From The 90's Til Today

My December in 2017 was pretty epic when it came to pulling off trades and adding to my Giants collection. Not to mention the mind blowing consecutive days of finding cardboard in my mail box. I can't remember a month or year when that has happened. Most of it was planned by me as I wasn't expecting anything for Christmas and wanted to fill in the gap and some wasn't. Either way it was a really exciting month.

January 2018 started out a little show but recently has started to pick up. It's momentum I hope that will continue for the rest of the year.

Last week I pulled in two pretty nice mail days in from trades. My first one is from @NYCollects on Twitter. He and I pulled off a trade back in December but neither of us got around to mailing til January.

I had hoped to grab all of the NY Giants cards he had available, but didn't have enough stuff he was interested in so had to narrow my pick to three cards. But, they were really solid ones.

First card was this 2014 Topps Strata Odell Beckham Jr patch card /25. Great design and nice two-color patch.

 

Next add was this Sterling Shepard 2016 Prestige rookie autograph add. I think him and Odell will make quite the combo in 2018. Sterling showed some potential in 2017 putting up some decent numbers in a flat offense.

 

Final card was this 1999 Stadium Club Chrome refractor of Dan Marino for my 90's PC. Great looking card and wished I could have captured the shine a little better on here.

 

 

A big thanks goes out to @NYCollects for the trade!

 

My next mail day was a bit of a surprise as I was working a deal out but never fully succeeded yet. However, @SportsCardMania mailed me my stuff ahead of time and the ball is officially in my court to give back. Which hopefully I will be able to in the next couple of weeks.

Anyways, let's take a look at my scores.

Parallel from 2017 Panini of Brandon Marshall. I am hoping he actually doesn't return next year. He made no impact on this offense when he was playing before he got hurt. Seems like a waste of cap space to me that could be used for oline help.

 

Two Giants "stars" of the 90's. The Hilliard I didn't have from Crown Royale and the Hampton I have, but it's my favorite designed card of his. Actually that design is easily my Top 3 favorite card design of all time.

Ron Dayne who was supposed to be the next Giants great, but was actually not so great except for maybe one season. Mark Brunell was one of my favorite QB's of the 90's I loved to watch. The way he used his feet and how smooth his throwing style was for a lefty was so much fun. He also led a Jags team pretty far as well almost reaching a Super Bowl with them.

Some Optic parallels. Cruuuuuuuuuz I wished could have stayed with the Giants, but I understand why they had to let him go with all of his injury history. The guy could ball though in his prime. Someone who may never see their prime on this team is Paul Perkins who never panned out like I thought he would.  It appears Darkwa and Gallman are the go-to right now unless the Giants decide to use their pick on Barkley. However this Perkins is some help towards my potential rainbow chase.

Love, love, loved these. Paydirt inserts that fell 1:4 packs back in 1995 Skybox Premium. Great overall product. This is a set I am working on.

Well, I spoke how I felt about Brunell earlier, it was only an obvious thing that I needed to add his rookie to my PC and here it is,

And finally, I was surprised when I saw that Shane had a new Hampton I needed. I have the members only parallel of this card but not the base version. Well, that is no longer the case as this one is now in my possession.

 

A thanks is due to @SportsCardMania for the mail day. Hopefully I can find something you don't have and make a return mail day soon. 

This mail day provided a lot of new cool adds from my collecting beginnings, Brunell in 1993 til some newer stuff of today, the Marshall. I think mail days like this are fun as you can compare stuff from today til back then. I am however very bias on that subject, I will always go 90's first. That's a topic for another day and another post however.

The Diamond Club

My love of cards with jewels reached a new high with my latest addition.

To go along with the Sapphire I have of Terrell Davis, I can now say I own a diamond chip as well. It is real diamond, it claims to be but how will we ever know.

I made an offer of $7 to acquire this tough 90's insert I didn't even know existed. This insert set is from 1996 Zenith named coincidentally The Diamond Club. The base insert falls 1:24 packs while this one, known as the parallel to it, falls at a tough 1:350 packs and there are not a ton of them out there from my searching.

 

It's a pretty cool cheap pick up in my opinion. It's also not very often this Yankees fan finds a Red Sox card to be cool.

Now if only I could add the expensive Griffey version of this and it's base version as well.

Netted This Griffey For Cheap!

As I stated many times, I am way behind on mail day posts. Today, marks another one of those mail days.

Back in January, I was searching to add a Griffey Jr Pacific Foul Pole Net card to my collection. I knew I couldn't afford both of them that are out there so I told myself I would go for the cheapest of the two. For some reason this card was listed at BIN $2.95 with $3 in shipping and I simply couldn't pull the trigger despite others going for six times more.

The listing made it sound like there was something wrong with the card so I backed off for the longest time. However, when I was down to my final $6 to use up, I saw that the card had yet to sell and decided for that cheap it was worth the gamble.

I am so glad I did.  

I looked this card the in the PSA case up and down and couldn't find a single scratch, dented corner or side on the card marking. The netting was all in place as well. Not sure what was wrong with it as it looks to be mint to me.

 

It's not very often you get to pick up such a cool card with the name Griffey on it for cheap. 

How many of you have had a similar experience like I did? Ever buy a card and it's better than it was listed? Worse? Comment below!

You Can Never Have Enough Rookies

Last week, I had entered an RT contest from @Sportsnerdz on Twitter for a lot of rookie cards. When I see rookie cards and a contest, I can never turn it down. I feel a lot of this hobby is based on rookie cards if you look at what's popular so I try to always make sure I have at least one rookie of every player on hand. Most are base card ones but that works for me.

The lot consisted of some stars and upcoming stars and was mostly football which I dig the most. So when I had found out I won, I was pretty stoked. They also mailed it out pretty fast and in two days it arrived which was also impressive.

The first group here has Jaleen Strong, Devante Parker, Dante Fowler and Bud Dupree to name a few.

 

The next group has the great Todd Gurley who I hope can turn things around this year. It also has Jay Ajayi who was a beast last year in Miami.

 

Three rookie inserts including two stars in Foreman and Lockett. Love the look of them.

 

And to finish up the mail day, a Crusades card among a few other insrts. I always get excited to add those to the PC.

 

 

A big thanks goes out to @Sportsnerdz for the mail day and you should go give them a follow yourself. They do giveaways and are a fun follow for a variety of reasons including talking sports.

Big 'Ole Box Of Goods

Once again, the great Sport Card Collector reader Grady M has struck my mail box with box of goodies.

And I can tell you that this bad boy was packed full of inserts, rookie cards, and a few hits. There was so much in here I can't even post it all or it would have to be a 100 part series. However, I will post key components of what I find in here.

 

I haven't quite sorted it all out yet and taken pictures. This may be another month process and the posts for this mail day are looking to be started in August at this point. But, it will be well worth the wait!

An early thanks goes out to Grady M for such a monstrocity of a mail day and I look forward to showing it off!

Mail Day Saturday:Reader Mail Day Part THE FINALE

We have finally come to the end of my mail day from Sport Card Collectors reader, Grady M.

Today, I am showcasing all of the hits he sent along in that box that was jammed pack full of inserts and base card goodness. These are just the topping of it all.

Up first, CC. I still like the design on these.

Even though McCann is no longer a Yank or one in this photo, I still like him and I definitely like Gypsy Queen mini relics.

Pineda! My first Yanks relic of his and it comes in the form of the holiday boxes Topps put out in 2016. My first relic from those as well. They look pretty good up close.

Another new Shepard. I expect huge things from this guy next season.

And finally, another rookie I expect to have a huge impact in 2017, Eli Apple.

 

A huge thanks goes out to my buddy Grady M for the entire mail day that took me months to share. I am still in the works of putting together another package for you that I hope to get out in the next month or so.

Thoughts on my entire mail day or anything from today's welcomed in comments.

Mail Day Saturday:Reader Mail Day Part X

I think it's time I finish up this Reader Mail Day series that I have dragged on since the beginning of the year. Today's is one of the final two left to post. Next Saturday will provide the hits.

For now, we are looking at shiny goodness from Topps Chrome. As I have stated many times, one of my favorite products.

We have some wavy...

Some sparkly....

Some Pink....

Some Perspective....

Lots of Hits...

And a Future Star!

 

Another solid adding of refractors to my PC with more coming from him in my next mail day I am sure.

Comments on today's are welcomed in comments and stay tuned for the finale part of this mail day next week.

Mail Day Saturday: Every Time I Look At This I Don't Go Blind

Today is the final part of my latest trade mail day with 90's Niche Football Card Blog. One I have been extremely excited about showing off.

As you have seen on here, I have busted a couple boxes of 2014 Panini Country Music hoping to find myself a Darius Rucker autograph and never had any luck in doing so.

Rucker, for those of you who may not remember, was the lead singer of one of my favorite groups of the 90's in Hootie And The Blowfish before deciding he wanted to crossover to country music. Honestly, with my dislike of country music, I haven't even heard one of his country songs so I am not sure if he is even any good at it.

In my mind, he is and always will be Hootie.

When 90's Niche Football Card Blog and I discussed the possibility of helping me acquire an autograph of his, we were looking at doing his basic auto from the product, but when a autograph silhouette came up for cheaper, he helped snag it for me and we made a deal for it.

I was beyond excited to add this one to the PC. Maybe I will even still bust some of the 2014 Country Music because it is so cheap just to see if I can land the other autograph of his from the product.

A big thanks goes out to 90's Niche Football card blog for the overall trade. With his help, I got the Rucker auto, I got my Psych set complete and was able to add some cool Giants cards. Another big trade complete for us and from what I can tell, another one will more than likely build up down the road.

Thoughts on today's pickup are welcomed in comments!

Mail Day Saturday:Who Dey?

I have been following @clairedabear85 on Twitter for awhile now entering her many NFL related contests as she is a huge football fan. And as you guys know, so am I.

One of her recent contests was for a mystery envelope that she put together and forgot the contents. I was hoping the mystery had some NY Giants involved but I was happy either way because a lot of her items are from the International NFL games from the UK as that's where she is from. So any of those items would be unique for the man cave.

With the package having to cross the ocean, it took a couple of weeks but arrived safely to my mail box on Wednesday. I couldn't wait to rip it open to uncover the mystery.

Inside, I could see there was a theme. A Bengal theme which was based off from last seasons Bengals Vs Redskins game in October. One that was a thriller til end with nobody winning in the 27 all tie. It may have been one of the best games ever played in the UK to date.

So let's see what was sent.

Here is a mini pennant, a couple of tats and a window sticker.

 

This item I loved. A unique mini flag from the event. This will look awesome in the man cave.

 

Up next, AJ McCarron rookie card from Rookies And Stars.

 

Then a pretty sweet Bengals cheerleader poster with some pics signed. I am not sure how my wife will feel about this in the man cave, but that's where it's going haha

 

And to close this out, autograph of future star AJ McCarron which a lot of teams have been high on for awhile. I just wished he could get out there and play. This goes along a few other autographed cards of him I have I've been sitting on. I dig the silver ink signing. I asked @clairedabear85 about the auto and she said he signed it at a store signing right in front of her so it's pretty solid.

 

 

A huge thanks goes out to @clairedabear85 for the goodies and if you are not following her and this above doesn't give you enough reason to..well....your loss. I think many have questioned her if any international winners ever happen and I can say yes, just read this post.

Thoughts on my mail day are welcomed in comments!

Mail Day Saturday:Trade With 90's Niche Football Card Blog Part 1

I know I am supposed to show off new Giants finds over at Snagging Cardboard, if you haven't checked that blog out yet please do, but I already had these uploaded to here along with some other Giants pickups so I will finish posting those on here instead of re-uploading.

I recently made another big trade with 90's Niche Blog and brought home some tremendous goodies. There were so many to show off, I am breaking it down into an entire week plus.

There will be three parts like today's, except Part 3 will be one cool card. Next week, will be known as Psych Week showing off all of my new Psych autograph adds from this trade leading up to an epic reveal on Friday.

For now, let's just show off today's mail.

Some goodies in this first round. Numbered Playoff ticket parallel of Odell in this mix

Landon Collins rookie and Paul Perkins rookie Prizm. Prizm really do look sharp.

See-thru Eli and die cut Shepard from Absolute

This was the one baseball card of the mix and it's a beauty as I love these parallels. I wished Topps would go back to these.

Now rolling out some hits. New Ryan Nassib pickups. I wished he could have panned out with the Giants, but, just didn't have the potential most thought were with him.

Paul Perkins relic adds. Pretty slick Prizm parallel relic.

A new Andre Williams auto from Leaf. It doesn't look like it, but this is a mini

Some autos that I already had, but honestly, I will take any Giants relics and autographs whether I have them already or not. Bring em on!

A really good showcase to start here. But, there is much more to come including the epic Psych week!

Mail Day Saturday:Got Hit By A 2x3

Back a few months ago, I was one of the lucky ones who was able to grab one of Jeff over at 2x3 Heroes Blog Tis The Season giveaway lots.

Being a big non-sport collector, something my blog name doesn't admit to, I snatched up the one lot with what appeared to be a bunch of celeb goodness and I confirmed that yesterday when the package arrived.

Inside was everything I thought I could spot from the picture and even more. I was pretty happy with my findings so let's take a look.

Up first, some 2015 Americana set needs. I am hoping this will narrow down what I need. I haven't published the post on this blog yet, but I was able to pickup a marked down box of 2015 Americana that provided me with my biggest hit in awhile but also got me started on a set I hope to complete. I should be posting that break in the next week or two.

 

A good selection of celebs I didn't have here.

 

A look at some famous moments

Some more Americana fun. This time in insert form.

 

On The Tube die-cuts.

 

And a stunning On The Tube parallel. And I am not just talking about the card design itself. I have been a fan of Dushku's for awhile.

 

Some pretty slick parallels here including Bradley Cooper who I liked best from the Hangover movies. I also didn't know they made a red foil parallel. Biz Markie's pose on his card is just askin you if you "say you're just a friend"

I thought that was the end, but there were bonus finds as well!

Heroes Of Baseball inserts from Leaf I have never seen or owned some nice additions to my players PC.

 

Including a couple of Stan Musials too!

 

 

And we finish it up with a card that's dope! Well........

 

Awesome Willie Nelson relic add to my celeb PC!  Was a really nice surprise!

A HUGE thanks goes out to 2x3 Heroes for the awesome mail day. I really loved all of the cards.