Random Cardboard:2018 Leaf Draft Field Generals Josh Allen

 

Random Cardboard Of The Day:2018 Topps Allen Ginter Coyne

We Were Titans

We FINALLY did it.

We played a close game and won it.

Not to mention, we are above .500 for the first time in 6 years.

It was a long time coming for my NY Giants. Us, as fans NEEDED that win and that kind of win to prove us that the culture change wasn't just words being spoken. That those words were actually being put into motion.

The 21-20 win over the Tennessee Titans was huge for Giants players and Giants fans and kept us on edge throughout. Coming back from a sloppy first half down by 13, to taking a gamble on a late 2-point conversion when you could have simply kicked the extra point for a tie and possibly overtime, to the defense allowing the Titans to drive into field goal range only to miss it, it was like a Hollywood movie ending for the NY Giants.

I can't remember the last time I had a smile after a NY Giants football game.

On top of this, after a rough couple of seasons for Saquon Barkley, yesterday he looked like his rookie year self, tearing up Titans defense for 164 rush yards,1 touchdown and the key two-point conversion where he made two defenders miss. He carried the entire offense and team to victory. Basically, did the same for my Fantasy football team as well.

In honor of his performance, I thought I would post my Top 10 favorite non-hit cards I have of him.

1. Panini Instant "Barkley Caps Historic Rookie Season" card. Love the photograph on this one.

2. One of the most iconic plays for Saquon with the Legend Eli Manning watching in the background.

3. 2018 Prizm rookie card. The best non-autograph rookie card he has.

4.2019 Prestige Highlight Reel. This is the same photo from the Dallas game above, just at a different angle.

5. It's blue, he is all alone in the end zone, great photo again.

6. Shiny.

7. The face says it all on this one.

8. Throwback Zenith 1997 Zenith base card design, what isn't to like about this card?

9. Saquon always has his eye on the defense. He made sure yesterday to the Titans defenders were on his radar.

 

10. Zenith Z-Team. Anyone who collected Zenith knows how cool these cards actually are.

With those now being posted, I hope Saquon can continue to build off from his success yesterday. The Giants have their first home game of the season coming up this Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. Could the G-Men go 2-0? Fall flat at home? Will Saquon continue to build off last week? So many questions and the answers will be coming up in 6 days and I can't wait.

Rodney's Cardboard:2018 Illusions Exclusive Ink Rainbow

It's the last Rodney post of December, as I don't have any others to post as of now. There may be one for 2022, but things are slowing down in the Rodney search as no new ones have popped up and no new products have included him. I will have to find a new post for Sundays possibly.

For now though, let's just soak in today's Rodney's Cardboard.

I was finally able to finish up a three year chase for Panini's Elusive Ink. The final card I needed was the purple 1/1.

Here they all are as happy as can be as a family again.

I do like this rainbow a little more than the 2020 version as this one pops with more color, but being able to complete any rainbow is a likeable feat.

Until next time, hopefully more needed Rodney's pop up soon.

Rodney's Cardboard:2019 Legacy Black Printing Plate

Awhile back, I put up a post from a trade that Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown and myself did and mentioned there was one more card to go in that post and that it was the centerpiece of the trade.  Today, is the day I finally reveal it.

Introducing the latest printing plate to my Rodney Hampton collection,

This one comes from Panini's Legacy collection.

I always find these newer plates hard to find so adding these when I can is great. Gavin seems to always have luck finding Hampton plates.

Thanks again Gavin for the trade!

Rodney's Cardboard:2018 Panini Illusions Elusive Ink Purple 1/1

Another week, another amazing Rodney Hampton to show off!

Today, finishes up a 3-year chase to my 2018 Panini Illusions autograph needs. Sometimes you sit back and wonder if these 1/1's will ever appear and pop up when you are chasing player collections and rainbows. I never actually ever thought this one would pop up and out of the blue, or purple, it did.

Thanks to my buddy @90sNicheFBCard I was finally able to finish off yet another Hampton rainbow.

The front of the card features purple foil as the main reason it's a parallel.

The back is meh. Kinda bland with no write up.

I will hopefully be able to show off this rainbow family in one of my next upcoming posts. With all of my recent trades that involved Rodney, it finished up a good chunk of rainbows so I will have plenty of them to show off as well.

Until next Sunday, hope everyone has a great day and always keep an eye out for Rodney Hamptons for me!

OPENING DAY 2021:Have Any Superstitions?

*opening day is here, coffee is poured and its....well...it's snowing. At least I can see green grass and sunshine on TV*

 

The sweet sound of a bat smacking a ball, the team comradery, the smell of hotdogs and popcorn fill the air. The excitement for every fan knowing their team is 0-0 and could have a shot at winning the World Series this year, even you Royals and Pirates fans, all starts today. 

THIS IS OPENING DAY.

*takes another sip realizing I may need to apologize to Royals and Pirates for hinting that they are the leagues two worst teams*

I don't watch as much baseball as I used to, but I try to make Opening Day a day of doing so. As a Yankees fan, more from afar now, I am feeling pretty good about their chances this year. The offense should be able to score some runs, (a healthy Judge and Stanton would be huge in that) and hopefully help out the pitching staff anchored by Gerrit Cole along with a couple of new faces in Kluber and Taillon. I don't know how I feel about their pitching staff quite yet.

Today the Yankees take on the Toronto Blue Jays who appear could be their biggest competition in the AL East. Of course you can never count out those pesky Tampa Bay Rays either.

Whether the Yankees win or not could depend on what they eat pre-game. At least it's that way with some of the players.

*for me it would be a pre-game drink, I bet it wouldn't take you guys too long to figure out which drink that would be*

 

From Stan Musial to Justin Verlander and more, some players have certain pre-game food routine superstitions they stick by to "give" their teams the best chance to win.

I am sure fans probably do as well as they hope to be apart of something special in a teams victory.

For me, I don't have any baseball pre-game food superstitions, but for football, I do. Every Game Day, pepperoni pizza is a must have. Whether I buy a frozen one, have it delivered or a make it homemade (this is what I do most of the time), it has to be served. I also have the football jersey/football hat superstition where I wear it to start a game but if they are losing at halftime or in the 4th quarter I will take it off. It has pulled off some miracles before. Remember Super Bowl 42? Yeah, that was because of me.

*takes a sip before finishing up today's short porch, sorry baseball terms came to mind, short post*

What are some of your baseball superstitions involving food?

Also, Happy Opening Day.

Rodney's Cardboard:2018 Panini Legacy Magenta Plate 1/1

Dennis from Too Many Verlanders blog fame was a huge help to me recently when a 1/1 Rodney Hampton popped up I desperately, yes we can call it that even for just a piece of cardboard, needed.

I didn't have the funds to pick up said Hampton so he put in a helping hand and we made a trade. Dennis is cool like that.

Said card, a 2018 Legacy Magenta Printing Plate 1/1, was in his hands pretty fast and he passed it along to me not much longer after.

This is my second Printing Plate from Legacy of my boy Rodney.

I don't know how many plates there are overall to chase but I believe its probably close to four.

I know I said I was going to show off a new Hampton that popped up in a new product this week, but I will save that for next week. I wanted to say thanks to Dennis again first.

I do wished that rest of the 1/1's I need for Legacy would make an appearance, all three are autograph parallels. But patience is best in situations like this.

Arrivals:2017 Panini Day Glove Relic Wayne Gallman

First off, I will admit, I am one who loves freebies from an eBay seller even it's un-useful junk.

Today, I actually liked what the seller sent and have use for all of it.

 

I love these non sport inclusions in Allen And Ginter

Rookie card binder Carr will go

And this Harden is a beautiful card. Wished Panini had done more like this one.

And here was the card I got. Wayne Gallman glove relic with a 3 showing. I have another relic similar to this one somewhere I will have to compare the two.

 

Back of card is bleh, but I do like the Giants colors are a nice touch.

I Was Stacked By The King

Wes has been flipping flapjacks everywhere again as The Pancake King of RAK's sent out a stack of PWE's recently and I have seen these fly all over the country.

Never did I ever expect one for myself however.

Well, Friday showed me differently as I had a mail day with a very familiar address attached to it.

Inside, I found this,

 

Including an autograph worth grading. That alone was worth the mailing.

 However, after removing that, I found a 2018 Score rookie red parallel of Saquon Barkley! Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

That's one great card!

Thanks again for the flapjack Wes! This will look great next to the other versions of this card I have. much appreciated!

In The News

It was late and I was scrolling through Twitter and saw a tweet by @BrillantCards that he had some auctions ending soon on eBay. Luckily for myself, I had a little bit of money left on a gift card to use up so I went and searched his listings.

He had a bunch of stuff from baseball to football to non sport. His listings all started low and had free shipping which is also appealing to me.

As I scrolled through, I saw some cards from The Bar I have always wanted to take a shot at but never pulled the trigger on any. I think the cards look unique and the relics are different than most. So I started putting a minimal bid on ten of them and won four.

All the ones I won were under $5, some well under.

It wasn't much longer after picking them up, that they were in my hands. Which is quite surprising knowing how slow the mail has gone my way recently.

The first card I got was Paul Revere that included a swatch of newspaper from 1799, not sure how they ever got one of those to use in this, that was an article about him.

next one was an Al Capone, which you can see the word Al in the swatch, of newspaper from 1925.

After that is a Sam Adams, sorry not the beer, newspaper from 1976. I really dug the swatch of newspaper used on this one.

And not all of the cards from The Bar have newspaper relics, some have lost emails...I mean documents in them such as this Hillary Clinton one.

Not everyone seems to like these just looking at the selling prices of most, but I think they are a part of history with the documents/newspaper swatches they contain. Even though in some ways, its hard to think about a newspaper from the 1700's being cut up for a card when it should be saved for a museum. But, maybe there are many of them out there.

What are your guys thoughts on cards like this? Like em? Hate em? Let me know in comments!

Chasing Lamar:2018 Classics Football Blaster Box #2

Well, here we go. We are ripping blaster box number two of 2018 Classics football. How will I do this time? Will Lamar finally be found? Let's check it out!

So let's get this going!

I found a two blaster box lot for $26 on eBay. That's $13 a box. Box one wasn't a bad rip so I expected about the same in box two.

 Not a bad way to kick it off. Bradley Chubb Blue Back /175 which will go into my buddy Tim's, @CardpocalypseNC,  pile for trade if he needs it.

 Who?

 Huh? You play?

 For a minute there I thought I had Superman, but nope. Not sure what role Deon Cain plays.

 This was always quite the clash!

 Once again no comment on Kareem

Cam didn't play any beautiful music this season especially on my Fantasy Team. It was all Jameis Int Winston.

And the final card, the hit, is a Carson Wentz. Not too shabby and once again the solid design.

Well, that does it for me. I am no longer wasting money on blasters when I could have been building sets or adding Rodney Hampton/Kerry Collins. I think between the four rips I have learned my lesson that it's better to stick with what you like and not follow the flow of the hobby. Remember that after you see all of these.

Chasing Lamar:2018 Classics Football Blaster Box #1

We are back for Part One of Two for the Chasing Lamar finales. Both will be blaster boxes of 2018 Classics football.

So let's get this going!

I found a two blaster box lot for $26 on eBay. That's $13 a box which I found worth it no matter the results. So far this appears to be the last year of Classics football as they switched it up to Legacy which I don't think Collectors were huge on. Classics had a great following.

Let er rip!

 

Rookies are not easy finds in this box. Three per box! THREE. Odds were against me and I didn't win. However I did add a Carter for my PC, a decent one in Miller and a Jefferson I can send to my buddy Nate

 

Guess I am a Kirk Cousins parallel seeker, at least the Cardboard Gods felt that way. This is a Blue Back numbered to 175

Peyton Manning Composers

Joe Montana High Praise

Classic Clashes

 

And my box hit, a Melvin Gordon Saturday Swatches. I really like the throwback feel of the hit and it matches the rest of the product nicely. Sometimes brands can not follow suit all the way through, they did here.

Overall, not too shabby for $13 I don't think. Big named players in the inserts and the hit was a good player.

No Lamar here, but will there be in my finale? Stay tuned!