The Envelope, PWEase

The benefit of sending out a ton of cards on Fridays, is that it stimulates the trading economy. When sending some free stuff claims to The Collector Chris, I tossed in a few extra Jersey Devils and BoSox. Chris responded with a very nice envelope of cards. Castino's scan went a little haywire, the actual card features straight lines all along the border.

A couple shiny Minnesota legends..

Can you name this stadium? Hint, Home Plate is now a combination Orange Julius / Dairy Queen*

That's Right! Metropolitan Stadium, aka The Met, where the Twins played their home games for the first 20 seasons.
(* just kidding, it's actually next to the soft pretzel kiosk)

New Blog Alert! Jeff of Wax Pack Wonders emailed me about making a small trade - he had some cards from my want lists. I was happy to send over some Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, 1981 and 1985 Topps needs back his way.

Here is a sampling - he may be new to blogging, but Jeff is obviously no stranger to getting the most out of an envelope! Pete Falcone is a meta card collecting masterpiece.

He also surprised me with this awesome oddball Kirby Puckett! Finding new to me Kirbys can be tough, so I salute to effort!

Ooh, check out that print run! This card is from 1992, and shows his 1991 regular season stats on the back.

Thanks Chris and Thanks Jeff!

Free Trade Agreements

The free stuff Friday train has yielded an unexpected but welcome bump in my trading life. Alex Andy (Sorry!)from Stadium Fantasium claimed a free card and offered me another in trade, this sweet 1969 Topps Rico Carty.

Yikes - I had forgotten about Rico's lost season due to illness, you can see he lost significant time in 1965 as well. Another one of those guys that you wonder what may have been if he was healthy for a full career. Thanks Andy!

Chris aka The Collector claimed some free cards and I received some sweet junk wax needs and Minnesota connected players as well. Brad Hand is from Chaska, MN!

Thanks again Chris!

Of course, as long as we're talking free cards, Let's talk about Jon and A Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts. This trio of food issues were too good to pass up, so I claimed them from one of his recent Free Stuff posts.

Last but not least, I bought a pair of Puckett customs on eBay last week - the custom card maker focuses on Don Mattingly, Jose Canseco, and Kirby Puckett customs. These called out to me while I was browsing some "real" Pucketts. I don't mind paying a little bit more for these, they are well executed and will be a fun addition to my collection. I received a few more great packages recently, I'll be sharing those in the next couple days as well. Thanks to everyone who has taken advantage of the Free Stuff Fridays so far, I've had a lot of fun putting them together, and I am happy to find new homes for cards that otherwise would just languish in a box somewhere. And thanks for reading the blog!

A 50/50 Proposition

Chris of The Collector blog has a fantastic deal going right now - sign up for a team and you'll get 50 cards of that team for ANY 50 cards from your collection. He collects Red Sox, New Jersey Devils, Green Bay Packers, as well as some specific sets and players. I recommend taking advantage before the deal goes away! 

I know it may be hard to believe, but I took the Twins. Every card shown is new to me! I totally missed out on 1994 Flair. The first time it came out, it was too rich for my blood.

The card backs have awesome full bleed photos.

1997 Topps Finest was released right as I left collecting the first time, so I never bought a pack of these, either/

Filling in some gaps in my collection.

A new to me Mauer!

A new to me Molly! Paul finally got a win against his old team, The Blue Jays, last night. Nice going, coach!

Finally, A new to me Kirby Puckett! I was not expecting to see that. This is Kirby number 412!

Thanks a bunch Chris!