Some Cards That Made Me Smile

I have gone the last four days without a SINGLE PIECE OF MAIL.

No junk mail. No bills. No Cards.

I am not sure what is up, but I am wondering if my mail isn't arriving.

I have never gone that many days without any bills.

Cards yes, bills no.

But, a couple of weeks ago, I did have a stretch of a few days with cards in the mail and I am just getting to posting them now.

First one is this Bowmans Best BEST CUT Refractor of Knicks Legend Patrick Ewing. I was on a Knicks and 90's insert/refractor kick. Speaking of which...the Knicks are ONE GAME AWAY from advancing the NBA Finals!!

Who else is excited?!

The next card came via trade on Twitter.

 

Yes it's a swatch of legendary Pop Princess Britney Spears. She was my very first concert, my friend and I had a big crush and worked hard for tickets before she became huge. So, having this will be a nostalgic piece. Some day, yes some day, would love to add an autograph and then create a shadow box with this card, an autograph and the concert ticket stubs I held onto.

Next card, well it's Dr Frasier Crane. Well, the actor who played him. This Kelsey Grammer autograph had been on my nostalgic PC list for a while. Even though I didn't deeply love the show, I still watched it and watched enough where I consider it nostalgic.

The final card is a new set need that I found under $5. This is a 1997 Pro Line Gems Of The NFL gem card of Warrick Dunn. One of these days I will finish this set up.

And there you have it! As I said on my other blog, Cards Over Coffee, I will be taking a hiatus from blogging to focus on family, school and healing from my shoulder surgery. I plan to be back at some point but cannot at this time pinpoint when and which blog.

Once again thanks for the support for this blog as I have been re-working it.

Happy Summer! (when its official)

You've Got Mail

You've Got Mail

Well, thirteen of you will.

I finally sat down and packed up some cards to go out. I have been wanting to do this for weeks but with school and life getting in the way, I just didn't have the time.

I like to try and get serious mailings like this out a few times a year for my readers and for fellow bloggers as well. 

So, some of you will need to keep an eye on your mailboxes over the next week as these went out yesterday. 

In the meantime, here's a couple of my recent mail days that is quite the mixed bag,

2026 Topps Chrome Football Leather Russell Wilson.

2026 Topps Neon Disney Winter Darkwing Duck

2026 Topps Neon Disney Diamante Darkwing Duck

1999 Topps Finest Prominent Figures /1848

Everyone of these cards belongs in a different PC.

I am looking forward to everyone getting their mail days and hopefully posting about them, because, you've got mail.

Prepon This Mail Day Post From Dennis

 

Christmas may be over, but posts about my mail days from Christmas are not.

I received quite a few mail days overall around Christmas, with some being from trades, some being from RAKs and some being my usual Christmas gifts from yearly collecting buddies.

To kick off this New Year, my blog posts are going to be playing catchup on all of those mail days which begins with todays from Dennis over at Too Many Verlander's blog fame.

Every year, Dennis hits up quite a few bloggers and maybe even former bloggers with his excellent Christmas mail days. Mine, as with any mail day I get from Dennis, did not disappoint.

\

This is a Gold Medallion from one of the top running backs in NY Giants history.

I can't remember, but pretty sure I claimed this card and

this one as well for my 90's PC. I never turn down a great looking 90's card regardless of who the player is.

Speaking of that, this Bernie Williams right here may have been one of my favorite cards from the entire mail day. This is from 1998 Pacific Paramount and I definitely need the Griffey like this now.

Kadarius Toney isn't one of my most favorite former Giants players, but he was still in blue if even for a short time. The Prizm green is a super shiny cool in-person card.

Plaxico Burress however is one of my favorites. He is also the one I believe helped lead Eli Mannings career and definitely was the reason the Giants made a run in 2008 and beat the Patriots in Super Bowl 42.

Allan Houston will always rank as one of my favorite Knicks all time. I think this may be an in-person or TTM autograph? Not sure if this one is on his checklist. I haven't had the chance to check either.

The next two cards Dennis must have seen on my all-time want list.

My very first Ike Hilliard autograph. I don't know how I didn't already have one since Ike played for the Gmen so long ago, but I didn't. Now I do and he can be crossed off.

 

And Laura Prepon who most may remember as Donna Pinciotti in That 70's Show. That's the main reason I wanted to have this autograph. This goes in the non-sports nostalgia pc part.

There you have it. Another great mailing by Dennis. Thanks again.

This is just one of many mail day Christmas posts I have to come. So, grab your coffee, hot cocoa and get ready for a long ride to see some really fun cards.

Appreciating Basketball Cards More

Since the pandemic, I am finding myself appreciating basketball cards more.

Whether its ones I already have, ones I get to open or ones I trade for, the joy of basketball card collecting again is coming back strong.

In the last year, I have found myself starting up some small player PC's. Those consisted of RJ Barrett, Allan Houston, Immanuel Quickley, and Obi Toppin. Nothing too big or crazy, just a fun side PC.

Those small PC's go along with my main basketball one, which is one I have for all sports in 90's inserts.

In my latest trade with blog reader Oren, he traded me some.

Such as this 1:20 odds, 1998-1999 Fleer Tradition Great Expectations of Grant Hill. I always feel that Hill doesn't get a lot of hobby appreciation.

Ron Mercer Spotlight from Skybox Zforce

This 1996-1997 NBA Hoops Hot List of Reggie Miller falls 1:48 packs and looks spectacular on acetate.

This Starting Five also is found in 1996-1997 NBA Hoops and falls 1:12 packs.

Upper Deck Team...well this one is just Mates. Need the Anthony Mason to pair with it to spell out the word.

Rock Stars die cut of Mutombo from 1997-1998 Topps Chrome.

Unlike Trix, Collectors Choice Stick-Ums are not just for kids.

(this isn't an insert, but a great looking subset)

I am apart of the movement to keep your Protective Coating on. Well, it's not really a movement yet but if it becomes that, let me be in charge.

L

 

Who wants to talk some Hoops with Bill Walton? I remember pulling quite a few of these back in the day. Can't quite remember the odds on them but it wasn't very tough. It seems a lot of products in the 90's did some combination inserts with current and former players. Topps did one called Profiles that featured Steve Young (football), Kirby Puckett (baseball) and David Robinson (basketball) and Mark Messier (hockey). The football set I am chasing.

Thanks again to Oren for the trade and the newest basketball additions.

Basketball cards making a comeback in my collection just gives me another outlet to go to when I am in a rut with my other parts of collecting. We all hit that point, I know you must as well.

******************************************

What do you do when you are in a rut with collecting?

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 56:On The Ground Attack!

Foil cards always catch my eye and this dual sided foil set had me falling hard for it.

In 1995 Stadium Club falling at a rough 1:18 packs, you could find these Ground Attacks.

Each card features a running back on one side and a quarterback on the other side.

I already had a few of these in hand after pulling a couple in a box break and then making a trade for another. Just from seeing those, it began a set chase.

So once again, I used the power of Burbank Sportcards Beckett Marketplace to see what I can fill in for needs.

I was able to grab 6 pretty affordably.

 

Here are the fronts

The backs

Final card, the most expensive one of the set features

Edgar Bennett

And the legendary Brett Favre.

I will need to see what remains to this set chase and what Burbank has left for me to grab. Even though these were cheap to begin with, I still like to save money on  Burbank Sportscards Beckett Marketplace by using code 15Burbank at checkout to save 10%. I think you should use it as well.

Can't wait until I can get this set built and show it off when I do.

Saturday's In The 90's: Cal's Mother Lode

 

Randomly inserted in hobby packs of Fleer Metal at a rate of one in 12, this 12-card set features multi-tool players like Cal Ripken Jr. The card features a full bleed action shot of a player and has a rainbow foil scroll design.

There is a total of 12 cards in the set.

Not sure if its a set I will chase or not but definitely one great looking card to at least have one of.

Arrivals:1996 Pinnacle Pinnacle Power Joe Carter

Being a big time 90's insert collector, I always look for cards that offer the best deal. Whatever is cheapest and shiniest and coolest usually wins my heart.

When I stumbled upon this 1996 Pinnacle Power Joe Carter for $1.25 I thought it was a steal. The card looked amazing and I have always wanted to get my hands onto one. For that price I couldn't go wrong.

These Pinnacle Power cards fell 1:35 packs back in 1996.

 

The cards feature embossing all over including the "power base" in the back that is a bright beautiful rainbow foil.

  

Back of the card shows a smilin' Joe

I was happy when I snagged it for that price but even happier once I got the card in-hand.

(full disclosure, the problem with adding a card like this, I really want the set now. So if you have any that's not Joe Carter, send em my way!)

A Trade Shaped By Baseball

Recently Mike over at thew blog in the blogoshpere, A Life Shaped By Baseball, contacted me about a trade and introduced himself in the process.

I always try to play it cool like Phil Simms when someone new approaches me about wanting to trade. I mean I don't want to act overly excited? That may be weird to someone new and they may not come back. So I kept my cool and we worked out a pretty fast trade.

From the sounds of it, Mike collected in about the same time frame I did with some of the cards he passed along and he told me ahead that he covered different parts of my PC in the trade process.

 

We have some Rodney's. Wonder how close I am to 100 Pro Set Rodney Hampton rookies.

 Some more G-men.

 Some Tiki.

Junior! Despite how much I love football, I still collect Griffey. It's probably my only real baseball PC right now.

 

More Griffey. These are all new to me but I need to update my Griffey spreadsheet again since I got new additions from Mike and Shane.

 He also tossed in some Yankees including my all time favorite Yankee, Derek Jeter.

Then Mike hit up my want lists for set needs and I couldn't have been happier about that. So many needs on those lists and so many more coming when I update the whole thing.

 The Big Show from Collectors Choice

 TD Sensations

 Turf Champions

 Pro Files by David Robinson

Man do I love these Rookie Exclusvies

 Hardwood Leader help. Still a ways to go on this set

 swweeeett additions towards my Countdown to Impact set. Two All Time NFL greats QB's.

 Another one of those Spx 1996 baseballs gone. Chipping away little by little

 Another set that is slowly being chipped away on

MVP insert adds. Yes, that is a dupe Rodney because I need one for the set and one for my Rodney Binder

Same Game, More Attitude for these players. I haven't knocked any of these off in awhile so here it goes.

This wasn't even all of the set adds he sent along or all of the cards. I only featured a few on here.

However I feel like this after realizing how far behind I am on set needs on here.

Hopefully soon I will be able to take some time out and sort everything then update my needs on here.

A big thanks goes out to Mike for the trade and for contacting me to do one. I will hopefully update everything on here soon so we can trade again. If you haven't checked out Mike's blog, A Life Shaped By Baseball,do so and add him to your blogroll. While you are at it, do a trade.