Great trades to soothe a mailless day

Man, I love three-day weekends!

But the worst thing about them is having a couple consecutive days without mail service. I need the prospect of potential cards in my mailbox to help get me out of bed in the morning.

But luckily for me, I got a few nice trade packages in the mail late this past week, so that helps take the sting out.

I purposefully held off going through the box I received from Julie until today to give myself some celebratory cards for Labor Day.

Let's crack it open!

The cards are alive with color!

Gavins! The Goof-Off without text on the front is from the 70s (that I had been meaning to track down), while the other is a reprint from 1988.

Been a long time since I got a new Matt Ginter for the PC! And I love the Miguel Tejada Christmas Card.

Great lot of the Giles Bros.

Just call Julie the Bringer of Donaldsons.

Oh, I'm bein' followed by a Machado. Machado, Machado!

I've been desperately pleading with traders to stop sending me Wil Myers cards, but I'll admit I was happy to see many of these. That early Tri-Star card in particular is a nice addition to the PC.

Nice pile of teammates Correa and Altuve!

And the cards just keep on comin'! This is one of those packages that could easily have an entire week's worth of posts dedicated to it, but let's just wrap it up here. So many awesome cards.. Huge thanks, Julie!

- - - ---o

Tough to follow that, but here's an excellent surprise mailer from Kerry.

Some big stars of today on fancy inserts.

A pair of Arenado DKs (one is a refractor), and a pair of World's Fair inserts from 2017 Ginter. I wanted the Monorail card because it makes me think of that one Simpsons episode. The Ferris Wheel card makes me think of a Neutral Milk Hotel song.

Kerry must have caught when I said that, while I don't really follow the NBA much, I might go ahead and call the Spurs my favorite team in the league. And that's largely because of Tim Duncan, featured with a sweet lot here.

And fellow Spurs, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker.

Thanks, Kerry! I'll round up a return for you soon.

- - - ---o

One more trade to post about today, this one from Stealing Home.

Always happy to take his dupes of Dodgers I collect.

Solarte auto! If I recall, OM pulled this in a repack and was kind enough to set it aside for me. On the day I received this trade package, Solarte hit a walkoff homer for my Padres against the Dodgers. Looks like this auto escaped enemy territory just in time!

Awesome surprise, right here. I'm a sucker for glow-in-the-dark cards, and these weren't even on my radar. Seems they came with Kid Cuisine frozen meals in 1997. Love it! I'll have to try to track down the rest of the set someday.

Here they are in action. Very cool concept of having the skeletons glow.

A book! I've been wanting to read Mint Condition for a while now. It's supposed to be a great telling of the history of the hobby. I'm still working through Ball Four, but this one will be next on my reading list. Or who knows, maybe I'll read them concurrently. (Ball Four is an ebook I've been reading on my phone, not a physical copy.)

And last item of the post, an elegant bronze Roberto Alomar 1988 Topps Traded RC mint-card. Mr. Stealing Home ended up with this card-like-thing in Johnny's Big Fun Game, and seeing how he bleeds Dodger blue, didn't necessarily have a lasting place in his collection for a Padre, so we were able to work out a trade and bring it to a home where it'll be more appreciated. I won't show a bunch of pics of it, but if you're interested, a recent ARPS post featuring the Will Clark version of these things does a great job giving you a clear idea of what they're all about. Part of me wants to trash the big plastic case since it's crumbling somewhat and takes a lot of room, but the collector in me doesn't want to lose the case that's "part" of the item. Still debating.

Thanks a lot, OM! I'll put your return package in the mail soon.


Happy Labor Day, everybody. And thanks again to Julie, Kerry, and OM for the excellent cards! I hardly even noticed there was no mail today. :)