90's Cards Over Coffee: Gilt Edge

*multiple days with posts on here, I am feeling good about this blog and the direction it is heading. It makes this mornings coffee taste even better. It was an early morning but I am ready to put up a fresh post on here. I hope you have your cup in hand, it's time for some Cards Over Coffee*

@OffbeatAllStars knows how much I enjoy collecting sets from the mid to late 90's and knows my list of needs is lengthy, so when he finds some around his house it usually it leads to a trade to help fill some of those needs.

Our last trade helped fill in some gaps and today I will be showing off some of that help in 1996 Topps Gilt Edge.

1996 Topps Gilt Edge set was issued in one series and was only released for one year. The set consisted of a 90 card base which featured 84 members of the 1996 Pro Bowl roster, plus five players who had Pro Bowl-caliber seasons and one checklist card. Each card featured an island tribe background with flames for the AFC Pro Bowlers and Cool Water for the NFC Pro Bowlers. They also featured Topps' new "gilt-edge" technology, placing gold foil edging around every card. There was also a parallel set, Platinum, which changed that gold to silver. Those were found one-per-pack. 

At the time in 1996 I didn't quite appreciate the set and only opened a couple of packs. Without rookie cards, I wasn't interested at that time.

Fast forward to now, I am infatuated with collecting it and hope to build the set.

*takes a sip of coffee, reaches over next to him to check out these cards again up close with the Gilt Edge technology. Pretty darn cool unlike my coffee that's burning my tongue*

I have a very long ways to this set still, but any little help is a working progress.

Let's take a look at the AFC first I added in this trade.

Let's kick it off with how I like my coffee most of the time, warm. Not that I don't mind some iced coffee occasionally in the summer.

*takes a look out the kitchen window to see the 6-8 inches of newly fallen snow, dreams of summer to have iced coffee*

The design is pleasing to the eyes and it's always fun to see a punter get some respect in a set.

Darren was a two-time Pro Bowler, both with the Chargers. I had no idea that later on in his career he went on to play with the Vikings after taking some time away from the NFL.

 

Back of the AFC card

 

Dale Carter could ball playing in 4 Pro Bowls and 5 teams.

Terry McDaniel was a 5x Pro Bowl corner playing most of his career with the Raiders.

Steve Atwater was a 8x Pro Bowler, 2x Super Bowl champ with the Broncos while Carnell Lake made the Pro Bowl 5x.

Now onto the NFC players I added.

Lee Woodall was a 2x Pro Bowler and a Super Bowl champion and Elbert Shelley is the only player of the group featured today that I didn't know. Come to find out he was a 4x Pro Bowler on Special Teams. Once again, another position that doesn't get a lot of respect when it comes to cardboard.

 

Back of the NFC card

Here is my updated set news on these,

1996 Topps Gilt Edge Haves
2,7,11,14,15,16,18,19,20,20,21,22,23,24,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,36,37,38,39,45,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,56,62,63,64,65,66,67,75,76,77,78,79,80,82,83,84,88

Thanks goes out to @OffBeatAllStars for the set help. It won't be the last time you will be in this new segment.

*finishes up cup number 1, moves onto cup number 2 pretty fast. Getting up early makes me crave coffee more than ever. Almost time for some breakfast as well*

Once I get this set completed, it will be moved into a binder. It's a worthy binder set. One of those visual art displays you want to see all together on 9-card page sheets. Hopefully it won't take me as long to complete this set as it took me to appreciate it.

*coffee blogger out*

Coffee With Ted Danson

*takes a sip of coffee, this time a mocha coffee from Dunkin' from the early morning errands, and reminisces back to the 90's*

The 1990's had some of the best sitcoms ever to exist. Not that the 2000's haven't brought us some gems but none of them have really stood out like a few from the 90's. Pretty much everyone has heard of Seinfeld, Friends, Home Improvement and Everybody Loves Raymond just to name a few. It was a great time to watch TV and most of these I currently watch on repeats on multiple channels.

Sometimes though, it's not always the headlining sitcoms that were/are the best. Sometimes you find that gem in the rough you simply laugh your pants off at. One of those sitcoms that comes to mind for me is Becker.

Becker starred the great Ted Danson, who most remember from the NBC hit Cheers, who played the lead in the show as Dr. Becker. 

The show took place in NYC in a small doctors office run by Dr. Becker who was cantankerous and easily annoyed by his patients, friends and the world but yet cared about all of it. Which is why his friends and patients stood by his side despite how he may have treated them. 

Some of the patient and Dr. Becker interactions were absolutely priceless and left me rolling on the floor laughing.

*takes a sip of coffee remembering some of the interactions and trying not to choke on the sip*

Just last week, I acquired a signed piece in a trade with Dions Autograph Collection of Dr. Becker (Ted Danson) for my TV Collection.

Here is the signed piece

a closer look at the signature.

As always, I am a tad concerned on whether this is an authentic signed piece or maybe a pre-print. The autograph photo came from a friend of Dion's who collected autographs as well. This was either from a signing, fan mail or TTM. 

From research I have done, it appears Danson's signature changed a lot from them until now if this is signed by him. This is a clear written out name while newer ones you can read the word Ted with his last name being more of a scribble. If anyone has any input on this would love to hear it.

If this happens to not be real, I will have to acquire a real one with a COA from a respectable company. Either way, this is a cool piece and thanks to Dion for the trade.

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

Becker ran on CBS from 1998-2004 covering 129 episodes. If you haven't ever heard of it or seen an episode, go find one and I bet you will want to watch the series.

Currently Danson plays on the sitcom Mr. Mayor as the lead after a successful run on The Good Place. Last show I watched him in was CSI where he took over the lead as D.B. Russell. It was odd seeing him play on a drama after many years of doing comedies but he did pretty well in that role.

I would be interested in hearing your favorite Ted Danson show/movie in comments.

*another sip of coffee and on to the rest of my day*

First Basketball Rip In A Year

*temperatures are up in the teens today, or what we locals call a warm day. Coffee is ready and so am I for another Cards Over Coffee*

As we all know, we are in tough times when it comes to trying to find retail products. Those cards sell off from shelves faster then Roadrunner getting away from Coyote. And for those of you who are offended by Looney Tunes, just look away at that previous sentence.

No retail cards sell faster than basketball.

My Walmart before the pandemic couldn't sell a single basketball product, but because of the big surge I haven't seen a single pack since December of 2019 when my wife grabbed me a hanger box of 2019-2020 Prizm. If I had only known, I would have had her grab a lot more.

Basketball isn't one of my top collecting sports, it falls third behind football and baseball, but I still like to make some additions to that part of my collection occasionally so it's nice to be able to find some to open.

*takes another sip, feels his tummy is rumbling for some honey. Well, I don't have the Winnie The Pooh honey addiction but maybe something with honey in it would be in order this morning*

I know my buddy @ChasinTheGraph feels the same way. He was sick of not finding retail so we both were on the same page with that and the direction the hobby was heading. We had quite a few conversations and a few trades as well. One day he had mentioned buying a couple 2020-2021 Prizm Draft Picks basketball hanger packs off from a friend of his so I inquired about trading for one of those. He was more than happy to obliged and we easily pulled off a quick trade.

Just a couple days later, the pack arrived.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

Each hanger pack of 2020-2021 Pirzm Draft Picks comes with 15 cards total with three of those cards being represented by Red, White and Blue parallels.

You bust open the packs and reveal three regular packs and one of the special packs with parallels which I always set aside and save for last.

I will be honest, other than Ball, I don't know any of the players in this years draft as opposed to last years draft with names like Williamson, Herro, Barrett and Morant. I have no idea how I did overall but glad to have at least some rookie cards of these guys.

 

Some base. I don't mind adding any Duke cards. I grew up a Duke fan.

Subsets of Crusade and Global Prospects.

Silver Prizm of Daniel Oturu

Green Prizm of Deni Avdija

And now for the Red, White Blue Prizm Draft pack.

*takes a sip, hopes for a good rip*

No Ball so not sure how I did.

That was a fun rip regardless of the outcome. Hopefully I can add a Ball to my rookie card collection at some point.

Thanks to @ChasinTheGraph for the trade. Hope we can do more of these down the road as I always have plenty of Panthers and am always in need of something to open.

*time to get another cup of coffee going and to find something for breakfast*

Coffee Break:2021 Topps Series 1 Hobby Box

*sitting in the kitchen next to the heater thinking about warm thoughts while it currently sits at -15*

I can feel, smell it and even taste it. Yes it has a taste. Baseball is on it's way and nothing kicks off the baseball season like Topps Series 1. Once that product has released, you know we are heading in the right direction.

For me it's not just about baseball starting, some warm weather would be nice as well.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

Every hobby box of 2021 Topps Series 1 comes with 24 packs of 14 cards. I like this format more than the 36 packs. Each box comes with either an autograph, relic card or an autograph relic. Most likely, at least in my past breaks, you will find a relic. Boxes go anywhere between $125-$150 per.

Also inside of each hobby box are the Hobby Exclusive silver parallels,

Each of the silver parallel cards use the 1986 Topps design and comes with 4 cards

*takes another sip to do another rip*

There are 100 cards overall to collect and you can also find the following parallels (along with autographs as well)

The parallels are,
Blue /150, Green /99, Purple /75, Gold /50, Orange /25, Red /5, SuperFractor 1/1.

BASE:

The base set consists of 330 cards.

The front of those cards have a Topps 70th silver logo instead of the typical Topps logo. The design is bordered this year and brings a new design to the table. I think more Bowman than Topps with it.

I was a little disappointed with this years lack of action photography compared to the past few years.

Card back.

The base set consists of veterans, rookies and the subsets as Rookie Cup, Future Stars, League Leaders, and World Series Highlights.

Rookie Cup

  

League Leaders

Future Stars

World Series Highlights

Team cards

Rookies

There was even some "mask" cards involved as part of the Covid-19 Pandemic. I think it's an important part of MLB history to include cards with pictures like these.

The images say it all.

PARALLELS

There are many parallels to chase in Series 1 including, Royal Blue, Rainbow Foil, Gold Foil, Gold /2021, Green /499, Advanced Stat /300, Orange /299, Red /199, Vintage Stock /99, Independence Day /76, Black /70, Platinum Anniversary /70, Mother’s Day /50, Father’s Day /50, Memorial Day /25, 70th Anniversary 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1.

I pulled 3 rainbow foils in my break. These fall 1:10 packs. I always liked this parallel.

Gold /2021. These are pretty much impossible to find compared to past years. Only one in my box and the odds of finding them now are 1:27 packs. Good luck in any rainbow chases this year.

INSERTS:

There are 100 cards to seek out in the 1986 Topps 35th anniversary set. These seem to be one of the easier inserts to find falling at 1:4 packs.

They also have the following parallels, Blue, Black /299 (1:589 odds in Bregman), Platinum Anniversary /70, Red /10, and Gold 1/1.

70 years of Topps has well....70 cards in it to chase. These fall 1:11 packs.

 

Stars In Service falls 1:30 packs. There are 25 cards to collect in these as well.

Platinum Players falls 1:30 packs. There are 25 players to collect in this die cut set. I hope they bring this insert to chrome, bet it looks amazing.

Topps Through The Years insert 1:25. Many are complaining about this insert because many are posting and claiming these as autographs. I do get this kind of insert as they were celebrating the many cards in their 70 years but I understand the frustration.

There are 30 in this set to collect.

Home Run Challenge falls 1:24 packs

HITS:

For the first time in...well...ever...I didn't pull a relic card

Major League Material relic auto /50 of Josh Bell

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

I enjoyed breaking this while sipping on my cup of coffee. Prices are a little steep right now for a hobby box so honestly I would stick to retail and hope for the best from that. What I always look for in Series 1 is the newest rookies and pc players for my collection so I can easily acquire those in retail as long as you are able to find some.

I do like the overall look and the theme for this years product though.

*takes a final sip, definitely making another to keep myself warm. Time to think warm thoughts and baseball.....and more 2021 baseball card releases*

Ratings Based On This Break (ratings based on 1-5 🍵)

Design 🍵🍵🍵

Photography 🍵🍵

Inserts 🍵🍵

Hits 🍵🍵🍵

Price 🍵

Value 🍵🍵🍵

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.