Owed Thanks

It's been a crazy-busy year so far and when you combine that with the fact that I got another year older already, this means I can become very forgetful.

What helps me get through is writing post-it notes or in this case having a blog draft ready.

When I started moving posts from my other two blogs back onto this one, I discovered a hidden draft I had started and never finished. It was a very generous mail day from my northern neighbor Angus who blogs on Dawg Day Cards.  I believe I had published the other half of this mail day on Cards Over Coffee but had been meaning to finish posting it on another blog and never did.

So, before I begin this post, I would like to first apologize to Angus for this delayed owed thanks for such a great mail day.

Now, time to show off the rest of that mail day,

I kick it off with a golden YA Tittle.

Next, a shiny Kerry Collins. Regardless if I have this or not, I never EVER turn down any 90's inserts or parallels especially of my favorite players.

Phil Simms 1984 Topps

As someone who grew up watching the Flinstones and the live action movies, these were great additions for two PC's. I could count these as non-sport ones as well. I have seen a couple of these on eBay before and always wanted them, now I have them.

I always hoard these Pro set cards.

One of my favorite Giants of all-time is featured on this card. Hakeem Nicks was very underrated as a Giants pass catcher but had one heck of a run in the 2011 NFL Playoffs leading the Giants to the Super Bowl and upset win.

I miss Sterling, I really wished he had retired as a Giant.

 

And finally, a Rodney Hampton. I do have this one, it's hard to find many that I don't have, but Rodney's are always welcomed just in case I don't.

Thanks again Angus for the mail day. I really appreciated all of it and you are a great, generous guy.

I guess before I continue on with more new posts on here, I better check my post-it notes and drafts to make sure I don't have any other owed thanks Let's just hope I don't misplace those as well, that wouldn't be good. I can't have a post-it note of where I placed my post-it notes.

We Got One!!

Somehow or another, the football Gods came to save the NY Giants season as they pulled off the upset over the 3-0 LA Chargers with a 21-18 win.

And most of that was because of rookie Quarterback Jaxson Dart who all Giants fans like myself hope will be THE GUY in New York finally after we suffered through so much quarterback pain since Eli Manning retired.

Anyways, here are a few of my most recent Dart additions. I don't have anywhere near what most would consider an "epic" Dart collection, but I have a few solid cards.

 

Dart finished the day throwing for 111 yards and a touchdown along with rushing for 54 yards and another touchdown. The most important stat was the win.

Next week the Giants take on the New Orleans Saints on the road. Hopefully Sunday's win will be a turn of the season.

Will The Giants Draft Him Part 2? Jaxson Dart

 

The New York Football Giants currently have no quarterback on their roster they are sticking with and a Top 3 draft pick to get their future one. 

The question is, who and when will they draft him.

To plan accordingly, I acquired a couple autographs of two top QB prospects I have heard them being connected to. And no, I have not landed a Sanders autograph yet.

Today's autograph is Jaxson Dart. He is predicted to be more of a second-round guy, but he is moving up the charts fast recently so maybe the Giants will either draft Travis Hunter at three then trade back into the end of the 1st to grab him or maybe just take him in the second round.

Will the Giants draft him? Will this be their guy? We will find out around April 24th.

Will The Giants Draft Him Part 1? Cam Ward

The New York Football Giants currently have no quarterback on their roster they are sticking with and a Top 3 draft pick to get their future one. 

The question is, who and when will they draft him.

To plan accordingly, I acquired a couple autographs of two top QB prospects I have heard them being connected to. And no, I have not landed a Sanders autograph yet.

Today's autograph is Cam Ward. He is known as the Top QB currently in this year's draft but with the combine coming up, that could change everything.

Will the Giants draft him? Will this be their guy? We will find out around April 24th.

My First Of 2024

 

Thanks to a RAK on Twitter, I added my first NY Giants rookie autograph of the year!!

The Giants drafted the RB/WR in the 5th round of this year's draft. Knowing that RB Saquon Barkley left, the Giants will have plenty of opportunity for the rookie running back and I am hearing he is looking good in OTA's.

My next goal is to add a Malik Nabers autograph. So far, no luck. But hopefully I can pull one off before the season begins.

Rodney's Cardboard:2023 Panini Absolute Historic Duals Red Ottis Anderson/Rodney Hampton Autograph /75

 Today marks the final run on the 2023 Absolute Historic Duals that I have so far. It's not too many and most of my focus has been on the bigger numbered cards as those fell cheaper.

Other than the 1/1, the /10 and the /25 have popped up once and both left my grasp. Hopefully they will re-appear. I have yet to see the Purple /5.

But, let's take a look at a card I have seen and own today :)

This card is the Red version which is numbered to 75. I guess you can consider this a team color parallel as well.

 

Back of the card is the usual Panini backing.

Here is the overall look at the chase so far. 

Historical Duals Black 1
Historical Duals Purple 5
Historical Duals Gold 10
Historical Duals Green 25
Historical Duals Blue 35
Historical Duals Orange 50
Historical Duals Red 75
Historical Duals 199

As I said above, had to focus on the easier ones first.

Stay tuned for new Rodney posts to come!

Sunday's Giants: Goal Line Graph

It's Sunday and it's been a while since I posted a Giants card on Sunday.

Sundays on Sport Card Collectors used to mean Rodney's Cardboard, but with the lack of Rodney's out there that I need, I may need to do some rearranging.

Over the past year, I have maybe added three new Rodney Hamptons if that tells you how tough things have been. Two of which I have shown off with one that I haven't. Stay tuned next Sunday for that unique piece (notice how I didn't say card).

In the meantime, let's check out this Sunday's Giants card.

 

This is a 2020 Playbook Goal Line Graphs of Darius Slayton.

Normally I try to aim for Giant's players I don't have autographs of, but I have always fallen for cards with great photography and this one has it.

This is the second one of these I own, except the other is a blue parallel patch numbered to 49 as opposed to this base one being numbered to 199.

I am not sure how many parallels there are to these, but I don't plan on adding anymore at least anytime soon. We all know how collectors like myself can be sometimes :)

Here's hoping for a Giants win tomorrow night vs the Seahawks!!

Finally

Finally.

That's the first word that comes to mind when I think about football season starting today. It's been such a long stretch since I last watched the NY Giants play a meaningful football game.....with a cup of coffee of course.

It's time, finally.

I am really excited about this season after how last year went and with the Giants new offseason additions.

But I am also excited to see how some of last year's guys do as well that had injury prone rookie seasons that showed some potential.

Wan'Dale Robinson spent most of last season injured but made a big impression in the 6 games he did play in going for a combined 227 yards and a big touchdown against the Ravens. He has quick shifty speed and moves which will fit great in this offense.

Kayvon Thibodeaux was banged up last season, but as the season went on he got healthy and opposing teams were starting to feel it as he racked up 4 sacks, forced and recovered two fumbles turning one of those into a huge touchdown against the Commanders (still not used to calling them that). Now healthy with a hopeful full season ahead, I can't wait to see what he can do.

 

I like to call Daniel Bellinger the diamond in the rough they found in the 4th round.  He has great hands, can block and had some big time catches last season even though his numbers may not have shown it. Of course, he also fell to the injury bug when he got poked in the eye by a Jaguars defender and suffered a fracture around the eye socket. But he came back and played well down the stretch and even though the Giants brought in Darren Waller, I am expecting Bellinger to still be a big-time weapon.

So tonight, I will have some snacks and be watching the Giants take on the Cowboys.

Let's hope they can finally beat Dallas.

Football is back….Finally.

Did I mention finally with football yet?

DA CHAMPS!

I am sure a lot of my non-Giant fan, Patriot fans or non-football fan readers are sick to death of me talking about the two NY Giants Super Bowl wins of recent, but I can't help it. Those were two of the greatest sport moments in my life.

In 2015, Topps celebrated Presidential Celebrations at the White House by putting in a case hit insert. I had never heard of these before until my Twitter friend @clrshonuff told me about them.

When I saw the checklist, I noticed that the Giants had two cards on the checklist, both are from the two Super Bowls I keep talking about.

The cards feature the head coach and the president at the time along with the players in the background.

 

This is Super Bowl 42 with George Bush. I actually picked this one up for $1.

And then this one, the tougher of the two, landing at $12, was my latest add a couple months ago.

Thanks again to Chris for the heads up on these.

Thoughts on these adds or thoughts on these types of inserts welcomed in comments.

Trending This Week In My Hobby Week 4

This segment hasn't been posted since March, so a lot has changed since then. In order to continue where I left off, I will post this as Week 4.

And since there has been such a big gap in time since the last post, there will be a ton of movement so I wanted to post the last list and compare it to the new one.

This was the list back in March,

1. 90's Inserts
2. NY Giants Cards
3. Non Sport Cards
4. Set finishing ˄˄˄
5. Eli Manning Cards ˄˄˄
6. 1993-94 Stadium Club Beam Team
7. Kerry Collins Cards ˄˄˄
8. Allan Houston Cards ˄˄˄
9. Michael Jordan Cards ˄˄˄
10. Jasson Dominguez Cards

Here are the Top 10 most sought after for me right now in order.

1. 2022 Upper Deck Marvel Allure Parallels, Autographs
2. Non Sport Cards
3. NY Giants (especially 2023 class)
4. 90's Inserts 
5. Guardians Of The Galaxy Relic Cards
6. Missing Prizm Rookie Cards
7. Marvel Relic/Autograph Cards
8. Set Completing
9. Eli Manning Cards
10. Kerry Collins Cards

A lot has changed so much since March, a lot of non-sport added and more sports dropping out. I think that's simply how my collection is transforming. Not to mention, I fell in love with the newer Marvel movies especially Guardians Of The Galaxy. I plan to show off my collection so far of Marvel cards at some point.

I am certain some of these will move up and down before next week and maybe even off the list. Guess we will see.

In comments today, tell me what is trending in your collecting and what you are seeking the most this week.

The Season

The NFL season may be over, but the memories of it have not.

This was the best NY Giants season I have witnessed in many, many years so I went on a Panini Instant spree to showcase some of the highlights.

 

The season started off in Nashville again the Tennessee Titans. This was the game that set the pace for the season. The Giants were down by 10 at halftime and looked like the same ole team I had seen the past 6 seasons where they open up with a loss. 

But whatever coach Daboll said at halftime changed the game. The Giants got a late touchdown to trail by only one in the game before gambling on a two-point conversion on a shovel pass to Saquon and winning the game at the end.

The wins kept coming from there.

 

They shocked the Ravens at home, sadly a game I couldn't watch due to where I live so the Patriots played on TV.

 

But a lot of rookies stepped up including Wan'Dale Robingson who got his first NFL touchdown. Which I am guessing more will come next year when he is healthy.

 

Speaking of rookies stepping up, Kayvon Thibodeaux may not have had the huge sack numbers but he had a huge impact on their season. 

 

He went on to score a strip-sack fumble against Washington, a game they desperately needed to move up in the Wild Card Standings, and started the momentum that led to a Giants win.

 

Then came the Daniel Jones show in what was a win and in situation against the Colts. The Giants win the game and they clinch their first playoff spot since 2016. 

Jones led the Giants with 4 touchdown and a 38-10 win over Indy in that game.  A game he commanded and won for them. I think this was the game where Jones showed he was worthy of another contract with the Giants.

Then came the Wild Card game against Minnesota. Everyone counted them out on the road but they shut out the noise.

 

Saquon had 2 rushing touchdowns including the game sealing one in the 4th quarter.

 

WR Isaiah Hodgins looked unstoppable going for over 100 yards and scoring a touchdown that helped set up the Giants win early on in the game. This was a guy they grabbed off the practice squad remember and this is also his first card in a Giants uniform.

 

And finally, there was Jones who showed why he was worth the 160 million they gave him throwing for over 300 yards and 78 more on the ground. He looked like a Top QB in that game and picked apart Minnesota all game long. It was a version of the usual turnover prone QB we hadn't seen before.

I won't talk about the Divisional Round game against the Eagles as they were completely outmatched as they should have been all season, but I will say overall the future is bright and I can't wait to see what's in store for next season.

Thoughts on my collection welcomed in comments. Also if you buy any of the on-demand cards.

WE ARE IN!

WE ARE IN!!! (and I celebrated by snagging this siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicck Andre Williams)

For the first time in 6 seasons, the New York Football Giants are in the playoffs again after crushing the Indianaoplis Colts this past Sunday 38-10.

The Gmen have a surprising 9-6-1 record and claimed the NFC's 6th seed with a Wild Card playoff matchup most likely against the SF 49ers or Minnesota Vikings.

How did this team of what some call misfits make it this far?

Well, it wasn't because of their 72-million-dollar cheerleader that's for sure. On a positive note, when someone doesn't play well their /12 autograph cards can be found for $3.

The main reason for the Giants success has been coaching. Brian Daboll has been amazing along with the rest of his staff in player development and basic coaching skills.

Not to mention a solid draft.

WanDale Robinson has a promising future, but like a good portion of the roster this season, has dealt with injuries and is out for the season.

But, despite the injuries, this coaching staff takes the phrase "next man up" and uses it to perfection.

A former Bill and 6th round pick of 2020 NFL Draft has become one of the premier receiving threats in the offense.

And Darius Slayton who was rumored to be traded this past offseason, took a pay cut to stay with them and is their leading wide out.

Do I think this team of misfits has a Championship drive in them? I can't answer that, nor would I want to curse it. All I can say is the future is bright and I am proud once again to call this team my team.

We Are In.

Happy Thanksgiving 2022!

Hey guys!

I hope everyone reading this today has an amazing Thanksgiving! Be thankful for everything in life and please help root on my NY Giants today to beat those Dallas Cowboys!

Take care!

Dennis Makes My Weekend

Most of us on Monday mornings are dealing with the Monday morning drag, but, not me today. I am on a high as the NY Football Giants are starting the season 2-0 for the first time in 6 years!!

Am I expecting this to be a Super Bowl team? Not even close. Do I expect a playoff run? No, not really. Will there be a bright future, yes, I believe there will finally be one.

Not only am I on a high from the big win but getting a mail day from Too Many Verlanders also helps.

Dennis once again somehow knew what to send without hitting me with too many duplicates.

Actually, the only duplicate was this Phil Simms.

Which is beyond impressive since I have 6500+ Giants cards.

Sending numbered ones like Ron Dayne is always helpful. Hard to get dupes when you send numbered cards.

Same thing for this Andre Woodson. Who is also a reminder of all of the QB's the Giants went through for backups.

Ramses Barden is not numbered, but I also didn't have it.

Joe is not only numbered, but this card also has a great photo. That's what I call a double win.

New Manningham Relics!

Flame die cuts, yes please!

Dennis had this one up for grabs in his trade bait post, I don't ever turn down a shiny 90's insert. Doesn't matter the player.

With 2021 Prizm being impossible to find, I will take any parallels of the Giants I can get. Sadly, I don't have this base card of Jones yet.

And the biggest surprise of this package was a card I have been wanting for some time and have been meaning to add to my Top Want List on here....

 

Dynamic Duos!! How cool is this card?? I have really been into the superhero/sport crossovers.

 

These cards were produced in 2001 and were numbered to 1499.

I spotted this card window shopping on eBay last year but forgot to add it to my want list.

Thanks again for the mail day Dennis. I am working on yours still and a few others I am hoping to get all out by Christmas.

Hope everyone has a great Monday.