The MATTen Curse

If you have any knowledge of video games at all or have heard of the Madden NFL game, you have heard there is something called the "Madden Curse." This is when a cover athlete on the game will get hurt the season they are on the cover of the game.

I have come to realize I have my own version of this curse when it comes to buying cards.

This summer after looking how crazy card values have gone, I told myself, why not grab some cheap parallels of good quarterbacks while they are affordable that way if they go up I can "flip" them by trading them for something of higher value. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Then the season started.

CAM WARD:

I thought to myself, well, here's a guy that is with a quarterback guru in Brian Daboll. He may not be a good head coach, but he can coach a quarterback.

So far the Titans are 0-3, he lost to my Giants yesterday by throwing a terrible interception (I celebrated) and hasn't thrown for more than 200 yards at all this year. Really rough start.

JAYDEN DANIELS:

I thought to myself, Washington has some good weapons around him now for him to throw to. He might get his rookie year self back.

He had an okay start, then he went and disloated his elbow and his out again with that injury.

Oooof.

DRAKE MAYE:

He had a superb sophomore year leading the Patriots to the Super Bowl and was MVP runner up. You then give him a still dominant AJ Brown and it's looking like another great year.

Maye has been nothing but disappointing so far and that AJ Brown connection, well, that hasn't been there since he has been hurt. Maye continues to just turn the ball over and the Patriots right now are far from the team they were last year.

BO NIX:

Bo was looking to play well off from his injury last year that kept him out of the AFC Championship. He still has the brilliant Sean Payton as head coach and an up and coming offensive coordinator in Davis Webb. They also added Jaylen Waddle. Things were looking up.

 

The Broncos did pull out a big win last night and the offense seemed to had come to life in that second half, but, it's been a tough start I think for Nix up to that point. Maybe last night's big win over the Super Bowl favorite Rams will lead to bigger things.

And finally....

JAXSON DART:

This one makes me the most sad. I picked up a ton of his cards for my Giants season, not for any other purpose other than PC, but I was hoping he would be the man especially with a new coaching staff and new weapons.

 

He played amazing in Week 1 protecting himself from concussion, then Week 2 came and he got nailed by the Rams and tore his meniscus for season ending surgery. 

The pain. The heartbreak.

If you don't call this a curse from all of these guys, I don't know what you call it.

I need coffee.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Not Going To "Wine" Over These

 Has it really been almost a month since my last post?

Apparently so.

Life has just been busy with sports, "life stuff" and college that I haven't really had the time to come on here and do my thang.

 

But through all of that, one thing has remained, my coffee has been hot.

*takes a sip, burns tongue, then proceeds to take another sip. glutton for punishment in the best way*

A couple days ago, my mother-in-law showed up out of the blue. I think the winds were blowing her broom here, just kidding.

Or am I?

Anyways, I opened the door like I always do and she comes in carrying an assortment of random items like she usually does. Not to get fully into detail since that's not what you came here for, think of it as someone who yard sales for stuff you don't need or want most of the time.

 

Except this time she also came carrying in these two wine boxes that she placed on the table. She looks over at me and goes, "these are for you."

Knowing that I don't drink, I assumed there was something better than wine in these boxes.

 

And I was right!

Both boxes were full to the tilt of baseball cards from what appeared a variety of years. I didn't really have a lot of time to dig through the treasure so I took a quick handful to give myself an idea what I may be looking at.

My concern was that it was going to be full of 1991 Fleer or 1988 Topps. Two of the worst sets in history to me and ones she always seemed to find for me.

However, these boxes weren't that. They me be something I won't "wine" about.

Here is a quick glance and I will let you be the judge,

This is as far as I got with the boxes so far. She told me she spent $10 a piece on them. I assume she got her monies worth but until I have time to do more investigation into that, I cannot say for sure.

I do know for me, it will be worth it. Just being able to look at these few cards was worth the weight in money so far. I am curious what else lies within and she told me the place she bought them from had another seven. If these turn out good, maybe I will have to talk her into getting more.

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

*coffee has cooled off some*

*another sip*

This is one of the weirdest things I have ever received cards in but seems like a good box to store them in. Very sturdy.

What's one of the weirdest things you have received cards in?

It was great being able to drop a new post and a quick hello. Hope everyone is doing great, hopefully another new post soon.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

When The Wrong Choice Goes Right

 Remember when I said I bought a box of cards on my way back from my vacation? 

Well, my choice was the wrong one.

Sitting on the shelf among other boxes of 2025 football cards, I saw a box of Phoenix and without even looking at it, assumed it was 2025 and walked out a happy guy.

That's until I hit the car and realized I had bought a 2024. Ugh.

Yeah, I could land another Nabers rookie, but it wasn't what I was hoping for. I wanted to pull some Dart or even a Hakeem Nicks to go with my rainbow. Speaking of which, the updates on my chase for 84 will be found on my NY Giants blog, Big Blue Cardboard. Check it out if you haven't yet and go give it a follow!

Now back to the box (one of which I mistakenly deleted the box picture of).

Even though I was disappointed to have grabbed the wrong box, I still was excited just to open something again.

Each blaster box comes with 6 packs of 4 cards each, so 24 cards for $35. No guarantees in the box besides three parallels and a chance at an autograph or case hit.

I kicked it off pulling a new Giants card in the very first pack. I thought maybe that was the kickoff to something good.

DeVonta Smith,first of three parallels. I assume this is a Purple parallel. It's Unnumbered. This should have counted as a Giants card since the Eagles jumped ahead of the Giants in the draft that year to snag him.

 

JJ McCarthy rookie. I think he will be spending more time on the bench with Kyler there now.

My second parallel was of Travis Kelce who recently spent more time in the news about who he married over his sports season.

Here was a nice find. Rookie Rising parallel of Caleb Williams.

Then to top that off, a second dosing of Caleb Williams. This time a base card rookie parallel. Both are heading to my rookie card PC.

New Giants card. Two nice Caleb Williams pulls. I will call this blaster a win. One of the very few times a wrong choice goes right.

Let me know your favorite pull from my box below in comments.

I hope everyone has a coffee-filled Tuesday.

*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*

Coffee Break:2025 Mosaic Football Holiday Box

I was trying to think of another post to do instead of this one today, but with the NFL Playoffs going on and it being the last of my Christmas stuff to post, I said, let's just do it.

So, here we are.

*takes a sip of freshly brewed coffee*

*takes another sip, begins to rip*

 

2025 Mosaic Holiday is a new addition to the Panini lineup. I think they are just creating products at this point to make all of the money they can before their final important license is lost.

Every box comes with one pack of ten cards and costs just under $12. In those ten cards you get one "candy cane" parallel and the box itself has an embedded ornament. Those two things are really the only difference between the product and regular Mosaic.

Here was my embedded ornament,

Chase. Not a bad one to get out of the six.

Now onto the pack rip. Which I only picked out the key cards from the pack to show off.

My first Russ in a Giants uniform card.

This guy played really well to end the season, could be a guy to watch next season.

Plain and boring insert. This isn't the 90's anymore.

And the Candy Cane parallel. These are pretty nice. I wished it had been a better player, but at least the card looks cool. I have actually a few of these since.

That was about all the excitement you get from these. The other cards were all base. No other parallels or inserts.

Other than the Candy Cane parallel, pretty boring/lame product.

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

I have finally finished up my posts for the 2025 Christmas season. Now it will finally be time to move onto this year.

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Coffee Break:2025 Mosaic Football Blaster Box #1

It is time!

I am beginning my show off of retail wax that I got in the 9-card lot of autograph Daniel Jones cards I traded away. If you missed that, here is the ARTICLE.

I thought I would start out with the football blasters first.

Without further ado, let's start to rip and take a sip with these highlights,

Dillion Gabriel rookie card. He started off okay as the Browns starter, now he is riding the pine for the other Browns rookie with a bigger last name and background.

The next three rookies are base card variations. But, before you get too excited, they are actually worth less than the base rookies. I don't know why.

Cam Ward is an okay football player on a really bad team. I am kind of glad now the Giants got who they got in Jaxson Dart.

Judkins has shown flashes this season. Could be a big part of the Browns next season.

And Ashton Jeanty. This guy was real fly in college, than he came to the Raiders where all NFL players hopes and dreams die.

Next up, insert pulls. The inserts in Mosaic unless they are parallels are really dull like the base.

Not bad names on the insert pulls, it's just that they aren't worth much and are kind of lame.

Let's hope the parallel pulls are better.

No relation to my main PC guy, but Omarion has had a great start to the season when he is healthy on the field. Solid find here with the green parallel.

Kyle Williams rookie insert parallel.

Kareem Hunt "Mosaic" parallel.

New to blasters this year, the Fluorescent Orange parallel. Kind of cool and not a bad player to find either. This parallel falls one-per-blaster this year.

And finally,

 

Mean Joe Greene green parallel. Say that five times fast without coffee in your mouth.

Nothing to really too exciting in box one. No Giants for my PC. No autograph finds. No case hits. Not really any player PC finds either like Mahomes. I would say the Hampton was the find of the box then Jefferson.

Let me know if you agree in comments.

Tomorrow I will post the other box break of Mosaic, let's hope it outdoes box one.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

BEFORE I CLOSE OUT, DON'T FORGET TO VOTE FOR YOU FAVORITE BLOGGERS AND TRADING CARD PRODUCTS IN NACHO GRANDES END OF THE YEAR AWARDS.

DETAILS ON THIS LINK:

https://fanofreds.blogspot.com/2025/11/tcdb-monday-turkey-day-approaches.html

Which by the way, I did not vote for myself in any category. I want this to be a real vote. It's no fun if I do it myself. I want to hear what the readers think.

The Great Card Cleanse Of 2025 Part 2: The Goods

I know a lot of you have been waiting to see what I turned all of those base cards into.

Well, today is your lucky day and I have my lucky cup of coffee next to me waiting to be sipped.

*takes a sip*

I know most of you will be shocked by my return as it's not really anything spectacular, but to me it was. Yes, it was seventy-five thousand plus cards and even at a penny a card I should have gotten something nice, but who do you know would take on that amount of base without blinking an eye or being fussy about what they took? Not too many I know of, actually I don't know of anyone else. Not to mention I freed up so much space and boxes that I can use for future projects that actually matter to me.

So, I still think in the end I am the winner here.

Let's take a look at my haul and yes, I miscounted, there were fourteen I got in return, not twelve.

WanDale Robinson Playoff Contenders Optic rookie. He started off the year hot, but, this Giants offense is all over the place.

Malik Nabers still is the best player on the Giants, we just have to get the ball into his hands.

This might help. The Giants are 0-3, coach is desperate, so let's turn to his rookie QB who he hopes can not only be the savior of this team, but the savior of his job.

I now have two of these, just because I guess. I still need a Caitlin Clark.

Cam has moved up to one of my favorite players on the team. He gives me Jeremy Shockey vibes.

Tyler Nubin has made some plays this year, hopefully this defense, especially the secondary, can turn things around tomorrow.

Everyone who has followed me on social media or on this blog know that I have chased the Donruss Rookie Sweater sets every year. 2024 is the one I am struggling with the most, I have a mile to go still but fortunately this was a new one.

I never turn down a LT card, especially a team color matching parallel.

Not sure where my father was hiding some Eli, but I will take them. I still need to check if I have them.

Darius Slayton has fallen off the Giants good graces so far this year, he hasn't been getting the ball in his hands. He is an underrated speedster if someone can get him the ball. Come on Dart!

 

And for some reason, I felt I needed this in the trade. Not sure if Howard will ever play, but I figured it gave me something to sit on for awhile. Maybe use it later on for something I want more. If any Steelers fans are interested, I will trade this for a Dart version!

There you have it. 

I know, probably about $20 in return value, but, these cards make me happy and that's all that matters. Don't judge me. Only judge me for drinking decaf coffee, but it's better than none!

I still have more base cards to dispose of and hopefully can pull off a second trade for those and clean up more space soon. I have also begun pulling out some of the hits, autograph and jersey cards, I will be downsizing as well and I have made a huge dent in that as well.

My collecting ways are changing and changing for the better. Make sure to stay tuned for future updates on this project. Much, much more to come.

Have a Super Saturday.

*takes a final sip*

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*