White Envelope Wonders

I don't think that younger me would've ever been able to grasp the idea of collecting a set that I knew from the get-go could never be finished. Of course, younger me never collected anything from before my time. And even though the average collector didn't know how many were actually being produced at the time, cards of the late 80's and early 90's were always readily available in pack/box form, and therefor one never got the sense that any of the sets couldn't be completed. In fact, as the years progressed, sets from that era continued to feel easier and easier to complete. Heck, by the late 90's, five bucks would buy you a box of just about any product from ten years before, and said box would almost always produce a complete set. I could be misremembering, but even as a kid who didn't collect non-current cards, sets from ten years prior to my existence, or even ten years prior to the start of my collecting, never felt as easy to complete; though they never felt impossible to complete either.

These days on the other hand, unless one is flush with oodles of extra cash, many, many, sets (new and old) feel like they are near impossible to ever complete. And, unfortunately for older me, I seem to be continually drawn to such sets, especially those of the vintage variety (some of which you've seen for the last couple of Sunday's).

The 1955 Bowman baseball set is perfect example. I really like it, and have in theory begun to collect it, but I waited much too long to start; and as such, know that there's zero chance of me ever completing it. And yet, I'll still go through the motions, acquiring cards where I can. It's kind of annoying to think that I may've had a chance to complete it had I started fifteen years or so ago when I came back to cards, but not now. The boom is supposedly easing on modern cards, but I don't think I'll live long enough to see the bigger names from a set like this coming back down to Earth. People's desire to pay someone else to attach an arbitrary number to their cards has grown too much for reasonable prices to return on things like this anytime soon.

I think that as of this writing, my 1955 Bowman "set build" is made up of about 12 cards, more than half of which were once owned by noted author, and resident knower of all things 1955 Bowman, Jeff, from Wax Pack Wonders -- including this one, which he was kind enough to send earlier this year.

I'd be lying if I said I had been familiar with Joe Paparella prior to getting this card. Aside from a couple of NBA referees back in the 90's, I've never been one to notice or pay much attention to sports officials. Apparently Joe spent the entirety of his 20-year career in the American League. It's interesting to me that the back of this card notes that he was purchased from the American Association (that was AA ball) in 1945. Not hired, purchased. It makes it sound like umpires were indentured at the time.

This was my first ump card from the set, which was kind of neat, that's only part of the set that I remembered for a long time. I think I read an article in a price guide when I was younger, and the umpires were the only aspect of it that stuck with me. The card itself was slightly trimmed along the bottom edge at some point, which I would've avoided had I been purchasing it, but as a hand-me-down from a set like this, I won't complain.

I'm probably biased, but I feel like card bloggers are in a league of their own when it comes to sending PWE's, especially when speaking in terms of variety. I mean aside from being the same sport, these last two cards could not be more different from each other. Flair was a brand that was way out of my price range back when it was new, and I didn't own any until they started appearing in TRU repacks. Generally, I do like the various designs for them though. I also like their slight chunkiness. They've got beef, but not so much that you can't put them in a page.

I didn't add as many Bo's to the collection as I should've (or would've liked to) this year. I think that this was one of the better one's though.

Jeff seems to have the inside track on cards from this set as well. He already provided the Bo I needed from it last year, and then this year he provided this nifty Edgar, which had been a Top 10 want of mine. I watched a good portion of Edgar's career growing up, and have been a fan of his (as an athlete and a person) for decades now. This is a set that I wish I would've collected back when it was new. If I had, I might've actually tried to collect the silver and gold parallels too. It would've looked really good having three rainbows per page. And I hadn't noticed it until just now, but with the foil muted by the scan, the 'Special Edition' box where it is makes it look like Edgar's swinging an axe. Talk about slicing the ball!

This envelope did contain a fourth card, but it was another one for the Beavers collection, and therefor, will, hopefully, be appearing on that blog at some later date. There was other thing of note in here, and even though I don't think that was meant to be anything more than a packaging material, I was still enamoured by it enough to throw it on the old scanner...

Joe Paparella arrived in this sleeve (it's clear by the way, not black). Most folks who have collected during the internet age are familiar with Dean's Cards, at least in passing. I for one however, had never heard or seen anyone say that they had actually purchased something from Dean. I've been his site a few times, and remember when he used to list on COMC, but have never come across anything of his that I thought was affordable. Hopefully Jeff won't think that I'm "outing" him here, I just really thought that this sleeve was kind of neat... and did keep it. To me, it was almost as good as a fifth card.

It's been long enough now that I can remember if there was any impetus behind this envelope, or if it was just because Jeff is good people and likes to send folks cards when he can. Either way though, I'm grateful. The four cards were dispersed amongst four different collections. That's the sort of envelope I like. And if that wasn't enough, I also got an interesting penny sleeve for my non-existent penny sleeve collection 😏.

Christmas Catch-Up: Part 2

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was contemplating the crazy idea of trying to build the 1955 Bowman set, and ever since then, it seems like the universe has been trying to steer me in that direction. And by "universe", I mean fellow bloggers. And by "trying to steer me in that direction", I mean that two different people have sent me cards from the set in as many weeks. Granted, it's only been three cards, but still, that's three more 1955 Bowman's than I've received over the course of the previous 7+ years of this blogs existence.

Our resident 1955 Bowman collector, Jeff, who also helms Wax Pack Wonders in his spare time, sent me two of my three recently received Bowman's for Christmas. 

I can't remember who it was, but somebody else on the blogs used be actively pursuing this set, but they either stopped blogging altogether, or stopped posting about the set, because the only person I ever see mention it now is Jeff. [Out of curiosity, does anyone know who the other person is/was?]

As for myself, despite the not so subtle nudge that I've been getting, I haven't fully committed to pursuing the set yet. I'm not sure if it's still because of the boom, or if the set is really just that popular right now, but either way, I'm amazed at how much the starter lots on eBay keep selling for. I don't remember commons from the set selling for so much a few years ago, but of course a lot has changed since then, so maybe the prices that I've been seeing are the new normal. I'm thinking that I might have to wait a little longer, maybe until after the current buyers get what they want, before I can even think about trying to get mine.

Dave Pope is in the better condition of the two, but I like the Preston Ward, if only because it looks like two people are beaming up (or down) behind him. I'll definitely be hanging onto this copy even if I am ever able to replace it with a better one.

As Bo can attest, my Portland Beavers collection is a bit of a hot mess right now, but I do have a couple of wants posted on the TCDB for it, Stan here, being one of them. In theory, this card will be getting it's own post on the my Beavers blog at some point, so I'll wait until then to talk about Stan, but in the meantime, it was nice to be able cross off a modern want from the list, as I've been pretty focused on getting players from the teams earlier days in recent months. [Note: I'm trying to clear a bit of a backlog on this blog right now, but for those that care, I should have two new posts up on the Beavers blog by the end of the month]

David Robinson is the only basketball player, who was never a Blazer, that I've currently got catalogued on the TCDB. I added his collection to the site well over a year ago, and foolishly thought at the time that he was gonna be the start of me getting them all logged. Obviously that plan didn't work out so well. I haven't looked yet, so I can't remember if I added this card to a wantlist, or if Jeff just noticed that I didn't have it. Either way, I just moved David to a different binder a couple of weeks ago, and know for a fact that I don't have this card, nor did I have any of his other SI for Kids cards before this arrived. I really dig this card too, the border color for this particular set works really well for the Spurs.

Many thanks to Jeff, not only for thinking of me during the holidays, but also for sending this wonderfully diverse quartet.

The Wonders of Time Travel

Why is it that I can remember the lyrics to a 30 year-old song that I rarely ever listen to, but can't remember what I sent to a fellow blogger a little over a month ago? 

Just within the last few weeks I listened to "Rico Suave" all the way through for the first time in a couple of years, and was a tad surprised to find that I still knew every single lyric to it, including the Spanish bits, which is interesting since I don't speak a lick of Spanish. And yet, I sent, Jeff, author and blogger extraordinaire, from Wax Pack Wonders, a card sometime in the last 4-6 weeks, and for the life of me, cannot remember what it was. It makes no sense!

I still have Jeff's thank you note around here somewhere, so I could probably go find that and be reminded of which card was sent, but I shouldn't have to, it wasn't that long ago, I should be able to remember it. I'm hoping it'll come to me while I'm typing, and then I can just circle back and add an update; but until then...

My one card sent yielded around 20-something in return (most of which were scanned). A bit much, but the thought behind them is appreciated. One doesn't expect to get basketball cards from Jeff, and yet that's what most of them were. About half the cards were former Blazers, which is never a bad thing.

I don't go out of my way to seek out Clifford Robinson rookies, but still have more copies of these Fleer and Hoops cards than any sane person should have. I have a few copies of the Hardwood Leaders as well, but since it's one of my favorite insert sets of all-time, I won't ever turn down more, especially those of guys that I collect.

When I came back to card collecting I wasn't that interested in the stuff that I had collected the first time around, paying more attention to vintage, and the many things that had come out while I was away. Now that a dozen or so years have passed since my return, I find myself more interested in cards from my childhood/teens than anything else. I suppose it's normal for one to be drawn towards people/players that you can relate to. It may be a base card from a set that not too many people care about anymore, but the '95-96 Hoops card here is a perfect example of why I continue to find myself drawn to this era more and more. I like everything about it, the design, the photo, David's shoes, and most importantly, I can look at it and instantly identify everyone on the card; and still remember how they played. It's great card for cameo collectors, as you've got your choice of Dennis Rodman, Clyde Drexler, Kenny Smith, and Avery Johnson. Good stuff all around!

I've made the mistake of trying to read through a few basketball threads on Twitter over the last few years, and am constantly amazed at how dumb the NBA's modern fan base is. I don't understand how fans of a sport can know so little of it's history, and what's more, feel absolutely no embarrassment over their ignorance. John Stockton is often a target of these idiots. Sad as that is, it does bring me great joy to know that it'll be a very long time (if it ever even happens) before someone breaks his all-time record for assists or steals. That seems to bother those dummies quite a bit too, which makes me even happier. 

The card on the left was actually kind of rare back when it was new, but is now relegated to the dime boxes. Still a neat card though, one which features a young Gary Payton as well.

Being from Portland, being a good guy, and having had a solid career, I should collect A.C. Green, but I don't; he just doesn't move the needle for me. I thought it was kind of interesting to see him on both of these cards though.

All-Star inserts were hit-or-miss over the years. These weren't one of my favorites design-wise, but as mostly a player collector these days, I do appreciate these for being dual-sided with one guy from the East team on the front, and one guy from the West team on the back. It gives you options, as is the case with the Joe Dumars here, I don't collect him, but if you flip the card over... 

... you get John Stockton, who I do collect! I'm pretty sure that I already have one of the Pippen/Kemp cards, but can't remember who's binder it's in. Once I figure it out though, this one will go in whatever collection that it's not already in.

I got one baseball card too. It looks familiar, but I don't think that I have it. That guy in the background is kind of creepy. I'm not sure if he's supposed to be a ghost or what, but either way, he's appropriate for the season.

Thanks again, Jeff! 

*****************************************

In other news, I was able to get in on one of the now famous monthly Time Traveling trades from, Matt, over at Diamond Jesters. 

I think that this was only the second or third time that I've participated on one of these, if only because there usually isn't much for me, and even when there is, it's often the sort of stuff that I know someone else will want more, so I just leave it for them to claim. This past month though, I had to get two. The Cliff Branch was a just because card, I like it, and wanted it, so here it is! I don't have a list for my Alzado's yet, but I do know what I don't have by sight, and this was one that I didn't have. Unfortunately for me, I didn't look at it close enough, and missed the slit under his armpit. I just saw the nice corners, and made my claim.

Fingers! You can see the gash much better here. That's the sort of thing that'll bug the shit out of me, so he's gonna need replacing. I wonder if this one would be good enough for Fuji's damaged card collection?

Thanks for doing what you do, Matt! You seem to be making a lot of people happy with this series of yours.

**************************************

Well, I've made to the end, and still can't remember what I sent to Jeff. I guess it'll just have to remain a mystery.

Oh, and "Rico Suave", yeah that hasn't aged very well. It's hard to believe that I could've liked that back when it was new.

Give a little, get a little

Jeff, from Wax Pack Wonders, recently let it be known that he was now working on the 1973 Topps baseball set. Having about a hundred cards left from my abandoned set build, and absolutely no use for them, I was eager to see if I could help. 

I wasn't able to knock off as many of his needs as I would've liked, but did find a few. 

Jeff, being the sort that he is, wanted to send something in return. Not having any public want lists for Jeff (or anybody else for that matter) to peruse, I just went and looked at his 'for trade' list on the TCDB, picked out 10 possible cards, and told him that I'd be fine with whatever combination of those he wanted to send. He sent all of them, plus an additional card. He's that sort, too.

It's probably been a few years now, but at some point I got, and showed off here on the blog, the gold version of this card. Ever since then, the base and silver versions have been pretty high up on my personal want list. I didn't think it would take so long to acquire the base version, but apparently the blue border is prone to chips and dings, and most of the copies online seem to be of that variety; which is what I didn't want, so I waited, and then waited some more. I saw this on Jeff's list, and figured that if anybody was gonna have a nice copy, it would be him. And I was right, it's very nice. I would've been quite content with just getting this one back for those 73's. 

Bo is one of the few players that I still actively look for cards of, and I feel fortunate to have gotten four needed cards in a single mailing. I didn't realize it until the cards got here, but the one on the right is an insert. I thought from the picture on the TCDB that it was from a subset. Nope, it's an insert, and a very subtle one at that.

I've thought to myself many times that I'd like to complete Danny's entire baseball run, but the idea never seems get much further than that. This is the one baseball card of his that I already owned, mine has a punky corner though; this copy is considerably nicer.

Cool card, terrible scan.

I'm not sure why, but lately I've been thinking about guys from my childhood that I should've been collecting (but don't), either from the beginning, or when I came back to cards a dozen or so years ago. Dave Winfield is one of those guys. It feels like it's too late to start such collections now, but that doesn't mean that I can't add the occasional interesting card of one of these guys to my "just because" binders.

I think I've mentioned it on here before, but after noticing that I had some pretty nifty Tim Salmon cards, I went ahead and decided to collect him, at least selectively. I don't want all 10,000 cards of his, but will try to add a "good" card to his pages from time to time. I thought this one was kind of interesting, or "good" if you will.

I remember seeing this card for the first time just a couple of years ago. I thought it was pretty neat, decided that I wanted a copy, and then promptly forgot all about it. I saw it again somewhere recently, and was even more enamored with it than I was a few years back. Finding it on Jeff's trade list just a few days later seems pretty coincidental, like it was just meant to be. Joe Carter is another guy that I should've been collecting. If it weren't for Bo's Gun show, this would've been my favorite card of the bunch; it is a very close second though.

Here's the extra one that Jeff threw in. I have 2 ½ pages of this card in refractor form, on e whole page in golden sparkle form, and maybe another pages worth of it's various parallels. I haven't put it away yet, but I think that this is only the second copy of the base version that I have. I should probably get at least one pages worth of this one too. This was a nice surprise, very unexpected it was.

Not being overly focused on acquiring cards right now, I'm more than happy to send things out and not get anything in return (I tried to do so in this instance). That being said, this was a cool bunch of cards to get in return for some others that I no longer wanted. If they could always be like this, I might actually try to get stuff in return more often. 

Thanks again, Jeff!

Blogger, blogger, blogger, Mom!

A few weeks have elapsed (unintentionally) in between posts again. Blogging consistently seems to be getting more difficult the longer I go. At my current pace, I'll probably be struggling to get one post done per month by about the middle of next year.

I've seen a lot of folks start posts in recent months by saying that they've been too busy to blog, which is relatable, but in order to switch things up, I'm gonna say that I've been too tired (from being busy) to blog.

Technically, I have had time to blog, but for the last couple of months, and more specifically, the last couple of weeks, I have just been dead-ass tired by the end of the day. Between work and projects around the house, or rather, outside the house, it's been a busy summer. Small example, I've spent pretty much all of my free time from the last two weeks trying to shore up a long section of eroding creek bank by the house. This is something that has been needing attention for years now, but the opportunities to do so haven't been presenting themselves. This is not something that I've ever done before (and I haven't stayed at a Holiday Inn recently), so I basically just guessed my way through it. I'm finished now, but not before an incredible amount of digging was needed, and a shit-ton of large stones carried from one spot to another. Oh, and there was the sweltering sun, and the fighting off of mosquitos too. I should know by next summer whether my efforts were worth it or not (after the inevitable winter and spring flooding).

So while there have been hours worth of potential blogging time in the evenings, I'm usually done in by the time I've finished with dinner. I could sit down and blog, or even better, sit down and read, but really, I just wanna sit down and watch a Columbo, and call it a day. Besides, you really don't want me to be blogging when I'm tired. Posts "written" while I'm rested are bad enough, just imagine how bad they'd be with one out of every ten words missing, and more misspellings than you can shake a stick at (see my late night comments on other blogs). There's a brief a lull in the action this week, hence me trying to get this post out, but next week I'll be taking on (not by choice) a multiple week chainsawing project, which is going to require just about as much back-breaking labor as the creek project took. With that in mind, my posts will probably continue to be erratic for the time being. The good news is though, that there are plenty of other blogs out there, blogs who's proprietors are more well-equipped to post on a regular basis than I (and there posts are better), so you should never be want for something to read.

[Side note: Please know that this isn't me complaining about having to all of this hard labor. I'm grateful to be living where I live, and to physically be able to do all of the work that comes with living where I live. It saves money, and keeps me in great shape, or at least the outside of me in great shape. Inside, I'm a hot mess, but that's another story...]

Cosmically speaking, I feel like I've been rewarded for all of my hard work by finding interesting things in my mailbox as of late. Sure, some of those have been small purchases, and therefor are less exciting, but a few haven't been - like this book - which came directly from the author, who, in case some of you don't know, is our very own, Jeff, from Wax Pack Wonders. 

I had planned to dive into this the day it arrived, but remember the whole busy and tired thing? Yeah, so now it's multiple weeks later and I've just started it (last night to be specific). The bad news though is that I'm much too biased to do any sort of proper review, but the good news is, that at least through 73 pages, I'm really liking it (not that I thought I wouldn't, mind you). As someone who tends to ramble, and doesn't know how not to when writing, I'm really impressed with the flow of this book. There is a lot of info in here, but not so much that you have to keep backtracking to figure out who did what to whom. And despite the steady flow of facts, you don't feel like your being bogged down by them (Simon Winchester could learn a thing or two about writing from Jeff). I've already learned more about old North Dakota baseball than I ever would've thought possible, and am thinking that by the time I get done with the book, I'm gonna be the second most knowledgeable (living) person on the subject (ok, that may be a slight exaggeration, but not by much 😉). I know that a fair amount of bloggers, and blog readers, are interested in obscure baseball history. If that's you, and you haven't already done so, you might want to give this one a look.

Jeff, sent a long a couple of "bookmarks" (his words) as well, which were in the form of cards for the new Beavers collection. Since all of those cards will eventually be making their way onto the new blog (I've been dropping the ball on that already too), I'm not gonna show them here, as I'm trying not to double-dip, but just know that they were all greatly appreciated. Another trio of "bookmarks" arrived from Jeff last week, and despite wanting to keep the contents of both blogs separate, I've got to show one, if only because of how cool it is...

Spoiler alert: There's gonna be a Roger Bowman post at some later date on the other blog.

I've thanked him many times via email in recent months, but only one other time publically, so, many thanks to Jeff once again for all of his behind the scenes assistance with the new blog, and for the book, and the cards. I'll probably be playing catch-up for the foreseeable future, and beyond!

Free stuff posts seem to have fallen out of favor this year, but that hasn't stopped, Trevor, from Bump and Run Football Cards, from doing a serious of giving back posts, aka free stuff posts. I claimed two cards from the last one, both from the '89 Pro Set set; Howie Long because I needed him, and Reggie Roby because I didn't think anybody else would be wanting him (I have more than a few copies already). It's kind of interesting to see the size difference between the two cards. Reggie is regular sized, and Howie is plus sized. I don't think I've encountered a Pro Set card as big as Howie before, and am kind of amazed that none of his corners got punked up in the pack. It was a Long miracle?

Thanks to Trevor for the cards, and his willingness to give a little something back to everybody.

I went a couple of years without participating in Matt's Time Travel Trading project over at Diamond Jesters, and now for the second month in a row, I have! I missed out on a copy of this card that Bo had up for trade a few months ago, so I was more than a little happy to see another one pop up for trade on the blogs. I'm like 99% certain that I've never mentioned it before, but Frank Lary is one of my favorite 'players of yore' to collect. He had a solid career, and his cards are relatively cheap, what's not to like?

Thanks to Matt for letting me play along again!

It's not from a fellow blogger, but does fit the theme of a mostly sports card blog, so I thought I'd shoehorn a book in here that my mom recently found for me at a yard sale. 

She actually bought a couple of books for me, including what appears to be a fairly rare old one on local history, but nobody is gonna care about that, or the couple of others, so yeah... sports!

This book was published in 1951, and covers various sports happenings from the previous 100 years. I've got a few pages of the table of contents here, just to give you an idea of the variety.

Things like golf, horse racing, polo, and tennis, don't interest me much, so those stories will be skipped -- I fully expect what's left to be worth the 25¢ price tag though. And who knows, I might even get a blog post out of one of them (possibly the man, boat, and horse story).

On a completely unrelated note: There's been much talk about this whole Topps losing their MLB license thing, and even more recently, Panini losing their NBA deal. Everyone seems to have an opinion on this (and you know what they say about opinions, right?), so I thought I'd add my two penny sleeves to the mix. 

I made the mistake of looking at Twitter (a mistake unto itself) the day the Topps thing happened. In less than a minute of scrolling I saw people saying they were "shook", "numb", and "crying" (yes, crying) over the announcement. And that was enough of Twitter for one day! Personally, I don't really care, it doesn't affect me in the least, and call me an a-hole, but I have no empathy for those that were "shook" (or numb, or crying) over such a trivial thing.

I'm not surprised at all that Topps lost their deal, but given how much money Panini has been raking in worldwide on basketball cards, I would've thought that they could've afforded to pony up a more competitive offer -- apparently I was wrong. I fully expect this Fanatics company, who I had never heard of before last week by the way, to buy Topps in a few years, and everything will pretty much be as it is now, except for maybe us as consumers seeing Topps basketball cards being produced again for the first time in two decades. If Panini can hang on to their NFL contract, I think they'll still be okay, and won't lose as much company value as Topps most certainly will in the coming years. I mean let's be honest, social influencers can keep pushing soccer cards to the moon, but those alone are not gonna sell enough in the U.S. to keep Topps afloat, or at least not Topps in it's current form.

Honestly, I'm kind of hoping that Panini and Topps will let their greed get the better of them, and adopt a scorched earth policy by revving up the printing presses in order to get every last dollar they can, while they still can. New sets are already released on a near weekly basis, so I'm not really sure how these two companies could possibly produce anymore, but if they can, they could in theory, truly flood the market. This would severely devalue all of the modern products, and if luck were on our side, force all of the investors/profit seekers who've jumped into the "hobby" in the last two years to seek out their fortunes elsewhere. I know that this is mostly wishful thinking on my part, but greed knows no limits, so let's wait and see what happens before you start calling me out for my erroneous opinion. Either way though, this will be the last I time I ever mention this subject on here, I've got much more important things to discuss, you know, like dusty old books, and cards from online dime stores, and... VHS tapes!!!

Waxy wonders... minus the wax!

Show me a person who says that they don't like free stuff, and I'll show you a liar!

Whether it's free samples at the grocery store, or a free tire rotation from your local mechanic, or even free ebooks on Amazon; humans just like free stuff. [Although, I've never been one to eat free food from grocery stores, but that's just me not trusting the cleanliness of the person handing it out]

Bloggers, and blog readers, certainly like free stuff. There's absolutely no doubt about that. It's a fact that's been proven over and over again. This works out well too, since bloggers are also fairly well known for their generosity, which can take many forms, but probably the most common two are A) Sending out cards with no strings attached to fellow bloggers, and B) Hosting some sort of contest or giveaway on their blog. And when it comes to the latter, there are no shortage of ways for free cards to end up in the hands of others, some, like my self, prefer the simple (but very effective),and less creative "Here's a bunch of free stuff for whoever wants it". While others like, Jeff, from Wax Pack Wonders, prefer to get more creative, which is why you have things like his Pick 3 giveaway.

For those that haven't seen it, there's three categories made up of twenty or so baseball names, and if you're one of the first five(?) people to show up, you get to pick a name in each category, which nets you three free cards from each of those three names. It's a pretty easy concept, but quite clever in it's execution.

I've only participated once (you gotta get there quick), and it's been a few months now since I did so, meaning that the details are a bit hazy, and I don't remember what the three categories were. And sure, I could go back and see what they were, but that would be cheating, so instead I'm going to try and figure them out based on my picks. Sound good? [Hopefully you said yes, because I'm gonna do it anyway, I was just hoping that we would be on the same page]

Category #1: HOF's (or possibly just players of yore)

I have a small Luke Appling collection going, and all three of these were new to me, so the first pick worked out well. I say that these "three" were new to me, but there's kind of only two here, given that Panini apparently only has one picture on file of Luke. Like most of the modern Topps baseball sets, I can't tell the Diamond Kings sets apart from any other year, they just all look the same to me. It's also not one of my favorite products either, so that probably doesn't help either. With the cards having been put away many months ago, I don't know what year it is, but from an aesthetic standpoint, I like the middle design more than the right.

Category #2: Former All-Stars (or possibly a$$holes of yore)

I never saw him play, and I'm a tad too young to have seen him manage, but for some reason I still find myself drawn to Billy Martin. He was a prick when he played, and when he managed, and normally I'm put off by such people, but his antics are just so legendary. I want to read the stories, I want to see the videos (when applicable), and I want to collect his cards! I have a few from his playing days, but none as a manager, so this turned out to be another solid pick.

Category #3: Future HOF's 

I was 3 for 3, as all of these were new as well. For some reason I never thought to see if Ichiro was in any of the Tek sets, apparently he was, although don't ask me the name of the pattern, because I have no clue, all I know is that it's just a neat card. The one on the top right is one of those "Cards That Somebody In Your Household May Have Thrown Out" kind of reprints, which aren't my favorite thing, but at least it's shiny. Astute observers may have noticed that there's four Ichiro's here, yay you if you did, 'cuz you'd be correct. I don't know why I got more than three, although if I had to guess, I'd say it probably has something to do with that blogger generosity that I was talking about earlier. No matter the reason, I'm not gonna be complaining about getting an extra Ichiro, or in this case, two extra Ichiro's...

Even though this one is on my list of cards that I can never have too many copies of, I never expect to receive any, it's just not one that I think many people will come across in their travels, and if they do, who's going to remember that someone, who they've never met btw, is hoarding it? 

It was neat to receive this very unexpected card for multiple reasons, one of which, and probably the most exciting for me, was that it...

... completed a page! So pretty! I love seeing pages full of the same card like this, it sort of feels like I've accomplished something, granted, it's something that most collectors don't understand (or appreciate), but in my world it's something; which is all that really matters (don't let anyone tell you how to collect, kids).

A thousand and one thanks to, Jeff, for the great envelope. Lots of fun cards, and nary a drop of wax on a single one of them!

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.