PWE Heat from Zippy Zappy

An unexpected PWE is still one of my favorite parts of this corner of the hobby.

I get a lot of PWEs, but most are from TCDB so I know what's inside. However, getting one in that familiar light blue pen, usually from the Luis Torrens Fan Club, is always something to get excited about. 

I'm talking about a Zippy Zappy PWE.

He has since apologized for not sending me one of his bombs, which is usually a flat rate box of goodies. Candidly, I'm relieved. Those are always very generous, but then I 1. Have to organize them and 2. Feel in debt. When the sender prefers not to get bulk in return, it always makes for tricky retribution. 

In this PWE, there were two cards. But both are <fire emoji>.

The first is a 2011 Bowman Sterling Refractor of soon-to-be-All-Star Gary Sanchez. It's numbered 057/199. Man, this card  is from 2011?! Gary has been around a long time. When he made his mark in 2016, this card would have fetched some serious cash. Gary is no longer a hobby darling and hasn't been in years, but I'm still a big fan of him despite his frustrating play. Look at how young Gary is here. He's got a whole lifetime of hitting .230 and playing bad defense in front of him.

It's also one of the nicest Bowman Sterling designs ever.

The next card is super cool. A 2016 Diamond Kings Elements of Royalty Game Used Bat card of Hall of Famer Tony Lazzeri. Now that is cool! Solid design, and Lazzeri is a guy I don't have much of in my collection outside of a few Diamond Kings card. I had nothing like this though!

ZZ, thanks as always for thinking of me!

Trying to hold up my end of the bargain

Each Sunday, Johnny from Cards from the Quarry has been holding a PWE trade event. Usually he posts a card from each team, and all you have to do is claim it, and send him one back from his wantlist. Simple, right?

The problem I keep running into...he has every Rockies card known to man! I keep thinking I came across a good one - a numbered insert or a parallel from some random Bowman set no one bought. Then I check his wantlist...

Nope!

I have a stack of Rockies I've come across over the last few weeks, and each time I think I got a good one, I come up empty. Which makes me feel bad because I've been claiming away each week. And while he makes it easy by also requesting cards from teams he is low on for trade bait, I feel like I'm having a hard time keeping up my end of the bargain. Plus, I don't want to just send him cards of other teams!

So I'm continuing to scour my unsorted boxes in hopes I can finally land a few Rox for him. I did just send him an older Stadium Club First Day Issue I think he needed. But I'm still behind by a couple cards due to a few cards I claimed over the last few weeks:

The first was a nice Gary Sanchez Bowman parallel. Gary has gotten off to a good start so far, thank goodness. I'm kind of tired of hearing about his struggles, so I hope for his sake he has a huge few months and everyone can focus on other things, like why can't the Yankees score runs, why can't they stay healthy, why do they suck at situational hitting, and why on earth did they trade for Rougned Odor. I'd rather focus in all of that over Gary.

Another guy who is off to a slowish start...but at least he's on the field? Sad that that's the positive, but it's how it goes. As long as he is on the field, he'll put up numbers when all is said and done. Speaking of numbers, I couldn't turn down a low-numbered Giancarlo numbered to 50 from one of those expensive Topps sets!

Lastly, this isn't a card I needed, really. But Garrett Mitchell seems to have a bright future, and even if he never sniffs the bigs (unlikely...he showed in the spring he's not far off), he dates Haley Cruse. So I admire him quite a lot for that.

Also, this dude graces the back of that same card:

Johnny, thanks for all the fun trade bait Sundays. I'll do my best to keep finding stuff for you to hold up my end of the deal. I'm trying, I promise..

A Surprise from Sunrise

One of my oldest trading buddies from around here is Robert from $30 A Week Habit. He and I started blogging around the same time, and have exchanged many packages and envelopes over the years.

While the envelopes have slowed a bit - mostly on my end because I haven't been good about sending out cards - Robert was kind enough to shoot me a PWE recently.

The highlight for me was a Holo Red 2020 Donruss Gleyber Torres. This is one of the variations, as well. The holofoil looks nice, I admit.

I also think Donruss slander has gone overboard. The set is super weird, and the variations are silly. But the foils are really nice, and buying Donruss provides good value for the buck. In fact, at the beginning of the Pandemic, I found two hanger boxes of Donruss at Walgreen's and I was ecstatic, and they were fun to open.

I won't hold Donruss base set against Panini. I still think if they had a license they'd be kicking the shit out of Topps, from Optic to Prism to everything in between. And I don't think it'd be close, either.

I won't let a turd like Donruss speak for all Panini products, just like I won't let a turd like flagship speak for all of Topps.

The red foil really does stand out, and I'm happy that Robert thought of me when he came across this card.

I had seen this 2019 Topps Gallery a few times and have admired it. The shot of the Empire State Building in the background, with the stars flanked by other buildings, gives this card plenty of Big Apple flair.

I haven't been to NYC since March 9. That is unfathomable, especially after going into the city for work everyday since May of 2006.

The final card was a 2019 Topps Stadium Club of Gary Sanchez. Definitely a cool shot. Gary is such an enigma. The talent is endless. When he is hot, there is no better hitter in baseball. But the problem is when he is cold, he is basically a pitcher at the plate. There is no in-between. It does not make sense how extreme the extremes are.

Still, the pose on his card is pretty cool. A catcher making his way to the dugout, likely after a bullpen session. Gatorade towel soaking up sweat. Just a very cool card.

Robert, thanks for the surprise. Appreciate it, and glad we're still pals after all these years.

Delayed zapping

Back around the holidays, Zippy Zappy zapped the sh*t out of me. I've been meaning to post about it, but just haven't gotten around to it, but it has finally been scanned and organized a bit on my end.

He sent a massive flat-rate box, not only of Yankee cards, but other odds and ends, liked signed baseballs, a bobble head, game programs, a foam finger, and some Stranger Things cards. It truly was an awesome gesture, and the entertainment value of going through all of this was just as high in value as some of the cards and items that were sent.

In a way, the package was also a bit sad, as much of it represented to me what Zippy used to be all about, or signified the end of various Yankee eras. One of those eras was the end of Dellin Betances' time as a Yankee. Zippy collected him fairly hard for a while, although even before signing elsewhere, he had started to disperse of his Dellin collection, sending me a few autographs over the years. 

In this instance, ZZ provided me with a bobble head, signed ball, and what I assume is the last remaining bit of his card collection.

I don't have many signed balls, but this will certainly go amongst the ones I do have.

Also guys like Austin Romine and Frankie Cervelli showed up, catchers who have now moved on to (sometimes) greener pastures.

I mentioned Stranger Things. I'm a big fan of the show, although never purchased any of the cards. Well, I know have the set. I'm not sure what to do with it yet. I sort of think I want to mount it to big wooden board of some kind versus bindering it up.

I also appreciated all of the minor league sets that were sent. I don't get much access to these, so I really enjoy getting them.

Plus, how cool are these?

As usual, ZZ just doesn't send cards in team bags. That would be boring. He makes custom repacks!

These can include awesome hits, like these:

Vintage like these:

Or non-sports cards like these:

(Hockey joke, sorry). I feel like the Zuccarello was sent because I went to Zac's return game at MSG?

But mostly the packs are just full of fun cards like these.

ZZ, as always, thank you for being so generous all the time.

A positive Series One experience

This past week was the least excited I've ever been for the start of the baseball card season.

I'm not quite sure what it was. Maybe it's the heaps of unsorted cards in my card space. Maybe it's the   uninspiring checklist. Maybe it's the boring inserts. It just felt very ho hum to me, for whatever reason. I wasn't going to boycott or anything. No loud statement. That would be silly. I just wasn't going to go above and beyond to pick some up like I did the past few years.

Two years ago, I got home from work at 8pm or so, got in my car, got to Target only to realize I forgot the gift cards I had set aside. I went back and got them once I confirmed the store had the new supply of cards in. It was a two hour affair. This year, there was zero chance I was going to make that sort of effort.

On Saturday, my son wanted to go to this new comic book store we hadn't tried to look for Pokemon cards (because kids like those more than sports cards). It happened to be on the way to my usual Target. I decided that we'd hit up his store first, then continue on to Target. I even toyed with the possibility of driving to a Target that is further away because they usually have a better stock of cards. But I took the chance on the local one.

Aside from the usual cart of discarded shit in the aisle, I was happy to see a bunch of 2020 blasters, hangers, and loose packs. I won't touch the loose packs at Target. We all know they've been molested by some beast. But the blasters and hangers were well-stocked. Even better, the distributor took away all the unsold ones from 2019, so it wasn't mass chaos.

My son grabbed a box of Pokemon Sword and Shield, and I grabbed one blaster and one hanger, and we were off!

I got home and busted the hanger first. I usually split it down the middle because that's where the goodies are lumped together.

The first card was this guy. Never heard of him. But I do like how his right elbow overlaps the design. That's a fun touch and I like when cards do that.

The second card was this, which is probably my favorite Series One card so far. What a great card of a great player in a great uniform, even if the baby blues are starting to be a bit overdone.

As for the design, I don't mind it. I never do, even when it stinks. I can see why some think it looks like Bowman. But I like Bowman. It shares some characteristics, for sure. I think it's clean, easy to read, and overall looks pretty sharp. Whether or not it's true, it feels like it was done by the same single designer who has done each design since 2016. It definitely shares some very similar elements to 2016, 2018, and 2019. But I'm cool with it. Just another year.

Actually, one complaint. The gloss! Holy moly are these things slippery. I kept thinking that even if I do get one of the Yanks to sign one of these for me, there's no way an autograph would stick. I need to remove a ton of gloss before sending these out for signatures.

Back to the cards. Within the aforementioned middle of the stack, I did indeed get some goodies...and they were Yankees goodies! First, this was facing backwards!

I still like pulling relics, even though this is probably a $3 card if I were to sell it. But I never pull relics of my team, and it's the first time I pulled one from a hanger. Ever. I didn't end up counting the cards, but I assume I got a few less because of it, although it's not super thick.

The Sanchez was followed by even more Yankee goodies - a Gleyber Torres Gold, which I was most excited about, and an Aaron Judge Turkey Red.

Side note - Gleyber's card is from a game against Baltimore, which means he was hitting a homer in the photo. But remember, his stats against Baltimore don't count.

As for the Turkey Reds, I like them! I've always liked Turkeys. I like Turkey Red cards more than actual turkey (Thanksgiving meal is overrated). I feel like this isn't the strongest Turkey Red effort, as the mid 2000s versions used a fun texture, while these are flat. So I can't get as totally on board here as I'd like, but the cards look really good and the photos against the background are great.

They've been a TTM favorite of mine for a long time.

The Chrome Turkeys are pretty nice, but they are a bit bendy. I bet the colored refractors are very pretty.

I don't know what to think about the "Best Of" cards. I like the 1950s and 1990s designs, I suppose. At the least the lower third of the card. But I think the concept for the set stinks. I'm very sick of these huge insert sets and just wedging all the legends into them. Same thing year after year. Give me a 10 card RBI Machine or Slick Gloves or something. What happened to the Fleer Ultra 10-card insert sets where they didn't look just like a modified base cards? I guess it's because I grew up in a time where inserts were special and were different and you looked forward to them, but it's very apparent Topps just doesn't care about them. The designers who make digital Bunt cards use some sweet designs. Let's call in those guys for a few insert sets.

And it wouldn't be Series One without old designs!

The Trout was a blue SP (these aren't serially numbered). Great guy to pull, although the card was damaged with a peeling corner and some weird smudge on it? Maybe Topps will replace it?

The Vlad Jr Highlight cards aren't too bad compared to recent player highlight series. I like the nod to 1953 in there. Much happier he was the Target guy versus Hoskins.

Glad to see these back. I've never won one, but I like them. It's gambling, you know. It's a prop bet on if a guy will hit a homer. Gambling on sports is fun. Tell your state to get with it and legalize online gambling (not applicable to those of you who live in NJ, PA, WV, IN, NH, and soon CO).

I did score two SP photo variations as well. The first I didn't notice until going back through after. This came from the hanger as well:

Nice! Very open to trading this for a Gleyber of similar stature.

The second was the very first card in one of my blaster packs. I didn't know it existed until Friday night, so I thought it was funny that I snagged it. Gerrit Cole is a Yankee!

And my Manu-thingie was a good one too! I thought these were kind of dumb when I saw them on Twitter, but I don't dislike them. The medallion isn't too obnoxious. And Ichiro is pretty awesome. I'll be hanging onto this one until his Cooperstown induction.

So there it is. Pretty good for one blaster and a hanger! It's about what you expect from Topps Series One. I had a good experience with it. It helped that I had some good luck with Yankees, had some decent pulls, and found the product on my first try. I won't be buying any more of it, but everything has been loaded into the TCDB and hopefully I can snag some of the Yanks I'm missing.

Let the card season begin!