Johnny's Now Trading With Me

A few weeks ago I put up a post looking to do more blogging trades and welcome in some new blogging traders. That post actually surprised me when I had two new guys throw their names into the hat for a trade. One of those trades I am still working on but the other was done the next day with Johnny's Trading Spot.

I have always read his blog but guess didn't correlate the fact he has a blog with the word trading in it and actually trading with him. (smack my head emoji)

But, we got quick one done and his envelope showed up way faster than I had a chance to get mine out. I once again had to grab some extra stamps on hand to make sure I could cover a few more trades which I plan to do soon. I used a few of those stamps for RAK's.

I had no idea what Johnny was sending me in our very first trade as we didn't get to the details, which I am fine with as surprises are the best way to do trades.

And boy was I surprised.

All six cards in the PWE had been signed, not at all what I was expecting.

Derek Brown

Chris Calloway, I always liked him. Never quite stood out as a super star but made some great plays.

Jason Sehorn I always had mixed feelings on. One game he is a shut down corner, next, well he was the leagues worst. Either way, I have more good memories of Jason than bad so I am more than happy to take on his autograph. Didn't have one before this.

The biggest memory I have of Jessie Armstead, who was a heck of a player by the way, was his interception in Super Bowl 35 that got brought for a touchdown. A touchdown that could have changed the direction of that game. But, instead a holding penalty called it back and the game wasn't ever close after that.

Danny Kanell started some games for the Giants, wasn't the answer after Dave Brown but held the seat warm til the Giants brought in....

Oh look, Kerry Collins. There is just something so appealing to his signature. He is always one that seemed to sign his jersey number whether it was 12 or 5. It was always there. This will be a great piece for my Collins PC.

Thanks to Johnny for the first time trade and hope we have more to come. I am kinda curious to say the least where you acquired these from. TTM? In-person? bought? I always enjoy a good backstory with my cardboard.

(UPDATING THIS POST!!! A little over a week later, he sent me another PWE this time loaded with Mark Brunell autos!! I thought while this hadn't been posted yet I would add them to this post since this hadn't been published yet)

As most readers know, I really liked watching Mark play especially his time with the Jags who were my second favorite team in the 90's.

Thanks again for Round 2 as well! Great choice of cards to be signed.

Jon Sends The 90's

Awhile back, Jon over at A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts blog mentioned that he had grabbed a few packs for me at a sale he went to.

He recently sent me those packs along with some sweet 90's add ins.

As everyone who has read this blog for awhile now knows, I am a huge Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fan and the packs he found were right up my alley. I haven't ever busted these or seen them so this should be a fun rip at some point. Have been thinking about saving them for Christmas then revealing the contents on here. The Series 2 pack above comes with a Power Cap, POG as we called them in the 90's so that should be awesome. Fingers crossed for Kimberly or Tommy!

This Series 2 pack, I assume one is hobby and one is retail, comes with a foil card per pack. Even sweeter.

Jon then proceeded to send along some Spx Finite football cards from 1998 I forgot until I got them that we had discussed in the past he had some extras of.

The 1998 Spx Finite isn't on my full radar, yet, unlike the 1996-1998 releases that were full of hologram awesomeness but who knows. I can't predict where my mind will drift off to next. All of the base cards in that set were numbered.

I think the cards looks nice in terms of layout, design and a touch of foil. Just would be a hard set to chase being all numbered and having Peyton Manning in it.

Not to mention this set has layers to it.

Series one has 190 cards and Series two had 180 cards. Series One base cards, 1-90 were numbered to 7600-sets followed by subsets Playmakers 91-120 that is numbered to 5500-sets and Youth Movement that covered cards 121-150 and numbered to 3000 then Pure Energy cards 151-170 that was numbered to 2500 finally finished off by Heroes of the Game for card numbers 171-180 and numbered to 1250.  Series Two contains had  base cards 191-280 that were numbered to 10,100, Extreme Talent that was card numbers 281-310 and numbered to 7200 followed by the New School cards 311-340 and numbered to 4000 then Sixth Sense cards 341-360 numbered to 2700 and finally Uncommon Valor cards 361-370 numbered to 1620.

Like I said, a lot of layers. Each base card also had 2 parallels.

Let's take a look at what Jon sent,

What?! A Giants card I didn't have...

And another!

My boy TD!

What one of the parallels looks like

And Jon must have seen how much I liked the Kelvin Cato he posted. These Wave Of The Future cards with liquid in them are pretty sharp.

Big thanks to Jon for the mail day. I plan to hit you back at some point!

Episode 16:Refractors From 1998

More goodies from my trade with @card_a_holic reveals some awesome Topps Chrome refractors!

Back in the 90's, things were much easier when it came to refractors. We only had one and the one only fell 1:12 packs or two per box. None of this every  pack thing.

The cards were also easy defined by an R on the back somewhere depending on the year letting us know it was one.

Let's check out the four he passed along,

Jocquez Green

Shannon Sharpe

Jason Sehorn, which I didn't even have for my Giants PC

 

and my man Mark Brunell

Believe me, there were points I considered chasing these as a set but not only would it be impossible, but expensive. One can dream though right?

I am building the 1998 Topps Chrome base set though. One of the bigger cards I have left to get is the Randy Moss so if you see one you know who to contact.

Thanks for these Brian!

Giants In My Cardboard Clubhouse

There are a lot of generous people in this hobby and especially in the blogging world. One of my recent run-ins with that generosity came from Cardboard Clubhouse. He had some NY Giants he wanted to send my way.

This years Giants team is very reminiscent of the disappointing Giants teams of the 90's which is where these cards came from. I always had big expectations of those teams, but they always had little showing. I am hoping this years team is more reminiscent of the Bills late 90's team that started off 0-3 and made the playoffs. Not sure I see that happening however with this offensive line and defense that has taken a step back and the fact they are now 0-4.

Speaking of defense, Jason Sehorn was such an up and down player. One week he could shut down Michael Irvin and then the next week give up 100 yards to Herman Moore. Keith Hamilton was always a solid defensive player.

Armstead was one of my favorite LB's on the Giants in the late 90's. I will never forget his interception in the Super Bowl vs the Ravens where it was called back on a terrible holding penalty. That game may had turned out different had it not been for that. Momentum shifted big time after.

Some Rodney, sadly had all however. But, all of my doubles go into a pile to keep. Maybe I should send one out with every trade I do as my calling card....

I don't know who did better at QB for the Giants, Dave Brown or Kent Graham. Both were terrible and both went to or came from the terrible Arizona Cardinals team in the 90's.

Dave Meggett was one great return guy. The return game has always lacked for the Giants but he was a bright spot in the years.

A trio of rookies. Lewis was a solid player, Alford didn't hand around long but I like the design of the card and I had never heard of Winrow. I also assume it's my first card of him as well which I always like filling in gaps when I can.

Gary Brown. I was so excited when the Giants got him from the Oilers. I don't remember how long he played for the Giants, I wanna say one year as he didn't pan out as well. This is a cool card however being a Gold Ignot parallel.

 

A big thanks goes out to Adam at Cardboard Clubhouse for the cards. I will see what Reds I have in return for your generosity and get something out to you as well :)