Feeling The Heat

I am not sure what is hotter, the 90-degree temperatures outside, the cup of coffee that sits in front of me or my recent mail days from fellow bloggers.

Let's just say out of those three things, only one I can tolerate.

*takes a burning sip...ouch*

I hate losing cards, but apparently I did that again losing all four of my base 2015 Topps Allen&Ginter Impractical Jokers cards. I was trying to find a way to get them back and thought of people who may have opened a decent amount of Allen&Ginter. One blogger came to mind immediately, Nachos Grande.

 a

He didn't have all four, but did have two of them which getting any back was great.

Especially when it's Joe who is my favorite Joker.

The Murr isn't a base, but is a cool Mini. I may still seek the base but now have an extra cool collectible. This time I will place them in a binder and not in a messy card room.

Thanks again Chris! I will hit you back when I have time to dive into the boxes I need to.

Oh, and if any of you have the other two, I need or three if it's a Murr base, hit me up at sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com. Thanks in advance!

Up next, I got a surprise mail day in the mail from Gavin at Baseball Card Breakdown who sent some really cool items. Cooler than this cup of coffee still is for sure.

It was great to hear from Gavin again since it had been so long.

But he still nailed everything I collect.

  

I don't collect a lot of Yankees anymore, but Jeter I do. He will always be my favorite Yankee. These customs are super nice and high-quality work.

I didn't know these had refractors, and definitely wouldn't have guessed they are numbered, this one is /100.

Dexy! He is the best player on the Giants, I think. He will be once again a dominant force this upcoming season.

I don't think the Giants gave Hill enough time as he has played well for Cincy, but I will always accept his cards in blue.

The last card he sent which apparently got deleted on here or melted off from here because of the sun, was a numbered Ottis Anderson Prime Signatures card.

Thanks for the surprise mail day Gavin! I actually mailed yours out today, hope you enjoy, I have been holding stuff for you for a while.

*takes a sip, burns tongue again before finishing up today's post*

I sure hope this cup of coffee cools down, but most importantly the weather. I don't like the heat. However, I do like the heat/fire that the bloggers send out, that's the only kind I will welcome.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Don't forget you can start to nominate cards for the 2025 Coffee Card Hall Of Fame!! Cards don't have to be autographs, patch cards, super star cards. It can be whatever you think is Hall Worthy! Find details and current nominations HERE.

Going Looney For 750

Today marks post 750 on Cards Over Coffee and I am going Looney for it!

Looney for Looney Tunes that is!

*takes a sip from a freshly brewed cup. thinks about grabbing a bowl of cereal for Saturday morning cartoons..oh wait*

I can't remember a Saturday morning growing up where Looney Tunes didn't make some kind of appearance on my television. I remember that it was one of the last cartoons of the day and even though I wanted to go outside, I made sure to take a few minutes out to give it a watch.

Looney Tunes have been on and off cardboard for a while and I have added some along the way, but it wasn't until I found out that Upper Deck combined them with Fleer/Skybox products from the 90's, that's when it really hit home.

2024 Fleer Retro Looney Tunes comes with everything you expected from 90's Fleer/Skybox. You can find Ultra, Z-Force, Skybox Premium, Fleer Metal, PMG's, Golden Touch, Ex, Thrill Seekers, Essential Credentials, Gold Medallions, Platinum Medallions, Rubies, and even some Jambalaya and sooooooooo much more. The inserts are also creatively done.

The product also mixes all years of Looney Tunes. Including those from the old cartoons all the way to the newer ones. For me, it's all about the classics.

All of this led to me going out to acquire a few of the cards. I already had a few base that reader Oren had passed along, but I wanted to give a few other cards from the product a try.

Like EX. It's just like the 90's version. Printed on acetate and with harder cardboard center. Such a beautiful card and now I want the 50-card set. It will be a new chase that I started with one of my favorite memorable characters. If you know, you know...Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal!

Up next, everyone knows I like shiny, so I discovered the Red Dots /399 parallel in the Metal section of the product. This would be a fun 50-card set chase as well.

 

(reminds me of my Kindergarten teacher)

(me feeling loose from too much coffee)

(me without coffee)

Then I thought these Pink special Fx parallels would be cool,

 

Not so much in hand. The lightbox made it better than it actually is. (yes its the frog again)

I have a few more on the way, different inserts, I will share those another time and hope to add more (and hopefully some of you out there have more to help me via trade)

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

I know I added two frog cards, but I wouldn't say he is my top character. I mean it's really hard to beat Bugs as my favorite. Though some days I feel more like Elmer Fudd in the hobby, always chasing that certain card (rabbit) and never getting it.

Let me know your favorite Looney Tunes character in comments along with your thoughts on these cards.

 

And one more thing, you can enjoy the old Looney Tunes from 5-7 am every morning on the Boomerang channel. I do this often with my cup of coffee and breakfast.

Have a great Saturday.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Don't forget you can start to nominate cards for the 2025 Coffee Card Hall Of Fame!! Cards don't have to be autographs, patch cards, super star cards. It can be whatever you think is Hall Worthy! Find details and current nominations HERE.

Vacation Week With Wallet Card

If you are here to see some new card pickups in today's post, I must apologize, those won't be in today's post.

Today's post will be a vacation recap from 4th Of July week and it features an old friend from many, many years ago.

So, if you like food, coffee, lakes and old friends, keep reading.

My vacation kicked off with Strawberry Shortcake made with fresh strawberries I picked the day before. My wife is a pro at making these photo worthy.

The following day, it was the beginning of camp week. Every year for the past four years, my sister-in-law rents a camp out on a lake for the entire family to come together from afar. These camps are usually only about twenty or thirty minutes from my house. So, it's not a real kind of trip, but it's still a getaway for me!

This is the second year in a row at this camp, but it could also be the last one. The camps owner just sold her actual house, so now she stays here most of the year but decided to rent it out for six weeks this year. She may not do this again going forward so we may be looking at a new spot next year.

I decided since this may be it, I might as well dig out an old friend to say goodbye to it as well. So, I dug out my wallet card. It's the card that is supposed to be in the Coffee Card Hall Of Fame but still hasn't been pulled out yet.

It will be after this trip. Two farewells.

Wallet card is beaten but not broken. Well, until he found out the camp owner may be a UConn fan then was very broken. That's my least favorite college team especially for basketball.

Up next, I got to experience my very first and probably last "ritzy" high end restaurant.

My sister-in-law chose a fancy place out in the boonies where a restaurant took a Victorian style house and transformed it into an extravagant place of eating. Each part of the house has a "room". The one we were in had a fireplace and in ground garden around the outside of the room, pretty cool. Others had huge fireplaces, original wallpaper, elegant statues, etc.

I didn't take a sneak peek online to see what they offered for food so I didn't know what to expect when the menus were handed out. My wife and I almost fell out of our seats when we saw the prices on the menu for this place for basic food.

I chose the cheapest meal there was, despite my sister-in-law covering the cost.

For $26, I got three very small tasteless waffles, 2 strips of bacon, a very small fruit cup, a cube size slice of cinnamon bread and

a Berry crumble dessert.

For $26 I expected my waffle to have at least a few shavings of gold on top. $26 for waffles! CRAZY! I can make better waffles at home with coffee, they only offered water-juice-alcohol, for less than $5.

I was not impressed for a first timer. My wife wasn't either with the meal she had chosen. Maybe we aren't fine dining type of people.

All done with the food talk, now back to camp.

We made plenty of fire nights with S'mores (which tasted better and costed less than $26..sorry I said I was done with that talk) and just family game time.

The weeks weather was beautiful.....and hot.

So beautiful and hot that one day it required a tour of Ben & Jerry's to cool us down.

I had to visit the flavor cemetery and get very emotional over my favorite flavor that is no longer. RIP Oatmeal Cookie Chunk. Til we see each other again someday when I am in heaven. I hope Jesus sits right next to me and we share a pint (well separate pints because it's really hard to share this flavor)

We then went to a local mom and pop shop to grab some supper. It was much cooler than I expected.

The owner's son had built all of these Lego sets and a lot more including a full size Millenium Falcon. That must have taken forever and cost a pretty penny to purchase.

and they also had plenty of food offerings including breakfast like this amazing cinnamon roll.

 

Overall, it was a fun relaxing-jammed pack-week. I always love family time, and we had a great time together.

The hobby is fun and all, but give me this any day instead.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Statistically Crazy

I have mentioned this on here before, I am a man of numbers.

I like quantity over quality when it comes to some of my PC's, I like having more followers than not on social media, I like more than one cup of coffee, I like keep track of streaks in sports, and I really like watching views on my YouTube and on my blogs.

But last month, I am not sure what was going on in the coffee botverse especially since I didn't post much in June, but numbers blew up for me astronomically on two of my blogs. All record breakers straight across the board.

 

Cards Over Coffee is usually a less than 12,000-15,000 view blog per month and it blew up more than two times that! The 3,649 views was also a daily high for this blog that usually averages about 300 on a post day.

Then came the absolute craziness of Sport Card Collectors.

 

The first shocking number was the daily record breaker. I think before it was like 10,000 or so views in a day. Well, let me tell you, over 75,000 views on that day. INSANE!

On top of that, it walloped my highest monthly total which oddly enough was around 75,000. This time it went for over 250,000. The blog normally averages about 20,000 since I don't really blog on it anymore which makes it even more impressive.

So far, this month seems to be back down to earth, maybe even a tad slower. Hopefully it doesn't stay that way. I mean, who doesn't want to come by to see what craziness I posted with some hot brew on here? I sure hope you do! Well, you must if you are reading this tonight (or tomorrow). Thanks for that.

Hope everyone has a great night.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Coffee Break:2024 Zenith Football Value Pack

 

So, I am officially back from a swamped/busy vacation break and now need to catch up on mail days, mailing stuff out, your comments on this blog (I reply to everyone), new posts, along with some upcoming appointments, errands and who knows what else in-between. 

Oh, and a dead washing machine today. Seems to be my luck. I had to sell both kidneys, my nose and one of my webbed toes but a new one will be delivered on Monday.

Sigh.

But here I am making a new post and because it's late, coffeeless. It's okay though, I am happy to finally get back on here.

*yawns, but continues on*

In my last post, I mentioned that my mother had grabbed me a value pack of 2024 Zenith football. Zenith as many long-time readers know, was one of my favorite 90's product lines (I know I probably say this line too much, but I simply love the 90's)

I am sure like most products that get revisited and brought back from the dead, it won't be the same kind of product it once was but hoping for some fun anyways.

Here are some of the "best" cards I found in my pack.

We kick it off with the 90's, well some players from the 90's I liked watching.

Up next....

A NEW ELI! (need to update my PC numbers on TCDB in my haha spare time)

A top pick who should be even better in year 2 with more help for Caleb Williams.

And another guy who should be better as well.

I don't know much about Washington, but with the Dolphins trading everyone away, this guy may be important next year.

A solid oline piece for the Chargers, but finding o-lineman and.....

d-lineman in packs is like finding rookie pitchers in baseball. They are simply dreadful to find (unless they are NY Giants of course)

And I found an insert, cool looking with design and being chromed, but wished it was the Nabers version!

The break wasn't overly exciting. A lot of bland base and I felt it was missing the charm of the 90's Zenith as expected. The 90's were so much better.

*yawns again, probably should finish up post and go to bed and not have a repeat of blacking out with the phone in hand from being too tired*

I will be back soon with tons of things to share including highlights from my week of vacation. I also have a couple blogger mail days, a huge reader Grady M mail day, a year in waiting mail day and all kinds of other fun stuff. 

So, have your coffee ready. Maybe dessert to. More to come.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

How'd I Do?

I have been right out straight the last month or so.

Graduations, appointments, and family visiting from all over has kept me schedule crazy.

Recently though, I have been setting some time aside for blogging. Even though I have other stuff such as actual card work to be done in my little spare time right now.

But I am doing this for you guys :)

So, you better have your coffee and you better be readin'!

*takes a sip from a freshly brewed cup*

One of my recent visits came from my parents. I have already mentioned on here many times how my father still collects and we do trades/exchanges.

By now, I assume you know what this is leading up to.

Which was our latest exchange. My father was looking for some cards to sell at our version of a Goodwill, we don't actually have one of those here but a consignment kind of store, so I offered up four deep boxes similar to the one above of all of my duplicates.

In exchange, I got the following.

An old antique looking cat tin. 

This had the cards in it.

A bent-up Griffey card. Fortunately, I already had this one.

The 90's Jags were my second favorite team to watch. McCardell along with Brunell, were two of my favorites.

TJ Watt!

Not sure if this guy is any good, but I don't turn down rookie Prizm parallels.

Chrome blue parallel Williams.

Lisa Leslie die-cut.

This guy made a big impact last year.

My first look at 2024 Select football.

This was a pleasant surprise. I think this would fit well with Johnny's Trading Spots shadow card showoffs.

Clark!

Kickers are people too!

Shiny!

Shiny again!

Another Clark!

Not sure how this guy played last year, but I really like the design. Need a Nabers like this.

And finally, everyone's least liked WNBA player Reese. She is still a great player, just doesn't get the hype that Clark does. I think that gets to her.

I think I fared well. I didn't need a ton in return, just a few things especially since most of what I sent was regular base.

 

After going through those, to my surprise my mother had brought me cards as well. Not sure where she got a Ziplock full of WNBA cards, but I will take 'em.

Here were a few of the highlights,

(my first favorite WNBA player growing up who played for the Liberty)

Not a lot of named stuff in this group, but some. I will mainly save these for my girls' basketball team I will coach in the fall/winter.

Then there was one more surprise for me she picked up,

Sweet! Haven't opened any of this yet in 2024.

You all will have to come back for a Coffee Break to see how the pack went.

*takes an informal coffee break sip now, starts to feel hungry and needs something to go with the brew*

Cards weren't the only thing fun with my parents visit. We had a BBQ, watched some TV and I played Around The World against my father which I lost badly because of a recent shoulder injury. More on that another day.

Let me know in comments what you think was the best card I acquired in my exchange. 

In the meantime, keep sippin' and coming back for more here on Cards Over Coffee.

*bites donut that was found, takes final sip for post*

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Don't forget you can start to nominate cards for the 2025 Coffee Card Hall Of Fame!! Cards don't have to be autographs, patch cards, super star cards. It can be whatever you think is Hall Worthy! Find details and current nominations HERE.