Player HITlights:Aaron Ross

When sorting out my NY Giants hits collection by player, I was really surprised by some of the players and the amount of hits I have of them. 

That comes from both ends of the spectrum as well.

Today's player, Aaron Ross was one of those surprises for me.

 

With only a total of one, ONE hit. The only card I hit I have of Ross is this autograph that came in a trade I made just a few years ago.

Ross was drafted by the Giants in the first round of the 2007 NFL. He helped with both of the teams Super Bowl runs against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 42 and Super Bowl 46. He had a career total of 200+ tackles, 2.5 sacks, 33 passes defended, and 10+ interceptions in 65 NFL games in which he started 41 games of.

Ross became a free agent corner in 2012 and signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He struggled with his play and injuries became a factor like they did the rest of his career with short stints there after. He actually went back to the Giants in 2013 before having a back injury in Week 4 that knocked him out for the season.

Rodneys Cardboard:1996 Crown Royale Silver

The second year of the crown die cut fun brought forth another round of fun die cuts, inserts and parallels.

There isn't many Crown Royale cards I need of Rodney, but the ones that I do are the parallels.

This past Christmas I was...to say the least, bombarded by a man called Wes.

Surprises became surprises with surprises within surprises. Try saying that five times fast.

In the surprises were some long sought after Rodney Hampton cards I needed including today's 1996 Crown Royale Silver.

These silvers, were randomly inserted in retail packs only at a rate of four in 25. The only difference from this than the base is the obvious silver foil instead of the gold.

  

Back of the card remains the same.

Thanks to Wes for the Rodney help. There will be a few more that Wes sent along coming up in future Rodney's Cardboard so stay tuned.

Coffee With Casey Kasem

*realizes forgot to take a picture of today's coffee mug to do cheers with his readers. Will make sure to do that next time. In the meantime, the coffee is hot and I hope yours is as well. Let's do another new post on Cards Over Coffee*

Today's coffee guest was the voice of my childhood. No, it wasn't just his voice acting skills as Shaggy on Scooby Doo, but his voice came across my radio station every Sunday at 9 am.

Casey hosted his weekly music countdown shows Casey's Top 40 then Casey's Hot 20 and our local radio station streamed, not sure if that's the correct wording, it here. I always looked forward to it knowing some of the specific songs he would be playing since a lot of the top songs played on a weekly basis. However, if they were played often, he would sometimes not play those songs and skip to the next. That would get frustrating.

One of the most played songs I remember is One Week by Barenaked Ladies. I remember sitting in my parent's car and if I knew the song was coming up on the countdown, I would let whatever parent I was riding with go into the store while I sat in the car and jammed. 

*taking a sip of coffee and singing in my head, It's Been One Week Since You Looked At Me,Cocked Your Head To One Side And Said I'm Angry. Five days since I.....great tune. Of course when the song gets really upbeat and fast I sound like I am choking on my coffee trying to get those lyrics out. I hope you can picture that imagery. Now onto the rest of this post*

Along with the Ted Danson autograph I just posted about a week ago, I was able to add a Kasem autograph signed photo as well in my trade with Dions Autograph Collection. Another great piece for my childhood collection.

The photo has an inscription, I assume to the friend that Dion had acquired the autographs from.

A closer look at the signature.

Casey Kasem sadly passed in 2014 after dealing with Lewy Body Dementia for over a year and spent over 40 years of his life in television and radio.

*takes another sip before finishing up the post*

A big thanks goes out to Dion for the trade and for adding another piece to my childhood collection.

After our local radio station quit playing Kasem's countdown and switched to Rick Dees and the Weekly Top 40, I didn't quite listen to it as much. There was just something soothing about Kasem's voice that I enjoyed. Not that I had anything against Rick Dees or his countdown. 

I think it was simply the fact that Kasem was the voice of my childhood.

*another sip, a tip of my mug to you and coffee card blogger out*

Breaking Them In

This post has been a long time coming, I just tucked this post too far down in the depths of drafts. I wished I had posted this awhile ago as I promised @I_bern_em I would post this and he probably thought I was kidding.

Well, here it is and here it is a tad late in which I apologize for.

I did a couple of breaks with Adam, @I_bern_em , just to land some cards from the two newest products at the time in Mosaic and Prizm. 

I landed the Giants in the Mosaic break and the Browns in the Prizm break. Both teams were the cheapest available.

The Prizm break with the Browns didn't net me much more than base, but the cheaper Mosaic break I faired pretty well in for Giants. Fun inserts and parallels, some of which I didn't have.

Thanks to Adam for the fun break, if you haven't checked him out yet on Twitter do so. He is new to the breaking world but has fair prices and has a great time.

Talkin' Toys: The Grand Finale

 After doing a few of these posts, I decided I no longer wanted to do anymore.

But, don't fret fellow toy collectors, I won't leave you hanging. Which is why today is a gallery of everything else that I picked up from the Daycare sale.

Some of these items mean more to me than others as far as nostalgia, but some were grabbed simply because they were from the 90's and really cheap.

I will let the toys do the talkin' for the finale. 

 

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Overall, I spent less than $20 on everything that I grabbed for myself however that doesn't account for stuff my wife picked up. As you can see, I scored fairly well.

I haven't decided where I will display all of these or actually any of the toys I own. Right now they are all in a tote for safe keeping for later on in life. Maybe by then I will find a cool way to show them all off.

Thoughts on my pickups are welcomed in comments below!

Cards Over Pizza:Jeets

 

*not sure who made this cup of coffee, possibly Satan, as the first sip just about took away all feeling in my tongue. But, it's all good. I can still, somewhat, taste the coffee.*

This past Christmas, I possibly received the biggest RAK/Trade mail day of my life. But, that's what you get when you are friends with @realwesmoore who is known to send some bangers. We also share quite the affection towards pizza as well, hence the name of this post series.

To even begin to break down this incredible-massive overload of cards, I will be posting some parts of this mail day on and off on here. It may take me all year but I will get to it before Christmas, I promise you that.

*another sip, this time not as scalding hot as Mandy Moore*

Today's post I will dig into a stack of at least 300, maybe more, Derek Jeters that Wes sent along. If you didn't know, the biggest part of my Yankee collection belongs to the Yankees legend. I had well over 350 unique Jeter cards without counting this stack today and some others I have gotten since. I am no way close to a super collector of Jeter like Sooz, @yanxchick, but I am proud of what I have built.

Derek ranks as my favorite Yankees player of all-time and I don't picture that ever changing. He was there at the beginning of when I got into baseball and he was there at the end when I started losing interest in watching as much baseball. I may not watch the Yankees like I watch the NY Giants, but I am still a fan. Maybe more of a casual fan now.

I will however, always collect NY Yankee cards and appreciate what I got to watch when Derek was on the field. He was certainly The Captain.

*takes another sip, looks over the stack of cards and begins to put them in order*

In order to show off some, yes some, of this huge stack of cards I will post them by my Top 20 then show off some that just missed the cut from making it in.

This list goes in order of my favorite to my favorite. No, you didn't read that wrong. They all were my favorite but some rank a smidgen higher than others so that's where the ranking comes in.

1.This card just sparkles.

2.Upper Deck Game Jersey. This marks the fifth Jeter relic in my collection.

3. Shiny, numbered goodness.

4. The die cut lasering on this card is incredible. It's like looking at a foil Jeter.

5.Card printed on Metal. Enough said. And before you ask, no, I have no plans in removing that protective film

6. Fleer Metal base cards are just as impressive as their inserts.

7.Topps Tek. Just look at it.

8.I am chasing this set for a reason. The marble border along with the rainbow foil makes this card pleasing to the eyes.

9. I have a thing for cards that include acetate, what can I say?

10. Great photo of Jeter the card simply stands out.

We are halfway done...at least of the Top 20.

*takes another sip before carrying on with the second half of the Top 20*

11. Remember when Topps used to make fun inserts? Yeah, I do to and these brought me back.

12. Double the chrome, double the refractor, double the fun.

13. When Bowmans Best base cards looked like this it was like the perfect cup of coffee.

14. Design, refractor, Yankees colors. 

15. Eye candy

16. Inserts from the 90's especially from Stadium Club will always earn ranking.

17. Metal Universe, die cut. Great card.

18. It's like watching Derek on a TV set. Though not as impressive.

19. Micro etched foil with stadium in the background, another attractive card.

And drumroll please.....dddddddddddddddddddddddddd (sound effect from Christmas Vacation scene of when they are outside and Clark was about to plug in the lights)

Joy To The World...ddddddddddddddddddddddddddd....number 20............

 

20A. A card that pairs my Top 2 favorite Yankees has got to make the cut

20B but I couldn't for some reason let this Gold Medallion slip out of the Top 20.

There you have it. The Top 20 cards from the stack. Now onto some honorable mentions I had to just slightly narrow out of the pack.

*takes final sip of cup number one. Moves right on and brews cup number two. Sits back down to show off the next round of cards*

Let's roll that beautiful bean footage...Jeter footage.

90's had some Flair and so didn't Jeter's play at short stop.

Another fetching group of cards one of which pairs my Top 2 baseball player collections in Jeter and Griffey. Question becomes, whose PC does that fall under......

Finest "rookies". Once again, I am a no peeling kinda guy. Peeling these off would be like putting yogurt as creamer in your coffee. It isn't good.

Out of this group that Stadium Club almost made me do a 20C. I had never seen that Signature Rookies card before either.

Speaking of cards I hadn't seen before, how about that sketch-looking card from the Ted Williams set. I do have copies of the Decades Of Excellence and Torre's Terrors, but mine are the chromed versions. Glad to have the non chrome ones now.

All of the above cards almost made the Top 20. The remaining cards in this post were the best of the rest..but not really. They were all awesome.

*takes sip of the second cup after waiting a little while this time. Feeling of the tongue is starting to come back*

A few "rookies", if you are wondering why I am using quotes that's because Derek's actual rookie year is 1993, not 1996. Baseball is so confusing still when it comes to rookie cards and rookie card definitions.

More "rookies"

And to finish it up, another "group of rookies". I have always been fond of the Upper Deck and Collector Choice photo selections on those cards. Upper Deck really knows how to nail it out of the park with photography.

It wasn't an easy task to rank a Top 20 and as much as I wanted to show off all of the Jeters from that stack, it would have taken me a very long time to do so. As it is already, this post between taking pictures, uploading them and typing this is going on 3 hours with my slow internet.

*takes a sip before typing up the closing statement*

There will be lots more to come from this mail day. This is only the starting point or if I was to put it in coffee terms, this is just turning on the faucet to draw out some water to brew you coffee with.

I would like to know in comments, would you have changed any of my rankings? Would you have switched any of them out for others in the non Top 20 section? Comment away!

*thinks about what to eat for breakfast and looks at how fast his sipping of coffee cup number two has gone. Going to need a third cup soon. Coffee card blogger out*