Rod rules

Remnants from Padrographs Rod's holiday pack ripping have been popping up on the blogs recently, and I've again been fortunate enough to be included on his Nice List. Rod swung by my house last month with a reusable grocery bag full of goodies including north of a thousand cards, mostly recent stuff. Took me a while, but I've finally got it sorted enough to pick out some highlights for a post.

After this instant-PC, looks like I'm rooting for Marcelo Mayer to breakout as Boston's next superstar. And he's a fellow San Diego area kid, so that's cool.

My Blake Snell PC pretty much doubled thanks to the stack from Rod, with the eye-catchingest ones pictured above. 

Elly De La Cruz is a fun player to watch/collect.

Tatis additions are always welcomed, especially fun stuff like this.

More shiny cards of guys I collect.. love it!

Funky stuff here with a modern Manny Machado oddball that has a nice gold swirl effect in-hand, a Corbin Carroll card you could play with if you're brave enough to pop it out, and a Jackson Merrill mini parallel.

Big ol' box o' Gwynns! By the handwriting on the box, looks like it originated from a local card show dealer I've bought from in the past (back in 2019, boxes of 1970 and 1972 Topps with similar writing on them). Sure, this box is mostly overproduction era, but there are undoubtedly a few needs for me in there, plus other modern Gwynns were mixed in with the other cards from Rod. So yeah, I'm due for a Gwynn PC update (he's one of the few guys I try to keep logged at TCDB). And I don't mind restocking on extra junk dupes because they often come in handy for cardart ideas.

I tried to get cute with this photo of some of the more visually interesting football cards of the lot. That's Adam Thielen in the back, Nick Bosa and Justin Herbert in the front.

My first pass through the boxes, I didn't know who Drake Maye was, just to give you an idea of how little attention I've been paying to football in recent years. But I've since ascertained that he's had a great season and helped lead the Patriots back to the Super Bowl, which is happening one of these days coming up, probably on a weekend, I'd assume. lol  But yeah, cool additions for my modest pigskin collection.

Excited to find a bunch of 2025 Topps Chrome Disney cards in the boxes, as these are all the rage with a certain segment of card collectors, right? I seem to recall I tried bidding on a Christmas Card of one of these things and getting blown out of the water. Remember how canary diamond was a 1/1 parallel back in 2011 or so? Well, this pair is unnumbered but I'll pretend they're really rare. Cheshire Cat is a nice pull. That Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite Disney flicks, with the original Mary Poppins and sleeper pick Bedknobs and Broomsticks rounding out my top 3.

Last thing to show today isn't a card but a nice replica jersey of Yu Darvish's City Connect uniform.

Very cool item to diversify my collection a bit, not just my Darvish PC, as I don't have much stuff like this. (I still have the partially cut-up pants that I used to make some custom Brian Giles game-used relic cards years back. I should really do something with what I still have unused. Maybe I could make cardart cards out of the pants or something?) But I'll resist taking a pair of scissors to this jersey. Yu is out for the year and likely to retire rather than slog through another long rehab as he pushes 40, but his agent wants to make sure he milks the Padres for all they can get before he walks away from that contract. Oh well, he had a solid career but collectors who've been keeping his cards in their "maybe HOF?" box will likely be cutting bait if they haven't already. I still luv Yu, though, and really dig this jersey.

Thanks again for the cool stuff, Rod! 

Kerry Cards

Unfortunately covid kinda put the kibosh on in-person card swaps downtown with fellow Portlander Kerry of the blog Cards on Cards, but there's still the handy USPS to help us out (in exchange for a reasonable fee). 

Several terrific highlights in this latest crosstown package, but I gotta give the shiny Juan Soto relic top billing. I've got a respectable little Soto PC, but I think this is the first swatch linked to him in my collection.

The shine continues on this trio of players who were pretty hot a year or two ago but seemed to cool off this year. Still welcomed in my collection!

Some "free card friday" picks here. The last batch of cards I got from Kerry included several of those Tatis inserts, but I still needed this pair (There are 30 total of these things, geez).

Three additions to my Damian Lillard collection, plus a slick Chrome Hammer and a dilemma of which PC the Phillies card goes to.

I called dibs on these Victory cards from another Free Card offering a while back.

The '90 Donruss lot was a pleasant surprise. Now there's a sentence that very few people have ever said! LOL, but no, I mean it.. would love to put this set to bed before the 30th anniversary year ends. Time's running out for that, but as for base cards, I'm now down to just the Chris Bosio DK (#20) and #276 Paul Kilgus. I think I only had a couple of the MVP inserts before Kerry hooked me up with most of them. I've got 7 more of those left on my wantlist, plus one more Yaz puzzle piece (19+20+21), and all dozen of the Grand Slammers. It's funny, I have the Smoltz MVP error picturing Tom Glavine that I pulled myself way back when, but don't think I ever had the corrected version before this.

Another "junk" set that I've been trying to complete for the past couple years after receiving a starter lot. Still a handful of '88 Fleer left on my wants, but the end's in sight. Nice bunch here including a Caminiti rookie.

I finished '79 Topps recently, but these upgrades are appreciated to help sharpen up my set a bit.

My Xander Bogaerts PC got a surprise boost with an oversized box topper and Chrome parallel, both from 2020 Stadium Club. What a shot of him getting loose on the field before game two of the 2019 MLB London Series against the Yankees at West Ham London Stadium.

I happened to have a spare frame handy, so I've framed the big one up for now.

Big thanks, Kerry! Eclectic mix of good stuff. I'll get a return over to you soon.

Maybe the last Incoming Cardboard Post before the move

Time for another Incoming Cardboard Post (or ICP, as my ninjas call it) showing off cards that've made their way to me since I last did one of these, that weren't purchases and didn't already get their own post.

Two or 3 weeks ago I was showing off the 1970 Topps Willie Mays that Daniel surprised me with, and a friendly Twitter guy named Todd at @Bookman30022 saw that and offered up a Rod Carew if I needed it, and I happily took him up on the offer, with the sweet Batting Leaders card getting in on the action too. Not wanting to be too big of a mooch, I was able to get him to share his wantlists with me so I could send him a thank-you. Thanks again, Todd!

Mr. Carew turns 75 today, assuming I get this post published by the end of the day here on the west coast.

 - - ---o

I called dibs on this 1963 Fleer Jim Kaat that Jon graciously offered up for an anniversary giveaway event at A Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts. I dig this vintage kinda-oddball set and don't have many cards from it. A welcomed addition to my Kaat PC. I'm gonna post that one song I like again in celebration.

Thanks, Jon! Very nice of you. Keep up the great work on your blog!

- - --o

Here's a big trade I did with reader Oren V. a couple weeks back.

The key card coming my way in the deal was this Kris Bryant RC black parallel #'d /64. It's not his base rookie (#616), but still, this All-Star Game rookie from 2015 Topps Update is pretty nice. Sparkles had a down, injury-plagued 2020, but he's still in his 20s and will most likely bounce back to being one of the best in the game. That said, I feel like my PC of his has achieved "good" status now with the addition of this low-numbered rookie, and have now "retired" him off my main wantlist.

Here are a pair of solid players that I've missed in MLB this season-type-thing of 2020. Puig couldn't quite escape free agency, while Jones had a just-ok season in Osaka. Gotta mention that the red Puig is numbered 1/50.

A couple parallels of dudes I collect round out the package. Right on. Kershaw just threw a postseason gem.. good for him. (Still rooting against the Dodgers, though.)

Thanks for the great first trade, Oren! Hope to do it again sometime.

- - ---o

Last one for today...

Padres, baby! Won a postseason game for the first time in a long time tonight. With recent injuries decimating the starting rotation, they're probably not going to get too far, but they're getting their cuts in! I hope to witness a whole bunch more quality seasons from Fernando Tatis, Jr. He's a real fun player and really good.

The fella from Once A Cub pulled this Topps Now parallel numbered 12/25 and thought of me. Aw yeah! He kindly let me dig up a few Cubs cards to send his way for it. A Christmas Card of a top tier PC guy of mine? A double-bullseye, as I say. Don't get much better than that!

Thanks again, man! Big hit for my collection.

And thanks again to everybody who's brightened my day with cards recently.

Heads up to my trader-buddies that I'm moving around the middle of October. I'll likely send out a mass email to my frequent trade partners with the new address once I'm good to go in the new house.

That's it for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Pull-Tab Awareness Week 2020 Has Been Cancelled

Sorry guys, but in yet another blow due to the pandemic, Pull-Tab Awareness Week 2020 has been cancelled. There's just too much going on in 2020 as it is. I don't know if America could process the magnitude of a Pull-Tab Awareness Week with everything else that's already going on. But feel free to revisit Blue tape and pull tab awareness week 2019. Hopefully we'll be back in full force next year.

In other news, my buddy who moved up from San Diego to Portland recently is doing great up here. He works in construction, a bustling field in Oregon, and has already been all over the state on jobs. It's been long hours, but I suppose if you're recently separated, working a lot is good to keep you occupied, not to mention making that $$.

Anyway, he's coming over this afternoon to hang out. My wife and I just got a Nintendo Switch, so we'll play some video games and maybe watch a movie. I plan to give him this Tatis to try luring him into card collecting again. We collected when we were kids, and I think he still has a handful of cards but isn't really an active collector. But hey, our team the Padres are on a winning streak and Tatis might be the hottest name in the game at the moment, so perhaps the stars are aligned for my pal to re-enter the hobby with a little nudge. I've got several copies of this 2017 Bowman, so I don't mind letting one go as a gift to an old friend.

Speaking of cards featuring a five-tool player motoring on the basepaths, here's another card to show off. It's yet another of those 2019 Topps Transcendent VIP Party "Through The Years" Mike Trout cards. I already have a 1990 Record Breaker and a 2011 pseudo rookie variation, but wanted one more to get to the magic number of 3. I've always liked the 1982 Topps In Action design (use it often for card gifs I make) and so this was a good option to throw a bid on.

As with the rest of these, they did a nice job recreating the back design, but then phoned it in when it came to the text. But yeah, a sweet addition to the Trout PC.

Thanks for stopping by and remember to use blue tape and make pull tabs!

Tatis in the house / Me in the office

Robert at $30 a Week pulled this Fernando Tatis Jr. variation RC refractor thingy from a factory set of 2019 Topps and I asked if it was available. It was and we soon whipped up a quick trade. Neat shot of Fernando taping up his wrist. Like all Padres fans, I'm so happy we've got him and hope he leads us into respectability, maybe even the postseason at some point. But I'm a little concerned with his durability. Injuries have slowed his promising MLB career so far (and now the virus is slowing everyone's career), but hopefully he matures into an ironman.

Another photo variation RC was also along for the ride. Looks great! This pair of cards really kicked my Tatis PC up a notch.

Robert surprised me with a couple 78s I could use. I've now cracked 80% complete with 1978 Topps thanks to these.

Thank you so much, Robert!

o---- - -   -

How's everybody doing during this pandemic? The rest of this post is not card related, so if you read card blogs as a way to escape the news and Corona chatter, you should stop here.

I'm a homebody. Staying home for a long time isn't that big of a deal for me. I spent stretches of my 20s where I'd only leave the house maybe once every couple weeks for groceries. I was unemployed (living alone rent-free in a condo owned by my mom). My close friends had gotten married and didn't have much time for me anymore. Never had much luck with the ladies. Spent my time watching TV, messing around online, and writing/recording music. It was lonely, but otherwise a perfectly acceptable lifestyle for me.

So the whole self-isolation thing is right up my alley. Now I have a wife, thankfully, so it's not so lonely. Wish I had a dog too, but unfortunately this all hit just as we were about to start getting serious about finding a new puppy to adopt.

While the company my wife and I both work for has technically closed the office and has directed everyone to work from home, I'm among the small handful of folks deemed "essential employees" who still need to trek into the office. My job isn't very important, but it involves burning and shipping about a thousand data DVDs per month. It's not something I could do from home under the current set-up, though I'm trying to formulate a plan to bring what I need home so I can increase the amount of work I'm able to do from home.

I was able to talk my way out of working last week, but part of that deal was I had to agree to come in this week. I'm typing this up Monday morning from home moments before I have to leave. Kinda scary! There are 2 other people in my department in the office, but otherwise I hear it's pretty quiet.

The last time I was at work was Thursday 3/12. I haven't really left my house since then except to drop the PWE in the mail for my trade with Robert (which was my first time riding a bike in years). So it's gonna be weird out there, I'm sure.

[...]

Ok, now it's Monday evening and I'm back home. Man, such a stressful day! WiFi was down most of the day, so I couldn't do much work anyways. My boss agonizingly left me hanging on whether I could work from home going forward. He had to check with his boss, who had to check with his boss.. eventually I had to leave for the day without an answer. And I'm still waiting for an answer, so at the very least I'll need to go back in Tuesday. The only question is will I be gathering things to take with me and work from home, or will I have to work a regular day/week in the office.

My two co-workers got sent home midday, but lucky me got to be the last employee standing. They made me nervous talking about all the times they've been going out for lunch the past week. And one of them takes the bus to work everyday. They seem to be ok so far, but it's like russian roulette. With the economy collapsing, I'm thankful for having a decent job, but this shit is really stressing me out right now! My wife was nice enough to offer to give me a ride so I wouldn't have to take public transportation, but even that is stressful. I'd rather she not be driving. A car accident could mean a trip to the hospital.. and now is definitely not a good time to be going to the hospital if you can help it!

Man, oh, man. Crazy times. Hope I didn't catch it. And if I did catch it, hope it doesn't hit me hard.. and that goes double for anyone I may unknowingly infect if I do get it.
But yeah.. Gotta take it day by day, keep positive.. etc.
Thanks for reading. How are you all doing? I hope you're staying safe and doing well.

Doug and GCA trade packages

In the past few days I've gotten quality trade packages from Doug in Canada and GCA.

First up are the Sportscards From The Dollar Store:

Some great additions to my Tatis Jr PC! He sure did give Padres fans something to be excited about this year, though he had a hard time staying on the field. Hopefully his injury issues this season were just a fluke and he comes back strong in 2020.

A few more interesting Pads from Panini. I believe the Urias is #/50.

Some more young Padres. Chris Paddack had an impressive rookie year for San Diego.

We close out this package from the great white north with a selection of 2019 Heritage High Number Padres and a Kevin Kouzmanoff auto.

Thanks, Doug! Great stuff. I'm putting together a nice return for you.

 -   - - - -o

Now here's some stuff from GCA.

A couple numbered Andre Dawson cards, plus Pops and Bird.. very nice.

Big-name needs for my 1974 setbuild! Chugging along there.

But the bulk of Greg's package was a big lot of Pedro Martinez.

So many Pedros!! I think this gets him up into the Hundred Card Club and off my main wantlist.

Thanks a lot, GCA! I always seem to be trying to catch up returning the favor for all the great cards you send my way, but I hope to balance the scales soon!

A sparkling and glowing trade

Good trade with Doug from Sportscards From The Dollar Store! The catalyst here was he had ended up with the Padres as a random team in a group break and hit some solid prospect autos. I was more than happy to give them a good home and send him some cards that'd be a better fit in his collection.

The headliner here is Fernando Tatis, Jr, the phenom who just made the opening day roster at barely 20 years old. Us Padres fans have high hopes for him delivering on all his potential. Exciting times for the Friar faithful! This is my 3rd Tatis Jr auto, and possibly my favorite... love this sparkly type of refractor.

And three more of these beauties:
Luis Urias is San Diego's second baseman of the near-future, though he'll start in Triple-A this season.
Ryan Weathers was the Padres #1 pick in last June's draft.
Xavier Edwards, a speedy middle infielder, is another '18 first-rounder.

Doug threw in several bonus Padres, including the first 2019 Opening Day card in my collection.

Even a Jagr and Bill Russell.

I'm always out of the loop with Mystery Science Theater 3000 trading cards. I learned about Series 1 last year thanks to a post on Doug's blog and then ended up buying myself a box. And now recently he posted about his Series 2 box (which again, I wasn't even aware was out). I feel like I "got my fill" from the Series 1 box and wasn't planning on ponying up for a Series 2 box since there were still no autos in it (though apparently upcoming Series 3 will finally have autos).. but then I perked up when he mentioned there are glow-in-the-dark inserts.
I sure do loves me some  glow-in-the-dark  cards!!

Doug was generous enough to hook me up with 3 from his box. I also recently picked up 2 others on eBay, so I'm at the halfway point with this 10-card insert set.

Thanks again for the trade, Doug! Great stuff.

card show consolation

My monthly local card show was this weekend and I missed it. :( My wife had the car so I was left with public transportation. I missed the Max because I forgot to grab any cash so I had to turn back, and the next one wasn't coming for a half hour, and by then it'd be pushing 11 AM by the time I got there, and showing up that late doesn't work for me so I just stayed home.

So to make myself feel better about it and remind myself that I don't really need more cards, here are a bunch of cards I've gotten recently.

You probably don't know this because I never ever mention it, but I'm a big fan of Topps Retired refractor autographs. Scored this 2005 Robin Yount with help from a 15% off eBay promo.

Great career. AL MVP in '82 and '89.

Reggie Bush is from my neck of the woods, attending a rival high school in East County San Diego, so I collect him a bit and had wanted to add an auto for a long time. Mission accomplished, and it only set me back $7.50 plus shipping. It's a rookie auto/relic from 2006 Topps Paradigm (Topps Paradigm? Never heard of it) and is numbered /99 on the back. Bush recorded 1740 rushing yards in 2004, hence the jersey cutout parts. I kinda lost track of Reggie's career but looks like he retired a couple years ago. He probably won't end up in Canton, but had a solid NFL career following his incredible stint at USC.

Picked up another auto for my 2004 Topps Chrome black refractor parallel setbuild. Yep, the autos are part of the main set, and there are only 25 copies of each, but luckily for me there aren't really any big names in that portion of the checklist. Zach Miner had a respectable 5-year MLB career, mostly with Detroit, and pitched in the 2006 World Series.

Some eye candy for ya. Sara Underwood is a Bench Warmer sweetheart. I haven't been lucky enough to pull her auto in the 2 or 3 boxes I've opened, so went out and about this one. It's from 2013.

Nice addition to my girlie card minicollection.

Now let's hit some incoming trades.

I've got a Madlock in my '85 Donruss complete set, but had to sacrifice the copy in the PC in order to seal the deal on a trade a couple months ago. GCA heroically replaced it for me with this one.

He also sent along a bunch of needs and upgrades for my '74 setbuild. Very nice!

I feel bad because GCA has sent me like 3 or 4 mailings since I last sent him anything. I'm definitely deep in his debt at this point and will have to track down some cards to make things right soon. I had hoped to try to find him something at the card show this weekend, but that didn't happen.

-  - ----o

Next up is a trade with my buddy at Sport Card Collectors.

Rhys Hoskins! It's from 2017 Bowman Chrome mini and is numbered 23/25 on the back. Sweet card.

Along for the ride were some Padres. Francisco Mejia /50, Eric Hosmer /75, and a holiday Gore.

Also a pair of Kris Bryant cards.

Thanks, SCC!

- - - ---o

I was planning to meet up with Padrographs Rod at the card show for a quick exchange. I emailed him to tell him I wouldn't be able to make it, and he kindly swung by my house later in the day instead.

Nice lot of guys I collect from 2018 Gypsy Queen.

Some gorgeous ladies of wrestling.

A couple nice rookies and a '72 for that slow-going setbuild.

Great selection of Padres prospects...

..including my first cards of San Diego's top draft pick last year, Ryan Weathers. Sure hope he pans out, but the track record for Padres #1 picks ain't pretty, so I won't hold my breath.

Rod also filled the open Bob Dylan slot in my We Didn't Start The Fire binder with this art card.

I've seen Edward Vela cards plenty of times online, but I believe this is the first one in my collection. Sort of somewhere between a sketch card and a custom. Numbered and signed on the back. Pretty neat.

A couple Padrographs that Rod was able to share with me.

But the real jaw-dropper of the box from Rod was this Fernando Tatis Jr. auto. The kid is a stud.

Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a walk-off homer to win it for the Estrellas Orientales of the Dominican League and unleashed a mean bat flip. pic.twitter.com/HRS5iLwIsj

— Sung Min Kim (@sung_minkim) January 11, 2019

I hope he's unleashing mean bat flips like that in Petco Park soon.
This is my second autograph of him, but the other is a Leaf draft card, so it's nice to add a licensed auto card to the PC.
Great stuff.. thanks so much, Rod!

So yeah, it was a bummer to miss out on the card show, but with an influx of sweet cardboard like this, it's hard to let it bother me too much.