You Ain't the First

"You Ain't the First" is next on the Guns N' Randoms list. Here are some of my random pickups over the past few weeks.

This ain't the first Graig Nettles auto in my collection, but it's the shiniest. Another card towards my Archives Reserve Master Set. The former SDSU standout set career highs in 1977 with 37 dingers and 107 ribbies as he helped his Yanks get new boat. (sorry, been watching a lot of Letterkenny on Hulu lately. "Boat" means "championship".)

This ain't the first nice Pedro Avila card in my collection.. in fact, my last post featured an autograph version of this 2018 Bowman card Rod was kind enough to give me. But you know how I love cards numbered 12/25. Picked up this Christmas Card cheap a while back.

With combined shipping (flat $1) on the above Xmas Pedro, also snagged this Heliot Ramos 2018 Bowman Tek purple parallel, a promising CF prospect for the Giants.

And along with the aforementioned Pedro and Heliot was this Chris Sale. I hadn't realized there were colored-bordered parales of these neat Tarot of the Diamond cards from 2018 Gypsy Queen (but of course there were), a bright spot of an otherwise forgettable product. While I'm definitely not into all that fortune telling crap (can't believe folks still put any faith in this stuff, but as my facebook feed attests, some do), these arty cards with rounded corners are pretty cool, especially with the "indigo" border making it pop.

I've seen these Topps Pristine "Personal Endorsements" cards on eBay before and always thought they looked kinda lame in the scans, but then I stumbled upon this Darrell Evans stickergraph cheap, a PC guy of mine, and snatched it up. It actually looks really cool in-hand, with the "engraved" effect really dancing in the light. Wouldn't be against picking up more of these.

Finally, this ain't the first Gavin LaValley 1/1 in my collection.. in fact, I'm sure I've got more LaValley 1/1's in my collection than any other player by a wide margin, but I'm still happy to add this cyan printing plate.

I already had the Superfractor and the black printing plate in my quest for a master rainbow.

As of this writing, LaValley is batting 2-2 in spring training 2019. If he keeps up this pace for a full career, he'll be a slam dunk HOFer with a 1.000 batting average! My PC will skyrocket and I'll become rich slowly selling off my collection. Go, Gavin, Go!

Happy Friday, Y'all!

late night trade recap

Wrapping up another successful awareness week. Thanks to all of you who helped support the use of blue tape and pull tabs. Ours is a noble and just cause.

Let's crank out a trade recap post. First up is Night Owl. We've been trading back and forth for a while, and honestly I've forgotten when I get cards from him if he's getting me back for the last batch of cards I sent him, or starting a new cycle. But no matter, I'm happy to keep things going.

A couple sweet relics of Padres I collect. I assume that red Klesko warm-up jersey swatch must be from his time on the Braves, right? (edit: whoops, I missed the All-Star stuff. It's most likely from his All-Star Game warm-up jersey, as Night Owl pointed out in the comments.) That Khalil Greene might feature the tiniest bat chip I've ever seen in a card, but I'm still happy to add it to the PC.

Some Padre cards with foil stamps. I remember posting a comment on Greg's terrific blog offering to give the Gwynn a good home a while back, and here he is!

A few days ago, I posted a plea for traders to please stop sending me Wil Myers cards, but this package was already in the capable hands of the USPS by then, so he gets a pass.

"Knoxville! Knoxville! Knoxville!" I wanted that Sunsphere card because of the classic Simpsons episode where Bart and his buds take a road trip to visit it, years after the World's Fair. Also here are a couple Confortos I needed, plus a 2011 parallel.

A bunch more current guys I collect, mostly from 2017 Opening Day.

Beltre! I saw that faux Wheaties box card on Oscar's blog a few days ago and thought it was pretty cool, so I was very happy to find it among the stack.

1984 Fleer! I've got this set on my "maybe someday" list, and this is a nice starter lot for if/when I get serious about it. I believe Greg is also working on the set, so these must be some dupes he had available.

And finally a couple glowing cards.
See?....

Thanks, Greg! Very appreciated. I'll round up some cards for you soon.

Oh, since we're closing up Blue Tape & Pull-Tab Awareness Week, I guess we should take a look at his packaging:

The ol' team bag with a piece of blue tape over it. Billy from Cardboard History mentioned in the comments that folks taping a team bag is a big pet peeve of his (specifically when it's a new team bag with the adhesive strip that still has the covering over it). But I get it; sometimes, especially with a team bag that's already been used a few times, it's hard to trust that the sticky part will hold. So yeah, I give N.O. a thumbs-up here.

-  - -- - ---o

Next up is a trade with a new Twitter bud, @DJSeneseiNJ. I tweeted out my needs from Star Wars 40 and while I got some likes and retweets, he was the only person to answer the call and knock some numbers off my list.

He found a nice baker's dozen of needs for me, taking me to 17 left to complete the 200-card set.

[My current 2017 Topps Star Wars 40th Anniversary needs: 8, 15, 23, 29, 37, 42, 46, 49, 57, 58, 69, 80, 90, 108, 157, 180, 190]

Thanks, man!

He sent the cards in a little ziplock bag (from 100-count penny sleeve pack, perhaps?) with a blank card for protection and a piece of tape to keep it tight. No pull-tab, but I'll still give him an A- here.

- - - ----o

Finally, here's a surprise PWE from Kin of I Feel Like A Collector Again.

Card Saver in a PWE. Fine choice when you're just sending a card or two. Score; uncanceled 1¢ stamp! A "please don't bend" plea might not actually do a whole lot, but I guess it doesn't hurt. What kind of creeps me out is how did he know the extra 4 digits of my zip. Hell, *I* don't even know those extra 4 digits! LOL

It's a cool Chris Sale parallel and a blank little card that I didn't even notice at first.. Pleasantly surprised to discover it's another 2017 A&G Constellation mini!

Very nice!

And a glowing pic. I've now got 3 of the 10 of these things. Not bad. My 2017 Topps Allen & Ginter "Constellations" glow-in-the-dark mini inserts needs: C-1, C-2, C-3, C-6, C-7, C-8, C-10

Thanks, Kin! I'll find something to return the favor soon.

Thanks again to these kind traders, and to you for reading, and everyone who does their best to package cards is a courteous way!

Cards from John, Kerry (though still nothing from John Kerry)

I was lucky enough to get a "Christmas in July" package from John Miller a few days ago.

I hadn't seen these before. Cool acetate Simpsons cards from Sykbox that you can apparently stack to create a completed image. Anybody got more of these to trade? Would love to add the missing piece(s) to this.

HOF relic!

John can always be counted on to send me a few Gileses.

Heck of a Josh Donaldson lot, with a couple shiny ones in the upper right.

End of Story; I just recently took Trevor Story off my wantlist and replaced him with teammate Nolan Arenado. Gavin Floyd is also fresh off the wantlist, though I did need that blue parallel. Nice Bird.

Here's some Padres cards, highlighted by a Wil Myers black parallel from '17 Stadium Club.

And a few miscellaneous odds and ends, including relics of Josh Hamilton, Juan Gonzalez, and Todd Helton.

Thanks, John! Always a pleasure.

-  - - - ----o

Next up is a surprise package from fellow Portland dweller, Kerry at Cards on Cards.

A Hawk sighting. The red parallel is #'d 3/25. Impressive!

It's the aforementioned Nolan Arenado, just added to my wantlist like 3 days days ago. Quick!

Bryce is having another solid year. Love that rookie cup xfractor!

Donaldson and Pedro representing Canada.

Manny Margot and Michael Conforto.

A couple legends.

Mookie!

Trout!

A few more cards, with Kerry even sneaking in a basketball card. I don't have many (any?) San Diego Clippers cards, so that World B. Free is pretty cool to get.

We close out with a couple nice relics; Adam Jones bat chip and a Chris Sale jersey swatch.

Awesome.. thanks, Kerry! I'm rounding up a return package for you and will get that out to you soon.

Cardboard de lo Habitual

Judson from My Cardboard Habit and I have been swapping cards for a few years now, and he always packs a punch.

I've been going back and trying to fill some key needs in my Kris Bryant PC, and his 2014 Bowman card is a big one. I recently got the Chrome version from JBF's Big Fun Game, and now I've got the regular version to pair with it thanks to Judson.

The star power continues with a couple sweet 2017 parallels. That's a tasty rainbow Trout. And howbout a peach for desert; Bryce Harper peach parallel /199, that is.

Here're those 2 big guys again, joined by Carlos Correa. I'm surprised this is the first I'm seeing of these "1951 Bowman reproduction art card" refractors from in 2017 Bowman. They look great.

Hopping over to 2017 Inception, here's a Chris Sale base card and a Trea Turner purple parallel #/150.

We close out with a pair of parallels from 2017 Gypsy Queen, including a purple Giancarlo (/250) and a missing nameplate Machado.

Great stuff!! Thanks as always, Judson! I hope our trades never stop.

Card stacks from new guys

The first of two card packages to show off today was a contest win from Cardboard Hogs. He recently ran a semi-secret contest-- that is to say that "CONTEST!" wasn't in the post's title-- and I ended up winning by default as the only contestant in his guessing game. Perhaps his blog is still building an audience. You should check it out. His main collecting focus is Washington Redskins, but he also collects baseball and has a big wantlist so hit him up for a trade.

Oh, and he's another Portland, Oregon based card blogger! Funny enough, I think Portland has the most active card bloggers of any city, with at least 4. There's me, Padrographs Rod, Cards on Cards Kerry, and now Ken at Cardboard Hogs. Maybe a couple more not coming to mind. If you count entire states, New York and Illinois might have more bloggers.. but more in one city?

I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Ken in person yet, but we'll probably bump into each other at a card show one of these days. (We almost met up at the recent show, but he was unable to make it.) It's cool to read his card show recaps, since we go to the same show and I know exactly who he's talking about most of the time when he talks his interactions with various dealers. Neat to get another perspective of the show.

Anyways, yeah, he sent a sweet prize package crosstown this past week. Let's check it out.

The back of this card states this relic is from the boxer shorts Clemente was wearing the day he got his 3000th hit. Nah, I'm just kidding, it's a manufactured patch. But still cool! I think this might be my first "hit" of Roberto, since autos and game-used relics aren't exactly plentiful. (I did toy with the idea of bidding on a cut-signature Clemente a couple weeks ago, but unsurprisingly it rose out of my price range pretty quickly. Maybe someday.)

A couple more hits highlight the package. Jaff Decker is yet another #1 draft pick that didn't pan out for the Padres. At least he cracked the majors and is still kicking around the game. Plus gotta love the funky name Jaff. Nice Bowman Chrome auto.

As for the Rashad Greene auto, what makes it a bullseye for my collection is that it's #'d 12/25 on the back, and you know I loves me some Christmas Cards!

Three nice Goldschmidt cards, including a /999 Heritage Chrome parallel.

Some recent Bowman Padres, including an Anderson Espinoza refractor.

Pairs of a couple of my favorites, Wil Myers and Khalil Greene.

Some more Padres content. Love the old Fleer sticker.

Ken finished with some candidates for my collection of pretty girls on cardboard. ..with Jack London getting an honorable mention for his lovely locks.

Great stuff.. Thanks again for the contest, Ken!

- - - ---o

The other package to show off was also my first time getting cards from a guy. Matt Prigge has a new blog called Summer of '74. He's a Brewers fan who's also a set collector. He dropped me an email saying he had a stack of cards of guys I collect and was just looking for recent Topps flagship in exchange, as he prepares to work on completing those sets. Sounded good to me!

Teke and Hojo!

Some more stars of the overproduction era.

Oakland A's in better days.

2017 Topps guys I collect.

2016 Topps inserts.

Misshapen cards.

Archives and a Gypsy Queen.

Some 2012 Chrome and a McGwire insert.

This last one might be unassuming, but it was likely my favorite card of the package. It's my first card of Phil Nevin from his one season with the Angels. Now I've got a card from all 7 MLB teams he played for in his career, though the vast majority of the PC are Padres cards. (Update: watching the Giants @ Dback opener right now.. Nevin is SF's new 3rd base coach?! Cool. Reunion with Bochy. I mean, I still hate the Giants, but good for him.)

Very cool bunch of cards! Thanks, Matt! I'm working on a return package for you right now and plan to put it in the mail early in the week.

Happy start of the new baseball season, everybody! May all your favorite teams prosper!