A (Zippy Zap) Blast From the Past!

 

One of the worst things about taking so much time away from posting is that I neglected to properly thank folks that have sent cards to me over the last several months. Kenny gave me a shock by sending cards by proxy - these actually were included in the last Transatlantic Triple Break package that Matthew sent my way from West Virginia. 

One of the best things about these packages from Kenny is that even when I know they are coming, I still have no idea what might be in them. Someone who knows more about gaming / tabletop card games can probably tell me more about that card in the center, for instance- but it was definitely a fun surprise to find in the pack! The two green 2003 Topps cards are from the Kanebo Gum set released in Japan. 

Kenny brings all the major sports to play, and I have been the beneficiary more than once of his extra stickers! Josh Okogie is probably my favorite current Timberwolf, so that was a great card to find as well. He's one of those high motor / spark off the bench guys that probably won't show up at an All-Star game, but still finds a way to become a fan favorite.

Luis Arráez is a pretty interesting guy - if you've ever seen him in the batter's box you know what I mean. He's got a stance that looks a bit like Carew, a swing a bit like Oliva, and he takes pitches like no one else in the league. He'll shake his head aggressively and you can sometimes hear him say "no no no no" when he takes a close pitch outside of the zone. I don't think I've seen him get one wrong yet. Plus he hits for a pretty healthy average. Even after a slump and knee injury that he struggled with in the first half of 2020, he still finished with a .321 average for the season.

As usual, Kenny included a little bit of everything! I apologize for taking so long to acknowledge it, but thanks very much Kenny!

A PWEdnesday Post

Let's open the mailbag! Jeff from Wax Pack Wonders sent over an envelope, hitting both vintage and local hero needs. Since it is in the news, I'll offer my very lukewarm take on team names. To me, nothing is sacred about a sports team name or logo. It might be easy for me to say living in an area where the oldest major sports teams started in the 60s, so it's not like there's a huge extended legacy of any of those team names. If any of these teams change their names or logos, it won't make me any less likely to support them. One thing I will say - there are teams that we have these conversations about every few years, and teams we likely never would need to. So, what does that tell you?

Anyway, off the soapbox and into the shoebox with these Minnesota-centric guys. Neal Broten was one of the last members of the "Miracle on Ice" 1980 U.S. Hockey team to play in the NHL. Aaron Sele was born in MN, but went to High School in Washington. Buster Rhymes is from Miami, but what a great card. It's funny, I sent my brother my only copy of this card a few weeks ago, so it was awesome to see Card Karma repaid so quickly!

There are some awesome facts shared on the back of these - for example, Brent Burns had (has?) a pet shark!?! 

Bringing it all back around again, here's another 1976 Topps card from Jeff's envelope- thanks again!

Nick, the king of the Dimebox and the low-key master of the oddball discoveries, recently had this card one of his Free stuff posts. Steinbach was born in MN, went to the U of MN, and finished out his career as a Twin. I'm a big fan of the 1959 Topps design.

Aquino is officially a guy I collect - I have always thought of the Reds as my National League team, and I thought Aquino was a fun story last season. He was compared to Kevin Maas on twitter recently, which, yeah, I can see it with their stats side-by-side. My hope is that he just keeps getting better.

Rounding out the envelope from Nick are several more Twins, Kirilloff might be playing the big leagues this year, as he was placed in the Twins' 60-player pool. It remains to be seen just how many guys will need to get COVID ahead of him, but so far Miguel Sano and Willians Astudillo have caught the bug. Kirilloff is an outfielder with a sneaky good bat, it will be fun to see what he can do. Thanks again for sending these over, Nick!

You might be asking - why would Bo from Baseball Cards Come to Life! send me a Pirates card? Well, look close - this is a bat rack card! Always a treat to find one that I missed. I recently opened a box of this set, 2003 upper deck Victory, but totally missed noticing the bat rack in the background!

Bo also loaded this mailer up with vintage 70s goodness.

Jerry Bell has a bit of a Hugh Jackman/Wolverine look to him! This Jerry Bell is not the same Jerry Bell that is in the Twins Hall of Fame as a long-time executive in the front office during the Twins two World Championships, and helped convince the City Counsel to bill the people of Minneapolis to build Target Field! Snarkiness aside, the Brewers Jerry Bell is a cool looking dude.

1973 Topps has some interesting ideas about action and landscape photography. Hey, I can dig it!

Last but definitely not least, Bo included this Hall of Fame / all-time Great Brooks Robinson! The back references his nickname as the human vacuum cleaner. 

The final envelope in this post comes from SCC of the Sport Card Collectors! I don't think Mascot cards should be inserts / short-prints in Opening Day, to me that release should be for the kids! Nonetheless, it's fun to add TC Bear to the roster. 

Who is going to miss Brusdar Graterol more this year? The Twins, or the Red Sox?

Speaking of Pink parallels, the only parallel (besides 1/1s) that I haven't seen yet in my Rosie Rainbow quest is the Mother's Day Pink parallel numbered to 50. I messed up yesterday and didn't check the eBay auction for the Independence Day Parallel. I put a bid in, with the intention of increasing it later, but forgot. I thought I was being clever by bidding $17.76, but now that I think about it, I am kind of happy I was outbid. Hopefully another one will pop up soon, and I can get it for less than that!

A big thanks to everyone sending cards and everyone reading the blog! 

A Moving Target

Not talking about the retail world, no, the moving target is my want list. Thanks to the generosity of several folks, I am finding it hard to keep track of all the new cards in my collection. Bo from the excellent Baseball Cards Come To Life! blog sent over a PWE of early 70s Topps, including the Bud Harrelson (with Nolan Ryan cameo) shown above.

Some 1970 Topps from Bo - I wish I knew the thought process behind using a player's full name or nickname - there's plenty of room there for "Blue Moon" Odom!

Ever since I started the series on which 70s set I wanted to build, my vintage want lists got a big boost. Just as quickly as I beefed the lists up, traders were coming out of the woodwork to knock them back down again.

Yep, these were all in the same envelope from Bo! Rick Monday was celebrating an anniversary recently - the day he was drafted #1 Overall in the first MLB entry draft! Thanks a bunch, Bo! 

Fellow MN resident blogger Jim from cards  as i see them also got a PWE through to me recently - It looks like I am still a few days behind on receiving mail (but my goodness, give the USPS a hearty round of applause for resuming mail delivery just 2 business days after losing 2 post offices!). 

Some great Twins Greats made it in the envelope - interesting to see Wrigley Field on that Paul Molitor card - he played only 2 games there in his career since he was a career American Leaguer, mostly pre-Interleague play. I am guessing all the cards in that subset have the same background.

This is me, cross-checking all my lists after the avalanche of new trades. Thanks Jim!

Blog reader Mark from Oregon has been dropping big mailers of vintage and 90s cards on me for the last month or so, and he sent over another doozy recently.

The main portion of this mailer was from 1976 Topps, which is easily a top 3 set for me from the decade. 

Getting all choked up by all this great stuff!

This doesn't really do it justice, but this is just a small representation of the variety in the latest mailer, attacking both vintage and modern wantlists with equal fervor. 

Thanks again Mark! Going to keep working on a decent return package for you. 

Cards on Cards with Stickers

Kerry from Cards on Cards emailed me to let me know he had some cards to send me in PWE, little did I know there would be stickers, too!

Just in case you thought I only collect Twins, here's Barry Bonds, whose 2001 season could have been the combined production of two identical players. 

Another sticker! And I tried to find these Rosies on TCDB, but I couldn't place them. There's Panini Prizm, Donruss Optic, Donruss Holo... But these are 2019 Donruss Optic Prizms, which I can't seem to find an entry for... I was going to start being really vigilant about logging my cards into TCDB as soon as I acquire them, but I've already fallen behind.

Oh well, whatever they are, they are awesome. Thanks Kerry!

Good Reputation

Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown is known for his great custom cards. He sent over a mailer and this awesome  '77 Topps Joan Jett dropped out in the Light of Day like a Cherry Bomb. I don't Hate Myself For Loving You, Joan!

Fun Fact - the Runaways' drummer Sandy West styled herself after Roger Taylor of Queen, and here are two Taylor Rogers. 

I had the good fortune of getting a "Christmas" (12/25) serial numbered card from an online Arizon Fall League set I ordered from Topps. Since those teams are a combo of MLB teams, I was hoping to pull a Twins prospect but ended up with an Arizona DBack named Seth Beer. Since I knew Gavin collected those 12/25 cards, I was happy to send it his way. I was not expecting to get this in return!

Good Kitty! Nice Kitty! Thanks a bunch, Gavin, this was an awesome card to add to my collection!

The Joy of A Completed (Base) Set (and bonus Vintage Bonanzas!)

There it is - card # 333 was the last one I needed for the base set (cards 1-400) of the 2020 Topps Heritage Set. I still have a long way to go to get all those Short Prints from 401 - 500, but it still felt good to get that all done.

I definitely could not have done it so quickly without the help of several traders reaching out to me. In particular, the last few cards were knocked out by a collector and blog reader Mark from Oregon. Not only did he get me most of the way to completing the base set. . .

He's also sent me several short prints, and that alone would have been a very generous trade. But just like last time, Mark didn't stop there.

I'm still keeping my options open, but every time I look at the 1974 set, I like it a little more. I am leaning towards this one for my next vintage set build - still gotta finish '59, but hey, no reason to not multi-task.

1973 has some bright spots too, even though the colors never seem as bright as the two next Topps designs. Always been a big fan of the horizontal cards from this set.

The 1972 set is another fun one, the "In Action" series has a lot of great variety.

Goodness - I did sent some cards back to Mark, but after going through these, I feel like I need to send some more! Love that Gene Baker card.

The Moose! This whole mailer was one pleasant surprise after another, and it hit a bunch of different collecting goals. Thanks so much Mark! I will try to keep the line moving with some fun cards heading back your way.

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!