Sparkly 1/1 and a trade roundup for the books

I'd been keeping an eye on reasonably priced "canary diamond" (sparkly yellow) parallels from 2011 Topps to add to my frankenset. There're 1/1, so, not cheap, but they look good and would add some variety to my frankenbuild. This one popped up and I was able to land it for a decent price.

Matt Garza hasn't had a winning record in a while, but he's still a decent pitcher (or active, at least), so to score such a 1/1 for a price comfortably sub-blaster was a solid deal (shipping from Japan was more than the winning bid). But really, I didn't care who it was, just wanted one of those rare yellow diamond cards to add to my ridiculous parallel setbuild. Garza could end up being opening day starter for the 2017 Brewers, so let's hope he regains his no-hit form and makes this a shrewd pickup for me. But regardless, it adds a splash of sparkly yellow and some one-of-oneness to my frankenset.

And speaking of 2011 Topps parallels, I recently got a sweet lot of them from Chris at Nachos Grande.

Among the highlights here are a Mark Trumbo RC, Andrew McCutchen, and Trevor Hoffman sporting Brewers duds from the end of his career. This lot helps me get passed the 30% complete point. Chris is also working on a 2011 Topps parallel set, but his is Diamond-only. So these must've have been dupes he wound up with. Very nice of him to hook me up with these.

Big thanks, Chris! Unfortunately, your wantlist and my tradebox don't have much common ground, but I'll do my best to round up a hearty return package for you soon.

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Next up in last week's incoming trade packages is Tony Burbs from Wrigley Roster Jenga, hitting me back for the Holiday Blast PWE I sent him a while back.

The Steph is actually a Valentine's Day card Tony used to write his note on.. cute. The other 2 are Sports Illustrated cards of the 2 current Astros I collect.. awesome! I think these are the first SI For Kids cards in my collection.

Ha, Tony knows I'm a sucker for pretty ladies, and threw in a bunch of swimsuit cards from 1994. I think Kelly and Hana are my favorites of the lot.

And Tony's latest batch of cards wraps up with a nice score from a 2016 Topps Holiday box, including a metallic snowflake Bryce Harper and a Chris Sale jersey card.

Great stuff.. thanks, Tony!

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Last up for today is Matt from Bob Walk The Plank, and you know he goes big. I already showed off the Trout rookie from him a few days ago, but here are the other cards in his impressive mailer, heavy on Panini National Treasures hits.

Alex Dickerson had a solid half-season in San Diego after tearing up the minors to start 2016, and I'm hoping he can build on that in 2017. This is now easily the best piece in my little collection of his cards, boasting an on-card auto and 3 different jersey swatches, with a /99 serial number.

And gotta love the Wil Myers relic featuring bits of patches, all under the watchful eye of Jackie Robinson. And it isn't just a random gimmick for a card design; the back certifies the memorabilia was worn by Wil on Jackie Robinson Day (April 15), 2015. Numbered 22/25. Neat card!

Ha, I think this is the first time I've gotten a brand new magnetic one-touch in a trade. Very appreciated!

Just one last card to show.. but if you want to get technical about it, it isn't really a card...

It's a book!

This is the very first booklet card in my collection.

Crackin 'er open reveals an exquisite specimen of Wil Myers' world-renowned penmanship paired with a massive chunk of wood. Love it!

Been a while since I've read a book cover-to-cover. I thoroughly enjoyed Squiggle Man Gazes Into The Wooden Mirror and would call it a must-read!

The tricky thing with these is storing it. Guess I'll keep it closed in a thick one-touch for now, but hope to land a special case for book cards one of these days.

Thanks a ton, Matt! Hope you like the cards I sent your way, as well. (I dropped them in the mail Saturday afternoon and incredibly, they showed up across the country on Monday. Didn't even send them Priority. I wish the post office would always be that fast!)


Thanks again to Chris, Tony, and Matt for the great trade packages, and thanks to the rest of you for checking out the goods with me.