New blog on the block sends some cards

One of the new blogs on the block is run by Jay overt Card Hemorrhage. Jay fired up his blog a few weeks ago, and we recently made our first PWE swap.

Jay collects SF Giants, so I shot him over a few I had laying around. I tried to make it an assortment of cards/sets he might not have seen during his hiatus.

In turn, he sent me some cool Yanks. My favorite of the bunch was this Aaron Judge:

Although a close second is this great card featuring Jeter's 3000th hit. I don't think I've seen this one!

Jay also hit me with a bunch of Heritage.

He also sent two cards for my son's HOF binder. I left the Nolan in it's case because the top loader actually has his name on it in foil. Too cool!

Jay, thanks for the trade, and good luck with your blog!

I like this free card trend

Over the past few weeks, I've noticed a lot of "Free Card Fridays" going on. I like it! I'm going to have post some of my own one day soon.

Last week, Rod of Padrographs posted a few cards from Heritage, and I was happy to claim this:

Nice! The purple looks cool. I'm a weirdo who likes seeing classic designs in different colors.

The back of the card is interesting too. I had no idea DJ was age tallest 2B (6'4") to play 500+ games at 2B. Thanks for this tidbit, Topps.

Also, props to the USPS. I claimed this on Friday and it arrived in a PWE on Tuesday from across the country. Impressive.

Thanks, Rod!

Christmas cards

Usually, Christmas comes and goes without me getting any cards from my family. I can't say I don't get any cards because there is usually a blogger Secret Santa gift or another random act of kindness.

And I don't blame my family. I never ask for cards, and I try to imagine my wife at Target looking at the boxes and having no clue what to get. It's like if she told me "go pick up some eyeliner" without any direction, I'd have zero clue where to begin.

This year I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice little hanger of 2019 Heritage High Number in my stocking! That's only happened once or twice before, so it was a nice little treat, and I appreciate the effort.

The first card out was a Yankee, JA Happ. Nice start.

None of the big base RCs fell out, although there was a Pete Alonso Rookie Performers insert. I'm not sure why these don't have the "RC" logo on them, as I thought inserts of rookies usually do?

And I did flip the cards over to check out the codes, which revealed a SP photo variation or something?

The cards in the rear were more of the same, as the highlights were Manny Machado and Zack Britton. I thought the pose on the Machado was cool.

The Alonso was a nice card to grab, and I'm not upset at no big RC hit. I'm thankful that my wife even attempted to whether the card aisle, and a hanger of Heritage High Number is definitely not a bad pick it all. It was just fun to open a couple cards on Christmas!

Unofficial Blog Bat Around: Cards from A Cracked Bat

I think equally as popular as the current blog bat around are collectors showing off cards from Julie over at A Cracked Bat. She must’ve really held up the line at the post office. I guess I should get in on the fun and show the spoils of a great package she sent me as well.

First off, Julie’s filler cards to protect the actual intended cards were 2017 Donruss Optic cards. Those might be the most high-end fillers I’ve seen. 

The reason for the package, as Julie said in an email, was that she had some leftover Yankees from 2018 Heritage. I was really happy to get my first Giancarlo Stanton card depicting him as a Yankee.

While I enjoyed the three-box break from Nachos Grande, the collation wasn’t great. In three boxes, I didn’t get either of these guys. And I’m still looking for the Judge base.

The purple Chrome refractors look incredible!

In all, there were four other team bags filled with Yankees. I LOVED this ARod from the National Convention. Definitely wasn’t expecting anything like this.

A few other cards that caught my eye were from 1995 Score Summit edition. They are striking in person. Cards like this make me feel like we haven’t progressed that much with card technology from 1995-2018, at least when you think about the progression we would’ve seen in the previous 23 year period.

Although I guess that’s not completely fair since we now have cards that have freakin’ jerseys baked into them.

And autographs galore!

The “oddest” card was more of a promotional paper, but I hadn’t see it. Very cool!

Although unrelated to the above, there were some cool discs.

Lastly, a few others that caught my eye.

Julie, this was a fantastic trade package. Thank you! I’ll be sure to send some cards your way soon!

Hertiage breakin'

I was fortunate enough to buy a lot in Nachos Grande's three-box Heritage break. I'm glad I did too, since my Target has been bone dry when it comes to Heritage.

Gavin mentioned it, but the collation on the three boxes didn't seem great. Although not SPs, I was unable to land base cards of Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gary Sanchez, Chad Green, or Clint Frazier. Not quite what you'd expect. I was still really happy with my haul below, but I definitely expected at least one of those guys.

I got on the board early with a Chrome Refractor of Didi Gregorius #'d to 569. These fall 1:61, so that was a good start for me. It's a great looking card too.

In the very last pack, there was a black border card. Although not serially numbered, it looks like these are limited to 50 cards of each and fall 1:51. Chris did a great reveal where we knew it was a Yankee, and I was praying for Judge, Stanton, or Sanchez as he slowly showed the card. It ended up being this guy. Not bad!

While I didn't get a Sanchez base, I still did pretty well with him, including two inserts and a couple of The Topps News All-Star cards.

I wasn't completely shut out on Judge!

I found the back of this card interesting, as it mentions that Cooper is no longer on the Yankees.

And there's Big Mike's (likely) last Yankees card. Good luck, sir.

As part of the break, we also got a random team. I was assigned the D-Backs, so I was hoping for a cool Goldy. And I got one!

Chris, you ran a great break - from the organization to the live stream to the shipping. Thank you!

PWEs, I've missed you!

PWEs tend to come in bunches. Nothing for awhile, then Bam! Two in the span of two days. I love it.

First off, Oscar from All Trade Bait All The Time was kind enough to send one. I made a comment about a cool Brooks Robinson card he showed off, and Oscar, being the generous dude he is, sent me my own copy. Crazy! I never make comments like that thinking the card will end up with me, but nice people like Oscar go above and beyond.

And it is cool, right? There's just something about little Brooks with no one near him, committing robbery. Oscar filled the rest with some Yanks, including two personal favorites.

Next up, Chris from The Collector busted some serious Heritage, and set aside a few Yanks for me. I have to take inventory, but I must be close to the complete Yanks set, minus the SPs.

There was also a cool Jeter I didn't have.

Gentlemen, thanks for the PWEs. Much appreciated!

A little Heritage on a Saturday afternoon

In a rare occurrence, both of my kids fell asleep around 1pm today. That's not usual for the two-year-old, but my five-year-old is basically done with naps until college. But he had a movie on and fell alseep on the couch. I looked at my wife and said, "I guess I'll run an errand to Target, need anything?" She said milk. So I decided to go get milk...and cards.

I had every intention of grabbing a single blaster of Heritage, but I got to Target and the card aisle was a mess. Literally. I should have taken a picture. There were still about 30 blasters of Series 1, with no Heritage blaster to be found.

I did find one rogue hanger box. No idea where the others were.

There was a gravity box as well, but it only had a couple packs in it, which is weird since Heritage was just released. I'm guessing someone grabbed about 50 packs.

I netted four Yankees, including my first Matt Holliday.

And I got BILLY BUTLER! As a Yankee! What a world.

And this dumb thing I could have walked to Walgreens for.

And a couple New Age Performers.

My hanger box was actually a little better, as there was a relic square in the middle. I know a lot of you pull relics on the regular, but I can count the amount I've ever pulled in a pack on one hand, so I still enjoy getting them. Not a bad player, either.

Today's haul resulted in three SPs. Please let me know if anyone needs them.