Two Favorites In One

*sits down and has a cup in hand and a box of cards. not the kind you think of but its a box*

*takes a sip*

Growing up, I loved playing board games. Especially Monopoly.

I remember many weekends spent at my grandmother's apartment where I would arrive and she would have it all set up on the table for us. We would play and play and play until it got dark then wake up and do it all over again the next day. It was memories made I will never forget.

My passion for Monopoly went further than my grandmothers when I started playing it at my friend's houses when I would hang out. Forget Dungeons and Dragons, popular game among my friends in my youth, I want to land me some real estate in Boardwalk! They enjoyed it as well, until I won too much and the game and it's pieces would be tossed in the air like I was playing against the Incredible Hulk when he was angry. But, they still played.

As an adult, I still enjoy the game when I have an opponent to play against. My wife isn't a fan at all but not everybody is. Though they are missing out I say!

So when I found out that Panini was coming out with a Prizm Monopoly, you better believe my excitement level was at a ten. This was almost if not more exciting than when Dunkin' comes out with Pumpkin Spice coffee in the fall. Though it may be a tie, I love me some Pumpkin Spice coffee.

*takes a sip*

With no Targets around and my terrible financial situation this year, I knew I would have to turn to trading to land myself the game or the pieces.

For weeks on Twitter, I tweeted my want/need for the game, the cards and the pieces with no success. That's until @MattKan59344689 saw my need and offered me everything I needed except the cards. Which I was more than happy with, and he sent it out fast and even sent it UPS.

Here is what the game box looks like.

This is what you see when you open it.

 

The Game Money which are tokens.

Basketballs are the game pieces and come in a variety of colors.

Game cards. (this games version of Chance and Community Chest)

And finally, the game board. It appears the game is not based on buying teams, it appears it is based on buying the matchups. Interesting.

I had started to read the instructions and it didn't seem like too challenging of a game to pick up on. I have played other new variations of the game such as Monopoly Star Wars, Monopoly Builders, Video Game Monopoly, Monopoly Junior and so on. I knew I would figure it out once I got some of the cards.

Which took only a few more weeks to do when my friend Rick on Twitter had a RAK loaded with an almost complete base set sent my way.

Here is an example of some of the base cards.

With cards and game board officially together, I gave the game a go and enjoyed it. I still think the OG game is the way to go, but I don't mind mixing in one of these types of games occasionally. I look at this version as more of a collectible one as well so probably won't play it a lot.

I am really hoping to add a few of the card parallels as well such as Black Icons, Free Parking and other game board related parallels. Will add this to my THE TOP WANTS list which I have been adding more and more stuff to on a daily basis.

Thanks again to Rick and to @MattKan59344689 for fulfilling these wants this year!

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

*takes another sip and contemplates finding someone to play Monopoly with and brewing another cup to do so*

I still can't explain why I enjoy the game as much as I do, I just do. Maybe it's for the memories I have made with it, maybe it helps me use my brain in a different way with strategies to win, maybe it is simply just fun or maybe it's just nice to be able to have a stack of cash for once in my life. I think that last part comes more from being an adult. I will admit there were a couple of times I tossed the money in the air like Scrooge McDuck. 

Picking that up afterwards wasn't fun however. If you thought 52-card pickup was bad, try picking up over 200 paper dollar bills.

So now I pass some questions onto you,

What do you guys think about board games being combined with cards? What game would you like to see this next done with? Do you play Monopoly?

Have a great Wednesday.

Until next time...

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Neutral Zone

*takes a sip, sits down with a few cards the coffee and a donut for breakfast*

*sets all three items away from each other, didnt' want any accidents*

*takes a sip*

I know you guys are probably getting sick of seeing my latest NY Giants pickups, but for now, this is where I am sharing them. I am hoping though at some point when I have more time that there may be a possible Big Blue Cardboard revival as I have some new ideas and lots of cards to share there. So if you haven't followed that blog or added it to your blogrolll, please do.

In the meantime, let's check out my latest adds which are unique.

Every time a new product comes out, I always do a search to check out what Giants cards are in it. If I see something that catches my eye, I put it on the watchlist and hope that I can land it or others in the future.

This is exactly what I did when 2022 Panini Playbook hit the streets. For the most part, it's not a very interesting product as it's a lot of same ole, same ole. But, it did have an interesting insert set I hadn't seen before and that it had three Giants cards in it.

I was sold.

The insert was called Neutral Zone which takes you to the trenches and the line of scrimmage between two teams.

I don't think out of all of my collecting years I have ever seen an insert focus on this part of the game. It was unique that a company finally thought outside the box.

Each of the Giants cards in the set featured their defensive line against another offensive line. I think that's mainly because their dline has been so great over the years as opposed to their offensive line.

 

Here are the three cards. It was against the Jets, Eagles and Cowboys for the cards the Giants were featured on.

 

And all three together.

I hope more companies take a look at this and come up with something else new and creative. I am sure other sports have their own things companies haven't tackled yet. What about the chalk line for baseball and a ball rolling down and near it? or faceoff for hockey? 

Let me know in comments what youre thoughts are or what they should do next.

In the meantime, hope you are enjoying that cup of coffee.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

The Rodney Brew: 1992 Sports Card Price Guide Monthly Uncut Sheet

*the first cup of a new month. tastes as good as the previous months, except i can say it's a new month*

*takes a sip*

The blogging community is full of great individuals who are always looking out for each other.

At the beginning of June, yes another one of these "it's taking me forever to post" posts and Angus from Dawg Day Cards sent me an email and told me that he had bought a pile of magazines from a show and in the pile was an uncut sheet featuring Rodney Hampton and wanted to know if I was interested.

And you know what...I was!

I had the card already, but I did not have an uncut sheet of it and it was going to be a great addition to my uncut Rodney sheets.

In the mail about a week or two later....

Came the uncut sheet featuring a mix of players including the most important one on it, Rodney.

The back of sheet features what card each player was first featured on which for Rodney was 1990 Upper Deck and which one was his most valuable which was the 1990 Topps Supplemental. Sadly that card can be had for cents now-a-days.

Thanks again to Angus for this great addition to my Rodney collection. If you haven't checked out his blog or added him to your blogroll, please do as I linked his blog above.

Hope everyone has a great Saturday and make sure you finish that cup of coffee you forgot about on the counter.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Too Many Cards (not really)

*sits down, laptop is fully charged, coffee is ready and now it's time for cards over coffee*

A couple of weeks ago, Too Many Verlanders blog sent me a package that contained a lot of great cards and being behind on blogging, I haven't had the chance to show them off until today.

Dennis, as many other bloggers and former bloggers know, sends out some of the most generous and fun filled mail days out there.

Not that some of you others don't.

This time I was in shock as I continued to dig through the package as he just about hit up every part of my PC and hit it up well from shows he had gone to.

I sure hope you are ready and have your coffee in hand as I reveal this one. There were so many cards I had to group some.

Lots of G-Men.

 More here (yes a Yankees insert is hiding in the top corner)

And even more Gmen! (that Hilliard is awesome)

Danny Dimes. Panini doesn't do a lot of things right with cards, but they did these photos right.

Kerry Collins

90's numbered cards (to be fair, I knew these were coming because I claimed them)

J-Dom. One of the very few Yankees I still collect and both of these are new to that collection.

90's insert (bonus it's a Yankee)

You would think the cards above were enough, me to, but then came more! And of course I always appreciate Too Many Cards (and hope you all appreciate my play on his blog name)

This time some NY Giants hits and you want to know the crazy part, I have 6,000+ Giants cards and not a single one of these hits was a dupe. That's impressive. He either had intuition or stood outside my bedroom window watching me drink coffee and sort them. Either way, I am good with it.

Great Expectations from Illusions of Darius Slayton. I have great expectations of him this upcoming season.

 

Rookies and Stars NFL Authentic of Slayton.

Eli Manning manufactured Throwback Patch

 

Optic Donruss Threads of Sterling Shepard.

Finest Autograph rookie of Steve Smith.

Jerrel Jernigan Topps Chrome autograph.

Was this the end of this mail day? Nope. There were two more cards in this very loaded Too Many Cards I appreciated mail day.

Gary Sanchez manufactured MLB Commemorative patch.

And then this Game Floor piece of Shareef Abdur-Rahim that he had in his trade bait blog post I couldn't just leave there. I love unique relics and this for sure was one of those.

Thanks again to Dennis for his generosity and I hope you enjoyed what I sent you as much as I enjoyed this one.

*takes a sip and begins to sort these out with the other Giants cards*

*looks out the window to see if Dennis is there*

Hope everyone has a great day and thoughts on my mail day welcomed in comments.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Reaching 200

*sits down, takes a sip and gets ready for a new post on Cards Over Coffee*

*takes another sip for a celebratory post*

Four days in a row with posts, I know, I didn't expect this either. But, I took some time out to get this done and caught up. I hope you have your coffee and are enjoying this streak.

*takes a sip*

Today marks the day I hit 200 Amani Toomers, well, once I enter them on TCDB. Which I believe moves me up a few spots as well. But, I am still far from the top.

As always, when I get close to a milestone, I try to make the milestone card something cool.

Let's check it out.

 

My first pickup, card #196, was this 2002 Leaf Certified Fabric Of The Game. Remember when Jersey Cards were game worn?

Card #197 was this dual patch card from 2001 Titanium.

Card #198 is Score The Franchise which I landed for .38. You read that right.

I went a little bigger with card #199. This is a 1996 Ultra Sensations Rainbow parallel. Reportedly, the Rainbow cards were one percent of the total print run. I have never found the Rodney Hampton which is the only one I am missing.

And now Card #200....

 

2004 Absolute Memorabilia Ground Hoggs Game Used Shoe. As soon as I spotted this, I wanted it. And you can see the actual game used part of this.

And that's what I am talking about when it comes to a bigger card for the milestone. 

I am also talking about this mornings cup of coffee which is spot on. Some days it is, others it is not.

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

I have since added a few more Toomers, so I will see where I am at and now am on the chase for 250. I will wait on adding the cooler card once I reach 300.

Thoughts on my milestone, the cards and what player milestone you are chasing next welcomed in comments.

Hope everyone has a great day.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

A Trip Of A Lifetime Part 2

*coffee is ready, i am sitting down, post is being constructed*

*takes a sip*

I hope everyone remembers where we left off in Part 1 of this series, if not, you can check that out HERE. 

If you do remember, I was having a pizza supper before heading to a baseball game between the Washington Nationals and the Arizona Diamondbacks. This game had a 7:05 start. However, the problem was our group had already fallen behind schedule that day. Between the longer waits and restaurants and the travel time, it made us late for every event and that included the baseball game.

Which was disappointing, but we still got to go and it was my first time at a Nationals game (well I went to an Expos one way back) and my first baseball game in 8 years and only my fourth game overall.

We took the metro from our hotel to a place near the game. Rest of it was walking to get to the stadium.

We arrived roughly at the Top of the 5th inning. We did however miss a lot of action especially in the first inning where Former Diamondback Stone Garrett hit his first career grand slam for Washington. We did get to hear that on the radio we listened to on our way to the game.

The Nationals led early 4-1, but that didn't last long.

Once inside the stadium we were greeted with this,

We had to find our seats which were way up in the nosebleeds.

But it made for some great action shots.

(for you prospectors, I believe this was Corbin Carroll)

 

Overall, it was a great game and high scoring. The Diamondbacks went on to win 10-5 and we got to witness a few homeruns in our time there including one by Pavin Smith who had a big night.

On my way out, I snapped a few more photos.

  

And stopped by the overpriced store on the way out. 

 

And had to go home with something, so for $25 I brought home a Screech. Yes, I way overpaid but thought it was a memory to have. I didn't however pay the prices for Series 1 which was $35 a blaster and $16 a double pack. No thanks.

Fun experience. Didn't root on either team even though deep inside because Washington was home I wanted them to win. The stadium was beautiful, but the crowd was dead, maybe that's what it's like to root on a last place team.

Or maybe they are always like that there.

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

Day One was very tiring and we didn't get back to the hotel until after midnight and had to get up early for Day Two. It didn't help that we got lost after the game to find our way back mainly because we didn't exit where we entered. Let's also say the streets in Washington are very sketchy after dark to.

Thoughts on my pictures, the game, and if you have ever been to a Nationals game welcomed in comments.

More on this trip soon. I may combine the last of my pictures together into one post because there was a lot in Day 2 to recap.

Have a great Wednesday.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*