The Three Blog Mailings

With so much to catch up on, I have been using nighttime to get some blogging done and trying to keep pace with what I have to get posted. The only problem with this is that I am using the little bit of free time I have to do this. Which means blogging is taking place of sorting cards or playing a game of Madden.

As I get caught up, I will have to find a better balance so I can enjoy all three downtime things.

But here I am until then.

When I took a couple months off in the fall, which by the way was a nice refresher, I struggled with getting mail days which led to no content to post about and led to thoughts of retirement from blogging. 

Things started to change in December as my mailbox found quite a few mainly from bloggers, former bloggers and possible future bloggers. 

Like Crocodile Sports Cards who I won a football prize pack from his contest. 

The box was loaded with vintage (like actual vintage in the 70's, 90's is not vintage), 90's, and even cards from today. A mix of teams, players, rookies and a few stars.

Some examples to follow,

(absolutely adore this card)

Thanks Croc!

Then there was a very generous mail day from The Diamond King that arrived pretty fast despite how slow the mail was around the holidays,

A Trout for my player PC

Shiny!

Then came the eye candy of an Shohei Ohtani rookie! Pretty stoked to add this one.

Thanks DK!

And finally, Johnny's Trading Spot saw my comment on one of his recent posts

 

About this Keenan McCardell and how I didn't have it for my set chase. Guess what, the always generous guy sent it my way. Now I can cross this one off! With this addition, I now have 36 of the 120 or so autographs. I am not sure I will ever be able to tackle the big boys but would be fun to try and get close. Here is my list of needs if you are curious or have some help for me:1995 Pro Line Autographs

Thanks as always Johnny!

This is just the beginning of the fun mail days I have to share.

Hope everyone has a fantastic Friday! I have basketball practice tonight to prep for our first game tomorrow so I know I will have a great one...and busy one.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Don't forget you can start to nominate cards for the 2025 Coffee Card Hall Of Fame!! Cards don't have to be autographs, patch cards, super star cards. It can be whatever you think is Hall Worthy! Find details and current nominations HERE.

A Few Of My Favorite Things

*coffee smells good, cards are ready, laptop is fired up, it's time for some Cards Over Coffee*

19 DAY TIL CHRISTMAS

I have posted a variety of my Christmas cards so far, but I haven't really posted a lot of Topps Holiday baseball which is the main chunk of my collection.

Most of it is base, but I do have some of the short prints which are the cooler cards from the product other than the Santa hat swatches. At least in my opinion.

So, I thought I would show off a few of my favorite things...well cards.

*takes a sip*

*read the following to the tune of My Favorite Things*

Santa sack on Cavan.

Francisco with presents.

Ohtani is gifting.

Altuve is swinging.

and Soto with trees and these are a few of my favorite things.

When the Topps Sp come. I collect them. I will binder them. Because they are a few of my favorite things.

*end tune*

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

I do have other Sp's but most are pretty similar to the above ones.

I will say between all of them that my favorite is the Soto. It may take some extra creativity to beat that one in my eyes.

I hope everyone has a Wonderful Wednesday. We are one step closer to the weekend and to Christmas.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Coffee Break:2022 Topps Chrome Hobby Box

*takes a sip, gets ready to rip some newer Topps product. takes another sip. let's get on this*

It's Tuesday! Why is Tuesday exciting, well, I get to open my favorite Topps product since 1996. I haven't missed a year yet of opening at least a pack of Topps Chrome. I like Chrome so much that it has even become a household name. I can use Chrome in my jokes, I can use the word Chrome and everyone in the family will look at me. Chrome is a thing. I am a Chromie (groupie with Chrome love).

Today I am ripping the 2022 baseball edition so let's see how it goes!

*takes a sip, gets box in position*

Every hobby box of 2022 Topps Chrome baseball comes with 24 packs of 4 cards. Each box has 2 autographs, plenty of parallels and runs about $205 a box.

BASE:

The Topps Chrome base set is simple, chrome up the Flagship product. There are 220 cards in the base set including veterans and

Rookies.

I chase the Chrome base card sets, but the ones from the 90's. Not the newer ones as the prices are a tad high.

PARALLELS

As I said earlier, there are plenty of parallels.

Here are this year's options
Refractor, X-Fractor, Sepia, Pink, Prism, Negative, Magenta /399, Magenta Speckle /350, Purple Speckle /299, Purple /250, Aqua /199, Aqua Lava /199, Blue /150, Green /99, Green Wave /99, Blue Wave /75, Gold /50, Gold Wave /50, Orange /25, Orange Wave /25, Red /5, Red Wave /5, SuperFractor 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1.

Base refractors fall 1:3 packs. And yes, that is two of the same.

Prisms are 1:6 packs, not to bad on the Cruz pull!

Purple /299

Sepia

Hmmm two Fraziers, start of a rainbow?

Club Plaques fall 1:24 packs and there are 25 cards to collect.

New Classics falls 1:12 packs, love this design, and there are 15 cards to collect. I lucked with the two players I landed, except does anyone even care about Wander anymore?

There are 15 cards in the Future Stars set.

There are 20 cards to collect in the Topps 1987 set. YES MORE OF THESE STINKIN' THINGS!! These fall 1:6 packs.

Heart Of The City falls 1:16 packs and probably is my favorite design in years for Chrome. I want this set. Have any? Contact me for a pwe trade at sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com.

HITS:

Well, unless you like the Astros, there isn't much to brag about with my pulls. This is usually how my Topps Chrome breaks go.

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

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

As always, I am a Chrome fan. It was fun to open and see what I can find for refractors. However, I wouldn't pay the price of a hobby box this year. Really steep for what you get. I mean, yeah, there are huge possibilities, but this box wasn't it.

I also normally suggest retail as an option when hobby is unattainable prices, but this year retail shot up in price as well. It is $35 a blaster box and I have seen lots of them just sitting on shelves locally. Nobody wants it which is both good and bad.

Hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

Ratings (ratings based on 1-5 🍵 and on a per box basis. not for overall product)

Design 🍵🍵🍵
Photography 🍵🍵🍵
Inserts: 🍵🍵🍵🍵
Hits 🍵
Price 🍵
Value 🍵

Your thoughts on this product welcomed in comments!

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*