When The Wrong Choice Goes Right

 Remember when I said I bought a box of cards on my way back from my vacation? 

Well, my choice was the wrong one.

Sitting on the shelf among other boxes of 2025 football cards, I saw a box of Phoenix and without even looking at it, assumed it was 2025 and walked out a happy guy.

That's until I hit the car and realized I had bought a 2024. Ugh.

Yeah, I could land another Nabers rookie, but it wasn't what I was hoping for. I wanted to pull some Dart or even a Hakeem Nicks to go with my rainbow. Speaking of which, the updates on my chase for 84 will be found on my NY Giants blog, Big Blue Cardboard. Check it out if you haven't yet and go give it a follow!

Now back to the box (one of which I mistakenly deleted the box picture of).

Even though I was disappointed to have grabbed the wrong box, I still was excited just to open something again.

Each blaster box comes with 6 packs of 4 cards each, so 24 cards for $35. No guarantees in the box besides three parallels and a chance at an autograph or case hit.

I kicked it off pulling a new Giants card in the very first pack. I thought maybe that was the kickoff to something good.

DeVonta Smith,first of three parallels. I assume this is a Purple parallel. It's Unnumbered. This should have counted as a Giants card since the Eagles jumped ahead of the Giants in the draft that year to snag him.

 

JJ McCarthy rookie. I think he will be spending more time on the bench with Kyler there now.

My second parallel was of Travis Kelce who recently spent more time in the news about who he married over his sports season.

Here was a nice find. Rookie Rising parallel of Caleb Williams.

Then to top that off, a second dosing of Caleb Williams. This time a base card rookie parallel. Both are heading to my rookie card PC.

New Giants card. Two nice Caleb Williams pulls. I will call this blaster a win. One of the very few times a wrong choice goes right.

Let me know your favorite pull from my box below in comments.

I hope everyone has a coffee-filled Tuesday.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Coffee Break:2025 Mosaic Football Blaster Box #2

Well....well...well...what do we have here....that's right box #2 in my trade break.

I am beginning my show off of retail wax that I got in the 9-card lot of autograph Daniel Jones cards I traded away. If you missed that, here is the ARTICLE.

I thought I would start out with the football blasters first and now it is time for the second football one.

Without further ado, let's start to rip and take a sip with these highlights,  

 

My first Woody Marks rookie card. Yeah, that was supposed to be exciting, this is the best excitement I have for a guy with a unique name.

Dart Variation! Bad part, I already had two of these....this one will be going to a friend.

Sadly, that was it for the rookie highlights.

Now inserts.

This is a subset and a player I strongly dislike, but wanted to show it off to add some meat to this post.

This guy has been playing lights-out good, despite how bad this season has gone for the Giants, he has been a bright spot. This card is also a new PC piece.

Now onto the parallels.

Ughhh another Eagle. This time A.J. Brown. This is a "Mosaic" parallel.

Another "Mosaic" parallel. This time a rookie insert of McMillian who has played really well in Carolina.

Will Campbell. Another team I despise and an offensive lineman, ugh.

This guy started on my fantasy team but it wasn't long before I cut him.

Team color match on this Elevate. This is the one-per-blaster Orange Fluorescent.

Silver of Audric Estime. I have seen and heard the silvers seem to be the tougher pulls this year.

 

And finally, Justin Jefferson green parallel. Good player, bad team. Seems there is a lot of that.

There you have it. Another break and another kind of dull one at that but at least two Giants were in this one. To put these into perspective. Each Mosaic blaster box was $29.99. I have a feeling I didn't lure that back with either box break or even combined.

But, let me know in comments what you think.

In the meantime, I will finish my cup and get ready to seize the day.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

BEFORE I CLOSE OUT, DON'T FORGET TO VOTE FOR YOU FAVORITE BLOGGERS AND TRADING CARD PRODUCTS IN NACHO GRANDES END OF THE YEAR AWARDS.

DETAILS ON THIS LINK:

https://fanofreds.blogspot.com/2025/11/tcdb-monday-turkey-day-approaches.html

Which by the way, I did not vote for myself in any category. I want this to be a real vote. It's no fun if I do it myself. I want to hear what the readers think.

Neutral Zone

*takes a sip, sits down with a few cards the coffee and a donut for breakfast*

*sets all three items away from each other, didnt' want any accidents*

*takes a sip*

I know you guys are probably getting sick of seeing my latest NY Giants pickups, but for now, this is where I am sharing them. I am hoping though at some point when I have more time that there may be a possible Big Blue Cardboard revival as I have some new ideas and lots of cards to share there. So if you haven't followed that blog or added it to your blogrolll, please do.

In the meantime, let's check out my latest adds which are unique.

Every time a new product comes out, I always do a search to check out what Giants cards are in it. If I see something that catches my eye, I put it on the watchlist and hope that I can land it or others in the future.

This is exactly what I did when 2022 Panini Playbook hit the streets. For the most part, it's not a very interesting product as it's a lot of same ole, same ole. But, it did have an interesting insert set I hadn't seen before and that it had three Giants cards in it.

I was sold.

The insert was called Neutral Zone which takes you to the trenches and the line of scrimmage between two teams.

I don't think out of all of my collecting years I have ever seen an insert focus on this part of the game. It was unique that a company finally thought outside the box.

Each of the Giants cards in the set featured their defensive line against another offensive line. I think that's mainly because their dline has been so great over the years as opposed to their offensive line.

 

Here are the three cards. It was against the Jets, Eagles and Cowboys for the cards the Giants were featured on.

 

And all three together.

I hope more companies take a look at this and come up with something else new and creative. I am sure other sports have their own things companies haven't tackled yet. What about the chalk line for baseball and a ball rolling down and near it? or faceoff for hockey? 

Let me know in comments what youre thoughts are or what they should do next.

In the meantime, hope you are enjoying that cup of coffee.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Glutton For Punishment

If you look up the definition for glutton on Google, it gives you the following definition, "an excessively greedy eater" and "a person who is excessively fond of or always eager for something".

The first part of that definition covers my coffee addiction. I am glutton for coffee (as I say this and chug down a cup)

The second definition of this, covers my glutton for new football cards. Especially the first product of the new year.

 

Sage Hit is always the first to hit the market and pave the way for the new rookie class. So, it's always the first retail product I grab seeing the 3 autographs for $20 and knowing in the long run I will be a glutton for punishment. Those three autographs are always a draw, but I know those three autographs are always the nobodies.

 

The other part that bugs me about the product is that the autographs are always segregated. So, you know that five of these packs are base cards. I would rather have the surprise and the thrill.

But, yet I am a glutton and still buy it.

 

This years base design simple and easy like it usually is. All images are used without college logos on purpose since they no longer have the license to use them.

Next Level is the main subset in the base set.

New to this year is the Jerry Rice insert set. The product also this year has randomly inserted Rice autographs. But, I don't expect to find any in retail products.

 Speaking of the autographs, lets see my punishment.

Jahfari Harvey. Who?

A QB auto!!! Oh wait, Quincy Patterson. Who?

And we finish it up with a WR that is actually a TE autograph. And a terrible signature at that.

I actually got offensive playmakers for once so my punishment wasn't as bad, but, still, there was no CJ Stroud in here nor will there ever be.

Should have I not bought this and invested my money elsewhere including maybe a box of coffee? Most likely. But, will I? Probably not. I will continue to be a glutton for punishment.

Thoughts below on this product.

Have a great Monday!

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

The Trade Game

You can buy cards, you can sell cards, but nothing is better than trading cards. There are many ways to trade them, and I have done most of the ways to do so in what I like to call, The Trade Game.

In The Trade Game, it's funny how trades work out sometimes. Sometimes you win some, sometimes you don't. I remember a trade back in 2017 I made for a Patrick Mahomes Optic rookie card where I gave up six base autographs for it which at that time was an even deal. 

After a second Super Bowl win last night, I think Patrick Mahomes may be worth just a tad more now.

Other trades, I lost. For example, I traded away a rare Upper Deck Jeff Gordon fire suit relic for a Sp rookie card of an upcoming running back in Denver named Terrell Davis. At the time, it was a great trade. Then the injuries kicked in and it was a huge loss.

Then there are trades where you trade for a card intending to keep it, but then decide later on to trade it away. This is exactly what happened this past weekend with a recently acquired card.

A few weeks ago, before the NFC Championship game, I had been looking to add a Brock Purdy rookie card to my collection thinking he was going to continue his amazing run with the 49ers. I also needed one for my rookie card collection as I try to collect one rookie of everyone, and he has a limited amount of them out there. So, I gave up some decent RJ Barrett cards as I move away from collecting him and acquired the 2022 Chronicles Prestige rookie of Purdy.

Then came the NFC Championship game. Purdy got hurt early in the game and the 49ers lost to the Eagles badly. The end of his run was over and so was the end of his card values and possibly his future as starter on that team.

That usually doesn't affect whether I keep a card or not, but when I found out my father found two impossible-to-find blasters of 2022 Mosaic football and he wanted a Purdy rookie, I have to admit, it got me.

So, I drove an hour away to Walmart and traded him the Purdy rookie along with a couple other cards for the blaster box of Mosaic. This isn't the first time I have traded cards for wax with him as my desperation to rip open stuff sometimes overwhelms me when I hadn't opened anything in a while. The thrill of the pull!

My hope was that this box would replace the Purdy I traded away so I would have a rookie of his for my collection still, but, it didn't. It did however provide something much bigger which was great since I usually take a big loss on our past trades like this.

I am going to take a sip and then show you how this box break went.

Each blaster box of 2022 Mosaic football comes with 6 packs of 6 cards. Boxes run $35 each and no guarantees at all.

Here was my best base rookie card of the box. It was also a subset version of it with NFL Debut.

National Pride parallel is a new addition to this year's product. I would have gone right by it if I hadn't seen someone else post this parallel on one of the Facebook groups I am apart of. At least this is a card of the assumed 49ers starter.

Not bad silver pull. Treylon Burks had a few moments this season, but he had big shoes to fill in when they traded away AJ Brown.

Tyquan Throton Mosaic Parallel.

Here's a guy that knows a thing or two about winning Super Bowls.

Green on Green. The offensive Rookie Of The Year Garrett Wilson.

HoloFame Mosiac parallel insert of Jerome "The Bus" Bettis. He was a fun watch when he got running at full speed.

Touchdown Masters of last year Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp.

Holofame base insert of Warren Moon who felt like he played for every team in the league for 40 years.

And in the final pack....

 

Aaron Rodgers case hit Genesis parallel. Which I must mention I had my wife open up three packs and this was in her pack. She didn't know what this was and assumed it was a plain ole parallel, but I knew better. 

I would say my gamble for this trade paid off even though I am now in need of a Brock Purdy rookie card. I am sure someone out there must have one for PWE trade. Which leads me back to the trade game again. 

There is no right or wrong in trading, only fun.

Thanks again to my father on this trade if he is reading this. I am not sure if he even remembers that I have a blog haha!

Thoughts on my break welcomed in comments after you take a sip of coffee (or tea or water or even alcohol though coffee is obviously preference here)

Coffee Card Blogger Out.

Ripping 2021 Before 2022

*sits down finally to do today's post. electricity was out so no coffee until now as well. it was a long start to the morning but here I am and ready for a new post*

*takes a sip*

This week is the long-awaited arrival of a new baseball card season as 2022 Topps Series 1 kicks off. Though we may not have baseball for a while, we can at least anticipate the excitement that the new baseball card season can bring.

Today, a lot of group breakers are celebrating by ripping packs a day before tomorrow's release. So, I thought I would join in on the fun, except I am ripping a Hobby Box of last year's Series 1. Either way, let's join in on the celebration, sit down with a cup of coffee and let's see some #CardsOverCoffee.

Each hobby box of 2021 Topps Series 1 baseball comes with 24 packs of 14 cards along with one autograph or most likely found relic per box. There is also one four-card silver pack that tags along. Boxes are still hanging around just under $100.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

I have never once pulled an autograph from the silver packs and most of mine have provided poor player results as well.

 

I am happy to inform you that luck continued with today's break. Don Mattingly was as good as it got in the pack. By the way, when seeing the last 15 years of '86 Topps being included in its flagship and update series as a celebratory insert, if it's done this way, I am okay with it.

*takes a sip before showing off the rest of the break. I need my coffee infusion before doing so*

You usually end up with a few parallels, nothing like it used to be, in every break. Out of the parallels I will say that Rainbow Foil still remains my favorite.

Here's another rainbow foil and my one and only gold /2021 of Austin Riley.

A new Griffey for the PC....

Mo knows how to "cut" down the batters

They haven't revisited this design for an insert...oh wait....

Short Print! I didn't pull one in my box break last year for Series 1. I know of a person I will send this too!

And DRUMROLL for my hit...it came in the last pack and I felt this was the moment I was going to pull an autograph....

And nope. Another relic card. At least this time it wasn't Albert Pujols. Needed to pull this in 2020 Topps and not 2021. At least there is a stripe on the relic.

Well, not too much happening with this break. I do like the Williams Sp and Robert wasn't a terrible pull. It's also numbered too.

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

I am not sure when I will get my hands onto any 2022, but hopefully sooner rather than later. I will be hunting down the Franco rookie card for my rookie collection.

In comments today, thoughts on my break, thoughts on 2022 Topps Series 1 and what are you looking for in the product when it releases.

In the meantime, have a great Tuesday.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*