Single Card Mail Day:2004 Upper Deck Reflections Focus On The Future Jersey Gold Eli Manning

What do I look for when it comes to adding new Eli Manning cards to my collection?

Other than the obvious of not having the card, I try to look for cards that are shiny, low numbered, jersey/relic/autograph cheap, good photography, Super Bowl related, or simply a deal you cannot pass up.

My latest snag was a combination of a couple of those things.

 

I snagged this rookie jersey card for $5 almost as quickly as it was posted. You don't find cheap Eli rookie relics often at all so when you can score a deal on one, you don't leave it for someone else to take.

 

The back of the card has a bigger focus on the event used jersey write up more than the player itself. Seems backwards to me.

On TCDB, this marks my 1,034 Eli Manning card. This still puts me in second place to freakizon who has 1,475 Eli's. My goal is still to surpass him on there and be known as the Eli Manning guy.

If you have any Eli Mannings I don't, check out my collection on TCDB HERE and let me know in comments or email me at sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com with what you have that I don't!

Rodney's Cardboard:2023 Certified Gold Autograph /15

  Rodney is having a golden day today.

That's because his numbered to 15 Gold parallel is being posted. This thing is probably the one that stands out the most from all of them at this point. I think you will agree when you look below.

  

Card back looks the same as the rest in the series.

Here is an overall look at the chase in 2023 Certified for Rodney,
Base /199, Bronze /99, Pink /75, Orange /50, Red /35, Blue /30, Teal /25, Gold /15, Purple /10, Green /5, and Black 1/1.

Here are the cards I have posted so far from this run,

 

 

  

 

Only one more left to show off from this chase. Hope to see you back next Sunday for the final one!

What Is Up With The USPS?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have been dealing with some issues with the postal service recently.

For one, I left my mail in the box for pickup, and the mail lady left it in there for two days before finally grabbing it on day three.

Two, I had two packages lost from eBay.

Three, Two PWE trades I did got lost and one of my envelopes. I have shipped PWE for 12 years without one being lost. NOT A SINGLE ONE.

Fortunately, there are a couple of good updates from the above list. 

One of the two PWE trades finally showed up after a month. Which is good, because I traded for cards for a reader's birthday. The second trade and the one I sent haven't shown up....yet.

The other good news is, that one of the eBay cards finally arrived after it was shipped on March 2nd.

Say hello to Eli Manning #1035.

 

This card is numbered 3/4, so when I found out it was lost, I wasn't pleased because of it's rarity.

Just glad that it finally arrived.

But there still something up with the USPS recently. I don't know what it is, but they keep raising their rates and stamp prices (going up again in July) but giving us even less service and even losing my mail.

In comments today, let me know if you are experiencing any issues with USPS like I am. Curious if it's just a local thing or it expands deeper.

Hopefully my PWE shows up to the person I traded with soon or my Cal Ripken Jr-esque streak will come to a bitter end.

Going With The Flow

 

I don't consider myself Superman for trying to attempt to run three blogs, but I must be pretty close to it. 

At the very least I am the Brett Favre version of it.

Or Brett Favre in general.

I have been so indecisive over the past four years, like Favre was with retirement, on where to blog, how to blog, what to blog that I feel some of my content and the blogs have hurt because of it.

I know this blog alone I have retired probably at least four times but have come back every time in some form or fashion big or small only to lead to another retirement of it.

It's tiring to be honest.

What is leading to this version of my blogging now-a-days, I have no idea. Why can't I make up my mind finally, I have no idea. I guess you can compare it to asking your wife what she wants for supper or what restaurant she wants. There is no direct answer, you just have to go with the flow.

The only decision I have come down to recently is that I just won't retire any of the blogs. Whether I blog on any specific ones further or not, I will just let the flow guide me, but I will not be blogging on all three at once. That means, some blogs may have posts, some may not, and some may never again or at least won't for a while. But, cutting myself off directly and saying it's retired just makes me look foolish time and time again knowing I will return to the blog when the flow leads me there.

I guess what this means for you is to just keep an eye out on all three blogs. You never know where the newest post will end up. I will say though, this blog is the easiest of the three to blog on as it opens up further opportunities while the other two have specific based.

So, I better put my cape back on, go play for the Jets or Vikings or Packers or Big Blue Cardboard or Cards Over Coffee or Sport Card Collectors. Because nothing is retired, and I will continue to play (blog) on and hopefully you all will follow along.

May

*to the tune of NSYNC's It's Gonna Be Me*

Everything little thing I post, never seems enough for you....you don't want to read it again...I don't post like them....baby when you finalleeeeeee...get to read this post....guess what..

IT'S GONNA BE MAY!

Rodney's Cardboard:2023 Certified Blue Autograph /30

Rodney's back, back again. Today's card is so far my favorite one of the run. 

When a card can match the team featured, it's always a big draw. Today's is the Blue Parallel and is numbered to just 30 copies. 

  

Card back looks the same as the rest in the series.

Here is an overall look at the chase in 2023 Certified for Rodney,
Base /199, Bronze /99, Pink /75, Orange /50, Red /35, Blue /30, Teal /25, Gold /15, Purple /10, Green /5, and Black 1/1.

Here are the cards I have posted so far from this run,

 

 

  

 

More from this run and others to come. Hope to see you back next Sunday for the next one!

My First Soto

As many of you know, I am not much of a baseball card collector anymore. There are only specific things I really chase.

Group 1:

1. 90's Inserts/Parallels from any team/player as long as the cards are 1995-1999.
2. Derek Jeter

These Top Two I wouldn't trade away for anything. These are absolute locks for my collection as long as I live.

The next list I collect there is some flexibility on whether I would move them for something I want more.

Group 2:

1. Mickey Mantle (vintage I would keep)
2. Jasson Dominguez (as long as he remains a Yankee)
3. Aaron Judge
4. New players in a Yankees uniform
5. Key Rookies
6. Anything else that catches my eye

My recent trade with @ChrisParksIT brought in some of these cards.

Like my first Soto in a Yankees uniform. He looks so much better with the NY.

Jasson Dominguez rookie card.

Jasson Dominguez Good Vibrations rookie insert.

Aaron Judge To The Moon. I thought from a distance this die-cut insert looked great, it's even better in person especially since there is a shine I didn't notice before. I now need to add the Dominguez version.

I love the look of this one. Of course, I was already a fan of the Spring parallels and I believe this my first Yankee one.

 

The final card is a Rizzo foilboard parallel.

Thanks again to Chris for the trade and adding my first Yankees Soto among other great cards.

If any of you have a Dominguez To The Moon, let me know!

Rodney's Cardboard:2023 Certified Teal Autograph /25

Last week, I posted the base autograph for this chase, today, I am posting another one of the parallels.

Today's card is the teal parallel. It's hard to see it on here as I tried to capture it with the lightbox.

  

Card back looks the same as the rest in the series.

Here is an overall look at the chase in 2023 Certified for Rodney,
Base /199, Bronze /99, Pink /75, Orange /50, Red /35, Blue /30, Teal /25, Gold /15, Purple /10, Green /5, and Black 1/1.

Here are the cards I have posted so far from this run,

 

 

 

More from this run and others to come. Hope to see you back next Sunday for the next one!

Blog Bat-Around: 5 Best Pack Pulled Hits (Here's Mine)

Matt, great name by the way, over at Diamond Jesters has sent forth a new Blog Bat-Around challenge.

He posted his best 5 pack pulled cards and wanted other bloggers to do the same.

Having been sponsored by sport card companies, I have opened a lot of products over my time with some nice hits in-between. However, for this challenge, I didn't want to count any of the pulls from the card company packs. Instead, I wanted to share hits from my own personal pack openings...back when I could afford to open them.

Most of the time, my own pack openings were complete duds. But, then there were some nice ones.

Let's take a look,

5. Is this /25 Totally Certified Gold Rookie Autograph of Luke Kuechly who was one heck of a linebacker. He will be one of the names forever known in Panthers history.

4. How could a sweet MJ parallel be number 4? Well, I would call it 1D. It was really hard to pick a top one in this top group.

3.I pulled this Deion/Cam dual auto from Panini Black for Christmas one year. Still the best Christmas pack pull I have ever had.

2. I usually don't like opening up retail Allen&Ginter. It's so boring. But, I still do it just to have some. I got lucky in 2020 with this one. One of my all-time favorite Yankee players.

1.Stallone auto. This is probably my best all-time pack pull including company sent products. It's really hard to top Rocky.

Well, that's my Top 5. There are a couple other pulls I could have put at number 5 but felt Luke had earned his spot. The other top cards were hard to beat.

I still have all of these cards except the Luke. I traded that away for something that fit my PC better. The others won't ever leave my hands.

As Matt put at the end of his post and I will add it to mine, let's see what you guys have pulled. I can't wait to read and see them.

Rodney's Cardboard:2023 Certified Base Autograph /199

I have been trying to find a place to post my Rodney's Cardboard segment.

Big Blue Cardboard, even though is my NY Giants blog, doesn't get the views or the comments to spend the time posting these. Cards Over Coffee is pretty much the same. I had considered doing just a Rodney Hampton blog and posting all of them all over again there but another blog is so much effort and I don't have that effort in me anymore.

However, the one place where Rodney has succeeded the most is here.

So, even though this blog was technically retired, I am bringing back the Rodney's Cardboard segment until I am out of new Rodney's to post.

Which this year may be a little while since there have been a ton of new Rodney releases.

Today continues where I left off on Big Blue Cardboard with displaying my 2023 Certified chase.

Today's card is the base version. This was actually one of the last ones I added as I added the tougher ones first. Much different approach for me this time as I normally start biggest to littlest but found this new approach to be better.

  

Card back looks the same as the rest in the series. Such a boring backing.

Here is an overall look at the chase in 2023 Certified for Rodney,
Base /199, Bronze /99, Pink /75, Orange /50, Red /35, Blue /30, Teal /25, Gold /15, Purple /10, Green /5, and Black 1/1.

The 1/1 just popped up recently and I have an eye on it. Hopefully I can land it with some assistance from friends.

Here are the cards I have posted so far from this run,

 

 

More from this run and others to come. Hope to see you back next Sunday for the next one!