Keepers From Rod

Well jeez I got distracted and meant to whip up this post last month, but yeah let's quickly bust out some incoming highlights. 

The big lot of cards from Rod last month helped me add many new cards to my PCs of active players, especially current and recent Padres.

Six player stacks here, including 2024 Topps team set variations for all except Soto because of course he's not with San Diego any longer. The superfluous shiny parallel is kinda cool, though.

Jackson Merrill has San Diego feeling good about the future. He might have a shot at the ROY if Paul Skenes doesn't have too many more quality starts down the stretch.

Bobby Witt, Jr. is another young stud I don't have much from, so it's great to add an early card of his.

And while my Jose Altuve PC has been largely neglected since the Astros cheating scandal, I was still stoked to find a nice card of his within the boxes.. the variation on the right.

It's my first of those "Golden Mirror" variations I've been hearing about for a while. Pretty cool.

There were plenty more cards I could feature from that lot, but I might have to call it good here or maybe do a follow-up post with more later. The other few hundred cards are still in sorting triage of "non-active keepers", "decent cards for trade", and "for cardart". But then Rod stopped by last weekend for another handoff...

Only 1 standard-sized card this time-- the Dylan Cease no-hitter Topps Now card (sweet!)-- but some other cool stuff like unused tickets from the 1984 postseason (wow!) and a set of 1974 McDonald's disc-cards in the original plastic display ball case (!!!).

Here's a neat bit of Padres randomness: A letter from Jerry Coleman to a guy named Mike apologizing for losing the stuff he sent in to be signed.

I had a couple Tim Flannery cardart things for Rod so he didn't leave empty-handed. He helped further encourage my creativity with cards by giving me some fancy paper to work with and a rotary cutter tool that's already come in handy. 

Thanks again to Rod for the cool stuff, and have a great weekend, everybody.

Ready for the World Series

I had to splurge on a Juan Soto autograph. I'm pretty happy with this one. Big, on-card signature. Still had a few eBay Bucks left to help take the sting out of the price. He's a terrific young player who's a lot of fun to watch.

It's from 2019 Bowman Sterling. Numbered out of 25.

While I'm at it, I figured I'd show off a few of my best cards of other players I collect who are competing in the Fall Classic this year.

Stephen Strasburg is a guy I collect thanks to his status as a fellow SDSU alum. This is a custom overlay I made a couple years back.

Some of my other decent Stras cards. I hope he does well in the series.

I collect some dudes in the other dugout, too. This Carlos Correa atomic auto is a favorite of mine.

Other highlights in that PC include a prospect auto, a slabbed Pro Debut, and a Members Only parallel from Stadium Club.

A year or two back I kinda-sorta started collecting Max Scherzer. No auto yet, but I've accumulated a few solid cards of his.

I started collecting George Springer after his impressive performance in the 2017 postseason.

Dig these thicc Crystal Ball inserts from 2015 Stadium Club.

Some other Springer highlights.

Trea Turner is another Nat I collect. His success is bittersweet for me, since the Padres gave him up in an ill-advised trade.

Gotta love Jose Altuve (..unless you're a Yankees fan, I suppose). My PC of him is highlighted by an Archives auto, a Heritage action variation, and 3 rookies. Still need a parallel of his Topps rookie for my 2011 frankenset. If anybody has one, I'd love a chance to tempt you into a trade.

Shortly after his ALCS-winning jack, I whipped up this Altuve gif (at the brilliant suggestion of Dennis). The "hand cut" effect is kinda neat. I already had much of this card whipped up thanks to a custom I made a couple years ago...

Nice looking custom.

I think that's it as far as guys I collect who are in the WS. All the early Gerrit Cole cards that came my way ended up going to Matthew Scott. Pretty much any Verlander cards I've had over the years have gone to Dennis. I also collect Alex Bregman, but don't have anything really notable yet. I have an auto each from Adam Eaton and Ryan Zimmerman, though I don't really collect either player.

I think it's gonna be a fun series. Too bad the Astros had to poop in the pool with their continued poor handling of domestic violence issues. I was already lightly rooting for Washington, and now after recent stuff in the news, I'm really hoping they can pull off the upset. Though if I was a betting man, my money would be on Houston. But yeah, regardless, hope we get some exciting biggest-stage baseball.

The Well-Traveled Envelope Challenge passes thru

Gregory over at the new Nine Pockets blog recently started a little challenge thing where we see how many times one group of packaging material can bounce around the cardsphere. Since the idea was inspired by the suggestion of reusing shipping supplies in my Guide to Shipping Sports Cards Safely and Cheaply post, he gave the choice to be the first recipient, which I happily accepted.

Unfortunately, when the package showed up in my mailbox, it had slipped my mind that I was supposed to be on alert for it and I didn't recognize the return address, so I just cut into it willy-nilly. Oh well, can still work with this.

In fact, I've already sent it on its way, along with the traveling team bag and bluetaped pair of top-loaders for protection. I had been meaning to hit Angus back for the lot of Tommy Vardell and Brian Sipe cards he sent me a few weeks back. The few Browns cards I've picked up for him would probably fit ok in a PWE, but one of them is a relic and I'd be worried about it getting damaged-- very risky to send relic cards in a PWE-- so this package-reusing challenge seemed like a good opportunity. I checked in with him first to make sure he was up to the challenge and he gave the thumbs-up.

But back to the cards Gregory sent me..

In addition to the lovely 2013 Jose Altuve refractor at the top of the post, here's a solid lot of '78 Topps needs, highlighted by Ferguson.

Always love scoring more Kirbys.

And a few more cards, including a mini Didi Rookie.

Thanks again, Gregory! Good stuff. I know sending a return isn't necessarily part of the challenge, but I'll shoot you over a few '80 Topps cards on your wantlist to return the favor.

Check out his post on The Well-Traveled Envelope Challenge to learn more about it. It'll be fun to track its progress. Hopefully the package racks up a lot of mileage!

The Zappening

I've gotten plenty of nice cards from Zippy Zappy over the years, but this latest package, sent from Japan no less, might top them all. Let's check out some highlights.

Sweet! Big rookie cards I needed for my McCutchen and Altuve PCs, respectively.

Early cards of a pair of today's best third basemen, Arenado and Castellanos.

More big-name minor league cards.

And notable Bowman RCs up the wazoo.

More Bowman highlights.

Additions for the Arod and Jeter PCs.

One random basketball card, and a nice one at that, with this sparkly, diecut Kyrie Irving.

At first glance, this would seem to be regular ol' 2002 Topps Pudge, but no...

2002 Topps Kanebo Gum Japanese card! HOFer import! Very cool.
And this begins the Japanese-cards portion of the post.

Ohtani! Wowee!

More special Nippon Professional Baseball cards featuring Sadaharu Oh (home run king), Kazuhisa Makita (he's on the Padres now), Tetsuto Yamada (sparkly), and Wladimir Balentien (didn't do much in the majors, but has since had a fine career in Tokyo).

Here are a couple fun ones, including a lenticular card from 1996 and what seems to be a vintage (Calbee?) card on the right, though I couldn't say what's the story with them.

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Somewhat "NSFW" picture warning. Proceed with caution.
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Oh man! These might have been the most exciting cards of the package for me. I'm an admitted horndog female form enthusiast with a decent "girlie card" collection. I've got cards autographed by lovely ladies, and I've got cards with naked women on them, but I believe these are the first cards in my collection of autographed naked ladies. I try to keep my blog more-or-less "family friendly" so I've covered up the naughty bits. (The back photos are even better!) These are all numbered /200. Cool signatures.. especially the little drawing. Love these!

I think this is called an Icon box or something, right? Features a couple mini boxes of cards. Mariya Nagao here keeps clothed, though scantily clad.

Gonna end this post here rather than stretch it out too long, but man, still plenty of other good stuff in the package.. a bunch more rookie cards, minor league Topps cards, numbered parallels, etc.

Thanks so much, Zippy! This was a zippy zapping to remember. I'll round up a return for you soon.

recent customs n' such

Here are a few cards of my own making that I've whipped up recently.

Credit goes to Gio at WTHB for the inspiration for this custom. He posted a version of this '78 "dream card" (feasibly squeezing Ozzie Smith and Lou Whitaker onto the iconic Paul Molitor/Alan Trammell rookie) that made me want to print out a copy of my own. I ended up putting my own spin on it with some alterations, but still have to give him credit for the great idea.

I even gave it a full back too.

I made this "1971" Barry Larkin a while back as a surprise bonus to throw in a trade with a Reds collector. I like making customs that I can get good mileage out of, giving copies to multiple trader buddies. Like with this one, Reds fans might get a kick out of it, plus I could also send one to Dennis (University of Michigan guy) and another to Jedi Jeff (double play photo).

A pair of cards I made for Julie a couple months or so ago. I may have posted these already, but they're pretty cool, so here they are again.

While I didn't make this song nor this image, I put the two together and uploaded it to YouTube per request by somebody on the Calamine facebook page looking for this song (coincidentally also by a woman named Julie), a rare demo version of "More Sad Robots". It's a good one, if you like sparse, desolate music best listened to in the dark late at night.

I made a couple 1970 Kellogg's style cards, including a Hoyt Wilhelm "that should have been" (he was not included in the cereal set that year, and his '70 Topps card with the Braves was a logoless airbrush job) and a 1/1 Willinghammer for Wes. These obviously don't have the "3D effect" of the originals, but are otherwise similar to the cards from 1970. I even tried to "curl" the Hoyt copy I sent to Dimebox Nick to give it some pseudo-authenticity, but I'm not sure it got the point across. haha

Looking into it, I've only found a couple real cards where Hoyt is featured in a Braves uniform: 1971 Topps oddball "Baseball's Greatest Moments" (want!) and 2001 Topps American Pie (have!). His 1971 OPC card lists him as a Brave, but he's pictured as a Cub.

If you're a Rick & Morty fan, you're probably aware that Cryptozoic Rick & Morty Season 1 cards were released earlier this week. I love the show and seriously considered picking up a box, but the prices were nearly $200 for a hobby box that promised you a sketch card and maybe an auto or second sketch card. I ultimately decided I didn't like that price-per-value and decided to just make my own sketchcard, saving myself a couple C-notes. Here's Morty freaking out over a predicament he finds himself in. While it obviously isn't on par with the artistic quality of officially released sketchcards, can't beat it for the price! LOL. And being one of my sketchcards, you know there's a pretty good chance it glows in the dark...

Turned out pretty decent! Looks sort of like Munch's The Scream. I should do more Rick & Morty sketchcards if I think of it. I suck at drawing actual people, but if I stick to cartoons and robots, my results aren't too bad.

So there are some recent creative endeavors of mine. (Legal disclaimer: None of this stuff is for sale; just made for myself and/or as gifts for a very small number of my collector friends.)
Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

a trade supplement

Matt at Red Cardboard generously surprised me with a bonus package of cards in the wake of our recent swap.

Leading off with a vintage oddball of Tony Perez.

And more HOFers.

Sweet-ass lot of Reggie Sanders!, most of which are 90s parallels. Nice bump to the PC.

Plenty of active guys were included, too, such as Kris Bryant. The 2015 RC is actually a Berger's Best reprint (--unlike the '75 George Brett reprint above, I need to point this out.)

Nice Nolan Arenado lot.

Coming up Cutch.

Lindor to my door.

More and more Manny Machado.

Altuve por mi aqui.

Springer and a Bregman.

Mookie had a huge game today.

Closing out with a Kershaw reprint and a Bryce. Expect to see plenty of Gavin LaValley on my blog in the near future, as he was included in 2018 Bowman and I've been going after some of the parallels lately.

Thanks again, Matt! Dropped a little something in the mail for you the other day.