Generosity Around The Holidays

Trevor over at Bump and Run Football Cards Blog has hit me up the last few years with a surprise around Christmas time. I believe he also hit me up earlier this year.

He always sends me Giants or 90's set help which I truly appreciate. The only problem I have is I always misplace his address for a return thank you, even though I know he doesn't ask for one, and everyone who I am in contact with doesn't have it.

Finally this time when he sent his latest mailing, I kept the envelope and made sure I sent a return which I hope you enjoy soon Trevor.

Anyways, that unexpected mail day showed up last week and I am just getting to post it as there are so many mail days coming in as of recent and I am falling behind.

Today, I am posting two together that seem to fit. They both were friendly out of the blue just because it's the holidays kinda mail days. Neither expects anything in return except a thank you. They probably don't even expect that but I am going to give one anyways.

Here is my mail day from Trevor first before I move onto the second one,

Phoenix "refractor" of Odell. I gotta admit I still do miss him and I think he would have paired well with Jones, Barkley, Slayton, Shepard and Engram but it is what it is. And Peppers and draft picks Giants got in return have played well.

Set help for my Same Game More Attitude chase. I gotta update all of the numbers now with these additions and a few others.

Herman Moore TD Kings

 

 

1995 Pinnacle base set help

Dan Marino is an Award Winner! What ever happened to great looking cards like this.

Pro Bowl die cut. Love these! Still have a ways to go on the set however.

Hakeem Nicks sticker. I actually didn't have this

Thanks Trevor once again for the mail day! Much appreciated!

Up next, my buddy Turk on Twitter said he found something while searching his 2013 cards and said it fit with me more...and he was right!

Topps Prime....those were the days...

Ryan Nassib....

Woooooooo. That's sure purty!

autographed booklet with a swatch of football, not sure what the pink swatch is maybe a towel for Breast Cancer awareness?

And the other side with a jersey swatch, maybe a sock or ugly sweater and then a glove. Pretty slick!! Card is numbered 10/15.

Big thanks to Turk for this card and for your generosity!

I did a few generous mail days myself to a few unsuspected individuals including multiple bloggers who may not have seen a mail day from me in awhile. Well, now you will.

There is nothing better than spreading the love this time of year!

Breaking 90's:1998 Topps Chrome Football Pack Break

Well, my obsession with ripping 90's packs came to a all-time high when I was able to rip a pack of 1998 Topps Chrome football. Probably one of the most sought after Topps Chrome football products because of it's rookie class. You have Randy Moss, Charles Woodson, Fred Taylor and of course Ryan Leaf. Ooops, I mean Peyton Manning. I think the Chargers were thinking the same thing.

Don't be fooled by the pack price of $2.99 on here. They don't go for that anymore. I landed mine for $10.99 which is a high gamble to me for 4 cards but it was a time traveling risk I was willing to take. Did it pay off or get my money back? Well you can be the judge of that...

Neil O'Donnell

Darnay Scott

Herman Moore

And a little bit of boom in this pack. Refractor!! Only two per box and I found one in a pack. Stoked!!

 

You can see the word refractor by the card number on the back. Vanover didn't really pan out but I think it's a great pull still.

Overall I was happy to spend the money on this pack. Brought back some memories of my father and I ripping tons of it and I got a refractor. 

Also this is the start of my set chase as well. I do have a Peyton already so I knocked the big one out. Now just need the rest of the set which you can find my set needs on this link, 1998.

Scored From The Beginning

1995 Score football was my first taste of Score, a product that has been a collector friendly since 1989. Since then, I have bought some every year. It was the 1995 version that helped me fall in love with Score. It was an affordable product that costed less than $1.49 a pack and had many draw ins with foil inserts and fun designs on base cards.

When packs of 1995 Fleer football ran out, in came 1995 Score football and in came me to buy some packs and give it a try.

The base card design was simple and fun for a 12 year old. It focused on the key player and had a ripped logo at the bottom.

Star Struck was one of the subsets in Score. It featured players "posing" for the Hollywood cameras with their flash on and fans/players reaching out for them because we are all star struck by them.

The rookie cards were featured in college uniforms for an early NFL product and are not photoshopped or logo-less like today's. I assume this product released just after the draft and pictures from the premier couldn't be used, but at least the players had an NFL team helmet on the back to let us know who they will be playing for. I miss the days where college products were integrated into early NFL ones instead of being on their own. I feel today there are way too many products college, especially repeat ones from one company. I think NFL/NCAA integration is the best route to take there.

For rookie cards, I was always on the chase for Kerry Collins and Steve McNair which both I pulled in my first five packs but not as many times however as I pulled this guy....

The inserts and parallels in Score were fun to collect. In the packs when you opened them, it wasn't too hard to spot when you hit one with so much white from the base cards. My father and I use the same approach when we know there is a hit or insert in a pack, we look at all of the cards surrounding it and save the hit for a slow reveal. It's just like that moment on American Idol where they were about to announce the winner and got to commercial break. We both still do that today.

One of the parallels in 1995 Score was Red Siege, which took the base card and added a red foil to it. I pulled plenty of these back then.

Artist Proof was the other parallel that added a silver foil to the base cards and were a tad harder to find compared to Red Siege. I always thought the Red Siege looked better than the Artist Proof anyways. Sadly I never pulled one of these in 1995.  I had to buy this Hampton for my PC just to own one.

Offense Inc. where only a few privileged ones were allowed in this decent looking insert set. Besides the parallels, these were the only inserts I ever pulled. I never landed a Dream Team.

In recent years, 1995 Score football has been among the brands I have re-busted as an adult to revive those memories and it was just as affordable now as it was then. The Frerotte and Elway Red Siege above were actually my pulls from a five pack break and sadly were better than my pulls as a kid.