LaDainian Tomlinson Enters The Hall of Fame! (So Here's A PSA/DNA Signed Mini Helmet To Celebrate!)

My favorite football player of all-time, LaDainian Tomlinson, was recently enshrined in the pro football Hall Of Fame where he rightfully belongs. I'm super biased but I've always viewed him as the best all-around back in league history. He could run any play with ease, catch passes better than any back ever, block, and could even throw the ball out of the backfield on an option play. To celebrate, here's the most recent LT item I added to my PC of the best player in Chargers' franchise history.

This beautiful signed mini helmet is authenticated by PSA/DNA as well as LaDainian's own company. A customer had brought it in to the shop to trade to my boss, who passed. The customer basically was prepared to throw it away and I told him he should give it to one of his friends who would surely appreciate it more (he's in high school). He then handed it to me and told me to keep it as he knew I'm a gigantic Tomlinson fan. I couldn't thank him enough and it definitely has a permanent and excellent place in my LT PC.

While we're here, here are the other key pieces in my Tomlinson Collection. LT is also one of the few guys I was able to complete a Pentafecta of back in the day.

Not Neglecting My Secondary Player Collections: LaDainian Tomlinson Auto!

LaDainian Tomlinson is my all-time favorite football player and he will never cede that distinction. I'm not a big football collector but I do enjoy picking up his cardboard. The price isn't always within my ballpark -- and I've already completed a Pentafecta of him so I can live nabbing hits only here and there -- but I've wanted to land another auto of his for some time.

My second LT John Hancock is this on-card beaut out of 2002 UD SP Authentic. It ran me pocket change over a blaster and I absolutely love it!

A Corey Seager 1/1 Printing Plate-Auto Completes Another Pentafecta.

I recently acquired a stunningly gorgeous card that jumps to the top of the mountain that is my Corey Seager Collection. I knew I had to lock down this beaut when it popped up on eBay and thankfully my winning bid was far less than what I anticipated the card selling for. Adding to my Seager Trifecta was also free as I had some focus group money left to play and pay with.

This is the final piece I was in need of to complete my latest Pentafecta. It's a phenomenal Yellow 1/1 Printing Plate-Auto from 2012 Leaf Ultimate Draft. If you're unfamiliar with my creation or need a refresher course, a Pentafecta consists of a 1/1, an auto, a patch, a non-patch relic of any kind, and a rookie card.

The auto portion of our show. This Bowman Chrome auto is a biggie for my PC and took a while to land, but the wait was worth it to get my hands on Corey's first certified signature in which he's actually in a Dodgers' uniform.

A sick two-color patch /99 with some jersey tossed in for good measure. There is just so, so much to love about this card.

#MERICA. A sweeeeeet blue parallel relic of the youngster numbered 148/199. It was a hidden gem within my collection when I discovered I had it, and it serves as the first piece of Seager cardboard to call my collection home. The USA jersey swatch has a nice seam to it as well.

Finally, a simple pre-Dodgers RC featuring Corey donning the red, white, and blue. It's a Gold-bordered parallel and is just all kinds of awesome. This Seager Pentafecta is my sixth overall and fourth baseball project to reach completion.

Reviewing My 2012 Collecting Goals: How Did I Do Last Year?

It's time to take a look back at my 2012 Collecting Goals and see how I did.

Goal 1: Focus primarily on my Kemp, Kershaw, Martin, Getzlaf, Rosen, and Campanella collections. I'm particularly interested in picking up rarer cards of Matt, Clayton, and Russ, as well as filling in simple base needs through trades. I'd also love to further bulk up my Getzlaf PC and add a printing plate if at all possible, as well as focus on cardboard from his rookie year. And, of course, continue adding sweet Getz cards from Dominion. I do love me some Dominion. I've really been hitting the Getz PC hard thus far, so I'm extremely and entirely pleased with the direction # 1 is heading.

• How I Did: I added multiple Getzlaf plates and Dominion cards while really expanding my collection of the Anaheim Captain. I continued to add when I could to my Kemp, Kershaw, and Martin PCs. I only added two Campy cards (one of which has yet to be shown) but they were big additions. Likewise with my Rosen PC, I only picked up one of Al's cards, but it was a HUGE get in Flip's 1954 Dan-Dee Potato Chips card. SUCCESS

Goal 2: Condense my collection. The Trade Bait Card Draft helped that immensely. # 2 is already underway, as that inevitability came up on me quickly.

• How I Did: Draft # 2 was a success and I briefly gauged interest in a third draft which I was planning on holding at the end of '12. It will be held sometime within the next month or two. SUCCESS

Goal 3: Complete my Clayton Kershaw Pentafecta. Fairly self-explanatory. A patch is needed to check this goal off of the list!

• How I Did: I completed this goal with the below fantastic patch. SUCCESS

Goal 4: Curtail frivolous and knee-jerk eBay spending. This includes and perhaps focuses most importantly on cards I come across that are sweet and affordable but don't fit into my collecting needs and wants in any real way beyond being "cool cards" or cards I can easily trade. This may be the toughest goal to accomplish, and I'd definitely take a B grade on this one if I can earn one. It hasn't exactly been a strong-suit of mine thus far in 2012.

• How I Did: This one was going to be the hardest, and while I was able to at times, I struggle to pass up a good deal. NEITHER PASS NOR FAIL

Goal 5: Pick up another sponsor or two. Because really, if I could pick up what amounts to free money, why wouldn't I? I've picked up one already in pokerlistings.com. So far, so good.

• How I Did: I failed to add a single sponsor beyond pokerlistings.com, so this a big failure. The blog is always available for sponsors though....hint hint. FAILURE
  

Goal 6: Continue selling on eBay to fund the majority of my eBay purchases in 2012. I need to get on this soon. Like the day before yesterday soon.

• How I Did: This did not happen as planned. A major failure. FAILURE

Goal 7: Make progress on my Kemp and Kershaw's Golden Pursuit Project. Ideally, I'd be able to end the year with at least 10 of the 99 cards I need, which would equate to just over 10% of the project being in the books. At the moment, I've got four of these beautiful bad boys. It's been a while since one popped on eBay. This one is somewhat out of my hands, because I can't acquire any if none are available to be had.

• How I Did: This was a truly optimistic goal in terms of the sheer number I wanted to hit. I only have five in-hand but I really shot too high for a card that has such a low print-run. Progress was made so it's not a complete crapping of the bed. NEITHER PASS NOR FAIL
  

Goal 8: Hit up more in-person appearances of Dodgers and other athletes. I'm going to FanFest, so that's a major step in the right direction. I did manage to make it to a Clayton Kershaw book signing already, so that's a huge step towards meeting this goal.

• How I Did: I did make it to FanFest and had a great time and I also hit up a really cool event in November which I still need to write about. I didn't make it to enough events to satisfy my hopes but I made it to enough (including some at-the-stadium game-day autos and meet-and-greets with players) to call this a success. SUCCESS

Goal 9: Continue to feature Erin Hawksworth. Of course.

• How I Did: I didn't showcase the sports beauty enough, though any Erin Hawksworth is better than no Erin Hawksworth, obviously. NEITHER PASS NOR FAIL
  

Goal 10: Acquire an Evan Longoria on-card Auto. A tough task, to be certain. I have my eyes on one presently.

• How I Did: While I did add a Longo auto, I still need an on-card John Hancock of the Rays' stud. NEITHER PASS NOR FAIL
  

Goal 11: Obtain a copy of Matt Kemp's 2005 Bowman Chrome RC Auto. Any version, graded or not graded. A card I absolutely must own at some point, so why not in 2012?

• How I Did: I am still without this necessary Bison collection cornerstone. FAILURE

My First LaDainian Tomlinson Auto Yields A Pentafecta!

I've mentioned this a handful of times, but to rehash an old topic that hasn't received a ton of attention on this here blog, LaDainian Tomlinson is my all-time favorite football player. I'm not a huge football fan - it's been my third favorite sport, and after last year's NBA playoffs and LeBron's performance, it's probably slotted fourth now - but I do love me some San Diego Chargers, specifically LT. While I have a plate and a laundry tag of the future Hall of Famer, his autograph had alluded me for some time.

That time has come and gone, as I was able to secure this AMAZING on-card autograph off of eBay a couple of months ago with most of what I had remaining in my PayPal account at the time. $33.50 well, well-spent. I scanned and cropped it poorly, but it nevertheless is a thing of beauty. On-card beauty, most importantly. I love how huge LT signed his name, especially since the signature itself, for a guy with a loooong name, is short (just his initials). It also happens to be extremely short-printed, at just 25 copies (24/25 for me) of this particular Gold Parallel from a parallel hell set like 2008 Upper Deck Football Heroes. I've stated it before, but LT is the greatest back and football player of all-time in my eyes.

I'm happy to have four very high-end Tomlinson cards in my modest collection of the former TCU Horned Frog, and I hope to one day add another auto or two. Just for the sake of more scans of awesomeness, the plate is above.

Followed by the aforementioned Laundry Tag /30.

And finally, a sweet 2-color patch #'d /25 - with some jersey and a mess of stitching - that I've shown once before. As I was just about to finalize this post, I realized the John Hancock also served to complete a Tomlinson Pentafecta.

I've shown the auto, patch, and plate, so here's the relic and RC to complete the whole shebang.

This accomplishment has been added to the Pentafectas Tab at the top of the blog.

My Clayton Kershaw Pentafecta Is Complete!

First, Russell Martin had his day in the five-alarm sun. Then, Matt Kemp followed suit. And now, it's 2011 NL Cy Young time, as I have finally completed my Kid K Pentafecta by acquiring the missing patch piece to the Pentafecta puzzle.

Numbered 162/199 and hailing from the Gametime Mementos subset of 2011 Topps Marquee, the above bad boy was had for a very reasonable $9.79 delivered. Featuring "three" pieces of a gray road jersey and one massively sweeeeeeet two-color letter patch piece, it's a card I could not possibly let slip past me. The patch comes from somewhere on the "Dodgers" portion of a Clayton home jersey, which is just an added cherry on top. Now, let us move on to the rest of the finally completed Pentafecta.

I love Clayton's true rookie. USA all the way baby.

Shiny, diamond-y, and short-printed to 99. Plus, I picked it up with found money, so to speak.

Allen & Ginter autographs can't be beat, and are only matched by Masterpieces autos. It's that whole on-card thing. I sincerely adore this card. And for roughly ten bucks, if memory serves me, it's all the more amazing.

My lone Kershaw printing plate. I'd really like to pick up more, if my wallet allows me to. I also need to re-scan this one, or crop it better, at the least.

The Kershaw Pentafecta has been accordingly added to the Pentafecta tab.

Plaschke's 2012 Collecting/Blog Goals.

7 spots remain in my card draft! You can find all of the pertinent information here, on the sign-up post. Check it out guys and gals, it'll be well worth your time and monetary contribution. Less than a dollar per card when it's all said and done, and you walk away with over 30 cards of all shapes and sizes.

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A little lot so ridiculous I'm out of words late, but never a bad idea to get your goals down on paper (or the internet, in this case). And away we go.

1. Focus primarily on my Kemp, Kershaw, Martin, Getzlaf, Rosen, and Campanella collections. I'm particularly interested in picking up rarer cards of Matt, Clayton, and Russ, as well as filling in simple base needs through trades. I'd also love to further bulk up my Getzlaf PC and add a printing plate if at all possible, as well as focus on cardboard from his rookie year. And, of course, continue adding sweet Getz cards from Dominion. I do love me some Dominion. I've really been hitting the Getz PC hard thus far, so I'm extremely and entirely pleased with the direction # 1 is heading.

2. Condense my collection. The Trade Bait Card Draft helped that immensely. # 2 is already underway, as that inevitability came up on me quickly.

3. Complete my Clayton Kershaw Pentafecta. Fairly self-explanatory. A patch is needed to check this goal off of the list!

4. Curtail frivolous and knee-jerk eBay spending. This includes and perhaps focuses most importantly on cards I come across that are sweet and affordable but don't fit into my collecting needs and wants in any real way beyond being "cool cards" or cards I can easily trade. This may be the toughest goal to accomplish, and I'd definitely take a B grade on this one if I can earn one. It hasn't exactly been a strong-suit of mine thus far in 2012.

5. Pick up another sponsor or two. Because really, if I could pick up what amounts to free money, why wouldn't I? I've picked up one already in pokerlistings.com. So far, so good.

6. Continue selling on eBay to fund the majority of my eBay purchases in 2012. I need to get on this soon. Like the day before yesterday soon.

7. Make progress on my Kemp and Kershaw's Golden Pursuit Project. Ideally, I'd be able to end the year with at least 10 of the 99 cards I need, which would equate to just over 10% of the project being in the books. At the moment, I've got four of these beautiful bad boys. It's been a while since one popped on eBay. This one is somewhat out of my hands, because I can't acquire any if none are available to be had.

8. Hit up more in-person appearances of Dodgers and other athletes. I'm going to FanFest, so that's a major step in the right direction. I did manage to make it to a Clayton Kershaw book signing already, so that's a huge step towards meeting this goal.

9. Continue to feature Erin Hawksworth. Of course.

10. Acquire an Evan Longoria on-card Auto. A tough task, to be certain. I have my eyes on one presently.

11. Obtain a copy of Matt Kemp's 2005 Bowman Chrome RC Auto. Any version, graded or not graded. A card I absolutely must own at some point, so why not in 2012?

My Matt Kemp Pentafecta

First, it was Russell Martin. Now, Matt Kemp joins the Pentafecta Party. Let's get right to the fun.

I'm going to mix up the order on this one, and I'll begin with a Kemp sig. UD Masterpieces is difficult to match in pure aesthetics. Add in a sweet action shot of Matt running the bases, a great design all-around, and an on-card auto, and hot damn! I really wanted to post my Kemp Ginter auto as well, but I'll just link to it instead. Ginter and Masterpieces are neck and neck in my book. It's that whole on-card thing.

My one and only Matthew Ryan Kemp Printing Plate. Picked it up for a steal back in 2011. Wow, 2011 was so long ago, right? Time just flies by at my age.

The patch makes part three of five. This is where the debate could be found, but I firmly contend that any red Dodgers relic is without question a patch, as it originates from the number (in this case, 27, of course), on the front of the Dodger uniform.

Penultimately, a Matt jersey swatch. This Ginter relic has a special hold on me, as I pulled it from the first box of cards I ever purchased, 2010 Allen & Ginter. I was so ecstatic when this popped out way back when. Also, the red Ginter borders of 2010 are the greatest in my opinion. Bright colors are hard to beat as a general rule.

And last but most certainly not least, Matty's true rookie. I also have the chrome and gold versions of this card.

Pentafecta number two is in the books and has been added to the Pentafecta section at the top of the blog. Now all that remains is a Kershaw, and all that stands in my way is tracking down an affordable yet sick patch.

A Question For Everyone: I'd Like To Propose A Pentafecta? (Russell Martin Sick Patch Edition)

That's really more of a statement, I know. A recent acquisition has raised a question in my mind, and I felt there was no better way to answer that question than to seek advice and input from all of you. We are all familiar with a Trifecta, the possession of a player's rookie card, a relic of said player, and that player's John Hancock. I'm not entirely sure who started the phenomena, but I've seen Drew from DrewsCards' name attached to many a Trifecta origin post, and Night Owl once displayed his Dodger Trifectas. While I love a good Trifecta, I've felt for some time that the idea could sustain an interesting update. So, I give you my crazy idea of a Pentafecta.

You begin with the traditional Trifecta, and then add the final two layers: a patch and a 1/1. The 1/1 could be any 1/1, though I personally would strive for a printing plate. The above Russell Martin patch - #'d 02/25 - was a sweet eBay score for $5 delivered (the seller also happened to send it in a magnetic, so that was a nice bonus as well). I already owned a couple of cards that could be classified as patches before landing this gorgeous wonder, but they are the type of patches which force you to strain your eyes to see that they are in fact patches.

Anyhoo, I'm much more comfortable now stating firmly that I have completed my Martin Pentafecta. Hence why I'm bringing up the Pentafecta Postulate. Anyways, the last four prongs of the Pentafecta are below. Oh, I do still need to figure out exactly where this Russ patch comes from....

We'll start off with the earliest card, Russ' true rookie card. A simple card, and a nice shot of the former Dodger backstop. It actually took me a pretty decent amount of time to land this.

Next up, one of my many Martin relics. I was stuck between a handful when deciding which to display, but in the end, how could I not feature a sick dual relic with Mike F'in Piazza?

The autograph is the next leg in this trek up Pentafecta Mountain. Again, there were a number I wanted to feature, but I ended up going with my 2007 Ginter auto because Ginter is Ginter, and I love A&G. But damn, I really wanted to show off my Masterpieces Martin signature as well. On-card baby!

And finally, the old 1/1, and as previously mentioned, a printing plate is my choice whenever possible. Topps Finest is a set I really enjoy, and I love this Yellow Finest Plate.

So, now that I've run down my first Pentafecta, what does anyone who has made it this far think? Am I insane, does the idea seem interesting, or is it some combination of both? Would you ever consider putting together a Pentafecta of your favorite player or players?

I've added a "Pentafecta" tab to the top of the blog. My (obvious) next two targets are Kemp and Kershaw. I would say the Kemp is complete, but the patch portion is one that could be argued by some. I am in serious need of a Kershaw patch, that much is indisputable. The Martin patch has been added to my Russell Collection.