Johnny On the Spot

Yet another awesome mailer came to me recently from Johnny's Trading Spot.  Where do we even begin?

Well, how about a bat rack card? The rest of this post is all Twins, so brace yourselves:

There are always a big stack of parallels, these have been dressed up inside and out with the parallel and the airbrushed uniforms.

Variety is always in full effect, with prospects old and young.

I have more Kirby Puckett cards than any other player, but I think the Silver Signature was new to me, and possibly all three in the middle row - too many subsets and special editions in the 80s and 90s!

These two were both new to me, as there weren't any to be found in my cereal box these days.

One of my favorite eras of Twins baseball was 2000 to 2005, always a treat to add cards from that half decade.

Did I mention parallels?

This is a great card, probably my favorite of the stack. Love the soft focus background. Terry Felton started his MLB career with 16 straight losses, leading to his exit from baseball prematurely. At the time of his retirement, he was also the Toledo Mud Hens all time leader in wins, which unfortunately did not translate to success in the majors. Both his 16 game losing streak to start his career, and 0-13 record in 1982 are major league records.  He did record 3 saves in 1982, but by the time this card was released, so was he. Felton went on to become a detective with the Baton Rogue, LA police.

To give a sense of the varied nature of this mailer, here is a sampling of the brands and years included. Thanks again John!

Thursday Trading Post - Johnny's Trading Spot

I always want to start a trade post from John of Johnny's Trading Spot with the disclaimer that what you are seeing is just a small fraction of the big stack of cards he ships all over. It would break my poor scanner to try to show you everything, but suffice it to say each of these scans are a category that could include 5 to 10 times the number of cards shown!

Easily my favorite Allen & Ginter design came in 2019 - I'm curious to see if they keep something similar for 2020.

I'd never seen any of these Upper Deck SP Authentic cards before - a new to me set for sure. Big fan of the the Denard Span Rookie Exclusives card.

I dunno about Topps Gallery - I feel like this set lacks variety at times. I don't want to take anything away from the artists, but I don't like photo-realistic painting styles - maybe what makes the old Dick Perez Diamond Kings so appealing? Something just a little different can be good.

There were full or close to full team sets of Topps 2000 Limited Edition, 2005 Topps 1st Day Issue, and Topps 2000 Home Team Advantage.

A big stack of minor leaguers came through as well -Skybox, Line Drive, Star, regional and local issues....

Just a ton of fun stuff!

There was this stack of Red Foley stickers, I didn't have these sticker books growing up.

There were plenty of bat rack and sunglasses cards as well.

~Leaf~!

Thanks so much, John! I'll probably never be able to catch up at this rate, but I'll get some cards back out to you again soon!

Santa Johnny Makes a May Delivery

John from Johnny's Trading Spot sent out a flurry of packages labeled "Christmas in July" and going through these cards was as fun as watching Gardy throw batting practice!

The package was mostly Twins, including a big stack of rookie cards.

There were even a handful of pre-rookie minor league cards as well, including Justin Morneau when he was still a catcher.

Some great 1980's oddballs to meet everyone's needs. Gaetti is sporting a beard, which was not his usual look - maybe this was a playoff beard?

The late 90s and early 2000s cards were greatly appreciated, as I was not actively collecting at the time. Brent Hoard? It's a misnomer as this is now the only card I have of him... I must not be much of a Hoard-er.

2018 was well represented also - Buxton is a parallel.

In addition to Twins, John sent over a brick of Diamond Kings!

There was also a stack of sunglasses and bat rack cards for my mini collections and a handful of player collection guys like Kenny Lofton.

Thanks so much for your generosity John, I've been working on a return package from the last barrage, I'll be looking to add on to it before sending it out now.

Johnny's Been a Busy Bee

Johnny got me again- another week, another mailer crammed full of Twins.

Some old friends

Some new guys, slowly tracking down all the 2018 Twins, just in time for more to come out this week

A nice throwback uni when throwbacks were still a rare occurrence - Fleer Update rookies of Everyday Eddie and Mean Gene Larkin. Now I'm hungry for a Whopper.

Plenty of guys from the late 90s and early 2000s, this is still a part of my collection that has plenty of room to grow.

Johnny always hits me with some mini collection fodder as well - Larkin actually hits two mini collections as the front features a nice bat flip.

and last but not least, baby BOOOOF.

John, thanks as always! I will be sorting through my collection again to find some useful gems for you!

Johnny Claus

John of Johnny's Trading Spot might as well be the real Santa Claus - so many blogging boys and girls know of the generosity that he has shown over the years as a trading partner. I was surprised and not at all surprised that Johnny sent over a bubble mailer with a PWE chaser this month.

Allen & Ginter loves those minis, and so do I!

Landreaux has his head in the clouds on this Kellogg's 3-D All-Star card, one of my favorite cards of the 1980s.

Johnny came through with parallels!

and inserts!

and Horizontal Heroes (that included both parallels and inserts)

He always hits my bat rack collection in style.

Finally, the best that Donruss has to offer these days, Studio!

Thanks again John, and Merry Christmas!

Christmas in July?!?

John from Johnny's Trading Spot is notorious for generous card bombs, and this one was a sneak attack. A simple, signed note that said nothing more than "Christmas in July!" accompanied this bountiful harvest of cardboard goodness.

Included was a stack of mini-collection cards like Hal Morris at the bat rack. 1995 Score I feel has been forgotten a bit - while it didn't change the game like Upper Deck or Topps Stadium Club, it is an underrated gem of a set.

John hit hard with Twins, like a 1977 "Disco" Dan Ford Cloth Sticker, to a near complete 1987 Opening Day Twins set, to current Twins like the pink refractor of Brian Dozier from Donruss Optic.

Lots of deep cuts from the 90s and early 2000s, hitting some of the sets I haven't spent much time (or money) to build to date.

There was also a small stack of these oversized cards from the late 70s, featuring 1960s Twins like manager Sam Mele, Cesar Tovar,  Don Mincher, and Al Worthington -- to name a few.

Great stuff as always John, I will have to get you back soon!

A Spot of 75s

Derrel missed National Sunglasses Day, but it's never too late to observe it. He's sporting mischievous eyebrows at a Jack Nicholson Level.  John of Johnny's Trading Spot sent over some 1975 Topps recently, and I am happy to have them!

The scanner did the best it could on these two, they were extremely miscut.

From the backs of those two, a pair of nicknames on the cartoons. Jesus is actually in really sharp, nice condition not counting the centering.

Some more great, colorful cards.

Thanks a bunch, John!