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.

I love trade days!

Got three - count 'em, one, two, three! - packages in the mail today. One from Ryan at Trader Crack, one from Chris H. at Stale Gum, and one from Gellman at Sports Cards Uncensored.

First, lets start with the star of the show: the Tulo autogamer that I won on SCU's Exquisite Baseball Rookies box break.

Now, THIS is a cool card. When my son saw it, he walked around saying "AWESOME!" for ten minutes. He had never seen anything like this (in my collection, at least) before. Well, I agree with him. It is slick-looking, with a nice pinstripe in the 0, a nice signature, and a rookie card to boot.

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next up, Chris sent me some cards from a trade. I had sent him about 50 or so cards from his extensive list of sets that he is looking to complete. I think I sent him some from the 80's all the way up to the present. Glad I can help. He said he didn't have enough from my trade list, so he sent me a great surprise in addition to the Heritage and Goudey: two shiny inserts of Omar Vizquel ("ooooooohhhhh, shiny!!!!!!!), which I will post later, and this gem:

This is also a great card, and my son wholeheartedly agrees. "Awesome!" was the response to this one as well. He likes Chipper, and so do I. The back of the card is even more interesting, going over the details of his 1999 MVP season:

If you can't read it, I'll transcribe:

He just may be baseball's most perfect player. In 1999, Jones hit for average (.319) and power (45 home runs), drew walks (126) and stole bases (25). He excelled at third base, was a clubhouse leader and fan favorite, belted game-winning homers during the pennant race and led Atlanta to the World Series. Those are the quintessential MVP credentials.

I'll bet you never thought you'd see the word " quintessential" on a baseball card before, didja?

And last, but certainly not least, Ryan sent me a large package of '07 Goudey that his put a major dent in my collection. I must have filled out eight or nine more pages. And like dayf said, it is very cool to see a page completed.

Thanks Ryan, Chris and Gellman.