Comin' In Hot:Trade With @JHawksHoops

I kept seeing great card after card that @JHawksHoops was posting. Lots of stuff that peaked my interest but I didn't have any idea what I would give up for it. He had specific things he was looking for and for me to find those things, it wasn't going to be easy.

But, I did finally find something and we worked out a deal.

 

Three Daniel Jones rookie cards from Illusions

Donruss Team Heroes Eli Manning

Saquon Barkley base from Illusions I didn't have

Sweet purple numbered parallel from Phoenix

 

Patrick Mahomes X-Tra Points purple parallel. I have been wanting a nice Mahomes for my collection. Now I finally have one.

 

And finally.......yes!! Another Daniel Jones auto! I can't get enough. I don't even have an Eli Manning rookie auto but have multiple Jones ones. Really need a Eli rookie auto at some point.

Big thanks goes out to @JHawksHoops for the trade. You definitely have some more stuff I want so hopefully we can work out another deal soon!

Would You Rather...

Growing up, I knew all about the big three, no I am not talking about LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. I am talking about the big three Nightly News anchors in Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather.

At the time, I didn't truly appreciate the work they put in when I was in my youth, but looking back on it, I have now come to appreciate what they did for the news in the 80's, 90's and early 2000's bringing us a lot of what we don't see today.

All three were dedicated to their work and it showed.

Out of the Big Three, only Dan Rather remains in the news world as Brokaw retired and Jennings passed away. Rather has been apart of some form of news for almost 70 years of his life now and between The Big Three, Rather was the one I grew up seeing on television the most as my parents always watched the CBS Evening News. He also did some corresponding for 48 Hours and 60 Minutes.

When I saw @rickklein post that Dan Rather had some rather unique relics in 2019 Allen And Ginter, I felt obligated to grab them. This has been a trend with my collecting in 2018 and 2019 with grabbing pieces of my past.

Upon doing some minor research, I found out that Dan Rather had base card, mini, parallels, autograph and two different relics in the product. These were relics that I haven't ever seen used before in the product, so that was a bonus for me.

 

The first one features a piece of typed document by Rather and this one I liked a lot with so many words visualized in the relic including the word "groundbreaking", which is a common catchphrase thrown out there by newscasters.

The second relic that Rather has in Allen and Ginter is one of his handwritten notes. This to me is two hits in one as you could say it was a form of autograph as well. However, a lot of the cuts on these notes are not many words and more of a few scribbles. But, hey, can't be easy to cut up a handwritten document. I found the best version of it I could.

The handwritten note relic was the one that Rick Klein shared to his followers as a piece of history he picked up for himself and was the one that guided me to pick the two different versions up.

So if you had wanted to pick up one of these relics, which would you rather have? The typed up document? The handwritten piece of history? Or would you be like me and go for the home run with both?

Either way is a win in my book. I still hope to pick up the autograph when the opportunity strikes.

Breakin Wax:2019 Topps Holiday Box

I am going to admit something I am not sure I have before on here. I am a Christmas addict. I love the holiday. The feeling it brings. The pure joy. The scents, the tastes and the true meaning of it with the birth of Jesus Christ. He's the meaning for the season.

But, I go all out with decorating. No, not like those people who put up millions of lights or like the house in Christmas Vacation, but enough that people who come over take notice. Not that I wouldn't go big if I could afford the added electric bill.

Everyone comes to expect my Christmas decorations decked out and they also expect it before Thanksgiving, something I have done since I met my wife. It's not a knock on Thanksgiving and not that I am not thankful for everything in my life, it's the fact I love Christmas and it takes me a lot of work to decorate to not enjoy it over a long period of time. I also take my decorations down the day after Christmas. I am not one to prolong to New Years or longer.

So when I saw this years Topps Holiday edition cards, it put me right there in the spirit of Christmas. Past designs didn't cut it for me with the snowflake, but this years designs hit me right in the Christmas gut like my mother in laws french toast bake we eat every year for Christmas.

I was fortunate to hit up my local Walmart right a day after the lady had stocked it and was able to grab one of the first boxes on the shelf.

So, let's check it out.

Each 2019 Topps Holiday box comes with 10 packs and 10 cards per pack.  There is one autograph, one relic or one autograph relic per box. Boxes run just under $25.

The garland/mistletoe border design this year just hit me in all the right spots and then it topped off with a white garland touch around the player really put me in the spirit. As soon as I saw other collectors busting these, I got jealous and had to have it. Probably in the running for my favorite Topps design of the year!

Acuna

Vlad Jr. I landed all key rookies except Pete Alonso. Will need to find that one.

 

1:2 packs are the metallic parallels. I pulled the expected five.

Here's a closer look at them. A raised glittery upgrade to its base card counterpart.

Base Sp of Gleyber Torres. Check out those wristbands

Yelic Base Sp and boy can he swing a sweet candy cane stick

 And also a rare, 1:20 pack pull of Jose Altuve who likes to stick candy canes in his back pocket like Santa.

My hit of the box was a disappointment. I REALLY WANT A SANTA HAT WORN RELIC!!!. But instead got David Price plain white relic. I do like the design on these as gift boxes.

My Santa hat off to Topps on this product this year. That was money well spent with the joy it brought me opening it. Even my wife had a good time busting packs with me and she isn't usually a baseball card person as she prefers football.

This left me wanting more and I may go back to see if there is anymore before they sell out. We will see. In the meantime, I will enjoy these and if you any of you happen to pull a Santa Hat worn relic and want to trade or donate one to me, I would be grateful.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christ....I mean, Merry Day.

Comin' In Hot:On The Offensive

I recently pulled off a good sized trade with fellow NY Giants fan @Seth_Murphy8. He had a stack of Giants I was very interested in having and you already saw Part 1. Now it's time to seek out the offense and what I scored. See what I did there?

 

Two Shepards and one Eli from Panini XR.

Dual relic of Eli and Jones. Past and Present.

Jones rookie from Panini Illusions I wanted.

Panini XR rookie of Jones

Up next is actually what started our trade talks. I mentioned,well now that cats out of the bag, how I was starting to collect Darius Slayton cards. He was the only person to hit me up with some as I expected others to as he was a late round draft pick Guess they must see the potential I do in him.

Panini XR parallels

Absolute parallel and base

Jersey card from XR

Pair of Patch autos from XR

And a Panini Black auto. These are as beautiful as I thought they would be in hand.

Now time for some Saquon. That PC is growing as I believe I am over 100 cards now. I have been snagging up cheap base and inserts as I go along. I still think the future of the Giants relies on him.

More Saquon. Multiple parallels from Panini Black, which ones are they, well, I have no idea til I do research.

Dual Jersey card

Single relic

And a swwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet patch /10. My first Saquon patch card.

Big thanks goes out to@Seth_Murphy8 for the trade. Hope we can do this again down the road.

Blast From The Past:1995 Playoff Absolute football Pack Break

It was about a scientist named Calvin Webber who was played by Christopher Walken, that took his pregnant wife in a deep underground fallout shelter in 1962 when he thought a nuclear war was imminent. During that time, their son Adam played by Fraser (who seemed to had been in every late 90's movie) was born and was exposed to only the culture of 1962 in the shelter such as the music and TV shows of the time. Life was accustomed to not being at the surface. 

Fast forward 35 years later, their supplies and food was running low so someone would have to come above ground and take a risk to get new products. That was supposed to be Calvin, up until he was ill from stress from his one visit to the surface. So his son Adam would have to venture out in a world he had never met.....

This segment takes a look at products that may have been hidden in a underground fallout shelter for over 20 years and now just coming back out to be rediscovered....by me. Guess you can call me Adam even though my name is Matt. These are products I opened when I was first collecting and is a Part Of My Past, but may not have a memory or a Origins story to attach to them. Most products I post on here will, but some won't and those will be covered in this new segment.These products will be between the years of 1995-1999 only.

Let's just hope my experience with these breaks is better than Adams first visit to the surface.

So let's take a Blast From The Past with a one pack break of 1995 Playoff Absolute Football!

Just like Playoff Prime, Playoff Absolute I may have busted one pack of in 1995 as Playoff didn't make much of an appearance in my area til 1996. I later on was able to pick up singles from this product that I wanted.

Once again I had high hopes of pulling a Pigskin Preview or pretty much anything would be nice. So let's see how I did.

 

There are 8 cards in this pack to find. I paid about $1 as it was in a lot of 90's packs I bought.

Aaron Glenn will always be a NY Jet to me but he played for five teams total in 14 seasons. He was a three time Pro Bowler and Three Time All Pro corner.

 

The GOAT sighting.....Barry! Best Running Back in NFL History. I know I had this argument already but nobody could do what Barry did. This to me was an exciting find. Barry is a Hall Of Famer, 10x Pro Bowler, MVP, and a 2x Offensive Player Of The Year among many other great honors.

Rhett didn't quite live up to the 1994 NFL Draft hype and played for three teams in 6 NFL Seasons.

Hmmmm Bono find in Absolute to match my find of him in Playoff Prime

Martin played for 6 teams in 12 seasons. I best remember him as a Bolt. He was an All Pro and Pro Bowler in 1996.

Eric Green played for nine seasons and will be best remembered to me as a member of the Steelers.

Leroy plowed his way for yards for four teams in nine seasons. Best remembered to me as a Brown. Hoard made it to the Pro Bowl 1994.

Erik Kramer will always be a Bear to me. He played for four teams but spent four years in Chicago which was his longest stint at a place.

Finding the Barry Sanders alone was enough for me to call this pack a winner. How can it not?

More Blasts From The Past coming up soon!

Rodney's Cardoard:1996 Pro Stamps

Years I go, I found one of my missing pieces to my 1996 Rodney Hampton chase but couldn't afford it so I watched it go away.

Fast forward til now, they popped up again but this time there was no way no matter how I was going to miss out on them as they don't pop up often.

Luckily for me, I had $4 left on a gift card and you know what, this Hampton ended at $3 with $1 shipping.

Alongside the Pro Magnets which were magnets, these are fun collectible stamps. I hadn't heard or seen any thing like these in the 90's til I started chasing Rodney. This lot actually came with three other Giants, but I didn't want to open up the taped toploader worried I would ruin the rest. So basically I paid $1 each. Worth it for an oddball treat in my opinion.

As always, more Sunday's spent with Rodney coming up!

Comin' In Hot:On The Defensive

I recently pulled off a good sized trade with fellow NY Giants fan @Seth_Murphy8. He had a stack of Giants I was very interested in having. It was such a good sized trade that it takes two parts for me to post it. Stay tuned for the offensive part next week.

So we worked out a pretty fast trade and I got to bring home some much needs for my Giants PC as I still don't have much going into the 2019 season.

Julian Love Panini Black

Red Parallel for Absolute of Love

My first autographs of him. I like his siganture

And another one.

The X-Man! He has made an impact on this defense so far. I look forward to see how much more he does. By the way, first autograph of him.

Baker had a rough start to the year but seems to be figuring things out. Hopefully he will be a CB one next year.

My second Dre auto. His auto isn't as pretty as Loves.

The Giants received Jabril Peppers and the 17th pick in the draft for Odell Beckham Jr. So far, despite how it sounded unfair at the time, it has been rewarding. Peppers has upped his game and the Giants used that pick to grab Dexter Lawrence who has been a menace up front. As for Odell, well, he isn't having the greatest time in Cleveland. Seems like the Giants won that trade.

More Lawrence.

Some Lawrence autos

and another with some parallels from Panini Black.

Well that does it for today's defensive shut down.The second part of this mail day coming up soon!

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict:Back To The Future!

Growing up in the 90's, I would take all of my toys and pile them onto my bed and pretend my bed was a time traveling car. I would take trips to the past and to the future and would do it with my side kick Bear. Yeah, I didn't give him a real name.

I would travel prehistoric times with the dinosaurs and try to stay away from the T-Rex. I would travel to the future and battle the robot takeover. Which almost seems more realistic today.

Time travel had always interested me and was something I always thought would be created by the time I was an adult. So far, so no such luck.

The best time traveling we have today is what we see in movies and one of the greatest time traveling movies came out in 1985 in Back To The Future. Well, and it's sequels.

The movie starred Michael J Fox as Marty McFly who meets up with his eccentric friend Doc or Dr Emmett Brown played by Christopher Llyod in a parking lot with who shows off a souped up DeLorean car he turned into a time machine that is powered by plutonium obtained from Libyan terrorists. What happens next changes everything. The terrorists show up taking down the Doc but Marty gets away by driving the Delorean that had already been preset to November 5th 1955 by Doc when he showed Marty the buttons on the car. Which is also the day he conceived the time traveling car. What Marty doesn't realize when he drives the car was that is actually worked and takes him back in time without knowing. So he finds himself back in time with no more plutonium in hand to go back home. Runs into his father being bullied, gets hit by a car, his future to be mom rescues him and starts to fall for him, he needed for his father to fall in love with her before he no longer exists while also avoiding bullies and trying to find the past Doc to get him Back To The Future! Wooooo! What a movie!

I had just recently watched the first movie of Back To The Future again on TV and it brought back those memories of time traveling on my bedlorian with Bear. I always associate the past with cards so I wondered to myself if any of those guys had autographed cards and that's when I stumbled upon a Leaf Pop Century one of Lloyd.

I really wanted it. Not just for the memories of Back To The Future but it would make a great piece for my non sport PC. So with the magic of a trade with my buddy @Jake1725, I had it. It was mine. Do I also need to mention that Lloyd has a great signature?

 

Speaking of Lloyd, it felt like he was always in something that I had watched in my younger years and not just the Back To The Future series. Clue, DuckTales The Movie (did a voice), The Addams Family,Angels In The Outfield, Addams Family Values, Dennis The Menace, and many others I watched him in.

I didn't' get to watch the sequels that day, as I had to run errands, but the follow up sequels were just as good as the first one and has them time traveling to the future (2nd movie)then way back in time to save Doc in the third one. 

I had always hoped a fourth one would come along, I have a feeling they will do a stupid remake of it instead since that's the big thing today, but there's still time even with both main actors not getting any younger and Fox with his Parkinsons. Both still act I believe in other things. I just saw an episode of Rosanne, before ABC barred her (get it?), where Lloyd guest starred as her mom's lover.

Only time can tell if we will get a time machine or get another Back To The Future sequel, but if either happens, I will be saying Great Scott!