Trade With The Diamond King

*takes a sip, finally getting to sit down for today's post after a busy morning which included getting my booster Pfizer vaccine. Time to find some breakfast as well*

Packages and PWE's have been flowing into the mail box like never before the last week or so. Not only has this led to some excitement, but has also put me in a tough spot when it comes to blogging them. I just hate making people wait for a thank you.

So most of those mail days I tweeted out, so hopefully you follow me on Twitter to have seen those. I think a good portion of my mail days will be posted that way. However, ones I get from fellow bloggers, I still plan to post this way.

*takes a sip, then shakes arm to get muscle loose from the shot*

My most recent blogger trade, I haven't done a lot of them this year, is from The Diamond King who had posted his best Griffey's including one he had for trade.

But, before we get to that card, our trade expanded a bit more and he included some awesome 90's inserts I didn't have (this is only a small portion of them)

Sp Matchups

Ultra The Book On

New Horizon Hideki Irabu

Upper Deck National Pride (how great does this look with the light box)

*takes a break for a minute to shake the arm again*

Playoff Illusions Spectralusion of Shannon Sharpe

Ultra Notables

*takes another break and arm shake. puts his left arm out, puts his left arm in, puts his left arm out, and shakes it all about....then goes back to typing*

On top of those great 90s inserts, then there was this beauty.

Wayne Gallman Triple Rookie Relic autograph from Absolute football. Even though he is in Atlant

a now, I still collect him.

And finally, the big piece.

  

2000 Skybox Dominion Eye On October Plus Parallel. The base version of this fell 1:24 packs while the tougher to find Plus parallel fell 1:240 packs. There is also a much rarer level with the Warp Tek parallel that's numbered.

Big thanks to The Diamond King on the trade.

*takes a sip, shakes the arm again, and gets ready to finish up today's post before moving onto more stuff to do today*

I know I have more mail days on the way from trades I just made, I also have some mail I have to send out which will lead to even more mail days. I am definitely not complaining about the situation, I just don't see myself sitting down to post them all like the old days.

What have you gotten in the mail box recently?

Have a great Tuesday.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

The Rest

I am a week behind on this, which I apologize for, but here are the Birthday Presents that @gmccarthy sent along in our trade for the Lamar Jackson autograph.

Kicking off this post are two Project2020 cards. Last year I didn't have any interest in these cards whatsoever, but as I have added a few to my collection, I am beginning to be a fan. With the Jeter and McGwire adds, I now have 4 of the P2020 cards in my collection with no plans of moving any of them. If anything, I would like to add to them. Especially with 2 I really want off from my Top 20 list in the Project 2020 #199 Don C Mariano Rivera and the Project 2020 #383 Don C Derek Jeter.

Up next, a Donruss Junior rookie. I lost track of how many of these I have in my Griffey PC but I never get tired of seeing them.

LT! New card for my Giants collection.

Lamar Jackson pink Mosaic. This product brought the bling and I believe this is my first Jackson parallel from it.

And to end, a Darius Slayton autograph. This is also a Slayton autograph I didn't have.

Big thanks goes out to @gmccarthy for the birthday gifts. Even though this was our first time talking and our first trade, you nailed it all around with the gifts and trade. Thanks so much! I really hope to trade with you again.

Also if you haven 't traded with him, look at how well it went for me. I suggest you give him a trade!

It Was Ruined For Me

The 1998 MLB season was one that was memorable and amazing to watch...but those memories went down the drain just a few years later, at least for me.

The home run chase between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire to beat Roger Maris' record of 61 home runs in a single season had me hooked and lured in that summer. I was really rooting on Ken Griffey Jr to surpass them and take that crown just because I am a collector/fan of him but it didn't take away from the thought of all of this going down.

Despite Griffey's best efforts, there was no way he could catch up to the power that Sosa and McGwire provided as it felt they blasted a home run every other game. I remember watching the news and having the sports anchor break down how many home runs would need to be hit over a certain amount of games left for all three players to break the record.

That season, both players crushed Maris' record of 61 as Sosa hit 66 and McGwire smashed his way to 70 that year. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and it was exciting. It made me fall more madly in love with the sport and baseball cards.

Then came the steroid controversy.

Finding out that both players cheated the game to break that record, which was later on beat again by another steroid accused user in Bonds, made me really start to question my love of the sport. Then came more and more accusations of other players including Roger Clemens who was my favorite pitcher at the time. It completely turned my world upside down for baseball. I started to push myself away from the sport and it's cards. 

By 2005, I was no longer a die hard watching/Yankee rooting baseball fan and instead NFL football was the only sport I continued to watch. Baseball cards became less interesting especially after seeing the values fall on McGwire and Sosa after I had finally acquired their rookie cards and a few other short printed cards.

I was done. Baseball was done for me. Baseball Cards were as well.

Fast forward 15 years later, I can say I didn't watch one single MLB game this year which is a surprise as I at least used to use it for background noise the last few years sorting cards when the Yankees were on ESPN. What am I saying...when aren't the Yankees on it?!

Though my passion of baseball cards isn't what it once was, I still continue to add to my collection when I can with Griffeys, Judges, Gleybers and key rookie cards. But, what I really like to collect of the sport is cards from the late 90's and early 2000's which to me is the best time frame of collecting in the history of collecting.

When @pdawson224 had two shiny cards from that time frame up for grabs, coincidentally Sosa and McGwire, I quickly snagged them and Patty mailed them out not much longer after. This claim was apart of the no longer running #PWEFriday. All it takes is a few bad apples to ruin a good thing.

 

These 2000 Topps Perennial All-Stars came as a 10 card insert set randomly inserted in packs.

The design is spectacular and makes me wonder why Topps cannot produce great looking inserts like these anymore. Add some flash and excitement!! Most inserts now are produced to look like base and they don't excite me like this.

Despite what happened in 1998 and all through the 90's with the Steroid Era, I am just glad my most favorite player during that era had no ties with the roids. Thank you Ken Griffey Jr. True class Hall Of Famer and who I consider now the leader of the 1998 Home Run chase.

I know there are at least a lot of McGwire fans, not sure about Slammin' Sammy, out there who will shake their heads at me and probably leave comments about it but it's simply how I feel. I have tried to take in account that the Roids just gave them the power to hit which doesn't help swinging at a 95MPH fastball but it still bothers me. I am sure other sports have their cheaters as well, looking at you Tom Brady, but this baseball incident hurt the worst.

So what do you guys think about the 1998 Home Run chase? Are you okay with them using roids for it? Does it bother you at all? Let me know in comments!

The Diamond King Delivers

One of my newer favorite blogs I discovered is The Diamond King who I guess has been around longer than myself. But, to me, it's a newly discovered blog thanks to a list of blogs from Night Owl not long ago.

It's been a fun read and he also ran an amazing promotion recently. The basic idea of the promo, offering each contestant who earned a spot 100 DK Dollars to bid on lots of cards he posts up. You have a certain amount of time to bid on those lots, just like on eBay, and hope you can bid enough and not get sniped. Like I did.

I think I was the only contestant to bid all of their money and win four lots. Three of the four lots I came home with while one I "bought" for two other collectors. I did score the two cards from that one I wanted the most though.

It was a fun game of not trying to spend all of your money thinking something could be coming up to fit your PC better while you are also not trying to lose out on stuff you may be able to use as well. I feel I did well in balancing out my money and landed some pretty cool stuff.

No these aren't real. These are reprints, but still shiny.

Da Man! First time in a long time I have added multiple Griffeys to that PC.

Misc

A Mets Schedule

Some numbered stuff

Stickers including a Jeter

Jeter reprints

And being the nice guy The Diamond King is, I was "sniped" on a basketball lot that had a Harden and Dirk rookie I really wanted. I try to collect a rookie of every player and those are two I was lacking. He knew how bad I wanted the lot so he sent these two along for me.

Upper Deck James Harden

Flair Dirk Nowitzki

That was everything for my $100 Dk.

Now comes a few claims I made for the Diamond 9 which is a freebie pick and grab promo he runs as well,

I claimed these three to send off to a buddy of mine who does so much for others in the hobby. Least I could do is pass them along. He is a big Strawberry and Doc collector.

 

And this McGwire I claimed for myself. A 90's insert for my PC I have never seen before. Wonder if Griffey is on one of these.

And that does it for his mail day. Great stuff I think. Thanks again to The Diamond King. If you haven't checked out his blog yet please do so and add him to your blogroll if you are a blogger.

Hope everyone has a great day!

BY THE WAY...NEW POST OVER AT CARDS OVER COFFEE!! Please check it out and add it to your blogroll people!

NEW POST HERE↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

Not Vintage

Unsolved Mysteries Episode 2

This blog post series is about unraveling unsolved mysteries from a card lot my mother-in-law bought me from an estate sale. What you are about to see isn't a breaking news broadcast or some new releases. There is a lot to go through here so whenever possible, I will try to condense down some of the graphics and whenever possible, real cards from the actual lot (well all of them are from the actual lot but let's have some fun with it) will be used for pictures.

Someone, somewhere can help me uncover the mysteries within this lot. Let's take a look and maybe one of you, will help me solve some mysteries.

*insert creepy music and theme song*

The location is still completely unknown where my Mother In Law went to grab this lot of sports cards other than it was a Estate Sale. Belief is, it was somewhere isolated as nobody grabbed them before she did. It may be the only explanation on why someone wouldn't have grabbed this lot before she showed up three hours after it started. Or maybe it was because the cards were more than they were expecting? Or was it a government conspiracy? I guess we will have to tune in to today's round and maybe you can help solve this mystery.

These Fleer All-Stars inserts are from 1993. They have a fairly decent design that would have fit better as a base card design than a 90's insert. Darren must know that or knows something possibly relating to this lot. Nobody makes a bluffing face better than he does.

Three Diamond Kings but only one Gallery of Stars. Mystery written all over it....

Two mid-tier players when it comes to the hobby and a more powerful one in Greg Maddux. Why would Greg had been left behind with two mediocre hobby power players?

Never knew that Jose Rijo was a League Leader....

Did the owner of these cards collect Nomar or the Red Sox? Or did the candy entice him because it came with an Upper Deck card? Or maybe he just liked the red licorice and the card was a bonus. It's a Twizzler of questions that need to be answered.

Some early 2000's Upper Deck hockey Young Guns. I don't know any of these players but Young Guns are Young Guns. They have to have some value or do they...

This was the one and only Donruss Classics card in the lot and is numbered of the great Stan Musial. But, why was he alone that day? And why Stan?

Shiny cards never get left behind...then why were they?

At one point Mark was a Hobby Master than he fell into some trouble later on his career. It's still a mystery on why he did what he did...

This Mike Piazza insert contains 4 out of 6 known steroid users in what was supposed to be called a Superstar Summit. It seems to me it needs to be renamed because real Superstars don't cheat, but what would you call it?

 

Back To Back Mike Piazza inserts to finish today's look at the lot. Did this collector have luck pulling Mike or did they collect him?

This does it for Episode Two of Unsolved Mysteries. There is a lot of unexplained findings here with even more mysteries to unravel. Tune in next time and Perhaps YOU, can help solve a mystery.

A Mixed Cube Of Everything

The next cube didn't have a specific sport or even two. It has a mix of everything and every piece was a surprise as with all of these cubes that Wes from Area 40 blog put together. That's what makes these so much fun.

This cube kicks off with a coin and Seattle Slew card so I knew this one would be interesting.

The coin, well, that's a Geoff Bodine from Pinnacle Mint. Very cool product.

Next, a Mark McGwire gold karat card. Something common you found a lot of in the 90's.

Speaking of the 90's, I loved this design by Upper Deck adding in the hologram.Maybe this should be another one on my set list. Of course the more I add, the less I complete.

TMNT! We all know I dig these. Wished I had the full base set.

I have never seen these before or heard of the group The Babys. But, I enjoy the oddball non sport issues so I will binder these.

Finest Prodigies gold edition!

Jose Canseco when he was skinny. Wonder if he ate too many Drakes and that's what really made him the monster hitter he turned out to be....

My first ever Roger Federer card. I like to have a few cards of each sports stars so this is nice add.

A football relic and autograph of Eric Fisher.

And finally, we end it on an awesome note, Fragments Of The Farm. I love this series in Topps with it's unique swatches.

That does it for today's cube. But, there are more to come so stay tuned!