The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict:Chromes Everything I Want

Somewhere there's chroming
It's already releasing
Oh and it's rising at the back of your mind
You never could get it
Unless you could afford it

Now you're here at the gas station and you do know why

In 1999 came out the red hot single Everything You Want by Vertical Horizon. It was a catchy song that had you jamming. Well, had me at least jamming in my freshman year of high school. I think by then I may had upgraded to a CD player or had at least borrowed one from a buddy of mine and one of the first CD's I bought was this one.

 

Everything You Want was just one of a few songs that hit the radio waves including You're A God and Best I Ever Had. Any one of these hit singles I could have used for today's post when it comes to one of my favorite product lines that still exists today.

But hands full of the packages
Past the places til you get to home
You howl in excitement
Listen and wait for the
Echoes of wrappers that you won't return

What product am I talking about, well, it's one that has Everything You Want.

To follow up it's red hot single, 1996 Topps Chrome football came 1997 Topps Chrome football. Totally Rad!

I was able to grab a pack off from eBay at Christmas time to bring back those memories for just a few bucks. Out of all of the Topps Chrome lines over the years, this one was my favorite.

Each pack of 1997 Topps Chrome football came with 4 cards. The cards once again were simple, they were chromed versions of the base Topps cards. However, much more popular especially when it came to the rookie cards.

1997 was probably the first year I bought so much chrome I was able to have a base set and able to have some extra rookies on the side I traded off to friends. However, over the years, that set got sold off when I moved out of my parents and here I am chasing it down all over again. One card that I want the most with this product is that super cool Jake Plummer rookie card, where he is pictured with a snake for his nickname "Jake The Snake". That was by far my favorite card I remember from the set but there were other great ones as well.

Here's hoping this pack has it and that my search for it could be quickly over.

Let er rip!

First card is O.J. McDuffie. He played with the Dolphins for 8 seasons.

Marcus Allen. Hall Of Famer who ran for over 12,000 yards and had over 5,000 receiving yards in his career.

Michael Jackson was known for such hits as....well...wrong one. This Michael Jackson was drafted in the 6th round of the 1991 draft by the Cleveland Browns and played for the Browns and the Ravens when they turned into them. He led the league in recieving touchdowns in 1996. He lasted in the league for 7 years and sadly was killed two years ago in a motorcycle accident.

Now the final card...come on Jake.....It's Everything I want!

No Jake, but really cool 1:12 refractor pull! So shiny and one of my favorite parallels! Don Beebe played most of his career for the Buffalo Bills but also played a year for the Carolina Panthers and the Green Bay Packers where he won a Super Bowl ring in Super Bowl 31.

 

Other than the obvious shine, you can see the R next to the number as opposed to a non refractor here to help you. I wished they defined today's parallels especially for Panini Select and Prizm since there are so many. Would be nice to know what i have.

As I said earlier, I am building this set and here are my current needs (other than really wanting this Jake Plummer rookie) HERE.

I am on a roll and 2 for 2 so far when it comes to 90's chrome with an insert find in 1996 and a refractor score in 1997. If only I had that luck back then.

Chromes everything you want
Chromes everything you need
Chromes got everything inside of it
That you wish you could get
Chrome has all the right things
When you open it all the time
But Chrome is everything to you
And you always know why

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict: A Goofy Collection

It was 1995 and I was getting ready for another trip to the grocery store. A trip to the grocery store back then was exciting. My parents usually let me pick out a treat and a pack of cards, the best of two worlds! It was also nice to get out of the house.

Grocery shopping today is a dreadful experience. You push and shove your way through the store for what feels like hours. You use most of your paycheck to shop, there are no sports cards and then you have to unload what you loaded up in your cart when you get home and put it away. What about that is enjoyable? Most of the time now I will just let my wife get the groceries while I put them away when she gets home. Team work at its finest!

Two others that used teamwork like that to get through an experience was Goofy and Max and their crazy adventure from A Goofy Movie that came out in 1995. I can remember watching the film on VHS like it was yesterday. Okay, maybe I did watch it on DVD yesterday, but that doesn't mean I didn't feel like I was back in 1995.

The Goofy Movie was a spinoff from the popular cartoon series Goof Troop and features the duo later on when Max gets to high school. The relationship between Goofy and his son was a rocky one with Goofy doing some pretty stupid things that embarrassed Max and pushed them further apart. But, after Max gets in trouble at school, Pete (Goofy's childhood friend and neighbor), talked him into taking Max on a cross country trip that would both challenge them and bring them together.

It  reminded me of the relationship my father and I had at the time with it being a little rocky. He sometimes made Goofy decisions I didn't agree with, I won't get specific but they weren't decisions that led to a lot of people disliking him and the rest of our family. So the further I could put myself, the better at the time.

But, just like the fishing adventure Max and Goofy took to Lake Destiny, Idaho, sports was our adventure and the one thing that bonded us which led us to card collecting together as well.

In 1995, it was the year that I was growing more into sports and card collecting. There were many brands we bought over and over again such as Score, Summit, Ultra and especially 1995 Fleer. There are so many that dislike 1995 Fleer but I am not with that group. I thought the base and especially the inserts looked great. The product also brings me much nostalgic joy.

Other than the base set and other insert sets I am chasing within the product, one of the most eye boggling inserts is the Gridiron Leaders. It's a 10 card set that fell 1:4 packs in 1995 Fleer football.

Thanks to @CardpocalypseNC, I was able to knock down three more I needed with one more left to go! (which he later knocked down for me as well, I will be posting the full set when he and I sum up our next trade)

The cards featured a groovy disco floor look that is color appealing to the team they play for. The checklist features the top 10 Gridiron Leaders going into 1995.

I bet Neon Deion would dance on this floor.

 

Emmitt would be dancing in the end zone.

I will be glad to get the final one of these in and finish up this set in hand.  That will mark two of the sets from Fleer that will be knocked down for me now. Other ones including the base set needs, are listed HERE.

As for my father and I, our relationship isn't rocky anymore just like Max and Goofy's turned out to be in the end. Sorry for the spoiler. Our relationship now is more of a long distance one that consists of every weekend phone calls mainly about sport cards and complaining about the NY Giants moves for a few hours. Occasionally we will trade cards through the mail as well.

Some may say that collecting and sports are a waste of time, believe me I have heard it, but they don't look at what those things may mean deeply to some and not just what they see on the outside. The memories, the connections, the love can all come from it. Everyone has their own fishing trip to discover sometimes to get closer to someone they love, despite some differences they may have. It's life, you only live once.

Pieces Of My Future #1:Grady's Box

This blog will still mainly be 90's, but I thought I would add some new quirks in as well. I haven't been getting many mail days at all recently so I think it's good that I have switched formats on here. Other than having a lot of fun with it.

I knew my mail days would go down once my budget got tighter going into this year and the rising costs of USPS shipping, I haven't even attempted trades. I do have a stack of packages I owe and PWE's I was sending out, just need to wait for the funds to do so. May be a slow go with shipping those out and any future deals I make.

So for those of you I owe packages to, they will be coming and for the PWE's, some are surprises and others are contests I have been running on Twitter and hopefully they will be out soon to one by one.

One of the packages I owe goes out to my buddy and Parts Of My Past reader Grady M who recently sent me this huge box of goodies. I will post some of what I found, but in order to post everything it would take a couple of months to cover in this segment. So we will just take a small gander at some.

 

So without further delay, let's take a look!

Lots of Prizm goodness. Grady knows I love the shiny.

Even some Optic shine to.

Some football Prizm as well.

And a couple of the Michael Jordan Hanes cards that are found in packs inside of underwear and socks. It turned into a collecting phenom as collectors are chasing the ten MJ autograph cards randomly inserted throughout. I haven't even had a chance to check my local Walmart for these but I assume with the commercial they showed on TV promoting these, I bet none will be there. First time I have seen a commercial promoting sports cards in years.

New DJ

I didn't have any of these Gleyber Torres cards yet so new additions to that PC.

LT! Boom some USA red, white and blue love.

I should check to see what I have for the rainbow of Donruss and Donruss Optic Evan Engram so far.

And the final card...wow. Digging the die cut, design and color scheme. Hot Diggity! I still have hope the Giants will give this guy a chance at QB and use all 12 of their draft picks on fixing that defense. Maybe even a WR would help to.

Thanks again to Grady for the mail day. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can get your end shipped out as well.

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Part 4

It was time for the Fox Kids TV block and that meant only one thing for me in the 90's, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers!

They had recently introduced a new character in Tommy Oliver. He was an immediate intriguing character who not only became friends with Jason (Red Ranger) but also catches the lovely Kimberly's eye. She was my lady Tommy! Back off! Just because you are fit and built and I was a stick figure in my youth doesn't mean I couldn't take you down. Well, it actually does but that's besides the point.

Tommy not only had Kimberly's attention, but he also had Rita Repulsa eye who had a plan with Tommy to turn him evil.

So Rita corners Tommy and enchants him to her dark side, giving him the dragon coin which turns him into the Green Ranger. The Green Ranger had Dragon Zord powers and was armed with the Dragon Dagger and the Sword Of Darkness! The powers Tommy possessed made him more powerful than any of the Rangers which led to some devastation on earth and for the Rangers.

Within just a few short battles under Rita's spell, Zordon was taken down along with the Rangers and their Zords, and it appeared Rita would soon take over earth unopposed. However, it all came down to an epic battle between Jason and Tommy that decided the fate of the world. The one on one battle was fierce, but Jason was able to break the evil spell and free Tommy from Rita's evil by destroying the sword of darkness. Long story even shorter, Tommy meets Zordon who invites Tommy to be apart of the team to make up for his mistakes. Tommy agrees and becomes the sixth Mighty Morphin Power Ranger!

There were many story lines involving Tommy thereafter.  There was a multi-part episode in which Rita seeked her revenge on Tommy by using the Green Candle to drain him of his Green Rangers powers, which she succeeds with. In order for Tommy to continue on as the green ranger, he had to use Zordon to recharge his powers.

It was all of the intrigue built around him that put Tommy easily as my favorite Power Ranger. He not only had the coolest outfit, but he also had the best zord in Dragon Zord and weapon in the Dragon Dagger that he used to summon the Dragon Zord. Well, let's not forget he had Kimberly in love with him.

So for Christmas that year, the one and only thing I wanted was the Tommy flip head figure to play with. To my surprise on Christmas day, well, not really a surprise as my sister and I the night before  snuck under the tree and "re-wrapped" our present. I knew Tommy would be mine the next morning. It was my only toy gift that Christmas, but it meant the world to me and I was happy with it.

With a toy I remember owning, it having some meaning to me along with nostalgia involved, I needed a copy to own again. Do what makes you happy! As I have stated many times with these toy posts, my parents sold off my stuff in my youth so I no longer owned this piece. Well, that was up until this year.

Once again my great trading buddy @Jake1725 snagged this Tommy for me. Some marks and no weapon, but it still rocks.

Morphin Time!!! Dragonzord!

I played with that Tommy for many years before his character moved onto something even cooler. That my friends is a post for another day and you will be pretty stunned by a piece I have to go with it. However, the next time I talk about Power Rangers, we will find out what changed the Power Ranger layout especially with Tommy and what also caught my interest and dragged me deeper into the show.

In the mean time, going to find some shelf space for Tommy. Just hope he doesn't try to steal my woman again.

Rodney's Corner:2018 Select Tie Dye Autograph

We are on a commercial break on Parts Of My Past with The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict series,

Time to cue the ABC Bumper For Commercial break

with the newest segment, Rodney's Corner. This new segment will feature all of my newest Rodney Hampton additions. This will still stick with the 90's because it's the era Rodney was from and why I collected him.

The newest addition comes in thanks to my friends over at Midwest Box Breaks, check them out if you haven't yet, with one of the cards from the 2018 Select product I needed.

Look at the beauty! Rodney's signature actually isn't too shabby either.

This is the base Tie Dye autograph /25.

I have plenty more from this set to show off. Actually, I will spill the beans now if you don't check out my Rodney Hampton tab, I am only the Green base /5 and both base black 1/1 and die cut 1/1 away from having them all. Pair that with the 2018 Illusions purple 1/1 autograph and that's the only autographs I am missing of Rodney overall. Really wished that guy had traded me the Select black base 1/1 and not jumped out on the close deal and sell it out from under me.

til next time,

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict:Let's Get Dangerous Part 2

Daring duck of mystery,
Champion of right,
Swoops down from the shadows!
Darkwing owns the night!
Somewhere some villain schemes

Which villain is scheming this time....well it takes place in a Greenhouse where a scientist/botanist named Dr. Reginald Bushroot was about to prove his colleagues wrong about wanting to no longer fund his experiments. However, the experiment goes wrong and turns him into a half plant/half duck that can control plants, trees and any living green on the planet.

Now you have a brilliant scientist who is immortal that has to face the terror that flaps in the night! This should be a battle for the ages.

Well, not really. Bushroot may have been a recurring Super Villain, but he was different than the others. He was lonely and all he wanted was companionship. He couldn't help that it caused him to do some wrong things to get that and have his experiments go wrong in the process of trying to do so. Bushroot also was very sympathetic which served as a weakness.

This was another one of the VHS tapes I picked up when my video store went under. This one features the half plant/duck as apart of the Fearsome Five who are the Top 5 villains in St.Canard and they must face the Justice Ducks led by Darkwing. It appears evil may win....I won't spill the beans on how it ends or if it does. You will have to watch it.

At one point in my life I had the Bushroot figure with my set of figures such as Darkwing Duck, Launchpad McQuack, Megavolt (we saw this one in part 1), and Steelbeek but as I said, my parents sold them all off. There were only eight figures in all and I had a little more than half of them.

Thanks to my buddy @Jake1725, I was able to replace Bushroot. It also came as a complete figure with parts and the tail which had a tendency to break off. Whoever owned it before me definitely took care of it.

On the back, there is a button you can slide up and down to make his hair grow and ungrow.

You can see Bushroots movements in this video. Fast forward to 4:46 to find it.

Bushroot was my third favorite villain on the show and a toy I used a lot for my villain vs the duck. My favorite villain was Negaduck followed closely by the Liquidator, but they never made a toys of them so my most used one became Bushroot.

A thanks to Jake for the walk down memory lane again and to Darkwing for saving the day one more time.

Parts Of My Past Update!

Hi everyone!
I just wanted to give a quick update today on some other things I have been working on with this blog. Off to the right side of the blog, I know many of you don't look over there too often, I have been working really hard on updating some areas underneath the Set Needs By Year and Collection Notes.

Under Set Needs By Year, I have been adding new sets on a weekly basis to those. I will give you the list in this post as well. If you have any kind of set help for me, please drop me a line at sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com and maybe we can work out a PWE trade unless you are just looking to get rid of them and that works as well. Most of what I am looking for would be considered junk to many, but not me.

Here are those lists,

• 1995
• 1996
• 1997
• 1998
• 1999

I have also been adding all of my Ken Griffey Jr cards to a spreadsheet so I will know what my needs are when people approach me with Griffeys. Up to this point, I have up to 1997 done so far, it's such a long grueling process and not one I choose as a top free time, and will be starting 1998 soon. I have so far found a good stack of dupes that I have been sticking into a trade pile.

If you would like to check that project out so far, you can find it here and just simply click on the Griffey card,
Ken Griffey Jr PC

My Rodney Hampton tab at the top of the blog is always updated and raring to go. I recently discovered that COMC has many needs for me on there! I don't have a COMC account nor the funds to buy them if I did, so if you want to pick them up and work out a trade let me know as well!

As for the blog itself, I may add some new 90's segments in this week or over the next few weeks along with possibly a mail day recap post of newer stuff I may have gotten from the week if I did get any, it's been a slow go on mail. \Just trying to mix in some new stuff on here.

I hope everyone is enjoying the new format. I have heard good feedback so far, at least to my face, and there is much more to come including a story of the naked man. Yes, it is exactly what I stated it is.

Stay tuned for more!

Have a great week,
Matt

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict: Friends

So no one told you life was gonna be this way
Your healths a joke, you're broke
Your buying cards life's D.O.A
It's like you're always stuck in second gear
When it hasn't been your day, your week, your month
Or even your year, but

Wes will be there for you
(When the rain starts to pour)
Wes will be there for you
(Like he's been there before)
Wes will be there for you
('Cause I'm there for Wes too)

"I'll Be There for You" was sung by The Rembrandts which was used as the theme song for the popular TV show Friends, that aired on NBC from 1994 til 2004.

The show starred Rachel Green who found childhood friend Monica Geller and quickly become roommates. The group of friends continued to grow with Joey Tribbiani whose catch line "How You Doin?" became a must use 90's pick up line for guys or maybe it was just kids I went to school with. Joey became roommates with the ecstatic Chandler Bing and moved across the hall from Rachel and Monica. Then you throw in two other friends in Phoebe and Monica's older brother Ross and you have a show. A lot of the show takes place in Manhattan coffee house named Central Perk, creative name, or in Monica and Rachel's apartment which was there popular hang out spots. The comedy follows their lives of love, heartbreak, everyday life struggles and friendships between each other and many other fun guest stars.

It was one of the most popular series of all time and one I wished that would be revived like many other 90's sitcoms have. I believe I have seen every episode now.

With so much going on in the world today, it's great to know that I have some Friends as well to turn to. These aren't sadly local friends, but friends I have made online which are better than real life friends. One of my greatest friends is Wes who recently retired from blogging but still exists on Twitter where we talk on a daily basis.

On Tuesday, I had celebrated my birthday so Wes did was Wes does, sends a surprise. So for my birthday he sent this box of 1997 Scoreboard Playbook football. It  wasn't a product I quite remember that well as I am not sure if I did or didn't bust any, so it would be a fresh memory for my mind now.

Each box of 1997 Scoreboard Playbook came with 24 packs of 5 cards each.

As with 90's collecting, there were no guarantees other than that you will have fun. It's not like today where collecting is all about value chasing. This was a plain and simple rip for fun, not rip for flip which I feel has taken over the hobby. All I see on Twitter from almost every person I follow has a card for sale. Doesn't anyone trade or just collect anymore??

The checklist is a small one of 100 cards and features three different insert sets and one autograph set. I was hoping that the 120 cards in here I would accomplish the base set.

 

The base set is pretty basic. Each position has their own unique look to them. Quarterbacks look like this Kerry Collins. Which is also a new Collins card for me.

 

Mark Brunell. Another 90's QB I fell for.

 

Steve McNair, RIP.

Jake The Snake Plummer! Rookie card as well.

 

John Elway is still running. He is also running the Broncos front office and could be running himself out of a job if he can't figure out their Quarterback situation.

 

Running Back design looks like this Emmitt Smith.

Tiki Barber rookie card! New to me.

Ike Hilliard shows us his rookie card and the wide receiver design. I probably should have captured a defensive player as well but picture something similar but sideways.

The inserts weren't too flashy like a lot of them at the time, but they did look nice and had some die cut action.

Franchise Player fell 1:6 packs and captured the players their respective franchises could build around. The design looks similar to a ticket.

Another new Kerry!

And a new Giants card.

Ricky Watters who was very underrated.

Peter Boulware who made defenses aware he was around.

Mirror Image falls 1:24 packs and features top players in the league. I would suspect at those odds you would find one per box.

 

John Elway. Not going to complain about this pull.

And finally, I didn't land a hopeful autograph. I really wanted a Favre and would have even accepted a Kordell Stewart I need as well, instead I will take the card at the same odds of an autograph in Title Quest.

 

Not all Title Quest card are created equal. The first two in the set fall 1:192 odds!! Guess what, TD falls at number two. NIIIIIIIIICE! The other Title Quest cards fall at much less odds of 1:32.

No one could ever know me
No one could ever see me (well I am behind a computer screen)
Seems you're the only one who knows
What it's like to be me
Someone to face the day with
Make it through all the rest with
Someone I'll always laugh with
Even at my worst, I'm talking with you, yeah

Sadly I wasn't able to tackle the entire base set as I was two cards off, but it was a really fun rip and huge thanks to my friend Wes for surprising me on my birthday. You my friend are like no other.

I am not sure who Wes would have chosen as a character from friends, but I wished I was Joey even though my personality and lame jokes puts me more as a Ross. The only problem is, I always liked Monica better than Rachel, so that would have been a little weird as Ross. So I guess I will settle myself as Chandler in the end. However, let's skip over the whole Janice relationship. That voice!

I may look into a few other cards from this set like the autographs to see if any are reasonable enough for me to snag or trade for. It was appealing overall as a product.

Wes will be there for you
(When the rain starts to pour)
Wes will be there for you
(Like he's been there before)
Wes will be there for you
Wes will be there for you
Wes will be there for you
('Cause I'm there for Wes too)