One Ring to Rule Them All...

I got a message from Mike (Deckard on the Scoundrel Art Message Boards) two weeks ago asking me if I'd be interested in his lone Michael Duron Lord of the Rings sketch- a sweet Sauron sketch holding up the Ring of Power. It was such a cool card and it was a Duron.. so of course I was interested in it! We worked out a deal and a few days later I got it. Thanks Deckard! I love the tag line that Michael Duron put on the card: "One Ring To Rule Them All".. that's one of the underlying themes of the LOTR's series, and with Sauron's sinister helmet behind the hand holding up the ring, this card reeks of his evil power. An awesome addition to my collection. I have a few Star Wars Clone Wars cards on the way, so I'll be posting them soon. Until then, thanks for reading... Dave

Rats....

Rats...

I just got back from Steel City Con and "Rats..." had to be the theme of the weekend. First, because I picked up a great Michael Duron sketch from one of the other Dealers- Bryan Schemine- a great guy from Ohio. Another Indiana Jones Heritage to add to my collection. I had asked Bryan on Friday when we were setting up if he had any Michael Duron sketches and he didn't think he did, but on Saturday when I got there he said "why didn't you say 'Locoduck'? I have one of his"... and it turned out to be this furry rodent (see enclosed picture). The second reason "Rats..." was the theme of the weekend still has me crying in my Cheerios. The new Star Wars: Clone Wars just came out, so people were busting boxes left and right at the Con (myself included.. as always, hoping for a Duron). One of my customers said he had busted a box and all he could tell me about the sketch was "it had a big nose"... big nose.. hmmmmmmm. I asked him if I could see it, thinking maybe, just maybe he had pulled a Duron.. so he went and got it. Sure enough, there was a Count Dooku sketch done by none other than Michael Duron! And he and his sister-in-law had bought the two boxes right before I did! "Would you like to trade? Would you like to sell it?".. I didn't want to seem too desperate but I think he saw thru my not-too-calm exterior. No amount of asking/pleading/begging worked.. he wanted to take it home and do some research on it. Still though, he took my email address, so I'm hoping beyond hope that he'll contact me. I was that close.... RATS!.... Thanks for reading... Dave

FINALLY!!!!

Finally! It's taken me months (literally) to finally get a Michael Duron sketch that WASN'T from Lord of the Rings, as I was able to win "The Swordsman" from the Indiana Jones Heritage set on Ebay. All I can think is that Deckard is on vacation or already has some version of this card, because he's done quite a job of snagging a healthy percentage of all of the Indiana Jones Duron's that hit Ebay (and alot that don't too). I've always been a big fan of the Indiana Jones series, so being able to get (at least) one of Mike's sketches from the sets is great. So now I have one from the Heritage set, and hopefully I can pick up at least one from the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull set. I'm a happy camper. Thanks for reading all..... Dave

A Good Week

Not even tearing all of the ligaments in my right thumb (ouch.. it really hurt) could stop this week from being a good one. So many good things happened, including picking up two more of Mike's sketches.. an awesome Oliphant sketch that I got from Jonas (Bombadillio on the Scoundrel Art message boards), and a sweet Treebeard sketch that I picked up on Ebay. I love the detail on both, from the smile on the face of the guy riding on the Oliphant's back, to the "punt" and the x'd out eyes of the Orc being punted. Your work always amazes me Mike!

Heroes Volume 2 came out this week, and I've already seen some awesome pieces of Mike's handiwork both on Ebay and on Scoundrel Art posts. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up a few. Since I pre-ordered a case of Star Wars Clone Wars and can't afford to buy cases of every product that comes out, I was still able to buy four boxes of Heroes Volume 2 on Ebay from Craig- ebay id: dreamjoey, one of my favorite sellers. I bought my first case of Indiana Jones KOTCS from him, and he's great to deal with. I had been reading the Scoundrel Art message boards on the Heroes 2 case breaks, and people were freaking out about how bad their breaks were.. some cases only giving up 5 hits where 9 were "guaranteed" by Topps (7 boxes with one hit, and one "hot box" with two hits). I also saw some people were getting 12-14 hits in a case, which I thought had to be a typo.. that just doesn't normally happen in Topps products. I figured I'd land on the short end of the stick.. I usually do when it comes to breaking products. I got my boxes 2 days after the release (fast shipping by dreamjoey) and tried the first box.. and got two hits- an autograph and a sketch card! I almost fell out of my chair. Me getting a hot box, who'd have thunk it? lol. So I opened the 2nd box.. and got two more hits- a costume card and an autograph! Whoa. So on to the 3rd box.. and two more hits- an autograph and a cool Jeff Chandler sketch card. Now I'm thinking, I'm either dreaming or I'm in the Twilight Zone, because this just doesn't happen to me. So on to the 4th box.. in which I pulled an autograph. Almost anticlimactic and almost disappointing, but with 7 hits in 4 boxes I was on cloud 9.

I hope all the readers out there had a great 4th of July weekend. My special someone (Mandy) has kept a smile on my face all week (one of the biggest reasons the week has been so GOOD), so thus continues my good week... Thanks for reading.. Dave