Good times for this Padre fan (trades n' stuff)

Big night for my Padres the other night! I would have been ecstatic if San Diego got a no-hitter from some random call-up I never heard of, but what makes it even sweeter is that Joe Musgrove is from my hometown and I've been collecting the guy's cards for a few years already. Congrats, Joe! Making El Cajon proud.

Such a great story of a local kid rising who grew up rooting for them to achieve that elusive Padres no-hitter. Seems like a real good dude, too. Gotta bump him up into the "high priority" tier of my player wantlist.

Now to catch up on some good stuff that's come my way from trader buds over the past couple weeks.

Friend of the blog Alex T. has been incredibly generous with hooking me up with cool oddities for my collection for a few years now. I'm falling behind because I also got a great Dick Allen set from him not long ago I haven't posted about yet, but more recently was this Rod Beck postcard and a pack/set of Michael Bolton softball cards.

"The Trucker" comes from a series of Marvelous Moustaches postcards by Left Field Cards, created by French-born artist Amelie Mancini. I remember checking these out a couple years ago after hearing about them somewhere on the cardsphere. I debated purchasing a set, but ultimately didn't pull the trigger and I think they sold out shortly thereafter. So it was an awesome surprise to pull Rod Beck out of the package.

Alex reached out to Amélie about availability for an order, was able to snag this one for my Shooter PC, and he even thought to ask if Amélie would be so kind as to sign them, which she graciously did down on the back.

I had to frame it up, at least for a while, and currently have it hanging in the living room. My wife says to her it's a picture of Kenny Powers, and she's not far off.

Here are what the softball cards look like. We got to talking about these cards after Michael Bolton was featured on my 1991 MusiCards blog, and Alex happened to have an extra of this set to spare. Especially love the Yount.

Big thanks, Alex! Great stuff.

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I did a quick PWE swap with Robert at $30 a week habit. My 2011 Topps parallel frankenset has really slowed down in recent years, but I haven't nixed the project yet. I'm nearing 700 different cards for it, but still just a little over halfway done. So yeah, these Jays needs from Robert are appreciated.

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Night Owl struck with an expertly curated package of cards. I collect more Dodgers than I should, being a Padres fan, but yep, I'm very happy to receive Greg's dupes of Walker Buehler or Gavin Lux.

Also a pair of blue Fire Matt Chapman cards and some set needs.

And some vintage set needs! Love to see it!! Feels like this part of my collection is kinda paused waiting for the current sportscard bubble to pop and get those prices back down a notch or two.

But the real star was this well-loved 1957 Elston Howard. Solid name to check off my long-running '57 Topps setbuild. Nice!

Thanks a lot, Greg! Much appreciated! I'll return the favor pretty soon.

Thanks for reading. Go get that cardboard! :)