Chasing The Gold Medal

 

Mikaela Shiffrin is not only a Gold Medal winning machine, but she is also a local hero.

She wasn't technically born and raised here, but she went to school and ski school within thirty minutes of where I live.

Which is a quick background on why I collect her.

She is by far the biggest known athlete/celebrity here.

So anytime I find her cards and find them affordable, I grab them.

One of the newest chases I did for fun is chase some of the 2026 Topps Chrome Winter Olympics cards. I knew going into this pursuit that I wouldn't be able to land a full rainbow with the cost of her cards, but I thought it would be fun just to make a run of what I could.

Here is what I have added so far or as I call it, chasing the gold medal (though I did get the gold refractor)

• Base
• Refractor
• Red, White & Blue Refractor (Value Exclusive)
• Pink Refractor /250
• Aqua Refractor /199
• Blue Refractor /150
• Green Refractor /99
• USA Flag Refractor /76
• Purple Refractor /75
• Gold Refractor /50
• Orange Refractor /25
• Black Refractor /10
• Red Refractor /5
• Superfractor /1

 

(this is my favorite refractor from the chase, USA-USA-USA)

 

 

And there you have it. I should have taken a group picture because nothing is better than a group picture of shiny things.

I would love to add any of the remaining ones, but that is very doubtful. But, it's been fun just chasing these down and that Topps Now I opened up this post with from her latest Chasing The Gold Medal add to her ever so growing collection of them.

I will need to update my TCDB soon even though I am a long ways from first. Here is what I have so far, SHIFFIN COLLECTION.

Let me know in comments if there are any Gold Medalists that you collect? Do you collect Shiffrin? have any cards of hers I don't? Check my collection above.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday night.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

It Was A Fun Ride

Good Morning Coffee Card Enthusiasts!

*takes a sip*

The weekend has come and gone again and so hasn't my basketball season.

We did pull out the win, but the last girl didn't make her shot which was disappointing. Her teammates tried, us coaches tried and the girl tried multiple shots. The ball just wouldn't fall in.

But, overall, it was a pretty successful season as a head coach. We finished 5-2. We had 9 out of 10 girls make a basket. Every girl on the team bonded. Every girl grew tremendously by seasons end. I am proud of this team and everything we accomplished together as a family. That's what I built our culture on.

So much a family that I got us all matching shirts. Remember that post about a month ago where I traded off the Ohtani Topps rookie and a few other cards, well, this is what I did with it. I got them custom shirts with jersey number, name and same front logo as myself. They just showed up last week which is good timing as they arrived in time for our end of the year celebration on Wednesday.

I can't wait to give them away, but I am also really sad that it's all come to an end. I have seen these girls since November so it's been something I have gotten used to and will be weird/sad not having to spend hours writing up practice notes, drawing up plays and practice drills and posting on the team website every other day.

Next year I plan on coaching again and will be coaching 5th/6th grade and will hopefully have some of the girls I had this year return.

It was a fun ride.

*takes a sad sip with a small tear in the eye*

Another fun ride for me has been collecting Mikaela Shiffrin who is in this year's Winter Olympics and was someone who trained skiing only about twenty to thirty minutes from my house which is super cool. She is also very talented and even though I am not watching the Olympics, I am loudly cheering her on from a distance.

 

My latest add was the Metalized Subset Dots Parallel from Skybox Metal Universe which is numbered to 199.

I need to add this to my TCDB collection at some point. I believe I am still third or fourth place when it comes to collecting her. She was included in the recent 2026 Topps Chrome Winter Olympics product so maybe I will try to add some from that product as well.

I hope everyone has a great rest of your Monday. Some Monday's are better than others, I am currently doing school work while I am typing this so you know how mine is going.

*takes a final sip*

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

5 Things I Did In The Hobby Last Week

Good Morning Coffee Card Friends!

*takes a sip*

Welcome to the very first 5 Things I Did In The Hobby Last Week of the New Year!

Before I move onto that, I wanted to share a couple updates.

 

It appears that 2025 wasn't the year for Cards Over Coffee for Favorite Blog contests. No surprise that the awesome Night Owl Cards took home the trophy again, but, Cards Over Coffee wasn't in the Top 3 like last year. I guess it gives me something to strive for in 2026.

Thanks to those of you who voted for Cards Over Coffee..if you did.

We won our second game, so two for two so far. Still five more games left to the season. We had a double digit lead in this one then things started to slip but we held on. Need to definitely work on some defense.

Here we go onto my five things.

1.As always, I did a lot more social media posts across my planet of them. I started doing Rodney Hampton, Eli Manning updates along with small mail day posts on there since it's much faster to send out a social media message than putting up a big blog post.

If you want to catch up on stuff you missed out on, here is a list of all of my social media channels:Cards Over Coffee YouTube Channel is for cards:

Cards Over Coffee - YouTube

Matt's World Of Fun YouTube Channel is for everything else:
Matt's World Of Fun! - YouTube

On top of this, I have two Facebook accounts, Cards Over Coffee and Sport Card Collectors,

Twitter/X: Coffee Card Guy

Instagram account: Coffee Card Guy

Bluesky as Cards Over Coffee

There you have that. Now go check me out on those!

2.I spent some of my eBay gift card and got some steals!

$3 for a set need and tough to find 90's insert, yes please.

 

Also, a new Mikaela Shiffrin parallel card for $3 or less. I will take that.

3.I made some changes to the blog. I got rid of some tabs, added my trade numbers for the year (so far 0) along with incoming and outgoing card numbers that I hope to keep updated. I have always been curious by these numbers.

4. I cleaned up my card area! I will share a picture at some point, it may look like a mess to you still, but for me, I know where stuff is now.

5.I sorted one stack of cards. It's not much in the scheme of things, but with limited time, I have tried my best!

And there you have it. Five things I did in the hobby last week.

I hope to keep this series going when I have time to post on it.

*takes this posts final sip*

Have a Super Saturday and in comments, tell me five things you did in the hobby last week or make a comment on mine.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

If You're Not First, You're Last

Coffee is ready, I have a donut, some cards and I am ready for a new post on Cards Over Coffee.

*takes a sip*

Currently I sit in 4th place on TCDB when it comes to collecting Mikaela Shiffrin.

When I look at that number, one thing comes to mind, "if you're not first, you're last" which is a phrase I have used throughout my life and believe in. Because there is simply wins and losses. There are no in-betweens. There are no participation trophies in life, sports or cards.

Thinking this way doesn't make me upset or offend me or "trigger" me, it drives me. I thrive for a challenge and want to win. So that's what I plan to do.

Because right now I am last and the only way to go now, is up.

Which is why I recently added four new Shiffrin cards to my collection. All come from the Upper Deck Goodwin Champions product.

And even with these four new adds, I still reside in 4th place. I am now only one behind third place though, but still twenty plus from first. With some motivation from being last, I can already picture myself in first. I will get there even if it takes some time.

Because if you're not first, you're last.

*takes final sip*

If any bloggers or readers have any for trade I don't have, check out my COLLECTION HERE and just let me know via email at sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com!

Have a great Thursday!

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*