Rodney's Cardboard:1997 Topps Gallery No Foil White Border Proof

Not to brag, but I have gotta have the most unique Rodney Hampton collection out there. How could I not?

I add anything I can with his name on it. From magazines to jerseys (only have one of these) to cards to oddball cards.

Today's card marks a new proof card I have in my PC for Rodney.

This card is from 1997 Topps Gallery. This is a proof card that is the production before they become cards. Hence the no foil and white border which would be trimmed off normally.

Back of the card intact like the real card, well besides the border.

The seller is one I have gotten my past Hampton proofs off from. Good prices and combines shipping so that is right up my alley. Another thing is he just listed a bunch more Hampton proofs that I need. I will have to wait til funding is good again but I plan on scooping them up when I do.

What do you guys think about proof cards? Like em? Hate em? Take em as they are for your PC?

Autograph Of The Week:Wilmer Valderrama

I have seen/heard Wilmer in a lot of TV over the years, but nothing compares to his role as Fez in That 70's Show. I watched it back in the 90's in my much younger years but didn't really appreciate it until I was an adult, especially now.

Every weekend on Laff, a television channel, they re-play all of the episodes so I get the chance at a good laugh which can be needed in today's trying times.

Also, Wilmer has been on one of my favorite shows the last few seasons in NCIS playing special agent Nick Torres. It took me a little while to like his character, but it has grown on me and now I am a fan.

For some reason or another while playing on eBay, a sponsored ad for an autograph card of his popped up. At first, I had no idea he had autograph and then I knew I had to have it.

After some back and forth with the seller, we finally came to a price agreement and I landed this one pretty affordable compared to others.

It's a 2001 Topps American Pie autograph relic.

Card back with info about Wilmer.

By the way, I typed this up at the end of March so if this doesn't publish before the NCIS season finale, I don't know what could have happened to his character since NCIS is really good about hiding their plans for the finales.

Another autograph on the way next week!

Kerry's Cardboard:1997 Topps Gallery Gallery Of Heroes

One of my favorite insert lines of the 90's, yes I have many favorites so I use that line a lot, was Gallery Of Heroes from Topps Gallery.

I never actually ever pulled one or even saw one up close, til I bought the Griffey from 2000 Topps Gallery, but have always wanted one from 1997 THE OG of the insert line.

I have tried a few times to land a Griffey, but the prices were out of my cheap price range.

I also tried to land a Kerry Collins three different times with no good outcomes.

Til try number four.

It was cheap and I was the only bidder, so it was mine.

These inserts fell 1:36 packs on average and feature a stained glass background and acetate see-thru.

Back side of the card.

It's really hard to capture the card in a picture but I tried my best by standing it up.

Pretty happy to land this one and had landed it cheap. I don't think Kerry was featured in any of the other years of Gallery Of Heroes so I own the one and only year of it. Otherwise, those would be my next "for sure" chases.

Two Of The Best

I am not usually one for Leaf products, especially their sport ones, but I do really like their non sport ones such as Pop Century.

I have been collecting non sport stuff pretty hard over the past couple of years adding what I can when I can especially those that played a role in my life.

Today I feature two of my favorite actors who both played in a film together.

The movie, well, Caddyshack from 1980. The actors, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray.

I have always liked Chevy and all of his movies. Some are better than others, but all give me a chuckle. However, by far,  National Lampoons Christmas Vacation is his best and my Top favorite movie of all time OVER ALL OTHER MOVIES. I would watch it in non holiday times.

As for Bill, I liked some of his movies, not as many as Chevy, but my favorite roles of his is Ghostbusters, Space Jam and especially being the greens keeper in Caddyshack. I had to show my nephew Caddyshack just for Murray's character. It's just too bad he wasn't in the second movie which fell flat to the first in comparison. Though both movies had A+ stars in them.

This Prop Century relic features both Chase and Murray. Not sure what the relics are from, but it's a cool piece to have. I already have a solid Chase PC and this is my first thing for Murray. I wished he had an autograph to chase.

The only thing negative I find about this card other than it not letting me know what the relics are from, is the fact it doesn't have their faces on the front with their swatches. Instead of that award symbol, put their faces above their names. That's all I ask.

Back of the card has no specifics what the wardrobe cards are from other than being authentic. Would have been nice to find out which movie they are from.

I don't think this will be the end of my chase for Chase. I see he has other relic cards in that set with plenty of other stars.

A Mystery

*sun is already shining, heat/mugginess is building, and here I am sitting down with my first cup of joe to type this*

 

I love a good mystery.

Well, except for my coffee. Don't mess with my coffee. I have one way of liking it so don't mess with it and add some flavored mumbo jumbo or replace it with tea. 

Don't you dare.

Otherwise a good mystery is fun. Whether it's a mystery book, mystery movie, mystery mail day or mystery packs that you can buy. A good mystery keeps us on the edge of our seats.

Just like recently, when I tried my very first mystery pack.

Why is it my first? Well that's not a mystery I will leave you hanging on.

I always worry about buying them not knowing what kind of junk could be within. I assume in order to get the money the sellers are seeking, that the "chase" cards are impossible to find and a lot of it is what we could find in nickel and dime boxes. Which I am running out of places to store that kind of stuff. Yes, I have gotten to the point of collecting where space is becoming an issue. Mainly because my boxes to store stuff in are running low.

Another point to make about these mystery packs is most of these packs cost $10 when I could have turned that into a card or even two for my PC instead of possible junk.

But, this mystery pack was different than the rest I found. It was focused on my favorite era of collecting, late 90's and early 2000's. What made this pack even better, it was cheap. It had my attention.

So for $2.25 plus shipping, you get 30 cards. There are "25 cards" plus 5 cards that are Inserts/Parallels/RC cards. Intriguing.

All of the cards are NBA cards from the late 1990's through early 2000's. The seller put the Inserts/RC's/Parallels/#'d cards in plastic sleeves and each pack was wrapped like the above example.

Here's an example of some of the sets that were to be included into these mystery packs,

• 1997-1998 Topps Chrome
• 1997-1998 Bowman's Best
• 1998-1999 Fleer Mystique
• 1998-1999 Fleer Brilliants
• 1998-1999 Topps Finest
• 1998-1999 Skybox Thunder
• 1998-1999 Fleer Ultra
• 1998-1999 Upper Deck Black Diamond
• 1998-1999 Upper Deck Ionix
• 1999-2000 Skybox EX
• 1999-2000 Topps Gold Label

And the list of players that are in it as well,

• Kevin Garnett
• Vince Carter
• Grant Hill
• Shaquille O'Neal
• Anfernee Hardaway
• Tim Duncan
• David Robinson
• Jason Kidd
• Steve Nash
• Paul Pierce
• Dirk Nowitzki
• Richard Hamilton
• Chris Webber
• Kobe Bryant
• Michael Jordan
• Scottie Pippen
• Reggie Miller
• Karl Malone

Combine all of that with the price, the BIG NOSTALGIA FACTOR, how could I say no? So I grabbed two of these packs and paid under $10 for them both. After getting the packs and seeing how I did, I wished I had gotten more as they sold out almost immediately.

*smiles during my next sip*

Time to show you why they sold out so fast after opening them,

PACK 1:

We kick off the pack with a Topps Finest Felipe Lopez rookie card in old school Grizz uni. I would love a pair of those shorts to wear.

(no that's not an extra Lopez, that's the same one) I found John Stockton and a Karl Malone. Man I wished that Jazz team could had won a title. But, those darn Bulls...

Tim Hardaway, Payton, Garrity Finest rookie

Marbury (I wonder if my buddy still collects anymore who was a big time fan), another Payton and a Barkley

Shaq, Garnett, Penny Hardaway (forgot he played for the Suns)

And now onto what's supposed to be the good stuff. I thought I had already seen all of that up to this point.

Grant Hill Wing Men

Charles Barkley NBA All Stars

Elton Brand Topps Gold Label rookie. Imagine how hot this card must have been back then? For me it's about the Gold Label

Kobe! Great photo to. I never busted any of this Fleer Genuine

Cummings Topps Chrome rookie

And a Larry Hughes Black Diamond rookie. If I remember right, the rookies in this product were Sp's.

That was just pack number one folks. I was feeling like I had drank the best cup of coffee I had ever had after opening that one. Well, the cup I have right now isn't too shabby either nor is Pack 2.

*takes another sip*

PACK 2

I remember Mcleod and how hot his cards were supposed to be.....

Here we go some more. Fleer Mystique was another great looking product, PC guy Allan Houston Topps Chrome, Shawn Kemp, Spreeeeeeeeeeewelllll or as MSG called it out

Jamal Mashburn, Ewing, my first dupe with the Stockton, Kittles

A few Gary Paytons, Barkley another Hakeem Olajuwon

Marbury peeled Finest parallel, The Admiral, Hakeem again, Ray Allen

The sleeved cards including Webber, Tom Gugliotta nice die cut insert

Tim Duncan insert. I think it's either rookie year or year after. I can't remember now. I opened this awhile back.

And I believe I can fllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyy wooooooooooooo. An MJ spotting. Very cool especially being a side PC card and the way his cards have been moving. Fleer Ultra was also the bomb back then

 

It was the back of the card that caught my attention. I am not sure if you can read it, but the Did You Know? was "four hours before every game, Michael eats a 23-ounce New York Steak, either a baked potato or mashed potatoes, a salad and ginger ale."

That's crazy. Can you imagine running around for three hours with that in your system? That's just another reason why he is the GOAT.

*cup one down, next one coming up*

I contacted the seller afterwards and thanked them for a trip back in time and told them how much I enjoyed their mystery pack. They mentioned to me that they may make a second series seeing how this one went, if they could find the rest of their cards.

A week later, guess what they found and made and even contacted me about.

And guess what I did

And guess how I did...

A mystery isn't it....

Too bad that's for another cup of coffee, or two, another day.

Breakin' Wax:1995 Pro Line Classic Series 2

Pro Line was a great 90's product that had autographs and top notch photography.

One of my favorite products of 1995, there are many, was their Series 1 Pro Line Classic.

So when I saw a Pro Line Classic Series 2, I was pretty excited.

However, it was a much different product. Instead of autographs, it focused on Phone Cards. Collectible Phone Cards was where it was at in 1995.

So let's check out my next box break thanks to via Shane over at Project Pedro Blog

Every box of 1995 Pro Line Classic was numbered, cause you don't want over production. Every box had 18 packs with 6 cards per pack. Each pack came with one of those "money makers" Prepaid Phone Cards.

The base set looked much different in Series 2 than 1. The photography was still there, but the bottom of the had an added shine to it. The cards were also more susceptible to damage.

Here's a few of my favorite base cards from the 100 card set,

Dave probably throwing to the other team here

Love the background of the Giants endzone

Bretts down and dirty!

Dan busting a move

There was some fun inserts however in this product.

Images Preview Card fell 1:18 packs. Back in the 90's you would sometimes find an insert as a preview of an upcoming product. That Images product was pretty cool by the way with it's etched aweomeness.

Printers Proof on a hot top rookie!! Well, back in 1995. No odds given.

Phone Cards. These fall one per pack for the $1 ones. Odds get tougher the more they are worth.

$2 phone cards fell 1:6 packs

And this $5 one fell 1:18 packs. Not too shabby of a player either

And it's also numbered to 3577. Kind of an odd number to be numbered to, but I will take it.

Gary Vee also had a 90's magazine,

 

Sorry, that was a Gary Vee joke if he had a magazine in the 90's. This is what I was saying earlier about how hot Phone Cards were and why Pro Line was pushing them so hard.

This was a fun break, not very costly either. I was hoping to land a couple of the cool inserts but no such luck here. It is what it is but the Emmitt Smith was a good find.

Any of you collect Phone Cards in the 90's?

The Diamond King Delivers

One of my newer favorite blogs I discovered is The Diamond King who I guess has been around longer than myself. But, to me, it's a newly discovered blog thanks to a list of blogs from Night Owl not long ago.

It's been a fun read and he also ran an amazing promotion recently. The basic idea of the promo, offering each contestant who earned a spot 100 DK Dollars to bid on lots of cards he posts up. You have a certain amount of time to bid on those lots, just like on eBay, and hope you can bid enough and not get sniped. Like I did.

I think I was the only contestant to bid all of their money and win four lots. Three of the four lots I came home with while one I "bought" for two other collectors. I did score the two cards from that one I wanted the most though.

It was a fun game of not trying to spend all of your money thinking something could be coming up to fit your PC better while you are also not trying to lose out on stuff you may be able to use as well. I feel I did well in balancing out my money and landed some pretty cool stuff.

No these aren't real. These are reprints, but still shiny.

Da Man! First time in a long time I have added multiple Griffeys to that PC.

Misc

A Mets Schedule

Some numbered stuff

Stickers including a Jeter

Jeter reprints

And being the nice guy The Diamond King is, I was "sniped" on a basketball lot that had a Harden and Dirk rookie I really wanted. I try to collect a rookie of every player and those are two I was lacking. He knew how bad I wanted the lot so he sent these two along for me.

Upper Deck James Harden

Flair Dirk Nowitzki

That was everything for my $100 Dk.

Now comes a few claims I made for the Diamond 9 which is a freebie pick and grab promo he runs as well,

I claimed these three to send off to a buddy of mine who does so much for others in the hobby. Least I could do is pass them along. He is a big Strawberry and Doc collector.

 

And this McGwire I claimed for myself. A 90's insert for my PC I have never seen before. Wonder if Griffey is on one of these.

And that does it for his mail day. Great stuff I think. Thanks again to The Diamond King. If you haven't checked out his blog yet please do so and add him to your blogroll if you are a blogger.

Hope everyone has a great day!

BY THE WAY...NEW POST OVER AT CARDS OVER COFFEE!! Please check it out and add it to your blogroll people!

NEW POST HERE↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

Not Vintage