The rest of the Bru-haha

A few days ago I showed off a Tino Martinez A&G mini that Bru sent in a "fancy little holder."

That card was actually a throw-in within a TCDB trade we made. TCDB is a great place to trade if you're into that sort of thing.

Bru is always down to take Astros off my hand, and thank god. That team really is hated. The Yanks just took two of the three from them, which I appreciate. But losing the last game, one pitched by Gerrit Cole, and letting that little shell of himself turd Altuve beat them with a homer leaves a sour taste despite winning the series.

The two actual cards in the trade were those two unlicensed beauties. The Cole is very cool and colorful, while the Torres has a nice, embossed glove in the background. His glove work has actually been very good the last few weeks at short. Now if he could remember how to hit for power.

Now for a few of the extras. I almost missed that this is an Artist's Proof. I can effectively say I've never opened a pack of Gallery, so I always appreciate when I get some in a trade.

Giancarlo Stanton is the hottest hitter on the planet right now, which means I refuse to check Twitter because I know the Tweet that "he's experiencing soreness" or "he's being sent for an MRI" is coming. It's sad, but you have to know it's coming. I am a big fan of his, I hate the unnecessary expectations, and he seems like a good dude. I'd love for him to stay on the field and have a massive season.

I do appreciate this relic, with a nice pinstripe.

Topps Stickers have been pretty nice lately. I have no desire to have an album and put the stickers inside. But treating them as cards, they are nice looking, albeit flimsy.

Lastly, I'm not quite sure where this comes from, and my Google search is coming too empty, but it looks like a custom set from GOAT cards using the Rookies app card templates. The Ruth artwork is pretty cool, although I hope used with permission. The painting is a neat balance of realism with almost of hint of cartoon in Ruth's face. The card is glossy as well, which was never an option when I previously used the Rookies app. Perhaps this person printed these himself.

Bru also threw in some nice Heritage cards from the last two years.

Good trade. I've already got a stack of Astros building up for you, Bru.

A Surprise from Sunrise

One of my oldest trading buddies from around here is Robert from $30 A Week Habit. He and I started blogging around the same time, and have exchanged many packages and envelopes over the years.

While the envelopes have slowed a bit - mostly on my end because I haven't been good about sending out cards - Robert was kind enough to shoot me a PWE recently.

The highlight for me was a Holo Red 2020 Donruss Gleyber Torres. This is one of the variations, as well. The holofoil looks nice, I admit.

I also think Donruss slander has gone overboard. The set is super weird, and the variations are silly. But the foils are really nice, and buying Donruss provides good value for the buck. In fact, at the beginning of the Pandemic, I found two hanger boxes of Donruss at Walgreen's and I was ecstatic, and they were fun to open.

I won't hold Donruss base set against Panini. I still think if they had a license they'd be kicking the shit out of Topps, from Optic to Prism to everything in between. And I don't think it'd be close, either.

I won't let a turd like Donruss speak for all Panini products, just like I won't let a turd like flagship speak for all of Topps.

The red foil really does stand out, and I'm happy that Robert thought of me when he came across this card.

I had seen this 2019 Topps Gallery a few times and have admired it. The shot of the Empire State Building in the background, with the stars flanked by other buildings, gives this card plenty of Big Apple flair.

I haven't been to NYC since March 9. That is unfathomable, especially after going into the city for work everyday since May of 2006.

The final card was a 2019 Topps Stadium Club of Gary Sanchez. Definitely a cool shot. Gary is such an enigma. The talent is endless. When he is hot, there is no better hitter in baseball. But the problem is when he is cold, he is basically a pitcher at the plate. There is no in-between. It does not make sense how extreme the extremes are.

Still, the pose on his card is pretty cool. A catcher making his way to the dugout, likely after a bullpen session. Gatorade towel soaking up sweat. Just a very cool card.

Robert, thanks for the surprise. Appreciate it, and glad we're still pals after all these years.

A king-like PWE

Of all the card packages that find their way to me, the unexpected PWE is my favorite.

Sure, a bubble mailer full of cards usually yields some awesome results, but there's just something about that PWE!

The latest came from Colbey over at Cardboard Collections. It looks like he broke some 2019 Diamond Kings, and sent me six Yanks that he scored:

Overall, I like these designs a lot. The DK cards over the last few years are all starting to blend together at this point, but year in and year out they put out a nice, solid product that doesn't get much love because of the lack of logos. I thought the set this year looked a little better than they have the past couple.

I bought one fat pack of these this year, but getting six Yanks in one shot is awesome!

Thanks, Colbey!

Minor Series One thoughts

On Saturday, I finally found some Series 2019 Topps Series One. I went to a more reliable Target that is a little further away, but I was able to add a few more errands to the trip, so it worked out.

I had been sitting on a gift card since Christmas, so ultimately I decided on two blasters, a hanger, and a loose pack that had probably already been searched.

My first card was Matt Davidson.

I really don't have any new thoughts that haven't already been shared from many.

I like the design a lot. The half border works well. I'm completely indifferent on borders vs no border, but what I like most about it is the excellent bookend it makes from 2015-2019. 16-17-18 all had a pretty similar look and feel, while 2015 was pretty great. This does a nice job of ending the last three years designs and setting the stage for Topps to go a number of ways in 2020.

The Yankees checklist is decent. I like the Didi Gregorius card a lot, although unfortunately didn't pull it. I pulled several Chad Green, Chance Adams, Gleyber Torres, and Miguel Andujars because of poor collation.

One nitpicky thing is that I wish the Rookie Cup logo was centered above the team logo, versus slightly to the right. Minor thing, yes, but would have preferred the symmetry.

I think the parallels - at least the foil and the gold - look excellent. The gold is easy to spot, and the foil looks nice with the white portion of the border. Thumbs up from me on both of those.

I've also just come to the conclusion that inserts in 2019 - or any year in the past 10 years or so - I just am not interested in. As a young collector in the '90s, I'm someone who likes a good insert set. Companies were one-upping each other, and inserts felt special and different. I guess that's where companies like Fleer/Flair and Pacific really always came through.

In 2019, they are so bland, both in topic and design. I'm sure the people at Topps are very nice who come up with these, but I don't understand the need to be so generic (e.g. Stars of the Game). I guess it's so they can shove 100 players in each set, including legends, because we all need more modern cards of Ruth and Mantle.

I'd say my favorites - at least in terms of aesthetics - are are Cactus and Grapefruit Legends inserts. They would have really popped with some shiny foil or texture, but the backgrounds are at least a bit more interesting. My mind went to 1996 Ultra Power Plus is anyone remembers those.

I pulled an Evolution of the Game Casey Stengel, which happens to fall 1:105. It doesn't look like a one-in-a-hundred pack card.

My two blasters yielded me TWO Nationls - Max and Trea Turner. Those are already claimed. I snagged a few SPs as well. I feel like the days of accidentally flipping past a photo variation are gone since they are so common now.

That's it! It's always fun to open new packs, and I do really like the base cards a lot. The photography is very good too. I doubt I'll open any more, but I'm glad I found some and that we can officially kick off the 2019 card - and baseball - season.

Happy Trails, Wes

I feel bad.

My epic packages from Wes always seem to take too long to post. It's not that I don't want to. They are always just so daunting.

They usually sit in the mailer for longer than they should because I know I have to scan them and that's going to take awhile.

Then the scanning is done, but then they sit in my scanned folder because again, I scanned a lot of awesome cards.

Well, the time is here. I am going to power through. A while back, Wes aka JBF sent out his retirement packages. I was a lucky recipient. I've always been a lucky recipient of his, and I'll always be grateful for that. Here we go...

My favorite card of the group was this Derek Jeter relic. I have very few Jeter memorabilia cards, and while I don't know if I'll ever have an autograph of his, any jersey swatch will always be special.

There were a few other fun jersey cards too, including a Tino and a great-looking Paul O'Neill pinstripe!

There were a couple of autographs too! I didn't know Spring Fever cards (what happened to those?!) had auto versions, so the Boone Logan is neat. JR Murphy was forgotten for awhile but seems to have found a home in Arizona. A refractor autograph?! Sure, why not!

Judge Chrome RC! I didn't have this one.

Here's a card to making Zippy Zappy swoon:

And here's a card to make me swoon because I needed this Tino, which is limited to just 100 copies!

There were a TON of other serially numbered cards too:

As well as some oddballs. A .999 silver Babe Ruth?! How cool is that. When my kid asks me for a Babe Ruth card, he'd definitely not getting this one.

Anyone have a hunkering for Cracker Jacks?

And of course, Wes had to throw in some vintage.

Vintage is a fitting way to end this post, because these cards were just vintage Wes. The guy has done more for my collection than anyone out there, and I'll always appreciate it. Happy trails (for now), Wes!

Cards on Cards coming in faster than outgoing cards

Just around Christmas, another awesome package from Kerry at Cards on Cards came in.

While I was happy to receive the unexpected package, I cursed to myself a little bit because I've been meaning to send Kerry a package, and he beat me to it again! Kerry, I do have a package with some Cardinals and some Blazers cards you probably have, I just need to hit the post office and send your way.

Packages from him are always fun because I get to see some new basketball products. I'm happy to see that NBA Hoops is growing strong. Back in the mid-90s I collected basketball far more heavily than baseball, and Hoops was a staple, especially for a kid on a budget, as it was usually the most affordable pack. I remember them being $.89 at CVS.

 

The Donruss and Donruss Optic cards look nice too. I wish Donruss baseball had the team-colored backgrounds like other sports. It would have made them so much better. I'm glad to get a RC of Frank Ntilikina.

I always appreciate the Malachi Richardson cards too. I have to send him a TTM request one day.

Baseball! There was some baseball too, of course, headlined for me by this excellent-looking Tino Martinez diecut.

Pinnacle Xpress came out when Pinnacle was putting out 25 different sets a year, but I think this is one of the better looking ones they put out. Pretty unique looking, if you ask me.

I do like Donruss Optic, and think the Diamond Kings look good, although I always chuckle at this card since it looks like ARod is hitting his face.

This is definitely one of the best cards of 2017!

Lastly, Kerry sent a bunch of packs from the Leaf Babe Ruth set. My son likes Babe Ruth because of the movie Everyone's Hero, so I like being able to give him card of the Babe when he asks for one.

Kerry, a package is coming your way soon. Thanks for always taking care of me!

PWE Habit

A few days ago, I got a surprise PWE from my friend Robert over at $30 A Week Habit. It contained two cards, and both were new to me.

I'll start with a new Tino! Robert was kind enough to see this in a dollar bin at a show and snagged it for me. I didn't have it, and it becomes Tino #821. I am missing a ton of parallels from Tino's "lost years" with the Cardinals and Rays. This is a gold parallel from a pretty forgettable set, Upper Deck MVP. According to BaseballCardPedia.comhttp://www.baseballcardpedia.com/index.php/Main_Page, there are also silver and black parallels (#'d to 50). Looks like I need to track those down, although I could totally have the silver and just not know it, thinking it's the base.

One thing I really liked about 2017 Topps was the return of legends parallels. I enjoyed when Topps did this earlier in the decade, and was happy to see them come back. Some of the photos were really great too. This Babe Ruth is actually Series 2 #580. It's sister card in Series 2 is Matt Holliday. In searching for this card, it was tough to find info on it...it's actually the Super SP! WHOA! An SSP! Very rare card, indeed, and the first of it's kind that has ever been in my possession.

I literally had no idea it was an SSP, and I'm going to venture a guess that Robert might not of either. I think we're both "regular" collectors and things like this don't dawn on us. It's hard enough to keep up with the SP variations. Throw another "S" on there and how could you ever know?

Robert, thanks for looking out for me, pal!

ATBATT's BFG

What a weird post title, but couldn't resist the urge to make it something completely incoherent. But some of you will get it!

I was fortunate enough to participate in Oscar's version of the Big Fun Game over at All Trade Bait All The Time.

I came away with a lot of football cards. The Mike Williams auto is cool since he's a Syracuse guy, although his off-the-field issues derailed his career - both collegiate and professional.

I'll likely use this Peyton Manning for a TTM request, as he signs for a small fee and I didn't have a card of him.

Here are the rest of the football cards, including an autograph of Pro Bowler Lavonte David. The HOF players will end up in my son's HOF binder.

I was also lucky enough to win two prizes during the contest. I didn't have this sweet vintage Yankee:

And then a bunch of packs of Babe Ruth cards. My 5-year-old loves The Babe from the movie Everyone's Hero, and often asks me for Babe Ruth cards. This helps replenish my stock to reward him!

Oscar, very generous of you to run the game. Thank you!