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Thread: Lea Defoote

  
  1. #1




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    Lea Defoote

    Congrats to the latest Supercollector. Tom has been an inspiration to us all with his outstanding Ted Musgrave collection. He only has a few left to complete it and of course we are all looking for them ones he needs. Enjoy his Bio and collection.

    1. Name - Tom Charney

    2. SCF ID - Lea DeFoote

    3. Location – Bolton, Connecticut

    4. Give a brief history of what you do in everyday life. What are your hobbies? - I am a Mechanical Engineer at the Otis Elevator Company. I work at our North American Service Center which is responsible for spare parts and technical support for Otis Service and Modernization operations throughout the US and Canada. Outside of work, I have plenty of interests to keep me busy. I am still new to being a dad, my son just turned one in October. Home repairs and yardwork are never ending, but I’m a do-it-yoursef kinda guy. I’m also an engineering mentor on a FIRST Robotics team. (Check out www.usfirst.org if you are interested in learning more about that.) I’m a diehard car guy. I have a 1977 Lincoln Mark V that my grandparents bought new. It now has about 27K miles on it. I also have a 1977 Ford Maverick that I have owned since high school. I have completely rebuilt it since then. I enjoy driving and showing both of these cars whenever I get the chance. I also have a 1964 Ford Galaxie convertible that I’m restoring. Of course, I use the term ‘restoring’ loosely, since homeownership and fatherhood have put a severe crimp on the time I have available to work on it. I also collect coins, transportation & arcade tokens, Hot Wheels and other assorted diecast that catch my fancy. Oh, yeah, and trading cards, merchandise and memorabilia of NASCAR driver Ted Musgrave….LOL!

    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? - As evidenced by the list of hobbies above, I am a collector by nature. Strangely enough though, I didn’t start collecting NASCAR stuff right away. Sure, I had my share of hats, t-shirts, window decals and a few diecasts, but I didn’t start seriously collecting until Ted didn’t have a full time Cup ride anymore. After the 1999 season, a friend of mine thought he had a nice idea for a Christmas present for me. He went on eBay and bought a bunch of Ted Musgrave trading cards, singles and lots, along with some handouts and some other misc. merchandise. He thought it would be a nice way to memorialize Ted’s career for me. Well, I looked at this pile of trading cards (there were probably 150-200 different ones) and thought “this must be most of them, I’ll just take a year or so and finish up the set”. And so I was hooked! Little did I know just how far this new obsession would take me, or how many great friends I would make along the way. So here I am, almost nine years into my original ‘year or so side collection’ and going strong.

    6. Your driver/driver’s you collect that this honor is for. - Ted Musgrave (I’d have entered for Mike Stefanik as well, but there haven’t been 100 cards made of him.)

    7. Do you collect any other sport, if so what. - Nope


    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.
    • Percentages of cards you own to available card of the driver. - Own 934 of 957 known (97.6%) - This includes every card I've found that has Ted or his car clearly pictured on the front or back (no matter who the card officially comemorates) as well as any card that records some part of Ted's career (Lists him as a Pole Winner, Top 10 Finisher, etc.) I also have a separate collection of the checklist cards that have his name on them which is about 94% complete as of now.
      • Percent of base - 100% - I have one of each card of Ted with a known population of 1000 or more.
      • Pecent of numbered/sample - I have one of each card of Ted that is individually serial numbered out of a specific population. I still have a few items on my want list where the entire run carried a 1 of (something) inscription.
        • Number of Ebay Previews - None made - not sure if that counts as 100% or 0%
        • Number of Beckett Samples - 100% - Two made, have 'em both.
      • Percent of Race Used - 100% - The only card made of Ted that kinda qualifies as 'Race Used' is the 1997 Score Board Racing IQ #21. This set was billed as having "real race used tire rubber treatment", a concept that would later be used by Press Pass in the Skidmarks parallel sets.
      • Percent of Autographs - 100% - There have been 22 different Certified Auto cards made of Ted, I have at least one of each, plus half the redemption cards for autos that were distributed through redemption programs.
      • Other - I also have unopened boxes of '95 Maxx Medallion and '96 Maxx Made in America because Ted's car is pictured on the box artwork.
    • Link to your website that lists/shows collection - http://home.comcast.net/~charneyt/nascar.htm
    • Additional Items that make your collection stand out
      • Postcard - I have team handouts of Ted from ASA, Winston Cup and Truck Series competion including many major and minor variations.
      • Die-cast - I have every mass market Model, CWC Die Cast, Slot Car and R/C car of Ted's race vehicles and haulers in all available scales. I'm still missing a couple of pieces that were not widely distributed, or not sold at retail at all. I also have many Banks, Silver Chase, Gold, etc. versions in my collection, but I have not focused on those types of items.
      • Presskits - I have many different team Press Kits from Ted's teams over the years. The most unusual are two from 2000. One is from the #60 Power Team Chevy that includes a Stat sheet of Ted and a press release announcing that he would be subbing for Geoffrey Bodine who was injured in a horrific wreck in the Daytona Truck Series race that year. The other is from the Sabco BellSouth team when Ted was named as the replacement driver for the team after Kenny Irwin's death.
      • TTM's - I have several TTM signed cards. My favorite is a '96 Upper Deck card with a picture of Ted and his wife from the '95 awards banquet that I had signed by both Ted and Debi.
      • Other - My collection also includes a lot of other merchandise; pennants, vanity plates, mugs, Christmas ornaments, a belt buckle, a tapestry blanket, a pool cue, etc., and memorabilia such as pit crew uniform shirts from '94, '95, & '97, and my most recent addition, an unused decal of Ted's name from over the door of the '94-'95 Cup car.
    Here are pics of some of my favorite pieces from my collection:




    This was the first Ted card I owned, I got it a couple years before I actually started collecting. It is from the 1996 Motorsports Collectibles NAPA set which was distributed through a promotion at NAPA stores.



    This is the only card I’ve been able to find of Ted where the serial number matches his car number. It is a 1996 Wheels Knight Quest Black Night card.



    This was a tough segment of my Musgrave collection to complete. These are the 1994 Hi-Tech Brickyard 400 Preview Proof cards. Even though these have a population of 200 each, these cards were tougher to get than the Oil Slicks (/100) and Goldens (/50). Thanks again to Scott for helping me polish these off earlier this year.



    This is probably my favorite Certified Auto card of Ted. I really like the design of these cards. Also, I was able to find a variation of this one. I also have one signed in Black (or Navy, I can’t tell for sure) ink.





    These cards are fairly unique. They are a version of the 1997 Pinnacle Totally Certified Red, Blue and Gold cards. This is one of those rare cases where I won them on eBay before I knew any better, and looking back, I’m really glad I did! I’m not really sure what the whole story is on these, but instead of the regular gold foil serial numbers, they have XXXX/… printed in gold ink. I believe these were sample cards in the original sense, in that they were made as samples to be sent to catalog companies (i.e. Beckett), but the manufacturer obviously wasn’t going to use ones from the serial numbered run for that purpose. If anyone has any better info on these, I’d love to hear it.



    Last but not least, here is a pic of my latest die cast addition. This is the only piece of merchandise I’ve been able to find of this car that Ted drove in 2000. This car had been the #42 car, but the team renumbered and repainted it after Kenny Irwin’s passing. Except for one race (PJ Jones at Watkins Glen), Ted was the only driver to race this car.

    9. Please enclose a personal picture of yourself so we can see the person behind the fantastic collection. - Here’s a couple of pics from this year’s Truck race at Loudon, Jonah’s first NASCAR race:





    Thanks again!
    -Tom
    Hidden Content

    I do not accept PWEs

    I actively trade for these drivers: Greg Biffle--Marcos Ambrose--NHRA

    Hidden Content

  2. #2






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    Congrats Tom!! You've got a great collection!

    Ashley

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    Your collection looks pretty amazing! Congrats Tom!! :)

  4. #4





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    Congrats on this honor! You deserve it!

    Darin

  5. #5




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    great collection! tougher to find "older" cards like those!

  6. #6





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    Thanks for the kudos everyone!

    The collection got a little bit better yesterday:

    https://www.sportscardforum.com/showp...56&postcount=1

    Thanks again-

    Tom

  7. #7




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    Congrats, Tom! I can't wait to see you finish your collection!!

  8. #8
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    Congrats!
    Click banner for tradelist
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  9. #9




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    Congrats Tom!!

  10. #10





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    Congrats Tom on having the SuperCollector honor bestowed on you!

    You have been an inspiration to me for many years with your dedication to your collections as well as the drive and dedication to finding that "impossible rare card" that has not previously been listed.

    Awesome Collection!!! Congrats!!!



    PS: The Pinnalce XXXX cards you asked about were indeed promotion/sample cards that were supposedly produced and given out in very limited quanities. From what I was told about them years ago, they were given to only the highest selling dributors in the Pinnacle Brands group. I do not have a specific production number, but heard it was a low amount. I'm still searching for the Earnhardt cards I need for my collection. I have the pictures of the cards on my website, just not the actual cards in my collection. Hope this info helps!

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