Summer Of Wes Card #5

Rodney's Cardboard:1997 Upper Deck Black Diamond

FINALLY!

Is all I can say about this card. These don't pop up too often or at all. I have been watching one on eBay that COMC had for $15 but couldn't see myself pulling the trigger. It was priced way too high which is how I feel about all Hamptons that COMC has on eBay.

Luckily, a few have popped up on eBay that I got for 1/4th of the price of what they were charging.

This time, another Black Diamond Hampton popped up on eBay with the same $15 price tag. I rolled my eyes and bit my tongue for about a month watching the seller re-list 4 times before I finally messaged them and offered $6. Now don't call me a low baller because I am not. I am a realist. There was no way a Rodney Hampton base card, despite it's somewhat rarity should ever go for $15.

The seller at first said no, I can't do that. Then I explained how big of a Hampton fan I was and how I have been watching for some time. They came back with an offer of $6 and said I wouldn't get tracking for it but they would ship it safely in a CD package. Which I was more than fine with and about six days later, the card arrived in perfect shape.

Front. It features three diamonds which is one of the tougher ones to land.

Back side. Look at those Rodney's stats.

I am glad to finally have this one knocked down, only problem now is to wait on the gold which I am not sure will ever be posted or probably be posted for a reasonable deal. Those are numbered to 50.

Breakin' Wax:1999 Upper Deck Black Diamond Football Pack

Well, on one of my $25 A Week Challenge posts, I showed off a pack of 1999 Black Diamond Football that I grabbed for $4 and promised to show off it's contents.

Well, it's time folks.

Each pack of 1999 Upper Deck Black Diamond comes with 6 cards and no guarantees, well besides memories and fun. I found my pack for $4 which is roughly what they have been going for today.

Andre Rison. It's hard to picture him as a Chief still

Nice PC card here of Gary Brown

Terrell...that's my Quarterback....get you're popcorn ready..sit ups in the driveway...Owens

I always felt back for Herman and Barry being stuck in Detroit without any hopes of playoffs or more

Kordell  "Slash" Stewart

And a nice find here at 1:4 packs....

Champ Bailey rookie!

A nice pull to end the pack and some solid players in here overall. Also got the PC card in Gary Brown so overall in my opinion a very successful break.And don't worry, I don't plan to flip any of these.

$25 A Week Challenge Week 5: Playing In Dirt

Welcome back to another week of pickups by me!

Let's see where I put my hard earned moola this week.

Found this 1999 Black Diamond pack with free shipping and at $4 a pack, can't go wrong with that. I will reveal how I did in another post as I did bust this one.

Yes, Yes I did. I finally found an affordable Mandy Moore relic from PopCardz as I have mentioned before on here, my mad crush for her.

For $5 and free shipping, I couldn't go wrong.

 

Awhile ago, Fuji had posted that there was a unique relic in 1996 I hadn't heard about before but I felt I needed after seeing his post. It's a 1996 Fleer Ultra Diamond Dust relic featuring Cal Ripken Jr. The relic contains dirt from Camden and has a guarantee by the heads groundskeeper. It's dirt from his historic 1995 season.

Most were listed at BIN at $29 which overdoes my budget and wouldn't fit into this post.

But, when I saw one listed as an auction, I took a chance and won it at $9.55 with $4 shipping. I think it was $14 well spent.

This weeks grand total is $22.55. I stayed well under budget but that's only because of the wiggle room from the Ripken going for less than I expected.

So thoughts on this weeks pickups are welcomed and I am curious what you would have done this week with $25?

Two New Traders Bring The Fun!

I am always adding great traders to my trading circle and I did just that recently.

For a couple of months, I have been working on a trade with Greg from Nine Pockets blog who contacted me about some 90s inserts and set help, it was dragged out so long because of my slacking on getting my card room situated to find him a return. Usually an easy trade like this one should have been just that, but the specific things I was looking for to send in return were buried among the mess.

But, we finally got a deal done once I pushed past the mess and here was my return,

I have always enjoyed some 90's Ultra inserts. Ultra to me was the start of the creativity in the hobby before 1996 started the uphill climb of the 90's inserts with other companies.

More Ultra with some Gold Medallions. Ultra base cards alone are worth a look at. The Leaf one at the bottom is one of those steel cards made of metal.

 Shine a light on Black Diamond...sorry Rhianna came to mind

90's Black Diamond was the best and here are some die cut versions including the man, Wayne Gretzky. One day in my wildest dreams I will own his rookie card and autograph.

There were even some football inserts. Quasers is pretty cool of Lions WR Crowell

 Rhett, there it is. Rhett there it is! digging the old Bucs uni's more as an adult

Irvin refractor from 1995 Finest,  I consider the best design out of all the Finest ones and would almost use the term iconic for that line with it.

 And to end, a couple of autographs. Not anyone I know, but still cool.

Thanks to Greg on this awesome mail day! I hope when we trade next time I will be much more prepared!

Now onto my second new trader who was a new trader but not new to me as a person. I have always spoken to @911baseballguy usually about TTM autographs and addresses. But, when I saw him post a Daniel Jones I really wanted, we began trade discussions and here was the results of those.

Daniel Jones Red Prizm parallel. Prizm is such a beautiful product. It's not quite Topps Chrome, but close.

And I have been trying to add to my Mahomes rookies and this Donruss Optic fit it well.

Thanks to Shawn on a great trade and I know many more are to come from us! (well we already did just do another since with another post on the way)

I strongly suggest you seek out these two great traders as well. Easy to deal with and ships perfectly!

Black Diamond Single

Well, today's Rodney Hampton post I moved up a year to 1997 figuring you were sick of 1996 stuff.

Like I have stated before, there are some simple Rodney Hampton cards I needed to add and today's card is one of them.

It's simply a base card from 1997 Black Diamond a stunning looking product at the time. Gotta love that Fx feel.

 

I also have the red parallel, so only the gold remains a need for me from this set and shouldn't be a tough add, but just gotta have the funds and the means to find it. You can see all of my Rodney Hampton needs, HERE.

Another thanks goes out to Jammin JD Sports Cards on helping me knock another off from the list.

Random Card On My Desk:1999 Upper Deck Black Diamond Derek Jeter

PC Masterpiece:1999 Upper Deck Black Diamond Single Diamond Derek Jeter

I like this card for many reasons. One, it has etching. Two, the picture is very different and not one I have seen on any other Jeter card. Three, it's Derek Jeter. It doesn't get much better than that.

Cards like this make me miss Upper Deck MLB products. They produced some amazing stuff in the late 90's and this is one of many Jeters I have from that time.

Upper Deck Card Of The Week:2013-2014 Upper Deck Black Diamond All-Star Martin Brodeur Jersey Card

That 90's Card: 1998-1999 Upper Deck Black Diamond Dikembe Mutombo

Shiny. Micro-etched. Parallels. Everything about Black Diamond I enjoyed.

I think my favorite part about Black Diamond was chasing the Diamond Parallels in packs. This particular card is just a base with a single diamond. You can tell this by the one diamond above Dikembe on the left side. The chase for these parallels goes all the way up to quad diamonds. Each level of diamonds also had a different color of etching so it was never too hard to spot in packs when you had pulled one. Especially a bigger one such as gold or emerald for triple and quad diamonds.

What's In The Mail Box?

Received in this nice Upper Deck NPN mail day awhile back from 2013-2014 Black Diamond. I really like the design of these jersey cards when I opened my own box, but I think this card looks even better than the ones I pulled due to the two-color swatch at the top. Check it out:

Have you ever received an Upper Deck NPN mail day? Let me know what you got!

That 90's Card: 1998 Upper Deck Black Diamond Quad Diamond Kerry Collins

Upper Deck Card Of The Week: 2000-2001 Upper Deck Black Diamond Paul Pierce

Upper Deck Card Of The Week: 2013-2014 Upper Deck Black Diamond Quad Diamond Tyler Toffoli

That 90's Card: 1998 Upper Deck Black Diamond Jake Plummer

Review: Upper Deck Black Diamond Hockey 2013-2014

One of my favorite products that Upper Deck puts out continues it great ways in hockey. I wished this would expand to other sports some day, but while I wait for that to happen, it looks great on the ice.

This product has a lot to offer from it's base card chase to it's hard to find autographs.I like everything that Black Diamond has to offer. Read on to find out why!

BOX BREAK DOWN: 

• 20 Packs Per Box, 5 Cards Per Pack
• Two Multi-Swatch Jersey Puzzle Cards Per Box!
• 1-2 Quad Diamond Rookie Gems Per Box!
• 3-4 Triple Diamond Rookie Gems Per Box!

PRICE: You can find most boxes under $85 

WITHIN THE BOX:

Double Diamonds:
Cam Neely
Corey Crawford
Tony Esposito
Brad Marchand
Marian Gaborik

Triple Diamonds:
Guy Lafleur


Quad Diamonds:
Brett Hull
Dale Hawerchuk
Rookie Quad: Tyler Toffoli

Ice Premier Rookie:
Anton Belov 925/999


Inserts:
Ruby Parallel Mike Bossy 14/50

Memorabilia (non-autographed):
Multi-Swatch Jersey Puzzle Card Phil Kessel
Multi-Swatch Jersey Puzzle Card Martin Broduer

Autographs/Autograph Memorabilia
N/A

DESIGN:
I am a huge fan of the metallic look on the cards. The Puzzle Jersey cards are a unique concept I just wished they too were done with the metallic Black Diamond look as they are a little out of place when you have everything together.

COOL NOTES:
You can look for Golden Tickets good for Quad Diamond Rookie Gems Relics cards featuring four REAL Diamonds Embedded In The Card!! There will be 25 cards in all and they will all be 1/1's
In each case they contain Four Championship Rings showcasing the 2012-13 Blackhawks championship season.

THOUGHTS: This is the kind of product I am looking for. It is not all about the autographs and jersey cards. This is actually about the base cards and set building and it's in a fun way! The base set is broken up as follows:

1-100 Single Diamond
101-150 Double Diamond
150-175 Triple Diamond
176-200 Triple Diamond Rookies
201-225 Quad Diamond
226-250 Quad Diamond Rookies

And it's not that easy to complete as you only get the following per box:

- Get 1-2 Quad Diamond Rookie Gems
- Get 3-4 Triple Diamond Rookie Gems
- Get 1-2 Quad Diamond Regular Cards
- Get 3-4 Triple Diamond Regular Cards
- Get 6-7 Double Diamond Regular Cards

This is exactly what the hobby needs again.  More focus on set building. It would definitely take someone sometime to trade, buy and bust to put a master set together. It would also be a ton of fun as well.

I also like the fact inserts are rare finds. I only pulled one in the box. That helps values of the inserts and overall product. Same goes with triple and quad diamond base cards.

Another fun addition is the pack of Upper Deck Ice. I would say though it's a little misleading as it's not technically a "bonus" pack and counts as one of the 20 packs or that was at least the case in this box. And it was strange to find it hidden within a pack marked Black Diamond. I think they should have put 20 packs of Black Diamond along with the bonus pack of Ice and had the pack called that.

Overall, there is value to be had here. With hard to find inserts and parallels and the Ice pack that can produce up to triple digit book value cards with the harder to find top rookies, Black Diamond is a fun and good buy.