Bountiful gifts from Rod

This post wraps up my haul from Cardblogger Con NW '18, the big meetup a few of us had a couple weeks ago in downtown Portland. Rod loaded up my backpack with probably around 1000 cards.

I'm only showing "keepers" in this post, which was probably about 40% of the lot. As you can see there was a ton of 2018 Series 1, with plenty of PC needs for me. (Extra Altuve "Legends in the Making" insert if anyone wants me to set it aside for them.)

A few from '18 Opening Day too.

I'm thinking of starting a "thumbs up" minicollection. I just think that flipping through a few binder pages of people giving thumbs up could be uplifting.

There was a blaster or so's worth of WWE Diva cards in the lot, and I plucked out a few that caught my eye for inclusion in my girlie card minicollection. (Unfortunately for me, Rod also collects Alexa Bliss, so there wasn't any of her in there for me.) I think Kelly Kelly should hook up with the Padre minor leaguer named Henry Henry.

Here are some more cards, including a signed Darcy Fast custom. The Raines is a Berger's Best insert.

A bunch of guys I collect from the overproduction era.

Big stack of 2017 Bowman, including what might be my first card of Vlad Jr.

Nice selection of 2018 Heritage. With all the fake errors they put in there, it's almost refreshing to pull a real error (Hanley Ramirez included on the Batting Leaders card when it should have been Jose Ramirez of the Indians).

Ton of Gwynns! Many of these are dupes for me, though I'm sure there are some needs too. Always love those "Greatest Hits Album" diecuts.

Craptonne more Padres of the Past that I collect.

And some special favorites of mine to close out the post. A red Khalil, new Rod Beck, great trio of Cammys, and some Bips. While I've got a very robust collection o' Bip, the '93 Donruss Diamond King was a conspicuously missing "junk" card. Nice to have that one squared away now.

Thanks as always for your generosity, Rod! Very appreciated!

Cards on Cards in Person

Working just down the road from each other in downtown Portland, Kerry of Cards on Cards and I have met up to exchange cards a few times, but last week's Cardblogger Con NW '18 was the first time we actually got to hang out for a while rather than just hand off cards. I also got to meet Kerry's card-collecting partner in crime, Erin, who joined our group midway through, so that was pretty cool, too.

Kerry had sent over a nice bunch of cards for me as a contest-losing consolation prize just a few days before, so I wasn't expecting him to have more for me so soon, but happily for me, he was able to scrounge up some more good cards to give me at the meetup.

Beam Team cards seem to be some of the best looking inserts around these days. Love this Trout.

A couple more nice Trouts and a sliding Harper.

Here we've got a couple high-end McCutchens and a pair of Royals standouts.

I casually mentioned on my blog once that, while I don't really follow basketball, I might consider the Spurs my favorite NBA team in recent years, specifically because Tim Duncan seems like a neat dude (and Coach Pop, too). And with Kerry being a big basketball card collector without a ton of trading options on the cardsphere, took that to heart and has been a big contributor to my small b-ball collection since. Some cool Duncans in this lot, including a shiny sticker.

Also a few from Ginobili and Tony Parker.

And a mess of David Robinson.

Thanks for the cards, Kerry! Glad you were able to make it to the meetup and ended up being able to stay for a good while even though you had prior plans later in the evening. Great hanging with you and Erin and everybody.

GCRLive: cards as I receive them

I briefly met gcrl a year or two ago when he was in Portland for business. When he came back around this time, we turned it into a big cardblogger meetup. He was nice enough to bring along cards for the group. Let's take a look at what he had for me.

Kicking it off with college cards of a couple Padres greats, plus some other very goods players of yesteryear.

Here are some current guys, including 3 additions for my new Eric Hosmer PC. That 2018 Donruss Arenado card was "pack fresh" as can be, as gcrl had the foresight to pick up a few packs at Target for us to rip together, and that was among the cards pulled.

A couple infielders who didn't quite pan out longterm in San Diego, Sean Burroughs and Marcus Giles. The encased gold refractor Burroughs is #'d 086/170.

The Marquis Grissom is appreciated for my big Marquis Mania project. The two 1980 Topps cards are upgrades for my set (they have unchecked checklists on the back, which I prefer over marked-on cards). And the four 1987 Fleer Update cards get me closer to completing that little set.

And we'll end with this sweet Norm Zauchin, a high number for my '57 Topps setbuild. Love getting help there via trades.

Thanks again, man! It was great seeing you. Sorry I'm running low on Dodgers at the moment, but hope you were happy with the cards I rounded up for you.

Cardblogger Con NW '18 recap

Five card-bloggers getting together for drinks and conversation. Really good time! Gcrl (Cards As I See Them), Rod (Padrographs), Kerry (Cards on Cards), Ken (Cardboard Hogs), and myself (Baseball Card Breakdown). If you know of more cardbloggers getting together at once, let me know, but otherwise I'll consider this the record-breaker for most cardbloggers hanging out in person. Lots of fun, swapping cards and sharing stories.

I don't have much time for blogging today (and I'm a little hungover), so I'll just cover the cards I got from Ken now, and get to the others soon.

Ken was a late invite, which I feel bad about, but I know he's got his hands full these days with work and his kids, and hasn't blogged much in the past year, so I didn't think the chances were good that'd he'd be able to make it into downtown for the meetup. But I'm glad I thought to invite him better late than never, and that it worked with his schedule, because he's a good dude and definitely a welcome addition to the group.

Kicking things off with neat inserts and parallels of young Padres. Sounds like Renfroe might be on the trading block.

Pair of Margots. Hoping for a big '18 season from him.

Some San Diego favorites from the past. Rollie gets in on consecutive posts, featured here on a Berger's Best reprint.

Nice batch of Bowman prospects.

Full team set of 2005 Portland Beavers! Love the mascot card. I kind of regret not catching any Beavers games before they went away a few years ago. (Today happens to be my 9 year anniversary of moving to Portland.)

And a few more Padres (and USA Drew Pomeranz).

Good stuff.. thanks, Ken. Great seeing you. Sorry I was out of Redskins and had to resort to a custom-heavy lot hitting some of your PC guys, but hope you got a kick out of them.

And thanks again to the other fellas who came out to the get-together. I hope we can do it again sometime. Looking forward this weekend to going through the rest of the cards I brought home thanks to you guys.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!