The Blogger Mail Days Roll In

I have been getting quite a few mail days in recently from fellow bloggers and once again, they are a huge help in continuing on this blogging streak I am on. I haven't missed a post in 8 years, going on 9 right now, and don't plan to. But, some days the ideas, mail days and steam hit a slow patch.

Then I pick up myself and drag on.

Despite some of these posts are not my best efforts, you want to see those go check out Coffee Over Cards, but some are. I need to do more effort here since this is my baby blog and the one I treasure the most even though sometimes a random card with no writing says otherwise.

So today I am putting words on this post along with some card pictures. So, it's still not my best, but it's an effort as opposed to some days.

First up, my mail day from Brian over at Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary. He had another one of his Freebie Fridays and I grabbed on.

Football cards in the 90's, especially ones like this Bruce Smith, speak about what my collecting is mainly about. That Ultra design is awesome.

Thanks again Brian! I hope to send something your way as a thank you soon.

Next up, according the return address, a surprise mail day from the legendary Night Owl Cards.

Andre Brown. Lots of blue, love it.

I didn't have this Urshela for my Yanks PC

Or this Judge. I need to update my PC numbers for Aaron at some point. Been slacking on my NY Yankee card numbers.

Alright! Night Owl is da man. He must pay attention to my deep passion of Panini Americana 2015. I have the base set, working on the inserts, have a quite a few autographs/relics, and have most of the blue foil parallels and slowly been adding some of the red. Both of these are new.

This is a new one as well. I didn't know the inserts had foil parallels til I started getting a few from the blogosphere. They must have come in retail products as I busted a ton of hobby and never saw one.

Final card, an Angie Dickinson relic. Angie was in many shows and movies and even won a Golden Globe. This is a great relic for my Non Sport PC which continues to grow.

Thanks again Greg!

Final mail day is my BFG winnings from Johnny's Trading Spot. Even though I love to be apart of it, I either forget it's going on or get in the middle of a TV show/movie with the Mrs or even be cooking supper. I have yet to show up, so not sure I will join in again without being there and getting the boot. I prefer to be alert and there to actually participate.

I always enjoy an oddball selection of cards from the Minor Leagues. I have quite a few kicking around in boxes.

Thanks Johnny!

Thanks again to these wonderful bloggers and if you haven't checked any of them out, get on it! (another blogger mail day ahead tomorrow)

Keeping Score

When I was a kid, long before I had video games or sport cards, I had a deck of playing cards. Yes, playing cards. I had a creative mind and always found ways to keep myself occupied when spending the time at my grandmothers on the weekends. Normally we would play tons of my favorite board game Monopoly, but sometimes she would take a nap so I would have some down time.

I started to figure out to involve sports into my playing cards and created an in-depth card game for both baseball and basketball and recently came across some of my papers from when I used to play them.

For basketball, I was always my favorite team from the 90's, the Knicks. I don't remember how my games were set up but I somehow had a starting five for each team and they scored points. I would play opposing teams and even playoff games as the season went on.

 

For baseball, well, I was the Yankees. Same scenario as basketball and my memory doesn't help me with how I played the games.

 

All I do remember is that my teams didn't actually always win or win the championships. Something you would think I could just throw, but I didn't. I wanted it to be realistic even though we all know how many championships the Yankees won in the 90's :D

I sometimes wish I could remember how to play the games. Maybe I would give it a shot again when I had some down time. Usually the small window of downtime I have is used up with blogging, the hobby or Madden but maybe I could rotate this in as well. A calming game card game would be nice to have in my back pocket.

All I have to go by for now is scores and how I kept score. Outside of that, well, I don't have a clue.

Speaking of keeping scores, I do this with cards. I score up the totals I have for certain PC's and write them down vs other PC's to see which one is winning. It's not as complex as my playing card game thankfully, but it is something extra fun I do to see if I can even the score with some.

My latest mail day from Night Owl Cards helped add to my totals.

Up first, some Yankees including Giancarlo who I am considering PCing in Yankees or Marlins uni. I really need to start doing a total number of cards on the team as a whole and for some of the individual players besides two that I do. Maybe that will be my next hobby project. I think my Yankee collection is pretty deep and may be as deep as my NY Giants collection except with a lot less autographs and memorabilia.

Next card is this Odell Beckham Jr. I am so, so, so sick of hearing about the trade rumors with this guy. The Giants would be stupid to trade him. He is easily a Top 5 WR in the NFL if not Top 3. Yes, he has some off the field problems and sometimes on the field, but the talent is there and he makes the offense go. He will be a Giant. I am sure of that. I just hope he can work on himself personally.

Swinging Judges. Three new ones for my PC. I think he will still do well this year but not anything close to last year. My prediction is 28 HR's.

As soon as I saw Greg post this pull from some packs he busted, I wanted it. So glad it was available for my PC. It was one great score! Now I just need to acquire Part A of the card, the other side, somehow.

Two future Yankee stars. They have so much depth now for youth. Not something I could say years ago as they used to trade this talent away. It's paid off for them now to keep it.

I really like these MLB Players Weekend Commemorative Patches. Yesterday I showed off Giancarlo and today I scored, yup that word again, slugging Gary Sanchez

and All Rise for Aaron Judge.

 

So if I was to tally the score from this mail day it would be, 

Yankees 7 Aaron Judge 4-Yes Judge is a Yankee, but in my collection he is a separate PC along with Derek Jeter.

Odell Beckham 1 Ken Griffey Jr 1-guess this one will have to go extra innings or overtime!

Overall, the only real winner I can say from these numbers is me. It was another really nice mail day from Night Owl Cards that I appreciated immensely.

I hope to have another mail day or two head your way in the next few weeks Greg. Thanks again!

As for my playing card game, I am not sure my memory of it will ever come back so I can remember how I played it, at least for now I remember how to do my sport card one. And I do always have Monopoly, something I still enjoy today.

Long Overdue

The phrase "long overdue" wasn't something I had ever dealt with when it came to books, back when I read them. I was always right on time with getting them back to the school library if not before time just to take more out. I loved to read.

Now I simply don't have the time to anymore.

But, reading used to be my thing. In sixth grade our teacher would set "page reading goals" and those of us who reached them would get an A and some special prizes. Well, I would beat the 2,000 page read goal and shoot for 20,000. That's just how I rolled.

I was even apart of a book club known as DCF or in other words from where I live, Dorthy Canfield Fisher who was a famous author in my state. You would read a specific list of books offered and discuss them. You also got lucky at the end of the year and got to meet an author of one of those books you read.

I was only lucky enough to go once and met Barbara Park who wrote these two books and the Junie B Jones series.

She also signed this and stuck it in the books we got for free.

It was a great experience and something I will never forget.

I just wished I could keep up with my "long overdue" posts like I did with my books. I fell behind and lost this draft in the process for a double mail day including my first one from the legendary Night Owl Cards.

I finally acquired his address and started sending cards his way which I still have many more to go of. I for some reason have plenty of Dodgers to distribute his way and even more after starting my binder project.

So in return I got this surprise mail day from him.

Tyler Austin rookie card. The Yanks have probably the most young talent in the league right now maybe besides the Astros. I can't remember a time when I was able to say that. Usually the Yanks go after old overpriced players. Things have certainly changed.

 

Here are two more of those young studs. This will make quite the potent lineup this year.

And then I was graciously sent some Hamptons. I have now downloaded the Google Docs app and update my Hampton list so easily as I get them in. So if you are ever looking to trade any my way, just look at the want list as it's always up-to-date.

A couple of Action Packed cards

 

It took me awhile to decipher what parallel this was from 1997 Action Packed then I finally figured it out. The back had such tough descriptive writing on it.

 

No. No I won't peel off the protective coating. Never! Cool insets from Playoff called Hot Pursuit. I know many defenders back in that day had trouble chasing Rodney down.

 

And finally, another Collectors Edge Excalibur parallel knocked down. There were so many for that year. But, none as crazy looking as this Prism one. So cool front...

 

and back!

Here is my long overdue thanks to Night Owl for the mail day. Much appreciated my friend. I have more to send your way soon!

Speaking of overdue thanks, here is another. Once again my buddy @JGfan24ever sent along some PWE surprises for my mail box.

All threw were Panini Phoenix cards I didn't have. Eli and Strahan were both numbered. I really dig the look of these.

 

And the possible future of the Giants backfield even though Barkley from Penn State has been rumored to be heading their way in the draft. I do like Gallman however and he would make a great complimentary back to anyone.

 

Well, I finally got through with my long overdue shout outs. Hopefully this won't happen too often as I have been trying to keep up with it all. 

 

At least I won't be charged a fee or be spoken to by a librarian if it does happen again.