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!

Cards from Bloggers!

I know I've teen tooting the horn of the Trading Card Database. Honestly, the site is easier to make quick, pointed card swaps. If you're into it, it's a great place to trade.

However, bloggers decided to make a comeback and bomb my mailbox this past week, as three packages (plus Secret Santa -- more on that later) arrived. Good stuff!

The first was a quick PWE from Peter over at Baseball Every Night. He said this was a bumper card in a package he received, and offered it to me. Of course I'd take it! Very nice looking card from 1995 Leaf. I feel like there were a lot of "fielding" cards/inserts in the mid-90s.

Next up, Tim from I Love The Smell Of Cardboard In The Morning sent me a surprise package. Tim was my Secret Santa last year, and he always has a knack for finding Tinos I don't have. I don't know how he does it. It's like he knows my wantlist better than I do! Plus this one was diecut, which makes it even better! I'm now up to 920 Tinos, although the number is a bit less on TCDB because they missed a few.

Tim also sent three much-appreciated Gleybers. I absolutely love the Blue Chips!

Lastly, Chris from Nachos Grande was kind enough to send a team bag of Yanks. I won a Barry Larkin card in one of Collecting Cutch's October giveaways, and it was one Chris needed, so I had Cutch send it his way. I had forgotten about it until Chris sent this package, highlighted by a Bye Bye Balboni autograph!

Three great mail days from three great bloggers! Thanks, Gents!

TTM Success: Joe Torre

I really don't send out TTMs much anymore. I feel like I've sort of got the main guys I would have wanted by now, and life feels so busy that I shudder at the thought of going through the steps to send a request. 

I'm being dramatic. It's not that time-consuming. A request probably take around 10 minutes between pulling the card, addressing the envelopes, writing a letter, sealing. I know, boo hoo so much trouble for an autograph. 

But with little free time, TTMing is not something that is rising to the top of my list of things I want to do. And as one might expect, I get very few successes these days because I don't put the time into it.

However, in a past life I did indeed frequently send out requests, which means that I have a few hundred unread and unreturned letters out in the universe somewhere. Many of those have long since been in the dumpster, but a few do find their way back occasionally. Like this one:

Please note that I sent this to the MLB Offices, where Torre holds a position. I know that there is a lot of chatter on social media right now because of Max Muncy's post, but rest assured, this did not go to Torre's private address in case you wanted to call that out.

These are my first Joe Torre autographs, so I'm pretty excited to get them back. I've always liked his old school signature, and the cards turned out great.

Quite the success to have trickle in after two years.

Thanks, Mr. Torre!

There is only one Pancake King

Last week, Wes aka JBF aka The Pancake King dropped a line on Twitter to 13 of us, telling us we were the Lucky 13 and that he had a little something coming out way.

When Wes says something like that, it's not to be taken lightly.

We've all witnessed his generosity, and while he doesn't currently blog, he's always there like a snake in the weeds...just waiting to strike. And he struck just in time for the holidays.

I've always been very appreciative to be on Wes' good list, and his bombs have always been epic. What I appreciate most though, is the thoughtfulness behind it. He truly goes out of his way to send packages he knows the other person will enjoy.

When my Lucky 13 package arrived, part of me wanted to wait until Christmas to open it. But how could I look at a mailer from Wes for two weeks without peeking? Impossible. Plus, it arrived as I was outside hanging Christmas lights in frigid temps, so I felt in the holiday spirit.

So I opened it.

I love the tamper seal. Such a Wes touch.

The first card was the Pancake King Bowman custom he was including in each package. Mine was #8/13.

And the gift itself was one card, but a big one:

Oh my.

I never figured I'd own something like a Lou Gehrig relic, yet here is this card, now sitting in my collection. Unreal! I've become a bit jaded by all the great cards sent to me over the last 8 years of blogging, but this is one of those ones that stops you in your tracks. I keep going back to look at it.

What an incredible gesture, and a card I'll have forever. Even when I eventually downsize my collection, this one will stay.

Thanks, Wes!

The birthday boy!

Nooo, it's not my birthday. I don't usually post about that.

Today is birthday of Tino Martinez! He turns 52 today. Yikes. That makes me feel old.

To celebrate, here are a few Tino's I recently snagged:

The first is may look like a fairly basic 2003 Topps, but is in fact one of HTA (Home Team Advantage) versions. This came through in a trade with alh on Trading Card Database.

The next is from the new Topps Tek set, and is an orange parallel numbered to 25. Cool looking card!

Happy birthday, Tino!

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!