The Slump Is Over

It's the day after my birthday, of course I have leftover cake with my coffee this morning. 

*takes a sip*

*takes a bite...followed by another sip*

If my mother-in-law was a baseball player and was a hitter, you can say the last few years she has been in a "slump" when it comes to getting me a gift, whether that's for Christmas or for my birthday. She has been buying me junk wax completed sets from a place similar to Goodwill. Even though junk wax sets are my least favorite thing, I don't complain because she is trying, and she doesn't have to get me anything, but she still does. So, I just accept it, smile and say thanks.

But, just like with any hitter, you get yourself out of a slump. 

And she did just that when it came to this year's birthday present.

 

First, she handed me this cheesebox full of cards. This is from the same place she normally buys the complete sets for me. 

I was a little worried at first this was checkerblock full of 1991 Fleer and 1988 Topps, but it wasn't. It had its expected junk moments, but there were some fun surprises hidden within as well. For once, the good outweighed the bad.

Just check them out,

*but first, a sip and another bite of cake*

Now you can see the cards,

This was just a few of the fun finds. There were other baseball parallels and some holiday base cards for my set chase as well. 

Next, she picked up these two packs from Walgreens.

Sweet!! I only recognize the NPB packs. I had wanted to open some so I could try and land a Yamamoto.

Inside of each package came with one pack each of 2021 Topps NPB and a 2023 Topps Series One Pack.

The results weren't too shabby.

These were the key inserts and then came a surprise....

Vlad Jr manu-relic! I didn't expect this or anything from these packs. I thought one felt a little thicker. 

I don't know much about the Topps NPB packs other than searching for the one player.

And, I didn't pull a Yamamoto. I am not sure of any other names in this set, so if you do, let me know.

 

I did pull this gold parallel. These are dope and fall 1:12 packs. Makes me wish Topps did these for their flagship parallels.

Between the decent cheesebox and the packs, I would say this slump ended for my mother-in-law with a homerun.

Thanks Ma!

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

Well, I still have to finish rest of the piece of my cake and my cup of coffee before it gets too cold. I still need to sort these cards all out as well.

Hope all of you have a great Wednesday.

Before I close up today's post, I also wanted to remind you of the Coffee Card Hall Of Fame voting and that it needs you guys to nominate cards in. So far, ONLY 3 cards have been nominated!!

Details on the Coffee Card Hall Of Fame can be found HERE. I may add this to every post from here on out for a reminder as I will forget about this too! Haha!

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

May The 4th Be Late With You

*finally able to sit down and write a post meant for 2 days ago. Takes fresh cup of coffee and sits it next to the laptop and stack of cards. Trying not to tip any of them over. It's finally time now for some new Cards Over Coffee*

It's been a busy week so I am running a few days behind on the National Holiday on May 4th known as Star Wars Day.

*takes a sip, coffee hits the spot*

Star Wars didn't exist in my life until much later in the 90's which is a lot later than it was for most people around me. I first discovered the movies on TV and really got into watching them. I saw each of the three original movies (I still refer to those movies as the originals) a few times and was pretty excited about hearing there was a new one coming out in 1999. Then I found it was a prequel, I can't stand prequels for any movies, so the newfound excitement of another Star Wars movie sailed away.

However, I still gave the prequel and following prequel episodes a chance and found out that I was right that they were awful. Nothing, I mean nothing ever beats the originals. I will say though, I did grow to liking Darth Maul.

*takes another sip. Feels his tummy rumbling*

Fast forward to now, Disney is in control of the Star Wars universe and there are more movies, cartoons and TV shows about the franchise more than ever before. I am not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but seems many die hard fans are pretty happy with it.

For me though, I will just stick to the three originals because I am too old school.

When it comes to cards though, I will take them all for my non sport collection.

*another sip leads to an idea of what to eat for breakfast...okay mid morning snack you caught me*

Most of my Star Wars card collection has been acquired through trading, which is how a lot of my collecting is acquired.

Actually, I am pretty sure all with the exception of this card was picked up through trading. 

Hondo Ohnaka is not a character I know, but the voice actor I know plenty about and many of you should as well. Jim Cummings is Darkwing Duck, Tigger, Winnie The Pooh, Pete from Goof Troop, and about a million other cartoons from yesterday and today. This autograph was a must have for me so I forked out the $12 a couple of years ago to make it happen.

I felt I got a steal on it comparing the cost to other autographs of his.

The rest of these cards for today's post have been recently posted on here, but I am sure a second look won't be frowned upon.

I also have two Film Cel relics from the original movies I couldn't find for today's post. Those are my two favorite cards in my Star Wars collection and will need to be shared. Maybe I will wait a year from now and show those two off for next years Star Wars day.

*takes another sip*

I also thought since this is a coffee card blog and today we are talking Star Wars that it would be fun to rename a few of the characters.

Here they are,

Darth Coffee

Brewbacca

Han Expresso

Java The Hutt

Kylo Roast

Obi Wan Cappuccino

R2-Cup 2

R2-Dcaf

If you have anymore or ones to compete with mine, I would love to hear them in comments.

*takes a sip before finishing up the post*

I hope every had a Happy Star Wars Day! Also let me know your favorite movie from the Saga in comments!

*finds a couple of Oreos, takes the cookie side off to eat first and saves the frosted side for last. Takes a a sip of coffee, then dives on in for the frosted side. Coffee Card blogger out*

Coffee Break:2020 Topps Series 2 Baseball Blaster Box

*sits down with a cup in hand of fresh brew, well it's actually his wife's cup but it's the biggest one in the house so it will due even though it says sisters on it. But with lack of sleep, the big cup is needed*

You wanna know what's hotter than my first cup of coffee? Topps Series 2 that is!

This stuff is flying off of the shelves!! Mainly because of one card on the base checklist that everyone wants in Luis Robert. The problem is, it's really hard to find any at least in the retail level. I prefer retail over hobby when it comes to flagship as you pay $20 for a blaster with one hit or $90 for a hobby box with one hit and most of the time the hit from the blaster (though manufactured) will be better than the hobby one color swatch.

So my father was texting me what was new from Walmart and mentioned Series 2 and how the distributor must had just filled the shelves because they were empty the prior day. So I told him to grab me a blaster and I would trade for it. I sometimes look back and wonder if I should had grabbed two.

And I did trade for it. Luckily for me he needed a 2011 Topps Chrome Cam Newton rookie for his rookie collection, those things have gone up since he became a Patriot, and I had three to spare so it was a win-win for me.

So he shipped it a few days later and it took a few days to arrive even though we are only one state away from each other. The USPS system right now is in a weird place. Fortunately I haven't had to ship much this year with my trading being down.

With it in hand right now finally, this mornings cup of coffee will go great with this break of 2020 Topps Series 2 baseball.

*takes a sip, begins to rip!*

This box was pretty heavy when it arrived. I was quite impressed for a retail box of 7 packs on how heavy it was. I also hope I don't get caught ripping this right now, it says for Ages 6+ and sometimes I may act or say things below that age. So please don't tattle on me.

In each blaster box of 2020 Topps Series 2, you will find 7 packs of 14 cards with a variety of parallels and inserts to chase. Each blaster also comes with 1 Player Medallion and is $20 a box.

The base set as always picks up where Series 1 ended. This time with a brand new 350 cards to chase. It includes players that were not in Series 1 and of course the hottest card out there right now in Robert. I was happy just to find a couple of Yanks for the PC.

(I assume this is another subset but it caught my eye)

Being a rookie card collector, I was excited to add six more rookies to the PC. But,  I will admit, I got halfway excited when I saw a White Sox in the corner only to find out it was Danny Mendick. Sorry Danny, didn't mean to hurt your feelings.

So if you're wondering and thinking I hid a Robert to post next, nope the wait is over, there was no Robert in this blaster. (seems like everyone but me has one)

 *takes another sip of coffee. Darn this is hitting the spot this morning*

Just like with Series 1, Series 2 has an array of parallels to find. Most at the hobby level but I have seen some surprises in retail before.

This is what you are looking for, Rainbow Foil , Gold Foil, Gold /2020, Advanced Stat /300, Vintage /99, Independence /76, Black /69, Mother's Day Hot Pink /50, Father's Day Blue /50, Memorial Day Camo /25, Platinum 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1.

Usually in years past, you pull a couple of golds and a couple of Rainbow Foils but this was the only parallel I landed in this box at 1:10 odds. I like the added toughness to the chase and believe this is the first time in a long time I didn't pull a gold.

The inserts have their own parallels as well with Blue, Black /299, Gold /50, Red /10, and Platinum 1/1 to find.

1985 insert that seem to be a staple in this product since 1985, fall 1:4 packs. I could really do without these anymore. This time around there is 100 of these to collect. Wowzahs.

Empire State award winner Pete Alonso set only available in Walmart retail. There are 30 to collect. If you are wanting the Fernando Tatis Jr versions, they are limited to Target retail.

I have had my run on these Turkey Reds as well. These are a retail exclusive with 100 of them to chase. They seemed plentiful in my blaster compared to other inserts.

Same with the Chromed version, except they have refractors. Not sure I could get tired of refractors.

Decades Best makes another return this time with another 100 cards to collect. I do enjoy the design on these however.

And finally, I pulled this Player Of The Decade Mike Trout. It's a Trout dedicated set of 25 cards, though I think 27 cards should have been the number. Congrats to Mike by the way who just left on Paternity Leave.

All I know is that the face of MLB, yes you know it's true, will be missed until he returns.

*finishes up first cup, decides to wait on a second cup and finish up this post*

Okay, so we have reached that exciting moment as we have reached the Player Medallion card. I have seen these posted on Twitter so they look really cool.

What I didn't know was how much they weighed. It was the reason why the blaster was so heavy. Maybe I should do some wrist curls with it to strengthen my wrists and fingers for typing before I move on.

*one up, two up, three up, four up, five getting tired up, six barely making it up, sev......ten. Good enough* 

Same goes with my pushups and curl ups with my counting.

The player medallion checklist is pretty deep so you never know who you will pull with 50 cards to choose from

 But was pretty solid with this one. Can't go wrong with some Bo Bichette.

And come to find out, it was a black parallel /199. Must have to do with the darker color on the front. I wouldn't have known if I didn't look at the back and then looked up if they included parallels.

Overall they have Black /199, Gold /50, Red /10, and Platinum 1/1.

*decided to make breakfast first anyways, Asiago bagel toasting and fresh cup of coffee next to me awaiting it's partner in crime*

I was pretty pleased with my break overall. The only thing I want left from Series 2 is the Robert for my rookie card collection and may seek that out via trade instead of busting more. But, you never know with this blogger.

That's of course if I can find anymore of it as well.

Ratings (ratings based on 1-5 🍵)

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