The Wesening

Wes is the best. Here are cards he sent me the other day, some from his "going out in a blaze of glory" mega break and some not.

I dig this shiny Carlos Beltran auto enough to give it top billing. He's got a case for the Hall, as a formidable hitter and one of the best center fielders of the era. This card from 2005 actually features him from his brief stint in Houston in 2004, though I like it because it brings to mind his sunset season in 2017 when he returned to the Astros and capped off his career with a World Series championship.

Another Astros hit I can use.

Nice autos and/or patches for my Pride PC. Hope we see more openly gay active football and baseball players before long. These guys never had much impact on the field and are retired now, so not exactly a Jackie Robinson-like situation with either of them, but still important baby steps.

Sweet Maddog Maddux relic, and a one from Gavin Escobar too. Looks like Escobar joined the San Diego Fleet of the newly-formed Alliance of American Football. I'm hoping he has more success there than he did in the NFL. Topps is putting out AAF cards, so perhaps I'll have more cards of his to chase down (in addition to his millions of rookie year cards.)

Some nice Padres cards here, with numbered Trevors and a couple vintage stars.

I believe the jersey drawing card folds out to reveal Tony Gwynn (he's on the back), but it's sealed by a sticker.

Ooh, a 1/1 cut auto of an old school Hall of Famer. Between the featured Panini card and the unapologetically pruned Hall of Fame postcard, it's not the best looking "card" by any stretch, but I'm still very happy to have ended up with this Billy Herman from Wes' big box break extravaganza.

William Jennings Bryan Herman (July 7, 1909 – September 5, 1992) was an American second baseman and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) during the 1930s and 1940s. Known for his stellar defense and consistent batting, Herman still holds many National League (NL) defensive records for second basemen and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975. [wiki]

And I didn't realize it till just now, but relevant to my hometown interests, he suited up as a coach for the Padres, 1978–79, which means I should probably PC him since I've got a stated collecting focus of HOFers who suited up for San Diego ("Pads in the Hall" minicollection), and that also includes managers/coaches as well as PCL Padres.

Here are some Cubs hits available for trade. The plate is Ryan Dempster.

Here are some Astros (and sorta an A's) hits that don't really fit my collection either.

I'm not much for horror and have never watched any American Horror Story, so perhaps someone could trade me a little something for this relic?


Note: We're about to the halfway point in this epic haul, and from here on out it's 100% ladies, so if that doesn't interest you (or you have co-workers or family members around you who might not appreciate dozens of scantily clad ladies on your screen), see ya next time!

I've always liked Selma Blair alright, so this wardrobe card was a fun surprise.

Another nice relic.

I love Jaime Bergman, best known to me as "BJ Cummings" in Son of the Beach, one of my all-time favorite silly TV shows. I actually already had this auto, so that one's up for grabs. (Actually, this signature looks a bit different than my other one, so I might hang onto it as an unofficial variation) The bikini swatch is a sweet add, though that might be the tiniest relic piece in my collection now.

Pretty girls.

That top right card wasn't accidentally shown twice, but rather it's a dupe.

Some more favorites here.

I think Wes must've tripled (or more) my collection of Benchwarmer autos with this lot.

Looking good.

Why, hello.

And it goes on.

I'm pretty much out of things to say.

Looks like one of these should have gone to the Angels slot, lol.

Jessica sort of has a Kristen Bell look.

Happy Holidays!

Seems like I'm a Scarlett Keegan supercollector thanks to all the cards of hers Wes gave me. Looking her up, she's of Irish descent and was Playboy's Playmate of the Month for September 2004.

Yet more of Scarlett Keegan!

A few of these specific cards were actually pulled by me a couple years back (the Sherry Goggin 17/25 was especially familiar), then traded to Wes back when such cards were on his wantlist. As we all know, he has since drastically narrowed down his collecting focus, and must've decided to jettison the gist of his girlie cards, and I was a lucky recipient.

Many of the cards shown in the latter half of this post are available for trading, so please don't be shy to broach me about a deal if something(s) catches your eye. (I don't need every girlie card ever made.. I try to only hang onto specific ladies that strike my fancy.)

Here's one last keeper to go out on. Michelle Baena is a woman I specifically collect somewhat thanks to her and I sharing a 12/24 birthday. Seems fitting to get her auto on a Christmas-themed card!

Wes, again, thanks so much for everything. Sad to see you stepping back from the hobby/cardsphere, but gotta follow your heart. I'll continue to keep an eye out for stuff for you, and will be forever on-call for any custom card needs you may have.

trade roundup (Nachos off the wall)

Got a couple recent trade packages to show off.

First up.... I claimed a couple consecutive Trade Stacks from Nachos Grande a week or so ago.

The first stack was pretty big (26 cards), and these are among the ones I was interested. I kinda-sorta collect Jim Edmonds, and I'm a sucker for Topps Gold Label.. specifically the classic Gold Label cards from the turn of the millennium that were on hefty Chrome refractor stock, not to be confused with the current reboot of the product that's on disappointingly flimsy foilboard. (sorry I've been whining about that a lot lately.)
And it's a creased and miscut, but hey, I need the '85 Sparky Anderson for my PC. (I consider him a former Padre in the HOF, as he coached for San Diego in '69 before taking over the Reds the next year.)
Chances are I already have that Gwynn, but I'll have to check.

The other draw for me in the first stack was the Killebrew mini poster. And then the 2nd stack consisted just of the framed Killebrew and I wanted that one, too! Unfortunately I was too slow to save Chris a stamp, but he kindly let me have it as well. (I sent him back several 2017 Archives needs for his setbuild and a Barry Larkin I think he needed.)

He surprised me with a couple "uncommon" Starquest cards in the second envelope, Vlad and Big Unit.

Very cool. Thanks, Chris!

- - - ----o

Next up is a big package from Shane Katz. His blog is Off The Wall, though it hasn't had a new post in a few months. But he's still active on Twitter.

This package was a Padres dump, and while I generally discourage traders from blindly dumping their unwanted Padre cards on me, I definitely understand it's easier to just sort cards by team and ship them off. And with a big lot, it's still fun for me to go through a bunch of Padres, even if I'm not exactly much of a team collector by nature. And in this instance, I'm happy to say the stack of "keepers" was much larger than the stack of "rejects."

Tony Gwynn was the star of the package, without a doubt. Lots of nice cards here.. And Tony wearing glasses?! That's a strange sight for me.

Some obscure "limited edition"/"collectors' series" sets from the 80s represented here. In addition to collecting Red Sox, Shane is a big oddball collector, so it's no surprise he's dug up some cards I haven't seen before.

And some more Gwynns, with a couple cool Fan Favorites among them.

It was 33 years ago today that the Padres lost the 1984 World Series to the Detroit Tigers. Here are 3 guy who were a big part of that pennant-winning run.

Some additions to the Trevor Hoffman PC here. Hopefully he gets the call to the Hall next year and his cards see more respect from collectors.

Nice Jake Peavy lot. At the start of the season, he had talked about making a mid-season comeback once he worked out some homelife issues. Haven't heard anything about him since, though, so I'm guessing his career may be over. But who knows, maybe he'll give a 2018 comeback a shot.

Adrian's Dodgers made the playoffs despite a bad, injury-plagued showing from him this season. Some wonder if his chronic back issues mean we've seen the last of him on the diamond. Again, I guess we'll have to wait and see how 2018 shakes out for him.

A couple HOF Friars.

IP autos of Andy Ashby and Greg Vaughn are pretty cool! I really like the look of those Woolworth cards. Donavan Tate was a bust as a ballplayer, but is attempting to hit rewind on his amateur decision to pick baseball over football, and has returned to college, now a quarterback for the Arizona Wildcats of the University of Arizona. How awesome would it be if he managed to become a great quarterback and all his worthless Padres prospect cards became valuable! ha

And the rest of the keepers. Peep that Anthony Rizzo RC! And yes, a Carlton Fisk card even worked itself into the Padres package. It was included because the back has a sticker of a Padre (Chris Brown?), but joke's on Shane because this White Sox card is going in my Fisk PC whether he likes it or not! LOL

But seriously, big thanks, Shane! I very much appreciate the package. Lots of good cards in there. I'll work up a return for you soon.

the post with the most

I'm still getting caught up with everybody's blog posts I didn't have a chance to read many while I was on my recent trip to Louisville. I couldn't bare to just skip them, so I'm at least trying to skim.

I'm also trying to get through a backlog of things to post about, so this may be a big post as I try to make up some ground.

A few random bullet points:

• New glow-in-the-dark cards on the market?! Yes, it seems 2017 Allen & Ginter has a mini insert set called Constellations that glow in the dark. Neat idea! I'm definitely interested in those, so please let me know if you have any to trade!
• Looks like the National is going on right now in Chicago. I've never been, but maybe one of these years. Out of the 3 or 4 locations the convention cycles between, Chicago would probably be my best bet since I've got family around there. Maybe next time. Wish it'd come out further west.
• Though I lived most of my life in San Diego, I never attended Comic Con. That's kind of a regret of mine. Now it's too big and crazy that I wouldn't really even want to. So many people.
• Speaking of a lot of people, I attended the Oregon Brewers Festival yesterday evening on the Portland waterfront. That was pretty fun and I got to check out a lot of interesting beer. Among the more memorable was Coconut Curryiocity (Old Town Brewing Co.) that the group I was with didn't care for but I really liked; and another curry one, Dragon’s Milk (Thai Curry | Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer by New Holland Brewing Co.) was a boozy milk stout (11%); and Berry White (Fruit Wheat Beer by Vanguard Brewing Co.)
• I really don't like those Funko Pop toys with their creepy dead eyes.
• I made good progress reading Ball Four on the flight / in the airport. Got through the chapters covering month of March. Great book so far. I probably should have read it long ago, but I'm not much of a reader (short attention span).
• Have you guys been hearing about the big eclipse next month? It will pass through Oregon and we're expecting possibly the worst traffic day ever here in Portland thanks to an influx of a couple million people into the state hoping to check out the neat sky thing. Yeah, I think I'm gonna stay home from work that day. Personally I'm more excited about the glow-in-the-dark Constellation cards than the actual sky thing. Again, please send me those cards!

I'm still catching up on incoming trade packages. Let's check out one that arrived shortly before I left for my trip. It's from Hunter Hoffman at the new blog Brave Country Cards. It was my first time trading with him (and I gotta admit I hadn't read his blog), so I wasn't sure what to expect. It consisted of a few team bags with "junk" showing, so I worried for a moment that it was gonna be one of those packages where I'm lucky if I find a couple cards I actually need. But thankfully those commons were just there for protection, and there was some terrific stuff between them.

Like this awesome 6-card lot of Adrian Beltre cards. He got a bunch of attention just recently for his stunt moving the on-deck circle and getting tossed from the game because of it. Gotta love the guy!

Here we've got a couple cool fishfractors and numbered Thome cards.

Great cards of notable pitchers.

Incredible Jake Peavy lot here. He's taken the 2017 season off so far due to personal reasons, but intends to pitch again at some point.

Some Red Sox legends.

Kirby! My recently revived Puckett PC is coming along nicely thanks to lots like this.

Nice pairs of McCutchen and Josh Donaldson.

Some big names here, highlighted by a gold #'d Junior.

Some Bowman kids.

Inserts/parallels of big boppers.

¡Ay, muchacho! Machado in the house.

And we wrap up the package with a shiny trio of familiar faces to Padres fans.

Great stuff, Hunter! Blew me away. Now I've got the challenge of putting together a worthy return package. I'll get on that shortly! I'm also following Braves Country Cards now and will update my side blogroll soon.

- - ---o

Let's squeeze another trade package into this post. Remember The Turrdog, the mysterious reader in my Big Fun Game? He has quickly proven himself as a hell of a guy, first sending me a nice "thank you" package for his prize, now surprising me with a flat-rate box.

My pending 1980 Topps setbuild is looking good with this lot of probably ~75 cards featuring some solid names such as a Dave Stieb RC. Once I find some time one of these days, I need to collate what I've got and get a list figured out.

I'm also toying with the idea of working on 1982 Topps at some point in the future, and now I've at least got my foot in the door with this lot of about 50 cards.

Ah, the "birth year" set for me. Sort of feels like an obligation to complete it someday. Not a bad lot here to get me started. I should have positioned the Fidrych card front and center instead of obscured and fuzzy in the back; it's definitely a classic. (But I'm afraid to argue with the Mad Hungarian there.)

I was actually born in the tail end of '77, so as P-town Tom suggested in a comment a while back, 1978 Topps probably has more of a claim to being the representative baseball card set of my entrance into the world. So, fine, screw it, I added '78 to my list of sets to potentially work on someday, too. Turdog helped boost up their numbers in my collection with this lot of 15 or so cards.

And I've already completed 1973 and 1971, but I'm sure I'll be able to pluck many upgrades out of these stacks. Mike Hegan is a player who didn't mean anything to me a week ago, but now I'm like, "Hey, he's in Ball Four! Cool!" haha. And that Dave Concepcion RC looks pretty sweet.

And we close out with this beauty from 1957 Topps.

I've now fittingly got 57 cards from '57, good for 13.67% complete. Still a ways to go, but slow and steady...

Thanks so much, Jeff! Big help for my setbuilds.. Very appreciated! I'll have to round up some stuff for you to return the favor.


Thanks again to Hunter, and to the rest of you all for reading. See ya next time.