On The Good List

Every Year, Santa Dennis from Too Many Verlanders brings the joy of Christmas to many different mailboxes of those who have been good little girls and boys. 

I am happy to say I am always on the good list and have been one of those lucky recipients for many years.

By being on the good list and getting one of these mail days, you will find yourself immersed with a little bit of everything from your PC as Santa Dennis keeps track of your "lists".

I was good enough to add some Ken Griffey Jr. Both of us collect Junior so I am sure he sends me his dupes and I reciprocate when I can.

90's inserts were up next.

 

This was one of my favorite designs for Wave Of The Future and is one of my many set chases.

Then there as this Die-Cut, Acetate, wonderful piece of art.

I considered chasing this set, I still might, such a stunner. Feels very American baseball.

The 90's was followed by some non-sport.

Can't touch this.

And never tell me the odds that Santa Dennis knew I needed these.

After these two, well, had me feeling blue. In a good list kind of way.

Well except seeing a new Saquon. I still collect former Giants in blue, but he makes me sad with the season he has had.

90's, new, set material and a Giant. Wow.

 

Team color match-trippy card, love it.

I have wanted this card for a while. We will ignore the player's name and just look at it as the card. I really think the theme and background is where it's at with this one.

  

I was in double shock(ey) with these two. I must have been double good this year.

Not many remember that I collect Paul Perkins as a bigger side Giants PC, but Santa Dennis does.

And finally it wouldn't be Christmas or a gift from Santa Dennis if...

 

there wasn't an ugly sweater involved. Been needing this one for a while as I have been trying to finish up this dual relic set. Now just need the rest of them!

Thanks again Dennis for your generosity around the holidays again.

I will make sure to stay on the good list again for next year.

Hope everyone has a great Monday.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Buried

Coffee is ready, the snow is coming down (some thunder and lightning to) but I have some cards so let's do a new post, so I don't have to look out the window.

*takes a sip*

I have to admit it's hard not looking out the window. We just had a couple nice 50-degree days, the snow was gone, my spring flowers were arriving and now we are about to buried in 10+ inches of snow. That's along with wind gusts and some freezing rain.

I can think of a lot of other things I would rather be buried in. Coffee beans, cupcakes, those cream filled caramels, and mail days from blog reader Oren.

Fortunately for me, one just arrived from Oren and this one provided enough warmth from the snow.

We kick it off with this Manny Ramirez. Minus the reflection of my hand, this is a pretty cool die-cut.

This card goes along with my very slow set build. I have completed the baseball and football sets, but the basketball is creeping along. Of course, thinking about trying to add the Jordan and Kobe are reasons this has taken so long to attempt to complete.

I will always welcome First Pitch cards. I am sure I have dupes, but I am fine with that. The McGraw I know for certain is new and at some point, I should see what I need to complete the sets.

I wished Topps would have continued this insert line instead of adding more 87 reprint inserts. I wished those were buried in snow.

Two more great looking die-cut cards. I remember chasing cards of both players in the 90's.

I wonder if this design led to the Fleer Metal release a few years later.

This is a Rock Solid add as it is a new one towards this set chase. I know I throw around the word set chase a lot on here, especially in this post, but I can't help my love of the 90's.

Speaking of the Fleer Metal design...here it is. I am not sure how far along I am with my baseball set chase for metal,but I am getting closer to the football one both for 1997 and 1998.

Shiny Marshall Faulk. I would take being buried in anything shiny.

I know, I put a Giants card on here.  Deal with it. Looking and collecting Giants cards are my cup of tea....well coffee. This is a new Daniel Jones for the PC and is /49. How much longer will his tenure with the Giants be? Guess we will find out at the end of this month.

 

And the final card which was a surprise one to make it 12-cards in this trade is this stunning Upper Deck Ice Crystals. I have to admit, some of these hockey cards are really growing on me. This is one of them. You don't have to like or watch hockey to appreciate a card like this. Glad to see that Upper Deck is still putting out nice looking cards. If only they had other licenses.

Thanks again to Oren for our latest trade, hope to get buried by another one of your mail days soon. Instead of more snow.

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

*takes another sip. closes curtain to outside*

Luckily for me today, I don't have to do any form of traveling so it will be a snowed in at home day instead. My wife also has the day off to.

I will have to see how the roads look tomorrow before I decide if I need to reschedule my first physical therapy session for my shoulder since I had the kidney stone.

Hope everyone has a great Thursday and hopefully your weather is better than mine.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Completed The Trifecta

*sits down, takes a sip and gets ready for a new post on Cards Over Coffee*

*laptop is open and my fingers are getting ready to produce some magic*

Every year for the past five years or more, I pull off a trade with my buddy @ShaneSalmonson which usually leads me to landing some 90's wax to open around Christmas time. Which makes sense knowing he is the Cheap Wax Wednesday king of 90's so he can find the deals.

However, the last couple of years we have taken a step back on that as the crazy prices for unopened 90's wax has taken over. So there hasn't been as much unopened wax in our trades.

The ones that I have gotten though, I can't get myself to open. I know that sounds weird, but, that's just how it has been. I have roughly a half dozen 90's wax boxes that are currently being displayed on my shelves at home.

Three though, stand out above the rest.

*takes a sip before moving on with today's post*

I can't count the number of times I have posted about 90's Zenith football. I would need my hands along with your hands to do so. But, I don't want you to take your hands off from your coffee mug reading this or have me set down mine. That would be wrong.

I simply love 90's Zenith and it hits that Nostalgic heart of mine with a big arrow. Being the product, I hit my biggest 90's pull from (Emmitt Smith Z-Team), a product I am chasing the inserts and base sets of and a product with the simple memories of opening with my father, it really is a favorite.

So, when I added an unopened box of 1996 Zenith from our trade three years ago, I left it sealed.

 

Then, I was able to add a box of 1997 Zenith football sealed last year in a trade with Shane who acquired it from a fellow blogger, I decided it was time to chase the Trifecta.

I needed all three, but the cost of a 1995 Zenith football box wasn't getting any cheaper and I wasn't sure I was going to be able to complete the three.

That's until Shane went to this year's National knowing I was looking for a box, he found a cheap one and snagged it for me.

 

And it was delivered last week after we completed our latest trade.

Now all three sit on my shelf together. Maybe I should align all three in the shape of the Pinnacle logo :)

Thanks again to Shane for helping me complete this.

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

I am not sure how long I will keep all three unopened. There are days I get tempted but other days I feel I would regret doing so. It's sort of like having that devil and angel on your shoulders giving you the pros and cons of opening it. Both holding coffee mugs of course.

Your thoughts on my chase is welcomed in comments. Also let me know if you would open them or keep them sealed.

Have a Terrific Tuesday!!

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Ren And Stimpy

*takes a seat, has a really hot cup of coffee that burns the roof of the mouth. Good start to the day, but it will get better once I get today's #CardsOverCoffee post completed*

It was Saturday Night in 1992. I was 9 and had just gotten back to my grandmother's apartment after she had taken me out for a round of Bingo where I got to eat snacks my Great Aunt Pearl brought, sip on a cup of coffee my grandmother snuck me and watch elderly women bicker while I won a few games. One of those elderly was sadly my great aunt  Pearl who would take her "wand" that picked up the Bingo chips and throw it across the room when she would lose. Wasn't my fault I won with one card and she lost with twenty-five of them.

The TV would be the first thing I would head to before going to bed at her apartment. My grandmother was the only one in my family with a fancy thing called cable. At home, I was the cable. I would have to go outside in all types of weather and rotate the in ground satellite until it picked up the channel we wanted to watch. So we had all the basics, ABC, NBC, PBS, Fox (this was shocking actually) and CBS whenever I found the "sweet spot".

But, not Nickelodeon. That was a bonus for me on Saturday nights and I had two shows immediately that I loved to watch. Since I was a horror buff, Are You Afraid Of The Dark was a must at 9:30pm but so wasn't Ren And Stimpy at 9. I can't explain why I loved Ren and Stimpy, but I did.

When I saw Jon from the blog A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts post some sticker cards from the show I had forgotten existed, I knew I needed some for my collection before I forgot about them again. So I hunted down a really cheap lot for $7.

*takes a sip before moving on*

In 1994 Topps created The Ren and Stimpy All Prismatic 50 card set. There was a bunch of variations in that would make today's Topps baseball Sp's easy to spot. Most cards had 3 or 4 variations.

So excuse me if I don't know or can spot them below. I am just showing off what I scored in the lot.

(how I feel about you guys)

 

(how retail flippers make me feel)

(flippers and investors)

(who doesn't at least know this song?!)

 

Looking at prices for these, it appears I may had gotten a little bit of a deal. This also wasn't all of them either. There were others and some duplicates which I hoarded anyways. I believe the lot was 40 sticker cards.

Thanks for the reminder on these Jon! They will go well with my Comic Books and my Stuffed Stimpy.

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

Today's post was a nice step back in time. A time when things were simpler in life and a time when my grandmother was around. She was always someone I looked up to and modeled myself after.I will always remember the fun I had at Bingo with her and of course my unforgettable Great Aunt Pearl who has also passed since.

I have watched Ren and Stimpy again recently on TV and even though it didn't quite have the impact on me it did when I was 9, I still enjoyed it mainly for the nostalgic piece.

In comments today, let me know what SNICK show you watched? If you were ever your own "cable" and if you were a Ren and Stimpy Fan.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

90's Cards Over Coffee:1996 Summit Football Box Break

*going to be fun today, it's been awhile since I have done with one of these posts. So let's get on with a trip back to the 90's with a box break. But first, let me get some coffee*

Long before the rise of box prices in the hobby, I was able to make a trade with my buddy @ShaneSalmonson and land a few boxes to open of 90's stuff I enjoy. These box breaks happened such a long time ago, not just because they are in the 90's, that I no longer have the odds information to offer you. I apologize in advance for that.

Knowing this break already has been ripped instead of being ripped "live" on here, there won't be any sippin' before I do some rippin'.

*takes a sip, begins to show off the break. This doesn't sound as much fun*

In each box of 1996 Summit football, there were 18 packs of 7 cards each. The box back then was around $30. Now I don't even want to look and see what they are going for.

When you open up the box, the stack of packs stare at you in a nicely centered Styrofoam. Back in the 90's, Summit was considered to be a "higher end" product so it was packed like so.

*takes a sip before breaking down the product more and showing off the results*

The 1996 Summit base set consists of 200 total base cards.

This breaks down to 146 veterans, 35 rookies, four checklists, and a 15-card subset all about quarterbacks in Quarter Horses.

 

The 35 rookies are from a strong class that include such stars as Keyshawn Johnson, Marvin Harrison, Kevin Hardy, Simeon Rice, and Eddie George.

*takes another sip, looks around for a breakfast item since posts like this usually take awhile before I will hit publish. Finds a Jalapeño cheddar bagel, toasts it, butters it, comes back to the laptop. Notices beverage is getting low, gets back up, brews a cup, comes back to sit to move onto the inserts*

One great thing about breaking 90's cards, you aren't concerned about hits. It's all about the beautiful inserts and parallels.

The parallels in 1996 Summit are the same as the 1995 edition in Ground Zero. Difference being, the 1995 is more of a speckled design and the 1996 is more of a zebra color. Both though, look striking.

Jim Harbaugh Quarter Horses

John Elway. Nice find!

Danny Kanell. This is a nice PC piece.

*takes a sip before moving onto the insert finds*

Inspirations is a rookie laden insert set with all cards being numbered to 8000. I pulled one of the guys who has a fun last name to pronounce and a guy I pulled a lot of in the 90's.

3rd And Long. These look really great and are numbered to 2000

And Turf Team. This card I missed when opening up packs but after sorting found it stuck to the back of another card. These are numbered to 4000.

*takes another sip before finishing up today's post. Also finishes last few bites of bagel*

This was a fantastic break. Emmitt, Elway and Aikman inserts and parallels. I got a good chunk of the base set and was already chasing the Ground Zeros and all three pulled were new. Very happy with the results from this break.

Let me know your thoughts in comments.

*takes one final sip, heads back for cup #2. Coffee Card Blogger Out*