The Wes 30 Part 1

Coffee is hot and so aren't the cards I am showing off today, so let's get to a new Cards Over Coffee shall we?

Every Christmas since I have known him, Wes formally of Jaybarkerfan/Area 40 blog, sends a box of explosives at Christmas time. Well, not real explosives, just mind blowing, jaw dropping cards or as he usually calls it, bombs.

So, don't show up to my house FBI if you are reading the word bomb here, you won't find bombs, you will find a man in his underwear with a pile of cardboard at a table on his laptop sipping coffee. Okay, maybe not the underwear part, I just wanted to make sure you were reading.

*takes a sip*

Wes always sends so much cardboard that I usually don't post it all, not that I don't appreciate it all, but it's way tooooooooooo much to post.

So, instead, I am splitting it up. There will be some NY Giants posts on Big Blue Cardboard featuring some 1/1 Rodney Hampton love along with a few other players, and on here, I am doing a countdown of my favorite Top 30 cards. Which that alone wasn't easy, I could have done many 1A, 1B and 1C kind of cards, but I just stuck with the 30 the best I could.

Let's kick it off with 30-16.

#30 1997 Score Complete Player Brett Favre. 90's insert with some shine is always a win.

#29 Santa Claus under center. This card has been on my want list a long time.

 

#28 Aaron Judge and Anthony Volpe Platinum parallels. I couldn't put one ahead of the other.

27.1998 Presss Pass Kick-Off Die Cut. 

26.1998 Topps Gunslingers Steve Young. Look at this beauty!

25. 1994 Upper Deck Holojam Reggie Miller. Despite my hatred of the player, holograms are always winners. Give me all of them!

24.1993 Pro Set College Connections Drew Bledsoe/Mark Rypien. The original Cracked Ice.

23. A new card towards my set, as I said earlier, holograms are always winners.

22. 2020 Panini Stickers Blue Foil Patrick Mahomes /299. Love me some Mahomies! I still side PC him.

21. 1998 Stadium Club Chrome Refractor Steve Young. They sure don't even make these like they used to.

20. 2017 Leaf Patch Auto of TY Jones. Not any player I have ever heard of, but it's a nice swatch and autograph.

19. 2014 Panini Country Music Tom Gossin

18. 2014 Panini Country Music Barry Knox. I don't know what it is, but I just like this product. Both 18 and 19 have no meaning to me other than that. Wonder how far I am along with the autograph set if I was to look since I have quite a few from this product. Hmmm...

17. 2019 Topps Allen And Ginter Autograph mini Burton Rocks. Sports attorney, agent and writer. Sounds like the career I would want other than being a coffee inspector.

 

16. 2018 Topps Star Wars Galactic Files Reborn Barion Raner Autograph. I am not familiar with this character from Star Wars, but a Star Wars auto is a Star Wars auto and it's a new one to my collection.

And that's it for this round. I will continue my countdown with cards 15-1 next time and it will be quite an ending, so I hope you have your coffee hot and ready for that one.

Til next time!

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Getting Ready For The Holidays

*takes a sip on this dark dreary rainy day. At least it hasn't really snowed yet...though this is the time of year I enjoy it when it leads up to Christmas.*

Is it just me or does it feel this year Christmas has arrived earlier than usual. Black Friday sales all month, Christmas candy out at the end of October and gift giving commercials on in the middle of October. I love Christmas and all, but, even that's a little extreme for me.

Then of course there are holiday related cards. I haven't seen any Topps Holiday out in the wild, but last week I did find myself in front of a fresh case of 2021 Donruss football holiday I couldn't stay away from. Not because it's Christmas related, but because I haven't found any Donruss or NFL football cards on the shelves in months.

So I was able to grab one as that's all my budget allowed, though I wanted so many more.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

Each blaster box of 2021 Donruss Holiday cards comes with 88 cards. There is also one Holiday Rookie Sweater card and one holiday Optic Preview card. 

Outside of the Holiday Sweater Relic and the Holiday Optic Preview card, the product layout is the same as regular Donruss.

 

I do wished they had holiday spiced it up some. Add some snowflakes, make the base set red and green borders, anything. Make this a separate product.

Same goes with the inserts.

I would have preferred some holiday themed ones.

How about,

Lighting It Up-cards with Christmas lights as a backdrop

Holiday Special-Red and Green Cracked ice cards

Christmas Vacation-Cards featuring players at the Pro Bowl with Christmas Tree borders

Something among those lines. If you are going to call it Donruss holiday, make it that way.

At least they do have the following two holiday themed cards to find within.

Optic Preview Holiday Parallel. These look great.

 

Holiday Rookie Sweaters. The only disappointing part about these, they are the same design as last year. I was hoping for a new look especially after completing the set last year.

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

This was still a fun rip, but would be more fun if Panini took my advice on this. I like what Topps does with it's holiday product even though they could use some holiday themed inserts as well but they at least do a nice job with the base cards which separates them from the flagship products.

Let me know your thoughts on this product and if you agree that these holiday products should be a separate product from the regular version of it. Would also appreciate what insert names you would come up with.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Remember 2019?

 

*takes a sip of coffee reminiscing about the good times*

I decided to take a trip back in time in my mind when the world was normal. Remember a time when you could go visit family on holidays? Take a trip to the beach? Go to an eating establishment with friends or family? Going to a Dr's appointment without needing a Dr's appointment to get in? Get together with 10 or more people? Go grocery shopping? Find retail sport cards at the store?

Yeah, I do to. 

Even though that was simply only a year ago, a lot of those things you don't realize how much they actually meant until they were taken away. Even those family get togethers with that one annoying aunt or uncle who discussed politics at the table.

As this year has gone on and holidays are approaching, I am realizing more and more how much those things meant, even the simple things of running to a grocery store, to my cycle of life. It's like taking sunlight away from a plant and expecting it to grow with just water and a seed.

At least I have a distraction in blogging and card sorting to get me by. Even though most parts of the hobby this year haven't been the same either.

*takes a sip of coffee trying to perk myself up. See what I did there, tried to use a coffee synonym joke to help with my feelings of 2020.*

One of my last Walmart runs in September, I actually stumbled on a few packs of retail at the store. It 

wasn't the newest product by any stretch but it was product so I grabbed a couple of packs just to have something to break. I actually felt like a champion that day just for finding any retail packs.

The packs were 2019 Score football fat packs.

I stored one of the packs away, it's still sealed, for a later date just in case I get another retail itch to open since I am no longer going to Walmart until Covid goes away (all three Walmart within an hour of me are in "hot" Covid zones). In the meantime, I did rip one of the packs and thought I would show off my finds today.

*takes a sip, already ripped*

2019 Score came with a 330 card veteran base set that has some great photography such as this A.J. Green.

The base set was also topped off with 110 rookies pictured in their College Uni's to make it a 440 base card set. One of Panini's bigger base set products. Could actually be the biggest knowing most of their base sets run 100 cards. 

My rookies from this pack were not too strong. CJ Conrad was at least Giants PC material even though he didn't make the team but I will keep it.

Each Fat Pack comes with red parallels as well,

T.J. McDonald was my first

Followed by Saquon Barkley. I really miss him making plays like this. Can't wait until he is on the field next year.

And no rest of the pack which was made up of a variety of inserts. Sorry for the early no hit spoiler but I am sure most of you have already scrolled by my rambling just to see the pictures anyways.

*takes a gulp and back to the inserts*

NFL Draft  has 30 cards to collect. I landed the speedster Hollywood Brown

Captains has the team leaders, such as Cam Newton that I haven't adjusted to seeing in a Patriots uniform yet, that has 30 cards to collect as well.

Fantasy Stars...well I have had Rodgers as my QB many times in Fantasy and he never scored much for me. It's too bad I didn't have him this year however as my QB's have been less than par especially when you start out with Carson Wentz and now have Taysum Hill. There are 20 of these to collect.

Epix, an Epix fail compared to what we saw in the 90's but it's still nice to see an attempt to bring it back. Also finding any Patrick Mahomes in your pack is a pack saver. There are 30 cards split up into three 10 card sets. Similar to the 90's. There is Game, Moment and Season and each of the 10 players has a card in each set. I have all three of Saquon Barkley.

All Hands team are those great catches that happened the previous year from guys who have gloves of steel. There are 10 of these to collect.

Signal Callers are the QB's leaders in this 30 card set. The two I pulled are QB's on different teams. Jameis is with the Saints and Darnold is with the bench/injured reserve most of the time.

And finally, Throwbacks. 20 card set to collect. The Darnold is a red parallel if you look really closely.

And that's it. Not a bad pack considering I landed a few PC cards and most were known names in football.

*takes a sip to finish up this cup and post. Definitely need more coffee to drown the sorrows of 2020 out*

2020 has taught me many lessons both big and small. Other than the one about how much those things meant to my cycle of life in the example I gave above, I also learned even more how much things I already have in my life on a daily basis are even more important to me now.

Me And MAHOM(i)Es

*sits down to his already second cup of coffee of the early morning. Looks over his shoulder at the breakfast offerings and is intrigued on which ones to pick...what will the decision be?*

As the days of September roll on, the cooler weather has started coming in. This means foliage, football and the taste of fall to have with my coffee.

My wife and I were stuck in line at the grocery store just waiting to get to checkout, that's when we noticed a nearby display of some tantalizing treats.

Everyone knows that every grocery store is as evil as the Amityville house. They purposely know that you haven't had lunch, they put their best baked goods up front and purposely have their cashiers go slower than squeezing honey out of a bottle to make you stare, drool, and be tempted to grab those items. Which works pretty much every time.

(insert evil store laugh, let's say a Tim Curry one)

And on that day, it targeted us and knew we hadn't eaten lunch yet and were waiting what felt like years in line. If you haven't also noticed, a lot of these evil grocery stores will stick the 80 year old cashier on while the 20 year old bags the groceries. Why not switch that around? Well, the baked goods wouldn't end up in your cart that way....and that's what a variety of donuts did that day.

(another evil store laugh, this time insert Jack Nicholson with the Joker laugh)

*takes another sip of coffee, begins to open up one of the packages of donuts*

The taste of fall offering is what we grabbed that day.

This is a Pumpkin with cream cheese frosting

 

This is an Apple Cider one with caramel topping

And there were plain versions to both as well with Pumpkin Spice and Apple Cider. Which after trying a couple made me feel, well, the donuts explain it the best.

*decides on a plain pumpkin to go with this cup of coffee, grabs one and closes the lid. Even though I could eat a few, gotta limit my intake right now with a few health issues lingering*

In the hobby, just like at the grocery store, there are evils that lie beneath the surface. Some are obvious, some are not. Some are used to manipulate your mind into telling you that you need something when you most likely don't. You know, those donuts.

One of those evils took over me.

Something supernatural in 2019 made me want to start collecting some Patrick Mahomes cards. I don't know if it's because his cards were hot/popular, because he is likable, or is it because of the underlying money value. For whatever evil reason, I started a very small PC of him that I have been adding to.

A couple of months ago, I was looking to add a few cards of Patrick and found an unopened pack of 2017 Elite Draft listed on eBay. Instead of buying the Elite Draft rookie card outright for $25-$30, I decided instead to grab the pack for half that. Figured it was worth the shot if I could land it for cheaper and who doesn't like a fun rip. I also noticed that these packs usually sell for as much as the rookie card and that I had stumbled upon a deal at the time.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

In every 2017 Elite Draft fat pack you get 20 cards. Most packs go for $20+ but I landed this one for $16.  There is also one orange status die cut parallel per pack. My hope was at the very least land the base Mahomes rookie, but an autograph or the orange status die cut parallel would be amazing.

*takes a sip before sifting through cards*

There are 199 cards in the base set, for some reason there is no card 101, this is very paranormal, and features 100 veterans. My pack had 12 veteran base cards within.

The next 7 cards in my pack were rookies. With 99 rookies in the base set, landing the Mahomes wasn't going to be easy. And as I expected, it wasn't. Not much to brag about in this group....

But I did land one of the top rookies of that draft in Alvin Kamara. I would place him third behind Mahomes and Watson, so not going to complain.

 

My last hope was the orange die cut parallel for my Mahomes.....nope. Some QB named Kirk Cousins. Angelic designed one however.

It was a fun try in this pack. The Cousins looks nice and I did land a Kamara so not too much to complain about. Some of the pack will be PC adds, while the rest heads to trade bait which is a win in my books.

*takes another bite of doughnut, another sip or two or three of coffee and tries to sum up this post*

My Mahomes PC may be missing this Elite Draft rookie, but I did manage to add other rookie cards in trades,some I had and even discovered I had recently. Been adding some base, inserts and parallels when I can to. Something that started out on a whim has grown. It's just me and Mahom(i)es.

The doughnut PC however, has some HOLES now but I am still fulFILLED by it.

 I wished the grocery store was set up like it used to be in the 90's when they had packs of cards upfront by the register, that is something I could go for and no longer worry about their bakery evil goodness. Well, maybe.

*cup of coffee done, corny jokes have been had and this blogger is out*

*closes laptop*

It's That Time Of Year

*cup of coffee in hand, ready to blog*

The temperatures are starting to dip and the smell is in the air, fall is creeping upon us.

Fall is Pumpkin flavored everything, sweatshirts, foliage and most importantly, football.

Fall is simply football.

On a normal year, we are blessed to be able to watch some Preseason games around this time-yes I said blessed as I actually enjoy preseason-and right about now it would be winding down. However, it's 2020. There is no preseason and at this point we are hoping to make it through a regular season.

*takes a sip of coffee with fingers crossed hoping to see a full season of football*

Somewhere in-between the preseason and the regular season is what I consider Madden Season or Madden Holiday. It's when the yearly Madden NFL game releases. It's something I have celebrated on a yearly basis since 1996 but even dabbed into years before that.

This years edition releases tomorrow, unless you are rich and can order the special editions, which is a little later than past years but once again this is 2020. Just like every year, I have the game on preorder and expect a late Friday night playing the latest edition.

It's the one and only video game I play. So I wouldn't consider myself a big time gamer. I don't even play this game online or against anyone else, I play the game the way I have always played it in Franchise Mode against the "computer".

*takes another sip. The warm coffee soothes his soul*

I am sure many of you have read the post title and clicked the link expecting to see some cards, but not today. I do hope you read this at least, but if you skip over it, don't worry, as card posts will return next time.

For those of you still reading, I am going to break down how I play Madden every year.

1. First I choose my team, which is obvious but part of the step, which that team is always NY Giants of course
2. Then I fix the settings, the key ones I always adjust is playing on All-Madden level, I fill my own roster and I always make sure they're 5 minute quarters like I have always played. The 5 minute quarters are equal to 15 minutes in a real game in Madden time. I also make sure there is no accelerated clock. I want as much authentic game experience as I can get.
3. The next part is fixing the roster. I will trade off all high salaried players, any player that I consider old which is 29 or above and build a roster around younger player and rookies. This may not always translate to a great first season, but as rookies and younger players progress along with building other pieces in the offseason, by year 3 my team is usually making a run for the Super Bowl.
4. My defense is built on speed at linebackers, corners and safeties. Those are the positions I will pay the most and give the best draft picks up for.
5. My offense is built around the QB. You need a good QB in this game to get anywhere. Then I make sure to have WR's, TE's who have speed and can catch. Their overall doesn't matter to me for those positions. Running backs don't really play much of a role in my offense so I can use whatever the roster already has as long as they are fast and young. The oline has to have power and equal run/pass block skills protection.

Once this is all set up, I play. And I "play to win the game."

*another sip of coffee, checks the time to see if it's closer to Madden yet, not close enough so continues to blog. Since the new game isn't here to talk about, decides to talk about the previous game in the meantime*

Winning wasn't easy in the beginning of Madden 20, which will soon be known as the previous years game, or actually for me over the long haul of the game. Which is what I need. I like a good challenge that makes me use my noggin', so after restarting my first season a few times, I finally got my head on straight and started to win more.

By season 3, I was in the Super Bowl and walked away with the trophy. It took me another four seasons to win my second one. I played another three seasons without a Super Bowl before I decided it was time to start all over again and build a new Giants roster.

The newest roster led me to three Super Bowl wins in five seasons. I averaged thirteen wins a season in my final run of the game before I decided after winning my last Super Bowl, it was time to hang up my controller and wait for the newest Madden.

That final Super Bowl though, was one to remember,

NY Giants vs KC Chiefs

The game came down to the final quarter. I took up most of the quarter being down 10-6 and ate up time on my slow drive down the field. I managed to score a touchdown on a screen pass from Kyler Murray (yup I traded for him) to Saquon Barkley to take a 13-10 lead but knew my lead wasn't safe. In the final minute, Patrick Mahomes led his team all the way to my ten yard line. Luckily for me my defense, which was probably the best one I ever had in the game, stopped them at my two yard line on a 4th down play. The game wasn't over yet though. There was still 30 seconds left, they had two time outs and I needed to get out of my end zone so I wouldn't get a safety and give them two points and a chance. There was only one decision this coach had to make, hand the ball to my play maker, but make him run up the left side where the line is stronger. So that's what I did and it paid off with a 8 yard run getting me out of the end zone and where I ran the game clock out.

CHAMPS.

(dance breaks to Flashdance what a feeling)

Now onto the celebratory pictures. Yes, I document every Super Bowl win.

Patrick Mahomes looks on disappointed as the confetti falls

As my team celebrates midfield

I shake hands with their coach, that's no longer Andy Reid at this point in the game

Super Bowl MVP. This linebacker had 40 sacks and was the seasons MVP as well. I drafted him in the second round. Quite the player.

Kyler and Saquon celebrating

Me in the background while my players get all of the action with the trophy

Same.

It's not quite as good as your real team winning a Super Bowl, but ranks pretty high up there with how you feel when you take home the trophy.

*takes another sip of coffee before closing*

In roughly 31 hours, the newest edition of Madden should arrive at my doorstep and take some time away from my card hobby. But, you know what, sometimes a break from the card hobby isn't a bad thing. I have been seeing a lot of political/angry/fed up card collectors all across social media so a quick step away, especially right now, isn't a terrible thing.