Big Blue Sunday's:Highs And Lows

This season is simply a wash. The Giants came into this season giving me high expectations but have only given low results. They come into today's game at Metlife Stadium at 1-6 taking on the first place Washington Redskins. Who woulda thunk-it?

The Giants have already begun making a few moves to start the complete rebuild and I expect many more to happen as this team is a few years away from winning. It's a lot further away than I even thought.

My recent mail day from the generous @imqualifying, helped bring some brightness to these true blue days as a fan.

This package she sent along just because. It did include other cards and Giants but I wanted to take focus on these ones today. Not that I didn't appreciate them all.

Included in her package was a great photograph from 1991 Fleer Ultra of Maurice Carthon plowing over a defender. This is what Giants football used to be like.

Sterling Shepard has shown some really bright spots this year but had other games where you are shaking your head. I think more consistency from this guy would help.

Evan Engram has spent most of the year hurt and disappointing fantasy owners and fans along the way. I wished now the Giants hadn't drafted him and instead moved up a few spots to grab Mahomes. Can you imagine Mahomes, Barkley, Odell, Shepard on an offense together? Wow!

Eli, Eli, Eli. You have taken the brunt of most of this and all you have done is try your best. But, for the first time as a huge fan of yours, there are times this is your fault. 75% of it is the olines fault for not giving you enough time. But, you have also missed Odell wide open many, many times this year and overthrown or under-thrown other guys. I appreciate everything you have done in blue, but I almost think it's time my friend.

Odell, love your passion. But, you gotta calm down some. I know this season is frustrating as a fan, I can only imagine what it's like for a player. Especially one that wants to win. Keep up the big season you are heading towards and keep living up to one of the best WR's in the NFL.

Jonathan Stewart, well, I only feature you because this is my first Giants card of you. I didn't know you were included into a product yet. I am glad of your leadership however in guiding Saquon along the way.

A thanks goes out to Bethany for this nice mail day. Much appreciated!

I am not sure what to expect today of the Giants. Will they come out playing or will they start slow and lose another at home before they bye week? Or can they do something miracoluos and win 9 games in a row? Doubtful, but as a fan I can stay with that positive thought.

Either way, let's do our best today boys and work hard. I am always going to back you win or lose til the day I die.

The 90's Strike Again!

Once again, I found some 90's goodies in my mail box via @imqualifying who has been very generous in making sure my mail box has a mail day.

Up first, a Crown Royale rookie card of Brian Griese. I always loved this brand in the 90's.

 

The second finding comes from one of my favorite football card designs of all-time, 1996 Zenith football. This is also a product I associate a lot to my memories to and hope to chase down more cards from some day including a base set and all of the insert sets.

 

For some reason despite my many purchases of the product, I never once landed an Artist Proof parallel. So here is my first and also a player who still gives me nightmares after watching him dismantle my Giants in the Super Bowl.

 

The base set for 1997 Donruss Preferred was built up of 3 levels, Bronze, Silver and Gold, here is a sweet rookie card of Card's QB Jake Plummer who went on to have a pretty solid career. I totally dig and will pick up any of these cards when I can.

 

I was fortunate enough to even find some autographs in my package. Remember a time when players actually signed only on-card???

Jason Peter was a DE for the Panthers for 4 seasons but had his career cut short due to a recurring neck injury.

 

Brian Kelly was a former cornerback who was a pretty decent one. He helped lead the Bucs to a Super Bowl win among a few other accolades.

Seeing those two autographs made me miss Press Pass. They put out some great college products along with some NASCAR and non sport lines.

 

And finally, to go with my Flair Showcase Legacy parallel, an autograph of Marcus Nash. The guy may not have had the best career, but his autograph looks great.

 

 

A huge round of thanks is due to @imqualifying for her generosity. I appreciated each and every package you sent. They are all in a good home. 

 

I strongly recommend you go give her a Twitter follow as she is always doing giveaways and is a great hobby follow.

LT The Robot

NY Giants kick finishes up my awesome mail day from @imqualifying.

Up first some Donruss adds. Not sure which I have or don't, but pretty sure most are needed.

 

Jacobs and Cruz

 

A nice looking Sinorice Moss jersey card. It appears from the photo he is wearing an LT jersey....

 

And to finish up the mail day, I go back to 1992 Upper Deck with a FaniMation card of Lawrence Taylor. He appears as a sack taking destroying robot that won't back down. I bet this is what Joe Theismann saw coming at him on that Monday night game.

 

 

A huge thanks goes out to @imqualifying for her generosity in this mail day. I was blown away. I have a few things I wanna send your way when I get the chance to. But, I cannot repeat enough how much appreciation I have for this!

 

Thoughts on todays or past mail days from this box are welcomed in comments!

Another Trip Into The 90's

In the final part of the 90's portion of my @imqualifying mail day, I am pouring out tons of 90's goodness all in this one post so make sure you step away from your keyboard cause you may drool.

Up first, a tragic end to a tough life of Lawrence Phillips. But, the parallel and card look nice. I believe these were 1:4 packs.

I see gold! Black Diamond had many levels from single to double to triple to quadruple diamond. Some of the levels had a different background color. This is a 1:5 triple find.

I don't know much about these promo cards, but still looks cool. When it comes to the 90's, I ignore players.

1st Day Issues were not easy finds. I believe they fell one per factory set and there were only 60 cards in the overall parallel set.

Absolutely loved the V2 inserts. The late 90's were all about moving football players. I think this is now the 3rd one I own. Would love to chase down the set but 1:23 odds of finding these doesn't make it easy. But, digging the fact this one is Brunell.

Another sweet sample card, this time a Classic shiny one of Keyshawn Johnson.

Dan The Football Heroes Man.

3rd and Long. These cards were received through a "Mirage Redemption" card that was serial numbered of 600 sets. The cards you got in return were a shiny version of the redemption you sent in. Drew Bledsoe put up some pretty solid seasons, but sadly will probably be best known for getting hurt and letting Tom Brady shine.

The shiny version of the Turf Teams were found in packs of 1996 Summit Premium Stock and are /500. Isaac Bruce was a nice add here. I always felt he was underappreciated for what he did on the field because he played for the Rams.

 

Barry Sanders who I still consider the best to ever carry the rock. If you want to argue that, well, you lose. Just kidding. Barry was so swift and could turn -10 yards into 80 in just a few turns. I have never seen a running back like him and I doubt we ever will. It's just too bad he played for the Lions and couldn't ever hoist that Lombardi.

This is a pretty cool die-cut from Sanders team mate and former Giant, I know Herman once wore a different kind of blue, from Playoff. Looks like a plaque.

Robert Edwards who never really panned out rookie and a Finest Griese rookie who had his ups and downs. Finest was so much cooler with plastic over it.

A couple of unique Troy Aikman promo cards from the early 90's. Not anything I own or have seen. I like the golden cracked ice shine.

Up next, a Playoff Prime mini. I believe these fell one-per-box. Looks super cool.

Speaking of Mirer, here is a rookie card

And onto the next card, a Jeff Blake Pacific insert. They always added a lot of foil color to their cards.

Then at the end, I find two autograph cards. I miss the hand numbered ones. Both of these are from Signature Rookies.

Overall, there was definitely some 90's madness involved here and I loved every minute of it.

Tomorrow I finish up the series with some NY Giants that @imqualifying tossed in as well.

90's Bowman Shines

In the second part of my mail day from @imqualifying, I focus on some shiny items from Bowman's Best. The 1997 base card designs with the added football outer appeal adds an extra special appeal to the refractor.

Refractors for 1997 fell 1:12 packs.

I start out really well with two players I loved watching in the 90's. If you didn't know, when my Giants weren't on or were out of the playoffs, the Jags were my team. I loved Brunell and McCardell.

 

Pretty cool shot of Tony Martin with the rainbow shine.

 

The final refractor is from 1999 Bowman's Best, is a NY Giant and is numbered. I don't have any odds on these except that they were #d to 499.

 

 

If you liked these, well, you will wanna come back tomorrow where I roll out the rest of the 90's goodness from the box.

The 90's Are Here

Last week, I was sent a big box full of 90's goodness from the great @imqualifying who knows how much of a 90's card geek I am. I don't care what sport, what team or what players it is. I love it all. Even the non sport stuff. I mainly enjoy the 95-99 stuff the most but a few of the older inserts are nice as well.

The 90's as I have stated many times is still my favorite era to collect from. So many cool cards and designs and one company line that continuously put out great stuff was Playoff. Just look at these 1998 Absolute rookie cards. I like the McQuarters who was a big player in the Giants Super Bowl 42 run.

 

Draft Pick inserts from 1998 Playoff Prestige. The regular version of these is silver and fell 1:9 packs while the parallels that are shown here, were found in retail and special retail pack and boxes. I think the colored are much more impressive looking. Speaking of looking, it seems I have a start of a Shehee rainbow....

 

Mr. Ryan Leaf. Everyone's favorite bad draft pick example.

 

And Germane Crowell. I dig the minor embossing on these as well.

 

My final card to show off today, is a 1998 Playoff Momentum End zone Xpress Ryan Leaf which is cool in many ways. It's printed on plastic card stock with lots of rainbow foil and team color blended in. These were found in retail packs at a rate of 1:13 packs. It's not something I ever found in packs so a nice addition to my 90's PC in my opinion.

 

 

Well, I said this was a box of goodies so I can only say this is the start of something good. There is more to come in the next few days so stay tuned!

Adding To My Legacy (Collection)

I have had quite a few mail days over the past couple of weeks but none of them dug back to my roots like today's card.

As many of you guys know I started collecting in the 90's and live and breathe by that era especially 95-99 which I consider the "best years of the hobby."

Why do I consider it that? Well, not only were there some amazing designs, top notch innovation, tons of buying and variety options, affordable high-end products and most of all, rare and tough to find inserts. Which is why a lot of these still hold their value today.

One of those tough to find inserts were the Legacy Parallels from 1998 Flair Showcase. I never pulled one and currently only own one I had traded for from Project Pedro Blog which was a basketball one. Now, I can say I own another thanks to @imqualifying who was posting a bunch of cards for sale but generously gave me this one knowing how much I wanted the card.

Marcus Nash wasn't a big splash out of the rookie class that had many Hall Of Famers, but that doesn't matter to me. Just owning another one of these is really awesome.

 

 

A big thanks goes out to @imqualifying for her generosity. I am blown away by it. This card now has it's officially last landing spot and fits nicely in my 90's PC. 

 

I also suggest you go give her a follow and get into some of her sales as prices are cheap and she has a lot of great stuff to offer.