cardboard kindness catchup

I'm overdue for tipping my cap to fellow cardspherians who've sent me mail recently.

The Diamond King recently spread some love to his readers by doing a giveaway event where previous comments worked like raffle tickets used towards various prizes he offered up. I think this is a great idea and will likely borrow it for my next contest. Although I wasn't one of the top commenters (love his blog, but don't often have much to add), luck was in my favor and the randomizer won me this oddball for my Griffey PC. I'm a bit of a retro gaming nerd (see my latest 1991 MusiCards Blog where Maniac Mansion hijacks the post) and play Super Nintendo on the regular these days, though I didn't own the console back in the day. The only baseball video game I really play is Bases Loaded 2 (NES), but I should try Junior's game one of these days. My wife and I play a lot of Dr. Mario and Wario's Woods on SNES, a couple fun 2-player games we're pretty evenly matched at.

Anyways, thanks Kevin! I've been meaning to find some cards from your wantlist for a while now and hope to send you something before long.

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Greg at Nine Pockets also offered up a wide range of prizes recently to celebrate 2 years of blogging, this time a first-come/up-for-grabs situation. I called dibs on this 1986 Fleer Baseball's Best boxed set. I collect the vast majority of these 44 players, so I plan to break up the complete set into my PCs, as I think I only had maybe a couple of these cards previously. Plenty of big names and some hot rookies from '86. He was also kind enough to surprise me with a pack of gently-used penny sleeves.

Thanks, Greg! Keep up the great work!

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Next up is a random blast of cardboard from Bob at the Best Bubble. Looks like he was going for a Portland-theme with some of these. Fair enough. The Blazers team card was the highlight of the PWE for me; it fills an empty slot in my Vintage Frankenset.

Also a few Gavins, a couple Garins (not cool! lol), and an attractive woman in a bathing suit.

Thanks, Bob! I feel like I've owed you some return cards for a while now, but without much on your wantlist, my best bet is making you a couple more "bubble" customs, but technical difficulties have severely limited my card-making activities in recent months. But yeah, I'll hit you back with something one of these days. Thanks for your patience.

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Last for today is a bright selection of 1987 Bohemian Hearth Padres from friend of the blog and past guest-blogger, Alex T. I managed to complete this regional oddball set a while back, a sentimental favorite, but many of my cards (that originally came packaged with loaves of bread) were creased and/or suffered from browning/discoloration. So when Alex said he might be able to help me upgrade my set, I jumped to attention. These cards don't pop up very often.

A couple extreme before & after examples: what I had on the left, upgrades from Alex on the right. Night and day! My set is looking a lot nicer now. I still wouldn't mind upgrading the Gwynn and Kruk someday, but won't hold my breath there.

Thanks again, Alex! Much appreciated!

That'll do it for today. Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend.