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*

I Needed It (Topps)Now!

It's a dull, rainy Saturday so there isn't much to do other than drink my coffee and watch my lawn continue to grow and needing to be mowed so might as well put up a new blog post then, right?

Yup.

*takes a sip*

There has been a lot going on this year so far, both good and bad, but one of the things that stood out so far for me was being able to view the Total Solar Eclipse with my family. It will forever be a treasured moment for as long as I can remember it.

When the day comes where I don't remember it, I had to make sure to have a way to spark that memory again.

Which led to me adding this Topps Now card.

Which will help spark that memory and the buildup, excitement and smiles that it brought.

I know for the most part a lot of people think Topps pumping out Topps Now cards like this one are lame, I read the comments when they announced this one, but I like them and think they are capturing big-fun moments whether that be on the field or in the world.

I say, keep 'em coming. The odder, the better.

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

I hope your Saturday is dryer than mine and hopefully you will be able to mow your lawn.

In comments, would like to see your thoughts on the Topps Now cards that don't focus particularly on baseball or baseball player itself. Like recently when they celebrated the Mets Hot Dog sales or the Racoon showing up at a soccer game.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

The Coffee Card Hall Of Fame Returns!

*coffee is hot and ready and I am ready for a new #CardsOverCoffee*

Hall Of Fame. It's where the best of the best go.

And that's where cards voted by you guys two years ago went into, well except for one of those I just traded away. That won't happen again I promise.

After a year off, I decided to bring back The Coffee Card Hall Of Fame and hopefully this time there will be more nominees and more interaction with this.

With a little cheating by copying the previous post about this, here's the deal and here is what I need from you guys, the readers.

I have created a box where I will be storing my Coffee Card Hall Of Fame collection. In this box, every year from here on out until I can't brew anymore coffee, I will be placing FIVE cards a year voted on by you to go into the Coffee Card Hall Of Fame. However, I will need some card nominees all year for you to vote on. This is where you guys come into play again. Every post on CARDS OVER COFFEE after today until the December 1st end date, you can nominate a card or cards from any post-including box breaks-in comments of that post you think should be in the Hall for the 2024 year. These will be the nominees.

Those cards will be POSTED HERE all year long. Remember, this is a Hall Of Fame nomination. Not every card has to be a patch, autograph or low numbered, but Hall worthy. I will close nominations on December 1st and will let you guys begin the voting process (how I will do this will be determined later on) on which five cards you would choose to make it into the Hall. The cards with the most votes, get in.

Today, I will be kicking off the nominations with a card to get this started.

  

How can the Topps Now Topanga rookie card not be included in the Hall Of Fame?

 

I acquired this card in a trade with Shane from Cheap Wax Wednesday. Some day, some day I tell you, I will end up her autograph version of this card since I was a big fan of Boy Meets World. Which by the way if you are shopping for my early birthday gift my birthday is in March ;)

I hope this sounds like a lot of fun for you guys and hopefully there will be more interaction for it this year.

Thanks again to Shane for kicking this off.

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

I am curious on your guy's thoughts about this and my first nominated card in comments today.

Hope everyone has a great Monday. Fill your mugs up with joy today.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Owed

*sits down, takes a sip. looks at a couple of cards nearby to post about, gets to typing*

I have had a hard time keeping up with mail days, send backs and blog posting. Life has been crazy busy and the little time that I have had has been spent working on my Beckett articles or putting cards away that have been on my downstairs floor for the past year.

So, I must apologize to those that have been waiting for their mail days to be posted or a return mail day from me.

I promise you, Brent, Oren, Dennis, Rick, Bryan, Tim, a new guy that I just traded with and a few others that you should be getting something by months end. I just need to sit down and pack them up.

I have set aside some time today for that and some blogging. Let's see if I can get caught up on some of that and some of these mail day posts.

*takes a sip*

Today's post contains two cards of the same player, but from two different brands and two different RAK's I received last week.

The player is Victor Webanyama, who was selected first overall in the 2023 NBA Draft by the San Antonio Spurs and was known widely as a "can't miss" prospect. When I hear words like that, I have to have a card of him for my rookie card collection.

But, with my funds the way they are, I knew I couldn't afford to buy one or even try to pull one from packs so I sought out to trade for a card of him with zero luck.


Fortunately, this hobby is full of wonderful people and I had two sent to me.

@manof_sports pulled a few of the Allen and Ginter base cards of Wemby and offered to send one my way. I happily took it.

Then there was this Wemby, that was already on my want list for multiple reasons (Yankees fan, cool photo, rookie) so crossing off a want on top of a want was great.

 

This card was sent by the great people @MashingDingers.

I can now cross this card off the want list.

Thanks again to @MashingDingers and @manof_sports for the mail days.

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

I am not sure how Wemby's season will go or how he will pan out. Will he have a career like Zion who was also a can't miss prospect or will he be a superstar? Hard to know right now. All I know is that I have a couple cards of him and that they have a happy place in my collection.

Hope everyone has a great Wednesday.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Before I go completely out, make sure you join in on my blog bat around and spread the word on it. It's the easiest one you can do!

See it here if you missed it:

Blog Bat Around: The Post Without Words (let the picture(s) speak)

*now Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Mittens

*first post of February on Cards Over Coffee. Bitter cold day, it may be a multiple cup kinda day*

Some collectors chase cards of Hall Of Famers.

Some collectors chase cards of their favorite players.

Some collectors chase cards of certain serial numbering.

Some collectors chase cards of an old man wearing mittens.

This is where I am at with collecting in 2021.

I am having more fun than ever when it comes to collecting and simply collecting cards that I like simply because I like them. Not because someone told me I need to like them. Not because it's a hot player. Not because I can take a certain player to flip.

Just because it's fun.

*takes a sip of coffee, feels a little warmer*

On January 20th, 2021 marked a day in history but probably not the one you are thinking about. It marked the day millions of memes of an older man sitting in a chair with mittens was created. That day marked an internet sensation.

VT Senator Bernie Sanders was the man styling in the meme while wearing a Burton winter coat and mittens created by a VT school teacher out of recycled wool while sitting snugged at the 59th Presidential Inauguration. That one image caught fire overnight and was not only used for many memes, but was also used to raise a ton of money from his internet fame. Sanders created a line of merchandise from stickers to sweatshirts with the image and they all sold out within 30 minutes and raised 1.8 Million for charity which he used for multiple charities in VT. Great gesture by the senator who probably never in his wildest dreams imagined him trying to stay warm would have turned into so much.

The popular image was also used on a Topps Now Inauguration series card and broke some records there as well with that card selling over 90,000 copies. CRAZY!!

There was something fun about wanting to own a copy of that card from the internet sensation-home state-guy that I needed. So I went to Twitter looking for a copy which is my turn-to when I am card hunting.

I posted for three straight days that I wanted a copy, I also want a copy of the J-Lo and Lady Gaga card for my non sport PC, and was looking to trade for one without any responses. I had basically given up and was just going to make it appear on my want list on the blog hoping for help from there.

 

That's when I saw @Sportscardnati1 tweet out that he had grabbed a few copies and I replied to his tweet mentioning how I was looking for one. He responded to that via messaging on Twitter seeking my address. I didn't expect that response but I was more than happy to oblige.

Just a few short days later,

That popular image was in my mail box because of a Random Act Of Kindness.

The back of the cards is pretty cool as well with the embedded Topps holograms. Guess it's used so there are no fakes made.

Thanks to @Sportscardnati1 for the card. If you are a fan of Sport Card Podcasts, go give his a listen to in Sports Card Nation Podcast that has new podcasts weekly. One of the best ones out there.

*takes another sip, starts to think about what would be good to go with this coffee today. I have bagels and turnovers to choose from*

With these cold temps I have found myself using my mittens more this week especially to run errands like pumping gas.

Wonder if I can make my mittens popular. Maybe hold a cup of coffee, pump gas and sing and have someone video or take a picture of me doing so. Well, my singing wouldn't make me popular, it would make you run. However William Hung made a living by his singing.....would I be next...

Odds are though, I will need to work on something more catchy to be Bernie popular.