1995 Flashback Affordable Group Break

02/05/19 UPDATE - We are full!! Thank you so much to everyone who signed up and help spread the word. Boxes have been ordered and I'm hoping they'll ship today. We should be able to open these live this Saturday night for those of you who want to join in. I've done them on Twitter in the past, but I'm also open to YouTube. Let me know what you prefer!

1995 was full of memories for me. I graduated High School, started a new job at the local theme park...but most importantly it was the year my Atlanta Braves finally won the World Series! While I'm hoping they can return to their former glory with this upcoming season, let's celebrate 1995 with a break featuring 1995 Pinnacle product!

First up is Sportflix. I love lenticular cards and this was one of the first sets that really caught my attention. This hobby box has 36 packs and features some great 90's inserts like Hammer Team among others.

Next up is Summit. These premium cards are printed on a white background and still look pretty slick today. This hobby box has 24 packs and featured insert sets around some of the young talent at the time.

Finally we have Zenith, one of Pinnacle's first super premium cards (of the time). Slick black backgrounds w/ gold make for some nice looking cards. Who says everything from the 90's was junk? This hobby box has 24 packs and features a few inserts with Pinnacle's patented Dufex technology.

With any Affordable Group Break there will be surprises as well...

Interested? All you need to do to claim a slot is to leave a comment on this post with your desired team(s). All cards pulled for your team will be shipped. The rest of the directions are as follows:

INFO (Please Read Carefully)

* 2 team slots - choose your 1st team, 2nd team will be 

randomized from all unclaimed teams

* Each slot will be $12 (shipping included)

* As the host, I claim the Braves

* Payments (goods & services please) can be sent to:

paypal.me/flywheels86

* Boxes will be ordered once half (7) of the slots have been claimed. 

I hope to break the evening of February 9th?

* I can do a live break either on Twitter or on my YouTube channel

...whichever platform that gets the most votes

01 - Braves - Cardboard Collections (PAID)

02 - Royals - Royals & Randoms (PAID)

03 - Giants - Nick Vossbrink (PAID)

04 - Red Sox - Bulldog (PAID)

05 - Cardinals - Cards on Cards (PAID)

06 - Astros - The Dimwit (PAID)

07 - Cubs - Matt Pederson

08 - Pirates - Wade Fisher (PAID)

09 - Rockies - Adam Kaningher (PAID)

10 - Orioles - Nick Dusenberry (PAID)

11 - Indians - Ken Kinsley (PAID)

12 - Yankees - Lost Collector (PAID)

13 - Mariners - Tim B (PAID)

14 - Athletics - Bulldog (PAID)

Pack Break: 1981 Fleer Baseball Star Stickers

Last summer when I was hosting several of my Affordable Group Breaks, I grabbed a few loose packs from the Baseball Card Exchange for myself just for the fun of it. One of these packs were 1981 Fleer Baseball Star Stickers. I'm not sure why it's taken this long for me to share this, but here we go!

To be honest I had no idea these existed as I didn't dip my toes in the collectible cardboard pool until late 1990. However the pack was cheap so I thought I'd give it a try.

As the pack declared, these cards were also stickers. With the "peel" in each corner, I imagine the sticker would have an odd look w/ the concave like corners once peeled? Design is on par with the 80's. Backs at least are crammed full of stats for those number geeks.

I believe I ended up grabbed several of these packs and if they are still available I may grab a few more to feature in a future break...that is assuming there are people still reading the blog that would like to participate in a break.

Pack Break: 2019 WWE Road to WrestleMania

Just in time for tonight's WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view event! If you're a wrestling fan then you know each January WWE's marketing department kicks off their Road to WrestleMania campaign. Of course with tonight's Royal Rumble match, the winning male and female of their respective rumble match will earn a title shot at WrestleMania. Topps uses this marketing campaign as a way to chronicle the previous year in the WWE on cardboard.

This isn't a product I usually buy a lot of packs of as I really only care about the base set and opt to buy a hand collated set. The base set is comprised of 100 cards with another 20 update cards. I'm not sure if the update cards are only found in hobby or retail, but essentially you have 120 cards to chase if you're building the set.

I love opening packs and featuring the contents on my blog, so I grabbed a fat back from Walmart last week while I was out of town traveling for work. Apparently in the Walmart packs you get one exclusive Women's Revolution card and a chance for autos too. Tons of parallels and inserts to be found. Check out Cardboard Connection's page for the complete run down. Like with previous years, events from both weekly televisions shows (RAW and SmackDown Live) as well as pay-per-view events are chronicled.

Hey look, it's John Cena before he let his hair grow out and looks like JBL's love child!

While I love the New Day and their antics, is anyone else starting to get a little tired of the push they've had in the tag team division?

I can't even tell you what night 205 Live comes on anymore, but I do love watching the Cruiserweights work the ring and fly through the air.

AJ Styles was standing high as the WWE Champion at last year's WrestleMania event. The title looked good around his waist and it's odd seeing it on Daniel Bryant now. Wonder if that'll change this April?

I ended up w/ this card of Charlotte Flair (whooo!) as the one per pack Walmart exclusive. I remember watching this particular Beat the Clock Challenge match on RAW. That was back when RAW was more entertaining. Lately it's been a snooze fest.

The WrestleMania insert set returns with 50 cards in the set. While they just feature posed shots, this is a set I usually try to complete each year to go hand in hand w/ the base set.

I get why some WWE card collectors skip this set, but I like the way the set chronicles events from television and PPVs. The rosters and landscape are always changing so it's cool to look back and see what happened.

Well that's it for me. Time to wrap up this post so I can finish getting ready for tonight's Royal Rumble. Looking forward to this PPV as it always offers a few surprises and the card looks pretty good tonight. Here's hope my hometown R-Truth can pull out a win in the Rumble!

How cold is it outside?

It's been hard for me to come up w/ content ideas for the blog during this off-season, but new 2019 baseball cards are just around the corner, then Spring Break and finally the kick off of the new baseball season.

While I'm still searching for new ideas, let's talk about this crazy weather we've all been having and football. Well unless you live under a rock then I'm sure you've heard about the questionable calls...or no calls, from the referees in this weekend's AFC and NFC Championship games.

My team (Carolina Panthers) had an off year so I really don't have a dog in the fight this year, however that doesn't mean that I've stopped watching football or buying football cards. I've got a stack of cards that need to be scanned in order to share, but part of the problem I've been so sporadic in posting new content is this cold weather. You see my office is above our garage and is the coldest room in the house. While I can take my laptop elsewhere, my scanner and all my cards are in my office. 

To answer the question in the title of this post, "How cold is it?", it's so cold my latest NC State alumni purchase has to wear a toboggan! No seriously, check out this awesome booklet.

The card is from 2013 Topps Prime and is a RC of then Buccaneers QB Mike Glennon. Mike was drafted out of NC State and the 3rd overall QB selected in the draft, behind EJ Manuel and Geno Smith. He would start in 2013, before being "replaced" by Josh McCown in 2014. In 2015 Mike wouldn't even find the field, playing backup to Jameis Winston. He would fill in for Winston for 2 games in 2016, before signing w/ the Chicago Bears in 2017. At the beginning of 2018 however, he was released from his contract and would eventually sign a contract w/ the Arizona Cardinals.

While his NFL career may not have gone as he envisioned it would, it hasn't stopped me from picking up some super nice cards of his. Granted he may not get as many cards now as he did in his first few years, this RC card of his has to be his nicest. Serially numbered 3/5 and featuring a (sticker) auto and a large piece of a player worn toboggin...or do you call it a beanie? Either way, this beautiful booklet card needed a one touch so I made a quick run to my LCS, Grand Slam in Rock Hill, SC. 

With new product coming and hopefully warmer weather (eventually) I do plan on gearing up and making this blog a little more active. Until then you can always find me hanging out on Twitter (@flywheels). 

BTW, I picked up some new trade bait while I was at my LCS today. Stay tuned as I'll be posting this stuff soon. 

2018 In Review

The new year has already ushered itself in so now is the time to look back at the year that was. In 2018 this blog had 79 posts, 19 fewer posts from 2017, but 29 posts more than 2016.

2018 also saw the return of the Affordable Group Break. I had gotten away from my hosting duties as I had gotten a little burnt out and needed some time to focus on other things...like getting my collection organized...which still hasn't fully happened. I suspended the breaks in late 2018, but I may bring it back at some point in the first quarter of 2019 if I think there are enough people interested.

On the topic of breaks, I held a break that benefited a friend and his family quest to adopt a child from overseas. The break was successful and we collectively were able to make a decent size donation to their GoFundMe account...which by the way they did make their goal to have a successful adoption!

Last week I read somewhere that they though card blogging was dead and that many people had moved onto using Twitter as their medium for collecting and sharing cards. While I somewhat agree with their statement, I'm not ready to give up the blog. Granted my blogging activity is down, I know I'm not the only one that suffers from finding time to blog. I'm still collecting, still adding cards to my want lists and trade lists and when I have time, I'm still reading other blogs and trying to make trades when possible. I also try to stay engaged with several fellow card collectors on Twitter. If you're not already following me and you want to, @flywheels is my handle. However my Twitter account is used across all of my blogging platforms so if you only follow card bloggers, but know that you may see a toy or video game related tweet from time to time.

 

I'm not one to create goals for myself in the new year as I already feel as if I have enough on my plate. I really want to get myself and my collection more organized...who doesn't?! I have started to take steps at putting sets I've actively building into binders. This will make it easier for me to add the new cards to the set as well as enjoy the sets I'm building. I've already purchased Avery spine labels and made myself a template I plan on using for the binders. If I'm going to take the time to do binders, then I want to do it right. I hope to dive into creating the binders and the spine inserts really soon as this is a project I've been excited about undertaking.

After I complete the binders, it's back to organizing my monster boxes that house my team collections. I'd love to put these in pages too, but time/money/space won't allow that right now. Plus my ADD doesn't allow me to put cards in pages unless there are perfectly in alphabetical order by card release.

I was able to pick up some good cards in 2018 as well. Some came through group breaks that I either hosted or participated in, trades or eBay purchases. I'm really behind on my scanning of cards so here are just a few that I already happened to have scans of readily available.

You would think that with me working from home so much during the year that I would be able to create more content for this blog and the rest of the ones I operate, but between work, family and my other hobbies it's a constant struggle that doesn't seem to be getting any better any time soon.

I'm looking forward to a new year of cards, with 2019 Topps just a few weeks away from being released. I hope to be able to continue to build the annual sets that I enjoy (Gypsy Queen, Allen & Ginter, Archives) while I continue to chip away at filling holes and cleaning up my want lists.

A huge thank you goes out to everyone that I've met along the way. The card blogging landscape continues to change and I know we haven't seen the last of these changes. I continue to enjoy sharing and talking cards with everyone, whether it's here on the blog, on Facebook or on Twitter.

SunTrust Park Visit, 06/01/18

Well, as you can see from the date I'm about 6 months late getting around to posting this...but better late than never, right? Living in the upstate of SC I don't get to take in as many Atlanta Braves games in person as I'd like, but last June for my wife's birthday we made the trip down to the ATL for the weekend to catch a Braves vs. Nationals game.

My wife isn't the biggest sports fan. I can hardly get her to watch anything with me on TV, however she's more interested in watching the games in person. The drive is about 5-6 hours, which isn't too bad, but it's a boring drive down I-85. None the less we sat our early that morning to make our way to SunTrust Park.

We should've stopped and grabbed dinner before hand, but I was anxious to get back to the ballpark so we decided we'd just eat at the game. There are plenty of good food options to choose from. We chose Fox Brother's BBQ at the Terrapin Taproom. The line to get a table was pretty long, even though we were there early. Beforehand I didn't know they offered a "buffet" on the 2nd floor, but when we learned there was little to no wait to went on up. The buffet wasn't a traditional buffet, only allowing one trip through the line. The servers were pretty generous in the servings. I went w/ mac & choose and BBQ baked beans and everything was delicious.

 

After we finished our dinner we walked around a little bit before we headed to find our seats. First row in left center field, right over the Braves bullpen! We got a great deal on the tickets and personally, I loved the view. Since my last visit to SunTrust Park there was a new plaque hanging in the Braves Hall of Fame of my guy "Huddy" so of course I had to snap a pic.

When we first took our seats there wasn't much going on in the bullpen as you can see, but it wasn't long before Mike Foltynewicz took to warming up for that nights game. Folty would go on to pitch a complete game shut out against the Nats that night. It was so awesome watching him work his magic that evening, especially striking out Bryce Harper a few times. All those boos turned to cheers with each strikeout...it was great!

The fireworks continued to go off as we exited the stadium. I tried to get a picture or two of the fireworks, but alas the large crowd funneling out of SunTrust didn't allow me much time to grab a picture.

It was a quick was visit to Atlanta as we headed back home in the morning, but I savor every opportunity that I get to catch a MLB game. I'm so jealous of the people that get to go to more games more often, however I'm thankful that I get to (usually) take a game or two in each season.

But what would a post be on a baseball card blog if I didn't tie it back into cards in someway? Well shortly after the game I started to check Topps Now as I just knew that Folty's mound performance should warrant a Topps Now card and for once Topps didn't let me down! I placed the order and proceeded to tell my wife that she had Birthday card from Topps. It was one of the few times where she legitimately seemed interested in baseball cards.