Cardboard Acquisitions: Baseball & Football edition

Hey everyone! I meant to post some new content to both the blog and my YouTube channel before Christmas, but there was just so much to do in order to get the house ready for family visiting and all that comes with it and I just didn't have the time.

However below is a link to my latest "pick ups" video I posted to my channel. I do hope to get back to some regular activity in the coming week or so. Hopefully I can get some ideas for a 2020 collecting resolution video out of my head and typed up before they disappear! Until then, enjoy the video.

Christmas Cards (and not, I don't mean 2019 Topps Holiday)

Maybe a week ago I was tagged in a Tweet by @forgotaboutblay that some Christmas cards were on their way. A few days later a little bubble mailer showed up and inside was a thick brick of cards consisting of my 3 teams - Braves, Panthers & Hornets.

When the stack includes Chipper Jones cards you know you're in for a treat. I think I have this 1994 Bowman's Best, but it's such a great card I don't mind having a duplicate. I don't believe I've seen these 2005 Leaf Gamers cards before. It's printed in reflective silver foil and looks much better in hand. The same cam be said about the 1999 Fleer Ultra Diamond Mine. It's a very shiny card and from an insert set I'm not that familiar with.

Let's not forget about this 1997 Donruss Silver Press Proof parallel of former Braves slugger Ryan Klesko! Probably one of the more bittersweet cards in the stack was this 2011 Topps Chrome Refractor of Brian McCann. He announced his retirement this season after the Braves were eliminated in the NLCS by the Cardinals. This is a great photo of Brian and the Chrome Refractors are just so beautiful.

These two 2012 Panini Prime Signatures cards are think. The design is very minimal, but it works. Both are serially numbered with Jon Beason being 135/499 and Steve Smith being 120/499.

Another thick card in the stack was this 2014 Score Kelvin Benjamin Team Helmets. The helmet is made of rubber (?) and it's also a RC. Kelvin started off his career in Carolina pretty hot, but soon injuries started to plague his on the field performance. There were also issues with his attitude and diet and it wasn't long before Benjamin was on his way out the door to Buffalo and all of the Charlotte media was mocking him for his lack of a diet. It was actually entertaining radio at the time.

I haven't bought any of Panini's Unparalleled product before, but I do like this Perfect Pairs insert from the 2017 set. It shines great in hand and features two of the best defensive players ever to suit up for Carolina - Thomas Davis and Luke Kuechly.

I grew up watching many Hornets games in person at the old Charlotte Coliseum back in the day. I don't have a lot of Hornets cards from the mid to late 90's so these cards from 96-97 Fleer Ultra are great. I especially love the Anthony Mason card. He was so much fun to watch bang around in the paint. Vlade Divac came over from the Lakers in the now infamous Kobe Bryant draft/trade. Kobe was never going to play for Charlotte so I hate it when that topic comes up whether in the national or local media. The Tony Delk card is from an insert set called Rookie Encore. I remember him being an instant fit for the team and helped provide more scoring fairly quickly.

There were also a few 99-00 Fleer Ultra cards as well. Here we have Ricky Davis, Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell. I honestly don't remember much about Ricky or Elden, but Eddie was the one of the few star players the Hornets seemed to have during this period...well maybe outside of Baron Davis.

There were also many other cards in the brick that Dennis sent that I didn't share. I really appreciate being thought of and I appreciate the cards as well. All of them will find a nice home in my various collections. Thanks again Dennis, Merry Christmas!

Breathing New Life into my YouTube Channel

In an effort to do a better job sharing new cards, etc. here on the blog, I thought about using my seldom used YouTube channel and try to breathe some new life into it at the same time.

I watch a fair amount of gaming, comic and toy videos on YouTube, however lately I've noticed more and more collectors using this platform for trading cards. Bean's Ball Card Blog is one channel in particular I've been watching lately, along with several people that I also follow on Twitter. I know my channel won't compete with some of those channels, but it oughta be fun for me none the less.

For my first video it's a short introduction (as everyone may not know who I am) and then I share my latest Rey Ordonez cards I've acquired for my super collection of his.

If all goes well I hope to make more videos and other content in the new year that is upon us. Don't expect slick, high quality videos however as when it comes to YouTube I'm strictly an amateur.

Sunday Verse

Colossians 3:13

New International Version Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Pack Break: 2019 Topps Opening Day Target Exclusive Red Parallels

Ah, it just seems like the other day was the beginning of the 2019 MLB season. Shortly after the season kicked off, collectors such as myself, were out scavenging their local Target stores looking for the blasters that had the exclusive 7 card pack of red parallels.

While cleaning up the stacks of cards, packs and boxes piled up beside my sofa (that's my favorite place to rip cards) I found said pack so I'll finally show off the contents. Nothing too excited (for me) so all of these will be added to my trade lists over at The Trading Card Database.

I really love the foil colored parallels from all of Topps 2019 products. The red parallels look especially nice for Braves players, but sadly I never chased many of them when they seemed to be more plentiful and trading hands. I've got them all on my TCDB want list so hopefully someone will come along and be willing to trade me.