A Pair of Great PWEs

Sorry for the unimaginative post title. Today, I'm taking a break from sharing the card show spoils so The Great Trade Post Catch Up can roll into its penultimate stop. That's right, after sharing these two PWEs, there is only one more trade package to go before I am caught up! I'm fairly sure it will be short-lived since it appears that Super Traders packages may begin arriving imminently, but at least I'm won't be as far behind as I was at the beginning of the year. Now, if I can only begin to catch up on outgoing, return trade packages to a number of folks. Perhaps I'll just have to bulk up some of those packages before I begin dropping Super Trader packages. I also want to be sure to let everyone know that I will absolutely continue to send packages out to all of my trade partners that aren't in the ST group, same as I have up to this point.

Alright, let's get on to the first of these awesome PWEs. It came to me from one of the most prolific trade partners I've had thus far, Jeff from Wish They Still Came With Bubble Gum. As usual, it contained some excellent cardboard.

All around awesomeness in this scan. From the Elway in his Stanford uni to the super shiny gold Bernie, these were all welcome additions to the collection. Somehow, I've owned the mirror gold parallel of that Pettitte for 15 years or better, but the base version had eluded me until now.

I'm happy to have this Broncos relic, and Ball played a small role behind Knowshon Moreno when they got annihilated by the Seahawks in the Super Bowl a few years back. However, he was released by the Broncos prior to the 2015 season, spent the entire year on the Patriots practice squad and was recently released by the Pats after reports of his arrest on a battery charge after a dispute with his girlfriend. At least this is a reminder of a more promising time in his career.

I thought this was so cool when I saw it. I had no idea that there was a Hockey card game, though I probably should have known. It's a pretty great first card to have. Scott Stevens is one of my favorite players to collect. Good stuff Jeff, thanks!

Next up was a vintage dominated PWE from Brian at HSCA.

Yes, I'm aware that this is far from vintage. It is the only non-vintage card that I'm going to highlight. I'm not sure how the season will play out, but with any luck at all, this one will end up with an in person signature on it once the SWB Rail Riders come to Durham.

Look at all that cardboard goodness! All are in pretty decent condition and are certainly welcome additions to my ever-growing stack of vintage Yankees. Thanks for the great stuff as always, Brian. I've got some pre-ST stuff to send your way.

Thanks for reading.

Cards From the Clubhouse

Before I get to the details of another great trade package, I just have to say the following: IT'S CARD SHOW DAY!!! Yes, today I will be making my way to my first show of 2016. I'm a tad bit excited of you couldn't tell. Truth is, all of my fellow Super Traders(and other trade buddies) should be excited too. I'm looking to pick up little gems that are just screaming to be relocated to new homes all across the US/Canada and even France! Of course, I'll be looking to add a few nice things for myself too. I can't wait to get back and post about my findings(and mail some of them out too)! Now, back to your regularly scheduled trade post.

The next stop for the Great Trade Post Catch Up train comes courtesy of Adam over at Cardboard Clubhouse. It was another in a series of packed, padded envelopes that arrived amidst trying to adjust to the new schedule of having a newborn in the house again, and it was the first trade package arrival of 2016.

A little nostalgia to start things off on the right foot! It seems I've been racking up quite a few Yankees buyback cards over the past weeks and this well worn Bobby Murcer continues that trend. Man, I remember Roberto Kelly for two big reasons: he was my 'Bernie Williams' before Bernie actually came into the picture and he was involved in the trade hat brought Paul O'Neill to the Yankees! No offense Roberto, but that trade favored the guys in Pinstripes.

Ugh! Brien Taylor...I'm not even going to elaborate. On a more positive note, who remembered that Brad Ausmus began his respectable career in the Yankees system? Alvaro Espinosa has the distinction of being the best(or at least fan favorite) of the many Yankee shortstops that filled the role until some guy by the name of Jeter came to town.

This is a nice trio of Yankee hurlers. I especially like the angle on the Doc Gooden. Oh wait, that's probably because it's from Collector's Choice. Have I mentioned lately how much I love that brand?

When I flipped to these in the package, I was so happy! They're my first 3D cards from a fairly recent Archives release. These are really nicely done and now that I have two of them, it's got me considering the idea of chasing the rest of that set. The Grandy man has me one more single closer to at least finishing the mini Yankees team set from that year.

These are two that I had inquired about, but knowing that they'd be in here didn't take away from my excitement about receiving them! I'm slowly chipping away at the All-Star Access insert, and the Gallo Update Chrome brings my set completion number to 43/50. I'm almost there!

Adam also included a few Broncos cards. Somehow, I don't think I had the Elway and Simon Fletcher was one of the standouts on the defense back in the '80's. I love that NFL 75th Anniversary patch...oh wait that's Collector's Choice again. Baseball, football, no matter the sport it was a great brand. I'm thrilled to have the Latimer parallel. He's still young, but I'm hoping to see big things from him in the coming years. He's going to have to play a big role if the Broncos are going to challenge for another Suoer Bowl Championship.

Thanks Adam! Great stuff all around. I'm compiling a return package for you that will hopefully bring you as many smiles as these have brought me. Thanks everyone for reading, I'm going off to the show!

Biebered!

Today is a good day at blog HQ. I finally get to highlight the last of the trade packages that I received in 2015. The Great Trade Post Catch Up is almost complete. Moving forward, I'll only have to get through a handful of envelopes that have arrived so far in the new year. The final package of 2015 came to me from the furthest distance. Kevin of The Card Papoy sent me a cardboard care package all the way from France. It's hard to believe it took me almost a full year of blogging to reach out to him to begin a trans-Atlantic deal.

Stuffed with three team bags, the envelope was jam packed with great stuff. Here are my favorites.

Let's come out swinging! I can't believe that I didn't have a copy of the Jeter prospects card until now. As you all probably have figured out by now, I am always happy to get a new-to-me Bernie. Honestly though, I think the Lee Smith is my favorite of this bunch. It's kinda easy to forget that he spent some time in pinstripes toward the end of his great career.

Next up are some great horizontals of three of the best players of the '80's and early '90's. I particularly like the triple exposure Donnie Baseball.

Here is more great Yankee cardboard and an RC of former Durham Bull Jeremy Hellickson. I really hate that Hellickson has kind of fallen off the face of the Earth since departing Tampa.

Lastly, here is the obligatory Bieber. Thanks for a great package Kevin! I promise I haven't forgotten about compiling a return package for you. Thanks for reading.

The Great Trade Post Catch Up Continues With Cards From Brad

Now that the Super Bowl is in the rear-view mirror, I can return to the business of showing my gratitude to the great folks in the cardphere. As has been the case with most of my trade posts, this is long overdue. According to my email history, I must have received this package from Brad of Brad's Blog way back at the end of November. It was a generous medium sized bubble mailer packed with three team bags worth of cardboard.

There was some really great stuff in there, and I've selected the best of the bunch to highlight here.

I don't have many Bowman Chrome gold refractors of Yankees prospects. The William Oliver is #/50 and extremely shiny. The Yankees released him at the end of the 2012 season and he's been floating around the independent league ever since, but it's still a really nice looking card. The Jeter is significantly less shiny and the Gardner isn't shiny at all. All three are great additions.

From here on out, we're pretty much all shiny, all the time! Here are three great Yankee favorites. I didn't have that retail Ruth refractor and didn't even know that Gehrig existed. Look at how young Jeter looks and check out the Yankee Stadium facade worked into the design.

This is a very welcome trio of Yankees x-fractors. These really look nice all lined up together.

Relics! I hadn't seen any of the gold sparkly Golden Moments before finding this AJ Burnett in this package. It's numbered #/99 and has a great pinstripe! We close out the highlights of an awesome package with 'Prime Time'! Actually, if I want to be historically accurate for the time frame, I think that's 'Neon' Deion. Either way, I'm slowly but surely accumulating 1st Home Run medallions of players I actually like.

Thanks Brad! This was a really great trade package and I am in the process of putting together a stack of Phillies to send back your way.

A Trade Offer I Couldn't Refuse

According to my email, I received my first message from P-Town Tom back in November. That message contained an offer I couldn't refuse. Tom, who writes the great blog Waiting 'til Next Year, would send me the Nationals(and some Yankees) from his trade box in return for...my address. There was no way I could turn that down! I replied and shortly after, there was a medium flat rate box on my doorstep. It was jam packed with awesomeness, but the contents have been edited to fit in this space. Let's dive in.

Here are the highlights of the Nats. I love the top row of minor league guys. There's even a chance that two out of three of three end up signed, assuming the Stephen Perez and Matthew Skole make their way through Durham by way of Syracuse(the Nats' Triple-A club). For now, it looks like Eury Perez will end up unsigned since he is currently in the Houston system whose affiliate is in the PCL. Gotta dig getting a card of the reigning NL MVP, even if it is logo-less. At least he photo selection makes it really difficult to notice the lack of licensing. Who doesn't enjoy mascot cards, right? I chose to highlight that Heritage Ian Desmond because he is a personal favorite. While it looks highly unlikely he will be back in DC(and he must be sweating out this time on the free agent market), recent rumors suggest there is a small chance that he will end up with the Rays. That possibility already has my gears turning as I envision a potential rehab assignment with my Durham Bulls! A guy can dream...

Before I get to the Yankees portion of the package, I was thrilled that Tom was able to help me out with the following card.

This Ryno hails from the 1993 Hostess set. After pulling a small bunch of these from various repacks last year, I decided to attempt to complete the set. It has been slow going, but that makes it all the more exciting when I see one of these pop up in a trade package.

Let's keep the oddball train-a-rollin' with some Yankee minis!

I'm also half-heartedly attempting to put together the 1988 Topps UK mini set. I needed both the Winfield and the Randolph.

Man, I love oddballs! These are all great, but my favorites would have to be the not one, but two awesome cards from periodicals. I remember having a copy of that Topps Magazine Donnie Baseball when I was younger. I have no idea when or where it disappeared from my collection, but I am happy to have a copy once again. Winfield is saying what I was thinking as I flipped through this package's contents: you're the man, Tom!

There were Yankee stars for me too! I'm partial to the Opening Day Bernie with him tipping his batting helmet. I was pretty happy with four new cards of The Captain as well.

These are sentimental favorites. Like many of you, I like it when you can tell exactly when the photo on a card was taken. While it's true that these two kinda cheat because no research is needed, they're no less awesome to me. The Charlie Hayes highlights a moment that I will long remember, the out that clinched their first WS Championship since I was eight months old. My apologies to Shane and any other BoSox fans out there for posting that second card, but it definitely shows an iconic moment in Yankees-Sox post season lore.

Thanks for such a generous and awesome package Tom. I know you aid you weren't asking for or expecting anything in return, but I will definitely be putting together a return package in the near future.

The Final Holiday Package of the Season

Let's keep rolling right along with The Great Trade Post Catch Up. Today's installment comes courtesy of a surprise holiday envelope from Stealing Home. I had been reading All Trade Bait, All the Time for a little while, but hadn't really commented or interacted much. It came as quite the pleasant surprise when I received an email from SH telling me that a few cards were set to the side and all that was missing was my address. I thought I replied quickly, but there was some glitch with the email being sent. After most of the holiday packs had already been sent on their way, I got a message from Julie over at A Cracked Bat, letting me know that someone was looking for me. I clicked the link and saw the day's post on ATBATT which asked me to get in touch. I sent my address and a few short days later, I received the following:

A hefty dose of new-to-me Negro League cards were inside! I can't pick a favorite from this group. I only had one or two of the Ted Williams Company Negro League subset cards prior to this envelope's arrival. The old school goodness didn't stop there.

I really dig the pic on the Joe Black, but out of this group, the A&G Ron Teasley has to be my fave. Great uni, clean design, and a subject not often seen on cardboard all make for a treasured new addition to my collection. I included the red, sparkly Zoilo Almonte in this scan because it was a cool card that I wanted to show off, but it didn't deserve a solo scan. All in all, it was a great and unexpected boost to a part of my collection that doesn't grow nearly as fast as the others. Mahalo to Stealing Home for thinking to include me in the holiday mailing list. I'll be sure to put a little something together to send back your way.

An Arrrt Filled Trade Package, Matey!

Shortly before the holiday season really kicked off, I received another hit filled envelope from Pirate fan and author of one of my favorite blogs out there, Matt of Bob Walk the Plank. This is the second time I've been fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a package from him and it packed a big punch just like the first. This time around all of the cards were very artistic.

It's been a while since I've added a new Jorge relic. This one looks like they took a photo and applied a filter to make it kinda look like a painting. Pretty cool to see the edge of a pinstripe instead of the common plain white swatch.

Here's my first relic of new Yankee OFer, Aaron Hicks. The lack of logos and the way Hicks is positioned on here cleverly hide the fact that this is a Twins jersey. With the pinstripes in the pic/painting, I can almost convince myself that this is a Yankees jersey, I just have to ignore the 'MIN' near his batting helmet. It's a very cool card, and my first Jersey King from the 2014 set. I'm excited to see what Hicks can do this season.

Last card of the pack and I was thrilled to get another High Tek Yankee(an autograph to boot). While this card features an actual photo and not some sort of painting, the wild background pattern teamed with the blue, red, and black linear design remind me of 'modern art'. Leiter carved out a pretty good career for himself over parts of 18 seasons for four different teams where he was a contributor to three World Series Championship squads. I really enjoy watching him on MLB network these days.

Thanks for another awesome envelope Matt. I'll have some Buccos packed and ready to head your way in the near future. Thanks to everyone for reading another installment of The Great Trade Package Catch Up.

A Very JBF Christmas

The Great Trade Post Catch Up continues today with a great bubble mailer from Wes of JBF fame. Shortly before the holiday, Wes offered to send some cards to folks in return for a message about their collecting preference. I decided to jump on the offer and a very short time later, the previously mentioned bubble mailer arrived.

Nothing but good stuff in the envelopes I've received from Wes. The Kahnle is numbered and I love any blue refractors of a Yankee player since the border color complements the uniforms. I had been missing the base version of the Just Minors Elway until now. I already had the very similar promo version, but I was pretty happy to find this in the stack. That Private Stock Clemens is really nice and quite unique. The card stock is parchment-like, very thin. It's a great card.

Next up are some high end singles. I have never opened any Triple Threads and rarely see them in the boxes I dig through at shows so it is always appreciated when I receive these from a trading partner. It's a bonus that Mattingly and Boggs were two of the best hitters in the AL in the '80's. The Biggs is even numbered. The Mussina is the career stat line parallel and has a nice foil finish, a great new card of 'Moose'.

I could hardly believe my eyes when I flipped to the 1961 Post Booby Richardson. It may have a bit of paper loss on that left side, but I couldn't be happier to add it to the Whitey Ford I was able to pick up a few months back. The Denny's Upper Deck hologram is yet another new-to-me Donnie Baseball. The scan actually came out way better than I thought, but still doesn't do that card justice.

I was digging it when I saw this Classic Clippings auto. It's actually a cut auto and the player brought back some fond memories. There was a time in the early 2000's that I was reading the Navarro was going to be the successor to Jorge Posada. I actively sought his RCs in the last year that I really collected before falling out of the hobby for around 4-5 years. He may not have ended up being the next great Yankee catcher or even a big MLB star, but this guy has put together a solid career and he's still going strong. He'll be suiting up for the ChiSox in 2016. There's actually one more reason that I was happy with this auto: Dioner and I share the same birthday, February 9. While I don't have an official birthday PC, it was still cool to find a 'hit' of someone born on the same day as me.

That wraps up another great package from JBF headquarters. Thanks Wes, I'll keep my eyes open for something that I can send back your way soon.

Another Day, Another Belated Christmas Card Post

Shortly before Angus from Dawg Day Cards began his Christmas card deluge, he contacted me when I posted about a few cards I picked up from the Tim Horton's UD Hockey set. He asked of there were specific cards I was looking for. We exchanged emails about the set, and before I knew it, a really great Christmas card arrived in my mailbox.

I was thrilled to find this beautiful card bursting at the seams with Tim Horton's UD goodies. The card itself really stood out to me. It's just a really great photo. Let's take a look at the contents.

Score! He sent me 2 out of 3 NJ Devils from the set and quadrupled the number of these that I own. It didn't stop there though. I also found my first die-cut insert from the set:

This was a truly great holiday gift! Thanks for the generosity Angus. I'm in the process of packing up some Browns to send your way.

One additional update I'd like to mention: I was able to drop off the first wave of outgoing packages at the post office. If you live in one of these zip codes, you should have an envelope arriving shortly.

13601

48005

28590

97213

02919

33511

Thanks to everyone for your patience. If your zip wasn't on this list, I assure you that additional packages will be dropped off in the very near future.

Two Awesome Packages from the Mitten State

After the somber tribute post from yesterday, the Great Trade Post Catch Up continues. Today I want to share two separate packages that traveled to me from Michigan, courtesy of Julie over at A Cracked Bat. The first of these packages arrived somewhere around two months back. As usual it was filled with some impressive cardboard.

I'll begin with two Yankee award winner cards, an incredible pseudo-panoramic view of 'The House That Ruth Built', and a gold parallel milestone. Tino and Paulie were fan favorites and great team players during the late nineties World Series runs. It's really nice to see some cards that showcase some individual achievements. I love the view in the background of that Blackjack! I dig the milestone parallel of A-Rod's 3000th hit. Starts off strong, but it gets stronger!

Three new Bernie cards, YES! I love the Foul Pole insert! The 'netting' is die-cut. It's awesome! As great as this package was up to this point, it finishes even stronger.

There was another new Tino, my first Yankees buy back, and a black and white, orange foil parallel of Ellsbury from '15 Stadium Club. That SC parallel is something else...great backdrop, black and white filter, and it has a confirmed print run of only 17 copies. That wraps up another top-notch package from Julie. 

However, since I was so far behind, I ended up receiving a Christmas card from ACB country before I was able to post the first package. So, without further ado, let's take a look at the good from my Cracked Bat Christmas.

First off, the actual Christmas card was very entertaining and I would have considered myself quite fortunate even if there weren't any additional contents in that envelope. That's just not the way Julie operates though. There were two items tucked inside the card and they were both fantastic!

I really loved this patch that commemorated Yankee Stadium during the team's last season there before moving to the new Yankee Stadium in 2009. It was so cool to find this treasure tucked inside that card. Once I pulled the patch out and began to read the card, I found the other item taped to the inside cover.

This may not be serial numbered or contain a 'sick patch', but it's Bernie! I hadn't seen this relic design from Bowman Heritage, but it was love at first sight. It's a clean and classic design and has already become one of my favorite relic cards of number 51.

Thanks for the incredible generosity, Julie. I promise a return package will be dropped in the mail to you soon.

Trade Post Catch Up - The Surprise Package Edition

Among the influx of the expected and somewhat anticipated packages from multiple 'regular' trade partners, I was shocked to see two packages arrive clear out of the blue. I had interacted with both of the generous parties before, but was definitely not expecting anything to show up in my mailbox from them. I sure am grateful for the kindness of folks like this!

Surprise package number one came to me courtesy of Matt - aka Bubba's Bangin'...blog. He and I had exchanged some set needs earlier in the year and it was great. However, I don't dabble too heavily into A&G and that's his bread and butter so I have been pretty much tapped out on any 'needs' I could send his way. That didn't stop him from dropping this batch of goodness on me.

These are my first A&G X cards from 2015's online exclusive set. To be honest, I think I like these better than the standard Ginter because if the black backdrop. It's always cool when someone hits the non-Yankee parts of my collection.

I won't lie, it was nice to see a Yankee from the Ginter X pop up too. I was beyond thrilled to see those Chrome prism refractors included as well. Kiermaier is probably the most exciting former Bulls player I got to watch in recent memory and therefore probably one of my favorite non-Yankee players in MLB. I was thrilled when the Rays acquired Souza before the 2015 season because I had the fortune of seeing him play against Durham while he was with Syracuse and I got to meet him(and get an in person auto) and watch him play in the Triple-A All-Star Game in 2014. He instantly became one of my favorite Rays players despite not truly being a former Bull. As a side note, he did become a former Bull this past season as I got to watch him play in several rehab games before he made it back to Tampa to close out the season.

The next surprise package arrived from Adam over at Infield Fly Rule. I had won a contest on his blog previously and have been stockpiling Rockies to send his way ever since, but I haven't quite gotten the package together and shipped. Out of the blue, he dropped a great package on me.

Topps Minis!!! Through trades alone, I'm now up to almost half of the 2014 mini team set.

I need more Sportsflics in my life! It's always nice to find a new card of the Captain, but the real treat in this package was the new Bernie cards. Here are two, but the package would continue to Bern baby Bern! More on that in a moment.

These junk wax era needs were awesome to see. Now, as promised, more Bernie!

I love the early career cardboard that show that bespectacled Bernie! Early Stadium Club is always nice to see too.

Great stuff from Matt and Adam! Thanks fellas and sorry for the delay in posting. I'll be putting together return packages for you both in the near future.