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*

Coffee Break:2022 Topps Series 1 Hobby Box

*takes a sip, sits down with a hobby box of the first new baseball cards of the season in hand. this should be fun. it's time for some #CardsOverCoffee*

After about a year away, Coffee Break is back and ready more than ever!

Just like baseball fans after hearing that baseball will finally be back.

Today, I will be ripping the anticipated 2022 Topps Series 1 baseball box as it's the first product of the new season.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

Each hobby box of 2022 Topps Series 1 baseball comes with 24 packs of 14 cards. Each box comes with 1 autograph or relic card along with one silver box topper pack. Boxes currently are running $130.

Speaking of that silver pack, I sometimes save that for last as I like the shiny, but this time, I said, let's rip it first.

The pack sits atop Mt. Topps.

Here are my results,

Not much to be excited about for me. A rookie pitcher and a few named guys. That's usually how my breaks go.

BASE:

The base set still has the popular white border along with some action photography. I will say this years design has me thinking Bowman baseball. I will be curious what that will look like in comparison.

The base set features only Wander Franco. At least that what it sounds like from most collectors. Maybe they don't realize there are another 329 cards as well.

There are Topps Gold Cups subsets

Rookies...duh

Future Stars

League Leaders

Team Cards

More team cards

And some fun photography. It's not Stadium Club level photography, but not too shabby.

PARALLELS:

Overall, you can find the following parallels,

Premiere Party, Rainbow Foil, Royal Blue, Gold /2022, Green Foil /499, Advanced Stats /300, Orange Foil /299, Red Foil /199, Vintage Stock /99, Independence Day /76, Black /71, Mother’s Day Hot Pink /50, Father’s Day Powder Blue /50, Memorial Day Camo /25, Platinum 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1.

Rainbow Foil falls 1:10 packs. Still one of my favorite parallels.

Golds are getting tougher to find with maybe one-per-box finds.

And final parallel, Orange Foil /299. This card is certainly Purty.

*takes a sip before moving onto the inserts. starting to think of a good breakfast to eat as well*

INSERTS:

You can find the following parallels in many of the inserts,

Blue, Black /299, Gold /75, Red /10, Platinum 1/1, and Wood 1/1.

I will say for the first time in many years, I really liked the look of this years inserts.

Generation Now has 30 cards to collect and features a nice rainbow foil touch.

The Home Run Challenge cards are back again! Pick the day, get it right, win a card! There are 30 players in this set.

50 cards with a mix of legends and veterans make up Welcome To The Show.

15 Cards of the Flashiest Feet in the game. I like the design of these, however, I can't wait for the chromed version. At least I hope it's included in that product.

And when it's not 86 Topps, it's 87 we see time and time again. The 35th anniversary set features 100 cards.

How great looking is this card?! Nice die cut, touch of rainbow foil. Beautiful!!  25 Cards make up the Diamond Greats Die Cuts.

HITS:

9 times out of 10, your hit in a box will be a relic. Well...

At least its game used and the best player I have pulled out of my many years of breaks.

There are plenty of other great hits though to find, I just don't have the luck to find them. Maybe you will!

*takes a sip before ending today's post*

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Well, the price point like every box now-a-days is steep. These used to be more like $70 for a hobby box. I always love getting Series 1 every year to get the new rookies and Yankees, but I usually stick to retail which is what I will probably just stick to.

As much as I can't stand the repetitive '87 Topps, I do really like that McGwire relic. If only they had used the original photo for it.

Thoughts on my break and on Series 1 welcomed in comments.

Have a great Tuesday.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Trade With The Diamond King

*takes a sip, finally getting to sit down for today's post after a busy morning which included getting my booster Pfizer vaccine. Time to find some breakfast as well*

Packages and PWE's have been flowing into the mail box like never before the last week or so. Not only has this led to some excitement, but has also put me in a tough spot when it comes to blogging them. I just hate making people wait for a thank you.

So most of those mail days I tweeted out, so hopefully you follow me on Twitter to have seen those. I think a good portion of my mail days will be posted that way. However, ones I get from fellow bloggers, I still plan to post this way.

*takes a sip, then shakes arm to get muscle loose from the shot*

My most recent blogger trade, I haven't done a lot of them this year, is from The Diamond King who had posted his best Griffey's including one he had for trade.

But, before we get to that card, our trade expanded a bit more and he included some awesome 90's inserts I didn't have (this is only a small portion of them)

Sp Matchups

Ultra The Book On

New Horizon Hideki Irabu

Upper Deck National Pride (how great does this look with the light box)

*takes a break for a minute to shake the arm again*

Playoff Illusions Spectralusion of Shannon Sharpe

Ultra Notables

*takes another break and arm shake. puts his left arm out, puts his left arm in, puts his left arm out, and shakes it all about....then goes back to typing*

On top of those great 90s inserts, then there was this beauty.

Wayne Gallman Triple Rookie Relic autograph from Absolute football. Even though he is in Atlant

a now, I still collect him.

And finally, the big piece.

  

2000 Skybox Dominion Eye On October Plus Parallel. The base version of this fell 1:24 packs while the tougher to find Plus parallel fell 1:240 packs. There is also a much rarer level with the Warp Tek parallel that's numbered.

Big thanks to The Diamond King on the trade.

*takes a sip, shakes the arm again, and gets ready to finish up today's post before moving onto more stuff to do today*

I know I have more mail days on the way from trades I just made, I also have some mail I have to send out which will lead to even more mail days. I am definitely not complaining about the situation, I just don't see myself sitting down to post them all like the old days.

What have you gotten in the mail box recently?

Have a great Tuesday.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Unleashed

*takes a sip, maybe two,maybe more. It was one of those long nights of no sleep. Coffee is on the agenda, but aren't cards. So let's do some #CardsOverCoffee shall we?*

Every year, I find myself indulging in one newer set that catches my attention. I don't collect as many newer cards as I do 90's, but there usually one set that stands out to me. In 2019, it was Optic Base set(which I still need to finish the last 8 cards to). Last year it was the 2020 Donruss Holiday Sweater Sets (still need 4 duals to master set it all) and this year, I felt a bit Unleashed by Donruss.

Now before you go into complaining about Panini baseball cards, I still stand firm by them. They have some great value and some nice looking cards and guaranteed if they had a license, you would be seeking out more than Topps. At least for a few of the products.

*takes a sip, well, two, okay I lied, a few more*

I have always liked Donruss since Panini revived the brand. Not so much the base and the endless name variations, but the attractive inserts. Those are the big draw.

Donruss is full of shiny/numbered inserts that grab you in like a good book. But, none, NONE of the inserts caught me more than this years Unleashed.

Unleashed features a unique design featuring players from the top of the food chain. Since I can't ever seem to pull a Downtown or Kaboom that features unique art look, these are the closest to cool I can get.

The checklist for Unleashed features 26 cards and also a wide variety of parallels, Diamond, Pink Fireworks, Rapture, Vector, Silver /349, Blue /249, Red /149, Gold /99, Green /25, and Black 1/1. There is still plenty to be unleashed. However, I am just happy collecting what I can of them. I don't see any rainbow chases in the foreseeable future nor can I even tell the difference in most of the cards.

  

Here are all of the ones I have found so far.

I hope to add to this as time goes on with any cards I don't have and will seek out small trades to do so.

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

My chase came early on this year for a product as its usually a later season product that catches my attention. That's okay, maybe this year I will find more than one to chase. Not that I need anything else to pile on.

Let me know your thoughts on these in comments or if you have any I don't, let me know. I have plenty of trade bait available.

*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*