Retro Cup:Out Of This World

The Diamond King sent me a box loaded with 90's basketball goodness. LOADED. So I came up with an idea to do a mini series with so many great cards to show off called, Retro Cup. Along with the card showings, I will re-live a memory I had as well when it comes to coffee. So I hope you are sitting down with a cup of steaming fresh hot coffee so we can give this series a go.

*takes a sip of a new brand of coffee, daaaaannng pretty good. May be out of this world....*

Have you ever had something that tasted so good, that it gave you goosebumps or even made the hair on your arms stand up? Maybe it even gave you that tingly feeling on the inside or even made you smile on the outside? Maybe you even consider it out of this world?

I have.

Some of my grandmothers cooking always took me there and it was the oddest of things that she made that brought it home.

Let's take a look at a list of items she made that was so weird, it was good.

• Fish Stick Gravy. I can picture your faces right now reading this. But, it was pretty darn amazing. I do not like seafood at all and can't stand fish sticks, but, somehow she turned something so disgusting into something amazing. She would fry up the fish sticks, make her homemade gravy, add them in and some special seasonings and wahbam, a masterpiece.
• Frozen Milk With Vanilla. Yeah, it should say ice cream, but it never turned that way. She would take a bowl of milk, add some vanilla and salt, stir and stick it into the freezer. For some reason, it only froze the top layer but the flavor but it tasted so good.
• Raisin Pie. There was no dessert I looked forward to more than her raisin pie at Thanksgiving. I am not normally one that's a fan of raisins, but that family recipe that she used to make it and how well it tasted in a pie, not to mention homemade crust, it was pretty mind blowing.
• Bread Stuffing. This is another classic Thanksgiving favorite. I would spend the entire previous day to Thanksgiving breaking up pieces of bread, usually three loaves, and we would let it sit in a bowl overnight til it hardened. She would then cut up some onion, add some Old Bay seasoning, some hot water and bake. It for some reason or another, this was so much better than store bought stuffing.
• Butterscotch pudding and Peanut Butter sandwiches. This was my favorite meal she made. When you are low income like she was, you sometimes create the cheapest but yet greatest meals ever.
• Varieties of toast toppings. From favorites of peanut butter to butter, there was also cottage cheese, coffee crystals and some funky stuff she bought in a plastic jar but no matter what she added to my toast, grandma's knew best and knew it was going to taste great.
• Beef Stew. It's simply beef stew. The question here is if the beef she used was beef or not. It came from the food shelf and was marked Beef on the outside of the can so it makes you question what was actually in there. But, it still was darn good.
• Strawberry Pie in a Graham Cracker Crust. She simply experimented one night after we went to bingo together and took a can of strawberry filling and dumped it into a graham cracker crust. Despite the sugar overload, it was really good. 
• Her Coffee. You know I couldn't have made this list without coffee. Hers was odd as it was boiled on a stove in a pot and then she served it that way with milk and sugar. She didn't always allow me to have coffee as she was old fashioned in that nature, but she would sometimes reward me after I had helped her with a cleaning project, etc.

This is just some of the items that come to mind first. Some of those items and remembering them just gave me goosebumps.

*takes a giant gulp of this delicious cup of coffee*

The mid to late 90's produced some of the greatest cards EVER. EEEEEEEEVVVEERRR. The base, inserts and even the rare occasional hits were well designed, creative and just plain out of this world.

Recently with the popularity of Fleer (Skybox) Metal coming back for every sport, mainly the Fleer Metal Universe sets from 1997 to 1999, I had forgotten how much I appreciated the set myself and started to dig into my collection just to see what I had. What I didn't realize is I didn't have much. Here I was thinking this whole time I was sitting on a bunch of these to look back on some day but I actually wasn't. So where did my Metal go over the years? I have no idea. Maybe I looked in the wrong spot, maybe my father sold it off. Who knows.

Either way, it was disappointing but I plan to keep looking.

Luckily, my disappointment turned to some happiness when I found some in the box I got from The Diamond King.

1997-1998 Fleer Metal Universe Kevin Garnett. What other card is etched foil textured and takes a popular basketball player under the sea? None. The only thing missing here is Spongebob.

Great background. This was from the 1998-1999 cards. At first glance you would swear it was the same photo as the previous year, but, the facial expression is different.

 

Tim Thomas first trip to space

After I saw these three from The Diamond King in hand, I became addicted and wanted even more so I took to Twitter to see if anyone there had any to trade. I had a lot of RT's, but only one response. That one response was from @Offbeatallstars who had a handful he was willing to trade to me.

So fortunately for me, I haven't ever traded with him before, he was as easy as it was trading and we had a deal done pretty fast. I like traders like that. He gets something he can appreciate and I do as well. In the end, we both were really happy and to me that's what really matters in collecting.

Within a few days, his mail day was in hand. Here's what he sent,

Rodney Rogers who is playing some major street, or I guess you could say interstate ball

 Brevin Knight driving away from a mysterious cloud

Tracy McGrady in our solar system

Michael Finley towering over the city

Keith Van Horn, seemed like I always pulled his cards, is jamming away from the milky way

Danny Fortson

And Tim Duncan playing out of this world.

Appreciate the trade @offbeatallstars! Hope to do it again.

*the final sips of cup one, will lead to cup two but will be done this post before that happens. I am trying to savor every moment of this first cup*

Getting these in hand, gave me that arm hair standing up, goosebump feeling and made me smile. The creativity like this is what we are missing a lot of from today's products. Too much of the same old thing or trying to repeat something that is done gets kinda boring. Sort of like today's food in comparison to my grandmothers.

Card companies, go make something yucky great again!

And yes, I am seeking more Fleer Metal Universe of any player, team and sport. I also feel a hankering for a piece of my grandmother's Raisin Pie to go with this cup of coffee. If only she was around still like Fleer Metal, as I bet she would have been more than happy to have made some and would have put this breakfast out of this world.

Settled

It's early morning, about 5:30 am where I am. I just woke up, the smell of fresh brew is in the air. I take a look outside hoping to see sun, which I do and no snow so that's gotta be a good sign. However, I see a thick frost on my vehicle and am now hoping that my spring flowers have not died because of it. It's a chilly 25 degrees out but the coffee and house inside is warm.

So that's where I will stay.

So I grab my cup of coffee, the mug is a new one someone gave me for Easter, and I sit at my table in front of my computer to do some Cards Over Coffee.

*first sip*

Settling. It's the past tense for Settle which means "resolve or reach an agreement about (an argument or problem)"

It's something in life we all do whether we unintentionally do it or recognize the fact that we do it. But we all do it.

Remember that box of cereal you really wanted to have to go with your Saturday Morning cartoons but your younger sister wanted another one and you knew you couldn't win a fight against your parents favorite so you settled for hers? You settled.

How about that 8th grade field trip you could have taken to a baseball stadium and you fought really hard to keep it, but most of your classmates wanted to go to Six Flags so you said that was fine and went with it, you settled.

That time you really had your mind and stomach on pizza but your wife wanted subs, well, any married man knows, you settled with subs.

What about that sports car you wanted your whole life and could afford but realized your life and family situation couldn't allow it so you had to get a minivan, you settled.

Or even that time you told yourself you would get a 1998-1999 Topps Chrome Vince Carter rookie card because of the nostalgia and memories it brought you but your wallet told you otherwise and you ended up with a step down, you settled.

That last one actually wasn't actually an example, it happened to me.

But first, I will tell you the backstory to my want of a 1998-1999 Topps Chrome Vince Carter rookie card.

*Takes a good swig of coffee that almost finishes the first cup*

Back in 1998, I was running "errands" with my father or at least that's what my mother thought. We were actually hitting up the local gas station that served as our hobby shop. They had this rotating white cart that carried card boxes while off to the side on the counter were the opened card boxes to buy packs from that were sitting next to the candy and dog biscuits.

As much as we really wanted to snag a box of something, my father didn't have the funds so we looked on the packs counter and immediately noticed 1998-1999 Topps Chrome basketball. Having bought lots of Chrome in the past for football, baseball and basketball, we knew it was a no-brainer to grab a few packs acknowledging those had the best rookie cards in them.

So we did and got in the car to head home before my mother realized we were gone for a little too long. She always was very suspicious of us, which she should have been.

Knowing how my mom would react if we came home with cards, which we already knew we would have to sneak them in, we opened on the ride home. Yes, my father was driving and busting, not something I recommend doing. Pretty similar to drinking and driving.

As we were opening, all of a sudden,my father jolted. I wasn't sure if he got bit by a bug, spilled his soda on himself...again, or had an allergic reaction but something happened. That's when his shaking hands handed me his opened pack revealing a Vince Carter Topps Chrome rookie refractor on top. We knew we hit it big with the hottest rookie from that class. YOWZERS! And here I was excited myself to just find the base rookie in my two packs I was waiting to tell him about when we got home.

He blew my pull out of the water. Good thing Pack Battles didn't exist then that I knew of.

I remember vividly waiting for the newest Beckett basketball to come out so we could look up the value of the card- that we had no intentions of selling at the time-and it was going for $600. By far the best card we had ever pulled.

It was something I had hoped to take with me some day when I grew up and moved out.

But, sometimes things pop up and since my family wasn't extremely rich, my father had to sell it to his friend to have money for auto repairs. It wasn't easy for this 15 year old at the time to see their best card gone. But, it was what it was.

At least I had the base rookie right?

(insert picture of Donald Trump saying wrong)

When I moved out of my parents house my father and I split up the card collection in which I took mostly football and my Ken Griffey Jr collection I worked so hard to build. While forgetting and leaving behind my solid basketball collection including said Topps Chrome rookie. My father only collected for another year after I moved out and then sold it all off. Every last card.

*another sip of coffee. can see the bottom of the mug now*

So here I am over 20 years later slowly adding cards back into my collection I once had.

The past few months I have had my eye on the Topps Chrome Vince Carter rookie (I already know the the refractor version is too rich for my blood go look it up) and was looking to land one under $10. Well, I missed a couple of opportunities for one and then turned down even a couple of $12 and $15 offers I was given.

Am I ever kicking myself now.

Since the Last Dance, prices for the Topps Chrome Vince Carter rookie have exploded for one reason or another along with other 90's cards as most know. So those ones I thought were overpriced at $10-$15 are now $70 and up.

Seventy-stinkin-kicking myself in the groin-baseball to my eye-stepping on a nail with my little toe-dollars.

So you guessed it, I had to settle for the next best thing. An unchromed version of the card I landed for $3 and free shipping.

Vince's picture on this card was of him doing what he did best, especially in the 2000 Slam Dunk contest. It's one many have not forgotten. If you haven't seen this man in action, go Google or YouTube that video and be prepared to be amazed.

Back of the card.

*final sip of first cup, onto the second cup*

I may not have gotten the card I wanted and had to settle, but at least I got a version of it. Unlike the guy with pizza who had to settle for a sub. Those are not the same.

Will I stay settled on this card forever, I will try not to. But, until I can either trade for one or the prices drop back down under $20, I will have to make the best of what I got and sometimes in life that's enough.