Sup, JediJeff?!

It has been a few years since we had traded, but JediJeff of 2x3 Heroes dropped back into my DMs asking for my address. The last correspondence I had with him (according to gmail) was 2017, so it was awesome to hear from him this past November. 

And, let's just say Jeff brought it. Not sure if he had just been setting some cards aside or what, but what a great package it was. Two team bags full of goodies.

Where to begin? Let's start with Yankees legend Bert Campaneris. Just kidding, but I always enjoy the opportunity to show Campaneris as a Yankee because I know many find it appalling to see him in pinstripes. Hey, he hit a career high .322 with the Yankees. Like I said, legend. I have the 84 Topps, but the 83 Traded is new.

Ok, on to some more of the traditional hits if I didn't offend you too much. My favorite - easily - was an Aaron Judge rookie card. But not just any RC. Topps Chrome Refractor RC! That is so so pretty, new to my collection, and a really generous card for Jeff to send. That card immediately goes in my "good box."

There were a couple card with pieces of jersey or metal in them. The Yogi coin is really cool. I live about 10 minutes from the Yogi Berra museum and I have never been. That's pretty lame. Once this all clears up I am going to go.

Three A&G jerseys of, sadly, former Yankees. Well, I believe Tanaka will be a former Yankee, as it doesn't look like the Yanks are bringing him back. Jacoby Ellsbury is a free agent...dude doesn't even have a minor league deal anywhere. Is he done?

This is a little but of an odd one, but gladly will add it to my Jeter collection. It's a Sage Sportkings jersey. The card is...of a jersey. The limits of no MLB or MLBPA license! But of course I'll count it as another Jeter relic. It's definitely unique.

Here's a few other cards that really jumped out at me. No one pimps a homer like Aaron Hicks.

Thanks, Jeff! Appreciate reconnecting and appreciate the awesome package!

Nothing random about this box

A while back, I got an email from Roy, better known as Bulldog, from Nothing if Not Random. Roy said he had been accumulating some Yankees he needed to get rid of. I was, as always, happy to take them off his hands.

What I didn't expect was an extremely generous, very LARGE box of Yankees from all years. It was really a blast to go through, and such a great sampling of cards. So great, that I feel like if I needed to condense my collection into one box, this would be a great sampling of cards to keep. I'm honestly thinking of just taking the cards from this box and put them in a binder and calling it my "Yankees Sampling Binder" or something a lot more catchy.

Here's the box:

That is a lot of Yankees! The first card I pulled out was this:

Gleyber Torres is awesome. I keep saying it, I know. He has 37 homers and is a 22-year-old middle infielder who, at his peak, was said to project as a 15-20 HR guy. This man has the ability to win an MVP award one day.

Anyhow, I did use the code when the Yankees were playing the Orioles...and of course, Gleyber didn't homer that day. I haven't won a single one of these this year!

Torres popped up a few more times. I really need to take inventory on my collection of his. I wonder if it's approaching 100? It's probably closer to 50.

There were several more 2019 cards, and here were a few favorites:

There were also a bunch of great Yankees rookie cards:

Topps Fire continues to be one of my favorite sets, despite never opening a pack. I liked this Tanaka a really lot.

This card made me chuckle a bit. I remember Classic 4-Sport well, and A-Rod was the key baseball player in these sets. This card is a SUPER RARE 1 of 80,000 ever made!

Jeter was well-represented throughout the box, and I really enjoyed this Upper Deck ESPN card, as well as the Topps 35th Anniversary:

Oh, and did a I mentioned JETER ROOKIE CARDS?! There were actually two from 1993 Topps! And I definitely didn't have this 1993 Score Select. Jeter RCs don't pop up in packages often at all!

Roy, this was a blast to go through and I'm still very appreciative of the cards. Thanks again!

Strut my stuff, my stuff is so...SHINY

Easily, my favorite song in Disney's Moana is Shiny, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and performed by Jermaine Clement. It's got some very humorous lyrics and is super catchy. It's definitely an underrated part of the movie.

Plus, that's one hilarious looking crab.

I can't help but hear the song in my head every time a new shiny card arrives. I literally sing "shiny" to myself in the crab voice. It's weird, but I do.

So when I received these cards from whatever Panini set this is (Chronicles I think?), I couldn't help but have this song on repeat in my head.

I saw a few bloggers post cards from this set, and it's extremely confusing to me. I think they are all base cards from various past designs? I'm honestly not sure how it works, but I think some of the cards look really nice, plus with some nods to some past Pacific names, makes for appealing trade targets for me. Luckily, Paul of Scribbled Ink was down to trade a few to me.

The two SHINIEST cards were from the Revolution portion of the set and have a very nice glow to them.

These were more of a Chrome versus a shiny, but I still needed 'em. I think I'm at the point now where Panini should retired Crusades since they'll never match 1998.

Back to SHINY! I mentioned in a Twitter post, but I think the Chrome 1983 anniversaries are the nice cards this year. They look awesome.

More shiny from Ma-shine-iro Shine-aka. See what I did there?

And maybe not shiny, but I'll take any card of this guy I can get.

Thanks for the great cards, Paul!

Loving the PWEs

I think I've previously stated, but it feels like PWEs find their way to me in bunches. I could go months without getting one, then three pop up in one week. That's why it's always fun to go to the mailbox.

Last week, Adam from Cardboard Clubhouse sent an awesome PWE. It definitely struck a really nice vintage chord, and are some big-name players!

 I love it! They were all in great condition too. I definitely didn't have that Jim Hunter, and the Murcer is a really special card given what we meant to Yankee fans.

I really liked this Ken Greer card from Star. I've gotten a lot of Star cards over the years, but I don't recall seeing the purple border. I kind of like it! Very different.

Tanaka time! Being that this is his fifth Yankees season, I need to start counting how many Tanaka I have. It's gotta be in the 50 or 60 range.

Adam, this was a most appreciated and unexpected surprise. Thank you!

6 1/3 innings, no decision

I've always been fascinated by the Topps relic cards that have an MLB authentication hologram on them. This started a few years ago with Topps Strata.

I feel like this should be standard for all relics.

Since I've always wanted one, I recently came across a seller who listed a few for fairly cheap. My choice was between Masahiro Tanaka and Jacoby Ellsbury. Tough choice...not!

I snagged the Tanaka, of course. I was surprised to find that the card was actually flat and had an acetate window over it. I didn't expect that. I expected to be able to touch the jersey, but I guess it's so someone can't take the sticker off and place it somewhere else.

I traced the authentication hologram back to his April 23, 2015 start at Detroit. It was his fourth start of the season.

Tanaka's final line: 6 1/3 innings, 3 hits, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 Ks. Pretty typical Tanaka start. The Yankees won 2-1, but he was awarded a no decision. Dellin Betances earned the win, while Andrew Miller nailed down the save.

Pretty cool to be able to trace it back!

Scribbled Ink is the best ink

A few weeks ago, Paul over at Paul's TTM Blog held a contest to rename his blog. The results?

Scribbled Ink.

Awesome! My lame name suggestion was something like "Paul's Card and TTM Blog". Really, me? Shocking that wasn't the winner.

Paul was cool enough to send me a batch of Yankees for participating. One of the neatest was this Bill Hayes autograph. I have a bit more to say on this and will save it for a future post.

I was also given my first batch of Topps Fire. Not sure if I'm in the minority or not, but I like these a lot. Probably because they feel like they are from the '90s. The Rizzuto is a gold parallel.

Mattingly cards were sweet. He always had great poses on cardboard.

Every time I come across this Andy Pettitte, I wonder what's he doing. I assume charting pitches or scouting reports of some sort.

Early Bernie images make me laugh. It's as if Dwight Shrute ended up being a multiple-time All-Star and World Series winner.

I won't lie, I'm glad this guy is back for the next three years.

And a few more of the guys I collect.

Paul, thanks for the great package. Best of luck at Scribbled Ink!