Saturday, July 31, 2021

Burbank Pickups Of The Month: July 2021 Edition

This NEW segment will capture most of my monthly pickups from Burbank Sportcards Beckett Marketplace, unless they are NY Giants ones or specific special cards and then you will have to check out Cards Over Coffee and Big Blue Cardboard to see those. I would suggest you follow those blogs in that case.

This month, I targeted some of my sets that need to finally be knocked down from the 90's.

Such as 1996 Pinnacle Pinnacle Power. This is one of my newer chases.

E-X2000 baseball, they only had 4 of the cards I needed of the 9 remaining. At least only 5 cards remain so I can finally complete it. I may try to tackle the EX-2001 next month.

1995 Pinnacle Museum Collection football. This one is a big one to tackle, I am in no hurry.


However, I am in a bit more of a hurry to finally finish up this two year project in 1995 Summit Ground Zero. I finished grabbing the ones I needed on Burbank.

 
The final card was 1995 Summit Ground Zero Steve McNair which was one of the final two tough cards I needed. The other, I still need in Curtis Martin.

If you like the 90's, I would suggest you continue checking out these monthly posts as most of my additions will be of that.

Let me know in comments below which cards or set I am chasing is your favorite.

Also remember, at Burbank Sportcards Beckett Marketplace , you can save 10% by using code 15Burbank at checkout. Shipping is also free on orders of $50 or more. The more you buy, the more you save and the more you won't have to pay shipping on.

Friday, July 30, 2021

RAK Monday Adds

 Every Monday on Twitter, I run a RAK Monday where you post up wants and others try to help you out. If you are chosen to be helped out, you must pass it on to someone else. Or just give and not take, that's always great too.

Usually the thread goes pretty well and I see a good amount of both. I also join in and receive as well as the administrator of the thread.

One of my last Monday's I got a solid haul from @dtgordo.
 
Odell Beckham Jr. I really miss Odell, just not his antics. I am hoping their top pick in this years draft Kadarius Toney can be of similar in play style.

Anyone miss Upper Deck NFL cards yet...(I miss Osi's pass rushing)

Because I do.  They were always creative with their products.

Thanks again to @dtgordo for the mail day. I appreciate it. 

Summer Of Wes Card #39

Breakin' Wax:2021 Panini Prizm Draft Football Blaster Box

 Finding football cards in retail outlets is like finding that onion ring in your Burger King fries order, it doesn't happen very often. But, it can.

I have been fortunate on and off to be able to open some of the newer products because of my father and some trading. But, believe me, I am not or will not give up my soul to get something to rip. Even though sometimes it is very tempting. 

Today, I am ripping one of the latest football releases in Prizm Draft. I am not an overly huge fan of college football products, but I like to chase the top rookie cards so I will take it for that reason alone. And the Giants drafted a first round WR I am collecting cards of as well.

Every 2021 Prizm Draft football blaster box only comes with 30 cards which is 6 packs of 5 cards. There are no hit guarantees and only thing you can find is a Purple Wave refractor which falls one-per-blaster. Blasters cost $20 per unless you buy from a flipper, then it's $40.

Daniel Jones! This was my only NY Giants base card in my break.

Justin Fields All-American, this was the best base rookie (yes I know it's a subset so technically not rookie) I found.

Best Crusade I found was Micah Parsons.

 
This was my purple wave find. Not anyone I know but I do know some Texas fans I can probably trade this to.

 
Green Prizms I found.

 
Daniel Jones green parallel. Nice PC find!

 
And finally, probably the "best pull" of the box was this Mac Jones Crusade Silver. I believe this guy will be the best QB of this draft. He is by far on the best team and situation out of the rookie QB's. Not that I want any Patriot QB succeeding.

That's it for this break. I won't complain too much with some Daniel Jones cards and the Mac Jones.

Thursday, July 29, 2021

90's Cards Over Coffee:1997 Zenith Football Box Break

*takes a sip on this very nice day in July. This July has been one of the cooler ones we have had since 2009 with temperatures today being in the 70's which is more like fall weather. since it feels like fall and football is technically around the corner, let's do a football card break shall we? takes another sip and moves onto today's post*

Move over Beanie Babies and Furbys, we have some Zenith football to rip today thanks to my friend, Shane from Cheap Wax Wednesday who opens boxes like this all of the time on his blog and on Beckett online.

I landed this box in our last trade which was done around Christmas time so this has been sitting in my drafts for awhile now.

So let's get to posting this as Zenith ranks in my Top 5 favorite 90's products. The 1996 version is tops for me when it comes to Zenith with today's rip being right behind it.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*
1997 Zenith football boxes came with 24 packs of 6 cards per pack. What was fun about the 90's was the no guarantees and the thrill of the chase instead. Boxes I have no idea what prices are now, I think then it was $30 but I suspect they are more than double that now.

When you open up the box, the packs are laid out like this. My friend's uncle used to cheat the system and count packs. Meaning he knew which row and packs had the inserts while the others were duds. He used to buy boxes and boxes before knowing the strategy.

The base set is built up of 150 cards. The background I assume is a moon. There is 100 base cards.

15 season highlights

32 "rookies". These aren't true rookie cards as they feature the seasons before rookies.

There was one parallel to find in Zenith.
Artists Proofs that fell 1:47 packs. These are stunning to say the least. I pulled Bryan Still, regardless of player, the card looks great.

Now onto the part I know you have been waiting on.
Rookie Rising was already on my list of set needs and with this box I knocked down three of them. These fall 1:11 packs so I beat the odds.


What are the odds I would pull 2 Dolphins ones? And this one was tucked behind another card so I didn't see it at first. There are 24 cards to chase.

Up next, another set chase.
V2's were apart of the movie motion stage we were all fascinated by in the 90's. These fell one-per-box or 1:23 packs. There are 18 cards to chase.

And to my surprise I beat the odds once again.....
BOOM! 1:72 pack pulled Z-Team. I finished the 1996 Z-Team set, 1997 I am looking at you next! I now own two of the biggies in Jerry Rice (thx to @90sNicheFBCard) and now Marino.

That was a zinga of a box! Puts the caffeine in my caffeine-less coffee I will tell you that much.

*takes a sip before finishing up today's post*

Yeah, it's fun to pull a big rookie card or autograph from today's products, but I will tell you one thing, it doesn't match the intensity of beating the odds in the 90's. Those were the times to collect and why I still continue to collect cards from that era.

Thanks again to Shane for the box to rip. Memories came back and new ones were made.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

It's About Time

Every year, there are certain things I look forward to.

Family coming up from afar.

Summer.

My garden and flower garden.

Fall.

The first snow.

Football season.

The first football card release.

The first NFL card release.

The first football card release where new players are in their uniforms.

FINALLY, IT'S ABOUT STINKIN' TIME AS WE FINALLY HAVE GOTTEN THERE.

Here comes 2021 Prestige that puts the Giants biggest offseason acquisition into Big Blue,
Kenny Golladay finally wearing the right uniform. No more of those Lions colors. I was finally able to acquire one in a blaster box break I did.

I also added these two as well.
Jabrill Peppers

 
and Pro Bowl TE Evan Engram. I still don't get how he got that vote when other Giants were much more deserving and were snubbed.

I also found that Golladay is also featured in 2021 Luminance in Giants colors that I will need as well. I just hope Panini will hurry up and get Kadarius Toney in blue as well.

Do you guys like seeking new players in your teams colors like me?

CARDBOARD REVIEW:2020 Topps U.S. Olympic&Paralympic

I will admit I am not much of an Olympic watcher, so bare with me on this one.

But, that doesn't mean I don't root on our country participating in the big games and it doesn't mean I don't collect the cardboard from it.

So seeing Topps release another product based on the Olympics was an easy grab. Just like it was in 2016, which by the way, some singles from that set (specifically Simone Biles) go for a decent amount. These cards are nothing to shake off.

Let's see how I did,

In every box of 2020 Topps U.S. Olympic&Paralympic comes with 24 packs of 8 cards per pack. Each box comes with 3 hits, one guaranteed autograph, and boxes run $120 or so.

BASE:

The base set isn't like the regular flagship, which is nice. I like the design on this and think it fits perfectly for what they were aiming for.


There are 76 cards overall in the base set with some athletes getting two cards. It appears early on that the Nyjah Huston base card is going for decent amount.

PARALLELS
Just like in the 2016 inaugural edition of this set, there are parallels.

Here are this years offerings,
Bronze, Silver, US Flag /299, Gold /99, FoilFractor 1/1.
Bronze that falls 1 per pack

Silver that falls 1:4 packs. It was really hard to spot these unless you looked really close

THESE ARE AWESOME. American Flag parallel /299 fall 1:8 packs

I really dig the American Flag parallels, but think the 2016 parallels which were marked by a medal foil were much better.

INSERTS:
When you don't pull a hit, the packs are pretty standard in order. It goes 6 base, one parallel, then an insert or hit at the bottom of the pack. So if you are opening up the product and you are like myself and like surprises, don't ever look at the bottom card first.

Here are the inserts you can find.
New To The Games is exactly what it says. There are 13 of these to collect in the set.

Olympic Heroes celebrates 20 great athletes.

 
For Pride And Country was my favorite insert design of the group. I think the design is fun and there are 18 cards to collect.

HITS:


 
My first two hits are relics of fencing Alexander Massilass and of swimmer Ryan Murphy.

Speaking of Ryan Murphy, he was also my autograph hit.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was a fun break especially not knowing what to expect from it or what names I would see. I didn't actually even know this product was releasing after being delayed last year.

I think the price point isn't too bad looking at most products today with more than one hit. However, I will say there are quite a few duplicates you will get because of the small base card set.

Let me hear your thoughts on this product in the comments below!

Wednesday, July 28, 2021

They Are Catching On

*takes a sip of hot coffee, it was much hotter than I expected burning the middle of my tongue. Well, that's not the way to start the day but at least I have some good news to share. takes another sip more carefully*

It has taken over a good long year, but I think, #CardsOverCoffee is finally catching on.

Blog stats for July have been amazing for this blog. Comments are up, individual posts views and monthly views are way up. It's what I have been working hard on for a year and even though the numbers are not even close to Matt's Wonderful Blog Of Hobbies (Sport Card Collectors), it's still trending upward. Just hope after July it doesn't trend downward again.


 
Let's take a look at yesterday's stats alone. It set a daily high, and as you can see, this months stats are way surpassing the average (the last month has been where it's been at) and we still have a few days left to this month.

As a man known for enjoying numbers, this month has made me happy.

*takes another sip, begins to cook breakfast and type at the same time. yes, I can do that*

If you look back at the post title, it says they are catching on and not just it's catching on. That's because not only Cards Over Coffee that has grown in July, but so hasn't Big Blue Cardboard and Matt's Wonderful Blog Of Hobbies. Big Blue Cardboard has set all-time highs in daily and monthly views (also averages one comment a post which is a all-time high as well-thanks Fuji) and Matt's Wonderful Blog Of Hobbies (Sport Card Collectors) is having it's biggest daily and monthly views in 3 years. I am not sure if other bloggers are feeling this in July of 2021, but I know it has perked me up that's for sure when it comes to blogging.

*takes another sip, continues to work on breakfast*

Speaking of blogging, after reading comments on here and a few posts from other bloggers about their blogging subject, I have also decided to keep all three blogs chugging along and here is how they will pan out,
  • Matt's Wonderful Blog Of Hobbies- Continuing daily posts, Reviews, Breakin' Wax, Small Mail Days, Card Countdowns like the Summer Of Wes one, Random Card postings
  • Cards Over Coffee-a couple posts a week depending on content and time to post. Bigger mail day and special card posts.
  • Big Blue Cardboard-pretty obvious, my Giants card collection and mail days whenever I can fit them in.
I am hoping by not putting too much pressure on myself by doing daily posts on all three, I can juggle a healthy and fun balance. As someone put as a comment on my post about blogging and figuring out my direction, "why choose?" So I didn't.

*takes another sip before finishing up today's post....well...I am also going to finish making my breakfast*

It actually wasn't even the numbers that helped me decide what to do with blogging, it was the summer break of not doing a lot of posts that helped. I had time to think everything over, take in some input and lay it all out in my mind.

Not saying the numbers after didn't further cement what my plan was.

*takes a sip, Coffee Card Blogger Out*

 
Also breakfast is done and ready to roll, if you can't recognize it, it's a bagel sandwich with egg, sausage, cheese on an asiago bagel. Sooooooooooooo good.

Also, before closing, a big thanks to all of you who take time out to read my blog or blogs. I appreciate taking time out to read my gibberish.

*okay, now Coffee Card Blogger Out*