I added another card in the 2023 Panini Draft Picks Prism line. This is the Orange Finite parallel, which is serial numbered to 39. I'm slowly chipping away at this series, but even the ones that have higher serial numbers don't pop up too often. On this card, the serial number can be seen on the card back, inside the black bar near the bottom.
This is the third in my trilogy of hard-to-find Herschel Walker card, which I've recently obtained. Shown is a 2006 Leaf Limited-Monikers Autographs Platinum. There is a bold signature from Herschel on the front of the card. The reverse shows the one of one designation. There is another card in this series which has a one of one run. That is the Platinum Spotlight card, which looks similar to this card, however, there is no autograph. That is the only card I'm missing from the 2006 Leaf Limited series, as far as Walker cards are concerned. As always, it's great to fill in a long vacant spot on his TCDB page, especially for such a rare issue as this.
As I mentioned in last week's post, I hit on three different Walker cards which had been missing from the Herschel Hoard. This card, a 2002 Donruss Gridiron Kings-Samples Gold card, is the second of three. The base run of this series is a 175-card set. The regular Samples subset, as well as the Gold Samples parallel of that subset, have 125 cards in each one. The Gold version can be distinguished from the regular Sample, by the very white border on the card front. It appears washed out here, against the white background, but is easily seen, card in hand. The word SAMPLE is clearly seen on the bottom of the card back. The Gold example was a much tougher find. I acquired the regular Sample version of the card in June of 2018, but didn't come across the Gold Sample until April 2025.
A high-end Herschel Walker autographed card, this is a 2022 Zenith Z-Graphs Spokes card of Herschel, which is serial numbered to 10. This example is #5, which can be seen on the card front, just under the Z.
I have to say, it's been somewhat of a dry spell here at the Hoard. I haven't come across anything I've needed or wanted, since my last post in early March. I did have a disappointing near miss, on a 2023 Panini Prizm Draft Picks Black Gold 3/5 card, on which I was outbid by one dollar. My disappointment turned to elation in the past week however, as I came upon three new Walker cards, which will fill voids in my collection. I will discuss the other two in future posts. First, today's card. These Zenith's are tough to find and aren't cheap. I was bummed about missing the aforementioned opportunity, so I pulled the trigger on this card when it came up. The Spokes parallel is a 31-card set. Herschel is also in the "base" autographed Zenith set (32 card set, numbered to 15), the Lightning (33 card set, numbered to 5) and the Kaboom (33 card set, numbered 1 of 1). The Kaboom's have achieved a level of fame amongst collectors. There the one's which resemble a screen grab of the old Batman television show, which showed an animated visual when the Caped Crusader punched a villain. His fists would fly and the words, "Zap, Pow or Kaboom!", would appear. At the present time, there is just one other example of any player, not just Walker, in the Z-Graphs line, on the TCDB.
I just completed my run of 2022 Panini Classic Transitions of Herschel Walker, by picking up the Black, One of One parallel. Interestingly, it was up for sale a year or so ago on EBay, but I waited too long and missed it. I was really surprised to see it come up for sale now. As I have the other eight cards in the nine-card set, I really wanted it. Of course, it was more expensive this time around, but the lure was too great.
I took a quick snap of all nine cards which are now in the Hoard. Nothing fancy, just gives an idea.
Aside from the 1 of 1 featured today, the other cards and serial numbers are: Base card; Blue-numbered to 5; Gold-numbered to 99; Green-numbered to 15; Orange-numbered to 10; Purple- numbered to 35; Red-numbered to 50 and Silver- no serial number.
I'm fairly close on the 2022 Panini Mosiac run of Herschel as well. I believe I'm 3 or 4 away, but two of those are one of one's.
I added another in the 2022 Panini Sensational Signatures line. This is the Blue Ice parallel, which is serial numbered to 35. That can be seen on the card back, at the bottom of Walker's image. There are four other parallels out there in this series, including a one of one. The base version and the Green Scope are in the Hoard already.
It's always fun when I find one of my Top Ten Most Wanted, Herschel Walker cards, to add to the Hoard. That was the case here, as I finally tracked down this 1995 Pacific Gridiron Platinum #88 card, on Ebay. I now have the Blue, Copper, Red and Platinum and lack only the Gold version, for a complete run. This is another example of a variation that you really have to have in hand to see a noticeable difference between the Copper and the Platinum. It is definitely there, though. I was unable to find the print runs for the various parallels but for me, the Blue (base) was the easiest to locate, followed by the Red. Finding the Copper took several years, and so, obviously, did the Platinum.
I've slotted in a new card for the Top Ten list. Actually, more of a category than a single card. I chose the 1997 Pinnacle Totally Certified Promos # 43. There are three variations, Red, Gold and Blue. What distinguishes the Promo cards from the regular run is the serial number on the back. For example, the Red cards are numbered to 4999. The Red card shown in the TCDB is # 4488. On the Promotional cards, instead of a number, there are just four X's.
