The Centerpiece Of My Saquon Barkley Collection

We are still less than a month from the NFL Draft where the Giants took highly touted draftee RB Saquon Barkley with the number two pick. It's by far the most excited I have been about a Giants draft pick in a long time. Probably ever since Odell Beckham Jr but may be even bigger.

Since then, I have taken a ride on the Barkley train trying desperately to add his cards to my PC. So far I have three including a SI For Kids card. Not very much and a bit disappointing.

I am a bit surprised more haven't been thrown my way especially after updating my Trade Bait tab and I have been promoting it. Oh well, will add what I can when I can I guess.

Recently, @NFLAuction held a contest on all of it's social media sites for a signed Barkley SI. When I saw that contest, I was all over it on two of the three social media sites. I still haven't ever attempted Instagram. Don't think I ever will.

Late last week, I was messaged on Facebook from NFL Auction that I had won the Barkley. Yes, I had won a signed Barkley SI. Wow. Blown away.

A few days later the item showed up by Fed Ex along with a certificate of authenticity.

 

 

Still blown away especially having it in hand. By far the best Barkley item I have right now.

I still want to add an autograph card badly, but for now, I will stare at this. I will need to find a safe place to store it however and make sure the autograph is protected and won't fade.

By the way, check out @nflauction for their auctions on Facebook,  Twitter and Instagram. All sales from their auctions go to a good cause of the players and they have lots of great items available.

Now I need to ask, how would you guys display such a cool item? Let me know in comments!

Oh, before I close, Happy Mother's Day to all of those moms out there!

Collectin' With Pops

Back when I was younger, my father and I collected many things. From Starting Lineups to magazines to these .50  mugs that came in the quarter machines

To these baseball helmets that did as well (and those football helmets I posted in earlier posts)

 

To Ken Griffey Jr food items, to Wheaties Boxes and so much more over the years including the obvious sport cards. 

Since I moved out, we have kept in contact over the years and have gotten rid of a lot of the "stuff" we once had, but one thing we have held onto is our love of the Yankees, NY Giants and talk of sport cards even with both of us taking a small break at some point in our collecting careers we still discussed them.

A few years ago-I have mentioned this a few times-I got him back into collecting and now he is collecting like crazy. Buying vintage and modern left and right. Faster than I am by far now. I have slowed down due to finances, but he has been a help with trading cards to me to keep my sanity so I can add new ones in.

We have pulled off five trades so far with my latest just arriving. So let's take a look.

First up, a guy we collected a lot of in the 90's, Ken Griffey Jr. This is my first Optic "refractor" of him.

My father bought into the 2017 rookie chase and had me believing that Bellinger would be better than Judge this year. Well.....we were wrong so far.

This was a bonus card he sent just because. I think this may go into my trade pile.

My first official "rookie card" of first pick in the draft Baker Mayfield.

And the second pick...who is also a Giant in Saquon Barkley. This is a Primary Colors insert and marks my second card of his. I WANT MORE!!!!

You can't say ELIte Series without Eli!

And a card I traded for just because I am hoping he pans out. I also like Kenny G's signature and not so much his music. Some of you will get this lame joke.

 

Another solid trade with pops and we are already working out another. I should have that one posted up in the next couple of weeks.

With our trading picking up so much, I am glad we don't collect those other items anymore. Can you imagine what the shipping costs would be???

REVIEW:BCW 12-800 Count Card House

I am always looking for new ways to keep my card room not only sorted, but looking nice. One of the things I have used before are the BCW card houses. You would be amazed how fast your card area can change just by using a few of these.

I have used the Shoe Box houses a few times and have shown them off in my sorting posts. They look like this,

They help house my hits and keep things stacked accordingly.

But, one I have been needing is one to hold my 800 ct boxes. If you own and use those, you know as well as I do that overtime they can tip over from overuse as they wear down. Well, the great thing about the Card House is that it keeps them in-line and can hold 12 at a time. That's huge at least for me who has many in use.

I recently acquired one of the 12 800 ct card houses to review on here and I will tell you one thing, it's simple and easy it was to put together. Let me tell you, if I can do it, you can.

Up first, I see I didn't take a picture of the main piece but it's the biggest piece in the box in comes in. So take that piece and place it into a square position. **note that I took this picture after I inserted the insides. Yours won't look like this as I suggest putting the box into position and taping it first before inserting the pictures**

   

On the backside of that piece, tape the back together. It's simply just putting tape on it. Nothing complicated. The flaps just fall into place.

 

Next take the insides. Fold them in half and slide them into the box with the open end sides facing out.

Like this

Up next, take the piece that looks like this and fold up the side flaps. On the inside of the box where you inserted the last pieces, you will notice the three openings. This piece has two and makes up the floor to your boxes. Just slide this piece into the others and it's that simple.

 

And boom. It should turn out like this. Notice that the flaps you folded down on the last piece face upwards.

 

The last part is simple, take the big flaps that are out on the main piece and fold them into the slots.

And finally, take the 800ct boxes and slide them in. They are all tucked in nicely to help keep your card room looking good.

 

OVERALL: This wasn't a piece very hard to put together. Which is the biggest plus of all as I hate complicated items. I am not great at putting things together. Just ask my wife and her backwards chair legs. Okay, that was one time but, hey, trying to make a point.

You can find your own Card House that comes with 12 boxes on the BCW website here,

https://www.bcwsupplies.com/card-house-with-12-800ct-boxes

Prospecting The Yanks

Prospecting. It's one of the most rewarding/frustrating things in the hobby.

It's also something I don't normally seek out but in the last few years have changed my tune on that.

Last year I pulled a Heliot Ramos autograph from Bowman Draft I had bounced around to a few traders but didn't get much interest. With that card being in the Top 20 on the Beckett Hot List I decided I would hold onto it just in case he became the next superstar. Well, that changed fast when I saw @Mike__McKenna post a few cards that caught my eye and that was the only thing I think I could entice him with. Within a few hours, we worked ourselves out a deal and the guy I was gonna hold onto was soon no longer in hand.

Let's see what I got in return for it.

My first Aaron Judge 2018 Donruss cards. I don't think the design is terrible, just wished the logos were there.

Bowman's Best insert of Judge last year.

And finally an ice parallel from Bowman Platinum. Sweet looking rookie card and card number 71 in my Judge PC. That's 71 different by the way. On my way to 100!

Then I took my look at a couple of Andujars who has played extremely well since being placed in the Yanks lineup. It carried over from his hot spring training.

Heritage rookie with Frazier,

Topps Silver pack card. Sick looking card!

And finally what started up the trade....Gleyber Torres. He hit his first home run last week vs the Indians along with his first walk off home run on Sunday vs them (note that this was typed up on Sunday so if he did anything else this week it won't be updated). I expect more to come from this young gun. Ever since he was called up the Yanks have turned things around and look like the team we all expected.

I had a few of his cards already including an autograph, but this should help pad that PC some more.

A Bowman Chrome mini

Bowman Chrome prospect

Bowman's Best prospect. I have the atomic but not the base

Bowman Platinum prospect

Doesn't look like Gleyber lost his mojo, with this twisted mojo refractor.

My final card from the trade was the first card I inquired about, this on-card Bowman High Tek autograph. Nice looking card all around.

 

I sometimes question myself if I made the right move with letting Ramos go, but I think in the end having cards of guys from my team and letting Ramos go to a SF Giants fan has to be the influencing factor. Like I said, prospecting can make you do some tough decisions sometimes and make things frustrating. It's usually why I don't do it. But, I probably will still attempt to in a small extent.

I am okay however with letting prospect autographs go for veterans if they are guys like Cal Ripken and others on my want list. 

So for now, I am considering myself a beginning prospector. So have any autographs, inserts, parallels or Bowman rookies from the past 5 years of HITTERS ONLY (sorry but I am not a fan of pitchers)? I will take em in trade!

As for my trade with @Mike__McKenna , a big thanks goes out to him for the trade and helping pad my Yankees PC more. I hope we can do this again in the near future.

I Made A Brilliant Guess

When it comes to math and estimations, I am usually not the person to turn to. My guesses are so far off from the actual number.

The other day I was talking to my father about some rookie cards, specifically DiDi that he was looking for, and I was like "Yeah, I can trade you one. I have at least 10 of him." Well, I had two. Yes, two. I normally don't like trading rookie cards away of hot players unless I have 10 of them but I still pulled the trigger despite my complete under-guessing.

However last week, I was close on a guessing contest. Very, very close.

@BrilliantCards held a contest for you to take a guess on what his rainbow lot of Goodwin Champion mini cards would go for. My guess was $34.45 with the winning bid being.....$34.33. I was the only one even close to that guess. .12 off. I don't think I have ever come that close to guessing anything like that so for that day, I felt like a math champ. Just that one day.

Anyways, the prize was a mystery pack and mystery pack it was. I looked in my mail box and saw a package from COMC that I wasn't expecting. I actually haven't even ever ordered from them so that was even more of a mystery. Upon opening the package the mystery was quickly unraveled when I recognized where the package came from.

I was not only surprised by the package itself, but by the contents as well.

Up first, a very purty Rodney Hampton card /500.

 

Next, another numbered Rodney from one of my favorite sets all time in 1997 Totally Certified.  This one is the blue version numbered to 2100. This entire set looked amazing and as always with Peel Off stickers, I keep them intact.

 

Up next a numbered to 725 Phone card of my main man Rodney.

Following that, one of my favorite Rodney Hampton autographs. This one is from Topps Archives and features a throwback to his 1990 Topps rookie card. I have heard that Rodney doesn't sign much at all anymore or even TTM as I was looking for an address. So adding autographs of the man won't ever bother me.

 

 

And finally, a new addition to my Psych relic set. I was so stoked to see this card as I haven't added to that PC in some time and been needing to.  It's also my first Carlton Lassiter addition as I don't have his autograph from the first set.

 

 

A tremendous thanks goes out to @BrilliantCards for the mystery giveaway prize pack. You made my week for sure. Go give him a follow for giveaways and some great deals on sport cards and non sport cards. 

REVIEW:2017-2018 Topps Chrome UEFA

For the first time in Topps Chrome history, it is welcoming the soccer's biggest stage in UEFA. All of the big names are in here with your Ronaldo, Messi, and Jesus.

We all know how much I like chrome no matter the sport, so let's see my thoughts on this new edition.

In every box of 2017-2018 Topps Chrome UEFA is 18 packs of 4 cards each. There is 6 parallels per box along with 1 autograph. Boxes run just under $70.

There are 99 cards in the base set with all of the big names.

 

There are 5 base card variations to find as well. Those are tough to find falling 1:246. I didn't find one however.

As with anything chrome, we have some refractor love. What I like about these, there is no questioning which one is which. It's pretty obvious as you will see in a few.

The base chrome refractors look terrific. These fall 1:3 packs.

Blue refractors fall 1:25 packs. They are numbered to 150.

Purple refractors fall 1:15 packs and are numbered to 250

Orange fall 1:148 and are numbered to 25.

I love how bold these stand out. I hope the baseball parallels in chrome are just as sharp.

Other parallels in the product include, 

• Green /99
• Gold /50
• Red /10
• SuperFractor 1/1

The inserts and themes in UEFA are the same ones you will find in baseball and still look just as terrific.  Most inserts have a gold /50 parallel.

Future Stars was one of my favorites from the MLB version and looks just as good here. They fall 1:6 packs and include all of the future stars of the sport.

Lightning Strike insert that falls 1:5 packs.

Award Winners fall 1:108 packs. I seemed to have lucked out landing one of the best. I like tough to find inserts.

Now onto my autograph find.

Joao Moutinho

 

OVERALL: It's a chrome product and it's fun. Chrome is the product I feel gives you the most value back from a break for any sport. It was always my first choice in retail when they offered football and has been a top choice for me for years. So if you collect UEFA cards, this is a nice way to go and it's decently priced right now.

You can find the complete checklist, HERE.

Please take a minute out to thank Topps for providing the box to review. Some of the cards you see above will be included in the Fantasy Baseball contest! Follow Topps on all social media sites and check out their website HERE for cards and more!  

2018 May Fantasy Baseball Prize

For those of you that joined the Sport Card Collectors Fantasy Baseball league, I finally got confirmation for the prizes in May.

Since there are two leagues, there will be two prizes. One prize for each league. The players with the highest winning percentage for each league will win a prize and the one with the biggest lead will get to choose their prize first.

Here is the Topps prize offering for the month,

And a few bonus inserts as well.

Here is the prize offering up by BCW Supplies. I own one of these super useful sorting trays and now you can as well, ****cards not included****

 

You can find your own sorting tray on this link if you don't win,

https://www.bcwsupplies.com/card-sorting-tray

Believe me, you will want to!

Good luck to all of those in the league and keep in mind that the prizes for the year end winner are stacking up!

Engram+Barkley=A PWE Perfect Combo

Once again I found another fun surprise in my mail box from my long distance friend @JGFan24ever on Twitter who passed along two really sweet cards for my Giants PC.

Up first is this Optic Evan Engram that will add to my rainbow I started and recently posted about on my Snagging Cardboard blog. If you haven't checked that blog out yet, please do so.

 

This latest add will go along with these,

I am not sure how far I will get with this chase, but if any of you want to trade me some help I would accept. Once again the hardest part of a rainbow chase is finding and affording the 1/1.

The next card is well...wow. My first Saquon Barkley card in my PC that isn't a Sports Illustrated For Kids version. This is a 2018 Elite Draft Status Die Cut. Such a purty card!

 

 I am hoping this is just the beginning of my Saquon search. I want any and all of his cards. If you have any available, please check out my trade bait tab that has plenty of trade bait . Especially if you are a hockey or basketball fan. You can find the trade bait tab HERE and rules for trading with me.

A big thanks goes out to Michael again for this generous mail day. There should have been a PWE headed your way and hopefully it arrived safely to you just as a small thank you. I plan on sending more out to you later on.