Kerry on my Cardboard Blog

Met up with Kerry downtown Friday afternoon for a quick swap of cards. He metaphorically dunked on me and the team bag of cards I handed off to him by giving me a very impressive box of cards.

The Vlad Jr. hype is intense! On mlb.com the other day, the top 7 or so news stories were about him and his debut. A bit over the top, but like most baseball fans, I'm interested to see how he turns out as a big leaguer.

The gold standard, Mike Trout!

More Trouty.

Reining NL MVP Christian Yelich. Good stuff here! The mini is /99.

Reigning AL MVP Mookie Betts. Sure, sometimes I feel like a "basic bitch" of a card collector, turning my head for any hot rookies and MVPs. But hey, I also collect guys like Travis Taijeron and Matt Ginter, so I feel I've got well-rounded wants.

Mookie's teammates Rafael Devers and Andrew Benintendi.

Rhys!

Alex Bregman!

More Astros. Love that Correa Heritage refractor.

I've lived in Portland for over a decade now, but have yet to really jump on the Blazers bandwagon. But after that epic playoff-advancing buzzerbeater the other night that had all of Portland bumping, I was like, "Damn! I need to collect Damian Lillard cards!" And Kerry, a big Blazers fan/collector, was kind enough to get that PC started with this lot of dupes he had.

As I add one new name to the short list of active b-ball guys I collect, I lose another, as Dirk retired after the regular season.

Most of the guys I collect in basketball are greats of the past, like Wilt and Dr. J.

...And Dikembe, Kareem, and Manute.

Back to baseball, with plenty of shine here.

And some old-timer favorites. Dave Henderson cards always make me smile. And I hope Bartolo gets an opportunity to pitch this year, but it's not looking likely at this point.

I just sorted out my George Brett PC the other day, seeing if I had hit the 100-card mark yet.. but fell short, around 90 cards. Keep creepin' up, though.

Current Padres representing. Almost May and we're still in contention!! LOL

JOY OF A COMPLETED SET!!!

I got a factory set of '90 Score for Xmas back when it was current-- that and a cheap '89 Topps from the Sears catalog were my first ever complete sets-- but never had a Rookie & Traded set to complement it. Some great cards in here!

Some nice Nats.

And a hit to take us home! Sweet!

Big thanks, Kerry! Great stuff. I'm in your debt and will try to balance the scales soon.

Thanksgiving on Easter

I got a bunch of cards over the past week from generous trader buddies.

First up are some cards Padrographs Rod kindly handed off to me at the card show last weekend.

Sharp looking Yelich insert and/or parallel from 2019 Donruss! He's been crushing it again this year. Of course every time I hear about him hitting a homerun, it just bums me out because he went homerless on the day I entered in a "Topps Home Run Challenge" code for him earlier in the season. LOL

More 2019 Donruss.

GQ in the house.

Cool to see the tarot cards back for another year.

740 home runs between these two legends of the game. Ok, maybe Joe Pepitone isn't quite a legend, but still a neat name from back in the day. Before getting this custom from Rod, I wasn't aware Pepitone was ever in the Padres organization. Turns out his MLB career ended in 1973, but he attempted a comeback in 1976 with San Diego, but wrapped up his career after 13 games in AAA.

Padrographs! Especially cool to get that iconic Tim Flannery surfboard card with a signature. I know Rod was on a quest to get a few of those signed for a binder project, so he must have ended up with an extra.

Rod's stack of cards concludes with this imported Brian Giles. Very cool addition to my PC of the best baseball player to come out of my hometown. 2006 Konami cards are tough to find these days-- only one card from this set is currently available on COMC (Mark Teixeira).

Awesome stuff.. thanks, Rod!

-   -  - ---o

Speaking of additions to my Brian Giles collection, gcrl surprised me with a one-card PWE featuring this cool Cracker Jack auto.

Much appreciated.. thanks, Jim!

-   -  - ---o

Another one-card PWE, Mike at Wax Pack Hero got in touch letting me know he had a card on my Double Dozen and would be happy to send it over in exchange for checking out his blog and adding it to my blogroll. Sounds like a good deal to me!

This is a card I wanted because it's a perfect upgrade for my We Didn't Start The Fire binder for the "Moon Shot" entry. (I still need a good Woodstock card and unfortunately the Woodstock card in this same insert set doesn't say "Woodstock" on the front, so it's not ideal.)

Thanks again, Mike!

-  - - ---o

Last up today is a mailer from cardsphere treasure Dimebox Nick. Nick's note mentioned he hadn't sent me anything in a while, but by my records, he sent me a nice package just back in January that I still haven't hit him back for, so I'll have to dig up a decent return for him soon.

The Brian Giles theme continues with a pair of cards here, plus little bro, Marcus. Kevin Maas minor league cards always make my heart sing.

Gwynn and some oddballs. Very nice.

2019 cards on good cardstock.

More '19 Donruss and some older stuff. The '70 cards of a couple top guys-I-collect are Canadian imports.. Ya down wit' OPC? Yeah, you know me!

Today's top sluggers. Bummer to see Judge back on the DL (or "IL" as it's been changed to this year, which I'm not happy about because I keep getting confused thinking players are going to Illinois.)

Sweet '19 parallels/inserts.

I've still yet to rip any 2019 cards-- fighting the urge to buy retail (or hobby, for that matter)-- so I appreciate the PC needs I get from guys like Nick and Rod. Young stud Juan Soto shown here in both original and Opening Day flavor.

Springer and Snell.

Fan favorites gone too soon, Kirby Puckett and Rod Beck.

Been a while since I've gotten new cards to add to my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset. All 3 of these were needs. The trio has gotten me past the 600-card threshold, though I'm still not to 50% complete yet. Geez!

BTW, did you see where recently the Mike Trout 1/1 canary parallel (yellow diamond) was just recently pulled from an old pack of 2011 Update? Wow, that's a modern card that's right up there with the T206 Honus, if you ask me.

Last card from Nick is a Nomar. The real story here is on the back..

12/25!

This Christmas Card wraps up my Thanksgiving on Easter.
Very cool. Thanks again, Nick!


Thanks for reading, everybody, and Happy Easter! 🐣

Christian Yelich PC

As we enter the League Championship Series portion of the 2018 MLB Postseason, I'm declaring my rooting interest lies with Milwaukee.

I like the Astros, but they just won last year, so that'd be boring if they won again. I like the Red Sox, but I've hated their manager since his playing days. I don't like the Dodgers, but I like Dodger card bloggers. (Night Owl Cards has seemed a little mopey lately, he could use a win.) But other than Ryan Braun being a douche, the Brewers are the easiest team standing for me to root for right now.

The big name out of Milwaukee this year is Christian Yelich. I started a low-key PC of him a couple years back, when he was a solid young player under the radar in Miami. Now that he's had a breakout season, I've bumped him up the priority list on my wantlist. Would love to build up my Yelich's, so I'd be down to trade for any I don't have.

This is my best Yelich card, a pre-rookie die-cut X-Fractor 2012 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects - Bowman's Best insert.
And the best part of this Bowman?...

12/25! Snagged this on eBay for just $3.13 shipped back in early 2016 while hunting for Christmas Cards. Looks like one of the other 24 copies in existence sold recently for $99.95 Best offer accepted somewhere between $50-80, the only recent sale I can find. So yes, this pickup turned out to be a sweet deal for me!

Some other early cards. I think all of these were under-a-buck card show pickups.

2015, highlighted by a fishfractor.

2016. Looking good.

2017. Some decent parallels here.

Oh, and I've got a Christian Yelich 1/1...

Yep, it's a gimmick. It's actually a gimmick² since not only is it a Topps Vault blank back, but it's the gimmicky "Holiday" (Snowflake) set. Picked this one up last year along with a few others during a recurring Topps Vault sale where they slash the prices on their unsold Buy It Now items.

So yeah, it's just a gimmick of a gimmick, but it didn't cost much and it allows me to say "I've got a Christian Yelich 1/1 in my collection" and not be a liar.

That's all I've got in the PC at the moment. I bid on a couple autos of his last year, but didn't end up winning them. Bummer. But probably someday I'll pick up one. Again, feel free to trade me any of his cards not featured here.

Thanks for reading and Go Crew!!

Bob Uecker is a national treasure. #ThisIsMyCrew pic.twitter.com/GQxrHoVRqV

— Baseball Card Breakdown (@breakdowncards) October 8, 2018