Eating A Bowl Of Apple Jakes

*takes a sip. sits down to a bowl of cereal...yup you read it right. not a bagel. takes a bite of raisin bran, gets the ole bowels working, takes a sip and gets ready for a card about cereal*

I have seen a lot of cards in my lifetime. Many I wished I owned and some I do. Then there are others I haven't ever seen or discovered yet which is why I read card blogs and follow certain social media accounts knowing one of the days they will post something that would interest me.

When my buddy @90sNicheFBCard tweeted out a Brett Favre card that resembled a Frosted Flakes cereal box, I had to inquire what it was since I hadn't ever seen one.

Come to find out, it was a 2000 Pacific Prism Fortified With Stars and that it was a 10-card insert set that fell 1 in 97 packs.

I NNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEDED ONE!!

*takes a sip before moving on with the post*

The insert line featured a variety of cereals olays off from a player's name. There is Peerless Price Krispies, Tyrone Wheatleys, and Frosted PlaxicO's to name a few. All matched their specific cereal boxes.

*speaking of cereal, need to finish my bowl before I do more on this post. I LOATHE soggy cereal. It's like eating a banana with a brown spot on it. ripe banana and crunchy cereal only!*

*takes the final bite. moves on with post*

I wanted them all, but didn't have the funds, so I chose the cheapest one I could find at less than $4.

Apple Jakes! Featuring Jake "The Snake" Plummer.

Players facts and Try Them All!

Great looking insert and fun play on words. Right up my alley! Just ask my wife how many jokes I make about using play on words in songs, magazine articles, etc.

Thanks for the heads up on these Bryan. Now I must have the set!!!! The rest of you can go and hunt down Prizm while I chase these. Or even some guy named Tom Brady that came out of the base set, leave these inserts for me.

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

They sure don't make cards like they used to. Whether those were mid to late 90's inserts or the ones from the early 2000s like today. Creativity has gone down the drain and cards are just being pumped out to sell regardless of how they look because they know most will buy and not care as long as they can make money.

That's not me.

If any of you have these available for trade, hit me up at sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com. Always up for a good pwe trade and I have plenty of stamps right now.

*thinks the raisin bran is working so needs to end the post*

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

The Griffey-Coaster Ride

*takes a sip, may had snuck a couple bites of chocolate chip cookies during that sip. Looks over at the stack of cards next to me and it's now time for some Cards Over Coffee*

This past Saturday, my childhood best friend Brian came over to my house for the first time since moving back here. Between working 55 hours a week and the unpacking still, he hasn't had time to stop by. But, he finally had the chance to squeeze some time in for me and took a good portion of this past Saturday off to do so.

Not only had it been years since he lived here, but it has also been over 20 years since we last played sports against each other. Let me tell you what, it was just as much fun as it once was.

*takes a sip before continues on*

Back in the day, 80's and 90's, Brian and I would spend 6am until 9pm outside. We would wake up, grab a few Mountain Dews, a bag of beef jerky and his boombox and we were rocking. Some days it was football (a lot in the winter), other days it was basketball and summer days were mainly spent playing baseball. It was 1 on 1, 9 innings of pure fun.

When he arrived Saturday, I made sure we would bring back some of those memories...now in a much older time. Gone was the boombox (didn't want the loud music for my in-laws) and the Mountain Dew (I can't have caffeine), and baseball but I came in with the fun with..... Wiffle Ball.

*takes another sip, starts to think about some form of breakfast today...probably not beef jerky*

Ah yes, Wiffle ball. The game with a plastic ball that has holes in it that makes the ball curve all wacky. It's not baseball, but just as if not more fun...when you are older.

So I set up a field,

(cones serve as foul poles and a homerun line. Also own a backstop for a strikezone)

(my wife's glove and ball on the pitchers mound)

(bat and home plate ready to go)

 

(I am not that tall, though some may see me this way at 6ft 2in)

And we played.

The game that was over 20 years in the making went to extra innings with myself coming out victorious. It was a ton of fun, but after throwing all of those pitches, my arm is still feeling it. Hello heat, Icy Hot and Salonpas and of course not all at the same time.

I realized after giving up a lot of hits that I  may not have the arm I once had (back when I pretended to be Randy Johnson), but my offense was still rolling. It may have helped that I still attempted my best right-handed Ken Griffey Jr swing. Though it is near impossible to mock either right or left handed for anyone. Ken Griffey Jr was da man as they say.

*takes another sip, then another, well finishes the cup. Gets up and quickly gets a second cup brewed and returns to sitting to continue on with today's post*

Ken Griffey Jr's swing was only apart of the reason I followed him and his career. He was also an incredible Centerfielder and an icon for baseball. He was a player I quickly jumped on collecting as well.

However, over the years, even though I haven't really ever quit collecting, I have been on and off with Griffey. It's sort of been a rollercoaster ride with my collecting of him. In the 90's, my friends and others knew me as the Griffey guy as my collection grew to 300 different cards back then. But, as the 2000's hit, I dropped Griffey some especially after he had multiple injuries and put my focus on football. Since then, I will trade/add some, then take a long break only to add some more later on.

I would be safe to say though, about 95% of my Griffey adds now are thanks to my friend Shane of Cheap Wax Wednesday fame.

Which is where today's nice stack of Griffey's came from.

I may note that these are only a few of my adds from Shane as I focused on the best for today, there were a lot more that aren't featured here. I will save those for another time and will have to do a recount on my collection to see how far past 1,000 different cards I am now.

With my rollercoaster collecting of Griffey, I have found a big key to my new adds. I mainly focus on cards that are either numbered, relics and autographs or anything eye appealing. You know, the shiny stuff. With well over 16,000 cards out there for Griffey and with it being a rollercoaster PC, I feel I have the right to be fussy. It's not like I am really Super Collecting him and need every card like I do with Rodney Hampton.

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

Before closing, I just wanted to thank Shane again for the trade that helped me add the above Griffey's and any future trades when I ride that rollercoaster of needing to add more.

My friend Brian before he left said he would be back in a couple weeks for another round of Wiffle Ball, maybe some football and a game of Madden.

 

Until then, I will enjoy my cup of coffee, overlook the field and hopefully rest my arm up for next time. Maybe even get out there and practice my Griffey swings again.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Mom

*sits down with cup of coffee in hand. There is nothing better than some afternoon sunshine and some coffee. It's time for Cards Over Coffee*

It's Mother's Day. A day for all of the mom's out there to be celebrated for bringing us into this world and putting up with us. That's the best way to put it.

My mother never really had to do much "putting up" with me. I was always the good kid. I got my homework done with solid grades, I respected my parents, elders and teachers. I always did my chores when asked. But, that didn't mean I didn't have my downfalls occasionally. I said I was a good kid, not a perfect one. So when those moments came, my mother was the disciplinary one in the household and to put it easy, when you were disciplined as a 80's and 90's child, you didn't get a timeout chair to think about what you did as you knew what you did. By remembering what you did, you also remember the dire consequences so you wouldn't do it again. It also gave you more respect/discipline for those of higher authority something I think we lack in today's society.

But, it's not just the disciplinary moments I remember about growing up with my mother. I remember getting up early on school mornings and sitting with her at the kitchen table having coffee, no surprise there, and playing the card game of war before I had to get ready for school. Then when I came home from school, she waited to watch a couple of cartoons with me before she would make supper and I would go outside and play. I also remember when I asked my father for money for the school book fairs and being turned down, she would slip me a $5 just so I could get the latest Goosebumps.

What I remember most though, was the hobby she despised but came around to later on.

*takes a sip, wishes he was playing war while doing so*

When my father and I first go into card collecting, my mother accepted it. But, as the 90's rolled on, it started to get to her. The stacks of cards, the money being spent, the Becketts on the kitchen table, the non stop discussions between my father and I of products and players was really eating at her. It got to her so much, that she basically forbid us to collect and add anymore cards into the house. (picture a dictator ruling over your household)

What she didn't realize was that the hobby was like a Lay's potato chip, once you have one, you can't stop.

So my father and I had to become creative. Card shows and LCS visits "became" visits with my grandmother. Packs of cards to open were snuck in all forms of clothing though wearing a winter coat in the summer didn't last too long. Discussions about cards became notes back and forth, we didn't have texting then. We found a way to keep collecting though occasionally we were caught and sometimes even frisked for cards after she found some empty wrappers in my father's pocket once after washing it. Oooops.

This went on for many years until we finally found a way out. That way out came in the form of a Dallas Cowboys running back named Emmitt Smith.

*takes a sip, well two honestly. Starts typing up a text while also trying to move on with today's post*

As most know, I am a HUGE (emphasis on this word like Donald Trump would say it) New York Giants fan like my father. What I haven't mentioned was how big of a Dallas Cowboys fan my mother was which made for some interesting Sunday and Monday night games.

One day, I mistakenly left some Dallas Cowboy cards out on the kitchen table and on top of the stack was an Emmitt Smith, my mother's favorite Cowboy. I am not sure if it was fate, but whatever it was that day changed our card collecting future when my mother found them on the table.

*continues the text, takes a sip, comes back to typing*

That one Emmitt Smith card got my mother interested in collecting to a certain extent and it opened up our doors some as well as long as we gave her the occasional Emmitt for a "hobby payment" for our collecting.

We had her all set up with a binder, pages, penny sleeves and top loaders and she took care of her Emmitt's and still has a few to this day actually. But, most are long gone after many moves and moments of needing money.

So when I see an Emmitt Smith card, my memory is refreshed from that time. Especially when I see one around Mothers Day.

In my huge Christmas mailing from my buddy Wes, he included a solid stack of the Hall Of Fame running back that took me back and that I had to share with you guys today.

Many of these bring me back, though I don't think she owned any of these.

Maybe I should send her a "Mother's Day Card".

*takes a sip before finishing up today's post and finally finished typing up my text to send my mother for Mother's Day*

I hope all of you have a memory with your mother and collecting. Just hopefully not the one where she threw out your cards. Those are more nightmares than memories.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms reading this today and to all of the mom's of the readers. If you have any collecting memories with your mother, would love to read it below.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*