Cards Over Pizza:Jeets

 

*not sure who made this cup of coffee, possibly Satan, as the first sip just about took away all feeling in my tongue. But, it's all good. I can still, somewhat, taste the coffee.*

This past Christmas, I possibly received the biggest RAK/Trade mail day of my life. But, that's what you get when you are friends with @realwesmoore who is known to send some bangers. We also share quite the affection towards pizza as well, hence the name of this post series.

To even begin to break down this incredible-massive overload of cards, I will be posting some parts of this mail day on and off on here. It may take me all year but I will get to it before Christmas, I promise you that.

*another sip, this time not as scalding hot as Mandy Moore*

Today's post I will dig into a stack of at least 300, maybe more, Derek Jeters that Wes sent along. If you didn't know, the biggest part of my Yankee collection belongs to the Yankees legend. I had well over 350 unique Jeter cards without counting this stack today and some others I have gotten since. I am no way close to a super collector of Jeter like Sooz, @yanxchick, but I am proud of what I have built.

Derek ranks as my favorite Yankees player of all-time and I don't picture that ever changing. He was there at the beginning of when I got into baseball and he was there at the end when I started losing interest in watching as much baseball. I may not watch the Yankees like I watch the NY Giants, but I am still a fan. Maybe more of a casual fan now.

I will however, always collect NY Yankee cards and appreciate what I got to watch when Derek was on the field. He was certainly The Captain.

*takes another sip, looks over the stack of cards and begins to put them in order*

In order to show off some, yes some, of this huge stack of cards I will post them by my Top 20 then show off some that just missed the cut from making it in.

This list goes in order of my favorite to my favorite. No, you didn't read that wrong. They all were my favorite but some rank a smidgen higher than others so that's where the ranking comes in.

1.This card just sparkles.

2.Upper Deck Game Jersey. This marks the fifth Jeter relic in my collection.

3. Shiny, numbered goodness.

4. The die cut lasering on this card is incredible. It's like looking at a foil Jeter.

5.Card printed on Metal. Enough said. And before you ask, no, I have no plans in removing that protective film

6. Fleer Metal base cards are just as impressive as their inserts.

7.Topps Tek. Just look at it.

8.I am chasing this set for a reason. The marble border along with the rainbow foil makes this card pleasing to the eyes.

9. I have a thing for cards that include acetate, what can I say?

10. Great photo of Jeter the card simply stands out.

We are halfway done...at least of the Top 20.

*takes another sip before carrying on with the second half of the Top 20*

11. Remember when Topps used to make fun inserts? Yeah, I do to and these brought me back.

12. Double the chrome, double the refractor, double the fun.

13. When Bowmans Best base cards looked like this it was like the perfect cup of coffee.

14. Design, refractor, Yankees colors. 

15. Eye candy

16. Inserts from the 90's especially from Stadium Club will always earn ranking.

17. Metal Universe, die cut. Great card.

18. It's like watching Derek on a TV set. Though not as impressive.

19. Micro etched foil with stadium in the background, another attractive card.

And drumroll please.....dddddddddddddddddddddddddd (sound effect from Christmas Vacation scene of when they are outside and Clark was about to plug in the lights)

Joy To The World...ddddddddddddddddddddddddddd....number 20............

 

20A. A card that pairs my Top 2 favorite Yankees has got to make the cut

20B but I couldn't for some reason let this Gold Medallion slip out of the Top 20.

There you have it. The Top 20 cards from the stack. Now onto some honorable mentions I had to just slightly narrow out of the pack.

*takes final sip of cup number one. Moves right on and brews cup number two. Sits back down to show off the next round of cards*

Let's roll that beautiful bean footage...Jeter footage.

90's had some Flair and so didn't Jeter's play at short stop.

Another fetching group of cards one of which pairs my Top 2 baseball player collections in Jeter and Griffey. Question becomes, whose PC does that fall under......

Finest "rookies". Once again, I am a no peeling kinda guy. Peeling these off would be like putting yogurt as creamer in your coffee. It isn't good.

Out of this group that Stadium Club almost made me do a 20C. I had never seen that Signature Rookies card before either.

Speaking of cards I hadn't seen before, how about that sketch-looking card from the Ted Williams set. I do have copies of the Decades Of Excellence and Torre's Terrors, but mine are the chromed versions. Glad to have the non chrome ones now.

All of the above cards almost made the Top 20. The remaining cards in this post were the best of the rest..but not really. They were all awesome.

*takes sip of the second cup after waiting a little while this time. Feeling of the tongue is starting to come back*

A few "rookies", if you are wondering why I am using quotes that's because Derek's actual rookie year is 1993, not 1996. Baseball is so confusing still when it comes to rookie cards and rookie card definitions.

More "rookies"

And to finish it up, another "group of rookies". I have always been fond of the Upper Deck and Collector Choice photo selections on those cards. Upper Deck really knows how to nail it out of the park with photography.

It wasn't an easy task to rank a Top 20 and as much as I wanted to show off all of the Jeters from that stack, it would have taken me a very long time to do so. As it is already, this post between taking pictures, uploading them and typing this is going on 3 hours with my slow internet.

*takes a sip before typing up the closing statement*

There will be lots more to come from this mail day. This is only the starting point or if I was to put it in coffee terms, this is just turning on the faucet to draw out some water to brew you coffee with.

I would like to know in comments, would you have changed any of my rankings? Would you have switched any of them out for others in the non Top 20 section? Comment away!

*thinks about what to eat for breakfast and looks at how fast his sipping of coffee cup number two has gone. Going to need a third cup soon. Coffee card blogger out*

Not For Sale

 

*coffee and breakfast both ready for a very quick post today on Cards Over Coffee. If you haven't noticed with the last few posts on here I have featured my mug of the day every time. It's like one of those hidden pictures kind of things on here. Takes a sip and begins today's post*

I know I am a little late posting about Valentines Day, but I wasn't quite ready for my post yet. You see, I was anticipating a very special gift from my wife she had spilled the beans on before Valentines Day arrived. Originally it was set as a birthday gift for next month, March 19th if you need to know, but she couldn't hold back her excitement any longer and told me what she had gotten. I was just a little stoked to say the least.

*takes a sip, a bite of raspberry turnover then moves on to the next part of this post*

Yesterday the mail arrived and what I thought was another non sport card mail day came out to be untrue in a way. She had gotten a package I assumed was something she normally ordered but it was actually my gift from her!

*takes an excited sip! Yes, there is such a sip of coffee. It's a little slurpy but a controlled one*

She opened it, checked it out first and then showed it off to me.....

Cards Over Coffee merch folks! A true 1/1. What a cool item for me to own!

*takes a sip and another bite of raspberry turnover. I sure hope you are enjoying a cup with me as well*

The Cards Over Coffee logo is printed on a Nike Sport shirt which is an extremely comfortable shirt if you haven't worn one before. It's made of thinner soft material as opposed to a cheaper rough shirt material which being a sport shirt probably helps you from sweating.

I messaged a couple of Twitter friends a sneak peek of this shirt and they asked if it was the only one as they seemed interested in buying one. I never thought of selling blogger merchandise before and not sure if I want to head down that road but maybe. For now though, this is the only shirt and this one is not for sale.

Big thanks to my amazing wife for the amazing gift! I can't wait to show it off and have people ask me questions about it. Of course I prefer to do it in our local coffee places but until Covid is over, I won't eat in any restaurant.

*another sip before finishing today's post. I told you it would be short*

Do any of my blogger readers own any shirts, hats or any merchandise relating to your blog?

*takes a sip, another sip, tips mug to you and another bite of raspberry turnover. Til next time, Coffee blogger out*

Double Edge Sword

*takes a sip, instead of showing off some cards today or breaking a box to show off, I want to take a minute out and get a little deeper on a subject I don't believe has been talked about yet. Or at least that I have seen talked about. Takes another sip and gets ready to ramble on*

The definition of a double edge sword represents something that could either help or hurt you.

I feel the hobby of sport card collecting has arrived to this point.

With an influx of new hobbyists, not sure I would call them collectors at this point, have put the hobby back in the spotlight. Celebrities, News Reporters and other media outlets have begun to take notice of the hobby since the pandemic like no other time I can remember being apart of it.

The only problem with this is, well, it's being put in the spotlight as an investment and not so much collecting anymore.

What has this meant so far? Well, inflated hobby box prices, retail outlets selling out to vultures who wait and prey on the poor vendors putting up the products, and prices on single cards of top end players are going through the roof.

For some, especially the newbies who have just come into the hobby for those purposes this has been great news. They are making tons of money by buying and flipping sport cards. It has also led to a lot of hatred, despise, scammers and greed like never before. That's why I like to keep in mind that money is the root of all evil and the more money that has been flowing into this hobby the darker it has become.

Despite how exciting it is to see the hobby back on top again, it has also come at a price as I said above which is what makes it the double-edge sword.

Many mention the "Hobby Bubble." You could compare it to blowing a bubble with bubble gum where you keep exhaling air into the gum and it continues to grow and grow. At some point, that bubble doesn't stay and it pops. That's what is expected with collecting. The theory of the hobby bubble is that all of this publicity with investing exhaling its air into the hobby will at some point pop.

I am not personally concerned with my collecting when that time comes, I am more concerned what will happen if that point comes. I worry how many actual collectors will be left to pick up the gum remnants so we can establish what we had before. Nobody has ever once mentioned those guys as they are long forgotten. It's all talk about the big money now.

With the rising costs, the lack of retail product for basic non-rich collectors like myself to open, shortage of supplies is leading to a lot leaving or considering leaving the hobby. These collectors are the people that nobody ever talks about because they don't represent the hobby in the "now". The truly deep passionate collectors who have been around forever are feeling like they cannot hang around any longer. It's a truly sad sight to see.

I wouldn't be honest with you if it hadn't crossed my mind before. Sell out while the prices are hot and start a new hobby. Or buy a beach house because of 1991 Upper Deck Michael Jordan cards.

But, many of you who know that I wouldn't make such a move. I am too passionate and too deep into collecting to do so. So instead I am here to give you some tips on how I am surviving the hobby during this time and how you can do the same!

*takes a sip, mind is in full gear now to put the words on here* 

I was born in 1983 so I survived the 80's and 90's on toughness.

• What bike helmet? I flipped over my handlebars, walked home one mile all scratched and probably even a concussion just for my grandmother to say put a Band-Aid on it.
• I had a lawn dart thrown at me and it went all the way into my leg. What did I do? I just pulled it out and carried on with my day. 
• I took a hard frozen football being thrown super fast to the nose while playing with friends and had a bloody nose. Got up off the ground once the blood stopped and played some more.
• You wanna know toughness? I said no to my mom who knew how to use a belt and blackberry brush sticks like a Ninja Sensei.
• And I also ate brownie and cookie batter before it was considered un-edible.

I could certainly survive a hobby.

While the craziness has ensued, I have found new and old avenues to enjoy collecting.

1. I have gone back through my entire collection and have just sat down and looked through the cards connecting a memory with some and thinking back on them.
2. I started up this blog and fixed my Big Blue Cardboard NY Giants card blog to give me more outlets to discuss my hobby and collecting.
3. I have used TCDB (Trading Card Data Base) to host a couple of my collections and let me tell you what, that takes some time and dedication to do. It's mainly fun to see where you rank among many other collectors for certain player collections.
4. Remember that Walt Weiss PC you were going to start up but never did...well do it! Flippers aren't looking at obscure players to buy up. Go have fun. Collect a player you always wanted to and spend that money you normally would have on boxes and high end singles and put it into that. I have had fun starting a PC of Eli Manning and watching that grow.
5. Wanna break a blaster/pack of new product? There are some collectors out there willing to help you out and will trade you some. I have had more than my fair share of trades for wax when I was really itching.
6. Trading in general. I can't afford anything at all in the hobby, so to me there is nothing better than trading. Trading is the center point of my collecting. Without it, my hobby wouldn't exist. So small PWE trades to bigger bubbler trades the power of trading can land you some of those new cards you crave and keep you motivated to collect.
7. Sorting. Does sorting ever really end? I created myself new projects the past year and am still working hard on them. Whether it was pulling out good rookies to set aside and box the rest to putting some cards by player and others by team I have found plenty to do and still have a long ways to go.
8. Artwork. Do you know how many collectors I have seen take plain '91 Fleer baseball and turn that into something spectacular? Many. A lot of collectors have taken their passion of the hobby and turned that into doing custom/art cards and it has given them a new phase of the hobby and a new way to bring in funds.

These are just a few examples. The fun thing with the hobby is that there are so many outlets and creative places you can go, you to can survive "the now" in the hobby I promise you that.

So instead of walking away, I challenge you to try one of the 8 suggestions I gave above. We will get through this and if not, enjoy the hobby just by its basic simplicity. There is still a lot of FUN to be had.

Also, I will need you here to help clean up the gum when it pops. It will be almost as bad as glitter.

*takes a sip of his now cooled off coffee, goes to make breakfast and a much warmer cup of brew. Coffee blogger out*

90's Cards Over Coffee:1996 Pinnacle Mint Football Box Break

*watching the snow fall...AGAIN...and I picture myself drinking coffee somewhere warm...and then I come back down to earth and at least my coffee is warm. I could use a distraction so guess it's time for some Coins...I mean Cards Over Coffee*

Every year, Shane from Cheap Wax Wednesday fame and myself pull off a fall trade that usually includes some...well..cheap wax.

This past fall we pulled off another one of those massive trades and I have been sitting on some boxes to post about.

First up, a box of 1996 Pinnacle Mint football.

I have already busted a box of this a couple years ago and had so much fun that I wanted to do it again. It's a product that brings two hobbies into one and brings me a lot of nostalgic memories back when I opened some packs at 13 years old.

So now we know what must happen..

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

Each box of 1996 Pinnacle Mint football comes with 16 packs. Each pack comes with three cards, two cards with a die cut hole in the middle, one base and two coins in a plastic holder. Box price, I have no idea now. But, with today's hobby, it's gone crazy I am sure.

There are 30 base Bronze cards to collect. Sadly only one NY Giant but the rest of the set is mainly the stars of the 90's. The one Giant isn't even Rodney Hampton, it's Dave "I throw tons of interceptions" Brown.

There are also 30 Silver parallels as well that fall 1:20 packs.

You can also find Gold parallels as well.

I need to gather the die cuts and base to see how far I am on those sets and make a list of needs if so. I don't think at this time I will bother chasing the parallel sets with only a few in-hand.

*takes another sip, then another. The snow continues to fall heavily with an expected amount of 1-3 inches today. Another sip is due and more cups to come after this one is finished*

Also in this product are the die cut cards. These die cut cards are meant to be used for the coins to be inserted into.

*onto cup number two, now to check out the coins*

The coins come together as a two pack in every pack of 1996 Pinnacle Mint. Most of the time will be the brass coins which is the basic ones to find.

The coins feature a picture of a players face on one side and the Pinnacle Mint words on the other. I got a little lazy here and just posted all of my coins in one picture with just the faces. I pulled all of the good ones. I need to see if I finally have this set together.

I also found this Nickle parallel coin of Dan Marino that falls 1:20 packs. Next to it is the base brass so you can see the comparison.

And that does it for the break.

Once again that was a lot of fun. Brought me back to when I was 13 years old and found packs of these in a local craft store that had a solid display of cards. My father and I would volunteer to take my grandmother to the craft store so she could grab yarn and just so we had an excuse for my mother on why we went there. As I have said before, my mother was never and still is not a fan of the hobby. Of course she also didn't know of the packs we would hide in our coat pockets back then either. If she did, we would have become a missing persons case.

This is just Box one of four I have to post. So more to come and more coffee to come as well.

*snow finally slowing down for now, some peaks of sun, not sure how long that will last but I plan to take full advantage of it by signing off from here. Coffee blogger out*

Happy Meal

*takes a sip of cup number 3 this morning and already had breakfast. Time to kick it into high gear to try and get the latest Cards Over Coffee post going*

The Card Pandemic as I sometimes refer to it as, has reached new crazy heights in the hobby. With the craze of everything retail selling out, both sports and Pokemon cards, the flippers have found a new outlet....McDonalds.

No they aren't buying double cheeseburgers or short printed McDonald's Ice Cream sundaes (as the joke always goes their machines are always broken) to sell, they are buying Happy Meals. You know, that treat you had as a kid that you now probably buy your own kids is now being bought up by flippers.

Why? Well, this year McDonald's is helping celebrate 25 Years Of Pokemon by inserting 4 card Pokemon packs in their Happy Meals as the toy this time around and flippers are buying up all of the packs. I assume they are buying them as extra toys, and not a bunch of meals, which you are allowed to do but some McDonalds across the country are running low. Not only running low, but from pictures I have seen on Twitter they are even limiting the amount of Happy Meals bought by a family and not allowing people to buy extra toys on the side as well so they won't run out.

I think this is a tad ridiculous and that flippers have gone off the deep end at this point. When you see the phrase "save some for the kids" it literally is meant in this case.

*takes a sip of frustration of what the the hobby has turned into*

I don't know a lot about Pokemon myself, but was curious about what these entitled and wanted to show it off to you guys as well in case you haven't seen them.

So I ordered a meal.

 

Let's start with the outside of the box. Full on Pokemon.

Side of the box as well. Notice the Pikachu head with the 25 inside of it representing the 25 years of Pokemon logo.

In the middle, the goods. And a package of Pokemon. I went McNuggets and two fries sides here.

 

This is what holds the Pokemon pack inside of the Happy Meal.

You open it up to see the pack tucked inside.

The pack I pulled out to open and found it interesting that the packaging of it was more like a paper substance than foil. 

*takes a sip, begins to rip. Literally you can rip it because it was easy to open with the paper-type wrapper*

Like I said, I don't know much about Pokemon other than Pikachu and that's only by name.

Each pack comes with 4 cards and one of those foil cards will be a holo card.

First card, Torchic. Note the 25 Pokemon logo on the card.

Chikorita

Pikachu

And my holo card is a Chikorita

The entire run of the set is 25 cards and 25 matching holos that make up a 50 card set. Guess it makes sense to have two 25 card reproduction sets for a 25 year anniversary.

*takes a sip before closing*

My final review, the food was good, the fries were actually on point this time being crispy and not mushy like they can be at my local Mc D's. I replaced the soda with a shake because I gave up soda years ago and they are a cause for kidney stones. Oh, you wanted to hear about the cards. Yeah, those were cool to.

I have said this for years, but I would love to see an adult Happy Meal. Imagine one this year and it comes with 4 card packs of 70th anniversary Topps baseball cards? Yes! Sign me up.

Of course things like that comes with the risk of flippers. You darn flippers are everywhere! You can clean off retail shelves, but please leave the Happy Meals alone both adult and kid versions.

Turning The Page

*takes a sip of afternoon coffee, nothing pairs better with afternoon coffee then a snack. Wonder if I have any cookies kicking around...*

I have been finding myself in a new mood with the hobby in the past two weeks. 

That craving, that needing, that wanting to open up packs of cards has suddenly started to diminish. It wasn't something I ever expected to occur, but it has.

The rising cost of hobby boxes/packs along with the retail madness has finally started getting to me. I started to look deeper within my-hobbyself , let's just say visited the inner Mr.Hobbyagi (wax sealed, wax opened) and started seeing those hankerings for a rip starting to dissipate.

How do I know this is true? Opportunities. I have had a few opportunities recently to have something to open but decided against it.

A few examples,

• On Twitter, a guy had a blaster and a hanger pack of 2019-2020 Optic basketball up for trade in exchange for Aaron Judge rookie, numbered or autograph cards. Knowing I don't collect baseball as deep as I used to, I considered giving up some decent Judge cards for them but never followed through. I decided to keep my Aaron Judges instead.

• My father found some 2021 Topps Series 1 baseball cards at Walmart and for a Patrick Mahomes card I could have opened some. Once again, I said no.

• And I was recently offered an opportunity to open a 2020 Panini Playbook Mega Box in exchange for a few Luis Robert cards and I once again politely declined.

I am not sure what has changed in me, but I didn't feel like giving up cards for packs and would rather turn those trade bait cards into Eli Manning or other cards I need for my personal collection instead of ripping.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME?!! Did someone pour something in my coffee? Slip a little something in my turnover or sprinkle something on my bagel?

I hope this never happens to me with coffee. What happens if I have an opportunity for a coffee but take an orange juice or even worse....coffee's sister.....tea?

I doubt that will ever happen unless a doctor informs me I can't have coffee and that will be a very cold day in.....well...you know....Vermont.

Does this mean if a pack heads my way from someone I won't open it? Of course I will! That would just be plain silly if I didn't. I mean, the itch won't ever completely go away but it's definitely more subtle recently.

*takes a sip, thinks about the possibility of making a list of available cards for trade to see what I could land for them on here.*

Speaking of pack rips and one that headed my way, I was able to land a pack of 2019-2020 NBA Hoops Premium roughly a month or more ago from Facebook and have kept it sitting in drafts on here. I think with today's post it is time to finally post it.

2019-2020 NBA Hoops Premium was and still is a very popular product. Its another one of those take a base flagship product and throw some chromium technology on it. It was one I really wanted to open, but knew none would be found here (which turned out true) so was able to at least acquire one to open.

So if you haven't seen any yet or you are curious how I did, you know what we must do next.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

There are 15 cards inside a hanger pack of 2019-2020 NBA Hoops Premium.

Those 15 cards are broken down to two packs. One pack of 12 cards and one 3-card pack of Lazer parallels. As always, I will save the best pack, the parallels, for last just like the Boston Cream donut in an assorted pack from Dunkin'.

*takes a sip, begins to rip the 12 card pack*

 

Here are first 7 base cards with not a lot of star power. Leading the way is Draymond and Danny Green.

The next two cards are rookies in Cody Martin and Jaylen Nowell. In my mind I picture Zion and Morant.

Chris Paul Tribute silver prizm was the next card. Always appreciate a shiny card.

Juan Hernangomez, try saying that last name fast five times, Green Prizm

So far...Paul is the biggest name. Let's hope the rest of this break gets better.

Nassir Little We Got Next Blue Prizm is the final card in the 12 card pack. I like the look of these.

Now onto the 3-card parallel pack of Lazer Prizms.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

First card, Eric Bledsoe. At least a name I know.

Langston Galloway. Who?

And to end...a nice PC find in a Tribute RJ Barrett!! Best card of the break.

Even though the pack wasn't very strong, unlike this cup of coffee, I still had a lot of fun and would open another if a pack ever headed my way or I actually found some here. I won't trade for any though. For now, I am satisfied with being able to open one.

*finishes up first cup of coffee and already brewing the second cup*

I sure hope my new mode in the hobby continues. I feel idiotic now for some of the trades I made just to land some packs to open. I could have landed some solid cards for my collection but instead opened some packs that mainly had no impact for my personal collection. A little too late now, but at least some lessons were learned.

All I can say is picture that stick figure meme with Don't Be Like and here is what it would say,

This is Matt.

Matt trades good cards for packs to open. 

Matt could have landed specific cards for his collection but didn't.

Don't be like Matt.