Not As Advertised

*first morning cup of coffee,getting prepared for a small rant*

You ever buy something and find out later that it wasn't as advertised?

Well, here are a couple of examples of what I mean.

I remember being a kid and on the TV commercial for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers White Tiger Saba Sword really made me want one. It looked like the coolest toy around and being a big Power Rangers fan especially of the White Ranger, I was sold. So I saved and saved and saved money I earned working for my grandmother and some Bingo winnings so I could purchase said toy. When the day came when I had earned enough, I made my parents go to the store and I bought it.

I waited until I got home to open the toy so I wouldn't lose all of the pieces, busted that box open and put some batteries in and boy....did it fall flat. Where were all of those sound effects on the commercial? Where was all of the buttons they showed? Why didn't my Saba talk? Did I really just spend $40 on a toy with three buttons?

Yes, yes I did. Definitely not as advertised.

Then there was the time when I saw that Subway commercial for some new sub. Man, that's loaded with meat and everything under the sun so you purchase one for yourself and bring it home. Well, remember that sandwich on TV where it was this huge monstrosity, well, it's got a few pieces of meat and is as flat as a tuna sandwich on regular bread.

Once again, not as advertised.

And of course you wanted to try one of those new "loaded" blizzards from Dairy Queen where there's more candy than ice cream...supposedly. So you buy one and find yourself eating vanilla ice cream with a couple pieces of candy.

Falsely advertised.

*takes a few aggressive sips of coffee before continuing*


By now I bet you are thinking, yup, I bet he bought something cardboard that wasn't as advertised. And the answer to that is yes.

I was searching for some base sets for my 1990's Spx chase and I stumbled upon one for 1997-1998 Spx hockey I didn't have. It was fairly priced and even had a make offer attached to it. So I did what I usually do to save money and made an offer and it was accepted.

It took a little while to arrive because of the slow mail from Covid, but I got the set and was pretty stoked to have done so. I even gave the seller top scores of five stars before even opening up the set to check it out.

I assumed I was good. The set appeared from the outside to be safe in a plastic carrying box and I figured it was all good coming from a reputable seller.

A couple days later I opened up that plastic case to start taking pictures for a blog post and that's when I started to notice something.

 

Top card. Beautiful hologram, some etched foil and a touch of blue for color.

A few cards later, Mr Ray Bourque. The one and only athlete I have ever met in person and got some stuff signed of.

Curtis Joseph

Hmm. This card stopped me for a minute. Where is the blue on this card? It's more of a silver. Maybe they did some team colors?

The Great One

Then this Brian Leech. This had more of a shiny silver foil on it than than the previous silver and it doesn't match the color of Gretzky.

John LeClair

Jaromir Jagr and his famous mullett

Another shiny silver. This wasn't the last one I saw either.

  

And a Joe Juneau to end it.

Something seemed off about this set. There were quite a few cards in here that didn't have the blue and had silver and shiny silver to them. So I did some minor research, I hadn't remembered the details of this set in a long time, and found out that the silvers and shiny silvers are parallels.

The 1997-1998 parallels for the hockey set were Bronze, Silver, Grand Finale, Gold, and Steel (shiny silver).

So I didn't have the base set. I only had a partial base set and some parallels.

NOT AS ADVERTISED.

 

Overall I found 10 silvers

and two Steel parallels

That's 12 cards not apart of the base set I will have to find now. Which may or may not be easy which is why I buy the sets as sets. Sometimes buying singles costs more than buying the set already done for you.

*grips on tightly to coffee mug*

I didn't ever go back and complain to the seller about it because in actual reality, I did get more value this way but it wasn't what I had hoped for.

*chugs a half cup of coffee, pours the next cup, grabs a no bake cookie sitting on the counter and munches on it before finishing up the post*

I can't say that everything that comes Not As Advertised is bad. Even above I did score more value despite it not being what I had wanted. And I have gone to plenty of yard sales where I have bought boxes marked common cards and found some amazing stuff. Those are the good stories.

Then there once again is that Subway sub and that Saba sword. At least a lesson was learned with those, but I also can't guarantee that I won't make the same mistake again.

The Grady Bunch 2: More Baseball

When Sport Card Collectors reader and fan Grady M sends a box of goodies, he really sends it.

It's packed with every sport including wrestling. It's got tons of variety and plenty of shiny stuff as he knows I am a fan of.

I know many bloggers and collectors are not fans of Panini's baseball products, but I will emphasize again that I am.

This Rickey Henderson is fire. It's numbered to his career home run total. So shiny!

Good mix of pink players, red and purples

Some insert pinks

Let's sing it together, BABY PUCKETT DOO DOO DOO BABY PUCKETT DOO DOO DOO BABY PUCKETT

SHINY PUCKETT DOO DOO DOO SHINY PUCKETT DOO DOO DOO SHINY PUCKETT

Okay enough with that. One would guess it's stuck in your head by now.

I found two of these 2010's Decades Best inserts in the box and even found an unannounced parallel....

Seems like a fitting parallel.

Well, that does it for Post 2. One more post to go. The final post from this box relates to one player and one player only. Question is, can you guess it?

The Grady Bunch: The Yaaaaaannnkkkeeees

It's time to finally show off the Grady Bunch Box. I mentioned this box a few weeks ago

The next few posts will dig in, but will not, WILL NOT, show the extent of everything he sent or even close to what he sent. There was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much its hard to capture and post it all.

So today, we will tackle the Yankees portion, well some as I said from the box.

There was a base of Tanaka and

then I found the Sp. While I was digging through I thought the photo on this looked different than the base so I compared numbers and there it was. Pretty cool. Think it's actually my first Yankees Sp from the product.

My Yankees PC focus now is mainly on two players. Both of which Grady tackled well.

First up, the big dude as I refer to him as, Aaron Judge as the rest of you refer to him. I don't have much 2020 since I haven't been able to get any, so lots of new Aaron's headed my way.

Donruss base and variation at the bottom.

And a beautiful Dominators insert. This is the pink parallel.

Next up, the second Yankee player I collect

Gleyber Torres continues to grow every year into a big time star. Will be fun to see what he can do when baseball resumes (this was typed up on June 21st in case baseball begins before this publishes)

Always digging these Fortune Teller inserts. One of the few mini cards I enjoy

The third Yankee player I focus on is Derek Jeter. There were a few of those in this box as well, but I stayed more focus on the two players I gained the most traction with.

And the final card is how I feel when I open up a mail day from Grady....

The rainbow foil parallel of this really brings it all out and I was soaking it all in. Just like the contents of the box he sent.

Coffee Break:2020 Score Football Fat Pack

Welcome, this new segment on here will feature new products I review and breakdown during a coffee break. A coffee break is when you take a stop from work and drink coffee. Not when you take a break from coffee, that would be just crazy

*cup of joe ready to go, let's rip this pack*

My father has been very lucky in finding packs at Walmart in the past month while I see many other collectors coming up empty. From new products to even some old ones, his timing is almost perfect.

Almost of course. Even in my area there are those flippers.

In the past month, I have been trading him cards for packs since I haven't gone to Walmart in months and need the occasional rip and he has been more than happy to help me with that.

One of the newest releases I craved, like I do every year, is the first official NFL release in Score football. I like to get the first cards of not only my NY Giants, but of other teams as well and the new incoming rookies. Though I am not a big fan of the rookies still in College uniforms, I will take it for now.

*sniffs coffee, sniffs pack. The sweet, sweet smells tickles my nose*

For Score this year or so far as I hope to think of it, I ended up with a Fat Pack. There are 40 cards in every fat pack and the pack is just under $6. The legend, I won't call him GOAT as that's Eli Manning of course, Tom Brady graces the pack cover this year.

And I believe Tom his own Tribute insert line in the product which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Save that for when he retires and make one for Eli who has retired and has also earned one for this year. Come on Panini.

Here is the back of the pack with breakdown of what could be inside.

That feeling of the unknown within is just as thrilling as that first cup in the morning.

*a couple of sips before opening it*

Once I opened the pack, I am blessed with some great action photography right off the bat. The card, despite being a Giants fan, that caught my eye first was the Michael Gallup. Look at that angle of that photograph.

 

 

As for the card backs, yes I do look at the stats and read the write up, I iked what Panini did. I do wished there was more stats of the player however.

Though I do find this Fun Fact add to the back very interesting. I didn't know that I enjoyed, I mean, Matthew Stafford enjoys golfing. (if you don't get this joke, my name is Matthew)

The next four cards show Allen Hurns and Will Fuller making dives into pylons while Ed Oliver celebrates a big play and Olivier Vernon pass rushing. I was curious how he would do with the Browns after the Giants traded him off like Odell, seems he took another step backwards according to his stats. Good move G-Men.

Four more cards and this time we catch T.Y. doing his T.Y. touchdown celebration

Another four base cards and Russell Wilson is making his swift moves. I don't think he gets enough recognition for the great QB he actually is. I doubt Seattle even wins half of their games without Russell.

Final three veteran base cards including Richard Sherman who helped lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl.

Before I move on, I must mention the base set is a big one built up of 440 cards including 110 rookies which are always last in the pack. We will get to those soon I promise.

Up next in the pack was the three Red parallels that are exclusive to Fat Packs. Every retail level has it's own exclusive parallels. So if you're thinking about building a rainbow, well, you will have to dabble into each or I suppose you could just buy singles but where's the fun in that.

My three reds weren't terrible. Two great defenders in Gary and Suh and then a promising rookie that signed with the 49ers in Hasty. He could be one of those sneaky undrafted picks that turns out to be the next Terrell Davis.

*before diving into the inserts, takes a gulp of coffee, bite of bagel, wipes butter off hand so it doesn't ruin the cards and continues to go back to type*

The next 12 cards in the pack were inserts. So much for the 90's where you would have one or none. It's a guarantee now.

Score 2020 features a variety of inserts that stay the Score course and some exclusive just to retail.

Here is a breakdown of the offerings I found in my Fat Pack. I should also mention each insert has their own set of parallels,

3D offers the best defenders on a team and has 15 cards to collect
Game Face is exactly what it says, a players game face. This insert also has 15 cards to collect
Huddle Up really took a step back this year in terms of size, there is only 10 cards and not the usual every team offering. Which is really disappointing.
In The Zone is all of the best players in the game who are almost unstoppable. There are 25 cards in this set to collect and this one was my favorite design of the group
Next Level Stats has 25 cards in the set and shows the top stats for each player that are quite impressive.

The final six cards in the base set are always the rookies. From top rookies to the bottom of the crop, Score always offers it all especially with 110 of them to collect.

I don't know a lot about this years rookie class so I Googled the ones I didn't know

Anthony Gordon-QB for Seattle who was undrafted (well guess who won't be seeing time to play)
KJ Hamler-Speedy WR got drafted in the 2nd round by the Denver Broncos
Antonio Gandy-Golden-4th round WR drafted by the Redskins
Lynn Bowden Jr was RB drafted in third round by the Las Vegas Raiders (it's so odd not to write LA or Oakland for the Raiders)

And my final two rookies
Chase Claypool was a second round WR pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers
Trevon Diggs is a 2nd round draft pick by Dallas Cowboys and younger brother of Stephon Diggs

*finishes up the cup of coffee, now onto cup two to finish this Coffee Break*

My thoughts are the usual when it comes to Score, it was a fun cheap rip and gives me my first NFL cards of 2020. I just hope I am able to get more, I need some of the top draft picks rookie cards and the Giants inserts since I have the base now that someone gave to me.

I also hope there is some football this fall. I NEED SOME FOOTBALL. You gotta give me that at least 2020.

 

Ratings (ratings based on 1-5 🍵)

Design 🍵🍵🍵
Photography 🍵🍵🍵🍵
Inserts 🍵🍵🍵
Hits (not applicable)
Price 🍵🍵🍵🍵🍵
Value 🍵🍵🍵🍵

Rodney's Cardboard:2007 Hero Decks Georgia Bulldogs Football Playing Card

Once again, oddities are my favorite pickups for Rodney Hampton. It's what defines me as a Super Collector of the particular player. It helps my collection stand out and makes my numbers go up.

Rodney only has so many cards in his career and most are being narrowed down right now and getting tougher to find the ones I need.

This one popped up for $3 and free shipping and that fits right in my budget so I added it.

Card features a caricature front and a note about Rodney and his time with Georgia

Back of the card is a Bulldogs helmet. Pretty slick playing card.

I have also found a NY Giants edition of this I still need to get. Only problem, it's in a deck of cards but it's NY Giants so it won't be too bad to add them all.

Autograph Of The Week:Mark Brunell

The autograph this week is a common one I have and been adding to all year.

However, this one is a really special one which makes it why it's being posted on Autograph Of The Week instead of being featured in a normal post.

This Mark Brunell I have been watching for over a year and the seller finally put it up for a cheap auction and I was the only bidder.

It's a 1997 Collectors Edge 22KT signed autograph helmet.

I had no idea the concept of helmet cards were used that early, well late, 90's. I always thought it was a 2000's idea but I have come to realize that more and more stuff from the 90's I didn't know existed.

Also realized that this cards is a shadowbox (also note the on card auto). The card features a game used helmet swatch and has the 22K gold foil.

Card back.

Side view of card and how thick it actually is, like a shadow box. You can also see the layers.

It's another great autograph, 90's PC add and Brunell side PC add.

The odds of pulling one of these was 1:350 packs so not an easy find. There are 5 others to collect. Wonder if I will chase more..... (really not sure as they don't look cheap and not all 6 are to be found) But being this thick I can only imagine if pack searchers existed in the 90's this would be an easy find.

Next week another new autograph, this time we head back to the world of non sports which is what this series is really about. I have three new ones incoming so will have to decide which one.

June 26 1963

On June 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy delivered his greatest speech at the Berlin Wall.

Today, on June 26 2020, I deliver one of my coolest relic cards in my collection.

In 2001, Topps released American Pie product that was a hybrid baseball/non-sports set designed to captured the essence of America at the height of the Baby Boomers Era of the '60's and '70's where a lot happened.

The product covers a lot of events, musicians and athletes of the time. 

There was some big names to chase across the board with relics and autographs as well including this unique relic of the Berlin Wall where John F. Kennedy spoke.

Great design and really cool relic

Here is a closer pic of the relic up close. Just some crumbs from the Berlin Wall. Makes you wonder how you acquire such relic to use for the cards.

The Kennedy is the cheapest of all the relics included and most can be found for well under $10. Which for me owning a piece of American history for that price I will take all day. The other relics are of musicians and those go for $50 and up. Boxes of this product still hold a heavy price of $150 and up.

How many of you have seen or own one of these? What was your favorite moment of the 60's and 70's?

The Grady Bunch

Grady M has been a long time reader of Sport Card Collectors and follower of my Facebook page. I just recently brought back my Facebook page and renamed it Cards Over Coffee in case you are interested in following it. I post mail days on there you won't see on here. Same goes for Instagram and Twitter for Cards Over Coffee.

Grady recently mailed one of his goodie boxes that he sends my way a few times a year and I couldn't have been happier. These boxes are always loaded with fun/shiny items from a variety of sports. Sometimes there are even some surprises.

I opened the box and placed all of the contents inside of a box lid so I can go through it card by card and sort as I go.

It took me quite awhile to go through all of this and I will start to post some, not all, of the fun discoveries within. I could never get them all up on here. But, the ones I have chosen to show will still take a couple of posts.

You can also check out a few of the cards I wrote about over Cards Over Coffee that you can read, here, Trying The Off Brand

I can't wait to start showing some of this off starting next week. So come back if this kinda thing intrigues you, even if it doesn't, please come back anyways.

Have a great day!