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*

Father's Day

My father wasn't the best role model or someone you would brag to your friends about, but he did the fatherliest thing a father could do and that was spending time with his kid.

A lot of my childhood memories come from spending time with him.

Whether that was playing backyard baseball, football and basketball or playing a football game on a Sega system we would rent from the video store or watching NY Giants football together. I would also go to his work and take tours and get home from school and go watch him play softball. We also spent a lot of time enjoying the sport card hobby we had together with sorting, looking up values in Beckett and planning our next pickups.

Moments were being made every minute we were together.

I ended up following in his footsteps for the music he enjoyed, the teams he rooted on, the talk-to-anyone jokingly personality and some of how I collect cards. I took on what I considered were the good traits from him.

Even though I took on some of his card collecting traits, I also began my own collecting journey as well. Despite being a big time NY fan, he never actually collected any of the New York teams or players, but I do.

One of those players is soon-to-be Hall Of Famer, Eli Manning. These are my latest additions from a multiple websites,

(20/20 eBay 1/1!)

(my first Shockey/Eli dual relic)

 

The final card which features Super Bowl 42 with the Eli escape and Tyree helmet catch, is another connection between my father and myself. It marks the first time we got to watch and celebrate a Giants Super Bowl win together and what a way to do so.

Even though our lives are busier now, that Super Bowl was actually the last game we watched together, he still finds a way to spend time with me with daily phone call or Facebook messenger check-ins. Most conversations start and end with cards, but there are discussions of life as well.

Happy Father's Day dad. I don't think you will see this, but if you happen to be looking up cards and do, I hope you enjoy this.

Also, Happy Father's Day to the rest of the fathers, stepdads and fatherly figures out there. Have a great day and take some time out for yourself today. But, also remember why you are being celebrated today and celebrate with them as well.

Freshly Brewed:Avant A Shockey

*pours hot cup of Dunkin Donuts decaf, yep its my brew of choice today, sits down for a very short mail day post*

(side note, when I came up with today's post title, I could only relate back to Austin Powers with their word play of peoples names)

Thanks to a tip by Dennis @TooManyVerlanders, I was able to acquire a nice two card lot from someone I hadn't traded with before.

*takes the first few sips*

@flywheels does Affordable Group Breaks and nobody claimed the Giants (or a few other teams) in his break which means he ends up with anything pulled by those teams. Dennis mentioned to me that a Jeremy Shockey patch /25 was pulled in the break and I wasn't going to just let that slip by. So I contacted @flywheels and we worked out a trade faster than I am drinking this cup of coffee.

The mail day arrived a few short days later.

@flywheels also included the Shockey base card which looks spectacular.

 

And here was the big card in trade. You can see the stitching on the patch. Avant was a great looking set. I just wished Upper Deck, who holds the Fleer license, had more licenses to be able to produce great products like that.

A fast quick post and quick trade with @flywheels.

Now it's time to plan on breakfast,

(drooling over this already)

 
(lightly toasted, the only way to eat a bagel)

I think I am going with the fruit and veggie combo again today. Of course these blueberry bagels I grabbed from Price Chopper are not the best despite coming from their bakery section which is the only way I will buy bagels to eat. I won't eat the Thomas or Lender's versions as they just don't taste that great and I feel they tend to shrink in the toaster especially the ones from the freezer section.

So I try to stick with my local bakery ones, but this time was only able to get to Price Chopper so bought theirs instead. They aren't un-edible, just not as good as my local bakery ones. That's why when it comes to the Price Chopper ones, I like to hide them in cream cheese, especially the veggie cream cheese.

*takes a bite of bagel, chug of coffee and gets to finishing up this post*

It's a sunny, warm Labor Day. Hope everyone has a great day, hopefully off, and enjoys some cards over coffee.