Fuji Funds My Nest Egg

I was one of the luck 30 or so people to receive a mailing from San Jose Fuji over the last week.

First and foremost, I'd like to pause this post to go throw these in a safety deposit box...

...because my kids's college education is now set!

My favorite card of the package is this Joe Pepitone card. It's a fascinating card from 1968 Atlantic Oil. "Collect card 7 and win $10." That is a lottery! Baseball cards are gambling anyways. This card is very very cool. By the way, $10 in 1968 would be about $74 now. More nest egg fuel!

Fuji hit my PC guys with a Ty Hensley auto and a Tino RC. For what it's worth, I still consider this Tino's RC even though it's probably not factually correct. Oh well!

What a gift. Or two gifts! I really like these relic cards. Although I'm confused as to why the gray on each of these has a different texture. I assume they are taken from different uniforms, such as part of a spring training jersey or players weekend jersey.

Speaking of Severino, I'm very sad about his TJ Surgery news. He's such a talented pitcher, but this just doesn't bode well. Maybe he'll be back at the end of 2021, but with last year being mostly lost due to injury, and now this, there will be a lot of "what could have been" when looking back on his career.

Fuji rounded out the package with a TCMAs that are older than me, and a Ryan Sink Bowman Chrome auto.

Great package from a great person. Thanks, Fuji!

Second Base is the Best Base

It dawned on me recently that I never properly showed off some of my loot from Collecting Cutch's annual Breast Cancer Awareness event.

That was not intentional at all, and I wanted to make things right. Cutch is always super generous with his mailings from the event, and this is no exception.

He sent it in early December as well, so lead off the package with one of his fun painted customs of Andrew McCutchen playing the role of Santa Cutch:

So fun. The GQ card was a great choice to point given the non-glossy card stock.

The whole package was generous but to me the highlight was the Luis Severino Topps Salute Mother's Day autograph. The pink interlocking NY and the MLB logo with pink ribbon is really one of the perfect cards to honor the event that Brian runs each year. Great themed card of a great pitcher. I look forward to seeing Severino on the mound for (hopefully) a full season in 2020. It was a bit of a wasted season for him due to injury, but he showed he was healthy when he did come back, and he's still very young. He'll be just 26 for all of the 2020 campaign.

I had seen this card a few times, but never got one. It's a Fan Favorites card of Bald Vinny. I can't really say I agree with Bald Vinny being a fan favorite. Yankee fans don't really care about Bald Vinny at all. Still, must be cool for him to have a signed card in a set.

I didn't mind these Player's Weekend Manu-relic thingies at all. I really like Player's Weekend and don't mind seeing the Yankees in different uniforms for a few days. I know people (especially Yankee fans) get up in arms over any changes to the uniform (including the lovely Nike swoosh in 2020!), but I'm not one of them at all. I don't want to see a full-time change, but I have no issue with taking part in a weekend like this. Hopefully MLB starts to design some better-looking uniforms for the weekend.

I also think the nickname thing is a little played out after a few years. I'd love to see the theme continue in a different way. Maybe put the name of a charity or honor a family member. Or maybe put the name of a past player that the current player enjoyed growing up. Or auction off the spot to fans with the proceeds going to charity.

Anyhow, I was happy to get these two cards of current superstars. The Gleyber Donruss is a variation (thanks for telling me that, TCDB), and the Judge is from the ultra fun 2019 Topps Holiday set.

Last but not least, I'll bring it back with a pink Refractor of Chance Adams, who has 2,000 cards in 2019. The pink once again is a great reminder of the support Brian shows for his cause. Chance was a 40-man roster casualty earlier this offseason.

Thanks again, Brian! I really appreciate the package, and all you do for Breast Cancer Awareness.

Utz Happening Again

It's here again. A rematch of the 2017 ALCS, where the Astros beat a young Yankees squad in 7 games. Both teams are a little older and more mature now. I have to give the edge to Astros because of the starting rotation, and an offense that is on par with the Yankees.

However, it's certainly not a given, as we've seen throughout these Playoffs. Anything can happen, and I hope the Yanks are up to the task.

One very bright spot in the quick sweep of the Twins was the amazing play of Gleyber Torres on both sides of the ball. He was a monster at the plate, with a HR and two doubles in Game 3. Plus he made a terrific defensive play at 2nd to help the Yanks avoid danger.

He's just 22, and he's a complete star. The Yankees are very luck to have him.

On the other side of the ball, Luis Severino is looking for some redemption from a season lost to injury. He threw 4 shut out innings in Game 3, and while he wasn't great, he found a way to dance out of trouble a few times. That kind of step in the maturation process is important, especially in the Playoffs.

Both of these Utz cards came from the man, Mark Hoyle, over the summer. Thanks, Mark!

Go Yankees!

The PWEs are alive and well

I don't come home to many bubble mailers of cards anymore. I've slowed down my trading a bunch - I just don't buy enough product anymore to create a few teams bags and send them away.

Plus my post office situation stinks. There's one by my work but that means I have to schlep a card package into NYC and then duck out during the day. On weekends, the post office in my town is open 9-12, and I can think of a lot better things to do with my Saturday morning.

So the packages I'm sending are few and far between, and in return, the ones I receive are few and far between. And that's ok!

But alive and well are PWEs, either via trade or random acts of kindness. And I've got one of each to show off.

The first is a Mark Hoyle special, sent earlier in the summer after he seemingly delivered every blogger some of those hard to find Utz Topps cards. The was the second Utz PWE he sent me!

I say it a lot, but holy crap is Gleyber Torres an incredible talent. He's a 22 year old middle infielder with 33 homers. He plays a very solid 2B/SS as well. He's cut down on his mental errors and, to my untrained eye, his base running gaffes. He's a star and I'm not sure how much better he can get, but I'm excited to find out.

The second PWE was from a Twitter follow named Tommy. We've exchanged a few cards before, as I usually send him a few Mets for his nephew. Out of the list of cards he send me to review for our swap, I chose the two above.

Thanks to you both for the excellent additions!

Cards on Cards saves me a lot of time

First off, before getting into the post below, I have seen a few bloggers do this so I'll join the party. I've admittedly been less than stellar over the past year about sending out cards and return packages. My collection is a little unorganized, and instead of diving in, some nights I just ignore it. It feels daunting to go and pull cards for people from the heaping piles of cards I need to find a place for.

So if I owe you cards, or feel you haven't gotten a return package from me, please feel free to shoot me an email or Twitter DM. I try to keep up and make mental notes, but I'm sure I've missed a few. This would never be intentional, so if you're waiting on something or just feel like I should reciprocate a package or two, please drop me a line!

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Someone who I always feel like I owe cards to is Kerry from Cards on Cards. He always sends me a ton of Yankees and Knicks, and I can never keep up. I do have a large stack of Blazers and Cardinals set aside for him, but I have to get my act together and send before the holidays.

A few weeks back, I got an unexpected mailer from Kerry. I didn't buy many new cards over the summer, as the releases were happening faster than I could keep up. Plus, my Target never restocked cards.

So out of nowhere, this package showed up with a ton of Yankees needs from 2018 sets I didn't buy. It saved me a ton of time (and $) not having to hunt down many of these cards and sets. Where to begin?

I'll start with a <fire emoji> set: Topps Fire. These cards are cool, but I've never seen them at Target. Happy to have a few!

Next I'll go with Big League. I'm still torn on this set. Overall, I liked it, but would have rather had year 3 of Bunt. The Severino is a numbered parallel to just 100.

I got some Topps Chrome Update last week, but didn't get any regular ol' Chrome. The Judge pink (or purple?) is so cool. And I can't say enough about how much I love the 1983 Chrome Refractors. Holy crap are these nice. Nicest cards of 2018. Don't @ me.

There was a healthy stack of Heritage as well. The Stanton/Judge card is a 2018 favorite of mine.

I love this card, as I have fond memories of collecting the '93 set. I do wish they made actual gold name versions of these (as far as I know they didn't).

Here are a few more cards that stuck out to me. The Dellin diecut is too cool.

There was plenty more, but as you can see, Kerry really helped me check off a ton of 2018 Yanks I didn't have. Thanks, Kerry!

Opting in

As many of you have surely seen, Colbey from Cardboard Collections recently held a free group break for a couple of boxes of 2016 Donruss Optic he opened. I claimed the Yanks, hoping for a Greg Bird or Luis Severino autograph.

While that did not quite happen, it was still a success that netted me some very nice Yankees cards. ARod led the way with a few Diamond Kings, include the Refractor (Prizm? Holo?) version.

He was also in the base set.

One thing I learned is that Aroldis Champan's first name is actually Albertin. I did not know that!

It feels like forever ago that Brian McCann was on the Yankees.

I was able to score a few of the Rated Rookies, including Severino and Bird. It also feels like forever ago that Robert Refsnyder was a top Yankees prospect.

My favorite card of the break was the Mariano Rivera Masters of the Game. Just a very nice card!

I also got a few of the purple parallels, including McCann and Bird. The Bird is a particular favorite.

Thanks for the break, Colbey!