Just Makes You Smile

This has been a very long week in my household with a variety of bad news popping up.

I really needed a smile.

Luckily for me, my latest trade with @MaxxPower68 arrived and brightened up the week.

My interest in Allen Ginter non-sports continues to grow and a good portion of this trade brought me some new ones. Some were from Far, Far away.

Hats Off and World Leaders.

These Birds Of A Feather flocked in my mail box together.

Arboreal Appreciation. Cardboard comes from trees, seems only appropriate we celebrate trees.

 

Animals on cards, works for me.

A group of fun non sport characters.

I always thought this was such a great insert line to celebrate real heroes.

There were also some football cards along for the trip as well. Some much needed help for my 1995 Pinnacle Trophy Collection chase. These always make me smile with nostalgia.

 

(this Jeffereson is actually an Artists Proof but dufex still makes me smile)

Speaking of making me smile,

 

If this card featuring Martin Mull hugging a football happily doesn't bring you joy, then you should be checked. This was my favorite card out of the entire mail day.

Thanks again to @MaxxPower68 for the trade. I hope we can do another one soon.

I am glad this week has come to an end, just hope next week can go a little better.

I hope the rest of you have had a great week.

Rodney's Cardboard:1994 Topps Special Effects Uncut Trio Sheet

The set that got me drawn into collecting, made another return for me. This time in an odd trio uncut sheet.

I hadn't ever seen one of these before and didn't know they even existed.

This is a 1994 Topps uncut trio Special Effects parallel sheet.

 

Topps Special Effects parallel fell 1:2 packs in 1994 and was the parallel set that drew my attention to collecting. You can find multiple stories on here about it but the best one you can locate under Origins Of A Cardboard Addict tab.

The picture I took above doesn't do this card any justice.

I grabbed this one from COMC as my final purchase with the gift card for $3. However, when I got the card in hand I noticed some damage on it and contacted COMC who refunded me my $3 since the seller didn't list anything about it. I guess it could have been the way it was packed as well. But, since it's a rarity to even find this ,  I didn't want to return it and will have to deal with the fact there is some slight damage to the card. But, a huge thank you to COMC for their help in making it right.

Well, I promise that does it for sheet cards of Rodney unless I can find more.

Have you ever seen one of these before? Or any parallel uncut sheets?

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 2

Let's talk about sets baby
Let's talk about it with me
Let's talk about all the good things
And the bad things that may be
Let's talk about sets (1995)
Let's talk about sets (Summit)
Let's talk about sets (Uh huh)
Let's talk about sets....

1991 song by Salt-N-Pepa was about a much different topic than I am turning it into. You see, I am staying on topic with cards. Not,well, what they were talking about. This newest segment about the 90's will focus on my set chases (the ones I have already used for a Origins Post or don't plan on using) and new additions to them along with updates on how far I have gotten.

It's time for us to sit down and have that discussion between your parents and you that you tried to avoid. You know, that conversation you have with them about the Flairs and the Pinnacles. Kids, it's time to Talk About Sets.

So grab a cup of your favorite Kool-Aid and take a seat on Chairry and check these out.

Yes, I apologize for another whole round of Summit Ground Zero. I promise before we are done with having the Sets talk, we will be moving all over the place as I added some new additions in quite a few.

Let's take a peek under the plastic sheets at the new additions. The first four on here are thanks to my buddy @90sNicheFBCard and the rest I snagged myself.

Woo Hoo! Bryan helped knock down a big name need.

I found Michael for .89!

Everyone was buying Jeff in 1990 as he was the hot thing, well....

Seems like every pack I opened Stoney Case was in there. Ugh!

Same with Frank but he at least had a career.

Neil Smith could dominate a game. One of the defensive greats!

 

And Terry Kirby finishes up our session today.

Come back for more Sets Talk next time. Remember when doing sets to use protection.

Appreciation Of Being Action Packed

While my sister was collecting Mood Rings, Bubble Watches, and Feather Accessorized items, I was still into collecting sports cards and watching cartoons in 1995.

Up to this point I haven't mentioned anything about my younger sister, but yes, she exists. I mostly spent my time keeping her away from destroying my card collection when she was having one of her hissy-fit meltdowns something that happened often.

We didn't have a lot in common besides our parents. But, one thing we did have in common is appreciating the little things in life which is something I still do today. Make every big or little moment count, if someone buys you something you treasure it no matter if you like it or not, and what you do own, treat it with respect and don't destroy it. My parents weren't the richest people by any means and what we did have for clothing, shoes, and other items we knew we had to put it to its best use and treasure it for as long as we could because my father worked hard for what we did have. We were also fortunate to know a lot of people who donated hand-me-downs and helped us out when they could. I think a lot of today's youth is missing this kind of respect in their lives as today's motto feels, the bigger the better and they are always needing an upgrade to something. I giggle to myself as  I am still typing on an old desktop doing a blog and not some fancy laptop.

I know I discuss my father and how invested he was in the hobby often, but he didn't have a lot to invest and what he did invest was only because he liked having those bonding times between us. It seems like we bought a lot of cards, but it really wasn't that much.

What we did have though, I spent time sorting, organizing in binders, putting in top loaders and treating with respect. Every card mattered no matter what it was. I appreciated every single one knowing what it represented. I still do the same with every card I have.

Speaking of appreciation, I really appreciated 1995 Action Packed football. It didn't have a lot of glimmer and glam but it did have something called embossing, which was new to me in the hobby.

This 126 card set featured embossed color action photos, team's helmet, player's name and the words Action Packed 1995. If you don't know what embossing is, it takes those items and "raises them" giving them a textured feel.

Here is a small gallery of the cards. It his hard to see the embossing on here but focus on the last name on the right as they may give you the easiest way to spot it.

The rookies featured the names on the left. They were also still in their college uniforms with the team logo representing where they got drafted.

I never pulled any of the inserts which included, 24Kt Gold, Armed Forces, G-Force and Rocket Man, but I did pull quite a few of the one in six packs "Quick Silver" parallel. The parallel took the base cards and added a foil background on the front of the card and put the words "Quick Silver" ghosted behind the writing on the back.

 

I always thought the product name was a perfect fit. The embossing of the card helped give it a action packed feel like the players were jumping out at you.

This was just one of three Action Packed releases for football in 1995. The other two were Rookies and Stars and Monday Night Football which I also busted a little of each.

I still have all of my Action Packed cards to this day and appreciate them as much as I did back then. I also still have my sister, haha, who I appreciate more now then I did then too. Because when you start to get older, you really appreciate people and things more then you ever did.