Random Cardboard Of The Day:2022 Score Steve Young

Random Cardboard Of The Day:2022 Score First Ballot Steve Young

Trading With Da Dufus

I am so far behind on posting these mail days, I did today's trade a couple of months ago.

It was my very first trade with @Da_Dufus and it went great, even with the USPS being a little obnoxious with the arrival of my mail day. 

It showed up after being in limbo for 2 weeks if you were curious by that last sentence.

@Da_Dufus is a Super Collector of Anthony Miller, so when I saw a Kerry Collins I needed he had posted for sale or trade, I jumped.

The trade went further than just the one Collins card as I hauled in some 90's inserts as well.

Side PC guy TD. Think this is the first time I have owned a Platinum Portraits.

Donovan McNabb rookie and a Playoff Fantasy Team insert of Steve Young. Those inserts have a sparkle in the background. This is my second one of these...feels like a set chase is needed.

Spx Gold! I have roughly 12 of these towards my set chase of these now.

 

And finally, the Collins card that started the trade, a 2009 Score Inscriptions Gold Zone /50.

Thanks again to @Da_Dufus for the trade, hope we can do this again!

Thoughts on my mail day welcomed in comments.

Christmas Card 19

Dream Team

1995-1999 put out some of the greatest looking cards ever in the history of the hobby. Take me back to when the cards were amazing.

No, these cards aren't flipper material, nor do they hold a lot of money value, but they do hold a lot of memory value and that is where the big money is at for me.

Out of all of the 1996 Score packs I ripped; I was never ever fortunate enough to land a Dream Team insert. They were not easy to find at 1:72 packs making it one in every two or three boxes.

The 10-card set had fallen out of my memory until I was looking up random card sets on Burbank Sportcards where I spotted some of these. And not only did I spot some of them, I grabbed some.

 

If you look closely behind all of the shine, I try not to look too far behind it, you will see a team/city tie in behind each player. 

I have a Barry Sanders on the way which will put me roughly halfway through the set, so maybe this one won't be too hard to accomplish.

Thoughts on the players or the set welcomed in comments!

Please remember, at Burbank Sportcards Beckett Marketplace , you can save 10% by using code 15Burbank at checkout. Shipping is also free on orders of $50 or more. The more you buy, the more you save and the more you won't have to pay shipping on.

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 56:On The Ground Attack!

Foil cards always catch my eye and this dual sided foil set had me falling hard for it.

In 1995 Stadium Club falling at a rough 1:18 packs, you could find these Ground Attacks.

Each card features a running back on one side and a quarterback on the other side.

I already had a few of these in hand after pulling a couple in a box break and then making a trade for another. Just from seeing those, it began a set chase.

So once again, I used the power of Burbank Sportcards Beckett Marketplace to see what I can fill in for needs.

I was able to grab 6 pretty affordably.

 

Here are the fronts

The backs

Final card, the most expensive one of the set features

Edgar Bennett

And the legendary Brett Favre.

I will need to see what remains to this set chase and what Burbank has left for me to grab. Even though these were cheap to begin with, I still like to save money on  Burbank Sportscards Beckett Marketplace by using code 15Burbank at checkout to save 10%. I think you should use it as well.

Can't wait until I can get this set built and show it off when I do.

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 54:Being Grounded

It's been two years since I decided to fully chase the 1995 Summit Ground Zero set but overall it's a set I have been chasing for many years.

I pulled my first Ground Zeros back in 1995. Probably about five total out of packs. Since then I have accumulated about half of the 200 card set with my biggest needs coming today.

The set needs I have added so far are mainly the lower end players, today I tackled a few bigger names.

John Elway

Steve Young

 

Brett Favre

This is a huge sigh of relief to knock these guys down. Maybe now this once "dream set" can start to become more of a reality.

Thanks to Burbank Sportscards Beckett Marketplace  I saved 10% by using code 15Burbank at checkout and was finally able to add these key pieces. Now to search on there again for more.

CARDBOARD REVIEW:2020 Contenders Football

I can make a list of every Panini product out there and rank my favorite ones and where they fall.

I can say without a doubt that Panini Prizm is my number one but falling not too far right behind that one is Panini Contenders.

Every year I try my best to add some of the rookie autographs to my collection but have never had much success with box breaks of the product. If this was a game of Never Have I Ever mine would be Never Have I Ever pulled a top rookie autograph from Contenders.

Would this stay true for this box? Lets see...

Every box of 2020 Contenders football comes with 18 packs of 6 cards.Each box comes with 5 autographs and one of those autographs are on-card. Boxes are close to $600. Yup, that's not a mistype.

 

BASE:

The base set checklist is made up of 100 cards and is done ticket style design like it has been since 1998. There are no legends or rookies in the base card set.

PARALLELS:

Each box comes with one parallel. Mine was a Championship Ticket /99 of Sam Darnold.

Other parallels are,Red Zone FOTL, Stardust, Playoff /199, Championship /99, Cracked Ice /22, Super Bowl 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1.

INSERTS:

The inserts have parallels and those include, Emerald, Orange, Ruby, Sapphire, Silver /149, Gold /49, and Platinum #/25.

 

Legendary Contenders has well Legends. There are 15 cards to collect in this set.

 

MVP Contenders is made up of 25 cards of the best players in the game.

10 cards in the Winning Ticket set.

Round Numbers has 20 cards combining top rookies and their draft round.

Rookie Of The Year comes with 30 cards.

HITS:

Now don't expect a Burrow or Herbert in every box or any box that I open. What makes Contenders fun is the rookies and especially rookie autographs you won't find in other boxes. It can sometimes lead to a gold dig.

Rashad Lawrence

Reggie Robinson II

First two autos I have no idea who they are.

My on-card auto was of Lynn Bowden Jr. This is also a ticket variation. Notice the helmet on the front instead of the team logo.

Lions may need to use this guy more next season, Hunter Bryant. This is a Stub parallel.

Other Rookie Ticket autograph parallels include, 

TICKET PARALLELS: Wild Card, Red Zone FOTL, Playoff \/99, Stub /99 or less, Championship /49, Cracked Ice /22, Super Bowl 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1.
CLEAR TICKET PARALLELS: Mosaic, Clear /10.

And my final hit was the biggest of the box...

Legendary Contenders autograph of Steve Young!

FINAL THOUGHTS
Well....for $600...this was rough. I think its safe to say a better way to get into a product like this right now it through box breaks. It's probably that way with any products right now.

RATINGS BASED ON THIS BOX BREAK
Design ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Inserts ⭐⭐⭐
Parallels ⭐⭐
Hits ⭐⭐
Value ⭐
Fun Factor ⭐⭐⭐

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 48:Power Surge!

Set's talk Volume 48 is here folks! And just before I started typing this up, I learned a new position on today's sets. 

That there is more than just one way to have this sets.

1995 Stadium Club Power Surge was inserted in Series 1 packs falling 1:18 packs but I also found out that they were in Series 2 as well falling 1:36 packs making this once thought 12 card set into a 24 card set chase.

And this is why I do my research.

I just recently started to decide to chase this set when I opened a box of 1995 Stadium Club series 1 and saw how invigorating the design was.

  

The foil doesn't only shine with rainbow,but the lightning strike in the background does as well with a streak that offsets the rest of the card. Not sure how they did that but its very appealing.

 

And a couple more. These are a little bit up close so you can see the full angle.

With these 6 new adds from Burbank Sportscards Beckett Marketplace (also saved 10% by using code 15Burbank), I am only 3 away from having the Series 1 set. Now I gotta figure out how far from Series 2 I am.

Another fun chase in the works among my many others. I will further update this chase down the line with more sets talk.

For now, have a good day and remember to have protection for when you are doing sets.

Going Offbeat Again

@offbeatallstars and myself seem to be on a trading spree right now. This will mark the second one in about a month and it's the biggest trade we have done yet.

What started off as a few Steve Youngs, ramped up to a few other odds and ends cards and some serious, SERIOUS, set help.

 

This Sprewell is my first gold from this set for my 90's Spx project.

Eli Manning rookie card I didn't have was one of the first things I needed. Eli remains the second biggest player PC I have for the Giants outside of my main PC of Rodney Hampton.

 

What is the birth child of Sp Authentic, Upper Deck Sp came out in 1996 and had some decent looking base cards full of foil. I will say though that they player head pictures are kinda cheesy and hilarious on some. For example, look at that Troy Aikman.

 

Do I collect Andre Reed? No. Do I collect Bills? No. Do I collect 90's cards like this? Yes! Do I collect Collectors Edge? Umm Yeah!

What isn't there to like about this Marvin Harrison? Its a subtle mind control card that tells me that I need it.

Seeing Emmitt in a Cardinals uniform gives me the weird vibes everytime I do, but this card overall was pure fire. Literally. The eye candy of this card is why I needed to come home to me and not the fact it's Smith who I didn't like seeing in the 90's face my Giants.

 

The final piece of our trade was a ton of football set needs for myself which most will be posted in the popular series, Let's Talk About Sets. Stay tuned for those.

24 Years Later...

It's a story that has stood the test of time, the story of my first big pull of my youth.

I have shared that story many times across multiple blogs and areas of social media. I know many of you have heard it again and again, but, in order to do today's post, I feel it's needed to be told again.

Back in 1996, I went to a card show with my father. There was a new hot product out that everyone was buying called Pinnacle Zenith. Not only was it a hot product, but dang it was beautiful one from base card to inserts. It wasn't a "cheap" one either per pack so I knew I wouldn't be getting much if not any coming from a low income family. So my father and I scoured the card show looking for deals and grabbed a few cards here and there. Nothing too major. I was in luck that we had some funds still remaining and grabbed a couple of packs of Zenith before we were leaving the show. It's tradition at that show to open your packs there before you exited so I did so. Low and behold, as I ripped one of my packs, I saw something in the middle and slowly went around the card before the big reveal. I slid it out from behind the card in front of it very slowly and it revealed a 1:3 boxes-1:72 pack odd pull of a Zenith Z-Team which was of Emmitt Smith. I couldn't believe it!

The card was acetate with this really unique rainbow etching on it as well. There stood Emmitt in the forefront with a big Z in the back. I related it somewhat to Lord Zedd of the Power Rangers but let's save that discussion for another day.

I had multiple offers on that card on the spot including a few trade ones. But, I wouldn't take them. I wanted to keep that card in remembrance of that day. Regrettably, when I moved out of my parents house after high school, I left the card behind in my father's half of the collection because we split it up when I moved. Having been from a low income family, my parents needed some funds and since I wasn't at home collecting with my father anymore he sold off what cards he had including said Emmitt.

It took me 20 years to find that card again for a reasonable price and when I did, I bought one. No it wasn't the hottest rookie card or a card I will retire off from, but it was memories and nostalgia that only this hobby seems to bring back to me. That's what matters most to me about collecting.

After I got that Emmitt in hand, I began to think maybe I should take it a step further. That one card was so eye-attention grabber that I wanted to chase the set. I knew it wouldn't be easy as some aren't as available as others because they weren't easy to find but I said I would stick to it.

So for the past 4 years, 24 overall if you think about it, I have been chasing this set. I knocked down a card here and there when I found them and narrowed it down to one not too long ago.

 

That one, this Troy Aikman which also happens to be the number one card in the set. There was no other Aikman listings at the time and this one popped up at a cheap auction which I landed for $4 in the end. Heck of a deal looking at the last few that sold.

 

 

I thought I would give you a better look at the card in the light. Don't tell me you don't think this is a chill card.

Here is the overall 18 card set.

 

Lots of big names mixed in. I really wished one of them was a NY Giant, especially a Rodney Hampton one.

It's very invigorating to have accomplished this set. Now I just need to find a way to display them with pride.

Speaking of Zenith, Panini brought back the beloved product this year and the Z-Teams. It appears from the Z-Teams I have seen listed, that Panini tried to mock the design in this post. Not sure if they have the same feel or appeal in-hand, but I hope to find out. If anyone has any for trade, hit me up!

The Better Experience

*coffee grounds in my coffee this morning, 2020 summed up in one cup. Guess I will have to brew another. In the meantime, let's talk about a real nice surprise Clark. Sorry inner Christmas Vacation coming out. I will cut it out with the early morning cheesy jokes and get onto a seriously good mail day*

 

The jury is still out on Trading Card Database for me, but, I recently had a very positive moment from the site that may give me some light about giving the website a second chance.

On my Set Help post for 1995 Fleer Prospects, I had a comment from Trading Card Database member jimetal7212 who said he had a couple of the cards for my set chase and just to contact him with my address. I was both caught by surprise, excitement and questioning it since I didn't remember ever having any interactions with him.

 

 (Steve Walsh understood my feelings)

 

But, I gave him my info and he sent me two cards for that set and so much more.

 

(if these don't scream 90's not sure what does)

 

Jack Jackson and Rob Johnson were the cards I needed for the 1995 Fleer NFL Prospects set. This is a set I am ever so creeping towards and only am 4 cards away out of the 20.

*takes a sip, gets excited to show off the rest of the mail day*

Not only did he send those two, but also sent a bunch more set help,

1995 Ultra Achievement

 

 

  

 1995 Pinnacle

 

 

 1995 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion

 1995 Score Red Siege (I believe I am halfway there to this one)

 

1994 Fleer Pro Visions

 

I was blown away! Never had any interaction with this person but they took note of my bad experience on the TCDB website to make it better. Imagine if rest of the world did this in the hobby or in real life. What a world we could live in.

 

*drinking a fresh hot cup of coffee makes this post even better* 

 

That's the kind of experience I kept hearing others talk/blog about when it comes to using TCDB. It surely wasn't like my first time there. I guess it is like real life. You just have to meet the right people. Or even maybe like a cup of coffee. Sometimes there is some coffee with creamer and other cups with straight up cup grounds in it like my first experience.

With this moment that had me feeling like this I may go back again give the website another try to see if I can have other good experiences.

 

Maybe the more good people like jimetal7212 I meet, my circle can grow from there. Who knows, I think the most important thing is they've got to accept and take a chance on me and also realize I won't be posting any trade bait or doing collections. Like the meme that I see go around on Facebook all of the time, "Ain't nobody got time for that", I simply don't have the time to add in thousands of cards. I am a "what do you collect and let me see what I have type of trader" and do all of my cataloging on blogs which this one will be fully updated with soon.

Thank you again jimetal7212 for being a positive light in the darkness I felt on that website or in coffee terms, thanks for being the creamer and making my cup brighter.

*breakfast time with the next cup, coffee blogger out*