Random Card Of The Day:1998 Topps Lords Of The Diamond Sammy Sosa

Random Cardboard:1996 Pinnacle Christie Brinkley Collection Sandy Alomar

Random Cardboard:1995 Fleer Ultra Power Plus Barry Bonds

Dennis Sends Some Hidden Gems

Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders blog fame,is the blogger I trade the most with in the blogosphere. I also find he is the easiest as well.

We also have a few things in common which makes it easy to do trades. We both collect Ken Griffey Jr-he probably collects more him recently than myself- and we both have a love of 90's inserts. Common collecting gives you someone to send your doubles to so they just don't sit in a box for years.

We also both know how to send the "just right" mail days to one another.

Recently, I received one of those "just right" mail days from him and once again was left with a big smile on my face. Dennis is very good at strategically finding the right Giants cards I don't have and then adding in random stuff he knew I would be a big fan of.

Just check out these NY Giants to kick off this mail day,

Let's start out with this Saquon I didn't have from 2019 Prizm Draft.

And even though I do have this Spellbound Barkley, I have them in special holders and not in my Giants binder so that's where this one will reside.

Landon Collins rookie and a Ahmad Bradshaw mini I didn't have

I didn't get much 2019 football so this Barkley was new as well.

I do have this Rodney Hampton, but when a card looks this good and is from Hogg Heaven, I will be more than happy to take two.

Back of the card. Card looks great front and back.

Evan Engram Playoff Ticket Parallel from Contenders. I don't believe I own a single Giants parallel from any Contenders so this is a first.

Now we dig into random 90's insert goodness.

I don't own any of the Ring Leaders and have been wanting one for some time. Now I have two. Awesome! These look just as impressive up close.

This cards shine and die cut of a star into the card brings this card to heights that no cards from today can touch.

Marvel, especially Spider Man plus football cards, sign me up!

I remember when I pulled the refractor version of this of Griffey when I broke a box. That was an awesome day. I will take on anything chrome from the 90's.

I have a few of these put together now...hmmm....

The one card from this set is Griffey but that was peeled with a few minor scratches on it. This is why folks we don't remove the protective film!

There is a Kerry Collins card like this one I still need. Once again, the 90's creativity hit new heights with every release because of the competition. Imagine what it would do to today's hobby if we had more than one license for the sports.

Embossed and Barry Sanders, need I say more?

More Topps Chrome. Love it! Gunslingers insert of John Elway and a refractor insert of Jeff George.

And then came these Hidden Gems in the middle of my package. Not only are they the Hidden Gems inserts but they are also the refractors of them. I will do a better job of capturing these down the road but the cards look sooooooooooooooooooooo good. I had forgotten about these until now and now I want more because of this. Wonder what that means......

This is only Part 1 of my mail day from Dennis as there is more to come tomorrow in the land of hits. Come back to see more than!

Nuttin' But The Hits:1996 Classick NFL Experience

Unlike my first break from BBCE with a Summit retail box, this time I grabbed a full size box of 1996 Classic. This was a product line that reeled me in 1995 and I caught on to the love of it since.

Boxes come with 24 packs of 10 cards and only are $12. So a steal for someone like me. I would take this kind of a break any day over a blaster of today's junk.

Let's check out my break shall we?

The base cards are beautiful. Clean, full bleed photography like this Rodney Hampton I found in my first box. I already had one, maybe five copies of this already. This one will stay in the base set I am going to build.

Excellent photographs.

One of my favorite 90's QB's here,

The GOAT. Will Saquon ever be Barry? No. I love Saquon and everything, but Barry was something special to watch that will never be seen again. Saquon will be good, but nobody runs ten yards backwards and beats you for 80 yards like Barry.

Dan the Man. Wished he could have gotten himself a ring. Playing for the Dolphins is tough.

TD scored lots of TD's. Could have been an all-time great if it wasn't for the injury bug.

Curtis Martin to me played better for the Jets than he did for the Patriots.

This guy was fun to watch as well, except against my Giants.

My first two inserts are these Super Bowl XXX cards. Cool looking full foil cards. NFC had the darker background  (by the way was a huge fan of both of these players especially Kerry)

AFC version is more lighter,

Sculpted die cut insert. I pulled the Jeff Blake in my first pack. I remember how many collectors wanted Deion Sanders cards after he went to Dallas. Especially his first Cowboys stuff.

Printers Proof parallel. Only one per box. Remember when parallels were actually tough to find? Not in every other pack or every pack? I much rather have it this way. This one is of legend Warren Moon.

Well that does it. Two box break from BBCE. I did much better with the Classic as you can see. Next time I will get Summit hobby which was honestly only a few more dollars. I did bust a box of that already last year and had a blast.

Thoughts on this break?

Nuttin' But The Hits:1996 Summit Football

Back in October, I won a gift certificate on Facebook from BBCE for their World Series contest. I was one of the lucky ones who chose Red Sox to win it all. It was painful to do, but at least there was a bright shiny ending in winning the $25 gift certificate.

Without any extra funds kicking around besides enough to cover their tad high shipping, I snagged two boxes I had my eye on that came to $24. So I was pretty happy overall.

Those boxes showed up a week later and here is the first box break.

1996 Summit football 16 pack break. This one is a retail pack break.

Why did I mention it was retail? Well the base card stock is different. The hobby version is on black background while retail is on silver foil. Honestly I like the black more.

Here are the base cards,

TD,

Dave Brown,new to the PC!

Tyrone Wheatley, new to the PC!

Some key rookies from 1996,

Terry Glenn,

Eddie Kennison. Well this isn't really key, just a guy I pull a lot of

Give me the ball! Okay, Keyshawn,

Eddie George!

Subset of John Elway. I will say the foil version of this card looks much cooler.

Slash!

My first insert find is a Inspirations Kevin Hardy numbered card.

Second was this 1:20 packs Willie McGinest Artist Proof parallel. Weird how they used the back for their parallels.

That does it for break one. Nothing too exciting in this one. Hoping that break number two gives me more than lots of base cards. I plan on collecting the 1996 Summit set, but the one printed on black background. That's the one I am more familiar with collecting and the nostalgia is why I want it.