The Gift That Kept On Giving

At Christmas I received some wonderful gifts from hobby friends. 

Bloggers, former bloggers and even readers. It made a rough year better to know that so many cared.

Today's mail day arrived a day past Christmas, but that didn't matter to me. It was well worth the wait.

This mail day is brought to you by... blog reader Oren!

First, let's kick it off with some unopened packs.

I have never seen or heard of these packs. Will be a fun intriguing pack rip.

As soon as I saw this pack, I immediately thought of All For Love. The song by Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting.

  

And I thought these were interesting. I had no idea that Cryptozoic put this set out. They usually focus on television such as CW shows and a few movies.

I will be ripping these down the road as I try to integrate Throwpack Thursday on here.

This was just the beginning of the mail day. It kept giving.

 

Giants blue. Color team match parallels are some of the best out there.

 

This Wemby sat on my want list a very long time.

This gift wasn't done yet. It kept giving.

 

A new sweater card for the Christmas PC.

A couple Wandale relic cards. He is one of my favorite players on the team. Very underrated.

Eric Gray auto. Other than kickoff returns this guy hasn't really hit the field for the G-men. So, who knows what he is capable of.

I can finally cross this one off the want list as well. Been wanting a Mack auto as I try to get every player I can in a Giants uniforms autograph.

Was this it for the mail day after a want list item crossed off? Nope. I kept pulling more out. It kept giving.

Davis auto. His time was short with the Gmen but he was still in blue.

I can watch runs by Jacobs on YouTube all day. What a beastly man.

I really like the design on this Jones relic. Jones, no longer a Giant but he will forever be remembered in blue for the good and the bad.

 

I started collecting Jernigan back when he came out of the draft. He showed flashes in his couple years with the Giants. There is actually a guy on Instagram I follow with an incredible Jernigan collection.

This has to be it right? The end of the mail day?

Nope. It gave more.

Wait? What?!! A stinkin' Curtis Martin auto!!! Want list item achieved! And he is one of my 90's guys. This was really cool to find.

That has to be it right? Final card like that?

Nope. Oren had one more gift in there.

 

Phew. What a beauty! Rhett Bomar or not, what a patch!

Thanks again to Oren for his generous Christmas package.

I hope everyone has a great Tuesday.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

A couple of side notes before I close out. We lost our first basketball game on Saturday 15-10. It was really challenging as one team had to cancel so we had to combine our team together again and try to fit 17 girls in a game of 7 minute quarters. We had a rotation with a group of Starting 4 that switched out every 4 minutes while the fifth spot switched out every 2 minutes. It was complicated to keep track of and the team didn't get the chance it needed to gel as momentum would start then would have to pull people out for a new group. This week has two practices and two games coming up.

ALSO, DON'T FORGET ABOUT NOMINATING CARDS INTO THE COFFEE CARD HALL OF FAME IF ANY FROM TODAY'S POST OR YESTERDAY'S WITH THE MAIL DAY FROM DENNIS YOU THINK DESERVE A NOM.

And lastly, read/follow Big Blue Cardboard. I will occasionally put up new posts on there. When I have time.

Too Many Cards (not really)

*sits down, laptop is fully charged, coffee is ready and now it's time for cards over coffee*

A couple of weeks ago, Too Many Verlanders blog sent me a package that contained a lot of great cards and being behind on blogging, I haven't had the chance to show them off until today.

Dennis, as many other bloggers and former bloggers know, sends out some of the most generous and fun filled mail days out there.

Not that some of you others don't.

This time I was in shock as I continued to dig through the package as he just about hit up every part of my PC and hit it up well from shows he had gone to.

I sure hope you are ready and have your coffee in hand as I reveal this one. There were so many cards I had to group some.

Lots of G-Men.

 More here (yes a Yankees insert is hiding in the top corner)

And even more Gmen! (that Hilliard is awesome)

Danny Dimes. Panini doesn't do a lot of things right with cards, but they did these photos right.

Kerry Collins

90's numbered cards (to be fair, I knew these were coming because I claimed them)

J-Dom. One of the very few Yankees I still collect and both of these are new to that collection.

90's insert (bonus it's a Yankee)

You would think the cards above were enough, me to, but then came more! And of course I always appreciate Too Many Cards (and hope you all appreciate my play on his blog name)

This time some NY Giants hits and you want to know the crazy part, I have 6,000+ Giants cards and not a single one of these hits was a dupe. That's impressive. He either had intuition or stood outside my bedroom window watching me drink coffee and sort them. Either way, I am good with it.

Great Expectations from Illusions of Darius Slayton. I have great expectations of him this upcoming season.

 

Rookies and Stars NFL Authentic of Slayton.

Eli Manning manufactured Throwback Patch

 

Optic Donruss Threads of Sterling Shepard.

Finest Autograph rookie of Steve Smith.

Jerrel Jernigan Topps Chrome autograph.

Was this the end of this mail day? Nope. There were two more cards in this very loaded Too Many Cards I appreciated mail day.

Gary Sanchez manufactured MLB Commemorative patch.

And then this Game Floor piece of Shareef Abdur-Rahim that he had in his trade bait blog post I couldn't just leave there. I love unique relics and this for sure was one of those.

Thanks again to Dennis for his generosity and I hope you enjoyed what I sent you as much as I enjoyed this one.

*takes a sip and begins to sort these out with the other Giants cards*

*looks out the window to see if Dennis is there*

Hope everyone has a great day and thoughts on my mail day welcomed in comments.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Trying It Out

*hears a noise, gets up from computer and sees that the cat had knocked stuff off a shelf. stops to think about picking it up now, but decides to come back down to laptop and coffee, because it's time for some Cards Over Coffee*

Today, kicks off the first post with my lightbox photos. I know these photos won't be perfect as I continue to figure out how to use it, but I think they are drastically improved from what they were. Glad I am trying it out.

*hears another noise, cat must be getting into something else or tearing apart the stuff they already knocked over. gets up, takes care of the mess, then comes back to sit to continue on with the latest #CardsOverCoffee post*

Another thing I was glad I tried out was trading with blog reader Oren. He has been my most consistent trader of 2021 as I have shown off a multitude of trades on here from him.

This is my most recent one that included cards from most PC areas,

NY Giants. The lightbox really shows off the shine on the Slayton card.

Fleer Metal universe! I can never get enough of it!

90's inserts. I have never seen these up close before.

Side Player PC in Curtis Martin. I still desperately need the Ground Zero parallel of his 1995 Summit rookie card.

Sets. This is only the third or maybe fourth towards my set chase of these 1995 Topps Boosters. Such beautiful cards and now they can be captured better on here with the help of the Lightbox.

90's Relics. Today's relics have no comparison to these.

And finally, a Lamar Jackson Score rookie card. What a game he had on Monday night against the Colts! He is fun to watch!

Thanks again to Oren for another fun trade, I know we just finished another yesterday so I will be showing those off on here soon as well.

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

I think the lightbox worked out well today even though I may need more practice with how I take and set up the photos. Otherwise, I am very pleased.

Thoughts on my mail day or the lightbox pictures are welcomed in comments below.

Have a great rest of your Friday and thanks for reading! Please add this to your blogroll or share the posts when you can. Thank you in advance.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

The Firsts Of 2021

*coffee is ready, cards are on the table for pictures which means it's time for some cards over coffee either that it's time for me risking spilling coffee on them. I prefer a post.*

Even though I didn't set any collecting hobby goals for 2021, there are still certain firsts I look forward to accomplishing every year.

The list of those firsts are the following,

• The first major sort. Every year I collect a stack of cards until they fill a 1,000 count box, then I start to break it down and sort it out. This year I have filled two of those boxes thanks to random mail days and a trade with my father that just about filled one up. I plan to post that trade on here.
• The first big trade with each of "My Big Three". On Twitter, I have three guys in Shane, @90sNicheFBCard and @CardpocalypseNC that I do some pretty massive trades with every year. Most of the time we pull off two big trades a year. This year I am slacking on my end with pulling stuff -mainly because of not completing my first major sort-in doing my first major trade with each. I have done my first already with @90sNicheFBCard but am lacking with the other two. My goal is to get those done soon before June ends.
• The first rookie cards of 2021. This one I have accomplished for all sports, well not hockey. But, hockey isn't really a goal anymore. Yes, pun intended.
• And the first 2021 NY Giants cards, including rookies, of the year. This is currently my big chase.

*takes a sip, then continues on*

2020 football card season didn't quite have a draw on me as much as 2021 will. The 2020 Giants selected an offensive lineman in the first round and the rest was defense heavy. I try to get at least a card of each player regardless, but when it comes to chasing that type of draft, I typically don't. This year though, the Giants drafted WR Kadarius Toney in the first round and RB Gary Brightwell in the 6th round which gives me two players to chase this season. So I am pumped about upcoming releases to hopefully score a decent stack of these guys before the season starts.

So far this year, it's been college/no logo heavy early releases in Sage Draft, Leaf Draft, Onyx, and Panini Contenders Draft. Just recently did we finally get some NFL/draft releases in Score and Legacy which are the only two products to include new cards of NFL Veterans in actual NFL uniforms.

I have had no luck in finding Legacy, but I was able to find some Score, which has a good handful of Giants base cards to score. Yes, another pun intended.

Here are the ones I was chasing,

60 Daniel Jones – New York Giants
61 Michael Strahan – New York Giants
62 Saquon Barkley – New York Giants
63 Darius Slayton – New York Giants
64 Blake Martinez – New York Giants
65 Sterling Shepard – New York Giants
66 Golden Tate III – New York Giants
67 James Bradberry – New York Giants
68 Evan Engram – New York Giants

Ladarius Toney

Azeez Ojulari

Here is what I cut it down to,

60 Daniel Jones – New York Giants
61 Michael Strahan – New York Giants
62 Saquon Barkley – New York Giants
63 Darius Slayton – New York Giants
64 Blake Martinez – New York Giants
65 Sterling Shepard – New York Giants
66 Golden Tate III – New York Giants
67 James Bradberry – New York Giants
68 Evan Engram – New York Giants

Ladarius Toney

Azeez Ojulari

There were also some Giants inserts in 2021 Score I will be pursuing and landed a few of as well, but to get the ground running, the base comes first.

Here is the full gallery of what I have landed thus far,

(My first Giants card of him as Panini featured him in Packers gear in all of their 2020 products he was included in.)

(I think I have 3 of these now)

And another first I haven't mentioned, I also chase the first 2021 Giants draft class autographs. Last year I had quite a few gaps and still do, but this year I started at the top.....

 

Kadarius Toney autograph from Onyx. I had looked at quite a few from Score, but they were all $30 plus. This one I traded for from a buddy who snagged it for half of that.

There is still a long football card season ahead and I will have much to chase.

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

I not only have a list of hobby firsts I like to complete, I also have a list of Coffee Firsts as well.

They are the following, 

• The First Hot Mocha
• The First Iced Coffee
• The First New Flavor Try
• The First Non Coffee Drink
• The First Pumpkin Flavored Coffee (fall)
• The First Mint Flavored Coffee (winter)

So far, I have accomplished the following,

• The First Hot Mocha
• The First Iced Coffee
• The First New Flavor Try
• The First Non Coffee Drink
• The First Pumpkin Flavored Coffee (fall)
• The First Mint Flavored Coffee (winter)

I am off to a roaring start with my Coffee Firsts. Two I can't even accomplish until later on this year and technically that third one could fall under that category as well.

I would enjoy to hear if any of you set any Firsts like this as well. Leave them in the comments. Hope everyone has a great rest of their day.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*