an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of giants collectors

i believe economist adam smith would agree that a baseball card is only worth what someone is willing to give up to obtain it.  well, i was willing to send some giant cards to another smith - arpsmith - of arpsmith's sportscard obsession in order to obtain some random dodger cards.  smith also noted that individuals who own surplus stock would generally look to gain from the excess, and arpsmith clearly subscribes to that theory because he sent me some of his collection's excess - mainly these (and a few more) dodger cards.

1967 topps ron fairly

it's always nice to see some vintage in these blind trades.  even better when the dodger is wearing number 6 which means it's either a carl furillo, fairly, or steve garvey card.  those three were the only dodgers to wear the number from 1946 through 1982.

1988 topps traded alfredo griffin

when i saw this card i thought of baseball card vandals and wondered if they had changed this into a nate griffin card yet.

1993 score select henry rodriguez

outfielders that the dodgers kept instead of henry rodriguez (who hit 140 home runs over the five and a half seasons following his 1995 trade from the dodgers to the expos) included can't miss prospects billy ashley, roger cedeno, and karim garcia who between them had 33 home runs for the dodgers (although power admittedly was not cedeno's thing).

2001 pacific shawn green

and 2001 pacific jim leyritz

thank goodness for pacific.  i have plenty of shawn green dodger cards, but only a couple of leyritz in dodger blue - this one and a 2001 upper deck victory card.  i don't know if any others even exist.

2001 pacific private stock adrian beltre

beltre will be inducted into the hall of fame, i have no doubt.  he is 7 home runs shy of 400 and about 450 hits shy of 3000 (just 41 behind steve garvey) and is signed through next season with a vesting option for 2016.  it is likely that he would get his 3000th hit in 2017 at the age of 38 if things stay relatively the same.  if he does it as a ranger, that would mean that he would have played as many seasons in texas as he did in los angeles, and so i would guess that he would be inducted wearing a rangers' hat.  we will have to wait and see what happens.

2013 topps joe blanton gold parallel

smith was a critic of mercantilism which endorsed the keeping of gold reserves as part of a country's economic stability.  i guess i disagree in that i will hoard all gold parallels of dodger cards.  even those of joe blanton, who was 2-4 with a 4.99 era in his 10 games as a dodger.

2014 donruss matt kemp power plus insert

here's a card dealing with surplus - a surplus of talent, a player not one-dimensional, making dodger fans happy, while providing financial gain for the individual to the tune of a $160-million contract through 2019.  i actually already owned this card, so perhaps i will attempt to turn my surplus into gain by trading with a fellow dodger collector…

thanks for the trade adam!  i'll have some excess giant cards headed your way soon!

crackin' blue

so heritage and opening day and even topps stickers have been released, and i haven't even shown off the 2013 topps flagship dodger stuff i received from crackin' wax and his series 1 case break.  the horror.  i know you have seen most if not all of this before, but humor me.  

here's a matt kemp emerald parallel

the matt kemp 1972 mini

and the regular matt kemp chasing history card

i also picked up the sandy koufax chasing history insert

and the hanley ramirez one, too.

i did pretty well with andre ethier as it turned out.  here's his emerald parallel

his gold parallel

his 1972 mini

and a chasing history relic

yee haw.  i was hoping to get one of the 'out of bounds' sp's, but alas i did not.

more emeralds - chad billingsley

joe blanton

and kenley jansen

another gold - chris capuano

and a whole mess of base cards.  like as in multiple team sets.  my two favorite cards are the aj ellis

featuring a lurking clayton kershaw, and the ted lilly

featuring the foliage of the right field bullpen at dodger stadium.  i'm hoping topher does a series 2 break, but prior to that, i'm in for his allen & ginter break.  should be great.

thanks for hosting topher!

plain blue envelopes

continuing my futile effort in keeping up with new mail, i received three plain white envelopes in the mail on thursday.  see?  it's already saturday - this stuff is two days old.  plus, i'm only showing the contents of two of the envelopes.  and i haven't even mentioned the two bubble mailers that showed up the same day!  nor have i posted about a half dozen or so other trade packages i have received recently.

the envelopes, though plain and white, contained pretty much all blue, as in dodgers.  i will acknowledge this one - from new blogger kalib at cubs cardboard.  he sent me two blue parallels from 2013 topps, including joe blanton

who finds himself down the 5 in anaheim these days.  actually, he's still in arizona, but eventually will be throwing at the big a.  so, for minor league prospect ryan o'sullivan, this colletti pick up garnered 10 starts, a 4.99 era, and a 1.42 whip over 57.2 innings of work.

hopefully, adrian gonzalez does better

i read somewhere that this photo might be from his first ab as a dodger, in which he hit a three-run homer.  that's nice, if true.  i went to the first game of that series against the marlins, when the trade with boston was becoming something more than a rumor.

the other pwe i received was of the sase variety.  it contained a ttm autograph return from former dodger, former red sox (part of the gonzalez trade), and current pirate ivan dejesus jr.

i sent to him at pirates camp, and it took only about a week or so.

thanks ivan and kalib! and thanks to hot corner cards, play at the plate, dayf, arpsmith, hiflew, bo, cards on cards, topher, and the junior junkie for also sending me stuff recently.  i will get all of the trade posts posted soon, and if i owe you cards (kalib, hot corner, arpsmith, junior junkie), i will get those in the mail soon, too.