Baseball Cards Come from Bo!

He was already probably the cardsphere's most prolific trader these days, but after Bo added his dupes to TCDB, it became even easier for him to identify cards his trade partners could use. He was thinking about putting together a good-sized package for me-- in contrast to our typical PWE swaps-- and emailed lists for guys high atop my priority PCs. I was able to add a few hundred needs thanks to it.

I've gotten more into collecting Harmon Killebrew over the years, with my mindset going from "sure, I'll take his cards" to "yes, give me his cards!" Just a good dude. While I don't stray from standard cardboard too often, I spoke up when Bo said he had some extra bottle caps available from a big lot he acquired.

Here's a closer look "in hand". Not in perfect shape, but still pretty cool. They are different on the reverse, with one being Coke and the other Tab.

I put 'em in a thick top-loader for storing in my PC boxes.

More HOFers here, including a fat stack of George Brett cards I needed. The Hank Aaron record breaker is in rough shape, but hey, a playing-days Hank Aaron that I don't have will always be welcomed in this house. I need it for my '76 Topps setbuild, too, meaning it's still a keeper even if/when I upgrade.

Thanks to this trade, I'll need to update my wantlist because the PCs of guys like Brett, Thome, and Larry Walker have all been pushed well over the 100-card threshold and I suppose I'm still hanging on to my "Hundred Card Club" method of player collecting where I try to convince myself that I'm "done" collecting a player after I get a representative sample of >100 cards, and then I can focus my hobby energy elsewhere, though it can be hard fighting the mindset of "gotta get 'em all!"

This above selection of guys includes some of who I consider my top tier PC priorities, so it's a little embarrassing to realize I'm missing basic "junk" cards like Rod Beck's 1992 Donruss.. not talking about some dumb "missing a period on the back" variation, but just any copy. And Vince Coleman was one of my early biggest PCs circa 1990-91, and so cards like his '90 Topps Record Breaker are a very familiar card to me despite needing it. But I jettisoned that PC during my long hiatus from the hobby, and he was one guy that I was slow to return to collecting as an adult, probably due to the unbecoming stuff near the end of his career. But still gotta be impressed by his freewheelin' Cardinals prime.

Snuck in some active players too, specifically small stacks of Judge and Votto, plus early cards I was missing from current Padre standouts Musgrove, Snell, and Cronenworth. 

I helped Bo thin out some of his many '88 Topps dupes by requesting any popular All-Stars he had available. The plan for these is to make some more "yellow background removed" mods similar to the Gwynn I showed off at the start of the year. So that'll be fun once some of those eventually complete the long process.

Closing out the post with what I was probably most stoked about, the infamous "Hunter S. Thompson" Bruce Bochy minor league card! Had been wanting to add that to the PC for a while, his 2nd earliest card. I've reached the melancholy point where I'm now older than every player in MLB, but at least there are still lifers like Boch and Dusty who have been suiting up since before I was born.

Big thanks, Bo! I'm working on a return that will hopefully hold a candle to this great bunch of cards you kindly rounded up for me.

Have a great weekend, everybody.