Lesracing

[skippy]

Les is receiving the honor of being the first SCF Supercollector. Not only honoring him with the driver award but also the award of being a super set collector.

1. Name ~ Les

2. SCF ID ~ Lesracing

3. Location – City, State ~ Cinnaminson, NJ

4. Give a brief history of what you do in everyday life. What are your hobbies? ~ I’m still unemployed following a work related injury in August, 1999 that required 3 shoulder surgeries that unfortunately kept me from returning to my truck driving career. I spent the last 5 years caring for my elderly parents. Now maybe I can find a job and start working again to help support my trading card addiction!!! Some of my hobbies include: Reading mystery books, watching any and all forms of racing whenever I have the chance, collecting racing trading card sets and cards of my drivers, as well as spending time with my grandchildren when possible. I also enjoy spending time camping and hanging out at the Jersey shore whenever possible as well as salt water fishing along the Jersey coast.

5. Give a brief history of when, how long and why you got into collecting. Please include whether racing was you first passion in collecting, if not, what was. What was the deciding factor that made the change to racing? ~ My first “collecting” passion was for baseball caps of every kind (I used to get ALLOT being in the trucking industry). I sort of stopped collecting when I had nearly 3,000 caps and no room to display them. They are now packed away in my storage area but I still continue to add some from time to time. My first ever trading card set was the Topps Autos of 1977. To this day I still need 6 cards to complete it. I first started collecting racing items of Dale Earnhardt in 1986. Nascar trading cards first came out in 1988 (Maxx), but in 1988 it was hard to find them in my area. Once I started collecting, that was it for me, I was TOTALLY hooked!!!

6. Your driver/driver’s you collect that this honor is for. ~ I collect Dale Earnhardt Sr., Kerry Earnhardt & Kevin Harvick. I also collect at least some portion of every racing set that has ever been released whether it’s from a mainstream release, obscure sets or even track specific releases. My collection’s are always in some stage of completion. I’ve always tried to locate and document any and all cards for my driver lists as well as my set collections. My website is where I enjoy sharing this info to help other collectors like myself with their lists for the same drivers I collect. I hope to someday have the most complete list of every known card ever produced of Dale Earnhardt including pictures of as many as possible to share with others.

7. Do you collect any other sport, if so what. ~ There are other sports to collect??? Seriously no, I’m strictly 100% a racing collector!!!

8. Above all give us a break down again of your collection. Percentage owned cards to listed cards. Include some scans of your most prized cards. If set collector, give us again the breakdown to how many sets owned and described some of the more rarer sets or favorite sets you own. ~ Wow… this is sort of hard, lol. OK, here goes the best I can for now:

Dale Earnhardt Sr. No true idea of percentages as my collection is far behind in listings due to family issues. There are a great many cards in this collection that are not currently listed on Beckett or any other known lists to the best of my knowledge. I’ve picked up several new additions that I’ve not yet had time to list. Sorry, I just don’t have this info updated yet. With so many GR8 cards, it’s hard to select which ones to show. A few of my most prized cards in Dale’s collection is the hard to complete 8 card set of 1996 VIP Dale Earnhardt firesuits featuring silver foil (1:384), gold foil (1:512), blue foil (1:2,048) & green foil (1:6,144). Also three 1997 Pinnacle 1 of 1 Press Plates. One card that stands out as extra special to me is the 1988 Maxx #99 base card. This card was not originally included in the 1988 Maxx set due to a contract dispute but a buddy’s son worked for Maxx and he snuck the card out in his lunch box and sent it to me. Another card in my collection that means allot to me personally came from a GR8 friend and fellow Earnhardt collector and is ultra rare. It’s a 1995 Action Packed Country #62 that is signed by Dale and sits inside a triangular Pinnacle Lucite display stand. It is unknown the exact number that were produced as they were only given to very high volume distributors in which there were only a few. One card I really like the design of and had a high pull ratio celebrates Dale’s 7 Winston Cup Championships with 7 diamonds embedded in the card. The ‘rarest’ card in my collection is not a trading card, but rather a business card from the mid 1970’s. “Hargett and Earnhardt Racing Team” with Dale & Gary’s phone numbers listed and home address on the back and a picture of the teams #8 car on the front. It was indeed a very rare find!





Kerry Earnhardt. 98 total known cards produced, I have 84 of them. Collection is 85.8% complete. UPDATED (1/2/10): 105 known cards, I have 93 cards in the collection, 89.3%. Finally, Kerry has 3 race used cards and I have them all in the collection, lol.

Kevin Harvick: 1,637 total known cards produced, I have 1,167 of them. Collection is 71.3% complete. Included in this collection is one of every Beckett Sample card that were produced (88) as well as one of every eBay Preview card numbered to 5 produced (68). I currently have 36 Autographs, 18 Autographed Race Used, 163 Race Used, 158 other serial numbered cards (not including any of the autos or r/u cards previously listed). I like to find and list the oddball cards. Here’s the Merrick Mint card that’s kinda cool:



UPDATED (5/11/09): 1,619 known cards, 1,264 cards in the collection, 78.1% complete.

Set collection: Last count I had 576 main sets, and literally hundreds to thousands of parallels & inserts for many of these main sets. Most are stored in Ultra Pro Racing binders, but I also have many that are unopened factory sealed sets. One of my favorite sets is the 1994 Action Packed Champ & Challenger set that came in a leather bound binder that is half black/half white and is signed on the front by both Dale Earnhardt & Jeff Gordon. Also a rare set is the 1992 Pace Canadian American Tour (ACT) sample boxed set that all 50 cards in the set have the word SAMPLE on them. I’ve never seen another set like it since I got it. I especially like the food related sets where you had to put sets together by purchasing the specific food items and pulling the cards from the packages. These type sets have been fun, but challenging to complete.



Here is one cabinet that holds 45 of my set binders. I currently have over 500 sets and have them in 70+ Ultra Pro Racing binders starting with the 1983 UNO card set. Someday, I may just have every set ever produced (with all the inserts too, if I'm lucky! I know, wishful thinking!!!) I also collect autographs of driver's I meet in person and by mailing trading cards to the drivers for them to sign. The file cabinets shown on the right contain the unopened factory sealed sets.



My little known collection of pack pulled authentic autographs: For the most part this collection is of authentic autographs that I actually pulled from packs over the years. I’ve made a few trades here and there for a few cards to help grow this collection. It currently stands at 671 Authentic Autos.

UPDATED (1/2/10): 791 pack pulled autograph cards in the collection

9. Please enclose a personal picture of yourself so we can see the person behind the fantastic collection. ~ Best 2 pics I have for now:






In conclusion:

Any further questions feel free to ask. I really hope to get back to life and collecting soon and getting all of my lists updated further. I know I have allot more stuff to add to the lists (Dale’s in particular), but for now this is fairly accurate. Thanks again for considering me for this honor and truly a unique program idea. Now I just have to continue to live up to it!!!

[TheXsRacer]

Very Impressive Collection
Congrats on the Title Les

[JKC]

Congrats, Les! You deserve this title!

Darin

[race crazy]

congrats on being the first amazing supercollector Les!

[Ripken8fan55]

A very well deserved honor my friend!! Couldn`t think of a better collector or person to get the first super collector badge!! Congrats Buddy!!

Tom

[almac377]

Very befitting honor for you Les. Congratulations.


Al.

[bret2]

Congratulations to you Les!!

Bret

[doG sI kcivraH]

There's nobody more deserving of this honor!! Congrats. Can't wait to see you back on here! You are missed. Thank you for introducing me to online trading!!

Pete

[Shayne1911]

Congrats Les!!! You deserve to be the first Super Collector!!!! =))

[GangGreen52]

Congrats!!!!!