All hail hypnotoad

Matt over at Diamond Jesters recently held a contest as it related to a repack he bought. I was one of three winners, and my task was to pick a card from a list of names he sent.

After scanning the list, I settled on Hideki Irabu, figuring it would net me a Yankee. I was right, and a cool Pacific Prism one at that!

As is his custom, Matt also sent a haiku along:

I'll be honest. I've never seen an episode of Futurama, but I certainly can piece two and two together with the toad reference. And I did a little digging and found some clips of the Hypnotoad on YouTube:

There's also a 10 hour video of the Hypnotoad, but I'll spare you.

Here's the rest of the PWE, featuring some HOF cards I'll add to my son's collection, as well as some Yanks!

Thanks, Matt!

SuperTraders #16: Waiting Til Next Year

Ok, so here’s a confession. P-Town Tom has sent me 2.5 #SuperTraders packages (2 bubble mailers and a PWE). I did send him a PWE to try and make myself feel a little better about slacking, but the highlight of that package was probably an Adam Warren autograph…Adam Warren previously and now currently of the New York Yankees. Ooof. I actually had about 10 other Warrens in my pile to send Tom, but as I noted on Twitter, guess I’ll hang on to those now.

Regardless, a package for Tom will be in my next group of outgoing mail, hopefully this Friday.

First off, I’ll show the PWE Tom sent. It included two of this card:

He was nice enough to send me two cards of Yankees 2016 first rounder Blake Rutherford – one for TTM, and one for me. Well, I’m an idiot and sent both out because Rutherford was promoted right after I sent the first one. So I sent the second on this week, but it was probably an equally dumb move because he is hitting .446/.493/.723 in 17 games in Pulaski. He’s probably not ticketed for too long there either, but hopefully sticks around another week or so to receive my TTM request. That’s not asking too much of the Yankees, right? While I love Tom’s thinking, I’m the idiot here who was impatient and sent BOTH cards out. Hey, maybe I’ll end up with two autographs out of it.

Tom’s other package, the bubble mailer, included a bunch of great Yanks that he scored in the estate sale he visited. If memory serves, Tom was about the only person to show up and basically had a run of the place for a few hours. Sounds like a dream come true!

While these likely didn’t come from the estate sale, there was a neat pack of Onyx cards that appear to be something given out at the National last year? Tom (or anyone else), is this correct? Regardless, the pack included two Yankees: Luis Severino and Greg Bird.

Last night I actually dug the package from Tom out of a packed up box in the new house (I never sorted the cards mid-move, I just kept them in the bubble mailer) because I was convinced there was a Clint Frazier card in there. Turns out it was Bradley Zimmer, Cleveland’s other top OF prospect. Damn, close. Clint’s hair would have blended into the card background anyways.

Now I think we’re getting into the estate sale goodies.

This is EASILY my favorite card of the package. Hot damn it’s cool. It’s a Fleer Metal Universe Titanium die-cut of Derek Jeter. The shield looks really badass. I could fight a dragon with that shield. It’s not easy to find cards like this nowadays, so I was pretty floored when I saw it. It might be on the Mount Rushmore of Jeter cards that I actually own.

Sticking with Metal, here are a few more of the base cards. I’ve always liked this Tino because 1. St. Patrick’s Cathedral and 2. You can see my office in the photo.

I have no idea what the background of Bernie’s card is.

Donruss started to get a bit confusing with Diamond Kings as the ‘90s went on, but I gotta say I do like this Jim Abbott quite a bit.

An Irabu Bowman RC! Man, I bet this graced many a Beckett pages back in 1997, along with Travis Lee, Jose Cruz Jr, and Kerry Wood. Great card and great memory. Just a reminder: your cards will (probably) not be "worth" enough to send your kids to college one day. I pulled the Travis Lee from a pack I bought in a mall in 1997 and was on top of the world. I still have it! The shop owner immediately gave me a top loader for it.

I don’t remember David Cone having such a mane on his head. What struck me most was the numbering on the back. 520. 520 out of what?

Pinnacle Aficionado. You know, I’ve always liked these cards. I have no clue where one would have gotten them. Were there packs in stores? They definitely weren’t at CVS. The foil face is kind of cool.

This was my second straight package with a Frank Crosetti, which defies odds, if such a thing were to have odds. I showed my 4-year-old son the Action Packed card, and he goes “oooh I like the bumpy card.” So now he likes Sportflics (“moving cards") and Action Packed (“bumpy cards”). Maybe Topps should make a textured set to introduce pre-schoolers to their products. Just sayin’.

Here are a few more cards I enjoyed, in no particular order. The assortment included some good mid-90s Tinos, as well as some other premium, lesser known product.

Tom, I will get you a package. I owe you. Thanks for this great package and for keeping me in mind with the PWEs.

Pardon my french

Bad post title, I know. I tried lots of French puns, including "French Cardquistador." I know, I know.

Anyhow, I completed a trade with Kevin of The Card Papoy recently, my first ever time sending cards to France. I will tell you, my post-office had a difficult time with the concept of me sending a bubble mailer to France. They did not make it easy, but free trade prevailed.

Kevin sent me some awesome Yanks, especially from my '90s wheelhouse. My favorite of the lot was this colorful Derek Jeter, a Leaf card I had never seen.

This fancy Jason Giambi is numbered just 03/10. It has a very platinum-like feel to it.

I love this Hideki Irabu night card from his debut. I distinctly remember watching him pitch that night, as his acquisition was a very big deal.

I have a love/hate relationship with Upper Deck MVP. They were affordable, but for some reason Upper Deck rebranded "Collector's Choice." However, they kept the silver signature parallel. Why not just keep "Collector's Choice"?

A couple of forgotten Yanks of the '90s, especially Vander Wal. The Henson is super thick from Stadium Club.

 

Why, Kevin?! Why do you do this to all of us:

Thanks, Kevin! Hope we can trade again soon!

Drafting some Padres

Marcus over at Backstop Cards held a cool "Padres Dupes" draft, and I got in on the action. I came away with some cool Padres cards. Not that I need more cards, I don't, but hard to turn some free Tony Gwynns.

Here's a look at the stack. There were a lot of cool oddballs and cards from the '90s. My wheelhouse.

Some of my favorite cards are below. The Medina autograph is cool because it's from a very popular set, and he was a Yankee farmhand included in the big Irabu trade.

Being the generous guy that he is, Marcus also sent me a great stack of Yankees.

I love these old Pro Debut cards and really wish that Topps would do this instead of the current Pro Debut, which is just a minor league set that makes no sense. These cards highlighted players who made their actual MLB debuts that season, and even provide a write-up with how the game went. How popular would this set be nowadays? Think of this year's set...Puig, Arenado, Gyorko, Jose Fernandez, Ryu. Shit, that would be cool.