Cards from Commenter GCA

I've been very busy with work this week, and I'm (so far successfully) fighting off a cold. To fight said cold, though, I've been pumping myself full of Nyquil and Dayquil -- or at least their Kroger-brand equivalents. By the time I can sit down to blog, I'm nearly out of whatever inspiration I might have. 

Bloggers know that inspiration is a funny thing. Some days, we are brimming with great ideas -- posts filled with musical interludes, witty comments, caustic digressions, and insightful observations about life, liberty, and the pursuit of 1954 Bowman. Other days, the best we can do is either put up a card or ten and say, "These were great. Thanks!"

Recently, here, a commenter called GCA made promises of great wealth from afar, such as providing many, many cards from the mid-1990s from Pacific. Usually with such promises comes a little less than is expected, but this was 100% on the mark:

Whoa! He wasn't kidding! This is no fairy tale. This is real! GCA -- better known as Greg -- isn't a blogger per se. He does have his want lists online, but otherwise, he's stayed away from the rat race of blogging. Let me highlight a few things he's looking for here too...

He has a few "Heavy Metal Autos" from 2013 Topps Archives that he wants. One of those is from Dee Snider:

Man, I loved that song when I was 12 years old. It was only later in life that I understood that the dad was Niedermeyer from Animal House, which made the video even cooler.

So, Greg also didn't just send Pacifics. He also sent some great cards from 1998 too:

So, Topps Chrome turns 20 years old this year. Unless I missed it as part of the 2015 set, I feel assured that Topps will do something to commemorate that anniversary. Maybe they will do buybacks and put cool little foil markings with "20" on them.

Or has that been done already?

Snarkiness aside...

Greg also needs another Heavy Metal Auto from 2013 Topps Archives: the immortal Scott Ian of one of the best heavy metal bands of all time, Anthrax.





I used to study to that. Seriously. And I may have even learned some things while studying to that. I like to think that my single-mindedness when working today comes from those days when I tried everything to draw my entire attention away from what I was doing....

Greg also sent some great cards from the early 2000s too -- a lot of Ben Sheets, for instance:



Another card that Greg is looking for is from the 2009 Upper Deck Heroes set -- the Guitar Heroes subset. Greg needs cards 382 and 384 of former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello:




One of the best guitar lines of the 1990s leads off that song. I get the heavy political basis for RATM's songs, but just on its own, the chorus of that song just sounds a bit ridiculous. "They rally round tha family! Wit a pocket full of shells!" I know it's about bullets, but my brain immediately goes to the beach...oops.

Let's call on Rickie Weeks to get me out of this one.



One more card from that same 2009 Upper Deck Heroes set that Greg needs is #379 of Tommy Iommi. 




Talk about an evil sounding guitar lick. Every time I hear that song, I turn back into a 12-year-old and think of the Road Warriors...now, of course, Road Warrior Animal is just former Rams linebacker James Laurinaitis's dad.

Finally, as a weak transition and to reuse an old saw, how about a guy who looks like an NFL Hall of Famer?



One more card from Greg's want list: Upper Deck Spectrum, in 2008, included a "Spectrum of Stars Signatures" insert set. One of the cards from that set that Greg needs is actually a guy who was in a band that was my first ever real concert: Mike Tramp from White Lion:




That song makes me sing along almost every time. Not sure why...other than it's a great song!

Greg sent me a ton of other cards too -- so numerous that I still have probably another 25 scans I could show. But, let me stop there and thank Greg for the great cards -- and the heavy metal inspiration.