cards from WES

World Education Services (WES) is a nonprofit organization that provides credential evaluations for international students and immigrants planning to study or work in the U.S. and Canada.

But on the cardsphere, Wes is a nonprofit trader who provides incredible envelopes and packages for trading card collectors attempting to grow their collections.

Wes recently sought my help on a custom card project, and shipped me a nice Priority mailer of cards to say thanks.

Normally I'd save the best for last, but come on, having this lovely young lady in the preview photo for this post in blogrolls will be good for a few extra clicks, right? lol. I have a li'l Liv Morgan PC because I think she's pretty. Wes surprised me with a new "best card" for the PC with this beautiful 2017 auto.

And low numbered too!

A few more women on cardboard. Very nice!

There were plenty of men on cardboard, too. Some parallels and manurelics of guys I collect.

More top stars of today.

Hall of Famers. These are all serial-numbered besides the Lorde card.

Hey, how's about this? Some more numbered cards and an autographed '80 Topps Mad Hungarian. Neat!

Major League materials embedded as far as the eye can see!

Hell, I could've/should've done a whole separate post just on the incredible basketball cards in the package. The Dirk rookie in the middle was technically from a separate PWE, but I'm lumping them together. Awesome!

Winding down here with some odds and ends. Star Wars representing with an auto and an art card #'d 19/99.

The football guy Kendall Hunter saw some action with the 49ers but battled injury issues. It's a welcomed new addition to my collection of Christmas Cards.

And then a couple weird history relic cards. Ha, sure! One's got a couple pieces of old newspaper and a Susan B. Anthony stamp. Ooh, a 1/1! The other one says it has an actual relic from Barack Obama. I guess it's part of a letter he sent out or something? I was a little confused by these in the package at first, but I guess my wantlist does say I'm interested in out-of-the-ordinary relics, so give Wes props for diving deep into my ol' list o' wants.

And I was confused by the football cards at first too, but then I was like, oh yeah, black gold! Wes took note that I generally dig black cards with gold foil and hooked me up with these. Thick n' sharp!

And a sweet looking black gold auto plus a numbered Fridge to wrap things up.

Big thanks, Wes! Great bunch of cards.

Cards from Doug, Greg, Matt, Billy, and Jeremy

We're entering that ol' season of giving, and while in the past I've done mailing-blasts and blog-events leading up to Christmas, it always ends up being an exhausting undertaking, what with all the other stuff going on this time of year. So this year, I'm thinking a nice post-xmas giveaway. It'll likely be a card "draft" giveaway not too unlike Night Owl's recent event, with lots of prize options and multiple winners. I've been a lucky winner in a few recent cardsphere contests (not to mention greedily calling dibs on a bunch of primo slots in Wes's big 12/25 event), so I feel the need to give back. So stay tuned for that and be sure to take a moment later in the month to check in with the blog for a chance to win some cards.

Got a few different incoming mailings to cover in this post, and this first one is from Doug at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. This card is one of those gimmicky but fun cards from Panini where they take a photo of a guy wearing a Santa hat, then make relic cards from the hat. Nice card to spice up my modest PC of this guy I went to high school with.

I think these are the first 2018 Heritage Minors cards in my collection, maybe. Good selection of future Friars, highlighted by a blue Logan Allen.

Some 1970 Padres.. imported from Canada....

O-Pee-Chee! Always fun.

More nice Padres cards of promising guys who failed to become quality major leaguers or are on their way to such a fate (prove me wrong, Francisco, prove me wrong!). Sean Burroughs bat relic, in case you can't read the tiny text. Keyvius Sampson made the majors with the Reds in '15-16, but looks like he was out of baseball last year. Neat auto. Like most Padres 1st round picks, Donavan Tate washed out of baseball after an unimpressive minor league career. The former two-sport star tried to return to football last year, but doesn't look like that panned out.

Some other PC cards. Good stuff.

And cards of lady wrestlers I collect. I think my Alexa Bliss PC doubled thanks to this mailing!

Very appreciated, Doug! I think this return makes the Felix Millan auto you traded me for pale in comparison, but I'll try to hit you back next time.

- - - ----o

Next up is my prize from Night Owl's recent 10 Year Anniversary giveaway. I was lucky enough to get into the list of eligible players, though the randomizer threw me down near the bottom of the draft board. By the time I was on the clock, most of the cards that caught my eye were gone, though I was able to add a nice Andre Dawson 2011 "legend variation" to the PC.

Greg was kind enough to throw in a bonus card for my recently-begun '72 Topps setbuild. I am at 6.6% complete with this godforsaken set and already know it will be the Baines of my collecting existence for the next several years. I just need to keep telling myself it's a long term project. Just moving along with a random card here and there, such as Jim Brewer here, and eventually down the road, I'll have it in my sights.

Thanks, Greg!

-  - - ---o

Next up is a PWE from Sport Card Collectors.

Lovely pair of cards here. Billy Hamilton was surprisingly let go by the Reds recently and picked up by the Royals. Best of luck to him in KC.

Some Astros and Bellingers.

Thanks, SCC! Hope you like the return PWE I sent.

-  - - ----o

Here's a surprise holiday PWE from Billy at Cardboard History.

A half-dozen basketball dudes I collect. Tim Duncan trio, Dirk, TJ Leaf, and Manute Bol.

Thanks, Billy! I've been working on sending some cards your way soon.

 - - - -----o

Lastly for today is a contest win from Jeremy at Topps cards that never were.

I wasn't expecting this lot of Brian Giles cards.. and though my PC of his is pretty large, pretty sure I needed just about all of these!

The prize in the contest was Jeremy would send you a few customs he made of your choice. I was a little confused if he had already made them or not, and I asked about Chris Jones, a guy from my high school who played in the bigs but never got a real card from his MLB career. Jeremy kindly obliged. Glad to have these whipped up for me!

I also asked about some missing Rod Beck cards that Topps neglected to make, and he came through big there, too! (Beck has a Gold '92 Topps card-- a replacement for a checklist-- but not a standard issue in the set.)

Of course I'm partial to the San Diego era cards, but all are appreciated.

Thanks so much, Jeremy!


Thanks again to everybody who's sent me cards. And thanks for reading.

Card Show Constipation

Let's check out some of my recent card show pickups.

The Dark Home Run King. Nice refractor. I think these were all 50¢ cards in this post.

Looks like this is /425.

Numbered Springer RC. Ugly card, but happy to throw it in the PC.

Schmidt happened.

1978 out of 1980.

Holy Cow! I've seen this Jordan plenty of times and finally picked up a copy. I'm lucky enough to have caught a lot of Harry Caray Cubs broadcasts on WGN back when I first got into baseball/cards in the early 90s.

I've never collected Nick Markakis much, but hey, he's put together a real nice career under the radar, having a career year now at age 34. Figured I'd pick up some early cards of the guy.

Trevor Story is a guy I collected during his hot rookie season, then cooled a bit on him when he hit a sophomore slump, but now he's having a good junior jumpback, so I'm warming up to him again. Yeah, I'm not always a very loyal player-collector.

Wow, this pic is tailored to Sport Card Collectors, with some Griffeys and Jeters and Mariano.

'75 mini Perez, Jackie Galasso, and '86TT Canseco.

Baby Beltre. Heard he just passed Chipper Jones for third place for homers by a third baseman. I assume Schmidt and Mathews top the list.

Gypsy Queen doesn't draw my interest much, but these tarot card are pretty cool. I could see myself trying to finish this insert set someday.

I still like Billy Hamilton, and was happy to add a couple shiny, early cards.

And we close with a shining Stargell and cool Correa. I suppose I prefer the days back when Topps Tribute had refractory base cards.

As for card show constipation, well, it's not that I've been backed up, but gotta admit these cards have been waiting in the chamber since last month's card show. I missed the August show the other day because I was busy doing family stuff. Always a bummer to miss the show, but nice to be out having fun.

Thanks for reading.

Patience

Here's a quick 2-card Guns N' Randoms post with a couple shiny autos.

First, I need to admit that I hate whistling. Like, if a co-worker is whistling in the breakroom or something, he's instantly added to my shitlist. (And I can say "he" because women are never obnoxious enough to whistle in public, only entitled white men.) Drives me nuts! And it's not because I hate the happiness of others or anything. Hell, walk around with a constant huge-ass smile on your face, I'm cool with that. Gayly skip down the fucking halls, I might even join you. I just hate to hear people whistle.

And yes, it's probably partially due to jealousy seeing that I've never been able to whistle myself. Try as I might, I've never been able to do more than fruitlessly spit air out from my pursed lips.

But among the rare instances where I like whistling is in the Guns N' Roses song "Patience".

You know who are finding themselves in need of a little patience this season? Mets fans.

I recently won a card on eBay and took a look at other cards from the seller ending soon and ended up scoring myself a couple slabbed rookie autos, one of which is this Michael Conforto here. He's had a rough year, struggling to hit his weight in the first half. But he's only 25 and I still believe in him and expect him to have a solid career in the long run. Plus he's a Pacific Northwest kid out of Oregon State. So I'm ok taking a flyer on this /199 RC auto 2016 Topps Tribute for probably less than a quarter of what it was going for at the peak of his hype a while back.

And the other card I ended up snagging was this Billy Hamilton 2014 Bowman Chrome blue refractor auto. Like the Mets, Reds fans are needing a little patience this season (and before and beyond), but at least they've been respectable since a managerial change.

Billy is known for his speed on the bases and great catches in center, though his hitting is always the big question mark with him. "You can't steal first base," as they say.

Still though, I've always been a fan of speedsters since my youthful days running track, so I've got a decent little PC of the guy. And this beautiful card is a terrific addition. I think I only had one auto of his prior to this, a logoless Christmas Card from Panini. And this slabbed /250 blue refractor might overtake that one as best card of the PC.

Hopefully with a little patience Conforto and Hamilton will blossom into greats of the game for the next several years and these "price of a blaster" pickups will end up looking like incredible deals pretty soon. Or maybe they won't, but whatever.. I think they're cool cards regardless.

I've had this song stuck in my head for the past couple days now. It's not GNR and doesn't really fit here, but I'm throwing it into the post anyway, hoping to get it stuck in your head too.

Enjoy your weekend, everybody! Card show weekend for me, though it might be an arduous task for me to make it due to 90 degree temperatures and the fact my wife has dibs on the car, so I'd have to use public transit again. If I'm not feeling it in the morning, I might sit this one out.

Along Came Rollie

It's well documented that I'm crazy for Topps Retired refractor autos. I also collect Rollie Fingers, so it was a given I was gonna throw a competitive bid on this '03 when it popped up on eBay. Great looking card with young, pre-mustache Rollie. He's a main guy I collect as a Pads in the Hall member (a mini-player-collection of HOFers who suited up for the Padres at some point).

And I went after it hard because it's the Christmas Card! If, say, it was instead numbered 13/25, I would probably have bid only about half as much. But seeing as it's a "1/1" for my collection, I was willing to overpay a little.

Also picked up a couple cheap '18 Heritage relics from the same seller. With combined shipping, they set me back $1.49 each. Not super interesting, but I like that neither is a plain white swatch. Nice additions to my Billy Hamilton and George Springer PCs.

That's it for today. Thanks for reading.

Friday Feeling

I was fortunate to be included in Fuji's recent mail-blast. In fact, this post had the working title of "Fujenerous" but I just thought that was so bad that I couldn't publish it, and I had to wait until I got another trade package in and combine them under another title (not that "Friday Feeling" is any better, but what are ya gonna do). Thankfully, Reds Cardboard came through with a great box of cards I called dibs on from his cleaning house tradeathon. Some good stuff that caught my eye had already been claimed by the time I got to the post, but there were still many cards I was happy to score.

The Cecchini was my first look at 2017 Topps Fire; it's a parallel #'d /99 on the back. Bellinger RC is a sweet card. Didi back before he went by Didi. Wil Myers 42 "patch" thing. Jeter cd-rom; I didn't have a chance to rip the video contents of this, but nudge me if you want me to at some point.

Terrific selection of Billy Hamilton cards.

Robert Stephenson is a young pitcher I kinda-sorta collect for no reason. Matt hooked me up with a nice lot of what must have been dupes, all of them wonderfully shiny.

And my Tony Perez PC got a nice bump.

Six-pack of Bryce.

One of my newest PCs and already looking good with help from these 3.

Part of me would love to "retire" from vintage setbuilding once I eventually wrap up the 2 or 3 sets I've currently got in the works... though another part of me doubts it'll be easy to kick the hunting-down-old-cardboard habit, and I've penciled in 1959 Topps as one I'll probably chase at some point down the line. So I'm happy to pick up cards for it here and there when I can.

The ol' birth-year set is another one I'll probably bust out before too long.

I also asked for any 2011 Topps parallels he was looking to part with. There were a couple needs here as I trudge closer to halfway with this big franketset project.

Matt filled up the box with a bunch of extra Reds, hitting some PCs along the way. I can use these, as the Boone Brothers are originally from my old stomping grounds of East County San Diego.

But the bulk of surprise additions were all these Reggie Sanders cards. He's a guy who I rarely seem to get cards of in trades for whatever reason, despite his heyday being in the go-go early 90s. So these are very appreciated in spite of their nominal book value.

Thanks a lot, Matt! Dropped some return Reds in the mail for you today.

- - - ---o

Ok, now it's Fuji time!

Here are a couple shiny "irregular" cards of top PC guys of mine. The Rod Beck is #'d /160, and looks great though it's got a weird black splotch at the top that I had to look up to make sure it wasn't supposed to be there. The Lindor is a very nice card, though it does have a nasty gash on the left side that thankfully didn't show up in the photo. Both still very appreciated!

Nearly a complete Topps run of Nate Colbert! While I've got these cards already, I'll bet there's at least a couple upgrades for me in here.

And a whole bunch of Kirby Puckett (and a Stargell)! Love 'em!


Thanks a lot, Fuji! Very kind of you.
Oh! And he also then sent a separate PWE of cards for my We Didn't Start The Fire binder which I'll show in a post soon updating that project.

That'll do it. Have a great weekend, everyone.