Lull in the action

I think that I became disillusioned with new boxes and prospecting after the mistake of opening two boxes of Goudey. I'm really disappointed in it. It took a lot out of my energy for blogging and trading.

Thankfully, Peter from Dropped 3rd Strike, Jeff from Card Junkie and Ryan of Trader Cracks have perked me up with a few packages that give my set-collecting a boost and beef up my Omar Vizquel collection. 

Jeff keeps sending a few cards at a time in white letter envelopes, but they always seem to get here without any damage. That speaks well of the Post Office. He sent a few Heritage and a few '09 Goudey (hey, the sooner I finish it, the sooner I'm rid of it!):

 

I really like the World Series cards in this year's Heritage, even if some of the action shots are, well, questionable. But you can't go wrong with a great shot of Ryan Howard smashing a homer to win the game. 

Mr. D3S sent me a few Heritage and Goudey, too, but also included the Heritage cards I've been drooling over, the Mayo's. In fact, I hadn't seen one in person until he sent some to me:

  

I guess I'm a sucker for old-style cards, or maybe because B&W is my favorite photographic element, but I love these cards. Topps should consider making a set of this for next year.

Peter also knows how much I love the Tribe, so he sent me two relics, an Upper Deck Travis Hafner and a Spectrum Dual of Victor Martinez and Ivan Rodriguez. 

 

Victor is having a great year so far. It looks as if he is fully recovered. However, Hafner is back on the disabled list with a bum shoulder, the same one that kept him out of the lineup for 90% of the season last year, and it looks like his career might be in the tank. It would be harder to find a position player with his hitting talent, but since he is exclusively a DH, it shouldn't be terribly difficult to find a good DH. 

Peter also helped out with one of the Heritage inserts that I needed of John F. Kennedy. 

Not to get too political, but the hopefulness that swirls and surrounds the administration of President Obama is reminiscent of the early '60's when a handsome, brilliant, young politician rode the crest of a wave of public sentiment to the White House, too.

As for Trader Cracks, he gave me the biggest fix for my doldrums. Thirteen Omar cards, which are now proudly displayed in my Omar collection, as well as nine of the '09 Heritage (including two short prints), an 08 A&G World Leader, four '08 Goudey minis, two '87 Donruss, an '08 Masterpiece black border, an '08 Heritage short print, two 1976 and one 1972 Topps, and my favorite one of the rest being this Upper Deck Presidential Predictor:

 

It's nifty the way that UD ties in "Moonlight" Graham to Edwards as they were both UNC grads, then makes Edwards pretty believable as a Graham caricature. These were some of my favorite cards of the year, and I'm only a few away from completing the set, although I know I won't get the Hillary or Palin ones anytime soon.

Thanks, everyone, for the great cards.