A Slam Dunk Of A Trade

*sits down holding the final card of the trade I showed off yesterday. hope you guys have your coffee mugs filled and ready to go. I am*

*takes a sip*

Today marks the final card in the trade I made with @Pradough1.

This card today I decided to post by itself since it didn't fit the non-sport PC theme of yesterdays post.

But, it did knock off a huge want list card.

*takes a sip*

I remember back in the late 90's ripping packs of Topps Chrome looking to pull the top rookies and of course, refractors. One of the most sought after cards I wanted to pull in 1998 was a Vince Carter Topps Chrome rookie.

So, my father and I went and bought some packs of 1998-1999 Topps Chrome basketball to rip on the way home. He opened his packs with no luck, however, my second pack in almost made him drive off the road. Not only did I pull the Carter rookie, but I pulled the refractor version which was a huge card at the time. I think it was worth between $300-$600 if my mind serves me right. I couldn't believe it. I quickly got that in a penny sleeve and toploader when we got home.

The card remained with us until I moved out in 2000 from my parent's house. My dad then decided to sell it since they were in the need of money and it was just a piece of cardboard. It was a tough day to hear that news, but I understood.

I had always remembered that pull, but never tried to chase down a replacement until last year. I wanted to finally bring that card back home until I saw the prices on them. They were selling at least for $600 raw and twice that for graded. That dream ended fast so I went for the next best thing, the base Topps Chrome rookie. Those were even going for $100 which was still out of my range. Then I had to settle for the next best thing after that, a Topps version of the card which I found for under $5. That was more my range and was better than nothing right?

Yes.

But, it still left a hole in my collection however.

That was until this week when I pulled off the trade with @Pradough1.

No, he didn't have the Topps Chrome refractor...but at least had the second best option...

A chrome rookie! I can finally say after all of these years I have one!! Of course, prices have dipped a lot since last year but still having this in my possession is nice.

The photograph on this card is always so memorable to me.

Back Of The Card.

This is one of those cards when you are feeling down you pull out to make yourself smile again.

Thanks again to @Pradough1 for the trade.

*takes a sip before finishing up today's post*

I am never going to ever be able to bring home that Topps Chrome refractor version of this card, but I at least can have the card live on in my memories.

So I am curious, what is the one card you had to let go of that you want to bring back or maybe already have? Let me know in comments.

I hope all of you have a superb Saturday!

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Summer Of Wes Card #5

Breakin' Wax:2020-2021 Donruss Basketball Hanger Pack

Basketball is so tough to find in the wild, so when my family from Tennessee brought me up a surprise pack they found. I was shocked.

I was more in shock of where they found it.....Cracker Barrell. Say what?! I have never been to one but I can't picture it being anything more than a restaurant and not a place to find random packs of cardboard.

Either way, I will take it and just hope this gem of a find contains a gem of it's own.

Each hanger pack of 2020-2021 Donruss basketball comes with 30 cards. Most of these packs come with one Holo Green & Yellow parallel and this pack was $7.99.

Let's see if it paid off,

Best Base

My Rated Rookies (nothing to see here folks!)

Vinsanity!

Kyrie

Kevin Porter Holo Green & Yellow parallel 

Well, nothing too special in this pack. I basically took these cards and stuck them back in the pack to serve as a memory for another time.

Let me know your thoughts on cards being in weird places like this and my break below in comments!

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict:Ouch!

Ouch!

I had a lot of ouch moments in the 90's.

One time I was hit in the face with a fast moving football. It was those hard rubber kinds to.

There was another time I tripped and fell on another kids leg playing football on recess and broke his leg while injuring my back.

I also was slammed in the nose pretty hard going for rebound causing a nose bleed.

Then there was the time I caught a fast hit wiffle ball with my barehanded causing a blood blister. Which at the time I had no idea what had happened to my middle finger. Except other kids found it funny when I showed them. The teachers not so much.

Another time I was riding my bike down a steep hill and the brakes went, when I tried to stop I obviously couldn't, I got caught up in some loose sand and flew over the handlebars hitting my face into the ground.

A lot of times there were bandages to help cover up any scratches and cuts, then there were also bandages you ate.

Wait...what?

Ouch bandage gum was made by Wrigley in the late 80's/early 90's with each gum wrapper featuring a bandage design and packed in a tin to represent a bandage box. The gum evolved into three flavors in the 90's since it's earlier beginning. It was a product my sister seemed to enjoy multiple times and not something I ever personally bought for myself. However, once in awhile, I was able to get her to share a piece and I didn't think it was too shabby. I still preferred Hubba Bubba but this tin brings back those memories of her carrying it around like she was a nurse. She would sometimes after finishing up the gum put real bandages inside or would use it to store her smaller plastic nurses toys in. Guess who always had to play the patient...yeah.

When it came to the hobby of sport cards, it recently felt an Ouch itself when Press Pass cards left us.

Press Pass produced many great products over the years for football, basketball, non sport and NASCAR which is a sport they did an amazing job with. But, it seemed they weren't keeping up in the hobby so had to close sadly.

Back in the 90's, I had my first try of Press Pass with multiple sports I purchased. Back then I considered all of their cards to be rookies up until I saw that Beckett didn't consider them that way. The hobby was based off from Beckett in those days so you abide by what they valued and called cards. So I moved them all into a binder of their own away from the "true rookies"

Press Pass at the time had multiple collegiate licenses which helped make their products unique on their own. Towards the end of their time in the hobby, they were down to just a NASCAR license, some non sport and football cards without logos which was sad to see.

At least I was able to enjoy them in their prime which to me was the late 90's up until 2004.

The 1998 Press Pass basketball was one of my favorite releases of theirs thanks to a reminder from Wes who sent some along in one of his packages. I have one other Press Pass product from that time that tops it, but that's for another day, another post.

Let's take a look at some of my favorites from 1998 Press Pass basketball,

1998 Press Pass basketball wasn't the biggest set in the world, but 45 cards of rookies was still there to chase. The design was basic, but worthwhile and the photography was well done just like this Paul Pierce card. Plenty of good names to find as well along with Pierce with Duncan and Carter.

Absolutely beautiful parallels you could find. Reflector comes with the same appeal and look of a Finest refractor. I can only imagine what this would have been like as a product on it's own. These had my attention immediately when I found them in packs. There were other parallels in the set like red and torquers, but they weren't stunning like this one.

 

Fast Break had a fun design and color scheme. This one is of Vince Carter

 

Super Six gave you a Upper Deck UD3 kind of look with a rainbow foil player appeal in the background. Sort of giving it a 3D look.

 

 

There were other inserts to find as well, but these Net Burners were my favorite ones and I believe the most common to find falling one-per-pack if my memory serves me right.  Press Pass knew had to make a great looking die cut card and this is just one example.

Press Pass '98 basketball however was really built around it's autographs at the time, but I was never fortunate in landing any in the 5 to 6 packs of it I bought from the local gas station. I was always hopeful, but no magic was ever found. Then the product was a one box and done there and I wasn't ever able to get anymore.

That was another ouch from the 90's.

Press Pass thanks for the memories over the years. I still seek out your cards especially from the 90's.

As for today, I always hoped I would leave my bad luck of injuries behind in the 90's when it hit the 2000's, but as many of you know, I have had plenty of ouch over the time since and especially the past five years. At least these ones were dealt with by a real nurse/doctor and not my sister carrying around a fake metal bandage case.

REVIEW:2018-2019 Select Basketball (NICE PULL!)

After the Select football release, came out the basketball version. Same kind of set up and design.

I think the basketball rookie class isn't as good as the football class was, but there are still some studs to find and I may have found one in here.

Let's see how the basketball goes versus the football.

In every box of 2018 Select basketball there are 12 packs of 5 cards each. Each box comes with three hits including autographs and memorabilia cards. There is also plenty of shiny color to chase as well. Boxes currently run just under $200.

Concourse

 

Premier Level

Courtside

The base set is an odd one but a deep one for set collectors. There are 300 cards to collect and three levels of three different designs to do so in with rookies, stars and legends. You will find this breakdown per box, Concourse with 30 per box, Premier Level with 10 per box, and Field Level with only 2 per box.

With anything with a chromed surface, there will be parallels and there are plenty of them to find in Select.They are called Prizm parallels which is Panini's word for refractors. As you can tell, there are different levels of refractors with each level of base.

Here is an overall look at the parallels

Concourse

• Silver
• Scope
• Tri-Color
• Zebra SP
• Light Blue /299
• Red /199
• White /149
• Neon Green /75
• Tie-Dye /25
• Gold /10
• Black 1/1

Premier Level

• Silver
• Scope
• Tri-Color
• Zebra SP
• Blue Die-Cut /185
• Maroon Die-Cut /135
• Purple Die-Cut /99
• Orange Die-Cut /65
• Tie-Dye Die-Cut /25
• Gold Die-Cut /10
• Green Die-Cut /5
• Black 1/1

 Courtside

• Silver
• Zebra SP
• Copper /60
• Tie-Dye /25
• Gold /10
• Green /5
• Black 1/1

 

Silver

Tri-Color

 

Light Blue /299. Love me some Vince!

Red /199

Scope

Blue Die Cut /185. These are pretty cool.

Select is also has some inserts and most or all of those have the Prizm parallels too.

Most parallels include, Silver, Purple /99, Copper /49, Tie-Dye /25, Gold /10, and Black 1/1.

Slash and Dash

Phenomemon

Now onto the hits which I was disappointed in. Two relics, no patch and no parallels to them when football had a two to one autograph ratio. They do however, all look amazing with this chromed technology but when you pull the prizm parallels of them even more so.

All hits have parallels to. No surprises here.

X-Factor has two parallels, Purple /99 and Copper /49.

Throwback Jerseys has Purple /99, Copper /49, Tie-Dye /25, Gold /10,and Black 1/1 for it's parallels.

And now onto the by far hit of the box,

BOOM TRAE YOUNG!

Rookie autograph memorabilia has Purple /99 (above), Tie-Dye /25, Gold /10, and Black 1/1.

Other hits that I didn't pull but you might!

• Rookie Signatures
• Signatures
• Autographed Memorabilia
• In Flight Signatures
• Draft Selections Memorabilia
• Select Swatches
• Sparks Relics
• Throwback Memorabilia
• X-Factor Memorabilia

OVERALL: this was a rough break til Trae Young appeared in flight. But, there are boxes like that which is why the high price tag can either be a pay off or a loss. It's all apart of the gambles of collecting.

There are plenty of beautiful hits and autographs and patches to find, it's just how much you want to pay to find them. I would suggest a box break for sure if you can't afford to buy a box or at least a few packs.

I think for a product like this it's best to stick with a box break and I strongly recommend using Midwest Box Breaks for your breaking needs. They are always hitting the big pulls so if they are breaking this, you could put yourself in a good spot. They also SHIP ALL CARDS! Get what you pay for!

Please thank Panini America and Tracy Hackler for providing this box for me to review to giveaway some of the hits ON TWITTER!! Please follow them on all social media sites and visit their website for all your card needs, HERE.

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.

Why do you collect what you collect?.

The question is plain and simple...WHY DO YOU COLLECT WHAT YOU COLLECT?..but yet the answer may not be as simple. For me, I started collecting back in late summer of 1993. Just took a random grocery shopping trip (back when they used to sell cards in grocery stores) with my father and for some reason we bought two packs of hockey cards. Then went back the next day and grabbed two more. Then four more..this time two baseball as well. Soon by the end of the week we had a big stack going and from there on it increased. By 1995, was really into collecting buying any product and sport could get our hands on.

One of the first big pulls I remember is this:

 

I loved Skybox and their shiny insert cards that stood out. At that point, it was the best pull in my collection. I tried to chase down all of the Paydirt inserts.

We continued to buy cards and mainly focused our efforts onto the three sports we watched. Basketball, baseball and football. On a ride home from the gas station, our new found place to buy cards, my dad who was busting behind the wheel, don't try that either, almost drove off the road when this was discovered in a pack of our 97-98 Topps Chrome basketball.....a rookie card refractor of Vince Carter. The hottest player on the market with the hottest card that had a BV of $300+ back then. I remember screaming with excitement!! How could I not! We no longer have the card as my dad sold it not much longer after despite my biggest efforts to keep it. But was and still is one my most exciting pulls.

Also around this time we were dead set on collecting Ken Griffey Jr. The man was a beast at the plate, was a great role model and was just a hobby icon. I started searching for every Griffey card I could get my hands on. I remember staying up late to check the scores and to see if he had hit a home run and if he was the league leader...used to hate when McGwire and Sosa took the lead. Especially knowing what we all know now about the steroid allegations it bothers me more.

And of course no Griffey Jr collection was a Griffey Jr collection without one of these:

It took my summer savings but I found it worth it! I still have it to this day among the other 300+ Griffey cards in my collection. I was actually featured in Beckett Baseball for my collection of Griffey cards and other items such as Cheese cans, Oreo wrappers, Empty cracker boxes, Wheaties boxes, card plaques, magazines and so on.

A few years later I took a year break from the hobby after moving out of my parents house. My dad and I split our collection the best we could and I took my part. I still kept what I owned in storage but my dad sold off his part and left the hobby for good. Which was sad because there was a lot of great cards including a Dan Marino autograph but I didn't have enough funds to pry them away from him. I still to this day don't understand why I dropped out of the hobby at that time..but I did and I missed the huge boom of the jersey and auto card takeover in that time.

So it was 2002 when I dug back into the hobby. Picked up a few hobby boxes from the same gas station, (which no longer sells cards because customers were stealing from them) Out of a Fleer box, I pulled a Derek Jeter jersey card with pinstripe. Being a Yankees fan I was pretty stoked about the Jeter especially with a pinstripe.Was still collecting Griffey even after his move to Cincy.

  

From there I was really back into the hobby buying any baseball and football cards I could. I dropped basketball card collecting after Jordan had left. However, when the news broke on steroids, Griffey's injuries kept accumulating driving down his value (even though value for me is not what I collect for) and when the rookie cards for baseball were getting more confusing around 2006 and seeing how the hobby had evolved into a rookie card hobby I decided to drop baseball and focus my efforts onto football which is my favorite sport to play (which I did as TE, OT, DT, DE) and watch and always had been.

Football cards seem to be the most popular, the most valuable out of all of the sports in my opinion and that is why I collect what I collect right now. Baseball would be second then followed by basketball, hockey and then a battle between racing, UFC, and so on. And since then, that's been my main sport. I do sprinkle in a few other sports here and there when there is a popular rookie (example Strasburg, Harper, Lebron, Lin, Taylor Hall) I must have but other than that, including Griffey, I don't buy them most of the time. But then I sometimes have that random itch where I just want to try a different sport and will.

Now that you heard my short version of why I collect what I collect...I pass the question onto you..the readers...WHY DO YOU COLLECT WHAT YOU COLLECT? Feel free to comment below why or any thoughts on my story.