Thursday, February 25, 2021

Cards Over Pizza:Jeets

 
*not sure who made this cup of coffee, possibly Satan, as the first sip just about took away all feeling in my tongue. But, it's all good. I can still, somewhat, taste the coffee.*

This past Christmas, I possibly received the biggest RAK/Trade mail day of my life. But, that's what you get when you are friends with @realwesmoore who is known to send some bangers. We also share quite the affection towards pizza as well, hence the name of this post series.

To even begin to break down this incredible-massive overload of cards, I will be posting some parts of this mail day on and off on here. It may take me all year but I will get to it before Christmas, I promise you that.

*another sip, this time not as scalding hot as Mandy Moore*

Today's post I will dig into a stack of at least 300, maybe more, Derek Jeters that Wes sent along. If you didn't know, the biggest part of my Yankee collection belongs to the Yankees legend. I had well over 350 unique Jeter cards without counting this stack today and some others I have gotten since. I am no way close to a super collector of Jeter like Sooz, @yanxchick, but I am proud of what I have built.

Derek ranks as my favorite Yankees player of all-time and I don't picture that ever changing. He was there at the beginning of when I got into baseball and he was there at the end when I started losing interest in watching as much baseball. I may not watch the Yankees like I watch the NY Giants, but I am still a fan. Maybe more of a casual fan now.

I will however, always collect NY Yankee cards and appreciate what I got to watch when Derek was on the field. He was certainly The Captain.

*takes another sip, looks over the stack of cards and begins to put them in order*

In order to show off some, yes some, of this huge stack of cards I will post them by my Top 20 then show off some that just missed the cut from making it in.

This list goes in order of my favorite to my favorite. No, you didn't read that wrong. They all were my favorite but some rank a smidgen higher than others so that's where the ranking comes in.

1.This card just sparkles.

2.Upper Deck Game Jersey. This marks the fifth Jeter relic in my collection.

3. Shiny, numbered goodness.

4. The die cut lasering on this card is incredible. It's like looking at a foil Jeter.

5.Card printed on Metal. Enough said. And before you ask, no, I have no plans in removing that protective film

6. Fleer Metal base cards are just as impressive as their inserts.

7.Topps Tek. Just look at it.

8.I am chasing this set for a reason. The marble border along with the rainbow foil makes this card pleasing to the eyes.

9. I have a thing for cards that include acetate, what can I say?

10. Great photo of Jeter the card simply stands out.

We are halfway done...at least of the Top 20.

*takes another sip before carrying on with the second half of the Top 20*

11. Remember when Topps used to make fun inserts? Yeah, I do to and these brought me back.

12. Double the chrome, double the refractor, double the fun.

13. When Bowmans Best base cards looked like this it was like the perfect cup of coffee.

14. Design, refractor, Yankees colors. 

15. Eye candy

16. Inserts from the 90's especially from Stadium Club will always earn ranking.

17. Metal Universe, die cut. Great card.

18. It's like watching Derek on a TV set. Though not as impressive.

19. Micro etched foil with stadium in the background, another attractive card.

And drumroll please.....dddddddddddddddddddddddddd (sound effect from Christmas Vacation scene of when they are outside and Clark was about to plug in the lights)

Joy To The World...ddddddddddddddddddddddddddd....number 20............
 
20A. A card that pairs my Top 2 favorite Yankees has got to make the cut

20B but I couldn't for some reason let this Gold Medallion slip out of the Top 20.

There you have it. The Top 20 cards from the stack. Now onto some honorable mentions I had to just slightly narrow out of the pack.

*takes final sip of cup number one. Moves right on and brews cup number two. Sits back down to show off the next round of cards*

Let's roll that beautiful bean footage...Jeter footage.

90's had some Flair and so didn't Jeter's play at short stop.

Another fetching group of cards one of which pairs my Top 2 baseball player collections in Jeter and Griffey. Question becomes, whose PC does that fall under......

Finest "rookies". Once again, I am a no peeling kinda guy. Peeling these off would be like putting yogurt as creamer in your coffee. It isn't good.

Out of this group that Stadium Club almost made me do a 20C. I had never seen that Signature Rookies card before either.

Speaking of cards I hadn't seen before, how about that sketch-looking card from the Ted Williams set. I do have copies of the Decades Of Excellence and Torre's Terrors, but mine are the chromed versions. Glad to have the non chrome ones now.

All of the above cards almost made the Top 20. The remaining cards in this post were the best of the rest..but not really. They were all awesome.

*takes sip of the second cup after waiting a little while this time. Feeling of the tongue is starting to come back*
A few "rookies", if you are wondering why I am using quotes that's because Derek's actual rookie year is 1993, not 1996. Baseball is so confusing still when it comes to rookie cards and rookie card definitions.

More "rookies"

And to finish it up, another "group of rookies". I have always been fond of the Upper Deck and Collector Choice photo selections on those cards. Upper Deck really knows how to nail it out of the park with photography.

It wasn't an easy task to rank a Top 20 and as much as I wanted to show off all of the Jeters from that stack, it would have taken me a very long time to do so. As it is already, this post between taking pictures, uploading them and typing this is going on 3 hours with my slow internet.

*takes a sip before typing up the closing statement*

There will be lots more to come from this mail day. This is only the starting point or if I was to put it in coffee terms, this is just turning on the faucet to draw out some water to brew you coffee with.

I would like to know in comments, would you have changed any of my rankings? Would you have switched any of them out for others in the non Top 20 section? Comment away!

*thinks about what to eat for breakfast and looks at how fast his sipping of coffee cup number two has gone. Going to need a third cup soon. Coffee card blogger out*

8 comments:

  1. Ho-lee-cow. I used to correspond with Wes waaay back in the day. Very generous! I can't really argue with your selections, very cool stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe it's because I grew up on the west coast, but I have never had any sort of "connection" to Derek Jeter. I dig a lot of these sets though, especially those of the 90's variety.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As a Yankees fan, he was great. But, as a 90's collector, these are really great!

      Delete
  3. Wes doesn't mess around. If there was a generous blogger hall of fame, he would be in the inaugural class.

    ReplyDelete

Cards and coffee go together like PB&J, so don't you and leaving a comment below. Take a sip and let me know your thoughts!