R. '75 Cards)
Red Cardboard (Red Cardboard)
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.


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!
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Sunday, June 14, 2026

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 

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.
 
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Sunday, August 17, 2025

Is This Custom Card Experienced? Has It Ever Been Experienced?

If you're a fan of a certain guitar legend from the 1960s and you've read the title of this blog post, I think you might have an idea about the contents of the custom card I'm going to share below.

If not, here are some hints:
  • The band consisted of a lead guitarist, a drummer, and a bassist
  • The lead guitarist's formal first name was James
  • They sung about haziness that was purple and a lady who was foxy.
Alright, I guess that's enough clues. Here's the custom card:


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It's the Jimi Hendrix Experience!

Back in 2020, I created a couple of custom cards featuring Jimi Hendrix. But I wanted to give a nod to the entire band, too. The trick was choosing a card template to work with.

I'm not sure if there's ever been another three-man rock band out there with a member who stood out as the headliner more than the Jimi Hendrix Experience. And that's not taking anything away from Noel Redding or Mitch Mitchell. It's just that the other guy was Jimi Hendrix.

So I didn't want to use a standard three-person card template that featured all three members equally. It took a little while for me to figure it out, but eventually the "league leader" cards from 1970 and 1971 Topps came to mind. They'd be perfect, because the league leader got top billing, in a larger frame, while the second- and third-place men were beneath, in smaller frames. I liked the black borders of 1971 better than the grays of 1970, so I went with that one. An easier choice was replacing the baseball team names with the instruments each band member played.

As for the images, I think the blue sky and clouds in the background work nicely. And do you believe those hairstyles? I mean, Noel Redding . . . that's impressive, sir.


As for The Experience, they were only together for three years (1966 through 1969). The group recorded three albums in that time: Are You Experienced in 1967, Axis: Bold As Love in 1968, and Electric Ladyland, later that same year. All three albums went Platinum or multi-Platinum. "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze", "All Along the Watchtower", "Foxy Lady". So many hits in just a couple of years. Pretty cool.

But that's just a small part of Mr. Hendrix's story. If you're a fan of rock, blues, metal, and funk, and never listened to the music he released with the Band of Gypsys (Billy Cox on bass and Buddy Miles on drums), you're doing yourself a great disservice. Search for live versions of songs like "Power of Soul", "Message of Love", "Machine Gun", "Izabella", and "Who Knows". The songs are heavier and harder. More raw. They almost make The Experience albums feel like pop music in comparison.

There's also an album out there called Jimi By Himself, which consists of some quiet home recordings and improvisations Hendrix did. Also worth a listen.

In any case, I'm happy with the way this custom came out. Maybe I'll create a variation for the Band of Gypsys, featuring Hendrix, Cox, and Miles on the 1970 gray-border design.


Any Hendrix fans out there? Band of Gypsys fans?

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading.

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