Don't Forget To Save Yourself 10% Off!

 

Don't forget when placing your supply order, to use the code above to save yourself 10% off!!!! Their website code only gives you 5% off, so save more with my code!!

To start shopping right now, I embedded the BCW Supplies link into the image for you to click on. Just don't forget to use the code Matt10 at checkout to save yourself the money.

So...I Changed My Mind...

Well, only 8 days into the New Year and I can't even stick to my New Years resolutions. I told myself I would be back to building up this blog again, but it didn't feel right.

The comments, views were still not here. I guess letting this blog fall by the wayside the last two years hasn't helped it much. I also feel a lot of readers were disappointed I let the Coffee blog fall.

So.....I changed my mind on my blogging approach for 2024 and going forward. I told myself I would just stick to one blog, but I just don't see that working out right for me. 

This is how it will go now and how it will stay for now on. I promise, this is my new updated part of the resolutions. It will be like saying you won't eat a donut for a year, but change it to only eating one a week because you felt you couldn't survive that way kind of eating change.

This blog I will do Random Card Of The Day posts from cards sitting on my desk. It's an easy quick thing I can do from my phone, so it won't be much of a hassle. And it will be for when I have time to post.

Cards Over Coffee becomes my new blog and main focus. I have some changes and new segments coming to that blog as well. So please be sure to follow it and add it to your blogroll.

However, Big Blue Cardboard will be my NY Giants focused blog. I won't post on there very much as my time will be spent on Cards Over Coffee, but I will be posting still there. And it's also the ONLY place you will see NEW RODNEY HAMPTON CARDS!!!! And there is a lot coming up!!

I know some of you don't like the multi-blog approach, but I think it will work out best in the end. Just remember, Cards Over Coffee will be my main blog and will have the most posts, the other two will be side blogs.

Thanks again for the support! Make sure to check out the blogs and keep reading!

Hobby Topic:2024 Hobby Resolutions

Here is how Hobby Topic works if you don't remember.

Just leave a comment or thought below on the following.

Today's Topic is

2024 Collecting Resolutions

What are some of your collecting goals this year? Are your goals shorter than last years? Are they longer? Is there a specific card you have a goal of acquiring by year's end? Any specific set you are finishing by years end? Sorting goals for this year?

Please make sure to comment below and keep it clean for our younger audience.

If you have a blog post on this topic, feel free to comment a link to it as well!

The Grady Boxes: Box 1

A few times a year, blog reader and good friend Grady M (@gradyfishinsea), sends me a box full of goodies. He has been doing this for many years since we met on my Facebook page.

These boxes usually consist of my four New York teams, some player collections and so much shiny that I have no other choice but to smile.

I never know what is arriving and what surprises hide within until it arrives. But I do know that it will be fun.

So, when Grady sent me a Christmas box round of cards, I had a hard time waiting until Christmas to open it, but I did.

Inside of the big box it came in, were multiple empty blaster boxes full of treasure.

I thought to myself, how does one post so many cards on a blog without spamming it completely. After much thought, I sat down and decided I would show off some, yes some, of my favorites from each blaster box.

Let's take a peek of what was inside of this Rookies and Stars blaster.

I don't know what these parallels are called, but I love 'em. I would take all of these that I can.

I think I need to find one in Griffey form. That would be sweet.

I am not sure if Upper Deck just used the same photo twice or if this was in the same product. Either way, two new Griffeys for the PC.

Mahomes! I will continue to take any and all Patrick's I don't have.

I don't know much about soccer, but I saw this parallel and thought it was super cool.

With lack of opening products this year, this card marks my first Aaron Rodgers card in a Jets uniform.

Speaking of NY QB's, Danny Dimes or this year, Danny Hurts. No relation to Jalen. All Giants fans expect this year to be the last straw for him with the Gmen and I expect the same. It's too bad to, last year he played so well. But being hurt often in the biggest position in football is not a great place to be. Not to mention he played terrible when he did play.

 

And last eye-popping card from this box is of newest Yankee, Juan Soto. So far, the biggest acquisition this offseason for the Yankees. The Dodgers made many other moves. But, I don't think the Yankees are done yet.

Well, that does it for Box #1. There are more to come from this series and some boxes I show off more cards than this.

While I am also at it and have your attention, I wanted to let you know of a new blog in the blogosphere that has some fun daily content especially if you are into vintage cards, especially football. Check out daily vintage football card posts from Vintage Football Card Of The Day HERE:Vintage Football Card of the Day - Highlighting a card a day from the Vintage Football Card Gallery and please add it to your blogroll!

Prepon This Mail Day Post From Dennis

 

Christmas may be over, but posts about my mail days from Christmas are not.

I received quite a few mail days overall around Christmas, with some being from trades, some being from RAKs and some being my usual Christmas gifts from yearly collecting buddies.

To kick off this New Year, my blog posts are going to be playing catchup on all of those mail days which begins with todays from Dennis over at Too Many Verlander's blog fame.

Every year, Dennis hits up quite a few bloggers and maybe even former bloggers with his excellent Christmas mail days. Mine, as with any mail day I get from Dennis, did not disappoint.

\

This is a Gold Medallion from one of the top running backs in NY Giants history.

I can't remember, but pretty sure I claimed this card and

this one as well for my 90's PC. I never turn down a great looking 90's card regardless of who the player is.

Speaking of that, this Bernie Williams right here may have been one of my favorite cards from the entire mail day. This is from 1998 Pacific Paramount and I definitely need the Griffey like this now.

Kadarius Toney isn't one of my most favorite former Giants players, but he was still in blue if even for a short time. The Prizm green is a super shiny cool in-person card.

Plaxico Burress however is one of my favorites. He is also the one I believe helped lead Eli Mannings career and definitely was the reason the Giants made a run in 2008 and beat the Patriots in Super Bowl 42.

Allan Houston will always rank as one of my favorite Knicks all time. I think this may be an in-person or TTM autograph? Not sure if this one is on his checklist. I haven't had the chance to check either.

The next two cards Dennis must have seen on my all-time want list.

My very first Ike Hilliard autograph. I don't know how I didn't already have one since Ike played for the Gmen so long ago, but I didn't. Now I do and he can be crossed off.

 

And Laura Prepon who most may remember as Donna Pinciotti in That 70's Show. That's the main reason I wanted to have this autograph. This goes in the non-sports nostalgia pc part.

There you have it. Another great mailing by Dennis. Thanks again.

This is just one of many mail day Christmas posts I have to come. So, grab your coffee, hot cocoa and get ready for a long ride to see some really fun cards.

It's Those Resolutions Again

If you are reading this, you are probably thinking to yourself, "great, another New Years list of resolutions for the hobby" and I can confirm you are right.

I mean, it is the first post of the New Year and it's being posted on New Years Day. What else would be posted?

Last year, I set no resolutions for my hobby self and found myself actually lost. I think I needed the goals. I needed something to cross off to feel accomplished.

So, this year I am bringing them back and there are many to do. I may need to also check in throughout the year to make sure I am staying on task. 

I need you guys to keep my accountable!!!

Without further ado or rambling, let's see this year's goals,

1. Sort out all of the Christmas cards. There were many, it will take a while to do this.
2. Do a PC count on Ken Griffey Jr. I am a man of numbers; I need to see where I am at with it.
3. Grow my Ken Griffey Jr PC even more. It's been a while, it's time to return to my glory days.
4. Continue to grow my Eli Manning PC. First, I need the three cards to reach 1K.
5. Sort, organize my rookie card box by player so I can find things easier.
6. Write down my set numbers and update it all on here.
7. Update my Want List on here.
8. Complete my 2023 Rodney Hampton Certified Rainbow. 
9. Continue to add to my Marvel Movie PC especially the Purple PMG's, then binder it all.
10. Trade with bloggers more. If any of you are interested, let me know!
11. Blog Post on here more consistently!!!
12. Comment on more blogs instead of just reading them.
13. Number count my NY Giants PC overall.
14. Continue my numbering binder system. Only about halfway through.
15. Sort my non-sport base cards better. They are all just thrown into a box.
16. Clean up my card area.
17. Keep up with my Beckett articles.

There are some easy goals and some lofty ones to chase. Hopefully I can complete all before the year ends. There will be recap post at year's end to show how far I accomplished.

In comments, let me know what some of your resolutions are for the hobby this year.

Hope all of you have a safe, Happy New Year!

End Of 2023

It's late, I know.

And I am not usually someone who stays up late on New Years Eve, but I felt like I couldn't go to sleep without putting up some kind of year end post like most bloggers have.

In the past, I have put up a post recapping my best pulls of the year. Well, I opened no hobby boxes and very little retail this year and there wasn't anything special to post about. Literally nothing.

Other times I would post about my best card from a trade of the year, but I can't think of one card that really stood out above the others I acquired this year. It was a down year for trading.

So, what will I post about? Well, it won't be about my hobby financial woes of 2023 or how I didn't reach my goal of 1,000 Eli Mannings by years end or how I didn't complete any of the sets I wanted to or open any of the wax I had hoped for.

I want this year to end out on a positive note.

I want to look at the positive parts of 2023 in my hobby.

For one, I closed the gap on getting to 1,000 Eli Mannings. I was well over one hundred away and I got it all the way down to three.

Two, I got caught up on a lot of sorting. Some of those cards sat around for a year and a half!!

Three, I was able to finally begin my binder numbering project. This was a project I had wanted to accomplish for so many years and finally took time to do some of it.

Four, I was able to re-organize my card area and move things into better positions where I can access stuff quicker. This was big as a lot of my stuff was hard to access and now trading can come easier when opportunities arise.

And finally, the biggest highlight was being able to write for BCW Supplies and Beckett online. Speaking of which, here is my latest article on Beckett, 1996 Topps Chrome Football , if you haven't read it yet. Please check it out!

This may not seem like a lot of positive, but it's something and something to grow off of for 2024.

 

Oh, and just to have a card for this post. This is technically the last card that came in the mail to me in 2023. It's a 2023 Certified Piece Of The Game Saquon Barkley jersey card /50. I always have had a fondness for die cut team names with the jersey swatches within the letters.

I hope all of you stay safe tonight, make smart decisions and that you will be around to read a new post on here for tomorrow.

Happy New Year, God Bless and here is hoping that 2024 is better for all of us!

Driven

I am driven.

This year I am driven to blog more than ever and it's all because of you guys.

Thank you.

When looking at the results of the latest Nachos Grande 3rd Annual End Of Year awards, I noticed something immediately under the blog awards. Not one of my three blogs made any of the lists.

NONE.

Out of my almost 12-years of blogging, I don't think I have ever not made the list of blogging awards in some form or another.

Not that I am not happy for those of you who made the lists as some great blogs on here did, it just tells me I need to work harder like the ones who made it.

Here were the results to this years awards,

Last year, Cards Over Coffee made this list and pretty sure Sport Card Collectors may have been on there as well.

Same goes for Favorite Under The Radar Blog. Cards Over Coffee made an appearance on there as well.

And as you can tell here, Cards Over Coffee made this list as well last year. 

Well, there isn't much I can say about this one. Night Owl Cards always rules the day for Blog Of The Year in any contest. Congrats to Greg for another victory.

Because of these results I am driven to get my name back on these lists or at least one of them. As much as I would love to win Blog Of The Year for 2024, I know where that award will go again and that's okay. Just to be back on next year's list would be the goal.

So, I decided in order to get myself back on the list, I would go back home. By home, I mean Sport Card Collectors. As Daughtry sang, "Well, I'm going home, Back to the place where I belong" and since this is where it all began, this is where I need to go.

My focus in 2024 will be to get this blog fired back up and let my other two blogs go dormant. I know there were some fans of Cards Over Coffee, but the view numbers, comments going down and not making any of these lists tell me it fell out of favor last year. But don't worry, my coffee drinking days aren't over.

The positive thing is I have so much to share from Christmas on here with some amazing cards thanks to all of you. Hope you're ready to read because I am home, and I am driven.

Keeping Busy

It has been a really busy last few weeks for me and will be for the next couple as well.

So, I thought while you wait for new, witty blog posts from myself that I would keep you busy reading a few articles that I wrote for Beckett online recently.

My series on there is called Second Look where I take a dive into sets that you may have forgotten about, but I felt needed a second look at. 

 

The first one I did was on 1989 Upper Deck baseball that I feel is more than just a Griffey card set. Check that one out HERE.

The second article I wrote on one of my favorite All-Time insert sets in 1996 Zenith Z-Team football. You can check that one out HERE.

And the third published one is based on 1995 hit movie Batman Forever. I didn't think it was much of a hit movie wise, but the 1995 Fleer Metal Batman Forever was. If you don't remember those cards, you can read about those HERE.

I have four others that will be published soon. They haven't been on a weekly basis as I had hoped they would be, they publish randomly usually on Fridays. I would appreciate it if you guys could check these out, maybe leave a comment or click on a link or two in the articles to show support :)

When I have time to get pictures taken from all of the generous Christmas senders I had this year, there will be new blog posts. I also have a few new ideas to post on here as well.

Thanks again in advance and stay tuned for all-new posts on Sport Card Collectors! The blog will be back to full force in 2024!

BCW Holiday Supplies Winner!

Hey everyone!! I must apologize for my late announcement on this, but I ran out of time the last few days to pick a winner.

So, today I took some time to get this done and now one has been chosen.

One thing you will notice about the list is that some people are not on it. There were four that commented but did not leave their name. They were listed as anonymous so I can't put that on the list not knowing who they are and especially since there was more than one. That means anyone could claim the prize. One thing to keep in mind for future contests I host is to make sure if you comment as anonymous, you add a name to the comments as well.

Now that I have said that so nobody complains, let's pick a winner.

As always, I pick my winners on Random.Org and I randomed the list 7 times. 7 just seems to be a lucky number.

Here is what happened after 7 randoms,

There were 13 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. William Carter
2. trsimmons58
3. Beer Barrell Breaks
4. Zeldafanatic15
5. Trevor P
6. @MCL723 on X
7. Tracy LeVeaux
8. hudsonfan15
9. RJ Sahl
10. Crocodile
11. @stuffmiami on X
12. RUFFCUTT
13. Nachos Grande

IP: 2001:5b0:2c69:818:69c9:79b4:71f4:381a
Timestamp: 2023-12-12 19:36:24 UTC

Congrats to William! Please message me on Twitter or email me at sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com with your address and I will pass that along to BCW as fast as I can. You have 48 hours to claim or prize goes to second place.

Thanks again to all that entered!