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 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!

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.

12-Year Blogversary Post (The Goodbye Post)

In what's been a long time coming, this will mark the final post on here. For real, real this time.

With the huge growth I have seen from Cards Over Coffee this year, the lack of growth here and feeling like this blog is the third wheel on a date, it's time I close things up officially and close things up the right way.

This blog over the years brought me a lot of joy and brought me many places in my hobby career I never thought I would go. I was once sponsored by multiple card companies allowing me to give back to you guys, with that as well I was able to communicate with some of the biggest names in the hobby, I won Blogger Of The Year once (this was the one time I think Night Owl didn't win lol) on GoGTS award show which you can see on YouTube, I was able to write for a few companies, I connected with other bloggers and became a respected part of the hobby community because of Sport Card Collectors.

But, with anything in life, there comes a time when you know you shouldn't be doing something anymore. Such as I know I can't go run a slant route without wearing my knee brace or playing tackle football with my friends in the backyard.  I can't imagine the back pain the next day.

So today just seems right to end the blog on the day it started. Just 12 years later.

In tradition of my this blog's anniversary, I will post my final updated numbers from the previous years on here and this is today's edition,

Year One, Sport Card Collectors blog had 68,169 overall views. 695 Twitter Followers and 118 Facebook LIKES.

Year Two, Sport Card Collectors blog grew to 205,240 overall views, 2,206 Followers on Twitter and 147 Facebook LIKES.

Year Three, Sport Card Collectors blog grew to 340,841 overall views, 3,576 Followers on Twitter and 159 Facebook LIKES.

Year Four, Sport Card Collectors blog grew to 483,217 overall views, 4,494 Followers on Twitter and 431 Facebook LIKES.

Year Five, Sport Card Collectors blog grew to 679,331 overall views. 5,325 Twitter Followers and 541 Facebook LIKES.

Year Six, Sport Card Collectors blog grew to 952,540 overall views. 6,272 Twitter Followers and 627 Facebook LIKES.

Year Seven, Sport Card Collectors blog grew to 1,268,414 overall views. 7,120 Twitter Followers and 815 Facebook LIKES.

Year Eight, Sport Card Collectors blog grew to 1,595,972 overall views. 8,353 Twitter Followers and 1291 Facebook LIKES before I ended the page. 

Year Nine, Matt's Wonderful Blog Of Hobbies grew to 1,814,262 overall views.  9,763 Twitter Followers and 780 Instagram Followers

Year Ten, Sport Card Collectors grew to 2,029,117 overall views.  10.9K Twitter Followers, 1427 Facebook LIkes and 1095 Instagram Followers

Year Eleven, Sport Card Collectors grew to 2,611,826 overall views.  13.2K Twitter Followers, 1500 Facebook LIkes, 1600 followers, and 1119 Instagram Followers

A lot of growth this past year in terms of views which is my highest ever, though it didn't feel like it. I even broke a month record with 75K for a month which was insane.

I don't want to look at today's post as a goodbye, as I am still blogging, I just want it to say hello to the two blogs that I will be continuing on.

Please add them to your follow list and blogrolls,

CARDS OVER COFFEE

BIG BLUE CARDBOARD

The main part of my blogging will be done on Cards Over Coffee with the occasional when I feel like it post for my NY Giants collection done on Big Blue Cardboard.

Hope everyone has a great day. I truly appreciate the support over the years and hope to see you on the flipside...well on the other blogs.

Grady Box Onslaught Of Shiny

I don't have a lot to say, I am just going to let the cards do the talking for me.

My latest Grady mail day was quite shiny...

And these were just some of that shine. Believe me, there was plenty more.

Thanks again to Grady for these occasional mail day pick me ups. Always look forward to them as they help me get through another day.

Throwpack Thursday:1992 Wild Card Decision

Welcome to the second Throwpack Thursday!

I said I would plug these in when I had time to do so.

Today's pack comes thanks to blog reader Oren who sent me some packs at Christmas time.

With Presidents being celebrated a few days ago, I thought why not keep the celebration with a presidential product.

1992 Wild Card Decision came with 8 cards per pack. Well, mine came with more. The 100-card product covers the candidates, the issues and love for Ross Perot.

In 1992 I wouldn't have opened any of this product as my cares were more about Darkwing Duck than politics. But, now I find it fun and I still really like Darkwing Duck.

Here is how my pack break went.

It started off with Bill Clinton, then came the brick of cards which I could feel from the outside of the pack to begin with.

Lots of sticking.

Pretty cool design, I like it. And I got 9 cards instead of the 8.

Wished the cards hadn't stuck together though. They will still go into the non-sport PC regardless and I will some day need to chase down the White House card.

Let me know in comments if you opened any of these before and your thoughts on them and if you have enjoyed the Throwpack Thursday series thus far.

Until the next time!

Bronny

When you find out that one of the NBA's All-Time greats has an upcoming SuperStar son, as a card collector, how can you not want to chase a few cards of his? I guess in most circles you would call this prospecting.

Bronny, the son of LeBron James is already playing college ball and on his trail to the pros despite having a scary cardiac arrest back in July of 2023 which hopefully won't play any further role in his life. So far, Bronny is averaging 5.7 points a game for USC. Not mind-blowing numbers, but you can see some of the plays he makes are pro ready ones.

When I found out Bronny had some early cards in products, I wanted to get a jump on a few. Just in case.

Not only was he included in the 2023 Topps Chrome McDonalds All-American Basketball, but he is also in Bowman Chrome U with his very 1st Bowman.

So, I wanted to add one to my collection. Right now they are going pretty cheap.

So cheap that I was able to add this Purple Shimmer

And insert for all under $8 on eBay with some of my gift card.

You read that right.....under $8. If this wasn't a steal, I am not sure what one is.

I am hoping that Bronny will be as good as LeBron, but there is also a lot of pressure when your dad is who he is. A lot of kids of superstars like this struggle to make their own name as they will always be so and so's son until they do.

I hope to add a few more to this collection as time goes on. I also do have the Mcdonald's base card that I got in a trade. Would be fun to add a refractor of it to or any other parallel run to this.

Let me know your thoughts on Bronny in comments.

Random Cardboard On My Desk:2021 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Goudey Kamala Harris

Upper Deck Is Trying To Hook ME!

Hockey.

It's one of those sports I no longer pay attention to, but feel like I should be because Upper Deck has been putting some great inserts in their hockey products the last few years.

And everyone knows how much I like a well-done insert since we haven't seen those since the 90's/.

When I got my box of inserts from reader Grady M, there was a big stack of hockey inserts/parallels in their. Many of which caught my eye.

I may not know any of the players, but the cards speak for themselves.

Similiar in design and look, but I like them.

 

This one features a foil background on a rink.

Offset player photo and color along with a glaring shine, this makes me happy.

I used to be one of these, so I get this insert. Or does this insert get me?

I have been collecting the Dazzlers inserts for a few years, one of these times I would love to make a rainbow run on them. They look so great under the light box.

 

I should choose a player and go chase it.

Next up, Allure is amazing product for parallels. I knew that just from collecting the Marvel version of it.

Not sure what this parallel is called but feels like a birthday party to me.

These may look even better than Prizm, Optic, Select or any product that involves a shiny parallel.

There were a lot more than the ones I showed above in the box, but wanted to highlight some key ones that really stood out to me.

(side note, I am sure blog reader Oren will enjoy this post and my partial excitement towards hockey cards as he has been trying for a few years to get me to the hockey side)

Thanks again to Grady for the mail day. Looking forward to adding more shine to my life this year.