Big Blue Sunday's:A Winning Sunday

A win. Finally a win.

I know the Giants defeated the Redskins in Week 17 of the 2017 season, but this win feels so much sweeter. It's 2018 people and we are under a new regime. I would like to forget about last season and not be reminded this year with weekly losses.

So the Giants after their hold on victory against the Texans sit in last place in the NFC East but at 1-2. The leaders in the division are 2-1. Giants are only a game out however their schedule is pretty tough and that begins today with their home game against the New Orleans Saints. I bet Drew Brees is drooling over the fact he gets the weak Giants secondary.  I am just hoping the Giants oline can hold together and let Eli keep up.

Let's check out a mail day from my buddy and long time Sport Card Collectors reader Grady M. He sent the Giants Pride sign shown above along with these OBJ items,

 

Alec Ogletree rookie. The guy has impressed me the last few games. He came up with a huge interception in the Texans game when Watson had thrown into the end zone and Alec jumped up to snag it.

Already two 100 yard games for Odell. I hope there is more to come. It would be nice if he would score for once though.

 

Wayne got more play time against the Texans as the Giants were trying to rest Barkley from taking on the whole offense. He also took a shot to the knee on the first play of the game that had me gasp. Gallman stepped in and did some good work.

Speaking of good work, Sterling had his big game of the year vs the Texans. He made many important catches including the game clinching touchdown which looking back at the score was the biggest play of the game. Everyone including myself expected Eli to hand that ball off, but new regime and new chances and they threw it to Shep who found himself open most of the day.

Collins made a lot of stops on defense. I don't feel like we have mentioned much of his name yet this season. He is playing under the radar a lot but still is one of the best safeties in the game.

I am hopeful this guy can return this week. Vernon missed the first three games and the Giants pass rush could really use him and

I am hoping with this now linebacker status and his pass rushing skills, I will see a glimpse of this Giants legend.

I will admit, when the Giants cut Harris this past offseason, I didn't miss him. Now I do. Giants special team returners have been horrible and almost have turned the ball over multiple times. It was worst enough to witness the Jags game go to a loss because of it.

JPP doesn't wear blue anymore. I didn't think the Giants would miss his pass rushing very much, but they do. The Texans game was a little better with the pass rush thanks to Kerry Wynn, just hoping he continues to beast it out. It was weird seeing JPP in a Buc's uniform on Monday Night Football.

 

And argue with it or not, the Giants selection of Saquon Barkley at the two slot in the draft was a great move. Every time this guy touches the ball you can feel the excitement. He scored his second TD against the Texans and rushed over 80 yards. Really good game for him and I can't wait to see what he has in store this week.

Another new Barkley.

A thanks to Grady for the mail day!

My buddy Tim Yount's mail day was just as impressive.

Eli shined in that game like he does on this card. People were calling him washed up, well, he proved them wrong.

Eli Apple has impressed this season. I was calling for the Giants to cut him, but he seems to have matured. I am hoping though he can get healthy and be ready for the Saints game. They will need him.

Die Cut OBJ. Makes sharp cuts like the player featured with the ball in his hands.

Cody Latimer played for the Broncos, but since he departed I had a feeling Tim might have his autograph I could get in a trade. Well, here it is. Cody had his best game as a Giants vs the Texans last week. They have been using him as a Kick Returner which I feel isn't really his thing.

And finally, this really awesome 1968 Topps Poster. I gotta find a way to keep this in good condition.This marks one of the oldest Giants items in my PC.

 

A big thanks to Tim for the new Giants adds!

The Giants start at 4:30 pm this wee and are finally back at home. I am hoping last week was just the beginning on the season and not a one time highlight. I think a win against the Saints would prove to me this team is for real, a loss however, well, that will just tell me this is a growing year.

REVIEW:2018 Bowman High Tek Baseball

Back for 2018 after it's decent success in 2017, Bowman High Tek comes loaded with all of that prospect heavy fun that collectors want. Not too mention, acetate. Seems like there are more and more releases the last couple of years that uses that technology.

I really liked the 2017 version so let's see how I feel about the 2018 one.

 

In every box of 2018 Bowman High Tek baseball, there is one pack per box with 10 cards per pack. There are 4 on-card autographs per box as well and boxes run $80.

The one problem I have with High Tek is telling the difference in patterns. There are 10 different to sort through but only 56 cards in the actual base set with ONLY rookies and prospects. The design is simple and the cards do look nice. Some designs are much snazzier looking than others.

This is Pattern 1 the most basic one.

Zig Zag is Pattern 3. One per pack on this one.

Stripes is Pattern 2. Very common as well.

 

There are 7 others to find after this and each level becomes a bit tougher to find. Check out this helpful Beckett article to define yours. 

https://www.beckett.com/news/2018-bowman-high-tek-baseball-pattern-variations/

There are lots of parallels to surprise in here as well. Here is the full list of them and check out my purple ones afterwards.

PATTERN 1 PARALLELS

Purple Rainbow /191, Green Rainbow /99, Ocean Blue Tidal /75, Gold Rainbow /50, Orange Magma Diffractor /25, Red Orbit Diffractor /10, Black Galactic Diffractor 1/1, Printing Proofs 1/1.

PATTERN 9

SpecTEKular Diffractor 1/1

PATTERN 10: Black Galactic Diffractor 1/1.

My purple find was this Mejia /199.

 

Now onto the autographs. All on-card and they are beautiful.

Jorge Guzman

 Jeren Kendall

 

Royce Lewis. Nice one here.

and a purple parallel of Pavin Smith.

Other parallels to find are,  Purple Diffractor /150, Green Rainbow /99, Ocean Blue Tidal /75, Gold Rainbow /50, Orange Magma Diffractor /25, Red Orbit Diffractor #/10, Black Galactic Diffractor 1/1, Printing Proofs 1/1.

Other hits I didn't find but you may include,

• 1st Bowman Tek
• 1st Bowman Tek Autograph
• PyroTEKnics 
• PyroTEKnics Autograph
• Tides of Youth
• Tides of Youth Autograph

OVERALL: Box price for prospects and 4 autographs isn't bad if you can land the right pull and they are in here. Most of the big name rookies and prospects are with my box containing Royce Lewis who is one of them. Still after my break I felt there was still a loss vs the cost but with prospects and rookies you just never know when one of these guys can step up and change my opinion.

As for design, looks great and the on card autographs really stand out on the patterned design.

I do wish there were more cards in here. Maybe another 10 base and parallel? I may feel a bit better with that. But, like with all products, they are gambles and sometimes they pay off and other times they don't. If you don't feel comfortable about buying a box, go pick up some singles or join a box break. I think it would be worth your time.

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 a future promo.  Follow Topps on all social media sites and visit their SITE, as well. 

TTM Score From Seattle!

I think 2018 has been the year I have attempted the most TTM attempts. While most of my are sent to celebrities, I don't care too much about having athlete ones that aren't authenticated, I have found sending head coach ones fun however. They don't have quite the fan base as the players and they don't make cards of them anymore. Something I actually miss in this hobby.

But, with a most card sets sitting at 100 cards, it's hard to fit in legends, rookies, veterans in such a small list. What every happened to Pro Set type base card products? They had rookies, veterans, legends, coaches, stadiums, special game subsets and even referees. Those days are long gone and I don't expect them ever to return.

So instead, I will continue to hit up popular head coaches for autographs and hope for some success.

A three month wait success I can now say I have is that of Seahawks head coach and executive vice president Pete Carrol who has been around the NFL for some time. Pete returned my index card request in exchange for this great photo and especially signed in the Seahawk neon color. I checked with  my buddy Autograph Blog, check out his work HERE, on it's authenticity and it checked out. Very cool score for my collection.

Pete was a guy I remember coaching in the 90's. However, his first go-around in the NFL as a Head Coach wasn't so hot. He went 6-10 with the Jets  and lasted one season, and three seasons with the Patriots that went 27-21 with.

He went back to college in 2000 where he would dominate with USC winning two titles before taking the job in 2010 with Seattle where he has led them to multiple Super Bowls, winning one, and led them to the playoffs six times.

Thanks Pete for the autograph and taking your time out for me. I wish you the best this season overall, just not against my Giants.

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict:The First Undefeated Down

It was 1998. It was football Sunday and I did what I usually do even now, watch my Giants play football.

The Giants 1998 season wasn't a great one. The Giants staggered into their Week 15 match up with a record of 5-8 while their opponent the Denver Broncos came in at 13-0. I thought for sure it was one of those games where I would be sorting cards halfway through it. It was another David vs Goliath match up with both rosters having big talent discrepancy. The Broncos coming off their Super Bowl win the previous year and destroying their way through their 1998 schedule.

Ugly could be seen from miles away even though some sportscasters said this looked like a trap game for the Broncos.

I had prepared myself before the game and put a stack of football cards on the coffee table-when more people used those-and brought out my notebook to jot down what they were. That's how I used to organize everything. I would write down every card and how many cards I had in my collection. There is no way I would I have time for that today. I have enough trouble keeping up with my Giants collection on here.

The game started and I was in a state of shock and some excitement as the Giants had kept the high powered Broncos close into the 4th quarter. The Giants actually led at halftime 10-9 and at the beginning of the 4th quarter 13-9. But, I had a feeling this wasn't still going to end well.

I mean, this was a Broncos roster that featured some these guys on this autograph helmet I recently acquired in a trade from my buddy @Jake1725. Back in 1998, the only autographed memorabilia I had were a few NY Giants Post-It notes from having met a few players in person. I definitely didn't have anything this cool. If I had, it would have made it's way to school as a show and tell item for sure.

On the helmet I acquired from Jake, were autographs of  Terrell Davis, who I have spoken about highly many times on here,

Keith Traylor (one big dude), Jason  (one of the NFL's greatest kickers of all time) and the Coach Mike Shanahan who was one of the best. I only count his years in Denver. Not sure why he bothered with Washington.

 

I felt that the Broncos with those kind of names on the roster were pretty much unbeatable.

The slim NY Giants lead was soon gone three minutes later in the game when that guy above Terrell Davis took it 27 yards to the house. Davis had run well all day with 147 yards on the ground. The Broncos then led 16-13 and I felt deflated knowing the Giants offense hadn't done a lot against Denver's defense.

I went to school the next day like a champ!

For the 1998 season that was my Super Bowl. That was a moment I will never forget. Just like in Super Bowl 42 when the Giants beat the 18-0 Patriots. Both of these games will forever live in my mind and now with this cool autograph helmet, I won't ever forget. I have plenty of Super Bowl 42 memorabilia to help my memory there.

Thanks to Jake for the helmet and bringing back those memories from my Origin. I still have plenty of other memories and cards to dive into for 1998 so this is just the beginning. However, this game brought me even closer to football and really upscale my football card collection that year. It was also the first year I began playing football.

If you have an extra minute, I suggest you go and check out the Giants game winning drive here. It will be well worth your time,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObQCv42J2tI

REVIEW:2018 Panini Absolute Memorabilia Football

Absolute Memorabilia football has been one of my favorites for years and for once for me anyways, it's all about the memorabilia.

You can't find many products that use different forms of relics like this product does. Patches, Gloves, Football, logo shields, you name it, this stuff has it.

How did my break go of it? Well, let's check it out shall we?

 

In every box of 2018 Panini Absolute Memorabilia football is 3 packs with 5 cards per pack. Boxes will have three autographs and two memorabilia cards per box and boxes are currently running roughly $140 per box.

A hobby box should break like this,

• 1 Rookie Premiere Material Auto and 2 Additional Autographs
• 2 Memorabilia Cards
• 1 Insert
• 2 Parallels
• 6 Base Cards and 1 Rookie Card

The base set looks like inserts from Prestige a few years ago. Player in the front and a full foil background. The team name is on the side and player name off in the left hand corner. Players are in their new uniforms as well.

The base set is 150 cards deep. There are 100 veterans

And 50 rookies.Most of these rookies are the lesser name ones. The key rookies in the product finish up the next part of the set with the RPS'  which there are 39 of. We will check these out later on.

Parallels are in here too! Spectrum is there name, adding some shine is their game. This Tom Brady is a red spectrum /100.

This Ryan Izzo is a green /25. The rookie symbol in the background tells us that.

 

Other parallels to find include, Blue, Gold, Orange #/65,Purple #/5, and Printing Plates 1/1.

One insert per pack landed me this Covering Ground of Kareem Hunt. Finally! An insert that reminds me of one from the 90's!

 

Other inserts, that all look great, to find are,

• 1-2 Punch Set
• Introductions Set (I so want the Saquon from this set!!!)
• Late Game Heroics
• Revolutionaries

Memorabilia cards as I said take center-stage here. Even though there are some basic ones to find as well like this Heroes Keenan Allen.

But then you can find some wicked cool ones like this Tools Of The Trade Kenyan Drake. Just look at it!!

 

The autographs can come impressive with the memorabilia or can be found all on their own.

Signature Standouts

Iconic Ink which has a checklist of interesting lesser known players that don't sign much and others who are literally iconic like Tom Brady. I spy Pepper Johnson and Ottis Anderson I want on that checklist. Even though pulling Tom Brady, Steve Young, Marshall Faulk and other guys on my autograph want list would have been awesome as well. But, I got Bert Jones. Not even sure who he is but he has a nice signature.

My final pull was a decent one with my RPS in Derrius Guice. If he hadn't gotten hurt, who knows, he could have been rookie of the year.

There are tons of other great hits that I didn't find in my box but you could!!

• Rookie Premiere Material Autos Quad
• Rookie Premiere Material Autos Five
• Boss Hoggs Autographs
• Franchise Honors Autographs
• Iconic Ink Duals
• Iconic Ink Trios
• Iconic Ink Quads
• Rookie Force Signatures
• Signature Standouts
• Tools of the Trade Double Auto Relics
• Tools of the Trade Triple Auto Relics
• Absolute Rookie Prime Jerseys
• Canton Absolutes Relics
• Cleat Combos Relics
• Head to Toe Relics
• Jumbo Cleats
• Jumbo NFL Shields
• Newcomers Relics
• Panoramic Prime
• Panoramic Patches
• Rookie Dual Memorabilia
• Rookie Force Relics

OVERALL: My break wasn't too bad but still not the best. But, it left me wanting more for some reason. It's gotta be the potential hits I could have pulled that has me wanting more. I mean other than that amazing Drake card that may have told me I wanted more as well.

There are tons of great hits waiting to be found in here. If you can't afford a hobby box, at least go get yourself in on a box break. You may find yourself addicted or landing a huge hit.

Please take a minute out to thank Tracy Hackler and Panini America for providing this box to review. By providing this box to review, this insures some of the cards above will end up in your hands when I run my NFL promo coming up soon! Please follow Panini on all social media sites and Tracy Hackler on Twitter. You can check out Panini's official website, HERE

WIN 10 PACKS OF 2018 PLAYER OF THE DAY+BONUS!!

Let's give away some Player Of The Packs shall we?

This is a bit easy and it doesn't require you doing much but taking a guess and by following the other details below!

1. MUST BE A U.S. RESIDENT OR HAVE AN ADDRESS IN THE U.S. TO ENTER. Sorry, I can't afford to ship everywhere.
2. Pick the winner of Sunday's football game between the NY Giants and the New Orleans Saints and give me a total score of the game
3. Have your entry in before 9/30/2018 by 1:00 pm e.t and that's it!
4. Winner will be announced In comments and tweeted out
5. Winners will have 72 hours to claim their prize or it goes back into the prize pool.
6. Sport Card Collectors, Panini, Panini Player Of The Day will not be held responsible for  lost, stolen or damaged packages. I will ship it safely, but once it leaves my hands it's completely up to the USPS system to take care of it.
7. Please post somewhere whether it's on Facebook, Twitter, or a blog post a thank you for your prize and show it off. Make sure to tag Sport Card Collectors and Panini Player Of The Day in all spots.
8. Entrants must agree to all the rules above to enter. If any entrant fails to do so, they will be disqualified. 

To break up any other tie breaker, guess which memorabilia card is hiding in this pack. By the way, this card will also make it's way into the prize pack.BOOM! *drops mic*

 

Your entry should look like the following, Saints 42 and Bradley Chubb.

Good luck to those of you who enter and stay tuned for many, many, many more awesome giveaways ahead!!!

REVIEW:2018 Panini Unparalleled Football

If you are a fan of shiny, boy, do I have a product for you!

Unparalleled makes its return in 2018 still coming packed with all that shiny-goodness it provided us in 2017.

Let's take a look at the 2018 release:

 

In every box of 2018 Panini Unparalleled football there are 8 packs per box with 8 cards per pack. Boxes come with 2 autographs and 1 memorabilia card per. Boxes currently run $95-$100. It's really not a bad pricing point for what you get.

The base set has 300 cards. 200 of those are veterans and 100 are rookies. The fun thing about the base set is that it includes players without an official NFL card yet. Usually first time players on cards defines them as rookie cards even if they have been in the league for seven years. Last year that was the case with Giants DT Damon Harrison. This year, well, they added a ton.

The base set looks like a glittery sparkle like these two.

The base rookie cards have a landscape layout and look like this with the bubbles background.

After base comes the really in-depth parallels. Luckily for us this year Panini put the writing on the back of which parallel is which instead of us hurting our eyes to define them.

Here is the Superplaid parallel /150,

Notice where it says what parallel it is just above the Panini logo on the card

Whirl. This one makes sense. These are numbered to 100.

Shine. Not numbered.

Flight. Not numbered either.

Impact is numbered to 75

Astral of my boy is numbered to 200

 

Other parallels to find are, 

• Galactic SSP (1 per case)
• Hyper /25
• Fireworks /5
• Burst 1/1

The inserts stick with the theme of the product with super shiny finds. Inserts come with the following parallels as well, Astral /200, Whirl /100, Hyper /25, and Burst 1/1.

Bright Future of Evan Engram. I hope this guy can pick it up this year.

High Flyers Cooper Kupp

Rookie Focus. Wonder when this guy will hit the field?

Victorious. Melvin Gordon is the parallel. Just look at the Malhommes.

 

Pioneers. Those tough guys that made the game the way it was.

Now onto the hits. One thing I found out fast is that Unparalleled takes regular looking hits and hits a home run with them.

Most hits have the following parallels, Whirl /50, Hyper /25 and Burst 1/1.

Rookie Focus. Not a bad one here with Chubb. But the swatch is so small and awkward on it despite the great look.

Dallas Goedert rookie auto. Second time I have found this guy this year.

And Tre'quan Smith. Never heard of him but it's nice layout and design on the autograph relics.

Other hits not found in my break but could be in yours include,

• Pioneer Penmanship
• Star Signatures
• Undeniable Autographs
• Bright Futures Memorabilia
• High Flyers Memorabilia
• Victorious Memorabilia

OVERALL: Well, my box break wasn't the best. Hits were a tad weak but that can happen with any box break Of course any box break with rookies can change that if they become super stars.

Speaking of superstars, plenty of those to find in here. Not just the rookie ones either.

The overall product looks super cool if you are into this kind of thing. My pictures on the blog doesn't near capture what they look like in person. Honestly to me, the base set looks better than it's parallels.

Please take a minute out to thank Tracy Hackler and Panini America for providing this box to review. By providing this box to review, this insures some of the cards above will end up in your hands when I run my NFL promo coming up soon! Please follow Panini on all social media sites and Tracy Hackler on Twitter. You can check out Panini's official website, HERE