Friday, September 30, 2016

And Down Goes The Blogger....

It seems that blogger had crashed yesterday and eliminated some of our blogrolls. Not sure if you were victims or not but I know I wasn't alone in this as I noticed Breakdown Cards and The Lost Collector suffered this hard fate. So I have been trying to recover all of the blogs I read on my list and I know a lot are missing. I also noticed that my blog had been removed (I left a comment on a few of your blogs I was pretty sure I was on the blog read list of) at least from what I can see, from others blogging lists. Here is what I need for help.

1. Let me know if you were on my list but are missing now and please leave your blog link in comments so I can add you back quicker.
2. Let me know if I am missing on your list and please re-add me. Here is my link for an easier add for you, http://sportcardcollectors.blogspot.com/
3. If you know of any other NEW blogs I need to add or check out but haven't yet, please leave those links below too if you have a minute. While I am at it I might as well add some new ones to read.

It's a tough thing to fix. I was hoping blogger would do it on their own but it seems something went wrong and doesn't appear they are going to reappear. The odd thing is I am missing on blog lists, but somehow get a little traffic still from a few of them but the other two above still appear on everyone's lists.

Thanks in advance for the help! I don't wanna miss too many of your guys posts and hoping most of you will respond to this and hopefully re-add me as well. I know it can be a pain sometimes.

Just Like Ichiro, I Hit 3,000

Just like Ichiro earlier this year, I just hit for my 3,000th..... blog post. Yes, 3,000.

 

Seems like a lot of posts in less than 5 years, but that's just how I roll.

I am not sure how big of a milestone this is compared to other bloggers who have gone this far, but I just wanted to take a minute out to acknowledge it and thank all of you for reading and for the support. It takes a lot to blog everyday and not miss one, but as long as you keep reading my mumbo-jumbo, I plan to keep posting it daily.

Have a great weekend!

Remnants Of A Yard Sale Breakdown Part 2

Yesterday I posted my first round of my latest yard sale find and today I am posting the rest of it.


Up to this point and even today's post is focused on 90's inserts and rookies. So let's see more of it!

More Gold Medallions. These may be one of the sharpest parallels of at least 1995. Later on they made the Gold Medallions not so obvious.


Score inserts and more gold finds!


More inserts/parallels. The Philly Phanatic was just a cool card and the Topps Laser was just awesome.


Fleer Inserts. I did find a few double inserts in this box but some were new. I really like the Golden Memories Inserts and the Viola.


Team 2000. I feel like I have 2000 of these.


Some NBA inserts. The Kidd Stick Um I liked finding.


And to finish it out, some early 90's baseball cards including Lou Brock.
 

Overall, a very solid $5 find in my opinion. Like I said I didn't post them all as there were some other inserts and even 6 Rodney Hampton's. I am pretty sure they are all doubles, but they were in there at least.

I would be surprised if you guys didn't agree that I got my money's worth. But, I am going to ask anyways, do you think I got my money back?

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Remnants Of A Yard Sale Breakdown Part 1

Yesterday, I posted a new round of yard sale boxes that my mother-in-law picked up and now here is what I was able to save. There were a lot of damaged cards with corners and rubber band marks, but there were also some really good saves. I think this yard sale find overall was my best of the year.

But, I will let you guys help be the judge of it.

So out of probably one or two thousand cards, this was all I was able to keep. The rest will be donated, some trashed and some given to kids at my yard sales.


 Once again there were way too many cards to take pictures of , so I only took the best of the best.

Up first, Collect A Books of LT and John Elway. I didn't have either so they were nice adds for this 90's guy.


Older SI For Kids cards, a Johnny Damon Minor League card and an Al Leiter rookie.


Some football inserts. I was always a fan of the MVP's out of Collectors Choice. Even got one of my favorite players in TD.


Star Quest and a couple more nice Collectors Choice inserts. The Star Quest came in many levels but I only found the basics here.


More football inserts. The Wilkinson had some weird numbering on the back.


Minted In Canton parallels. Sapp was a nice find.


I like GOOOOOOOOOOLLLD.


Gary Payton rookie was a nice find. The Gold Ultra Medallion hockey card was the only hockey card of the bunch.


Not sure what these Reggie Miller cards are. They were small and torn apart like out of a magazine. I am sure one of you will comment and let me know!


And to end today's part, our once Presidential Leader. Dig finding oddballs like this.
 

This is just part one of the finds and like I said, I didn't post all. I feel today's allotment above alone is worth the $5 to me. Maybe not to everyone. 

Part 2 is posting tomorrow and thoughts on today's part are welcomed in comments!

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Yard Sale Find:Boxes Of Joy

Oh man, my mother-in-law has been on fire this summer when it comes to finding cheap cards on yard sales.

This find comes in 3 jammed-packed boxes for only $5!! Yes, $5!
I haven't even looked to see the contents, but you gotta at least know $5 has gotta be in there.
From a distance however, seems as if there are some damaged cards, some rubber-banded ones, but also some from every sport and a variety of years. It should make for a fun breakdown and hopefully I will discover something that was forgotten in here by a previous owner who was more than likely just trying to ditch em by that price.

Stay tuned as I will unravel what I find in here along with what was in that garbage bag of Yard Sale stuff of before.

For now, let me know in comments if you think I will discover anything or will this just be a dud?

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

The Trade

I have run out of words to use for this trade or a catchy title to get you to check this out.

In past trades I have used Epic, Ginormous, Huge, Monstrous, and other words like it. But, in this recent trade with Project Pedro Blog, there are no words to use to describe it or maybe there are many. It's a mouth-dropping 150+card and 90's wax box zinger of a trade.

I haven't pulled off a trade like this in years and it doesn't happen very often. I try to stay in my circle of normal traders and that doesn't really expand my trading options but it does play it safe in knowing I will get my cards in return. I see so many things go wrong in the trading world of the hobby especially in a trade like we just pulled off.

Anyways, this box right here is full of the contents. I made the pic a bit darker so nothing will be revealed other than it's a large Flat Rate box.


How I decide to break down the contents and showcase them on here, is yet to be seen. I will break the boxes in Breakin Wax style (maybe even a special edition with a few packs at a time) but as for the individual cards in which each is great itself especially a couple that really stand out, I may post one or two cards at a time. I wouldn't want one to be missed.

So stay tuned, this box has a lot to reveal and some may make you drool on your keyboard.....

Monday, September 26, 2016

2016 SCC NFL Week 3 (UPDATED)

Week 3 of the NFL has ended for me, next week I will need to wait til Tuesday as the Giants play on Monday Night.

For now, I can recap how my Week 3 went.

The Giants fell flat. Led 21-9 at one point and bit by bit the Redskins clawed back and completely shut down the Giants in the second half. They did not have their A-game and you could tell that by the frustrations on the sidelines especially by Odell Beckham who was the main focus of the game vs Josh Norman. I am just glad the talk of those two is over with....til the next meeting.

The haunting memories of Eli's interception past came back including one at the end when the Giants were trying to drive for a game winning FG. He threw a really bad one earlier in the third quarter and two more were dropped. It was very ugly on some throws and beautiful on others. He still threw for over 350 yards and hooked up with rookie (and quickly becoming my favorite player) Sterling Shepard for a nice TD.

Eli wasn't the only turnover player. Shane Vereen who has looked good at RB and coming out of the backfield as a WR, fumbled for his second consecutive week. Despite that, he has looked the best at running the ball in my opinion from all of the backs.

The defense looked like last year's version giving up big plays and leaving WR's open. Despite how poor the defense played, it was still nice to see Vernon get his first sack finally. I hope this is a start for him. They need to get more pressure. QB's have way too much time to throw and have the first three weeks. Spags needs a new plan for next week.
 

So with the Giants falling this week, they drop to 2-1 on the year and 1-1 in the division. They play as I stated above, a very tough defensive team in the 3-0 Vikings next week on the road. Will be a tough task. One I am hope they are up for and one I think they gotta win to get back on track. I don't want to see memories of this weeks collapse. 

As for my NFL Pick Em, let's just say another bad week on all of my leagues of that including my survivor pick for $100 as I picked Pitt. Maybe next year!

Fantasy Football treated me well however. I am going to beat a top team in the TCSP league and my own personal league I am going to get my first win it appears unless D.Freeman tears it up tonight and Jacob Tamme does nothing. I lead by 24. 

In my personal league, I was determined this week to not fall 0-3. I cut 4 players, traded for 2 (including Odell Beckham) and traded 4 away. Signed 9 new and kept playing with cutting and signing all week up until kickoff yesterday. My biggest play was signing Shane Vereen right before the Giants game and starting him and my worst mistake was benching Sterling Shepard. I will make sure that won't happen again. I feel pretty good about my team going forward now except at running back. It's something I am struggling with. I picked up Doug Martin that someone cut but it could be weeks before I can use him. In the meantime, I just gotta keep cutting and signing as I have no real number 1 and 2 back and hope for the best.

Let's hear how your NFL week went with your Fantasy, NFL Pick Em and/or Team played in comments!

UPDATE: I ended up in a tie thanks to D.Freeman tearing apart the Saints defense. So I am still in the winless column at 0-2-1.

Winner Of 2016 Bowman Chrome Cards!

Man, it seems like these contests come and go by so fast. Well, the end of the Bowman Chrome one is here and I have two winners to announce!

The winners are the Top 2 names on the list. Autograph goes to first place and refractors go to second.

There were 31 items in your list. Here they are in random order:
  1. PrimeTime33
  2. hudsonfan15
  3. Jafronius
  4. Malachi381
  5. Nick Frank
  6. mrbasepauly
  7. Sam Zozaya
  8. Cameron Towe
  9. Brandon L
  10. michael wardrop
  11. Justin S
  12. Tracy LeVeaux
  13. M BOYLAN
  14. Tracy LeVeaux
  15. J. Meeks
  16. Nick Frank
  17. mrbasepauly
  18. Sam Zozaya
  19. Justin S
  20. Anthony Pizzo
  21. defgav
  22. Tim B.
  23. Adam Kaningher
  24. Scott Everett
  25. God's humble servant
  26. GRADY MALACHOWSKI
  27. Bradley Defreitas
  28. Dave Kaltenmark
  29. Scott Everett
  30. Matt Stupienski
  31. The Lost Collector
IP: 72.169.81.114
Timestamp: 2016-09-26 14:36:28 UTC
You have randomized this list 7 times.

Congrats to PrimeTime33 on the auto win and hudsonfan15 on the refractors including RIP Jose Fernandez. Please email sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com with your addy. You both will have 48 hours to claim your prize or it will be re-given away in a future contest. Please give a shout out upon arrival of your prize so I can continue to host giveaways like this.

Thanks to everyone who entered. An soccer autograph giveaway is going on right now!

LETTERING Out Sport Card Collectors

For years I have been wanting to spell out Sport Card Collectors in Letterman form to use as a heading to this blog.

This past week, I finally had the chance to sit down and sort out my letters to see where I stand. I am not off to a bad start, but still have a long ways to go.
Missing the following letters of either autographed or non-auto letters.
3 C, 2 R, 2 O,L, T, S

Hopefully I can fill these needs at some point and hit my goal. I think it would look really cool.

How many of you have attempted spelling out your blog, business or family with these?

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Great Trade With Pack War Blog

Last week or so, I received an email from Pack War Blog about a card I pulled in my Donruss Review break and he wondered if it was up for trade. I at first was hesitant as the card was cool, but then decided let's do this! So we began discussions to work out the trade and we came to an agreement pretty fast.

Friday he showcased on his blog what I sent that you can see HERE.

Now it's my turn to showcase what I got in return.

He has definitely read my blog many times as I can tell he knew exactly what I was interested in.

Up first, a unique Ryan Newman patch for my PC.

 
New Griffey adds! I hadn't ever seen the League Leaders before.



 
And now some new Rodney Hampton adds that he nicely went and picked up for me. This brings me to 410 different out of 800 or so. I am slowly creeping there!

 
Refractory.....

 
Now that he sent the Gold Shield, only the Silver Shield is missing.

 
FINALLY! I now own the Collectors Edge Pop Warner 22K gold parallel. This was the last one I needed. There were roughly 6 cards in all to find.

 
And to finish it up (not pictured for some reason was a 1995 Skybox Paydirt insert), a Score Red Siege Artist Proof. Now just missing one more Artist Proof from the set.
 
 
A very solid trade overall and hoping him and I can trade again. Highly recommend him as a trader.
 
Thoughts on my mail day or our trade is welcomed in comments and if you have any Hampton's collecting dust in your house, just check my WANTLIST and let me know!

$1 Yard Sale Boxes Breakdown Part 5

I showed off a garbage bag containing some cards a couple weeks ago and said I would break down what was in there, well, here we go.

I finally saved the best box for last, well, this one isn't really a box like the rest. It's a boxed set of 1989 Topps. There were some good and bad with this part.


 
The good, well, the gallery of rookies. They were all in there.

Biggio:

 
Smoltz. His face still cracks me up.

 
Johnson:

 
And I pulled this out as I believe it's the error card with the pink on the corner.
The bad, 2 cards from the set were missing. But, with the set only costing new around $5 I guess to lose out on a couple of cards is fine. I like that all of the rookies and error card was still in there and for my PC, that's what matters most. However, with my hobby OCD, I will still need to find a way to fill the set which I am sure I have those cards kicking around somewhere.

Overall, the best $1 box and there is no argument on that. I was a bit disappointed overall hoping to find a hidden gem within the whole lot with so much success in past yard sale finds. But, overall still worth the $5.

I will tell you guys this ahead of time, my mother-in-law did hit up another yard sale a week after with more finds that were much better than these. That first post and parts afterwards coming up soon so stay tuned.

Thoughts on Part 5 are welcomed below!

Saturday, September 24, 2016

REVIEW:2016 Topps Apex MLS Soccer (AUTO GIVEAWAY)

Last years collector's favorite Apex soccer makes its return again. This time bringing back some of last years favorites and new twists to this years.

This is my very first break of it and my thoughts on it are something you are going to have to READ ON to see...


In every 2016 Topps Apex Soccer hobby box are two mini boxes. A hobby box comes with 2 autographs and one Crest jumbo relic. However, if you were to buy just a mini box it would come with a variety of two hits or one. Hobby boxes of this product are very reasonable for $40 per so I expect more hobby boxes to be bought then mini boxes that are $22-$25 each. Each mini box comes with one silver pack of 32 cards.

The base cards are a combination of Topps Fire and Topps Valor in my opinion. The artsy brilliance that Topps Fire provided is an eye catcher on these and the combo of a rough background feel and glossy player in the forefront gives us the Topps Valor appeal. Overall, this looks great.

There are 100 base cards to collect with rookies including 2016 MLS SuperDraft #1 overall pick Jack Harrison (pictured below) and league's biggest stars and MLS newcomers.

Also look for various Rookie Short Prints featuring 1st round draft picks from the 2016 MLS SuperDraft! These will be cards #101-110.

 
It wouldn't be a Topps product without some parallel fun. This is a blue parallel /99 and these seem to be one per pack.

Other parallels you can find are...
  • Green Parallel: sequentially numbered.
  • Red Parallel: sequentially numbered to 5
  • Purple Parallel: numbered 1/1.
  • Printing Plates: numbered 1/1.
Inserts like these fall 3 Global Influence per pack. Gotta love the design of these with the players flag in the background. There are autograph versions of these too.

 
Golazo is the other insert set. Looks like one per pack.
These have parallels
  • Green Parallel: sequentially numbered.
  • Red Parallel: sequentially numbered to 5
  • Purple Parallel: numbered 1/1.
  • Printing Plates: numbered 1/1.
There are also Kick Exclusive Redemption Cards that you can unlock in the app. These cards are numbered to 25.
 
Now onto the hits! One mini box had one auto and one parallel. The other had one auto parallel and the memorabilia card.

For the first time in a Topps MLS set, there are some on-card autograph finds.

These are the base autographs I pulled.

 
This is a blue parallel /99

These have other parallels too.
  • Green Parallel: sequentially numbered.
  • Red Parallel: sequentially numbered to 5.
  • Purple Parallel: numbered 1/1.
There are also other autographs to find in the product. Here they are:

2016 ALL-STAR AUTOGRAPHS feature Members of the MLS squad who shirted up against Arsenal in July 2016

MATCH DAY DIE-CUT RELIC are tough pulls at 1 per hobby case. They also have a Red Parallel numbered to 5 and a Purple Parallel numbered 1/1.

Dual Autograph Cards featuring thematically paired MLS superstars
And my final hit is a really cool one, nice swatch /50
 
 
There are tons of other fun swatches to find too.
  • Red Patch Parallel numbered to 5.
  • Red Collar Parallel: featuring a prime multi-color piece from the jersey collar.
  • Purple Shield Parallel that features the miniature MLS shields from the back jersey number tat are numbered 1/1
  • Purple Team Parallel features a multi-color patch piece from the team name logo on jersey neck and are also numbered 1/1
  • Purple ADIDAS Parallel is pretty obvious as it features the Adidas logo. These are also numbered 1/1.
  • Printing Plates feature a multi-color patch piece and are 1/1's.
My overall thoughts are simple. I like it. Great price on the product, nice looking cards and possible big hits waiting to happen. I think it's worth the risk and if you love MLS and collecting the cards, this is definitely a way to go. I have heard many other collectors rave about the Apex product and haven't seen any complaints.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

Win this autograph card:


RULES:

  1. Please make sure to take a minute out to thank Topps for providing this box for me to review and to host this/these nice giveaways with. Follow them on all social media sites and visit their site, HERE, as well.
  2. ***VERY IMPORTANT***MUST BE A U.S. RESIDENT to enter or have a shipping address in the U.S. Shipping costs have gone haywire and I can't afford to ship everywhere.This is always hard to do as I appreciate all readers but I hope you all understand non-U.S. readers.
  3. Random winner will be chosen after 7 randoms
  4. Card may be shipped PWE. I like to forewarn on this.
  5. LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW telling me ONE PRO AND ONE CON OF THE PRODUCT.
  6. EARN AN EXTRA ENTRY FOR SHARING THIS CONTEST ON YOUR BLOG AND/OR ON TWITTER. Make sure to leave your link in comments too so I can count it. If not, I won't be able to give you the credit. Commenting with it is very important or you WILL LOSE OUT an extra entry!
  7. Sport Card Collectors or it's owner (person who runs the blog), WILL NOT be held responsible for lost, stolen or damaged mail. Sorry had to add this in since someone tried to scam me once about this.
  8. Contest starts today, ends on October 1st 2016. Winner will be announced in a separate post on  October 2nd 2016
  9. Don't forget to thank the above sponsor of this contest and I won't mind a thank you as well :)
Good luck to all that enter and thanks for reading!

Winner Of The 2016 Topps Archives Signature Contest

Another contest has ended and another begins later today. So stay tuned.

I apologize for being a day behind on winner announcement but I had a lot to do yesterday, but here it is today.

Winner of a random autograph or memorabilia card from a previous contest is....

There were 25 items in your list. Here they are in random order:
  1. Jafronius
  2. Dayton
  3. SuzanneM
  4. Scott Everett
  5. defgav
  6. mrbasepauly
  7. mrbasepauly
  8. Justin S
  9. Justin S
  10. Tracy LeVeaux
  11. @JGfan24ever
  12. Tracy LeVeaux
  13. Dayton
  14. Scott Everett
  15. God's humble servant
  16. Marty Boylan
  17. Nick Frank
  18. Angus
  19. GRADY MALACHOWSKI
  20. RAZ
  21. Nick Frank
  22. hudsonfan15
  23. Fuji
  24. Anthony Pizzo
  25. Cameron Towe
IP: 72.169.81.98
Timestamp: 2016-09-24 12:25:32 UTC
You have randomized this list 7 times.

Congrats to Jafronius on the win! Please email sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com with your address within the next 48 hours to claim with the subject line, Topps Arch Winner. If not claimed by then, it will be given away again in a future contest. Please also give a shout out upon receiving your prize so I can continue to do contests like this.

Thanks to everyone that entered. Bowman Chrome Contest still going on and a newbie going up later! Stay Tuned.

$1 Yard Sale Boxes Breakdown Part 4

I showed off a garbage bag containing some cards a couple weeks ago and said I would break down what was in there, well, here we go.

1 more post to go in this 5 part series for you will see what I found. Of course, I saved the best for last tomorrow.

Today, we still must continue on this time with a box of 1992 Fleer Ultra baseball


Inside the box, there were 4 big stacks of 1992 Fleer Ultra and to my surprise this time, some of the good players were actually in there. A good amount of them.

Here are some rookies. Well, not what I would call rookies but what the card companies call rookies. Yes, I am one of those collectors.




Moose! Not a real rookie or a true rookie as I call it, but still a nice find. The photos on these are really sharp and crystal clear. Something just like Stadium Club was known for.


Ripken Jr! Found 3.


And a bunch of other stars from Jeff Bagwell to Craig Biggio to John Smoltz to Greg Maddux
 
Overall, the best $1 box so far. But, I still saved the best for last so guess you will have to comeback tomorrow and see.

Thoughts on Part 4 are welcomed below!