The One

*it's time for a fresh cup of coffee and some cards. Sounds like a great start to the morning don't you think?*

Every Friday on Twitter, @collect_sport, I put up a I Want/Need Thread where you comment a specific card need and I will retweet it in hopes someone will Sell, Trade or even RAK (I have seen this) the card to you. Some people use the thread the way it was intended while others make a team/set demand. I just go with the flow regardless as long as it helps the collectors commenting.

On the thread every week, I also give an example of a specific cards I Want/Need. I have had some success in doing so, but one card I have tried a few times without any luck up I put up again and this time to my surprise had a response.

That's when I met @MattyBW who had what I wanted and so much more.

*takes a sip, gets excited about showing off these cards and takes another sip before doing so*

It wasn't too long after he had replied to my tweet about that specific card need that we had a nice conversation. The biggest point of the conversation was to make sure I got that card but we talked about much more that led to a trade as well.

I recently just started collecting more Jasson Dominguez for my Yankees PC. This was my second add to the collection.

This along with a few newer Cal Ripken Jr cards I forgot to take pictures of were the "newer" cards of the group. The main focus was on the 90's basketball. And if you know me, that hits the sweet spot and in comparison to coffee is the king of the cups.

John Starks adds. I always find it both saddening and odd to see John Starks in any uniform that's not a Knicks one. He was a fan favorite and a favorite of mine.

Finest Shaq. Don't ever let him post up, guy was unstoppable unless he had to shoot free throws.

Hakeem with the block!

And then Hakeem with the shot. Well, the Best Shot. These fell 1:12 packs and also had refractor parallels as well.

My first picture wasn't the greatest at showing how cool this card actually is. So I held it up to a window.

Now rolls in a beauty....

1996-1997 Bowmans Best Honor Roll Refractor! These bad boys fell 1:192 packs but it's not only the beauty of the card that grabs my attention, its the players. Patrick Ewing was one of the trio of Knicks I liked and Karl Malone I enjoyed his game and tried to mock it when I played with my friends back in the 90's. If I was to try that now, my body would ache for weeks.

*takes another sip before the coffee gets cold. I like Iced Coffee okay, but not my hot coffee getting iced. While I am it, I might as well toast a couple of english muffins*

I haven't even gotten to the main card of this post yet and I bet you are sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for me to show it off. Hold your mugs, we are almost there.

For now, I will tease this card as an intro....

Yup, a 1995-1996 Spx Gold Jason Kidd. Anyone who has followed me knows my deep passion for 90's Spx. I own set all three NFL Sets, one MLB Set, Both NASCAR sets, One and a half Hockey sets, and now......

Hold that thought.

*takes a sip of coffee*

I don't normally like jelly on my english muffins, I am a fan of bland so butter is my usual choice, but I will take a bit more excitement today when I show off the exciting card.

*takes a few bites, sip of joe and now onto the big reveal*

I think I have made you wait long enough to finally show the main card of this post. Not that the other cards above aren't sweet.

To finish up where I was with my Spx set chase, I also have one and a 49th basket....hold your horses...

What's this...

BOOM! You guessed it. The MJ has finally come home to finish up my second basketball set. He is smiling like I was when I finally got to hold this card.

 

And here he is resting peacefully among his Spx teammates.

With this set finally now complete, I am only missing the 1996-1997 Spx basketball set to complete the trio. That one also has my favorite design of the three but is also a dream set. I don't ever imagine myself being able to complete that one.

An obvious huge thanks goes out to @MattyBW for helping me finish up this set. It was a long time coming and it feels good to finally get there.

If you have Twitter, check out my Friday Thread and see what project you might be able to complete. You just never know what you may complete or who you may meet and become friends with. Isn't that the point of this hobby?

Coffee Card blogger out.

The Holidays Are Late

*takes a sip of coffee, yup, it's time for Cards Over Coffee*

Sorry about the hiatus on this blog and don't worry, I didn't take any breaks from coffee in the meantime. How can anyone do that and be sane?

A couple of weeks ago, my father timed it right and arrived at Walmart when the vendor was there. It never happens and is once in a blue moon when it does. So he called me and asked if I wanted anything and listed off a few of the products.

There wasn't much to choose from in terms of variety or even amounts brought, but here were my options.

• 2020 Panini Contenders Football both blasters and rack packs (great hobby, but terrible retail product with autograph offerings from undrafted free agents)
• 2020 Topps Heritage Baseball Hangers (bleh, not really a huge fan of that product)
• 2020 Donruss Football Hangers (already opened some)
• 2020 Topps Holiday Baseball ( hold on say what?!)

Yes, 2020 Topps Holiday baseball. Exactly what the Dr ordered. That's Dr. Cards of course.

So he grabbed me a box of holiday and I worked out a trade for it. Of course nothing in life comes easy and I had to sell my soul to the devil for the box, but knowing how much I like Topps Holiday, I happily obliged and signed on the dotted line. In other words, I gave up a decent card to land this box so it better be worth it.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

There are 10 packs of 10 cards to be found in every 2020 Topps Holiday Mega Box. Each box comes with a guaranteed autograph, autograph relic or relic card. 9 times out of 10, be ready for that relic card. Boxes go for $25-$30.

Each box also comes with new-to-the-product cool ornament as well. I will say its not as awesome as the ones in the late 90's-early 2000's Pacific but I really like this addition to the product. I pulled the recently traded Nolan Arenado.

*takes a sip excited to have a new ornament for the tree next year, not sure how the wife will feel about it but I will sneak it on*

The base set for Topps Holiday is a spruced up version of the base with touches of Christmas joy and some snowflakes. Not bad to fish this out of the first pack.

Topps All-Star Rookie Cup. I would expect another big year from Tatis Jr and the Padres could make a run with the team they have assembled.

A couple of Yankees for my PC. I was especially happy to find Aaron Judge.

A few solid rookies as well in this break.

Overall, there are 200 cards in the base set to collect. I know a lot of collectors like to land the base set but with the product release so late this year will be interesting if it is as popular of chase as it was in years past.

I like the base cards and design this year, but for me, it's not the base cards I was after. I wanted the short prints with the unique Santa Hats, Presents, Stockings, Ice Skates and other Christmas related items that aren't as plentiful this year.

 

I only pulled two in my box which was disappointing. There was this Pete Alonso, the one on the right is the base and the one of the left is the Rare Presents Above The Dugout that falls 1:20 packs. If it wasn't for the codes, I never would have seen this one. Its really hard to see those presents.

Then there was this Super Rare of Alex Bregman that falls 1:161 packs. Candy Cane stockings, kinda cool. The card was backwards in the pack so I had a feeling this one was an Sp before I turned it around to see it

*takes final sip of cup one, immediately pours cup two and continues on with today's post*

The metallic parallels, unless you have Super Vision, are really hard to spot. I didn't think I pulled a single one when I was opening the packs, that was until I read they landed 1:2 packs so I checked back through and found some.

 

This Tim Anderson is one believe it or not.

I tried to capture it in the sunlight...nope.

So I tried the sun again, blew up this picture a little more and added a red circle to try and show it. I think if you click on the image you might be able to see it. Years past they were a bit more glittery so they stood out more.

There is one card left to this break to show off and that was my hit of the box.....

Danny Jansen relic. I like the design but not tootles of excitement with the player pull.

That was fun, but felt a little weird opening up a holiday themed product after Christmas. I may have tried to trade for another but with it being past Christmas it's not as tempting to.

Not sure I got my soul's worth out of this box in terms of value, but the fun I did and that's what matters most.

*takes a gulp of delicious coffee before closing*

Now that this post is done, I need to grab some breakfast. I promise the next post won't be too far down the road. 

I hope you enjoyed this break with some breakfast and a cup of coffee yourself.

A Pack Sized Friendship

*getting ready to head out the door for a dentist appointment, fortunately only a cleaning, so need to down a couple of cups and get a new post for Cards Over Coffee up!*

I have found in the last 9 years of being on Social Media Hobby that some of the friends I have made being apart of it are better than the few friends I have nearby. Some are better than some family members and feel like they are apart of your family instead. 

These are friendships that go much further and deeper than some pieces of cardboard. These are people who message to check in on you and how you are feeling. These are people who ask how your daughter, son, grandmother, uncle are doing. These are people who go the extra mile to help you out when you need it. These are people who pray for you, cheer you up when you are down and even sometimes send you surprises just because.

I know a few of these people, but the one that comes to mind today is @CardpocalypseNC.

Yesterday in my mail I had an unexpected package from Tim. We hadn't made a trade and were working on one so I had absolutely no idea what was in there. So I opened it up, saw a greeting card that I set aside (I always like saving those for last when I open up any package) and began to dig through many packed layers. There was a bubbler, than bubble wrap, then a Heritage Hanger box, then inside of that was more packaging and then inside of that packaging was this,

 

A hanger pack of 2020 Prizm football. I couldn't believe it. It was as if I had unwrapped a wad of cash was my reaction to it. That Indiana Jones feeling when he found the Crystal Skull.

As many of you know, finding retail right now especially Prizm is like finding that a unicorn in your cup of coffee or a winning Powerball ticket on the ground at your feet.

Tim however, had tweeted a picture on Twitter that he had actually found some in the wild back in December and I was certainly jealous. What I didn't know though was he actually took one of those packs and had mailed it to me for Christmas. But, the magic of the mail delays right now made it not arrive until yesterday.

I would certainly call that true sacrifice for a friend.

*takes a sip of coffee while smiling*

The thought of holding onto the pack and waiting for the right moment to open it came across my mind, you know one of those days where you have a really big itch to open one, but I couldn't hold back. So I ripped into the pack, each pack comes with a 12 card Prizm pack along with a 3 card Red,White, Blue parallel pack, and here were my results,

Isaac Bruce kicks off the pack

Followed by a group of base led by DeAndre Hopkins

My rookie of the pack was Antoine Winfield Jr. Far from Justin Herbert or Joe Burrow but a solid player in the playoffs.

AJ Brown Brilliance Insert

Laremy Tunsil Green Prizm

Then came the pack with the three Red,White, Blue Prizm parallels.

Bryce Love. Seems like I pulled a ton of him last year.

Tedy Bruschi. Long time legendary linebacker for the Patriots

And the final card....

Tyler Johnson. I don't know much about him but with Tampa Bay with so many weapons at that position I can't imagine he gets much playing time.

Nothing too spectacular in this pack, but to me, that's not what this pack was about.

*takes a sip before closing. Okay you got me, I finished the cup*

The pack may not have held the big hit that Tim had hoped I would pull from the greeting card note he left me, but these cards mean more than a Silver Prizm Joe Burrow and that says a lot. Especially to those hit-flipper thrill seekers.

Tim, I know I have told you thanks already multiple times on Twitter but I will say it again. Thank you. Thank you for checking in on me, thank you for the thoughts and prayers, thank you for our long distance pack sized friendship. 

What is a pack sized friendship? It's everything you would want in a friendship, or even a pack of cards, packed into one friend. I hope I am also that pack of cards and more to you as well.

Gifted

*has a cup of coffee ready and even breakfast. It's time for a new Cards Over Coffee post*

 

Luck didn't fall my way like many others in 2020. 

Health problems, anxiety stress from my wife being a nurse and overall bad luck summed up my year. But, I kept pushing through and occasionally something nice actually happened.

To end out 2020, I got a message from Steel City Collectibles on Twitter that someone didn't claim their prize in their 12 Days Of Giveaways and that I came up as the re-drawn winner. Was quite the surprise way to end the year.

Yesterday, shipping is so slow especially to me right now, the prize pack arrived and I was happy to dig in.

*takes a sip before opening up the Panini bag of goodies*

 

Inside I am greeted by everything but the kitchen sink...or a cup of coffee and breakfast.

 

Wireless headphones, how handy are these right now to drown out the world.

 

When I actually find cards, this will be handy to open them up with.

Panini America Paper Weight. I like company collectibles to display.

Speaking of that, will definitely be wearing this around town. I may get stopped and asked what Panini is because nobody collects here. Just a bunch of flippers.

*takes a sip to breathe before going into a flipper rant again, breathe...breathe....sip...sip....I'm good*

Prestige Box Topper from 2014 Prestige.

Opened it up and found Sammy Watkins. I really like the nufex (Panini's version of Dufex) technology.

Also inside was 2 packs of 2020 Player Of The Day basketball and football promo cards. One of the football packs felt thicker so I saved football to open after basketball.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

Pack 1. Each pack comes with 2 cards each.

 

Kobe Bryant base. I never mind adding a Kobe.

 

Joel Embid silver foil

Pack 2

Trae Young is a stud on the court

And Hatisse Thybulle. I don't know him but it works for my rookie card collection.

*takes another sip, begins to rip the football*

The Player Of The Day football comes with 2 cards per pack as well.

Pack 1:

Jake Fromm, unless something happens to Josh Allen or he gets traded, the NFL will never see what Fromm has to offer.

 

Wooooo doggy! Lamar Jackson Tango parallel numbered to 99. Great PC piece!

Pack 2 (the thick one)

Nick Bosa

Baker Mayfield Rainbow foil parallel\

And my hit....2020 hung on and couldn't let me have more than a filler card in this pack.

*takes final sip of cup number one, really exhausted today, this will be a two to three cup day*

That was an exciting prize pack and I send my gratitude to Steel City Collectibles for having me as the winner and thanks to the first winner for choosing not to accept the prize. I suggest you go give Steel City a follow both on Twitter and Facebook as they are always giving back.

Time to brew another cup of coffee and tackle my desk of cardspair.