NYG PC Spotlight 8:2016 Panini The National Sterling Shepard

 

Sterling Shepard

The National Rookie Card #d 119/499

Card #64

Wrappers Of Collecting Past:2001 Topps Series 1

Here we are again for another edition of Wrappers Of Collecting past. In this segment you will find wrappers from the late 80s to today. It will cover multiple sport and non sport.

Today we jump back to 2001 to Topps baseball that was celebrating it's 50th anniversary. A golden one that comes with a golden wrapper.

 

 

I don't honestly remember a whole lot about Series 1 as Series 2 was the one you wanted more with the Ichiro rookie lurking, but with it being the golden anniversary and my yearly purchasing of flagship, I was on board to buy either way. I do remember trying to chase down my Yankee needs. I also was hoping to pull an "original" Topps card. Never did though.

The inserts were really sharp to and the relic cards were well designed that year so those were some of my chases as well.

What about you? What were you chasing down in 2001 Topps baseball? Let me know in comments!

The Prizes Are Stacking Up!

On Sunday, the official start of the MLB Pick Em promotion begins on Sport Card Collectors with the first week of picks for the month of April being due by Friday.

Now just because the promotion hasn't officially started, doesn't mean the prizes haven't.

As you can see in the pics, I have begun what I call a Topps Locker where I have begun putting in autographs, jersey cards, numbered cards, parallels, and inserts from my reviews so far this year and from some last year for whoever wins the World Series of Pick Em on here!

That's only half of the prizes as you have got to remember that BCW has some nice stuff as well monthly and at the end.

So if you haven't signed up yet, there is still time. You can also enter at any point throughout the season but remember you may need to play catch up if you don't enter from the start but you would at least be in it to win monthly prizes.

So good luck to all that enter and most of all, have fun!

Customer Service At It's Best

Before I started my Snagging Cardboard blog-that is all NY Giants related in cards, memorabilia and personal stories- I had already uploaded a bunch of drafts on here with Giants related posts. So I will keep those on here til they are all published. I do hope you check out the new blog and add it to your daily reads:)

A few months ago long before the season ended, Victor Cruz, yes the now former Giants WR, tweeted out a pic of some signed items he had done with his new partnership with Gillette and made it sound like those items would be available for fans who put dibs in on them.

So obviously without question I was going to say dibs on one of them. I really wanted the mini helmet.

And about a week later, Gillette had replied to me and made my dibs a reality. I felt like I was on cloud 9.

What I didn't expect, was the little bit of turmoil afterwards with trying to get the item. I spent weeks on end messaging Gillette on Twitter checking in to see if the item had been shipped and sometimes I would get a response saying they would ship soon and other times my requests would be ignored. Either way, two months had almost passed and it appeared I wasn't going to get an answer on the mini helmet. So I had almost given up until I decided to contact their customer service via email.

The person on the other end was way beyond polite. She quickly found out where my item was, apologized many times over and even said they would throw in a few extras to make up for it. Probably by far the best customer service I have ever dealt with. I am pretty glad I use their items for shaving knowing if I ever had a problem that they would resolve it quickly.

Within two days a much bigger box arrived than I expected and what they sent completely blew my socks off.

Not only was it the signed helmet, but a signed deodorant box and a signed NFL Authentic football. Talk about some customer service at it's best.

WOW.

A big thanks goes out to Gillette for their generosity and their top-notch customer service. I apologize that this thank you has taken so long for me to get it out, but when my other planned post for today didn't publish, it was a sign I needed to get this one done.

Thoughts on my mail day and the best customer service you have dealt with are welcomed below!

Eli's Picks: 2013 Panini Rookies And Stars Longevity Parallel

Eli's Picks is a segment where Eli himself, well a stuffed Bleacher Creature version, picks his favorite base/insert cards to show off.

 

Eli's second choice of card is an interesting choice. It doesn't have the glimmer and glam like the first one he decided on, instead it's a bit mellower.

I think it was simply because the card just screamed him. Full Eli color photography and his name down the left-hand side of the card. It also has some foil so that probably helps as well. However, the card isn't one of the tougher cards to find as I am sure many flood the card realm.

One other thing that you can't see very well because of the angle I took this picture, is the football Eli is holding is a Salute To Service one. My grandfather was in World War 2 so it kinda made a connection to me as a salute to him. He passed a long time ago from PTSD.

 

This card I had picked up in a trade with 90's Niche Football Card Blog.

Hobby Topic:2017 MLB Rookie Card Class

Here is how Hobby Topic works if you don't remember (you gotta keep this in mind as the return of Hobby Topic makes it way back)

Leave a comment or thought below on the following.

Today's Topic is

2017 MLB Rookie Card Class

Who are you collecting or keeping an eye on this MLB Season? Swanson? De Leon? Others? Let's start a discussion in comments on who it is and why!

Please make sure it's clean for our younger audience.

NYG PC Spotlight 7: 2014 National Treasures "G-Men" Patch Andre Williams

 

Andre Williams

Patch Card #d 41/50

Card # TM-AW

The Time I Met Lee Rouson

A few years ago, my church was hosting a Men's group breakfast and rumor had it former NY Giants RB/Special Teamer Lee Rouson would be the one preaching at the event.

Honestly, at the time, I had no idea who Lee Rouson was and had to do some research on him. I found out he played in the NFL for 7 years. He backed up Joe Morris and was a beast on Special Teams winning Special Teams Player Of The Year in 1986. He has two Super Bowl rings with the Giants and was a big contributor in Super Bowl XXI vs Denver to help lead them to a win. 

But most importantly, he is an associate pastor who travels as an motivational speaker for Sports World Ministries and goes all over the U.S. to churches and schools.

After I read all of that, I wanted to meet him even more so I attended the event.

The problem I had was, I was star stuck. Never really having ever met a NY Giant since I understood football, I was all over him trying to get an autograph. Score a picture. Stare at him like a stalker. Anything I could do to take in the moment. Then I heard him speak which changed my tune.

He put out an incredible message to all of us who were there. After he was done, he then waited for everyone to meet him for pictures and signed items. I thanked him for his amazing message, he even showed me his Super Bowl ring bling, then I got my photo taken with him (it's framed in my man cave) and was handed one of these,

 

And got one of my Giants hats signed. I actually took a lot more to be signed but decided against it as that wasn't the point of the event.

 

Lee, if you ever stumble upon this blog, I just wanted to say thanks again for the motivational words and for taking time out for me. I hope to see you return again soon!

Random Card On My Desk:1990 SCD Michael Jordan

NYG PC Spotlight 6: 2016 Panini Squires Jerseys Paul Perkins

 

Paul Perkins

Jersey Card

Card #33

Worst Autograph Ever?

Is this possibly the worst autograph you have ever seen? B26. Sounds like a Bingo number. Can you imagine if his name started with an I???

Is this the worst autograph you have seen or have you seen worse? Link me, show me, or tell me in comments with one worse or if you agree with me that this is the worse.

REVIEW:2017 Topps Opening Day (DECENT PULL)

2017 Opening Day is soon on the way! Unless you're talking 2017 Topps Opening Day baseball, those are out in stores.

But, the feel of the product makes you think you are at the ballpark. It's got all of the necessities. The players, the mascots, the ceremonies, the celebrations and even the food. If you are looking at snow  on the ground still like I am or even have bare ground, Topps Opening Day will make you a personal promise that you will feel baseball is on the way.

So let's get to ripping this product and get that warm feeling of cracking bats and the smell of fresh cut grass.

In every box of 2017 Topps Opening Day, there are 36 packs with 7 cards per pack. Boxes don't make any promises on hits but there are some to chase. And for the price of $30 per box or .99 a pack, this product is affordable for collectors of all kinds.

The base set is 200 cards. It features players of today and the future of tomorrow. There are also a few select cards you will see included in Series 2 that comes out later this year. The design, well, if you liked 2017 Topps Series 1, you will like this as Opening Day is just the same cards with the same photos except with the Opening Day logo.

Every box should land you a full base set. Not guaranteed.

All of the good rookies are included in this as well including Moncada, Judge, Bregman and Swanson.

Players who were traded or signed in the offseason are featured in their new uniforms.

Like with other Topps releases, there are hard-to-chase photo variations that fall 1:256 packs or 1:2-3 cases. They are not easy. I was fortunate enough to find one even though it wasn't easy to spot. With other releases Topps uses a code to help you define base vs varaition. I looked at every code as I went along and none showed different so I assumed I didn't have one. However, after sorting the cards into piles I noticed two Bryce Harpers both with different photos.

So I did my research and found out I had pulled a tough photo variation. I strongly suggest you use Beckett's variations gallery to figure out if you have one or not. You can find that, HERE. Most of these variations have some incredible photos taken at unique angles like no other. Just look at this Harper. So cool.

There are also even tougher photo variations to pull with National Anthem and Stadium Signatures. National Anthem shows players joining in on the National Anthem and instead of their name, it has the words National Anthem. Stadium Signatures shows players signing for fans.

As with most Topps products, there are parallels. Most are tough to find, but these ones are very eye appealing. These are Rainbow Blue Foil that fall 1:7 packs. Not too many per box so that's good as well. My best find was Swanson.

Other parallels include,

• Opening Day 1/1 
• Edition  that falls 1:14,256 packs
• Printing Plates 1/1 that fall 1:3,269 packs

Now onto the inserts that pour out. You should find one-per-pack and packs with a parallel, you will find two.

Mascots have 25 cards and fall 1:3 packs featuring the mascots of MLB.

I know on Twitter how excited Orbit was to have his own trading card.

Eats! Incredible Eats have 18 cards and fall 1:8 packs.I know it made me really hungry after viewing most of these. I think this is a really cool insert addition

Superstar Celebrations has 25 cards that fall 1:3 packs and celebrates the 2016 season best celebrations.

And you can't have an Opening Day named product without an Opening Day right?? Well, that's where Opening Day at the Ballpark comes into play. There are only 15 cards that falls 1:5 packs

And the next insert, the toughest of the group so far other than the photo variation, is the Opening Day Stars. This is 44 cards deep and falls 1:27 packs. Will be interesting how these go on the secondary market with such deep checklist and only one per box. Could be tougher to find the bigger named players.

 

The inserts don't end there as two rarer inserts can be chased. MLB Stickers Collection Stars have
4 cards that fall 1:288 packs and MLB Wacky Packages have 9 cards and fall 1:1,169 packs. Really significant odds to chase there.

 

My box didn't land me a hit, but the product does offer them.

Opening Day Autographs have 16 cards and fall 1:654 packs. Mascots Autographs have 6 cards and fall 1:747 packs. Mascots Relics have 5 cards and fall 1:2,097 packs. Stadium Signatures Autographs have 17 cards and falls 1:17,820 packs And finally, there is Opening Day Relics with 10 cards and falls 1:525 packs

Overall, with that box price and all that there is to chase, you really can't go wrong busting a box even if just for fun. There is definitely a lot of fun to find in here.

Obviously this isn't for the big hit seekers, but it's a fun product that covers kids of all ages. I am including adults in that.

If you are looking for an affordable MLB product to offer a kid that is interested in joining the hobby, I am sure this would be an easy winner that's not too complicated to figure out and has some fun chases.

Please make sure to take a minute out to thank Topps for providing this box for me to review and to be able to add cards to the MLB Pick Em promotion. The above Springer may be the prize up for grabs in April. Follow Topps on all social media sites and visit their site, as well.

Giants In The Mail: A Trade With Dub Mentality

There are days on Twitter when I have extra time I will hunt down other bloggers, the ones who I know are on Twitter, and see if I have missed any of their blog posts and try to catch up on reading them.

When I went to check out @DubMentality for any new posts he may have put up, I suddenly remembered he had once posted a Sterling Shepard autograph he had for sale I needed. So I looked back through his tweets and came across the card assuming it had sold. Well, come to find out, it hadn't. He had a good deal on the card but once again, my budget isn't currently allowing me to buy any cards. 

So I inquired about doing a possible trade and luckily he agreed that was fine. It also didn't take long before I was able to work something out with him. He was very easy to trade with which alone in itself is awesome.

The card I had wanted was this cool 2016 Panini Origins on-card autograph of Sterling Shepard. It's a card I have wanted for awhile now. And of course any addition of Sterling Shepard is a plus as this guy showed a ton of potential this season and should only build off from it next year with the addition of Brandon Marshall alongside Odell. I expect him see plenty of targets with defenses focused on those two.

 

I really like the look of Panini Inception, I mean Origins, with the color scheme and design. The only nag I have about the card is the 00 on the jersey. Something that has been my hobby pet peeve for years.  Overall though, nice looking card with the on-card auto bonus.

A big thanks goes out to @DubMentality for willing to work out a trade. If you haven't followed him yet on Twitter or checked out his blog yet, please do so. Many interesting reads you will need to catch up on. You can find him over at http://www.dubmentality.com/

Sunday's With Rodney:1992 Action Packed 24-Karat Gold

Today's latest Hampton addition comes from a trade I made awhile ago with 90's Niche Football Card Blog.

It's one of the missing few I need from the early 90's and a tough parallel to chase. At least with all of the busting I did of these I never came across any. The odds weren't given either and were just found randomly.

The only thing that separates this from a base card is the added gold and the words 24-karat written under Action Packed.

The card number as well is different with the added G to the number.

Thoughts on today's card can be left in comments!

#SCC5YR Panini Prize Pack Winner!

I wanna thank everyone who turned out for both of the contests and the sponsors who helped provide prizes for both. I will admit I am a bit disappointed by the turnout of this contest as only a few people even entered it. I says 49 comments, but if you look at the amount of participants and those who entered daily, it narrows it down to a sad number.

Well, the way I look at it, it's their loss and someone elses gain. The biggest surprise of the contest, was the winner. Not only did they enter their guess second out of everyone, but they are also first time winners. So that's exciting.

Here are the results. The number on the left represents the amount of comments and the number on the right is the amount of views.

 

 

Only one person was close without going over and was within 3 views. congrats to....

 

Trevor PMarch 16, 2017 at 4:28 PM

I'll guess 499 views. I love your reviews (and the contests aren't bad, either, though I've yet to win one).

Trevor, please email me at sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com with your address within 48 hours to claim or I will re-give this away in the future. Please give a shout out when the prize arrives and let Panini and Tracy Hackler know your thanks as well.

Thanks overall to all of the readers who helped me celebrate #SCC5YR and stay tuned for more contests coming up down the road

Mail Day Saturday:Got Hit By A 2x3

Back a few months ago, I was one of the lucky ones who was able to grab one of Jeff over at 2x3 Heroes Blog Tis The Season giveaway lots.

Being a big non-sport collector, something my blog name doesn't admit to, I snatched up the one lot with what appeared to be a bunch of celeb goodness and I confirmed that yesterday when the package arrived.

Inside was everything I thought I could spot from the picture and even more. I was pretty happy with my findings so let's take a look.

Up first, some 2015 Americana set needs. I am hoping this will narrow down what I need. I haven't published the post on this blog yet, but I was able to pickup a marked down box of 2015 Americana that provided me with my biggest hit in awhile but also got me started on a set I hope to complete. I should be posting that break in the next week or two.

 

A good selection of celebs I didn't have here.

 

A look at some famous moments

Some more Americana fun. This time in insert form.

 

On The Tube die-cuts.

 

And a stunning On The Tube parallel. And I am not just talking about the card design itself. I have been a fan of Dushku's for awhile.

 

Some pretty slick parallels here including Bradley Cooper who I liked best from the Hangover movies. I also didn't know they made a red foil parallel. Biz Markie's pose on his card is just askin you if you "say you're just a friend"

I thought that was the end, but there were bonus finds as well!

Heroes Of Baseball inserts from Leaf I have never seen or owned some nice additions to my players PC.

 

Including a couple of Stan Musials too!

 

 

And we finish it up with a card that's dope! Well........

 

Awesome Willie Nelson relic add to my celeb PC!  Was a really nice surprise!

A HUGE thanks goes out to 2x3 Heroes for the awesome mail day. I really loved all of the cards.

Big Blue Collections Part 1: Dollar Store Snag

Big Blue Collections is my latest segment here on Snagging Cardboard that showcases non-card items in my NY Giants collection.

Today's item, is something I found while wondering through a local dollar store.

When I go into the dollar store, I am usually in there with a purpose looking for specific items such as paper products, cleaners, sports cards, gift bag, shipping items, etc. Like how I threw in sports cards ;)

Anyways, once in a great while, I will stumbled upon other things that catch my eye. Usually, I avoid looking at sports items in any store as locally it's normally Patriots flooded. *Gag*  but this time was different. In the middle of that Patriots pile sat a stack of these NY Giants soft Franklin footballs.

As with most NY Giants collectible I can actually find, I snagged it. I don't buy as much as I used to because of not only the budget, but because I am running out of room and tote space to store it.

Here is the dollar store find. The first third has the old Giants logo so you know this ball has probably been around for awhile,

The second third of the football. Made by Franklin, nice!

And the final third has the usual stuffed item info

Can't go wrong for a buck picking up something like this.

There is much more to show off in this series including some autographed items, so stay tuned!

Mail Day Saturday:A Priestly Appearance

In my latest edition of Mail Day Saturday, you are viewing yet another autograph addition to my Psych autograph project for seasons 5-8.

Today's on card offering comes in at only a $4 cost and of a solid named actor in Jason Priestly.

 

Most of you may know him from 90210 where he played a lead for 9 seasons, but I never watched that. I first watched Jason in Tru Calling as Jack Harper, the bad guy. Of course I mainly watched Tru Calling because it was a cool show and obviously Eliza Duschku.

But, in 2012, he made an appearance on Psych as Clive Noble who seemingly was another bad guy. Clive  and his wife befriend Shawn and Juliet while they were all on vacay together and rob Shawn. With all that they took, Shawn was most worried about his missing Nintendo DS but not the way most of us would be. He had hid an engagement ring in the back of it to propose to Juliet after many years.

Thoughts on today's addition to my autograph project are welcomed in comments below and stay tuned next week for yet another add to it.....you may go HEAD OVER HEALS....

BASEically Awesome Part 2: 2002 Topps American Pie Spirit Of America Part 2 Vol. 3

Here is the final part of the three-part series of 2002 Topps American Pie Spirit Of America BASEically Awesome.

Today, we look at American Treasures. Names that all of us will never forget for many different reasons.

This part of the set covers cards 116-150. 

You will find American Treasures such as the one and only King Of Rock And Roll, Elvis.

You know what kinda eyes she has....

President Gerald Ford not hiding anything

And Bill Clinton taking a ride. Yes, this one could leave to many puns and I have a few myself. But, I will leave it to your imagination.

Overall, a fun product and should be easy to build with it only being 150 cards. I think I am close, but still missing a few. I would have to check.

Let me know your overall thoughts on this product and this part in comments below.