The Present And The Past

Last week was a mail day week of epic proportions! There is some stuff I am going to show and others, well, you will have to wait on. I have something special planned with those.

In the meantime, let's check out today's showcase.

My buddy @NYCollects had a few of these Jordan Funko Pops and for some reason or another, I felt obligated to need one. I don[t get it. I couldn't stand MJ growing up. His face was on everything from Got Milk posters to cereal boxes to magazines as he was the NBA. But, as I got older, I learned to appreciate what he brought to the game as nobody brings that now. I don't see LeBron playing with the flu.

Very cool collectible of a legend. Marks only my second Funko in my collection, the other, LT-Lawrence Taylor.

Thanks goes out to @NYCollects for the mail day. I will drop your return card in the mail soon!

My next mail day comes from the great Valley Of Cards. Dude is such a great friend!

Daniel Jones the future and Eli Manning the past all on one card. Great card. I would love an autograph with both guys on it if it looked this sharp. I still have feelings for Eli sitting on the bench for all that he did for NY. But, it was obviously time to move on looking at the teams response since.

Big thanks goes out to  Valley Of Cards for the card. If you haven't yet, click on the link I included to check out their website with a vast of unique memorabilia items and check out their eBay stores here for you collecting needs,
Click link to visit Valley Of Cards website or check out their eBay stores here
https://www.ebay.com/usr/valleyofcards-2
https://www.ebay.com/usr/valleyofcards

MONSTER TRADE COUNTDOWN CARDS # 6

We are one spot from reaching the Top 5 card(s) and what a journey that will be.

Today, I will be showcasing some new 'Griffs for the PC.

Up first, a dual jersey card of the aforementioned and Grady Sizemore

 

A nice bat swatch here. I always liked this design and another dual jersey this time with Sean Casey. Upper Deck always put out some nicely designed memorabilia cards.

 

There is three more Griffey's down. I look forward to updating my checklist and my Griffey count when this is all said and done. 

Up tomorrow, Top 5 kicks off with couple of rookie printing plates. Come back to see who they are!

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.

 

 

 

FANdom Card Of The Day: 2012-13 Panini Past and Present Dual Jerseys #17 LeBron James/Kobe Bryant

2012-13 Panini Past and Present Dual Jerseys #17 LeBron James/Kobe Bryant 07/49

Thanks goes out to Jammin JDcards for sharing this card with us and you guys. Give Jammin JDcards a follow on Twitter, Find em on Facebook to talk sports, cards (you can also purchase many cards from him as well as he pretty much as everything under the sun) and for contests.