Summer Of Wes Card #87

The One

*it's time for a fresh cup of coffee and some cards. Sounds like a great start to the morning don't you think?*

Every Friday on Twitter, @collect_sport, I put up a I Want/Need Thread where you comment a specific card need and I will retweet it in hopes someone will Sell, Trade or even RAK (I have seen this) the card to you. Some people use the thread the way it was intended while others make a team/set demand. I just go with the flow regardless as long as it helps the collectors commenting.

On the thread every week, I also give an example of a specific cards I Want/Need. I have had some success in doing so, but one card I have tried a few times without any luck up I put up again and this time to my surprise had a response.

That's when I met @MattyBW who had what I wanted and so much more.

*takes a sip, gets excited about showing off these cards and takes another sip before doing so*

It wasn't too long after he had replied to my tweet about that specific card need that we had a nice conversation. The biggest point of the conversation was to make sure I got that card but we talked about much more that led to a trade as well.

I recently just started collecting more Jasson Dominguez for my Yankees PC. This was my second add to the collection.

This along with a few newer Cal Ripken Jr cards I forgot to take pictures of were the "newer" cards of the group. The main focus was on the 90's basketball. And if you know me, that hits the sweet spot and in comparison to coffee is the king of the cups.

John Starks adds. I always find it both saddening and odd to see John Starks in any uniform that's not a Knicks one. He was a fan favorite and a favorite of mine.

Finest Shaq. Don't ever let him post up, guy was unstoppable unless he had to shoot free throws.

Hakeem with the block!

And then Hakeem with the shot. Well, the Best Shot. These fell 1:12 packs and also had refractor parallels as well.

My first picture wasn't the greatest at showing how cool this card actually is. So I held it up to a window.

Now rolls in a beauty....

1996-1997 Bowmans Best Honor Roll Refractor! These bad boys fell 1:192 packs but it's not only the beauty of the card that grabs my attention, its the players. Patrick Ewing was one of the trio of Knicks I liked and Karl Malone I enjoyed his game and tried to mock it when I played with my friends back in the 90's. If I was to try that now, my body would ache for weeks.

*takes another sip before the coffee gets cold. I like Iced Coffee okay, but not my hot coffee getting iced. While I am it, I might as well toast a couple of english muffins*

I haven't even gotten to the main card of this post yet and I bet you are sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for me to show it off. Hold your mugs, we are almost there.

For now, I will tease this card as an intro....

Yup, a 1995-1996 Spx Gold Jason Kidd. Anyone who has followed me knows my deep passion for 90's Spx. I own set all three NFL Sets, one MLB Set, Both NASCAR sets, One and a half Hockey sets, and now......

Hold that thought.

*takes a sip of coffee*

I don't normally like jelly on my english muffins, I am a fan of bland so butter is my usual choice, but I will take a bit more excitement today when I show off the exciting card.

*takes a few bites, sip of joe and now onto the big reveal*

I think I have made you wait long enough to finally show the main card of this post. Not that the other cards above aren't sweet.

To finish up where I was with my Spx set chase, I also have one and a 49th basket....hold your horses...

What's this...

BOOM! You guessed it. The MJ has finally come home to finish up my second basketball set. He is smiling like I was when I finally got to hold this card.

 

And here he is resting peacefully among his Spx teammates.

With this set finally now complete, I am only missing the 1996-1997 Spx basketball set to complete the trio. That one also has my favorite design of the three but is also a dream set. I don't ever imagine myself being able to complete that one.

An obvious huge thanks goes out to @MattyBW for helping me finish up this set. It was a long time coming and it feels good to finally get there.

If you have Twitter, check out my Friday Thread and see what project you might be able to complete. You just never know what you may complete or who you may meet and become friends with. Isn't that the point of this hobby?

Coffee Card blogger out.

Malone and Mantle

A new thread popped up on Twitter recently that was a lot of fun. It's sort of trading, but not.

It's simply offer up a card you don't need for your collection via PWE, if someone claims it, you mail it to them and they must offer up a freebie themselves for others to claim including yourself. Same goes if you find a card you want, you can claim it but must also throw up a freebie yourself.

The first week I joined in I claimed two and gave away six. That's just because I hate shipping one card PWE. The other card hasn't arrived yet that I claimed but this one did just two days later.

Karl Malone was a must need once I saw it and was my first claim from the thread. Mainly because I showed up late and a lot of other stuff had already been claimed. But, you combine 90's insert and the mail man, it was an obvious connection.

Thanks to @ThomasLeeGreen for the mail day.

My next mail day came from The Diamond King who sent me a big surprise with some Shiny Mantles after seeing my post about the Chrome Mantle reprints I recently added.

Except mine weren't cool refractors like these.

 

2007 Topps Chrome /500

 

2008 Topps Chrome


2007 Topps Chrome /500

 

These are the coolest Mantles I own yet! I will have to update my PC numbers for him at some point but most, if not all of my Mantle collection is all new stuff. Only one vintage card I own of him.

Thanks to The Diamond King for the nice surprise!

Malone And Stockton Team Up Again

Today's post is my second part to my trade mail day from @TheBigCat63 on Twitter. These were the main cards I was chasing when we first discussed doing a trade. One is an obvious need, two more knock off want list needs and the final one was a just in case.

Let's see what I am showcasing this time.

 

This Darnold went along with another Darnold I will be showing off in a few pictures. Everyone says the Giants should have taken him, but I will take the OROY any day still. But, I am a bit concerned about their QB situation going forward.

 

A pair of Want List items taken off! Back in the 90's, not only was I a big time Knicks fan, but the Jazz were my backup team. Loved watching the "Mail Man" deliver and Stockton pass the ball. These two were in-sync and the Jazz were a tough team. But, when you face the Bulls in the title game, only heart ache can be achieved even when Jordan wasn't 100%.

I am glad I finally get to knock these two off of my autograph needs. Still other 90's basketball players to go.

 

I have somewhat found myself in a prospecting phase. I wanted a Darnold and Mayfield autograph all season and finally was at least able to knock one down. Darnold looked sharp at some points this season and dull as a knife in others. Will be interesting to see how his career pans out. At least now I have an autograph of him.

 

Now this NY QB is the bigger headliner. Two-Time Super Bowl MVP and Champion. And now that those lousy Patriots won the Super Bowl again this may help Eli's cause for the Hall Of Fame as he is the only QB so far to beat Brady twice in the big game. He also beat him in the regular season as well at least once. I hope Eli does come back for one more year and give the Giants one more last run.

Well, this is still only part two of our meaty trade. The big bacon, well at least to me, comes tomorrow when I go non sport on ya!

Upper-DUNK Basketball!

I am back!

FINALLY time for another new post on The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict.

I must apologize for the long delay, but I was taking time away to rest from surgery and thinking of the direction I want to take this blog. I have found it a bit challenging to locate a lot of the cards that need to be posted on here so going forward I am only posting the accessible ones on my desk or boxes and building my posts around them. But, I do promise everything you love about this blog with nostalgia will continue just in a different way. I also promise that the products and cards you see on this blog I actually own and opened at the year they are stated.

So with all of that being said, let's move onto today's post.

As I stated at the end of 1995, I was starting to get more into basketball card collecting. I was also learning to appreciate Upper Deck products a whole lot more. One of my favorite basketball from Upper Deck in 1996 was their flagship product.

It had nothing to even do with the inserts and hits, it had to do with the simple base cards.

The simplicity yet elegant look draws you in immediately. The cards are pretty much borderless other than the small slit down the side that has orange bumpy-embossed feel to it. The design alone was nice but not as nice as the photographs that Upper Deck used. Something they have always been winners for in my book. No other company had the photography like they did.

Just like the title of this post, a lot of the 360 base card photos involved above-the-rim-slam-dunkin-action. Come check out a few of my favorites right here,

This is technically a rebound, remember when teams did that, but it's still high flying action

The Mail Man is delivering!

 

I always had a thing for the 90's Jazz and treated them as my second favorite team

 

This isn't saying that 1996-1997 Upper Deck basketball didn't have nice inserts because they did. Lots of foil and die cut action. Something I loved to collect. The inserts were a bonus in my opinion with such nice base cards.

My increase in collecting basketball cards in 1996 was really growing as I will show as this year goes on and it helped with products like this. Well, that and my hate of the Miami Heat, Indiana Pacers and Chicago Bulls. I would use cards from those teams to get cards I actually wanted. I cannot count the times I ditched Jordans for a Ewing or Starks or NY Giants card for my collection. Looking back on that now...well...I may not have made those decisions.

I cannot say enough times how glad I was to collect the NBA in the late 90's because where is this kinda photography in today's basketball card collecting? It doesn't exist. You know why...because Upper Deck NBA cards do not exist. We are limited to one company and that one company isn't Upper Deck. You know what else doesn't exist...my collecting of today's NBA cards because of this.

Nuttin But The Hits:1994-1995 Fleer Basketball 2-Pack Break

There was no other brand name  in the 90's better than the Fleer one. They put out some very solid products for many sports that offered collectors everything that they needed.

Today's pack break was one of those. With some groovy looking inserts and base cards that capture great photographic moments, I was looking forward to busting these.

Let's see how I did.

Each pack of these 1994-1995 Fleer basketball cards had 21 cards per pack. Packs then ran $1.99 and now probably go for half if not less than that. Remember when packs were actually affordable???

Now onto my "hits". I even featured key base cards I got.

 

Each pack also came with an insert. I believe they were one per pack but some inserts were tougher than others.

 

Not a bad pull here, Rodman!

 

Overall, two inserts, two cheap packs and tons of memories. Can't go wrong.

Like Basketball Cards? Here Ya Go Part 2

More basketball cards???!! Yup. As I stated in Part 1, there is more basketball cards to show from the lot I acquired from my former teacher's son. I must also note that this isn't the end of it. There will be more parts.

But, for now, let's get this show on the road shall we!

More Mailman Malone! 90's goodness delivers! See what I did there ;)

Metal!

In the 90's, the Jazz were the bombsizzle. Malone was good, but you couldn't have Karl Malone with John Stockton. They were like PB and Jelly.

Gonna Crash The Game!

Yay! Flair!

Overall, some nice additions. Fun 90's cards that at some point I may share individually as well for a 90's Flashback card. That may also help you see these cards a bit clearer up close.

Like I stated above, plenty more of these to come. I will work on getting better angles of the pictures for Part 3. Wanna show these off the best way I can!

That 90's Card: 1993-1994 Fleer NBA Jam Karl Malone