Generosity Aplenty

What a great way to end May is to show off my latest, greatest mail day from @JGfan24ever whose generosity is far beyond what I can sometimes comprehend.

This time he sent a box of goods with a variety of different PC landings.

Some Ken Griffey Jr. That Studio card is one of my favorite base card Griffeys and that American Hero is a new one for that dreaded set. They made so, so many of those and I have so, so far to go still.

NY Yankees including Jeter and Rivera. Really enjoy looking back at the old Collectors Choice cards. Brings back warm memories.

Gleyber! Off to a decent start this year but not quite the home run total I hoped he would be at.

Gleyber x2. Really dig this Optic.

Hakeem Nicks Contenders ROY

Ramses Barden relic.

The next few cards Michael was looking for good homes for because they were damaged in a fire. They aren't in mint condition, but, they are Giants relic cards and I wasn't going to turn those away at all.

Jeremy Shockey. I really like this design.

Plaxico Burress relic. He wins my vote for the best Free Agent pickup ever for the Giants. He changed that teams offense and helped Eli's career.

Speaking of Eli's career. Here's an Eli!

Ron Dayne! I always liked this design.

Hilliard. They may be my first relic card of his.

Greg Jones. Decent autograph but not so much on the field.

Kerry Collins. We all know my feelings on him.

Another Dayne relic!

Ron Dayne MVP Souvenirs. I like football swatches so much more than the plain relics.

And to finish it off, a graded Leather and Laces, though I don't see any Laces on it, of Tiki Barber. Great looking team color themed card.

A big thanks goes out to Michael for his generosity once again. I need to do some undigging and hit you back. i know you don't ever expect anything in return, but I can't just take this without doing something. Thanks again!

By the way, have any of you ever seen a graded card in such a big case? Holy moly going to have to find some place special to store that.

Rodney's Corner:A Gift Like No Other

Wow.

First words out of my mouth along with a few air fist pumps when I got a special tweet from @JGfan24ever on Twitter telling me he had picked up an item that was on my Listed Hamptons I Need page.

It wasn't just any item off from the page, it was a very hopeful item. An item I least expected from the list, other than the Red Premium Stock from Certified that is at the top of my list now for sure, was an autographed jersey. It is my first NY Giants autograph jersey in my collection, well, I will call it that even though it sports his jersey from his Georgia Bulldogs days where he rushed for 2,668 yards and 22 TD's in his career which ed the Giants to take him 24th overall in the first round of the 1990 draft.

Check it out!

It's a beauty Clark!

This new addition will help round out my Super PC more. I think in order to call a Super PC a Super PC, you must have more than cards. You need figures, pictures, autograph items, etc. You need to go all out and this will help me make my case more now but still think I need some more items.

A super thank you goes out to Michael for his generosity. This was totally unexpected and an item I never could have picked up myself. I can't say thank you enough and hope to send a little thank you in return soon.

Still blown away as I type this. Wow. I certainly have some great hobby friends. My real ones should take note.

Cardboard From The Midwest

Score football is one of my favorite releases every year and I always make sure to grab some in some form.

I do kind of wished that Panini would wait a little longer on the release like they used to that way all of the rookies would be found in NFL uniforms and not college, but will take it as it is.

But, it's out and I had a spot in a Midwest Box Break hoping for a repeat performance of my last break with them. Remember the Barkley auto? yeah, I was hoping Daniel Jones auto was waiting for me in here.

This years edition celebrates 30 years of Score and it's amazing 1989 release. So Panini did some throwback look backs and it starts with the base set.

 I really like the look of these.

And they have some amazing photography as well. By far this Saquon Barkley is my favorite base card.

 Daniel Jones

Darius Slayton and some other guy lol.

 The Giants starting defense

 Eric Dungey who is talented but why did the Giants need a 4th QB. Oh well.

 Here's a /50 parallel of Dungey. Cool.

 Eli Captains insert

 Signal Callers adds some shine ot the inserts and Huddle Up showing a Giants huddle.

 Saquon was by far a Fantasy Star and one for my team last year.

And finally, Epix makes its return this year in Score. However, falls waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay flat of the 90's version. It's just some foil this time However, I did land all three Saquon Barkley versions. I am not sure if one is harder than the other or not to find.

And that's it. No hits to brag about this time. Actually Score gave me a reason not to want to break a box and be happy with having all of the Giants cards I need. Watching that six box break was brutal. Only a handful of names I knew were pulled but one was a /10 auto of Baker Mayfield so that was cool. The rest were a bunch of no namers and practice squad players. It was worrisome.

Thanks to Midwest Box Break for another fun experience. Hopefully my next break will finally land me a Jones auto. Still in big need of one. 

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict:I'm Missing You Like Candy

In the late 90's, we had a trio of young ladies making it into the music biz and had boys at my age crushing.

While most boys were throwing themselves at the likes of Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, which I crushed on Britney for a little while, it wasn't until 1999 when the third girl came into the picture and she was the one for me.

The name Mandy Moore could be heard spoken by myself a lot in 1999 all the way through 2004ish.  I was super crushing and my dreams in my freshman year of high school was that someday we would get married.

I had it all planned out, I would go to Duke to play men's basketball (they were my favorite team at the time) or to Notre Dame to play football (same) and then I would skip over the pros and move to Hollywood to start my life with her. As with all big dreams when you are young, they don't always turn out as you plan.

I didn't play basketball once in high school despite some interest from the coach for me to and myself wanting to, it just didn't pan out. When it came to football, coaches didn't give me enough opportunities to show what I could do and one game when I finally got in I blew my ACL from a cheap shot and that dream was over. Instead I went onto working retail as a meat cutter/manager and it's where I met my wife all those years ago (and I wouldn’t change that as I am a lucky man)

Not quite the 90's plan I had, but sometimes God has other plans for you and they are always good.

I recently was reminded of all of this and my crush on Mandy when Wes sent me a card that brought back all of these memories.

This 2008 PopCardz of the one and only, Mandy Moore.

It made me dig through a tote of stuff I had stored away to find some of the leftover memorabilia I still had of Mandy from those days.

Her first CD. I must have sold off the rest. I had every CD and soundtrack she was apart of.

Teen People magazine cover

A poster

A singing poster. I am not sure what ever happened with the actual item. This is just a back cardboard piece. There was a time when companies found making cards and posters sing was a good idea. They aren't stuffed animals!!

Inside of a magazine.

 

And a clip from my local newspaper.

There were many other scrapbook pieces as well but just thought I would show off a few. Somewhere I bought a really cheap 8x10 autograph as well but not sure if it's authentic despite it coming with a guarantee from some guy who printed off a piece of paper saying so.

Since my crushing on her back in the day, Mandy has been married twice and moved onto doing movies and TV with the popular series This Is Us. She doesn't really do music anymore. And just this year received her due on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame with a star.

As for myself, I changed careers as well but am still married to the same person. I don't have a Hollywood Walk Of Fame star but do have a few minor awards in sport card blogging. That's gotta be close right? Maybe we need a Cardboard Walk Of Fame. What do you guys think?

The card from Wes also reminded me that I wouldn't mind hunting down the memorabilia card from that set of Mandy. I guess you can stick in on my want list among the many other dream cards. Hopefully I won't have to wait much longer on getting it though, because I am missing it like candy.

Memorial Day Cardboard

For this Memorial Day, I wanted to show off a firework of a PWE trade mail day thanks to my new trading buddy @911baseballguy.

Most readers know how much time and energy I spent into trying to land some Mahomes cards last year and finally my last two trades with @911baseballguy has landed me a couple of nice ones for my rookie card PC.

 

This time it's a 2017 Donruss Rated Rookie Press Proof blue. 

It's a really sharp card with the Rated Rookie throwback symbol and all. Probably my best Mahomes yet for card wise.

A big thanks goes out to @911baseballguy for another great trade. I look forward to our next!

As for the rest of you, I hope you have a great Memorial Day and stay safe out there and sorry for the short one card post today!

Rodney's Corner:Leaving A Legacy

I have Rodney Hampton  card as a saved search on eBay so I always get a notification when a new one pops up.

Last week, I checked some of my new notifications for new listings so I checked it out.

To my surprise, I found out that......2019 brings in some new Rodney's from Panini's latest product Legacy.

 

So I immediately did my research and found out there were autograph and base cards and parallels for both as well. Overall, there are 22 new Rodney Hamptons to chase including a dreadful three 1/1's. This now brings the new total of Rodney Hampton card count to 861 in which I have 620 of.

So once again, I will be looking for help from you guys to help fill in my needs! Some of these are already listed on eBay and most are pretty affordable. So let's strike up a trade (unless you want to donate to my Rodney Hampton project)

Cardboard Review:2019 Topps Tier One Baseball (HUGE HIT!!)

One of my favorite high end releases every year has come. I like this one but also give Museum Collection a slight edge over it when it comes to high end.

Topps Tier One hasn't ever treated me well in the past, but it's still fun to break and check out the great designed cards.

Let's see if 2019 can break my strikeout streak with the product.

Each box of 2019 Topps Tier One comes with three cards. Two autographs and one relic card for $120. So it's a risk banking that each card has to be worth at least $40.

 My first hit, well, it was my last in the box, Khris Davis single relic.

 Prime Performers autograph of Bobby Richardson. He has a great signature.

And finally, a 1/1 Gold Signature of Tier One Talent Cal Ripken Jr!!!!!!

Other hits not found in my box include,

• Tier One Autographs
• Break Out Autographs
• Mystery Break Out Autographs
• Clear One Autographs
• Clear One Dual Autographs
• Dual Autographs
• Triple Autographs
• Cut Signatures
• Autographed Tier One Relics
• Dual Autographed Tier One Relic Books
• Autographed Prodigious Patches
• Autographed Tier One All-Star Patches
• Autographed Tier One Bat Knobs
• Autographed Tier One Limited Lumber
• Autographed Tier One Uniform Button Relics
• Signature Tools Autographs Relic
• Cut Signature Relics
• Tier One Legends Relics
• Prodigious Patches
• Tier One All-Star Patches
• Tier One Bat Knobs
• Tier One Limited Lumber
• Tier One Uniform Button Relics

OVERALL: Great looking product as always and there is not question about that. The question is, how will your box break go. This was a great break for all three hits in my opinion and value was there. But, it's a gamble product and may not always provide the boom and may be a bust two out of three times. But that one time, oh boy I hope you are sitting down. There are a lot of big time hits in here still left to find!

I suggest box breaks for those who don't like to take a gamble and for those of you who do like to gamble, let the dice roll!

Not everyone can afford a hobby box of this, so I suggest a box break which I suggest Midwest Box Breaks when you do so. They pulled some heattttttt from this product already.

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 giveaway on Twitter I am hosting. Please follow me there to enter @SportCardCollec. Also follow Topps on all social media sites and visit their SITE, as well.

Two New Traders Bring The Fun!

I am always adding great traders to my trading circle and I did just that recently.

For a couple of months, I have been working on a trade with Greg from Nine Pockets blog who contacted me about some 90s inserts and set help, it was dragged out so long because of my slacking on getting my card room situated to find him a return. Usually an easy trade like this one should have been just that, but the specific things I was looking for to send in return were buried among the mess.

But, we finally got a deal done once I pushed past the mess and here was my return,

I have always enjoyed some 90's Ultra inserts. Ultra to me was the start of the creativity in the hobby before 1996 started the uphill climb of the 90's inserts with other companies.

More Ultra with some Gold Medallions. Ultra base cards alone are worth a look at. The Leaf one at the bottom is one of those steel cards made of metal.

 Shine a light on Black Diamond...sorry Rhianna came to mind

90's Black Diamond was the best and here are some die cut versions including the man, Wayne Gretzky. One day in my wildest dreams I will own his rookie card and autograph.

There were even some football inserts. Quasers is pretty cool of Lions WR Crowell

 Rhett, there it is. Rhett there it is! digging the old Bucs uni's more as an adult

Irvin refractor from 1995 Finest,  I consider the best design out of all the Finest ones and would almost use the term iconic for that line with it.

 And to end, a couple of autographs. Not anyone I know, but still cool.

Thanks to Greg on this awesome mail day! I hope when we trade next time I will be much more prepared!

Now onto my second new trader who was a new trader but not new to me as a person. I have always spoken to @911baseballguy usually about TTM autographs and addresses. But, when I saw him post a Daniel Jones I really wanted, we began trade discussions and here was the results of those.

Daniel Jones Red Prizm parallel. Prizm is such a beautiful product. It's not quite Topps Chrome, but close.

And I have been trying to add to my Mahomes rookies and this Donruss Optic fit it well.

Thanks to Shawn on a great trade and I know many more are to come from us! (well we already did just do another since with another post on the way)

I strongly suggest you seek out these two great traders as well. Easy to deal with and ships perfectly!