Some That Stood Out

A few months have passed since I got my big box mail day from reader Grady M, Box Ol' Grady, and I have yet to share any of my fun finds from the many mini boxes.

As I have said before, there isn't even enough cups of coffee in the world to share everything he sends. But, a cup today will be good enough to share a few eye keepers.

*coffee is hot and ready to go*

Let's start with these stand out Judges. They may be some of my favorite Judge cards I now have.

Topps Chrome All-Etch refractor.

2024 Topps Chrome 1989

Panini Crusade

Then these two hockey cards from 2023-24 Upper Deck Allure really stood out.

And upon research on these, I guess each player can build a colorful rainbow combination of different colors. For example, the Lafreniere also has a card the same color as the player above once you get to that part of the rainbow by laying the cards side by side.

Wonder if I should choose one of these players and build off from them.

Finally, I love nothing more than a creative flashback to the 90's, 2024 Stadium Club Triumvirates.

I was pretty stoked to have found these.

They look great!!

I considered trying to finish building both three-part team cards, but I think my time would be better spent getting the Yankees team one and the Ken Griffey Jr one.

So, if any of you have any of those cards available, hit me up for trade at sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com.

Thanks again to Grady for another great mail day. I can't wait to dig for treasure next time.

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

I am still working on taking care of the cards from this mail day so if I come across anything else I think should be shared, it will be.

Thanks again for reading and have a great day.

*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.

It's About The Firsts

When I read Night Owl Cards blog post When the firsts were mostly fun, I thought what a fun Blog Bat Around subject that the article would make.

I am not sure if that was his intention, but I have seen a couple bloggers now use it, so I said why not join in as well and have a cup of coffee while I am at it.

*takes a sip*

The point of the post was mentioning some firsts both in hobby and in life. We will avoid some "firsts" topics on this blog however ;) 

Nobody wants to read about that. I promise you.

*takes another sip*

For my post on this, I copied Greg's layout but will have to tweak a few parts as my version of some of his topics didn't quite match. You will see this as you read on.

And that begins with the First Blaster. 

 

I don't remember what my first blaster was, but I do remember my first hobby box which was a box of 1997 Pinnacle Inscriptions football back in 1997. A brand-new box of it came in and my father reserved it at the gas station for us. If you are questioning why I said gas station, it's probably because you haven't read any of my stories in the past, our gas station was like a hobby shop with tons of boxes/packs in the 90's.

This product was a lot of fun with trying to chase down the acetate Inscriptions Autographs. It was also an expensive one, so even though we reserved the full hobby box, we could only grab a couple "packs", like the one pictured, at a time.

First what I considered old card in my collection 

 

was the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr rookie. This iconic card was my first older card and that's not even close to being the type of older cards I expect to see others post about.

I would call myself the "young" blogger, but I certainly don't feel it.

First parallel I knew was one of the first packs I opened. This one cover two topics.

1994 Topps Football Special Effects. These were very eye pleasing.

First baseball cards I purchased through mail-order . 

 

I never ordered any cards through any mail in offer. I did order these 1992 Kellogg's PVC Darkwing Duck figures though.

First sitcom I saw was....probably..

Home Improvement. I watched soooooooo many sitcoms in the 90's it's really hard to narrow them down to which one I watched first, I do know Home Improvement was definitely up there and was the most watched one.

First "big kid" book I read

Was this. Absolute classic. It was followed up with a couple "sequels", but they weren't as good as the original.

First cartoon that freaked me out, none did I grew up watching horror movies. Instead, my first favorite voice actor that followed my entire childhood.

Everyone should know this legend, Jim Cummings.

First article I wrote as a professional writer.....

Do I consider myself a professional writer, no. But I got to write for a professional magazine and had my first article published in it. Something I will never forget.

First championship I experienced for a favorite team

 

I saw plenty of NY Yankee championships, none of those really hit home as much as the NY Giants beating the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 42. I wasn't a football fan when the Giants won their first two Super Bowls so instead, I got to watch a lot of misery and a blowout Super Bowl loss to the Ravens. Winning this one against one my most despised teams that was undefeated at the time gave me a thrill like no other.

And I guess we can't finish this up without discussing my first cup of coffee. I don't have a date on that, I just know it was with my mother playing the game of war with playing cards sometime in the 90's.

There you have it, a lot of firsts.

Thanks to Night Owl Cards for the idea.

I could have gone on with more posts and more firsts, but I just wanted to keep it related to his theme to fit the Blog Bat Around. Maybe I will do a spinoff or sequel to this someday. For now, I will need a sequel to this cup of coffee.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

She Did It Again

Well, my birthday has come and gone and all that remains is the new aches and pains, a few crumbs of cake and a few cards.

I already shared what Oren had gifted me and now I will share my only other card gift which came from my mother-in-law.

And she did it again. She bought me the wrong kind of cards.

*takes a sip of freshly brewed joe*

You are probably wondering, "there is a wrong kind of cards?" and yes for me there is. 

 

She went and bought more junk that I cannot use for my collection. On top of that, the cards were in awful condition and appeared that half had been soaked in water (the box dripped a little after opening)

At first glance I am sure you are thinking there has to be something in there, right? Maybe unearth one of those gems that others find from Goodwill? Nope. There weren't any surprises in here and it was really hard just to find a few highlights to post below that interest me.

The only rookie.

A couple cereal cards.

A well-loved Ruben Sierra Provision.

Probably the coolest find of the entire lot, tempered steel insert.

This one wasn't in ruff condition

90's insert, always welcome those.

See above card

 

See last two cards, however these are in rough shape.

1995 Fleer needs more love, give it more love.

 

Two Pacific game board cards? I have no idea what these are but haven't seen them before. Can't go wrong with the two players. 

Just wished the cards had been in better shape.

4  

To finish up the finds, here is me trying to mull over what to do with the mostly ruined cards.

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

I know I should be grateful, which I am. She did think of me on my birthday. As always, I told her thanks and mentioned there were a few cards that really stood out to me. I just didn't have the heart to tell the truth. As Colonel Jessup would say, "she can't handle the truth!"

However, I can't say all things were bad when it comes to gifts from her as she had a second surprise for me that day. It wasn't cards but was very interesting.

I guess that just means you will have to come back and read the next post now.

See you then.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Layered Part 2

Coffee is ready, cards are ready, keyboard is ready, so I guess I am ready.

Let's tackle Part 2 of my mail day from Jon from  A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts.

Now that I tackled all of the non-sport end of the mail day, let's check out some sports cards that were hidden in the layers.

 

I have a copy of this Ken Griffey Jr, but this one is out of the package so it will fit in my box of Griffey cards. Sadly, the voice part doesn't work, still cool though and love the photo.

 

I thought this card was super cool. It's made of really thick plastic like a backboard would be.

I think someone knows of my love for 90's Knicks basketball and my PC player of Allan Houston. This starting five was where my passion for basketball came from.

I always thought these had a fun design. I try to forget he played anywhere else but NY.

Upper Deck was always creative, they once even joined forces with Lego to create a Lego character and card to go with it.

I can't wait to add these to TCDB to see if I have them or not. After you reach a certain point in any collection you tend to forget what you have and what you don't. That's why spreadsheets and TCDB are so important.

Rivalries. Knicks, Heat, those were the liveliest of games in the 90's.

And the biggest surprise of the box was this card,

 

Andre Williams Tools Of The Trade rookie. What I love about these cards is the variety of relics and where they come from on the players uniform. They can be pants, jersey, gloves, etc. They were some of the best Panini relics. I am not sure I have this one or not, will have to check TCDB, either way I keep all relics and try to see how many of each I can add. 

That does it for Part 2. Still more to come from this mail day.

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.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Decaf Drip

Good morning again Coffee Card enthusiasts!!

Today I am showing off some cards and some coffee.

As many of you know by now, I am strictly a decaf person due to health issues involving caffeine. So, I had to eliminate all caffeine from my diet about 6 years ago.

The hard thing was finding a good coffee tasting decaf as most tasted like water. I only drink coffee and water, but I kind of want the two to taste separately.

So, on Twitter/X, I recently discovered a new coffee company I hadn't heard of before that strictly focuses on making decaf coffee. It's the first I have heard of as most who make decaf make caffeinated as well.

Their company name is Decaf Drip.

They take out all of the caffeine but leave the good stuff.  The actual coffee.

Which sounded good to me, so I got a bag.

Which also had a card on top of it as I pulled it out of the package. Literal, Cards Over Coffee.

That card was a 1993-94 Upper Deck John Stockton. I grew up a Knicks fan, but I really liked watching Stockton and Malone on the Jazz. You had the Mail Man delivering while having the mail being dished into his truck by Stockton. Maybe that's why the USPS has gone downhill, they don't have employees like this anymore.

Before I keep going on that and get off topic, let's talk coffee instead.

I opened up the bag and put my allotted amount in the filter. It smelled like heaven and I felt like I was floating.

And I didn't hesitate with a taste before I added some cream, it was a pretty good tasting brew.

I would definitely-easily add it to my Top 5 decaf coffees to drink. This one however is even better because Decaf Drip doesn't use chemicals to remove the caffeine from the beans which doesn't add anymore stuff to my body that I don't need.

So, if this looks/sounds good to you, I can SAVE YOU 10% off your next order from Decaf Drip.

With code COFFEECARDS

Order here,

https://decafdripcoffee.com/?sca_ref=6902678.wWYCdws7HKUdPij

And don't forget the code!

Also, while you are there on their website ordering or just checking it out, read about what benefits decaf can do for you and what you are actually drinking when you drink caffeinated coffee. Lots of useful information on there.

In the meantime, I am going to enjoy this delicious cup of brew and hope you will too.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Cards From Pops: Box 3

Coffee and cards. Could anyone ask for more?

*takes a sip*

Another day, another round of coffee and a card box I have dug through from a two-round lot trade with my father.

Let's see how this round went. This time there aren't as many photos as the box lacked a lot of, well, interesting cards.

But there were some that stood out more than others.

There were these 1976 Topps hockey Helmet and Stick Decals. These were pretty unique finds and not anything I have seen before. Roughly ten or so were discovered in the box.

Random autograph of Dustin McGowan.

Always liked these Cel win Predictor cards. I never once actually entered a predictor card.

Troy Aikman Greatest Hits insert /2500. These were randomly inserted in packs.

Then some more of those die-cut NASCAR die-cut window cards like I found in the first box,

(this Jeff Gordon was  really cool one)

 

I can't find a lot of information on these such as odds and how big the set is.

And then a bunch of shiny Upper Deck Championship Reflections,

(hold up three fingers as you scroll by)

I am not sure how many are in this set, but it appears I am well on my way to chase it. If any of you know, let me know.

There are two more boxes to show off still in this trade and definitely some fun stuff to reveal. I am though saving the best box for last and why wouldn't I??

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

Before I close, I also wanted to remind you of the Coffee Card Hall Of Fame voting and that it needs you guys to nominate cards in.

Details on the Coffee Card Hall Of Fame can be found HERE. I may add this to every post from here on out for a reminder as I will forget about this too! Haha!

Have a great Friday Night and be safe. Don't drink alcohol and make bad decisions, drink coffee and make bad decisions.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*