Show Me The Way:1998 Topps Chrome Refractor

Say what you want to about today's refractor technology and the 100's of parallels of them, but give me a tough to find 90's refractor any day.

Unlike today's boxes of Topps Chrome where you get up to 12 refractors a box, Chrome back in the 90's was by far different. You only had one parallel and that one parallel, well, you were lucky if you found the two guaranteed per box.  It made the chase more desirable and more exciting if you saw something glowing in your pack wondering who that may be.

I am sure that most wouldn't have been excited back then to find a Charles Way in 1998 as most would want a Peyton Manning, but I would have been fine with it.

Shiiiinnnyyyyyyy

 

The back labeled as a refractor was handy. Even though to me they have always been obvious but I know some that really struggle with it. The ones I struggle with are the new age parallels in Prizm and Select. I have no idea especially in Select.

Today's addition was brought to you by the Burbank Sportcards Beckett Marketplace , where 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.

A RAK Monday Success

I have posted about it before on here, but I run a RAK (random acts of kindness) thread on Mondays where you list off what you collect and see if anyone has anything fun to send you out of kindness. In return if you are chosen, you must go find someone to give to yourself. Not that it wouldn't be nice to see everyone give and not worry about a return in the first place. Especially in today's trying times.

I join in on the thread as well in both giving and receiving end because its fun. I also think the more that join in to give makes everyone's Monday's a little less Monday. I got one a couple of Monday's ago from @taymatj and it definitely made my week better.

Some non sport mini's from Ginter is right up my alley.

The very underrated Looney Tunes cards from Upper Deck. 

Topps Strata hobby Eli Manning (hobby's card is thicker)

And finally what I considered to be a huge boom.....

 

Andre Williams /50 autograph patch. Beautiful card that was hard to capture on here as the light hit the angle of the picture I took wrong.

Thanks again to Matt for the mail day and as for the rest of you, I really hope you all join in on the fun!

PACK WARS: EPISODE 3 "The Big Hit"

Welcome back to another Pack Wars.

Today, we have a battle of Allen & Ginter blasters. One from 2020 and one from 2021. I have never had any luck with Allen & Ginter blasters before and wasn't expecting anything again. Usually it's just the typical base and inserts which is okay because it helps out my non sport PC.

VS

Let's rip them open and see how it goes.

First up, the 2021 rip

Rookie mini insert

Broccoli rookie card!!

Far, Far away. Some days I think that wouldn't be a bad idea.

Mini inserts

A pair of Historical Hits inserts

Murad insert

Some fun non sport inserts for my PC.

Once again, 2021 Ginter proved to me what I have always known, the blasters come with nothing.

Next up, 2020 blaster I found last year and held onto.

Two new non sport PC cards. Not a bad start to this blaster. Ken Jeong is on my autograph needs list.

Minis. I was excited to find a Chip Gaines.

Where Monsters Live insert. I have the set of these, pretty cool stuff.

A few more for the non sport PC.

More inserts, the building card is pretty cool.

Having grown up on two farms, I really liked this insert series and the design is pretty well done as well. I like the framing.

And it was looking like the typical blaster of Allen & Ginter until.........second to last pack.......

As some would put it...I was shaking. HOLY CANOLI BATMAN. What a pull!!!!!! By far the biggest retail hit of my life.

When it comes to this battle, there is only one obvious winner. But, as always, I will let you guys decide that anyways in comments.

Rodney's Cardboard:2020 Select White Prizm /35

We are down to the final two Rodney showoffs for my Select chase unless another pops up soon.

Today, we are staring at the White Prizm parallel.

 

Not at all that stunning, kind of plain like the silver parallel.

 

It is numbered to 35 however and is the only one this parallel to pop up so far so I was lucky that my buddy Shane was able to snag it for me.

Here is the complete chase below. With each card I reveal, I will be crossing it off on this list. You can find my complete haves and needs HERE. (if you want to blow the fun )

57 Signatures Black Prizm 1/1
57 Signatures Black Prizm Die-Cut 1/1
57 Signatures Green Prizm /5
57 Signatures Green Prizm Die-Cut /5
57 Signatures Gold Prizm /10
57 Signatures Gold Prizm Die-Cut /10
57 Signatures Tie-Dye Prizm /25
57 Signatures Tie-Dye Prizm Die-Cut /25
57 Signatures White Prizm /35
57 Signatures Light Blue Prizm /50
57 Signatures Maroon Prizm /75
57 Signatures Blue Prizm /99
57 Signatures Prizm /199

Til next time, keep an eye out on Rodney's for me!

Nine Pockets With Three Cards

Greg over at Nine Pockets blog has made some cool customs over the years and now those customs have come to real life as they are in print form!

I was fortunate awhile back to get a first sample of one of those cards in the Ed card from Good Burger, one of those classic 90's movies that I enjoy.

He recently hosted a giveaway to give some of those printed cards away and I had to jump on board.

Of course I had to grab a real printed version of the card this time to go along with my sample.

And had to grab the other Good Burger version as well.

The final card I grabbed, well, when I see any Seinfeld cardboard I don't hesitate:

George Costanza in the episode, Understudy. The  of when he plowed over Bette Midler and injures her leading to Bette's understudy who is dating Jerry to take over for her in the Broadway show Rochelle, Rochelle The Musical.

Back of the cards,

Cool huh?

Thanks again to Greg for the cards. I can't wait to see what you come up with next in this series.

Rock And Jock

Today's card will bring you back to those years of when MTV actually played music, not a bunch of shows about guys and girls locked in a house doing you know what or some families from Atlanta and NJ.

The MTV Rock N' Jock was a television series on MTV featuring actors, musicians, and other entertainers playing sports with professional athletes. Sounds like a good time.

One of those athletes was a guy named Ken Griffey Jr who also happens to be a PC guy for me. I also saw one on Twitter that was up for trade from @tvsportscards.

(looks totally 90's)

I hadn't seen or heard of this card before but I am now one of the lucky 20,000 to own one.

A bonus that was tossed in our trade,

another new card for the collection.

Thanks again to @tvsportscards for the trade.

I have wondered if I should chase down the other two cards in the set. The MC Hammer one would be cool in itself for my non sport collection and never hurts to have another Frank Thomas.

Updates to come if I chase down the other two cards. Thanks for reading and have a great Sunday!

Show Me The Way:1998 Stadium Club One Of A Kind

The newest segment on here kicks off today. I thought naming this one Charles Cardboard would be a bit tacky in it's comparison with my Rodney chase, so I thought branding its own series would be better and Show Me The Way is just catchy.

The first card is the latest addition that was not included in my main post as it arrived a day after I uploaded those pictures. I have a few others as well to show off in the upcoming weeks.

1998 Stadium Club randomly inserted, for baseball they were 1:21 odds, the One Of A Kind parallels. The cards are simply just a foil covering over the base card and is numbered to 150 on the back.

 

Rodney Hampton wasn't included in the 1998 Stadium Club set so this is my first seeing one of these parallels up close.

There are more of these cards on the Way, see what I did there? If you have any Charles Way sitting around, SHOW ME THE WAY!!

Show Me The WAY!

I told myself I wouldn't TACKLE another Super PC as I did with Rodney Hampton, but, once again, fate hit and here I am.

You can now refer to me as the....CHARLES WAY Super Collector.

Why Charles Way? Well, he was another player I enjoyed watching playing in his five seasons with the Giants. He also has a tie in with Rodney as he was a fullback that blocked for Rodney his first few seasons before taking over for Rodney in 1997 when he was out with an injury. Way went on to rush for 696 yards and had over 1,000 all purpose yards that season. He played okay in 1998 but knee injuries forced him to retire in 2000. Once again a player that had potential and who knows how far he could have gone.

Regardless of that, he ended up in my collection and I have come a long ways in the last few months with it.

Also, been keeping track of my collection and stats on TCDB.

Here was the humble beginnings which put me at 8th place to start.

A few adds moved me up to 5th

Then a huge mail day jumped me up to first.

Then more...

And the domination continued....

 

And finally here is where I am at (since the typing of this four more cards have shown up)

I currently own 31.5% of all Charles Way cards out there. With a minimal 251 to chase, it shouldn't be too hard to find most. However, some are very, very expensive and some others being 90's cards will be even harder to chase down.

Here is a visual of my Way collection thus far,

 

(class 3 Black Label)

1998 Skybox Rubies)

(in-person auto that came via a friend)

(Way only has 3 autographs total)

(My first and only 1/1!)

(Rave and Super Rave!!!!)

(gold parallel /25)

(my favorite cards of them all, Legacy collections /100)

Pretty solid collection I am proud of so far. Still a WAY to go, but I will show any new additions as I go on. Maybe do a segment similar to the Rodney Hampton one.

If any of you have any Charles Way you don't see above, as the Styx sung, SHOW ME THE WAY!!!