Random Cardboard:1996 Score Artists Proof Marc Newfield

Random Cardboard:1996 Pinnacle Artists Proof Albert Belle

Random Cardboard:1996 Pinnacle SlugFest Eddie Murray

Random Cardboard:1996 Pinnacle Christie Brinkley Collection Sandy Alomar

Random Cardboard:1997 Score Artists Proof Carl Everett

Rodney's Cardboard:2018 Illusions Exclusive Ink Rainbow

It's the last Rodney post of December, as I don't have any others to post as of now. There may be one for 2022, but things are slowing down in the Rodney search as no new ones have popped up and no new products have included him. I will have to find a new post for Sundays possibly.

For now though, let's just soak in today's Rodney's Cardboard.

I was finally able to finish up a three year chase for Panini's Elusive Ink. The final card I needed was the purple 1/1.

Here they all are as happy as can be as a family again.

I do like this rainbow a little more than the 2020 version as this one pops with more color, but being able to complete any rainbow is a likeable feat.

Until next time, hopefully more needed Rodney's pop up soon.

And It's Christmas Time Again...

*takes a seat early on this bitter cold Christmas morning. Coffee in hand and ready to celebrate the day. Christmas will always be my favorite time of year*

Spoiler alert for today's post, there are no cards with the coffee today.

Today, I just want to celebrate Christmas as the dice have hit 00 on my Days Till Christmas Countdown Scentsy holder. Before you ask, my wife is a Scentsy consultant, so this is kind of a promoting her side business kind of deal. She sponsors me with kisses and coffee. Hope that wasn't too much TMI, if so, just cover your kids' eyes if they get to that part of today's post.

I cut back a lot on my decorating this year, not sure why, but instead I upped the lights. I have lights in every room of my house, including the front of my house, but not the bathroom where my cats like to hang. If you have seen Christmas Vacation, you will know why I didn't put them in there.

These Christmas throw pillows were the only new addition this year to my nonlight decorating, I think they are solid additions though.

 

My tree, bless its soul, has probably seen it's last year as one of the legs had broken and it's being held up by a book instead. I should have gotten a new one this year or even gone into the woods where I live and got a real one, but I just gave this one its final goodbye tour. It's like when a player gets signed back to their original team on a one-year contract to retire as a part of that team.

I should also mention the tree won't make it another year as it has fallen over a couple of times, once on me. Just picture that scene in Elf when he was trying to put the star on.

I am sure that will be one for the Christmas memory bank.

*takes a sip, starts to take a dive into that memory bank for a story from the past to share today*

Growing up poor, there wasn't a lot of expectations around Christmas. We visited the mall Santa maybe twice my entire childhood, only got a few gifts yearly which mainly came from the Santa Fund-and wasn't anything off from our lists-and my family didn't decorate much. The tree we would get, was usually the ugliest one that could be found in the woods-not on purpose-that made Charlie Browns look like a tree from heaven.

I also remember my parents never using real wrapping paper for our gifts, instead it was grocery store plastic bags or old newspapers. Then the memory of my sister getting caught in the middle of the night trying to snoop at her gifts. Another year, she opened them all and then tried her best to re-wrap them...my parents obviously saw that, and she got in trouble. I remember watching Rudolph, Frosty, California Raisins Christmas Special, Peanuts Christmas Special and the Garfield Christmas Special on television every year. I also remember watching Silent Night, Deadly Night and its sequels with my mother who would rent them on VHS.  None of this was the Ghostbusters Firehouse I wanted or felt at the time I needed, but looking back on those memories, they were so much more.

This may sound corny and probably repetitive, but Christmas truly is about family and the memories you make with them. It's not about the gifts, not about the glimmer and glam, and it's not even about having the prettiest tree. It's family.

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

I have plenty of other memories to share about Christmas and you will hear them all as years go on.

For this year, I just need to get off this computer to go and make some memories with family and I hope you all do the same. Well, expecting you to read this first of course.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! May your coffee mugs be filled, and your hearts be full.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Christmas 2021

It's Christmas time again.....

My favorite holiday has finally arrived! It's time to spend the day with family, watch movies, drink cocoa and soak in the spirit of Christmas.

I also wanted to take a moment out to say Happy Birthday to Jesus.  He is the reason for the season.

Now to show off my latest Christmas card adds. I enjoy cards that feature Santa, Topps and Bowman Holiday Sp's or parallels, Santa hat swatches or good-looking relic cards that feature Christmas. 

I can't quite remember now who I made this trade with to land these since it was awhile ago, but this trade was nailed.

Aquino with a scarf

The infamous Candy Cane bat by Machado

Josh Bell with Mittens that look like boxing gloves

Jersey relics with plenty of Christmas cheer

 

and my favorite relics of the season, Rookie Sweaters. I collected the entire 2020 set except 4 duals I need to finish up. I believe I have close to 10 for 2021 but at this point I have no plans on collecting the set. I would accept any I didn't have though.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday!

Cardboard Review:2020 Bowman Draft Sapphire Edition

There are some releases that I never see or ever have thought about opening, but one I have been curious by and haven't had the chance to open is any of the sapphire releases.

Recently, I had a chance to open a box. Let's check it out,

In every box of 2020 Bowman Draft Sapphire comes with 32 cards. The only guarantee in every box is 2 parallels and each box goes for.....$400. The 2019 edition was $35 per. The 2020 version started out at $70. But now the Covid edition is $400.

BASE:

There are 200 base cards in the set.

The one card I wanted from the set, I landed.

Here are the other bigger names I found,

Outside of these guys, my box was loaded with catchers and especially.....pitchers.

PARALLELS

The following parallels can be found,

Yellow /99, Green /50, Orange /25, Aqua /20, Gold /15, Purple /10, Red /5, Padparadscha 1/1.

Green /50

 

Yellow /99

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Well....at a $35 price point, I would say I did decent. At a $400 price point, well, not so much.

As for the cards themselves, holy smokes this is a beautiful product!!! These cards are quite stunning in person and even the light box cannot completely catch their magic.

Your thoughts on this product are welcomed below!

Coffee With Erin Andrews

*takes a seat, it has been a while since I put up a new post on here. But, that didn't mean the breakfast and coffee went away, it just meant the blog took a break but today I am ready to go!*

*has coffee in hand, takes a sip, begins to process thoughts for today's post*

What a month it has been. I haven't fully felt great, was busier than usual and had family come up for a little over a week from Nashville and Boston. 

It feels nice to have a few minutes to put up a new post on here as I still haven't fully given up my dream of making this blog something special. I just hope you guys are still around to read it.

(I also hope and pray you guys get the word out there on this blog. would be greatly appreciated)

*takes another sip*

Today's card I acquired a few months ago. When Panini released Donruss and brought back the Fans Of The Game autographs, one of the autographs I most sought out was the Erin Andrews one. The problem was they were out of my budget which is technically a lot of cards I want.

Lucky for me, I was working on a large coffee mug sized trade with Valley Of Cards and one of the cards he offered up for trade was that card. Without a doubt, I grabbed it as a part of our package deal.

*takes another sip, then another, a longer one, a shorter one, okay..a chug. Get's ready to show off the card*

 

Why did I want this card so bad? Because I am a big football fan and enjoy her sideline coverage on Fox. Plain and simple. I thought it would be a fun card add to the PC because of that.

Erin Andrews also has covered a lot of other sporting events as well I have seen her on.

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

I hope Panini brings back the Fans Of The Game autographs again. Of course, with the hobby landscape changing with Fanatics in town, who knows what to expect anymore. I have always enjoyed this autograph series because it brings in people you don't always see with autograph cards.

In comments today, tell me someone you would like to see be a part of the Fans Of The Game series.

Other than that, have a great Wednesday.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Cardboard Review:2021 Topps Chrome Ben Baller

I didn't adventure into Round 1 of the Ben Baller collab with Topps experience but wondered how it actually was and dived into Round 2.

The cards are basically Topps Chrome with a Ben Baller chain on the Topps Chrome logo with a little bit of a diamond background on the cards. The other difference, there are no autograph guarantees.

Each box of 2021 Topps Chrome Ben Baller has 24 packs of 4 cards. This is the same setup as the basic Topps Chrome. Each box come with 5 parallels, a random chance at autographs and run about $255 per.

BASE:

 

The base set is 219 cards built up of rookies and veterans. As I stated above, the only difference in the base cards is the Ben Baller chain logo and the diamond background effect.

PARALLELS:

You can find the following parallels, much less than basic Chrome, in Ben Baller Chrome

Green /99, Blue /75, Gold /50, Orange /25, Rose Gold /10, Red /5 , and SuperFractor 1/1.

Here is what I found,

Green /99

Gold /50

Blue /75

INSERTS:

Inserts can have the following parallels,

Green /99, Blue /75, Gold /50, Orange /25, Rose Gold /10, Red /5 and SuperFractor 1/1

Ben's Diamond Die Cuts falls 1:24 packs and has 15 cards to collect.

Icy falls 1:24 packs. There are 10 to collect in this set.

And then comes the infamous 1986 Topps...these will never end!!!!!

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Ugh, this was not that exciting of a rip. I found many packs just with base veterans and no shine. It's probably one of the very few times you will hear me say that Topps Chrome was not exciting.

When it comes to value, that's an ugly word here as well. There isn't much to brag about and the rookies I did pull, were guys I hadn't heard of or were pitchers. None of the top rookies were found.

So for this blogger, I will stick to my regular chrome and all of today's cards are available for trade besides a couple Tigers that were claimed on Twitter.

You're thoughts are welcomed on this product in comments!

Random Cardboard:1997 Score Heart Of The Order Bernie Williams

CARDBOARD REVIEW:2021 Topps Chrome Allen Ginter

 I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE me some Chrome. Chrome it all I say!

When I first discovered that Topps had chromed my favorite Topps product, I was super stoked. I do wish this was also in retail form, not that we would probably find any of the shelves anyways, but I am happy just to open some.

Let's see how I did.

Every box of 2021 Topps Chrome Allen Ginter comes with 18 packs of 4 cards. Similar to basic chrome. There is no guaranteed hits as autographs are one-per-case. Each box should have 18 minis, 6 base refractors and 7 inserts. Boxes are around $120.

BASE:

The base card set is built up of 300 cards and includes veterans, legends and non-sport figures.

PARALLELS

Refractor, Blue /150, Green /99, Gold /50, Orange /25, X-Fractor, Red /5, and SuperFractor 1/1.

Base Refractor

Blue /150

Orange /25

Gold /50

Mini's

All base minis come as refractors but have the following parallels,

Gold /50, Orange /25, Red /5 and SuperFractor 1/1.

Base minis.

Gold /50

INSERTS:

World Leaders. There are 25 cards to find in the set and falls 1:6 packs.

Mini Rookie Design Variations fall 1:9 packs and there is 20 cards to collect.

World's Largest falls 1:9 packs and has 23 cards to collect.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

No hits to be found in my break. It wasn't quite as much fun as regular chrome but I still enjoyed it. I do wish there was some form of hits to be discovered whether that be relic or auto per. I just felt something was a little lacking.

Money wise, well, for $120, as you can see it was a rough break.

My favorite card find was the Bobby Moynihan and probably best card of the box was the mini Hayes.

Leave me your thoughts overall in comments!

Christmas Card 21

 

Christmas Card 20

It's The Most Busiest Time Of The Year

Good morning!

 

 

This is what I got to wake up to this morning. The sunrise on one side of my house and the moon going down on the other. I think it looks cooler with the fresh 8 inches of snow we recently got on Saturday.

What a crazy time it has been this month. I haven't even had a minute to sit down and actually type up a new post on here. Most of the content you see is at least a week or two old but at least there is something on here for you to read. I am not sure, other than today, when I will be getting a fresh new post up on here or any other blog if I chose to do so.

Besides family, I have been dealing with some fun health issues as well. I have had dizziness for two weeks which the doctors are chalking up to be a sinus infection that still hasn't quite turned the corner yet. I also found out upon getting some bloodwork that my A1C has jumped up to 6.4 which basically makes me a borderline diabetic with a it being just .1 below. Diabetes runs in my family so this is no surprise, but I am doing all I can to take the precautionary steps to not push it to the .1 higher. I have cut back on eating and bumped up the steps a little more losing 5 pounds last week. But I know not to let that get to my head as I will lose track of my goal.

As for mail day posts, I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo backed up on them. So, I must apologize to those who haven't seen a thank you from me yet on here. 

 

Here's a small preview of cards I have to go through, this is just from today. I also have some PWE's and a package from Wes I have been sitting on for awhile. So much to sort, so much to post. As I was discussing with Dennis from Too Many Verlanders blog this morning, I probably have content just with Christmas for all of 2022.

And I also have many of you I meant to send cards out to before Christmas, maybe after Christmas there will be time.

I hope everyone is doing well and hope to see more blog posts from those of you who blog. It still feels like the blogosphere is a dying space. If you know of any new blogs I can add to my blogroll or have one yourself I don't have, leave that in comments below. I always try to find time to read blogs at least, there is always a bathroom break :)

Have a great Monday. Yes, that can be a thing.

Matt