Area 40 Goes 90's!

During Wes' retirement tour-formerly blogger of Jay Barker Fan blog and now runs a last big hurrah blog in Area 40-he has been unloading packages onto bloggers for goodbye gifts.

Here we go again. After a one day hiatus, we are back into the box that the great Wes sent me. I will be taking breaks in-between new posts from this box as I am so, so, so backed up on mail day thank yous.

This has gotta be in my Top 5 favorite Upper Deck football cards of the late 90's. How awesome is this photo??!

A Favre rookie year card I didn't have. Nice! Wished I had the signed version.

Shaq. The only big time star I can remember that moved around to more teams than Lebron

Another Set From My Childhood I am chasing. I don't have many so far, but I am trying.

I surprisingly didn't have this Landeta card. I just love the photograph, it cracks me up.

This guy just has a fun last name and he will go into my shiny binder.

MJ. I never get mad to add some more MJ. The greatest player ever to play the game. I hated him in the 90's, but love him now and appreciated the fact I got to watch him play compared to today's terrible NBA.

A couple of Tebow rookies. I only had one rookie of the guy til this mail day. A Champ Bailey for my 90's PC and a Barry Sanders rookie. I wanted another but also hoping for the iconic '89 Score one.

Vlad refractor...so pretty.

90's insert at it's best. Acetate and all. I haven't seen one of these yet and it's of one of my favorite players, so overall a nice add.

We don't get great looking products like this anymore. Thick cardstock and rainbow foil. Looks better in person.

Star QB right here. A three star one. Yes, big time Akili Smith sarcasm. I chased this guy in the 90's and believe I have his Sage Auto as well.

My favorite player for baseball in the 90's. No roids, just plain hittah!

Everyone loved Heath, then he hit the field. I know I praise every brand from the 90's, but Collectors Edge had some really cool stuff out.

I just all around love this card. This is what makes Archives great.

My first Craig Griffey on one side...

And here comes Ken. New card for my PC.

And to finish out another mail day, Christian Okoye doesn't look impressed with a floating football going through the goal posts while he is standing in a cornfield. But, I am. Gotta give some props 90's cheesiness.

 

Another section of my Wes' mail day down. Still much more to come including a grand finale. Stay tuned!

Nuttin' But The Hits:1998-1999 Fleer Brilliants Basketball

The late 90's. Is there truly any better time in the hobby?

The variety, the brands, the innovations, the value.

It's all in there.

For me there is also a bonus, the memories. This was and always will be my best time in the hobby. Nothing will ever change that.

So when I pulled off my last trade with Project Pedro blog I got the opportunity to take a trip back down memory lane with some packs/box breaks from my past. I loved every aspect of our trade, but these breaks were truly what hit me the hardest and what I enjoyed the most. With every pack I busted a smile can be seen for miles across my face and the next chance to open the next pack brought me joy like no other.

There will be multiple breaks coming up on here with mostly football, but today's I decided to kick it off with some NBA. My only NBA break from the trade.

When Shane told me he found some discounted packs at his LCS of 1998-1999 Fleer Brilliants basketball, I told him to jump on it all and I would work out a trade for them. He happily obliged. Like I said, this guy is pretty awesome and I am very fortunate to know him.

Overall he managed to score sixteen packs overall and a box normally has 24 so was almost a full box break. There are five cards per pack.  My biggest hope was to find some top rookies from the break but even more important is finding some gold. Those gold parallels have really held their value over the years.

Let's get to ripping these packs!

There are 25 Rookies to find in the product that fall 1:2 packs. I miss days rookies were randomly inserted like that. Drives up value. Key Rookies to find are Dirk Nowitzki, Mike Bibby, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Jason Willams, Paul Pierce, Rashard Lewis, Peja Stojakovic!

Here are the ones I found in the break. Biggy and Antawn were nice finds. Lue is now a coach so that's a little weird.

But this was the highlight of the group. I was really hoping to find a Dirk. But, can't complain about some Vinsanity! Dude was a highlight reel in his prime.

I didn't find any gold in my break, but found plenty of blue parallels. These fall Veteran 1:3 packs, and Rookies 1:6 packs. Shaq was the best find of the group. Some of the rookie parallels have some good value when you pull the top ones.

I also ended up finding an insert in Shining Stars that fell 1:20 packs. It has a Finest type protectant over the top. Mine was a tad peeled back.

 

Overall, I was pretty happy with the break. Pulled some good rookies, lots of parallels and an insert. Can't ask for much more in sixteen packs. I remember busting a few packs of this when it came out and I didn't do as well as this. Of course my grandmothers neighbor who collected NBA pulled some nice cards from these back in the day but more on that for another time.

Friendships In The Hobby

Having friendships in the hobby is one of the most vital parts. Friends near or far give you someone to discuss your hobby with, someone to trade with, someone to help you out when you need that set number or a card to fill in some kind of gap, someone who will give you that yes or no buying opinion on an item and someone just to talk to when you need an ear.

When I first discovered the internet part of the hobby in 2011 late 2012 I didn't have an hobby friends and it took a little while for me to find my place for those. It was like my wife and I's first puppies when they met. They didn't know each other but overtime grew a friendship like no other.

We took this cute picture of them in our nieces toy Lamborgini and it's one of my most treasured ones of them. They have long passed since.

I feel like I have met many great friends and collectors over the past seven years online but one that I have become really good friends with messaging on a daily basis since my internet beginning is Shane over at Project Pedro Blog. Despite our team differences, we are always up for a good sports debate, card talk or discussions in general.

We are also always on the lookout to help each others PC's out. This is especially true for Shane.

Towards the end of 2017 we once again pulled off one of our big trades. We pretty much save up a few months worth of items and then did a big bonanza. It's a lot of fun and we always do a fair trade and it's been this way since we became Twitter friends in 2012.

The first part of my mail day are oversized cards. Some of his least favorite types of cards and he knows I am willing to take them off his hands. These are from the National and each are numbered.

Here are a few more oversized cards including Shaq and Aaron

Another one this time with an iconic Finest design

Some box toppers from Heritage

and finally a really cool film swatch card of Shaq. I couldn't say no to a unique card.

Another thing I have learned about Shane in our friendship is he is not a non sports fan. Over the years he has been sorting and sending me all of his. This is a bunch of Allen And Ginter over an amount of years he found recently and sent. Some Sp's in here as well.

Also like I said earlier, he is always on the lookout for my PC. The biggest thing he has helped me with is narrowing down my Griffey needs. Every Wednesday he posts a Cheap Wax Wednesday break, these are box breaks of baseball and football under $50, and always pulls out the Griffeys for me when he pulls them. Pretty cool that I get first dibs.

I like the Lumber Company. Always been a fan of that insert in the 90's.

These Documentary base cards are annoying as anything. The same picture can be found on multiple different documented base cards. Really lame and lazy. That's not something I say too often with Upper Deck products.

There are so many Griffey gaps that even a checklist is a huge gain. I also really dig the Summit product. Not sure why it didn't continue past 1996.

The Fleer Gamers baseball design was one of my favorites of the early-mid 2000's. I also really liked Ovation.

Here's a really cool numbered insert he pulled from his 1996 Summit break called Ball Parks. There weren't many Ball Parks that Griffey couldn't sit on and hit a home run at. I am sure most pitchers see Griffey this size when they faced him at the plate.

This is a parallel from Topps Stars. Any numbered cards I can get knocked off is a big key.

  

Hologram and Griffey along with a cool Certificate Of Authenticity with his face on it, give me all day long!

 

Golden Jr! Shane found this at his LCS for me. Very cool!

  

Then came this oversized numbered Junior I hadn't ever seen before he snagged at a card show for me.

And then this set that included Griffey. I didn't reveal him yet as I plan on this set as a future box break where I will reveal more of the players within.

and to end it, he snagged this off of eBay for me. Great throwback design bat relic.

Now we can move onto some other odds and ends and these aren't even the end of the trade.

Eli refractor and a rookie I didn't have from Press Pass that's a National Trading Cards Day one.

Some odds and ends from the National.

A really cool promo card set from Collectors Edge still sealed.

A Skip Bayless autograph he pulled from Archives. Yes I know the guy is annoying and yes I know I am probably the only person who wants a card like this. But, I enjoy the oddballs.

And to finish up this part of the mail day, he grabbed two really rare Rodney Hampton cards for me.

First is my second plate of him.

Second is this Leaf Signature autograph (which is also oversized if you haven't seen them). It's not the normal version however. This one is the 1st Down Marker parallel that is really tough to find. Only the first 100 cards are stamped with this stamp and are signed in blue ink instead of black. I always loved how Rodney ignored signing the spot he was supposed to and signed his crotch.

And I will say that this wasn't the end of our trade. Being the great dude he is and knowing how bad my budget was, he also helped me grab some boxes when they went on sale for Black Friday and included those in as apart of our trade. It was the only stuff I got to open around Christmas so it meant a lot. I will be posting these breaks as the year goes on.

A big thanks goes out to Shane for the trade. If you guys haven't checked out his Cheap Wax Wednesday segment please do. He is also starting up some new series soon.

I am looking forward to our next big trade but am also looking forward to continuing on our great friendship for years to come.

The Autograph Finale!

We have finally reached the finale of my trade with @Jake1725 and even with all of the greatness before this part, today's is the boom.

We start it off with a tougher Shaq insert from the 90's. I think it was 1:36 packs but from some searches I don't see many around.

 

Three football rookie autographs I always wanted from the 90's. These are all hand numbered to 1050 and consist of James Stewart, Michael Westbrook, and Joey Galloway. They are also all signed on-card.

 

 

These two I added just for the fun of prospecting. Not sure if Pinder or Taylor will ever really pan out but at least I have an autograph of theirs before they do.

 

This guy has hit well for years and I have always wanted to at least get an autograph of him, I don't feel sometimes Paul Goldshmidt always gets the respect he has earned. That's probably because he plays for the D-backs. If he was in NY....

 

 

The next autograph was an in-person one that Jake was happy to get for me and wait in line for. Bregman is close to being a break out star. This was the only way I was getting his autograph.

 

 

Nice blue ink on-card. @Jake1725 also chose a solid card to get signed.

 

George Springer has hit, hit, hit this year. Could be an MVP. I really wanted his autograph so I added this one /25

 

and then on top of it, added a rookie autograph as well.

 

 

Overall I am very happy with the trade we made. I added a ton of great cards for many PC parts and not to mention some stinkin' awesome TMNT toys. 

Thanks @Jake1725 for the trade and all of the bonus surprises! I look forward to our next trade already after this whopper. 

If you don't know @Jake1725, he runs the Inception Baseball: A Very Simple Idea blog. Go check it out and see his exciting Inception autograph project over many years and maybe you have something that can help him with it. Not to mention, add him to your blogrolls. Great guy and trader.