Holiday PWEs > Holiday Cards

Over the past few weeks, holiday cards have been flooding in. Relatives and neighbors send family photos printed from Snapfish or Shutterfly, usually of photos taken from the fall at our local park. Some even include those letters about what the family has been up to this past year, which admittedly we usually mock. "Jim has taken up jigsaw puzzles during quarantine. Janie finally opened her Etsy shop. Suzie went to competitive cheer camp. Billy continues to play Fortnite and takes tuba lessons."

Each day, three or four cards grace our mailbox, but lately between the holiday greetings, I've found something even better.

PWEs!

I recently got four of them over the past few days, and I'll take those any day over the standard Christmas greetings.

The first is from Cards on Cards. I claimed a sweet Tee Higgins rookie card, which Kerry graciously set aside for me during one of his free card postings. Higgins has had a really good rookie year and developed a great rapport with Joe Burrow. He had a good shot at 1,000 yards before Burrow got hurt. He might still get there, but it'll be tougher now without a competent QB.

He also sent a few Yanks, my favorites which were some PINK cards of Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres. Panini would be kicking Topps butt with a license.

Next up was a very unique gift from Tom of Angels In Order, a long-time trading friend. Tom sent me a bunch of what I assume are TTMs from some very random mid-80s Yankees!

There was also a great Don Zimmer signed index card, and a small piece of paper with signatures from Scott Proctor and Kyle Farnsworth!

Very cool stuff, Tom.

Third, Chris from The Collector and I exchanged PWEs. He was looking for some new football cards, so I shot him a random assortment. He hit me back with some Yankees, and some cards for my son's HOF binder! I always appreciate when people do that!

Lastly, Jay of Card Hemorrhage sent me a VERY packed PWE with all sorts of goodies. In addition to Yanks, Jay is always good for a surprise or two, whether it's other star players, cards from other sports, and more. 

The highlight for me was this Thurman Munson from 2020 Heritage:

This Jackie Robinson from 1986 Larry Fritsch Cards is very cool!

Here's a random assortment of what else Jay chucked my way.

Four really great PWEs from four really great bloggers. I'll take that any day over people I barely know!

Free Break Spoils

Kerry over at Cards on Cards was kind enough run a free Bowman Mega Box group break. Such a generous thing to do, and I happily snagged the Yanks. I only landed one card in the break, but it was one of 2019 Yankees first rounder Anthony Volpe.

Look at the shine own that thing. I give Topps a lot of flack for the their uninspired card offerings and designs, but Refractors and X-Fractors and Mojo-fractors and anything else "-fractor" do hold up. The card is gorgeous.

I hate that Volpe lost a year of development. So many minor leaguers just starting their pro careers were robbed of important seasons. I'm sure he took part in many workouts, but it's a bummer when a young kid like this misses a whole year (or more!).

Kerry also busted some some Upper Deck Victory, and I came away with a Tino and a Bernie.

Thanks, Kerry!

The Summer of PWEs

Holy moly. This summer is going fast.

For being stuck at home, the summer is sure finding a way to move quickly, as most summers do. I expected this one to drag, but here were are, mid-August.

Since it's really been the summer of PWEs, I thought I'd show off a few that have tricked in over the last few weeks.

Coach Tom sent a good one with a few different fun cards. The highlight for me was this Aaron Judge Syracuse Orange parallel from Big League.

A few other Big Leaguers. I love getting Gerrit Cole Yankee cards!

A couple Tinos! The diecut Retrospectives is a sweet design. I love the colors, too.

And as he tends to do, Tom sent me a few HOFers for my sons binder!

Thanks, Coach!

Kerry from Cards on Cards hit me up with a good PWE as well. I always like his, as they tend to be a mixture of Yankees and Knicks.

I wish the Knicks were in the Bubble since Kevin Knox cards would be worth like $50 a pop if he had a good game.

I like this CC from Big League, as well. Why didn't Topps give him a tribute card in flagship? That seems like an odd omission when a future HOFer hangs 'em up, right?

And finally a quick swap from Bru! I like the Defensive Wizards insert set as well. Players in outer space always goes over well with me.

I hope a lot of stuff from Covid time goes away, but I hope the PWE momentum continues to stay.

Secret Santa pays me a visit from the Pacific Northwest

Just before I was to head out for my yearly Christmas travels, a box from my Secret Santa showed up! Before I get into it, thanks again to Jon from Penny Sleeves for once again running this year's program. Like Matthew before him, he does a great job!

I was thinking I might be getting a package from someone new this year, as I noticed in the comments there were a lot of names I didn't recognize. Many were from Twitter or TCDB, so I figured I might be getting something from an unfamiliar name.

WRONG!

A nice flat rate box showed up from one of my oldest trading partners, Kerry from Cards on Cards! Although he does send some surprise packages throughout the year, I was thinking this one might be too well-timed to not be Secret Santa. And I was right! I opened the box and there were two glorious team bags, as well as a sticky note that read, "This worked out well. I had some cards set aside for you anyhow."

Kerry always sends super generous packages, and this one was no different. The highlights were what were undoubtedly the main Secret Santa gifts in the form of two Tinos I didn't have!

The relic is aN eBaY oNe Of OnE #'d 100/100!

And the Gallery is a Private Issue #'d to 250.

Two low numbered Tinos I needed?! Secret Santa was good to me.

And the team bags were great too, chock full of Knicks and Yankees! I was really happy that Kerry was kind enough to include two RJ Barrett rookies! These are the first cards I have of the promising Knicks rook. I love the old school Hoops Tribute design!

A few more Knicks, including some Kevin Knox RCs and a sad card of Porzingas. I do love the sweet Knicks City Jersey.

For the baseball portion, I really loved the 2019 Chrome Refractors. A nice pink of DJLM and the Jeter is awesome.

I LOVE this shot of Judge.

I'm surprised by how many Yankees cards Edwin is going to end up with this year. I loved having him in Pinstripes, even if it was for a short time and even if he stunk in the Playoffs.

Lastly, a vintage stock card of Yankees legend Ivan Rodriguez. Perhaps he is hitting his only Yankees homer in this shot?!

Kerry, thanks for being an awesome Secret Santa!

Wait, is this the contest prize? Or is this?

I've had this posted draft for ages, but just never got around to publishing.

Back in the late spring, I got two packages from Kerry over at Cards on Cards. I actually figured the first package was my contest prize for his March Madness contest, but then the second package indicated that that was indeed the contest package. So looks like the first was just a nice act of generosity from Kerry!

The first package was a mixture of Yanks and Knicks. The highlight for me was a very shiny, beautiful Elite Series Gleyber.

In the words of ZZ, woof. That's a pretty card.

A few other Yanks were included, which we new to me at the time.

The Knicks cards are always fun to go through, minus the fact that they are...you know...players on the Knicks. I just like seeing basketball cards, which to me, have been a bit better looking than baseball cards on the whole over the last few years.

Look, it's the guy the Knicks traded away so that they'd have the cap space to sign Durant Julius Randle and Kyrie Bobby Portis.

I can't keep track of all the Panini parallels, but I do think these look really nice.

While I'll always be a fan of the old Donruss and Pacific, I'm not the biggest fan of bastardizing them like this in current issues, although the Melo is ok.

These two sets bring me back to my childhood!

And I'll always laugh at the back of 90-91 Skybox where they had a box with the player's first name in it. So odd.

Here's a nice assortment, as well an auto that was neatly tucked inside! Will Hernangomez has a very elaborate signature, eh?

So I would have been totally fine if that was the prize package, as it was generous and a blast to go through. But then this showed up, which was the REAL prize!

This was a bit more Yankee centric!

My favorite card was a Hertitage Clubhouse Collection of Masahiro Tanaka! Pretty sweet card.

Here are some other's that caught my eye. As I've been saying, any Gleybers right now are very welcome!

Kerry, thanks for always sending such excellent packages!