Breakin' with Colbey

While I'm not into the high end group breaking scene, I do really enjoy the Affordable Group Breaks that Colbey from Cardboard Collections runs. 

He's always busting a range of products, from some long-forgotten '90s releases to current day cards, and even throwing in some basketball or football here and there. While I've got large boxes of the stacks of cards I've accumulated from his breaks, I wanted to highlight a few that I just got from him, as I requested shipment since the poor guy is moving and has a ton of cards and toys to schlep with him.

Colbey busted a box of Series 2, so I got most of the Yankees I needed, with a nice Jeter insert to boot. The Florial RC is timely since he just hit his for big league HR. I was at the game but left before the homer. What a terrible fan.

One of the more unique products to have been broken was a 2003 Topps Shoe Box collection. Now, each box comes with the full set, so there are no surprises other than than four vintage cards that are included, but I struck out on that one.

Oh, and Colbey threw in some gum. He is trying to poison me.

Lastly, he busted some 2020-21 Donruss basketball. I snagged the Knicks, and somehow the Lakers weren't taken so I got them as well. The RJ Barrett is a very cool parallel:

As for the Lakers, I happened to get three LeBron cards, which feels like it's never a bad outcome.

Colbey, good luck with the move, and looking forward to breaking some more once you're settled into the new place.

Secret Santa pays me a visit from the Pacific Northwest

Just before I was to head out for my yearly Christmas travels, a box from my Secret Santa showed up! Before I get into it, thanks again to Jon from Penny Sleeves for once again running this year's program. Like Matthew before him, he does a great job!

I was thinking I might be getting a package from someone new this year, as I noticed in the comments there were a lot of names I didn't recognize. Many were from Twitter or TCDB, so I figured I might be getting something from an unfamiliar name.

WRONG!

A nice flat rate box showed up from one of my oldest trading partners, Kerry from Cards on Cards! Although he does send some surprise packages throughout the year, I was thinking this one might be too well-timed to not be Secret Santa. And I was right! I opened the box and there were two glorious team bags, as well as a sticky note that read, "This worked out well. I had some cards set aside for you anyhow."

Kerry always sends super generous packages, and this one was no different. The highlights were what were undoubtedly the main Secret Santa gifts in the form of two Tinos I didn't have!

The relic is aN eBaY oNe Of OnE #'d 100/100!

And the Gallery is a Private Issue #'d to 250.

Two low numbered Tinos I needed?! Secret Santa was good to me.

And the team bags were great too, chock full of Knicks and Yankees! I was really happy that Kerry was kind enough to include two RJ Barrett rookies! These are the first cards I have of the promising Knicks rook. I love the old school Hoops Tribute design!

A few more Knicks, including some Kevin Knox RCs and a sad card of Porzingas. I do love the sweet Knicks City Jersey.

For the baseball portion, I really loved the 2019 Chrome Refractors. A nice pink of DJLM and the Jeter is awesome.

I LOVE this shot of Judge.

I'm surprised by how many Yankees cards Edwin is going to end up with this year. I loved having him in Pinstripes, even if it was for a short time and even if he stunk in the Playoffs.

Lastly, a vintage stock card of Yankees legend Ivan Rodriguez. Perhaps he is hitting his only Yankees homer in this shot?!

Kerry, thanks for being an awesome Secret Santa!

Wait, is this the contest prize? Or is this?

I've had this posted draft for ages, but just never got around to publishing.

Back in the late spring, I got two packages from Kerry over at Cards on Cards. I actually figured the first package was my contest prize for his March Madness contest, but then the second package indicated that that was indeed the contest package. So looks like the first was just a nice act of generosity from Kerry!

The first package was a mixture of Yanks and Knicks. The highlight for me was a very shiny, beautiful Elite Series Gleyber.

In the words of ZZ, woof. That's a pretty card.

A few other Yanks were included, which we new to me at the time.

The Knicks cards are always fun to go through, minus the fact that they are...you know...players on the Knicks. I just like seeing basketball cards, which to me, have been a bit better looking than baseball cards on the whole over the last few years.

Look, it's the guy the Knicks traded away so that they'd have the cap space to sign Durant Julius Randle and Kyrie Bobby Portis.

I can't keep track of all the Panini parallels, but I do think these look really nice.

While I'll always be a fan of the old Donruss and Pacific, I'm not the biggest fan of bastardizing them like this in current issues, although the Melo is ok.

These two sets bring me back to my childhood!

And I'll always laugh at the back of 90-91 Skybox where they had a box with the player's first name in it. So odd.

Here's a nice assortment, as well an auto that was neatly tucked inside! Will Hernangomez has a very elaborate signature, eh?

So I would have been totally fine if that was the prize package, as it was generous and a blast to go through. But then this showed up, which was the REAL prize!

This was a bit more Yankee centric!

My favorite card was a Hertitage Clubhouse Collection of Masahiro Tanaka! Pretty sweet card.

Here are some other's that caught my eye. As I've been saying, any Gleybers right now are very welcome!

Kerry, thanks for always sending such excellent packages!

SuperTraders #12: Sports Cards From The Dollar Store

I haven't had the opportunity to trade with Douglas of Sports Cards From The Dollar Store yet, so this is a great benefit of the #SuperTraders group.  I look forward to sending Douglas a whole bunch of Mets cards. He also collects Raptors...hmmm, maybe I have an old Damon Stoudamire RC around somewhere!

Regardless, Douglas sent me a great PWE of Yanks. I love these Hometown Heroes cards, so I was pumped to get a few of them.

I think at the time (this arrived awhile ago), this was my first look at 2016 Donruss.

I appreciated this Tanaka rookie card too. He was HUGE as a rook before he got hurt. I'll never forget watching him pitch while I was in the hospital the day my daughter was born. He shut down the Cubs on 4/16/14 - 8 innings, 2 hits, no runs, 1 walk, 10 Ks. Dominant.

I already sent this card off to James Pazos in hopes of getting a TTM autograph, although from what I understand is that he isn't much of an autographer signer via the mail. Still, you never know!

Lastly, a Knick made it into the package! I don't think I had any Kenyon Martin Knicks cards, so this was welcome. Also - don't Panini cards just look better with logos?

Douglas, thank you! I'll send you a package soon.

Another vintagely awesome PWE

I love PWEs. Seriously. They could contain anything. They could be all of my favorite player. They could be all Bip Roberts. They could be vintage, new stuff, prospects, refractors. Anything.

Mark H sends some of the best PWEs out there, and this past one was no different. I mentioned something about some vintage Knicks once, and Mark of course said, "I've got some old Knicks for you."

But I'll get to that in a minute.

My favorite card, by far, was this Dr. Bobby Brown card. I had never seen one of these and had no clue what set it was from. Mark informed me it was from 1952 Berk Ross. No clue. So I hit the interwebs and here is a snippet I stole from PSA's website:

The 1952 Berk Ross set consists of 72 cards, each one 2” x 3”. Manufactured by the Berk Ross Company of New York City, card fronts have a posed “hand-painted” color likeness with the player’s name in white script. The images are framed in white. Card backs feature the player's name, position, team, personal data, and a line of statistics from the previous season. A headline at the top proclaims the set as the “Hit Parade of Champions.” Key cards include Joe DiMaggio (though he retired at the end of the 1951 season), Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, and Ted Williams. (The DiMaggio and Williams cards were not available in the 1952 Bowman or Topps sets, making the Berk Ross examples highly collectible). This unnumbered set is also anchored by a plethora of Hall of Fame subjects and stars including Richie Ashburn, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Bob Feller, Gil Hodges, Ralph Kiner, Johnny Mize, Pee Wee Reese, and Duke Snider. The set has a few notable errors: the backs of the Ewell Blackwell and Nellie Fox are switched, while the Phil Rizzuto card was issued with two different poses – one bunting and the other swinging. (http://www.psacard.com/cardfacts/Hierarchy.aspx?c=223#)

Sounds awesome! I need to track down the Rizzutos.

And the Knicks! Here are the Knicks. While I collected basketball cards growing up, I really know next to nothing about vintage NBA cards, so these designs are all new to me. They are from 1975-76 Topps.

Lastly, I have to show this. First, Action Packed is cool, so no issues there. Second, I'll always have a special place in my heart for Russ Davis, as he was the key prospect the Yankees sent to the Mariners in the Tino trade. Thanks, Russ!

Mark, as always, thank you!