A Mixture Of Mail Days

The mail days I get don't come as many as they used to.

I only get a few handfuls here and there.

I used to blame my lack of funds, but, I think now I am more to blame the way of the hobby society has turned.

Trading has always been the centerpiece on how I add cards to my collection. With the lack of traders and a big chunk of the hobby being focused on money and the next big thing, this has really put a dampen on my trading. Twitter which was my hotspot for trading has gone colder than ice. There is either people who don't trade, people who are asking for too much or people looking for newer stuff within the last two years I don't have since I can't afford to rip wax. All of this together has made trading for me impossible. 

Trading with bloggers has cooled way down as well. Most don't have football or non-sports and others trade directly on TCDB which I have had zero success in doing. It doesn't like my approach of wanting to send pictures instead of having to upload an entire trade account which would take me weeks to months of time I don't have. When I have mentioned my approach to the TCDB members when I have tried to trade on there, I have been greeted by rude members which has driven me from the sight because of that. I still use the site for my collections, just not for anything else.

Trading on Facebook is a no. Full of scammers. Trading on Blusky I haven't really established myself there and it feels way too political.

Trading in person isn't an option. Nobody collects here. My father is only looking for stuff to flip now so he isn't even an outlet anymore.

With all of this being said, when I do find a trade mate and get a mail day, I truly treasure it.

Here are a couple recent mail days I have gotten,

First up a trade with fellow blogger Dions IP Auto Only blog. Our trade had a nice mix of sport and non sport.

My second mail day is from a Twitter stack seller. I won $10 worth of funds to use at his sale and I used them wisely.

 

I needed a nice Shough for next year, because you just never know.

My first Carter relic and a team color match.

And I wasn't going to let this Knicks card slip by.

The final mail day was a RAK from a fellow Twitter member I have known awhile. I don't remember his @ sadly for this post.

(Nabers 1/1)

Likely rookie auto!

and a Dart Chrome rookie!

Well, that does it. It's all I have for now to show off until the mail day drought ends.

Hope everyone has a fantastic Friday and let me know in comments where you like to trade.

Singing To Crocodile Cards

(to the tune of Crocodile Rock by Elton John) 

I remember when my mailbox was empty.

I knew it wasn't too much fun.

Holding bills and paying some.

Had some old cards sitting around like a bum.

But the biggest surprise I ever got...was some cards from a guy named Croc.

While the other bloggers are blogging around the clock, I was enjoying my mail day from a guy named Croc.

Tiki Barber used to play and show off his skills.

Amani Toomer would have been better is his quarterbacks had been as well.

Tiki Barber made cuts on time.

Kerry Collins picked apart defenses at will.

I never knew if Shockey would make the catch on time.

But, Plaxico always will.

I'm gonna say BIG THANKS to the Croc go check out his blog as well!

Okay, I ran out of lyrics. Thanks again Croc and hope everyone has Magnificent Monday!

Rodney's Cardboard:2025 Panini Silhouette Autograph Relic Holofoil /75

Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there!

It's time for the first NEW Rodney's Cardboard in a long time.

I haven't picked up a lot of new Rodneys from all of the new products, but I have picked up some. The prices for Rodney Hampton have been crazier than what I want to give up for it so this Super Collector of him has backed off from doing so.....sadly.

But I got today's for a good price so I landed it.

This was from one of Panini's new products, Silhouette. I am a little disappointed with the design as I felt if they dug back into the old silhouette design and brought it back that would have worked better.

This one is just meh. Not bad, not great.

 

The card back is just the usual lame Panini design for these. I miss the days where card backs mattered as much as the fronts.

Let me know your thoughts on the design of this card and what your plans are for Father's Day whether that be as a dad or for your dad.

Have a great Sunday!

The Hobby Is Supposed To Be Fun Right?

I have to be honest; I have done nothing but trash Fanatics since they took over Topps and then took over all of the licenses. On top of that, they also created what I consider a hobby into a money pit. It's all about the hits, it's all about the flipping, it's all about the money.

"the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil," as the saying goes from the Bible. I feel like there has been a dark cloud over the hobby since they took over and sadly their reign of terror doesn't end any time soon. If anything, they will only get stronger.

Despite this, there has been one tiny mini happy spot for me with Fanatics/Topps and it has nothing to do with their sports cards. They have however made some decent non-sport cards with strong autograph checklists. 

One of their latest releases, 2026 Topps Chrome Disney included a celebration of one of my favorite cartoons of all-time, Darkwing Duck.

I have been counting down for weeks and once I saw that he was on the checklist for this product, I knew I had to have as much as I could. Fast forward to release day yesterday, and I finished the entire 35th Anniversary insert set in a day by using eBay gift cards and searching for cheap deals. I will share those once they arrive.

Here was the checklist,

Darkwing Duck 35th Anniversary Checklist
10 cards.

Parallels:
Orange Refractor /25
Black Refractor /10
Red Refractor /5
SuperFractor 1/1

DD-1 Darkwing Duck
DD-2 Drake Mallard
DD-3 Gosalyn Mallard
DD-4 Gizmoduck
DD-5 Launchpad McQuack
DD-6 Splatter Phoenix
DD-7 Dr. Reginald Bushroot
DD-8 Megavolt
DD-9 Quackerjack
DD-10 Negaduck

Some of these characters I would have switched out, I think my favorite Darkwing character needed to be on here in Liquidator since he was one of the original villains but that's a rant for another day.

And there is also a base card,
135 Darkwing Duck - Darkwing Duck

With many parallels,
Refractor
Prism Refractor
RayWave 
X-Fractor
Magenta Refractor /399
Pink Refractor /250
Pink Mini Diamond /250 
Yellow and Green Ray Wave /225 
Aqua Refractor /199 
Aqua Mini Diamond /199 
Aqua Wave /199 
Purple and Light Green Shimmer Refractor /175 
Blue Refractor /150 
Blue Mini Diamond /150 
Blue Wave /150 
Dark Blue and Light Blue Lava /125
101 Dalmatians Black and White Shimmer /101
Green Refractor /99 
Green Mini Diamond /99
Green Wave /99 
Purple Refractor /75 
Gold Refractor /50
Gold Wave /50
Pearl Refractor /30 
Mickey Mouse Red and Black Refractor /28 
Orange Refractor /25 
When You Wish Upon A Star Refractor /15
Black Refractor /10
Red Refractor /5 
Red Wave /5
Superfractor 1/1

There is definitely a lot to chase here, but I will only tackle the ones that I can afford with future eBay gift cards since trading really isn't a thing for me right now being down an arm. I will come back and cross off the ones I grab and hopefully some of you will pin this and think of me if you see Darkwing Duck.

I am sure some collectors would shake their heads knowing I am not chasing the big hits from this product or buying some to open and try to flip. But that's not what the hobby is to me. It's nostalgic and it's supposed to be fun. I think many have forgotten about that aspect now.

Give me Darkwing Duck over some lame ole prospect autograph any day. It's what makes me happy.

Because the hobby can be fun once you make it what you want it to be, so I make mine about stuff I enjoy and I enjoy Darkwing Duck.

In comments let me know if you think the hobby is supposed to be fun or is it only about flipping and making money?

Some Cards That Made Me Smile

I have gone the last four days without a SINGLE PIECE OF MAIL.

No junk mail. No bills. No Cards.

I am not sure what is up, but I am wondering if my mail isn't arriving.

I have never gone that many days without any bills.

Cards yes, bills no.

But, a couple of weeks ago, I did have a stretch of a few days with cards in the mail and I am just getting to posting them now.

First one is this Bowmans Best BEST CUT Refractor of Knicks Legend Patrick Ewing. I was on a Knicks and 90's insert/refractor kick. Speaking of which...the Knicks are ONE GAME AWAY from advancing the NBA Finals!!

Who else is excited?!

The next card came via trade on Twitter.

 

Yes it's a swatch of legendary Pop Princess Britney Spears. She was my very first concert, my friend and I had a big crush and worked hard for tickets before she became huge. So, having this will be a nostalgic piece. Some day, yes some day, would love to add an autograph and then create a shadow box with this card, an autograph and the concert ticket stubs I held onto.

Next card, well it's Dr Frasier Crane. Well, the actor who played him. This Kelsey Grammer autograph had been on my nostalgic PC list for a while. Even though I didn't deeply love the show, I still watched it and watched enough where I consider it nostalgic.

The final card is a new set need that I found under $5. This is a 1997 Pro Line Gems Of The NFL gem card of Warrick Dunn. One of these days I will finish this set up.

And there you have it! As I said on my other blog, Cards Over Coffee, I will be taking a hiatus from blogging to focus on family, school and healing from my shoulder surgery. I plan to be back at some point but cannot at this time pinpoint when and which blog.

Once again thanks for the support for this blog as I have been re-working it.

Happy Summer! (when its official)

Is It Ever A Bad Day When Griffey Jr Is In The Mail?

Over the past few weeks, I have been accumulating a few mail days containing my favorite baseball player of all-time.

Now it's time to open it up and show them off!

We kick it off with a banger, well, what I consider one. This duo card is under $3, I was kind of surprised I didn't already have this insert.

Of course, my favorite insert adds of Griffey come from the 90's obviously. This one I got as a RAK from a fellow Twitter friend. A lot of mid 90's inserts from Score were prety slick and underrated.

Another one from the 90's. This is one of those fun Sporflix lenticulars that shows one player at one angle and another player at another. I am not sure what the comparison is for Ruben Rivera is here but he was no Griffey that's for sure.

And since I began the post with a banger, I will end it with an even bigger banger. This is a 2000 Finest refractor featuring Griffey holding his jersey after his shocking trade to the Reds. But I also knew that meant a whole new buttload of Griffey cards in a whole new jersey to chase.

The Finest one I hadn't ever acquired, not even the base which is still a need at the time of the trade. If my memory serves me well, all of his first Reds base cards at the time were Beckett level hot and all valued at $10+ for a base card which in itself was crazy at the time. My first one was the Upper Deck Ovation one which was on Becketts Hot List for a little while.

The trade though is still shocking to me after spending his career with Seattle and being the center of that franchise. Especially since Griffey was such a Super Star and being trading superstars wasn't really a thing at the time. Unlike now, seems like LeBron tries every year for a new team. I still think the Reds won that deal in the end despite the injuries Griffey had once he played for them. Sadly, being a Red may had led to those injuries that impacted the rest of his career. 

I have always wondered what would have happened if he had stayed in Seattle and signed the contract extension instead of getting the trade to be closer to family. Would have the injuries happened? How many homeruns would he have? What other record-breaking things would he had done? (all without roids by the way for those Bonds fans)

Many questions and many mysteries that will never be solved.

The only thing I know is that it's never a bad day when a Griffey is in the mail.

I Have The Only 1 (of 1)

With the excitement building around this year's NY Knicks team, I figured it was time to add something to my Knicks PC since it has been a long time since I have done so.

Now, I don't normally just collect any Knick. Most of my collection focuses on 90's players I grew up watching.

One of which I actually PC in Allan Houston.

So, I took to the bay to try and find a cool card that I could add. It didn't take long before I discovered one and an affordable one at that.

I know many complain about Leaf Trading cards and their lack of licenses, but where they lack in licenses they make up for in creative designs.

 

Like this one that is not only signed but is a die-cut shiny standout 1 out of 1 card.

I know the obvious miss here is the lack of the word New York on that jersey, but my focus is more on the overall look.

I think this is one of my more favorite Houston cards I own now.

My hope is that this new addition will serve as a good luck charm and help the Knicks make it to the Finals. Cleveland is a tough team and just took down the number one seed. This will be an intriguing matchup for sure, one that I can see going six or seven games.

In comments today, let me hear about your favorite 1/1 card (if you have/own one)

Rodney's Cardboard:2025 Panini Silhouette Autograph Relic

And... Rodney is back!

Well...for now.

I only have roughly four new Rodney's to show off for now as I haven't been adding any. With the rising costs of everything including cards, people are charging an arm, leg and kidney for Rodney cards now, so I am just sitting back and watching them marinate.

There are many I want, but I refuse to pay the prices...and I can't afford them anyways.

So, until then, I will post the four I have and hope others fall into my lap at some point.

Today's Rodney is another one from a new Panini product as they were just releasing stuff left and right before their NFL license ended.

The card itself is kind of bland. I was hoping when it said Silhouette that it was going to look like the Crown Royale autographed silhouette cards that they made.

I should have known better.

 

 

The backside is the usual boring blank Panini thing with the guarantee of a random fan jersey swatch from no specific game, time, date, place or maybe not even a Giants one but at least the autograph is real. 

I don't know a lot about this product as I don't spend a lot of time researching the newer ones, but I assume autograph cards fall a couple per box so not too hard of a find. There are though tons of parallels of this card as expected.

I will need to update my Rodney Hampton checklist at some point with these newer cards.

I hope all of you have a Super Sunday.

The AmeriCARD Dream

How ones hobby can turn into a dream job

Can you imagine what it must be like to have your favorite hobby also be your job?

It sounds like the American dream to me and that’s why I am chasing it. My love and passion of sport cards since I was a kid has carried over to my adulthood. Now I want it to carry over to my future career.

Sport Card Marketing is my dream.

A job that lets you talk about, think about, post about and even handle sports cards all day. As a sport card enthusiast, could you ask for more?

So, I wanted to get to know more about this exciting dream job and was looking for someone to interview.

One person that came to mind immediately is the legendary Susan Lulgjuraj, who’s been well known in the hobby circles as Sooz for many years. She is someone I have followed for a long time on Twitter and watched her career blossom into the career I am currently chasing and going to college for.

 

Susan started out as a journalist about 15 years, spending some of that time writing about sport cards as well with her time at Beckett magazine, a long-time sport card publication. She then spent some time doing PR, social media, and choosing card images for a product called Stadium Club while at Topps cards, one of the industry leaders in producing sport cards. From there, she spent some time at Goldin Auctions before landing her current position as Senior Marketing Manager at CGC Cards, a grading card company.

   

Her decade long hobby work paid off as she got the opportunity to pivot into marketing, which she says is a similar transition, “Storytelling. Working under deadlines. Understanding how people operate. Content creation. There were a lot of areas where it was a good fit.”

All of that experience before she landed her current job was a big help as she states that having “a variety of industry experience and gained more at each step in my career. I learned how to coach employees, work with partners and create solid marketing plans.”

  

When I asked her about what her typical day was like, though it didn’t come across as exciting when she said, “A lot of meetings”, there is still a lot of interesting aspects to the job as well including, working with different teams that do content, social media, graphics, events, finance, sales, and so on.

Having the right skills is also an important piece to a job like this, it’s not always about the fun of playing with sport cards all day. Susan mentioned some skills when I asked her which ones were important, she immediately pointed out that “Empathy is incredibly important. You have to know how to work with people and understand them.” Along with that, another useful skill “is knowing how to work under deadlines. Also, don’t being afraid to say you don’t know. You can always learn and research, but don’t fake an answer.”

Other than having the opportunity to have your hobby as your job, there are other perks of the job that make it fun. I asked her what her favorite part of the job was and she told me, “My favorite part is seeing a campaign or social post hit with the audience. It’s really satisfying to see hard work come together.”

As someone who does a lot online with cards myself, I can see how the reward of that probably feels. Being creative and having it be a hit among other hobbyists is a high point of a job like that. I know when I come up with some ideas on my social media pages for sport cards and seeing others enjoy it, it hits you in the feels.

To sum this job up, you have a job that lets you work with your favorite hobby, you get to use your creativity to show the hobby to others, and then you get paid to do it?! Sign me up.

So, when I asked her If you could do things all over again, would you choose the same path for yourself? I wasn’t surprised with her reply, “I would choose this path every time. I love cards and I get to work on them every day.”

I hope to say the same thing someday. Thanks for the interview Sooz.

 

(this is a college course paper I am writing and sharing with you all as well! I decided to re-publish this since I liked it and wanted to share my college work)

Owed Thanks

It's been a crazy-busy year so far and when you combine that with the fact that I got another year older already, this means I can become very forgetful.

What helps me get through is writing post-it notes or in this case having a blog draft ready.

When I started moving posts from my other two blogs back onto this one, I discovered a hidden draft I had started and never finished. It was a very generous mail day from my northern neighbor Angus who blogs on Dawg Day Cards.  I believe I had published the other half of this mail day on Cards Over Coffee but had been meaning to finish posting it on another blog and never did.

So, before I begin this post, I would like to first apologize to Angus for this delayed owed thanks for such a great mail day.

Now, time to show off the rest of that mail day,

I kick it off with a golden YA Tittle.

Next, a shiny Kerry Collins. Regardless if I have this or not, I never EVER turn down any 90's inserts or parallels especially of my favorite players.

Phil Simms 1984 Topps

As someone who grew up watching the Flinstones and the live action movies, these were great additions for two PC's. I could count these as non-sport ones as well. I have seen a couple of these on eBay before and always wanted them, now I have them.

I always hoard these Pro set cards.

One of my favorite Giants of all-time is featured on this card. Hakeem Nicks was very underrated as a Giants pass catcher but had one heck of a run in the 2011 NFL Playoffs leading the Giants to the Super Bowl and upset win.

I miss Sterling, I really wished he had retired as a Giant.

 

And finally, a Rodney Hampton. I do have this one, it's hard to find many that I don't have, but Rodney's are always welcomed just in case I don't.

Thanks again Angus for the mail day. I really appreciated all of it and you are a great, generous guy.

I guess before I continue on with more new posts on here, I better check my post-it notes and drafts to make sure I don't have any other owed thanks Let's just hope I don't misplace those as well, that wouldn't be good. I can't have a post-it note of where I placed my post-it notes.