Ending 2020 Right

2020 has been well.....interesting.

I don't need to recap all that happened this year as nobody wants to rehash bad memories. I will however show how I turned negative hobby things into positive ones in terms of my collecting.

1. I LOST SOME SPONSORS AND DIDN'T DO REVIEWS FOR GIVEAWAYS. This was tough on me as blog views dropped because of it, but I added a new sponsor I never thought I would have landed. I also started a successful RAK thread on Twitter and did mini giveaways from my own collection. I am hopeful that next year the reviews will be back again and we can do it up big!
2. ALL RETAIL IS ALWAYS SOLD OUT. Saved me some money and I was able to grab a few boxes on on Black Friday for the first time in years.
3. QUARANTINED AT HOME. This gave me lots of extra time to reorganize my entire collection which has been a ton of fun. It also helped me get going on some new projects and finish up some others.
4. QUARATINED AT HOME 2: When I wasn't sorting, I worked on my Beckett article and was able to launch CARDS OVER COFFEE which has become a fan favorite despite the lack of views.
5. AVOIDING PUBLIC MEANT LESS POST OFFICE RUNS: Made me appreciate the power of a PWE trade. A lot of my big home run trades this year didn't happen as I avoided going out in public and going to the post office so I made a lot of small pwe trades which helped me add to my collection still.
6. NO SUPPLIES: I took the opportunity of this as a gateway to change the way I sort things in a way I may not have tried before. I also learned to use what I already had to its full extent.

This year I may not have added much to my collection, but I still felt good about how my hobby went during the challenging times.

In 2020, the negatives may outweigh the positives in both the hobby and life, but I tried to not let it get me down and it appears many others in the hobby followed that same suit. How do I know? Many took to giving back to help others which makes both yourself and others feel good.

I don't think I have ever seen such a big amount of generosity in the hobby as I have this year. People sending out RAK's to cheer others up. Companies themselves stepping up and doing so as I have seen with Panini and Topps of recent. Bloggers hosting freebie Fridays and free group breaks. It makes you simply smile.

I have even been apart in both giving and receiving ends of this. 

Recently, well in the past month since I am behind on posts, my buddy @ValleyOfCards snagged me this 2020 Phoenix NY Giants parallel lot from @WatchTheBreaks .

These parallels are found in the Fanatics complete set and look even better than I thought they would in person. Wished I could have grabbed a whole set for myself.

Besides the parallel cards in this package, I found a bonus surprise from @WatchTheBreaks at the bottom of the stack..

 

Panini Instant Rated Rookie of RJ Barrett card I didn't have. Very cool!!! That brightened up 2020 a bit more.

Thanks goes out to both @WatchTheBreaks and @ValleyOfCards for their generosity and making a tough year a little better.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Years Eve. Please be safe and make smart decisions, I would like for you to be here tomorrow to read my blog and to interact with. ALSO PLEASE WEAR A MASK FOR YOURSELF AND OTHERS!!!!

What positive thing happened to you this year? What are your New Years Eve plans?

And let's hope 2021 is the best year ever!!!!

Giants Cardboard: Eli's Gaining Momentum

As the year creeps closer to the end, I have looked back on my collecting habits and how much they have changed all year long.

First it was hot rookies, then non sport cards, then it was Allan Houston, then it was Kerry Collins then it was 90's inserts again, then Patrick Mahomes cards, then Lamar Jackson cards, then Christmas cards, then Russell Wilson cards, then Mosaic cards, then shiny cards and so on and so forth. There was no straight focus and my collecting habits must look like someone with a bad case of ADHD.

Maybe I should rename this blog, ADHD collector.

Regardless how crazy I must look, there has been one constant throughout my collecting and that is the NY Giants. I have never gone off topic with them. I simply collect all that I don't have regardless of how long the player has been on the team. If they made it even one game, I would take them as long as they are wearing Giants blue or have affiliation of so.

But, that doesn't mean some players I don't prefer more than others.

Take Eli Manning for example. I always talk about Rodney Hampton on here... a lot, but deep down inside my favorite NY Giant of all time is Eli. Rodney is a very-very close second or a 1B in this case.

Eli brought out tons of emotions which you can tell a lot by his "Eli Face".

I felt for him being an underdog but that also made me root him on harder being one myself. He won two Super Bowls for my team against the team I despise most. He was a two time Super Bowl MVP. He went to Pro Bowler. He was a leader on and off the field and handled NY media the way you need to. I couldn't have asked to had watched a better player to play the toughest position in football in the toughest city to play football.

I appreciated everything he did for my Giants and can't wait to see him as a first ballot Hall Of Famer. Yeah I said it.

With these 9 new adds from Burbank Sportscards Beckett Marketplace (also saved 10% by using code 15Burbank which I suggest you try as well), I am creeping towards 700 Eli Manning cards. He marks my second highest Giant in total cards and I hope to be gaining more over the next few weeks. Eli has moved up as my second most sought after player right now behind Rodney Hampton.

*****************************************************************************

Before closing I wanted to show off another card I snagged, quite cheaply at $4 by the way and even less using the code, was this Darius Slayton auto.

Slayton is one of the up and coming WR's in this league when the Giants have time to throw to him. I look forward to seeing him more next year.

Who is your favorite player on your team All Time and/or Now? Do you have the same situation as I do with a 1A and a 1B?

It's Fun To Win Again

For the second time in a month (this is a tad late of a posting on this win), luck had rolled my way when it came to entering a contest from the great people at @WADC20 on Twitter.

Not only did I score that super attractive Paul Perkins autograph patch for my Giants PC, but also all of these cards that follow.

I don't know a lot about hockey anymore, but any new scores for my rookie collection are welcomed. Especially any from the past few years where my collection is weak.

This is a name I recognize or at least heard.

Same goes for this one.

I don't know this name but great looking insert by Upper Deck

Final card is this autograph. Not sure how good this player is but autograph rookie cards are up my alley regardless.

Big thanks again to @WADC20 for the contest and these sweet additions to my collection. If you are not following them, go do so. They are always giving back to the hobby community.

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 46:Gold Fingers

 

Does today's title draw you right in? Does anything get more setsier than a title that says, Gold Fingers? If you clicked on today's post, I would say I have my answer.

Back in 1996, Fleer Metal created an  12-card set made of 24-karat etcheTd gold foil of the NFL's top receivers at the time. These cards fell 1:8 packs.

To say they look good that would be an understatement. I would prefer to use words such as stunning, marvelous, phenomenal, remarkable, and astonishing.

You also have to take a look at the details and design where you can tell creativity was used. How many of you remember a time when creativity was used in the hobby?

I was able to grab these four cards from Burbank Sportcards Beckett Marketplace where I saved 10% on them by using code 15Burbank. You can check them out yourself by clicking THIS LINK HERE:https://marketplace.beckett.com/burbanksportscards_21/

With these latest adds, I have 7 of the 12 for the set. I hope to add the rest soon as they look impressive on 9 page sheets.

That does it for today's Sets Talk.  Hope you had a golden time and remember, there is more sets to come.

Giants Cardboard:Mosaic Adds!

I didn't think I would be one that fell in love with....Mosaic, but I did.

Recently I was scouring Burbank Sportscards Beckett Marketplace (also saved 10% by using code 15Burbank which you should try as well), I found they had a bunch of NY Giants Mosaic versions for sale and found the cheapest ones to grab. 

My cart looked very shiny by the time I was done.

Daniel Jones base parallels (I have since dropped the silver and damaged the corner badly. I had to toss it in the junk card pile)

Eli Stare Masters insert. Everyone always enjoys the "Eli Face"and now they can see it more up close.

Eli Adds were on fire. Three base card parallels including a pink

3 Old School inserts with 2 parallels

3 touchdown Masters with 2 parallels (which I think the card looks great even without the parallels)

And here is where I currently stand with my parallels for base for Daniel Jones,

Here are my Eli's,

Funny how both came out with 6. That was unintentional.

Fun pickups for my collection. I don't plan on chasing any rainbows with these with the amount of parallels they have and so many others chasing them as well. I am happy with what I got however.

Let's go Giants and hoping for a win against Baltimore today. It won't be easy for sure.

(PS:if this game changes for any reason or any players are not playing, keep in mind this post was typed up on December 1st as I was trying to get a little bit ahead on here with some drafts)

Giants Cardboard: RAK N Trade

 

Could I have saved this post for Giants Cardboard tomorrow, yes, but with myself falling behind on posts with Giants cards, I can't keep pushing these off any longer. I have to get these posted more frequently than once a week.

So to put a stop on the next question about Giants Cardboard that I am sure you are dying to know, yes there will still be another Giants Cardboard tomorrow.

Today's cardboard awesomeness came from a small PWE trade I pulled off along with a RAK I got from someone.

First up, my trade with @nekbone860 which included the Saquon relic above.

Daneil Jones Will To Win Mosaic insert

and Pink Parallel from Mosaic. Which will we be seeing much more on Mosaic tomorrow.

Thanks for the trade @nekbone860!

Up next, a RAK from my weekly RAK thread I host on Twitter. This one came from @Jay_D_Schmidt who said he had some Giants to send me.

Darius Slayton green parallel from 2020 Absolute. My first Absolute card from it.

woo doggy, What a beaut!

Daniel Jones base card from Mosaic. I believe it's my first from it.

Thanks to Jay for the mail day!

Tomorrow will be a Mosaic day for my latest Giants Cardboard so come back and enjoy!

25 Days Of Cardmas Day 25: That's Christmas To Me

Decorating one month ahead, putting up the tree on Thanksgiving night, makes me smile all month long, oh why? Because that's Christmas To Me.

Eating Sugar cookies, drinking eggnog for weeks on end, give my stomach so much joy, oh why? Because that's Christmas To Me.

Sharing sport cards about Christmas and posting every day, giving cards to those in need, give my heart all it needs...oh why? Because that's Christmas To Me.

Panantonix Christmas song Because That's Christmas To Me hits you right in the feels about what the season is all about. And with today being THE DAY, I thought this song makes a perfect blog title ending for this series.

I hope all of you have enjoyed this series. I am not sure if it will be back next year or not, probably deeply depends on how many Christmas cards I can accumulate between this year and next since today marks the end of all of the ones I grabbed this year in trades and pickups. Thanks to all of those who helped contribute to this 25 days of fun.

Christmas Day as I have said on here many times is very special to me. It's my grandmother's birthday, the birth of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and just such a happy time to celebrate family, friends, and simple joy....and the food of course. Can't forget the holiday food.

I have had some memorable Christmases in the past from gag gifts, to big gifts, to big breakfasts, to the joy of being around family near and far. Every year a new memory is made and not forgotten. That's what I am hoping for all of you today. I hope you have the happ, happiest Christmas ever.

God bless all of you!

Tell me your favorite Christmas memory whether its from your childhood or as an adult in comments. Would love to hear them.

25 Days Of Cardmas Day 24:The Christmas Song

 

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...Jack Frost nipping at your nose...

It's Christmas Eve. 

The night when the man in the red suit loads up his sleigh and visits all of the good boys and girls to give them gifts of joy. Or in real life terms, it's the day where parents are scrambling to get everything wrapped up in time or for the husband who forgets to get their wife a gift is running out to the shops before they close to make sure he gets a gift so his chestnuts are not hung by an open fire the next day for forgetting.

Don't worry, I already have my wife's gifts well in advanced.

 

Today's also the day I show off rest of my collection of NFL Properties cards, still many more to go before I have them all, and share some memory from Christmas Eve's past.

Christmas Eve used to be more fun for me.

Back before my nephew and sister-in-law moved to Tennessee, we would all go to the Christmas Eve church service, then come back to my house for cookies, cocoa, exchange stocking gifts with the in-laws then watch Christmas Vacation. Those memory-making, hysterical experiences I will never forget that we did annually for years.

Now, when they are able to come up for the holidays since they moved, they come two weeks before Christmas and we do things together at that time such as myself making their favorite foods and watching Christmas Vacation.

So now my Christmas Eves are spent pretty quietly at home and probably even more-so this year being the year 2020 where you must avoid people at all costs. Which is okay, this year I think most of us have become pretty accustomed to being at home.

I wanna know now, what are some of your Christmas Eve traditions? Have they changed over the years? What are your plans this year?

25 Days Of Cardmas Day 23:Joy To The World!

 

Joy to the world...Christmas is almost here... Let me continue to sing...

2 days folks! 2 more days of me posting the 25 days posts. 2 more days left to shop. 2 more days of hectic crazy holiday planning.

And 2 cards I am showing off today. The first card is a Walker Buehler base card from 2019 Topps Holiday and the second is an Sp of Buehler with a scarf.

Out of my 37 years of life, I have never once worn a scarf despite facing some pretty cold tempatures where I live. I have on the other hand used them for Power Rangers, TMNT and even Darkwing Duck weapons haha.

Buehler on this card just looks right with a scarf the way he is holding his head, the photoshop was spot on. They chose a perfect person to attempt this on.

Have you guys ever worn a scarf?

The New Mentality

*brews his cup of coffee, pours the last little bit of Peppermint Mocha creamer that's in the bottle and decides that's probably it for the Christmas season on that.*

  

The New Mentality in the hobby is spreading and spreading fast.

When I got my father back into the hobby three years ago, he was all about adding cards to his collection and opening packs for the thrill of the chase. 

Then 2020 hit and he caught The New Mentality.

He started to see how others were making big time money off from retail flips and decided to dip his feet in. That's the starting point of The New Mentality. First it was a fat pack. Then a blaster. Then a blaster and a hanger. And then he started to do the thing I hate most, clearing off most of the shelves of products and even attempting to flip the unflippable products like Score. It had gotten so bad where he wouldn't even tell me what products were on the shelves when I texted for him to pick me up something. He preferred to flip it for more than have me be able to open some. 

That was a painful realization.

The New Mentality is an ugly disease in the hobby. It's when greed and money means more than card collecting. It's all about the money and not about the fun. I believe the only cure for people who have caught The New Mentality is to show them how to have fun collecting again.

I am currently working on that with my father. It's a slow, slow cure especially if someone has had that mentality for awhile.

*takes a sip of coffee while game planning the next part of my cure*

Before The New Mentality fully hit him, I was able to land myself one more blaster box from him in trade. It wasn't the hottest product on the shelf but it was better than nothing at the time.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

In every blaster box of 2020 Panini Optic baseball, there are 27 cards. There are 6 packs of 4 cards of Optic then an extra 3 card pack of Pink parallels. Each blaster is $20 unless you are buying from a flipper.

There wasn't much in terms of names of note for base, so I will skip to the rookies which I was impressed with. There was almost two in every pack which seems odd to me. Feels like the last time I ripped Optic on here there was maybe a couple total. 

Even found a Gavin Lux Rated Rookie. He's no Luis Robert in terms of value, but maybe down the road he will be.

*takes a sip happy at what I have seen already*

 

Now onto the shiny stuff and inserts

Nelson Cruz Silver

Inserts of Illusions with Trevor Story, The Rookies AJ Puk and Stained Glass with Ketel Marte

This Lindor was my favorite designed insert of the group, Mythical.

*takes another sip before another rip*

Now onto the bonus Pink Pack Parallels.

Each of these have three cards. Could be insert parallels, subsets or base. It's all a surprise.

Andres Munoz. Not sure who this is.

Acuna! 

Hiura

Not too bad at all!

*finishes up cup of coffee with the remaining Peppermint Mocha creamer, now back to Hazelnut for the next cup and to finish up this post*

Remember above where I mentioned the spread of The New Mentality is fast, since my father started doing that, others around the area caught it. They have the disease much more than my father does as they follow the vendor store to store to store taking all they can and leaving the scraps. Scraps are known as Hockey cards. This has helped me out some in trying to fix my father's catch of The New Mentality. He isn't getting the opportunities as much to flip anymore and I have been trying to take advantage of that and remind him how great the hobby is just collecting again.

And believe me, collecting is great. So isn't coffee.

Before I close, I wanted to give you some insight on what to look for when you or someone else you know has caught The New Mentality.

Here are the signs to look for to know if you or someone you know has caught it, it's as simple as one, two, three.

1. Buys a pack, blaster, hanger or mega box of a popular product when its able to be found
2. Looks up value online to see what it goes for.
3. Flips it.

It will be pretty obvious when you have or someone you knows does.

How do you know if you are cured or don't have it? Well, that's as simple as one, two, three as well.

1. Buy a pack, blaster, hanger or mega box of a popular product when its able to be found.
2. Barely make it to the car before ripping it. It's okay to rip it just outside the Walmart or Target door. We all have been there.
3. Enjoys the cards that were opened.

I hope this helps. If you or someone you know has caught The New Mentality, remember to remind them why they got into collecting in the first place. It may or may not work but it's worth a try.

25 Days Of Cardmas Day 22: Soto Christmas Tree

  

Soto....Christmas Tree...Soto Christmas Tree..how steadfast are your branches?

Only Juan knows.

I think the Christmas tree Sp's are one of the best looking ones out of Topps Holiday. So you add a young slugger into the picture as well, you have an award winning card.

Literally, there is an award on there.

Here is another parallel version of the card. This time there are some lights on the bat.

And you can't see it, but here is the metallic parallel.

The song Oh Christmas Tree brings me back to the days of school holiday concerts. It felt like every year no matter what grade I was in, my class was stuck singing that classic tune while other classes got to have more fun with Frosty The Snowman or Walking In A Winter Wonderland.

What is a song you remember singing from school?