All About The Photography

*computer is open, looks out the window above it and can see where the hard frost had left behind its white freeze on everything. Fall has officially fallen hard here. Nothing better to fight the chill off then a nice warm cup of coffee*

I am a little behind the 8-ball when it comes to posting the latest hottest products when they come out, but I have had somewhat success in acquiring them via retail.. All of my retail finds this year have come from trades with my father who will pick up extra packs when he can find them. He of course grabs a couple for himself as well.

 

As we all know, the Flipper Vultures lurk around every corner waiting to swoop in on any retail they can find and flip for three times its value. Gotta love them. And yes Sheldon Cooper, that is sarcasm.

*takes a sip, always glad to toss in a Big Bang Theory reference when applicable*

Today I will be breaking a "once upon a time" red hot product in Stadium Club baseball.  When this product came out it was all about hunting for Luis Robert for most. When I saw this product come out, it was all about the photography for me. Why else buy Stadium Club if you're not chasing the photography?

 

My father managed to find a couple value Packs of Stadium Club and traded one of them to me, while keeping the other for himself.

I wasn't expecting much out of the 12 cards, but was hoping for at least a good time and some great scenes of baseball.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

 

Each value pack of 2020 Stadium Club baseball comes with 12 cards. That's it. No guarantees within and each pack is $5.98. Unless you buy from a flipper which will cost you three times that.

*takes another sip before looking at the very small stack of cards from the opened pack*

Once again I will say it, let's be honest that we all buy Stadium Club for the base card photography and there is 300 cards of it to collect.

Mike Soroka immediately jumps out at me with the great photo angle. I know a lot complained about this years design, but I like it. The photography pops with the design.

 

I will say though that the name not having capitalization does bother me some and my OCD.

Next card is of Juan Soto who is having a heck of a year and showing that maybe he is the best young talent in baseball.

Next two cards are of Joey Votto (dig the throwback uni) and Yu Darvish

Jose Altuve, Giancarlo Stanton and Joey Gallo make up the next three cards in the pack

Then came the rookies. No there wasn't a Robert but I think I did well still.

Kyle Lewis is having a good time and so aren't collectors with his rookie cards as he came out of nowhere this season. Easily should be American League Rookie Of The Year.

Gavin Lux who I have been holding onto waiting for him to explode. This is a fun photo choice for his rookie in Stadium Club. Sometimes the non action photographs are more fun then the ones with it.

We are 11 cards down in the pack with one more to go which happens to be a 1:3 pull of a red foil parallel. These are not numbered.

I am not sure what Dale is thinking here, probably wondering why they used this photo for his 2020 Stadium Club card.

Other parallels you can find in Stadium Club are, Red Foil, Black Foil, Sepia Black & White, Blue Foil /50, Rainbow Foilboard /25, First Day Issue, Members Only, Photographer’s Proof, and Gold Rainbow Foil 1/1.

*takes another sip before recapping this pack rip. Also thinking about breakfast since I hadn't eaten since early afternoon as I got busy*

 

For about $6 pulling two good rookie cards, a red foil and some excellent base cards I can't go wrong with a rip like that. I wonder if I will find anymore in the wild as I wouldn't mind opening another one.

The Better Experience

*coffee grounds in my coffee this morning, 2020 summed up in one cup. Guess I will have to brew another. In the meantime, let's talk about a real nice surprise Clark. Sorry inner Christmas Vacation coming out. I will cut it out with the early morning cheesy jokes and get onto a seriously good mail day*

 

The jury is still out on Trading Card Database for me, but, I recently had a very positive moment from the site that may give me some light about giving the website a second chance.

On my Set Help post for 1995 Fleer Prospects, I had a comment from Trading Card Database member jimetal7212 who said he had a couple of the cards for my set chase and just to contact him with my address. I was both caught by surprise, excitement and questioning it since I didn't remember ever having any interactions with him.

 

 (Steve Walsh understood my feelings)

 

But, I gave him my info and he sent me two cards for that set and so much more.

 

(if these don't scream 90's not sure what does)

 

Jack Jackson and Rob Johnson were the cards I needed for the 1995 Fleer NFL Prospects set. This is a set I am ever so creeping towards and only am 4 cards away out of the 20.

*takes a sip, gets excited to show off the rest of the mail day*

Not only did he send those two, but also sent a bunch more set help,

1995 Ultra Achievement

 

 

  

 1995 Pinnacle

 

 

 1995 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion

 1995 Score Red Siege (I believe I am halfway there to this one)

 

1994 Fleer Pro Visions

 

I was blown away! Never had any interaction with this person but they took note of my bad experience on the TCDB website to make it better. Imagine if rest of the world did this in the hobby or in real life. What a world we could live in.

 

*drinking a fresh hot cup of coffee makes this post even better* 

 

That's the kind of experience I kept hearing others talk/blog about when it comes to using TCDB. It surely wasn't like my first time there. I guess it is like real life. You just have to meet the right people. Or even maybe like a cup of coffee. Sometimes there is some coffee with creamer and other cups with straight up cup grounds in it like my first experience.

With this moment that had me feeling like this I may go back again give the website another try to see if I can have other good experiences.

 

Maybe the more good people like jimetal7212 I meet, my circle can grow from there. Who knows, I think the most important thing is they've got to accept and take a chance on me and also realize I won't be posting any trade bait or doing collections. Like the meme that I see go around on Facebook all of the time, "Ain't nobody got time for that", I simply don't have the time to add in thousands of cards. I am a "what do you collect and let me see what I have type of trader" and do all of my cataloging on blogs which this one will be fully updated with soon.

Thank you again jimetal7212 for being a positive light in the darkness I felt on that website or in coffee terms, thanks for being the creamer and making my cup brighter.

*breakfast time with the next cup, coffee blogger out*

Monday Morning Cup: Pitt Of Despair

One mans love of NY blue comes to Cards Over Coffee as the season goes on. So it will be football, cards and coffee for this segment.

The new segment is called Monday Morning Cup and yes I know it's Tuesday, but the NY Giants first game of the season kicked off the new year of Monday Night Football. So we are having a Monday on a Tuesday. I am sure many of you have had those before.

*pours a cup of coffee, grabs a stack of Giants cards and takes some pictures. It's time to look back at last nights game*

This team had me very excited. All of the offseason talk about disciplinary coaching, Saquon being healthy, Daniel Jones muscle gain, offensive line upgrade, and the defense with some new additions all led me to believe this was a season of change. I had this team going 8-8 or 9-7 even with their tough schedule.

All of that build up for me who was pimped out in a Daniel Jones jersey for the game, then they actually played.

Last night the Giants fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers 26-16 in a game that brought The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The three headed monster and theme I plan on using for this segment throughout the season to break down each game.

*takes a sip of coffee, still sad from last night but will find some positives to talk about first*

THE GOOD:

The Giants used their franchise tag on Leonard Williams to a lot of disagreement from fans. But, he went out last night and looked the best he has yet for the Giants recording 4 tackles, 2 for loss and even a sack. It was great to see and something this team will need this year.

One of the bigger acquisitions for the Giants this offseason was tackling machine Blake Martinez, need a Giants card of him, who did not disappoint. He recorded 12 tackles and was all over the field. Something the Giants have lacked since they had Antonio Pierce.

Bradberry, the biggest of the offseason moves, recorded 5 tackles and defended 2 passes that would have led to big time plays. So far, so good for him.

Sterling Shepard stayed healthy and looked great making 6 catches for 47 yards. I hope this continues to be the trend for him this year.

Darius Slayton looking like the number one WR on the team with two TD receptions and over 100 yards. He is picking up where he left off last year and has a lot of chemistry with Daniel Jones.

*another sip of coffee before tackling the bad. At least this cup of coffee isn't bad*

THE BAD:

This one isn't all that bad for Daniel Jones because he did throw for 279 yards and 2 TD's against a solid Pittsburgh defense. It's the two interceptions he threw that puts him in the bad category. The first pick was an ugly in traffic throw,  but what really put him in this category was the second pick that came on a long 19 play drive. The Giants were Pittsburgh's 4 yard line when Jones rolled out and was hit with the ball flopping in the air and picked in the end zone that killed the game and ended all of the Giants momentum. He should have either taken the sack or threw it short to Saquon who was open for a few seconds. Not all his fault with how bad that oline was. The play was very reminiscent of one that Eli would have made though.

Not pictured, in the first quarter after a Pittsburgh punt return fumble, Daniel Jones was hit with what appeared was his arm going forward (it really wasn't) and fumbled the ball which was then recovered by the Giants for a Touchdown. This would have given them an early 7-0 lead. Instead, the call on the field was an incomplete pass and Coach Judge decided not to challenge it in which he would have most likely won the call. The Giants ended up settling for a field goal instead.

*holds back tears before summing up the ugliest part of the game, this will take a few sips to get through*

THE UGLY:

This has nothing to do with Saquon, this is all on the offensive line. When your star player rushes 15 times and only ends up with 6 yards, that's not good. That makes your team one sided on offense and that's how a defense wins games. The oline gave Saquon no holes to run though whatsoever. Sadly the leading rusher on the Giants was Jones who was running for his life a lot of times.

Evan Engram with so much potential but just can't quite get there. He dropped a wide open pass in the first quarter, got called on a Pass Interference in the second quarter, couldn't run block and ended up with only 2 catches for 9 yards. The two back up tight ends had more production then he did which makes you wonder if he is a prime trade candidate for the Gmen who could use Engram for other holes on the team.

Finally, let's talk some Dion Lewis. One, he had 7 seconds left to the first half and chose not to take the ball out on a kickoff. Secondly, Jason Garrett didn't use him. They saw the struggles with Saquon why not change the pace some and add Lewis in more? He had one carry for one yard. Even the Steelers put Conner on the bench and put in Benny Snell who had a big game after Conner was going nowhere. Not to mention he is one heck of a great receiver out of the backfield and only had one target?! Gotta utilize him more.

As the experts say, #comeonman

*finishes up cup number one, if I drank alcohol that would have been added to the cup of coffee to help me through last nights game. Instead, I will add creamer and pretend*

The Giants lost and had some ups and downs, but I will say they played better than most of their past 0-1 team starts. They were just outplayed by a better team is a better way to look at it. I think there are some things to build off of from Week 1, but the main focus really needs to be that offensive line. I don't know if they need to look to free agency, trades or moving some people around. Something needs to change or that 0-1 will be 0 and a lot more.

My First Time

*another beautiful day, NFL full slate of games, and a cup of sunshine by my side and I am raring to go. Takes a sip, begins to blog....*

I always told myself I wouldn't expand my social media anywhere else besides Facebook and Twitter. However, when I started seeing some amazing contests on Instagram, I jumped aboard. At that point and time that was my only reason for using that site. I only had 20 followers which was fine because I wasn't using it for anything else.

That's before I created Cards Over Coffee.

I began to interact a little more after figuring out the website, began following more, having more follows and posting links to this blog on there. Right now I have grown that account to almost 400 followers and get a few view hits from there as well.

One thing I hadn't done on there, other than win a contest, is trade.

That's until now.

A buddy of mine on Twitter, @StephenJFurlong, tagged me on Instagram in a couple of Allan Houston autographed card photos that jwilbscards posted. I really liked both cards and decided to start a small conversation. 

At first, the conversation was very slow. I look at it as kindling. Since you had never interacted with a person before and they are messaging you about a trade it kinda throws you back some and you want to feel that person out first. So you start the fire base with kindling and you continue to throw a stick or two in. Then you may poke the fire before sticking in some papers/boxes/ etc gradually building it up. Before you know it, you are throwing gasoline on the stinkin' fire and that thing is burning wild.

That's how my first trade with jwilbscards went.

*takes a sip, well two, then another and heck, why not a chug. Begins to blog more*

What started out as a conversation for one of his Allan Houston autograph cards, turned out to be so much more. I seem to have a lot of those kind of trades.

Instead of blabbering on anymore about details, I will simply let the cards do the talking.

 Mike Francesa relic for my non sport PC.

 Eli Manning Optic red parallel. At one point I considered attempting a Eli Optic rainbow but realized I would never complete it and backed out.

Michael Cox rookie autograph. It appears his signature is as short as his time with the Giants.

 Sterling Shepard autograph. I couldn't capture it, but there is rainbow foil on this one.

Rookie cards I have been needing for my collection. Zeke and Henry who I expect both to have massive years

 

Edgar Martinez autograph relic. Not sure why I grabbed it, it just sounded good and is one of those underrated 90's guys.

 Two new Allan Houston base, both numbered.

Fleer Retro recreated all of the great autograph inserts of the 90's including Fresh Ink. Glad to have knocked down this one

This was the autograph that was going to be the original trade before the heat of this trade went out of control.

My first John Starks autograph and a signature I can now cross off from my needs list was apart of this trade as well. John was my second favorite Knick All-Time to Houston. Of course, Ewing is in that conversation as well.

And then came the jewel of the trade......

Eli Manning rookie autograph from Sage Hit! He has a really nice signature and I wouldn't mind adding Eli autographs all day long.

This trade went so smooth.... and silky and creamy...well...think I am jumping into my breakfast thoughts now..

*takes a sip, takes a box out of the fridge*

This Marie Callendar's Chocolate Satin Pie is the perfect coffee pairing if you don't already know that.

 

It's not too sweet, despite the look of it, and the smooth texture against the coffee is what makes it great.

 

Just let it thaw in your fridge and it's ready to go! No baking required!

 

Mmmmmmmm. Sooooooooooooo good. And for those of you at home thinking about my health as you see this picture, my blood pressure is finally coming down very slowly and I am working on weight loss and currently am down 7 pounds and working out daily. Occasionally though, you just have to spoil yourself but not overdo it. I have learned that lesson.

*takes a sip, a bite, another sip, and another bite or three*

I was very happy with my first trade on Instagram and thanks to jwilbscards for making it easy, I may look into further trading on the site once I start to get to know more individuals on there.

My next goal for Instagram is to finally win a contest. 

Before I close, I will say I don't expect to further my social media past Instagram. I mean who wants to watch a guy literally talk Cards Over Coffee on YouTube or do a Tik Tok on coffee and food pairings? Well, I probably would but as for doing it, I don't think so.

Getting Fancy

*it's a brisk 35 degrees here this morning, time for some coffee and some cards to keep me warm. Well, not going to burn the cards to do so, but the heat that can be found sometimes in stacks on my desk*

It's been a few days since I put up a new post on here and I apologize for that. I have had a busy week with appointments and rearranging my house. The positive part is when the dust settles, I will officially have a card/man cave room. I can't wait and of course I will show off some pictures....over coffee. Is there any other way?

About a week ago, @clrshonuff posted a contest for some really unique items he made himself. They were 6x6 color HDPE hard plastic sign carved with text or design of your choice. Examples he gave were of teams, Fantasy football league "trophy" and a room sign.

I got to thinking after I saw those pictures, wonder if I could get one for this blog that is lacking a nice header. How cool would that look? Not that my art work header I drew isn't creative, but a bit more of a fancy and professional look might help jump start this blog some more. It's still lacking in the views/followers category on non post days.

*takes a sip*

So I jumped into messages with @clrshonuff and worked out a deal. I gave him the bare necessities of a design (if you don't break out into song from the Jungle Book we can't be friends) and he created me a beautiful header piece.

Also of note before I show the piece off, he had this created, packed and shipped in what felt like a few minutes. I was very impressed. I can't even do that with cards.

*another sip before the reveal*

 

If this doesn't jump out at you, nothing will. Except the monster under your bed, that never seems to disappoint. 

I had the choice of brown over white or white over brown and I think this one was the one that knocked it out of the park.

 

It is deeply engraved in this very hard, sturdy plastic. I am not even sure if a black belt could bust this in half. I also don't plan on asking my brother in law who is one to try.

Just look at how thick it is!

*another sip, mmmmmm. Coffee is so good this morning. I must have put the right coffee to water ratio. Sometimes it happens, other times it doesn't*

Not only can @clrshonuff, make these signs, but he can also can do custom vinyl work like stickers, decals, shirts and logos. I am not sure what those would cost, but a sign like this goes for $24 shipped.

He doesn't have a website he sells these on, so in order to get a sign or any of the other options for yourself, you would have to find him on Twitter or on Facebook as Chris Rynders. He has a Jerry Rice autograph card as his profile picture on both sites.

I hope to update this blog soon with the new header and make it sparkle. There are a few other things I want to add and update on here as well. The header will also replace ones on the Cards Over Coffee Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts and when my man cave is done, will be a nice sign centerpiece for it. 

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*