Let It Burn(s)

Usher once sang Let It Burn, I want to sing, Let it Burns with my latest two pickups.

Brian Burns proved last season why the Giants made the bring trade for him back in 2024. He recorded 16 sacks which doubled his total from the first year as a Giant and also the most he has had in his career.

Up to this point, I didn't really have any cool cards of him.

Now I do. 

 

I don't have this Burns in front of me, but if I am remembering correctly it was numbered to 699. I just like the stars in the background. I was given this as a gift.

Then there is the autograph relic card. I landed this for under $4 for a player who is only on the rise. I couldn't believe I was the only eBay bidder on this one!

I am hoping that Spider Man has another big season this year. The front seven for the Giants looks to be the best one they have had since the last Super Bowl years.

With a new defense install and a new coach, hopefully big things to come.

Coach

Every time the Giants have gotten a new coach in the last ten years I have acquired an autograph of them. Usually, I send in a TTM to get them.

But so far this year I have slacked and haven't gotten my mail out. I may be too late to try it now since they are in the middle of a bunch of practice and OTA's. 

I still may send one in and hope to get it back at some point in a Giants uniform.

In the meantime, I did acquire his autograph thanks to a trade with Ravens fan Dion from 

Dions IP Auto Only blog.

He acquired this one back when Harbaugh was with the Ravens.

I am hoping this will be the last Giants coach autograph I will need to acquire for a very long time. We can't keep recycling through coaches like we have been. It's time to rebuild and move forward!!

I am very excited about this upcoming season and it's mainly because of this coaching hire.

Single Card Mail Day:2025 Elite Elite Coverage Jersey Card Jason Sehorn

As I put in the last post, I don't normally buy many newer jersey cards anymore due to the fact they don't contain actual game used jerseys or jersey even from the players featured.

But sometimes I will find one that will catch my eye anyway.

 

I picked up this up for pretty much nothing and I didn't grab it for the relic; I grabbed it for the moment. If I am looking at this right, this image is from Jason Sehorns incredible ground catching pick six moment in the 2001 NFL Playoffs against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Not only was it an incredibly focused catch and explosive moment, but it came against the Eagles who are my most hated team in the NFL. It was a very happy moment for me. I am glad that it is now captured on cardboard.

Let me know in comments if you have ever bought or acquired a card that features a moment.

Single Card Mail Day:2011 Panini Gridiron Gear Game Breakers Patch Hakeem Nicks

I don't find myself dabbling too much into newer relic cards like I used to.

It seems most relic cards aren't even worn or touched by the said player on the front. So basically, companies are buying jerseys off from store shelves and cutting them up. That's the easiest way to put it.

So, when I find a good game used patch card for under $5, I am scooping it up. Especially if it's one of my favorite Giants wide outs.

This is a nice two-color swatch of Hakeem Nicks.

 

Back of the card is numbered to 50.

I would love to find a few more in this set of the patch cards.

How many newer relic cards do you buy or do you stick with the classics that have game used pieces? Let me know in comments.

Rodney's Cardboard: End Of The Road?

Has it come time to end my reign of Rodney Hampton?

My once domination of owning every Rodney Hampton hasn't been the case the last few years. With companies pumping him out and prices of Rodney on the rise, this doesn't equal out well for a simple, low budget collector like myself.

In the last two months alone, the following Rodney's have been pumped out, all with parallels,

 

That's a lot. And what makes it worse, other than a few base ones from 2025 Prizm Black and 2025 Panini I don't see myself ever being able to add anymore.

Not when they are listed at $30 each or incredibly more. The rarer cards are being listed at $300+. This is for Rodney Hampton. I have seen 1/1's from Panini Select go for $70. It seems the combination of flippers and money makers in the hobby is having an impact on all areas and even a guy like Rodney Hampton isn't being left out.

The hobby is in a sad place right now and is dragging me down with it.

I have added four cards from the ones above that were actually priced correctly, but that maybe it for me and may be the end of the road for my Rodney chase in general. I also lost out on a 1997 Upper Deck Black Diamond Gold I had waited all these years to be listed and that even went for $13 and I got sniped. Prices for Rodney Hampton shouldn't be like this. There should be a happy medium for guys like this in the hobby and the collectors of them.

Let me know in comments if you are experiencing this with any of the people you collect.

Have a great Sunday and stay tuned for those four new Rodney's to be posted.

On The Dart

With all of the excitement and build up heading into the 2025-26 season for the NY Giants, I fell for the trap I said I never would again, that is buying up cheap Jaxson Dart cards.

I did this when the hype around Daniel Jones kicked in and kicked myself for adding 13 autographs and over 200 of his cards.

I said, nope, never again.

But, here I am.

However, with the increase of prices since the Daniel Jones days, I won't be adding 13 autographs or nearly that number of cards. But I will be adding some.

These are my latest ones, which I landed for all cheap,

(don't get me started on this SILVER Mosaic add. someone on Twitter argued with me telling me Mosaic doesn't have prizm silver parallels when you can obviously see it here)

(I think I might have four relic cards now)

 

And that's it.

For now.

There will be more to come.

Which player from your team are you adding more cards of? Let me know in comments!

Eli's Cardboard:2025 Prizm Black Kaleidoscope Silver

There are well over 14,000 Eli Manning cards as companies continue to pump them out.

So, how does one who collects him narrow down what to chase? Normally I chase it all, but there are some specifics that catch my eye first.

1. Relic Cards

2. Anything with Super Bowl 42 or 46

3. Cheap Rookies

4. Well designed cards

5. SHINY

Today's card is a combination of four and five,

which is this Kaleidoscope from Panini Prizm Black which was its own standalone product this year. I don't know what it was about the card, but I felt like I needed to add it before I added any others.

I waited for it to go cheap, used some of my gift card and snagged it. I also had to get the silver version since that looked better than the base one.

I will have to get back to posting my Eli's again when I get them fully updated and hope that TCDB can get caught up with some of the Leaf ones that weren't listed yet.

Single Card Mail Day:2025 Select Autograph Phil McConkey

Hello!

I promise I will try to post more on here; it's not like I don't have NY Giants cards coming in every so often, it's just finding time to post on three blogs which makes it tough. Though I do consider this blog #2 in my trio.

Anyways, a couple months ago I was able to cross another NY Giants autograph off from my needs list,

 

This beautiful Phil McConkey! Select put out a ton of oddball autograph players you don't see every day including some Giants I am trying to add. Panini was unloading everything before the NFL license ended.

I may not have watched Phil play, I didn't become a deep Giants fan until 1995, but he is still a legendary name in blue and I wanted his autograph.

I still have many others to cross off still as well so come back to see that journey.

Whose autograph from your team are you hoping to add still? Let me know in comments.

Have a terrific Tuesday!