The One

*it's time for a fresh cup of coffee and some cards. Sounds like a great start to the morning don't you think?*

Every Friday on Twitter, @collect_sport, I put up a I Want/Need Thread where you comment a specific card need and I will retweet it in hopes someone will Sell, Trade or even RAK (I have seen this) the card to you. Some people use the thread the way it was intended while others make a team/set demand. I just go with the flow regardless as long as it helps the collectors commenting.

On the thread every week, I also give an example of a specific cards I Want/Need. I have had some success in doing so, but one card I have tried a few times without any luck up I put up again and this time to my surprise had a response.

That's when I met @MattyBW who had what I wanted and so much more.

*takes a sip, gets excited about showing off these cards and takes another sip before doing so*

It wasn't too long after he had replied to my tweet about that specific card need that we had a nice conversation. The biggest point of the conversation was to make sure I got that card but we talked about much more that led to a trade as well.

I recently just started collecting more Jasson Dominguez for my Yankees PC. This was my second add to the collection.

This along with a few newer Cal Ripken Jr cards I forgot to take pictures of were the "newer" cards of the group. The main focus was on the 90's basketball. And if you know me, that hits the sweet spot and in comparison to coffee is the king of the cups.

John Starks adds. I always find it both saddening and odd to see John Starks in any uniform that's not a Knicks one. He was a fan favorite and a favorite of mine.

Finest Shaq. Don't ever let him post up, guy was unstoppable unless he had to shoot free throws.

Hakeem with the block!

And then Hakeem with the shot. Well, the Best Shot. These fell 1:12 packs and also had refractor parallels as well.

My first picture wasn't the greatest at showing how cool this card actually is. So I held it up to a window.

Now rolls in a beauty....

1996-1997 Bowmans Best Honor Roll Refractor! These bad boys fell 1:192 packs but it's not only the beauty of the card that grabs my attention, its the players. Patrick Ewing was one of the trio of Knicks I liked and Karl Malone I enjoyed his game and tried to mock it when I played with my friends back in the 90's. If I was to try that now, my body would ache for weeks.

*takes another sip before the coffee gets cold. I like Iced Coffee okay, but not my hot coffee getting iced. While I am it, I might as well toast a couple of english muffins*

I haven't even gotten to the main card of this post yet and I bet you are sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for me to show it off. Hold your mugs, we are almost there.

For now, I will tease this card as an intro....

Yup, a 1995-1996 Spx Gold Jason Kidd. Anyone who has followed me knows my deep passion for 90's Spx. I own set all three NFL Sets, one MLB Set, Both NASCAR sets, One and a half Hockey sets, and now......

Hold that thought.

*takes a sip of coffee*

I don't normally like jelly on my english muffins, I am a fan of bland so butter is my usual choice, but I will take a bit more excitement today when I show off the exciting card.

*takes a few bites, sip of joe and now onto the big reveal*

I think I have made you wait long enough to finally show the main card of this post. Not that the other cards above aren't sweet.

To finish up where I was with my Spx set chase, I also have one and a 49th basket....hold your horses...

What's this...

BOOM! You guessed it. The MJ has finally come home to finish up my second basketball set. He is smiling like I was when I finally got to hold this card.

 

And here he is resting peacefully among his Spx teammates.

With this set finally now complete, I am only missing the 1996-1997 Spx basketball set to complete the trio. That one also has my favorite design of the three but is also a dream set. I don't ever imagine myself being able to complete that one.

An obvious huge thanks goes out to @MattyBW for helping me finish up this set. It was a long time coming and it feels good to finally get there.

If you have Twitter, check out my Friday Thread and see what project you might be able to complete. You just never know what you may complete or who you may meet and become friends with. Isn't that the point of this hobby?

Coffee Card blogger out.

Dazed And Confused

My first thoughts when I saw an affordable complete set of 1997-1998 Spx hockey was Alright, Alright, Alright.

I was completely happy to knock down another one of my set needs for my 90's Spx project.

That's until I got it in hand.

It was a cold Tuesday afternoon when my mail arrived. I yelled "Shotgun" , despite going by myself, and made my way to my vehicle to drive down the road a little ways to my mail box to get the mail. I usually walk it, but not when its below zero with a wind chill on top of it.

I grabbed the mail and bolted home.

I thought about letting it sit and getting done some housework done first, but I couldn't. I had to check out the set. So I ripped open the box it was sent in and took out the plastic box that was holding the card set.

It opened pretty easy and as always I began enjoying the cards as they were. As everyone I think would agree, the 1997 Spx design is one of the greatest ever.

Here's a few cards from the set,

 Peter Bondra

Ray Bourque. This was the only one athlete I have ever met.

Curtis Joseph

Hmmm..something different about this card. Why does the card have silver foil?

Wayne Gretzky! The Great One. One day I will own his autograph!

 Brian...hold on a minute...

John LeClair

Jaromir Jagr and his wonderful mullet

 Hmmm another one...

And Joe Juneau

As I began looking at the rest of the 50 card set, I began to realize more and more that something wasn't right. That's when I had discovered that the seller had replaced some of the cards in the set with it's parallels but sold it as a complete set.

Why couldn't he have just sent what I paid for. It would be a lot cooler if he did.

Instead I found myself with 13 now missing from the set.

Eleven of those are Steel parallels

The other two, Silver parallels.

Even though I want to chase down all of the parallels-etc at some point, I need to complete my base sets first and this was a complete disappointment.

You Cool Man....

No, No I am not.

And stupid me, I always leave feedback on an item as long as I received it and can see it in hand. I wished I had opened this up all of the way first.

Oh well, you gotta keep on livin'...L...I..V..I..N..

I got to thinking more about this later today and feel I got more value than I paid for in this lot because of the parallels. So if there is a positive to take out of this, that's it.

Now the next journey is to find the rest of my needs to complete this set. This is not the first Spx set I still need to finish up with 13 or less cards, the other, 1996 Spx baseball.

Not sure if the seller was Dazed and Confused when he made this listing as a complete set or if he knew what he was doing. Either way, I will be much more cautious down the road when I make another purchase like this. Maybe even message the seller ahead of time to find out if it's a real complete set.

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict:Wave Of The Future!

As spring/summer approaches, I start to dream of warm weather and green grass. I know it technically says spring on the calendar, but believe me, it's far from that here.

All I can see is white, white, white, and some brown from mud on the main roads. It's probably the snowiest winter I can remember since my childhood. So I am doing my best as I type this and can see out my window to picture a shade of green and the bright sun shining upon me.

One of the things I now enjoy in the summer, when it actually arrives, was something that was a bit of a challenge to me back in the 90's and that is simply going to a beach or pool.

 

I know it sounds crazy, just look at this peaceful scene of a beach I visit almost every summer now. In my mind in the 90's, this was like having a day in Horrorland if you ever read that Goosebumps book. I had what I liked to call, waterphobia, a fear of water. But, I had my reasons for it.

And that's where today's story begins.

It was the 1990's, a hot day in the summer and I was at home minding my own business and playing with my toys. I could hear a vehicle pull into our driveway and I feared who it was and what was about to happen. I peeked out the curtain slowly and saw the gray van sitting there and my mom calling my name. "Matt, Matt, Grams here. Let's go. We are heading to the Crystal Lake.”

Worst nightmare confirmed and it has nothing to do with a hockey masked machete wielding man.

You see, my other grandmother, my mom's mother, wasn't like my nice grandmother (my father’s mother) who I have spoken about on here multiple times. She wasn't even like most grandmothers who would bring you cookies and kisses like off from Spongebob. Instead, mine brought me to the lake, specifically the local one named Crystal, where her approaches to teach me swimming was something you might have seen in the 1950's or actually in a horror film.

She would drive you there, drag you out of the vehicle and just toss you in, despite you begging and pleading not to go in because you couldn’t swim. She didn't care and didn't want to hear it, she just wanted to see you move those arms and legs. When you weren't tossed in, you were put in a life vest on your back and pushed back and forth between your uncle and her with the occasional dunking of you under to try and teach you how to hold your breath. Your best way for survival from this torture was to hope that you wouldn't go on that trip because of rain or because it was fall/winter.

I had zero interest in learning how to swim and I was fine dealing with the heat and I was just fine with it being sunny,hot and sweating. I would have rather had all of my toys/cards taken away from me, burned in front of me with me being the one lighting them on fire, than take a swimming trip with her.

That's how bad it was. I referred to her as the mean grandmother to others growing up.

I dealt with this situation for years with my mean grandmother and fortunately it finally ended when she gave up going to the lake as she got older. It was the biggest relief ever. That kind of relief you get when you may have been holding it waiting to go to the little boys room and finally getting in there.

She actually as a person began to change some with her aging,  and started to lighten up a little, even though she did have her mean tendencies occasionally. We had actually even started to bond some as I got older up until she passed from having multiple strokes and was pulled off from life support.

Even though she made my life miserable early on, I was still heartbroken by the loss of her.

Despite her no longer being around and hadn't been to the lake in years, my fear of water however, lived on. The only water I felt safe with was the ones I could watch on TV in movies like Jaws or in these unique insert cards from 1997-1998 Flair called Wave Of The Future.

These inserts fell 1:20 packs and has a player appearing to be in a wave. Literally.

The card features a plastic coating that encloses a glittery liquid that moves the glitter around when you shake it or press on it. We don't see bodacious cards like this anymore.

 

I tried to capture the angle of this card to show you both the liquid and the plastic coating.

The back of the card was basically a plain card but with the plastic surrounding it.

The set had 12 cards featuring upcoming stars of the future of the league, but most in this set didn't get too far including Keith Booth who only made it in the league for two years. Flair had been making this series in its products for awhile, but these ones were by far the coolest of all.

I remember how exciting it was to pull one of these out of packs when I was younger when the product came out. I think it equals out to one per box so it wasn't an easy pull for those times. I can't remember who I pulled back then, but it wasn't a super star by any means and was lost over time and forgotten.

I was reminded of these cards when I found this one in my Wes mail day and would love to build the set now that I own another. Would be a unique one to have especially if these cards still have the liquid in them after all of these years as I have seen some on eBay recently that do not.

Trying to build a set based on a water theme doesn't scare me today, however, going out into a deeper part of a lake or ocean still does. I still don't care if I ever learn how to swim, but at least I am able to go to a beach, lake or even a pool and walk out to the water and be up to my waist just fine. I thank my wife for that and the confidence she gave me in doing so.

We all have our fears, mine is spiders, snakes, water and my grandmother at one point. I also fear long winters, this blog disappearing and the hobby dying some day when it comes to a bit more unrealistic ones. It doesn't matter what your fear is, it's how you deal with it. I feel like I have dealt with mine pretty well even though the bad memories do pop up occasionally like they did for this post. However, my dealing with it tries to make me focus on the good times I had with my mean grandmother such as her making me coffee (as a kid that was awesome), eggs, toast and homefries while I watched cartoons. Or when she took me to the grocery store once and let me pick out a treat. Or the time she mistakenly bought me the same figure for Christmas I already had but I kept it anyways because she tried. 

Life is about making positive memories and not dwelling on the negative ones. It's something I do every day. Every negative situation has a positive to it if you look at it with the right mindset. Go out and try that for yourself today and you will live a better life.

As for my set chase of these Flair cards, as always I may need some help from trading buddies to pull it off. Got some, drop me a line and let me know! Please also send some sunshine and green grass along as well.

My Best Rookie Card Of The 90's

My father and I have been going back and forth through text for weeks trying to work on our second major trade.

He was looking for some more Aaron Judges for his PC and I had doubles, while my focus was on one single card that I knew he didn't want to let go. After I made my last attempt towards the card I wanted, he finally agreed and we pulled off a trade. A day after mailing, we got our cards.

I not only got one card, but ended up with a second. I didn't pull a Bellinger from my Gallery break and he had three so letting one go wasn't too hard for him. The sad part is, right after I got this, I got a trade offer for it so I am shipping it off. So I still need one of these.

 

And here was my card aim the whole time. It's 90's, it's Topps Chrome, it's a Super Star and it's graded. How about this bad boy....

 

 

What, what!!!

 

I have been wanting this card for some time but watching it jump up and up in value I knew buying wasn't an option. So I lucked out here in a trade. I was hoping he had the Vince Carter Topps Chrome as well but didn't sound like he did.

I will take a trade any day with prospects as long as I am getting a solidified player already in return. As much as I didn't want my Aaron Judge doubles go, I also can see him failing next year and values dropping hard. One thing that won't drop ever is this Tim Duncan. I think in the end I won the deal but if Judge plays like this year, you never know....

Thoughts on this tremendous add is welcomed in comments!

Random Card On My Desk:1997-1998 Collectors Choice Stick-Ums Jason Kidd

Random Card On My Desk: 1997-1998 Fleer Metal Universe Cliff Robinson

Random Card On My Desk:1997-1998 Skybox Z-Force Boss Ray Allen

Random Card On My Desk:1997-1998 Upper Deck UD3 "Jam Masters" Scottie Pippen

Random Card On My Desk:1997-1998 Upper Deck Rookie Discovery Chauncey Billups

Random Card On My Desk:1997-1998 Skybox Autographics Isaac Austin

Upper Deck Game Dated Cards...I GOT ONE!

When you bought Upper Deck in the late 1990's, other than filling action photography base sets, chasing the elusive UD Game Jersey cards and nailing down some impressive inserts, you always wanted to pull a rare UD Game Dated card. Well, I didn't pull one but I did finally add one to the 90's PC.

These cards fell at a rate of 1:1500 or 1 in every 1 or 2 cases so they were not easy finds. Rumors also had it that only a certain number of these were produced for each of the Game Dated cards in the set. Even as low as 10-25 limited on some.

Some collectors, including myself early on, found these cards were also a bit confusing as many have claimed to pull them since Upper Deck put Game Dated stamped on some of the base cards. Well, I am here to tell you that cards that look like this......

ARE NOT Game Dated parallels.

However, this one I picked up for a great price on eBay, is. Ain't she purty!

Here they are side by side. The foil on the card with the side by side really shows you a great example of what to look for.

 Not Real                                                                Real

   

I am pretty stoked to had finally added one of these to my PC. There are not many of them around, but most can be picked up for about $12 unless they are MJ. I found this one for under $5 so I had to snatch it.

I hope you enjoyed my newest addition and I hope the extra info on these helps you if you want to add one to your collection.

Breakin Wax:1997-1998 Upper Deck Basketball Series 1 Box

This is the third box from the auction lot I posted about awhile back. I thought doing a basketball one may break up the many football ones.

So here we go!

Out of the many boxes from the auction lot, this one right here was the one I was most excited about. However, after opening it, it was the one I was most disappointed with. Well, anyways I will stick break it down for ya!

In every box of 1997-1998 Upper Deck Series 1 Basketball is 28 packs with 12 cards per pack.I found one box listed on eBay for an amazing $259.99. Guess I should had tried to sell it!!! LOL!

The base set looks very nice and clean. A small side border with action photography. Some of the base cards are even "Game Dated" to a specific event. Coincidentally enough, Upper Deck had a "Game Dated" parallel in the product too that looks very similar to these cards except it had a "foil" type background. Those were extremely rare pulls.

Back of the base card.

I know I have already shown you what a base card looks like, but I had to showcase one of the top photography shots in the product. Amazing! But, this is what Upper Deck is known for.

The rookies in the product were not easy to find unless you knew them by name or look at the back of the card to see if they are college or NBA stats. I pulled the best there was in 1997-1998 in NBA Champion Tim Duncan. Actually I pulled two. I will say however the photo for Van Horn is a bit odd and scary and feels out of place amongst the other photos in the product.

There were also a couple of Subsets in the product with Jams '97, really showcasing that UD photography and Court Perspective showing what some players do off the court.

Here are the Team Mates inserts I pulled. Well, in my case, they are a bunch of 'Mates. It was odd not pulling one of the Team players out of the box. They fell at a 1:4 rate. The best of my group was David Robinson.

And finally, I pulled 2 (1:12 odds), Michael Jordan Air Time Departure inserts.

Overall, my box felt real lacking. No big time inserts, fell flat even in the base card and rookie department for a box packing 28 packs. I didn't expect to pull a UD Game Jersey card or Game Dated insert, but there were plenty of other inserts I was hoping to find. It was a bit disappointing since it was the most expensive box I bought in the lot, but at the same time it was fun being able to bust open some UD from the 90's.

Now for the breakdown. I took the inserts, star players and rookies and got a rough Beckett Book Value for it:

Here is what I paid: $11 for the box
Here is what I roughly got in Beckett Book Value from it:$79

I did okay for what I paid, but I expected so much more in my mind.

90's Flashback:1997-1998 Pinnacle Mint Card+Coin Jaromir Jagr

Card and Coin. Coin and Card. A match in heaven when you can combine two hobbies into one.

I couldn't ever figure out if I wanted to insert my coins into the card fearing it would damage the card, but when I traded my dad for this one, it was already in there. I think this was one of the greater innovations and ideas in the 90's. And yes, there were coin parallels like Gold, Silver and more. So there was a chase involved as well. This one is just a common coin.