Finished Cup:1997 Ex2000 Baseball

A finished cup. Something that I couldn't accomplish this morning as my coffee maker is apparently having issues and likes to add grounds to my coffee. It's one of those mornings if something goes wrong, it will. Or it at least feels that way without my coffee.

At least in the hobby world, I was able to actually finish a cup....again.

Within the same time frame, I finished up my 1996 Spx baseball set, that you can view HERE, I was also able to acquire the final missing piece for my 1997 Ex2000 baseball set after a big assist from TCDB member Abide helped get me to it.

If you didn't know, I would rank 1997 Ex2000 as one of the Top 3 best looking base card sets of the 90's. Once again, I need to really make a post on my rankings.

To finish up my 1997 Ex2000 baseball set, another member of the TCDB family got me there. I am not sure what their member name is on the website, but on Twitter they are known as @thirdcoastcards and they messaged me asking for my address as they had the final missing piece for my set.

That missing piece, Barry Bonds. What joy it was to finally reunite him with his Ex2000 family.

*shivers down the spine*

Here is look at the 102-card, 100 cards and 2 checklists, set.

(ignore the paper taped on the page as I reuse all of my pages)

 

 

This last picture also gives you a sneak peek of the next set I am hoping to complete, 1998 Ex2001. Needs for that set are on the link embedded in the wording.

Big thanks goes out to @thirdcoastcards for the set help. Appreciate it!!!

This completed set now goes along with the 1997 and 1998 football ones I have already finished. Now to do the 1998 Ex2001 and both basketball sets. Basketball will be near impossible with Kobe and Jordan.

Thoughts on my latest set completion is welcomed in comments!

Not At First Glance

*sits down on this sunny Sunday and get's ready for a new post on Cards Over Coffee. Let's dive on in shall we?*

My eyes aren't what they once used to be. 

I guess aging is a part of that and probably using my phone and also reading fine print (DARN THOSE TOPPS SP CODES) has put the strain on them over the years. For a good portion of my life, I had 20/20 vision. Not anymore as I find myself having to wear glasses all of the time with astigmatism setting in. I can't stand glasses, but also refuse to put contacts in because I just can't picture putting my finger anywhere near my eyeball.

For the most part, with the glasses I can still see 20/20 but there are times I make an "old people" mistakes and miss something.

Like with my recent Oren mail day.

*takes a sip before moving onto the card portion of today's post*

With all of our trades we have done, Oren sends me a list of cards he is looking to send my way while I send him back a surprise. It has worked really well over the past year. In our latest trade, he sent some 2000 Topps Perennial All-Stars cards. These cards fell 1:18 packs and consisted of a set of 10. I already had a couple of them myself and was thinking about a set chase.

When the cards came in, I took my pictures for today's post then tossed them on my desk for the sorting procedure. When I went to take care of the cards a day or two later, I noticed something on these ones that were different than the ones I already had.

In fine print above each players name was a Limited Edition stamp. I hope you can see it on this Sammy Sosa.

I didn't know Topps had made a parallel to this insert set, now-a-days I would expect it but not in late 90's-early 2000's. Come to find out after some research, these inserts were seeded at one complete set per sealed Topps Limited factory set.  The card stock is also thicker along with the gold lettering and supposedly there were only ever 4000 sets were produced.

Each of the ones that Oren sent in this trade featured the stamp.

I assume this is still a 10-card set and now I will need to chase down both versions of the Ken Griffey Jr for my collection now that I know these exist.

Also in this trade were these cards,

Upper Deck Power Deck CD Barry Sanders

Fleer Tradition Zone of Juan Gonzalez

Upper Deck Extended Series rookie of Pius Suter. I can't turn down rookies, especially shiny ones. Oren knows this and his pushing of hockey cards to get me hooked continues!

 

And a 2021 Topps Allen&Ginter mini Derek Jeter. Not sure if I have this one or not.

Thanks again to Oren for the trade.

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

I know I must not be alone in missing things the first time around, especially in today's hobby where they are flooded with short prints and small writing.

In comments today, let me know if you knew about this parallel set or the cards in general. And if you missed any print on cards before (be honest!)

Have a great Sunday!

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

90's Cards Over Coffee:1995 Summit Baseball Box Break

*takes a sip after a long few weeks. Sits down and gets ready for a new Cards Over Coffee post*

The 90's are back! Well, not really, though I really wished. But, they are back on here as we get ready to see how another box break went from my trade with Shane from Beckett's Cheap Wax Wednesday fame.

Today's break comes from one of my first favorite product lines of the 90's which only lasted for two releases in Score Summit. Some call it Score series 2 but to me, it would be more of an elegant Score than be apart of Score itself. Or in Coffee terms instead of having a Cup #2 at home, it would be like having your second cup at Dunkin' or Starbucks.

*takes a sip from cup number one at home*

I have never opened a box of Summit baseball and only a handful of packs. However, I have opened a ton of the football product and am still chasing both the base and parallel Ground Zero set pretty hard. I am creeping completing both but I know someday I will reach the ultimate goal.

So I am really excited to finally be able to rip a baseball box of this.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

Every box of 1995 Summit Baseball comes with 24 packs of 7 cards. This is a 90's box so no guarantees other than a good time which is how the hobby should be. Boxes when this was snagged ran about $20-$25. I don't quite remember since this was back in November.

When you open the box up, you see a nice display of packs. Rumor had it back then, Summit was laid out so you could find the inserts by counting packs and rows.

*takes a sip, moves onto pack 1*

The Summit baseball design is exactly like the football one which is great.

There are 200 cards in the base set with a few subsets as well in 

Special Delivery

Bat Speed

Checklists

And Rookie which weren't really rookies. Baseball is so complicated when it comes to rookie cards.

*takes another sip, is feeling hungry and may need a snack at least before cup 2*

The parallels in Summit are stunning. In football they were called Ground Zero and in baseball are known as Nth Degree. These fall 1:4 packs.

I was really hoping to find my boy Griffey Jr, but most of these aren't bad names to complain about at all.

I am tempted to chase this one like I am with Ground Zero. At the very least, I want both Griffeys.

*takes another sip before I move onto inserts*

New Age falls 1:18 packs. This is a great looking card.

The next pull was 21 Club, a little bit of a letdown compared to the first insert. These are 1:36 packs.

 

Then came the Big Bang...falling at an incredible 1:72 packs or 1:3 boxes is, Big Bang. Such an incredible card. I was doing Hammer Time after this pull.

*takes a sip before finishing up the post*

That was fun and now has given me even more sets to chase especially when it comes to Big Bang and Nth Degree. I really hope to open another box someday.

Let me know in comments if you have ever opened or own any cards in this set!

*takes a sip, Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Appreciating The Little Things

*it's time for a cup of coffee and some cards. Which means it's time for a new post of Cards Over Coffee*

One thing I have learned during the pandemic, other than that there is a lot of greed in the hobby and in the world, is that was finally time to appreciate the little things in life and in the hobby.

Things that I used to take for granted such as family and family get togethers, were things you became accustomed to, but didn't realize how deeply important they were until the pandemic.  There are some close parts of my family I haven't seen since Christmas of 2019 and it starts to get to you after awhile. You start to think, "why did I pretend to fall asleep during game night?" or "why didn't I go out to eat with them when they invited me?" Or "why didn't I push myself to stay up later those few extra hours to spend even more time with them instead of going to bed?" The answer is, I always thought it would be there next time.

During the pandemic, it was starting to get worrisome that there may not be a next time. I should have done those things at "those times" and taken advantage of every moment. As vaccines have started rolling out, I have my appointment set up for May 1st to get my first shot of Moderna, I feel like I may have those times again and this time you better believe I will soak in every second of it. Time to be that weird uncle who gives out the long hugs.

I not only find myself questioning little things in life such as above, but little things in the hobby as well. Something such as simple as following @CardsFromTheAttic.

*takes a sip, continues on*

When I first started following @CardsFromTheAttic years ago, some of his tweets felt like an attack on the blogging community and I couldn't have that. We are a close family in the blogosphere and I couldn't simply deal with someone who felt the way they did about us. So I unfollowed him and he followed suit later on as well and I went on with my Twitter life.

Fast forward to last summer, I started seeing some tweets from him being re-tweeted from others I followed. I then began to ask myself if I misread him years ago and gave him another follow. Come to find out, he is actually a good guy and his tweets I felt were attacks were actually apart of his personality and humor. You have to be a funny person, such as I consider myself to be, to fully get his humor.

Since I have re-followed him, I have joined in on some of his banter and enjoyed his content such as the March Madness Tournament in #CardboardChaos. Even though every brand I voted on, the late 90's ones, never made it too far.

 

Another thing you find out fast about him is his love of yellow in 1991 Fleer. He bleeds yellow. He screams yellow. He tweets yellow. Probably even has yellow socks and sandals on while he tweets. (The last part of that you would have to follow him to understand that sort of inside joke)

I questioned myself again about 1991 Fleer and maybe I missed something. Maybe I should give it another look and another chance just like I did in following @CardsFromTheAttic again. Come to find out, I did miss something in 1991 Fleer and it wasn't anything that Coldplay sang about.

*takes another sip, finds a snack to tie over before breakfast*

My favorite part of 1991 Fleer was staring at me the whole time and it was something with a black border, not yellow. Something that really stood out that I would have turned a blind eye to before. It was the Pro-Visions insert.

The 12-card insert set featured paintings by artist Terry Smith and featured "framed" black borders on each card front. The cards were randomly inserted in wax and rack packs to find. All I know is when I did open up some '91 Fleer "back in the day" is that I never once landed one of those inserts. I think they must be a little tough to find.

I am not sure how I didn't pay any attention to these before, but God Bless America that I am now.

And thanks to @CardsFromTheAttic, I have the entire set.

The artwork along with the black border really makes these stand out. I do wished that Griffey had been included, but it still doesn't disappoint.

Along with this full set, he also sent along some extras,

some of which I hadn't seen before including this Pete Rose.

Thanks goes out to @CardsFromTheAttic for the mail day and for the reminder that not everything about 1991 Fleer was bad.

*takes another sip before closing up today's post*

Whether it's family or something as simple as 1991 Fleer, I am no longer taking anything for granted. That includes waking up each day or even that cup of coffee in the morning (and of course the ones at noon and night as well). You just never know that day where it may not happen so take advantage of every second you are breathing.

*hope everyone enjoys a fresh cup of coffee today with this post and I hope you all have a great day as well. Coffee card blogger out*