And that's the end of THAT chapter

Man, January was a turbulent month for me that culminated in getting laid off, which sounds bad but was actually the answer to my prayers and I honestly feel better now than I have in a long time. Looking forward to a fresh start.

Time to catch up on cards I've received from bloggers last month-- a mix of trades and remnants from holiday activity-- and tip my cap to these friendly folks.

Tom from the revived Angels In Order blog sent me over a nice lot of '92 Leaf black gold for my parallel setbuild. Much appreciated, sir!

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I'm glad The Lost Collector is still on the scene despite shuttering his blog. He kindly sent me over some Gavins as a thank-you for the '91 Fleer mod of Tino Martinez I surprised him with over the holidays.

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Excuse the uncropped pic..

A similar surprise thank-you PWE came from gcrl who knocked HOFer Tony Oliva off my '72 Topps wantlist. Very nice.. thanks!

Of course I don't need/expect anything in return for my holiday surprise mailings, but it's always cool to get cards. 

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Speaking of '72s...

My new trade bait page hasn't generated a ton of transactions yet, but Jon was tempted by a couple Retired autos and was able to dig up some '72 Topps needs from atop my wantlist.

Jon kicked up the package by throwing in a bunch of Kellogg's needs too. Awesome! Thanks, man!

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I was fortunate enough to be included in a round of holiday mailings from Dennis, delayed till the new year due to supply chain issues, but still much appreciated. Here we've got a Bruce Bochy card that was sorely missing from my PC-- best of luck to him helming the Rangers this coming season. It'd be nice if he could get his career winning-percentage out of the red. Also a very shiny holiday-themed football card featuring a pair of players I collect in Ricky Williams and Marshall Faulk.

Also got an impressive quartet of Gavins. The orange Cecchini is the top card here, as we can see on the back...

Christmas Card!! These days I don't chase after Gavin cards or 12/25 cards with the same gusto I did back in this blog's earlier days-- there are just too goddamn many of them nowadays!-- but a combination 12/25 Gavin card will always be treated like royalty in my collection.

Big thanks, Dennis!

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Ok, this last one for today has a story with it. I've mentioned it before, but in one of my earliest online card deals, I worked out a combined Listia transaction with a guy for minor league cards of Ricky Williams and Fred McGriff. The seller was totally cool and made it a pleasant experience for this noob. He had a memorable username, SpastikMooss, and turns out the guy is also a cardblogger and we've gone on to trade once or twice since.

Cut to a decade later, he's listing some trade bait on his blog, and included is the partial 1985 Syracuse Chiefs team set from whence the Fred McGriff card originated. I figured it'd be cool to re-complete the team set, so I reached out regarding a trade and he was amenable.

The joy of a completed team set! Some other neat cards here, including random PC-guy of mine Mike Sharperson (I previously only had a signed copy of this card, my only auto of his).

Thanks, SpastikMooss! Very cool to reconnect and recomplete.

That'll wrap up this post. Thanks for stopping by.