Something stinks...

...but it's not these cards. 

Sure they have an odor to them. But that's because Johnny's Trading Spot sent them.

No, no. It's not about Johnny. I assume he smells fine. In fact, he sent me my very first card of Roughned Odor as a Yankee. If you told me this guy would be a Yankee a few years ago, I thought that would have been cool. But last year he was a no-cost pickup. Fun player, not very effective. He has since been released by the Yanks, but I'll always have this card from Johnny.

Speaking of firsts, Johnny also sent me my first non-on-demand Joey Gallo card. I like Gallo. He struggled quite a bit, but he's a cool player. Awesome power, good OFer. I think people get tired with the true three outcome-ness of his game, but I think he'll have a good second season in NY.

Johnny also sent a few more Topps Holiday cards, which is welcome because I didn't open any of these and they are always one of my favorite releases of the year.

Thanks for the PWE, Johnny. I keep saying it, but I owe you some Braves and will send them soon.

As for the rest of ya, Merry Christmas!

PWEs keep me going

One thing I really look forward to during my quarantine days of working from home is going to the mailbox each day.

I have set up shop in my dining room as my work from home space. As anyone who has stepped foot in a center hall colonial knows, the dining room usually sits at the front of the house, either on the left or right side once one walks into the main entry way. In mine, the dining room is to the left.

The mailbox on the outside of the house, to the left of the front door, remains from the previous owner. It is heavy, brass mailbox. The clank when the lid is lifted then shut is very loud. It always makes the dog bark. And usually, even if I'm on a Zoom call (all day), I can hear the clank and know something might be waiting for me there.

Whether it's a PWE from TCDB (still alive and kickin'!) or cards from another blogger, I usually get a little something each day.

For instance, Phungo and I made a quick swap on Twitter. I couldn't find. copy of Gleyber's Topps Update RC (even though I swear I had it), and he offered it to me. I sent him a Topps Legend variation of Mike Schmidt. Nice, easy trade.

He also included some homemade cards from photos he took at games!

Johnny also sent me recent winnings from one of his Big Fun Games. I ended with some vintage, which is never a bad prize.

I struck up a quick trade with Bru for these two Donruss cards. I sent him an ugly Altuve card.

The Luis Torrens Fan Club got in on the action and sent a fun PWE. A sweet Judge insert, a low-numbered Frazier, and a Sevy RC? Yes please. Plus a very random collection of basketball cards!

Thanks for all the fruitful trips to the mailbox and giving me something fun to look forward to each day!

Getting the boot

John of Johnny's Trading Spot had been running some weekly white elephant Big Fun Games. I was set to participate in one two Fridays ago.

I wasn't paying attention on Friday night, and I lost my window to pick. I missed by 10 minutes. Harsh, but John needed to keep the game moving. And as keeper of the game, his rules need to be adhered to.

So while I missed out, John still sent me a PWE. I'm not sure if this was a participation trophy, or if this was an unclaimed prize.

A couple cards for HOF binder in Winfield, Piazza, and Bagwell. Not bad at all! I always liked Pacific Private Stock.

Thanks, John. Sorry I missed my turn!

A nice PWE from Georgia

Last week, a nice PWE showed up from Georgia courtesy  of John over at Johnny's Trading Spot.

One of the highlights was this Luis Torrens diecut. While something like this should be in ZZ's collection, I do need to hang onto it so I can take down Gavin on TCDB.

My next favorite cards were these Inaugural Season Yankees Stadium cards. I had never seen them! What perfect looking Yankees cards with he Pinstripes in the design.

Johnny also hit me with a couple Hometown Heroes of Tino!

Lastly, a couple of 1989 Baseball America cards. This is a sneaky fun design, the more you look at it.

Thanks for thinking of me, Johnny!

Johnny delivers a contest prize

A week or two ago, there was a pretty quick contest over at Johnny's Trading Spot. First 10 comments won a prize. I was number 8. Easy enough!

My prize came quickly, as Johnny never takes long to send anything out.

The grand prize was this Hall of Fame Heroes stand set. I left the shrink wrap on for now, although I do feel like I have to open it and enjoy. I'm not saving it for anything! Still, sometimes I have a hard time with whether or not to crack something open.

John also threw in a team bag full of goodies, including a ton of Yankees minor league cards that should be fun for TTMing.

Thanks, John!

Three I needed? I'll take it

As anyone who has a large player collection knows, it's hard to get a big lot of cards and find ones you've needed. I've bought large lots on eBay just hoping for one or two I needed.

Other bloggers are always well-intentioned and include cards of one's favorite player in trade packages, although in most instances it ends up being a dupe. I just sent PK Steinberg about 1,000 Kruks, and I'm sure he had them all.

Earlier this week, John of Johnny's Trading Spot sent me two team bags of Tino Martinez cards.  I certainly appreciated the package, and John included a note hoping that I might find a few I needed, knowing most would likely be dupes.

Well, I found three! I'd call that a success.

They were all from 2003 while Tino was with the Cardinals. Admittedly my Tino collection is a bit light from 2002-2004 while he was a Cardinal and Ray. I just haven't been too diligent with those years, but always willing to add them to my collection.

John, thanks for thinking of me, and for adding three new Tinos to my collection!

BFG winnings from June

Back in June, Johnny was kind enough to host another Big Fun Game. I selected a door, my prize was revealed, and no one took it. I came away with 75 cards of start players from the past 20 years or so!

It was a really fun lot to go through, and I came away with some nice Yankee cards of Jeter, Mo, and Clemens.

While many of the players aren't guys I collect, they will find a nice place in my son's HOF binder. I'm always down for that!

I enjoyed finding a low-numbered Ichiro!

And a cool oddball Clemens.

And I'll never turn away a Fleer Metal card of a HOFer.

Johnny, this was a really fun group of cards. Thank you!

Christmas in May and posting in June

I was also on the receiving end of Johnny's Trading Spot's generous Christmas in May offerings. With Johnny currently running a Big Fun Game, I felt like I should try and post from the great package he sent me before more cards from him show up on my doorstep.

I forgot to get a picture of it, but I enjoy how John wraps his card packages in newsprint.

I'll start with two Tino Martinez cards. I needed both of these. The Topps 2000 is an HTA version...Home Team Advantage, which I guess was exclusive to Hobby. The Upper Deck Amazing Greats is an awesome clearcut. I thought I had it, but I only had the more rare silver diecut version, so this was a very welcome surprise. Plus I love clearcuts.

And these two equal Tino cards #849 and 850! Nice, round number.

I don't even know where to start with the rest of the cards, so I'll show an adorable Pacific Card-supials Alfonso Soriano.

Zippy Zappy showed some of the minor leaguers John sent, so here's the lot included in my package.

Bernie Williams is pretty underrated in the hobby, but he had a LOT of cards in the late 90s and early 00s. John sent no shortage of Bernie cards, many of them very bright and shiny.

The Crown Royale proof card was interesting. It's paper thin!

I had never seen this card from Fleer - a Grassroots insert. The lemon-line green and yellow look awesome in person. Great color combo.

This card stuck out to me as interesting. First, I love that "Flash" Gordon was used. Then Topps photoshopped him into his new Phillies uniform, but then didn't change the team name from Yankees. Oops!

Here is a great minor league Righetti at its finest. Remarkable card!

And a few other fun cards.

John, thanks so very much!