An old Habit returns to my mailbox

It had been awhile, but I completed a small blogger to blogger trade with Judson of My Cardboard Habit. Judson and I go pretty far back swapping cards. We made out first swap back in 2014, according to my blog posts. This was the first card he sent me back then, if my blog records are to be trusted:

My how times have changed!

Judson does more Tweeting than blogging these days, and recently had the stroke of luck of pulling some Yankee relics out of 2020 A&G. He thought it was misfortune. I disagreed. So we struck up a deal and these came my way:

James Paxton and the 'stache look hilarious!

Judson also threw in a few relics from A&G past. Tex = cool. Ellsbury = fool.

Always good to make a small swap here and there, Judson. If you want to find this cat on Twitter, he's @cardboardhabit.

TTM Success: Mark Teixeira

My TTM conquests over the last year have really slowed down. I don't have as much desire to send out the cards as I once did. Part of it is working long hours, and when I get home from the day, I don't feel like writing letters and addressing envelopes.

But I do send out a few here and there, and I've been going after a few big fish. One of those paid off handsomely.

I sent a request to former Yankees 1B Mark Teixeira, and was thrilled to open up an envelope this past weekend to find this:

I had never gotten Tex before, so this was a thrilling TTM success. Despite injuries late in his career, Teixeira really was a great Yankee. In NY, he was an All-Star twice, MVP runner up, 3-time Gold Glover, and obviously was a big part of the 2009 World Series team.

I can't say enough how incredible these Turkey Red cards look signed too. I'm not trying to build a collection of them, but I definitely go out of my way to send one when trying to capture an autograph. Here are a few others I've gotten:

Michael Phelps Autograph - Part 2

While Part 2 of this post won't feature any cards better than the Micael Phelps autograph, it's really all gravy from here on out. I mean, for $25 I got this:

And this:

Even if the remaining 1,000 or so cards were utter junk wax, I was still coming out well ahead.

Well, one of the first cards I came across was this:

Another Bryant RC. That makes two!

From there, there was a row of probably about 100 straight RCs. That makes me feel like this person knew even more what they were doing. They ranged from big stars to guys who you thought would be big stars, to some junk wax era RCs that are still great to have. Here's a sampling.

The Freeman and Baez are pretty good pulls alone, then you've got busy like Boegarts, Yelich, Didi, Votto, etc.

And while its not a RC, this card was a surprise.

There was actually a decent stack of Bowman Platinum, which shows this person was a fairly recent collector.

From there, I found a few more autographs that weren't pictured, as well as a couple of numbered cards. Still gravy.

I was surprised to find an old Pinnacle Epix! These were tough pulls, and I'm sure that the Belle would have fetched a few bucks back in the day. The condition of it was a bit rough, but cool to have!

Many cards were grouped by star player, as there were plenty of Bryants, Altuves, and around 30 Ichiros!

Yanks weren't overly plentiful, but still some decent ones, including some from 2018. Again, a recent collector!

And it was right after the James Paxton trade, so it was fun to find these included.

There were a few vintage cards, and nothing great, but again, any stack of vintage is gravy at this point.

Oh, and the shiny I mentioned from yesterday? These were in the form of a bunch of colorful 2014 Topps parallels. I was actually just a tad let down from these because when I peeked at them while still in NYC, they caught a weird light and looked orange. I thought I stumbled upon a rare Orange version!

I finished up the first box, which was the largest of the two, and then I started on the smaller box. The first 20 cards or so were junk wax, so I figured that's what I was in for from here on out. Then this card showed up:

Whoa! Followed by a massive run of Seaver cards, maybe 25-30 total, both vintage and modern.

Following the run of Seavers, was the run of game-used cards. THESE WERE NOT ADVERTISED. There were literally 30 right in a row, with guys like Ortiz, Teixeira, Sheffield, and Helton featured. Pretty cool!

Honestly, there were a lot more treasures not even pictured, but this is the best recap I can muster up.

Probably the best $25 I've spent on this hobby. And a feat I don't ever expect to replicate again.

His parents' basement is now clean

Matt over at Summer of '74 recently held his version of the Big Fun Game, although in this instance the "B" stood for "basement". You see, Matt cleaned out some of his old stuff from his parents' basement and created a very unique BFG.

My prize ended up being two Sports Shots collectors books by Scholastic. I actually expected them to be a standard sized book, but they are actually quite small. They are barely bigger than an actual card, as you see here.

Impressive that Griffey was featured after just two seasons!

Matt was kind enough to throw in a few Yankees, as well!

I didn't know Danny Willett had a First Pitch card in 2017. The Yankees usually don't have many guys featured in these sets, so I don't keep a close eye on the checklist.

There was also a very, very shinny Mark Teixeira Heritage refractor. Pretty card!

Thanks, Matt! Hope the basement cleanup was as fun for you as it was for us.

SuperTraders #13: 2x3 Heroes

I'm a few weeks behind on some #SuperTraders posts. I gotta catch up, or it's going to get too overwhelming!

My 13th package came from Jedi Jeff over at 2x3 Heroes. Jeff reps the White Sox in this here trading group, and sent me some sweet Yankees.

Among the goods was this Mark Teixeira relic. It's crazy to think his 8-year Yankee tenure is just about over.

Here are a bunch of black-bordered minis. One day I am going to actually place all my minis in a binder. One day. Probably not soon.

Even though Topps used this Jeter photo in flagship cards, the black and white in this looks really cool.

This is a classly looking Jeter. I love the white parallel.

Gold from the post-Cano spending spree.

I like Starlin Castro so far. He is a bit frustrating on offense, as many Cubs fans can attest to, but when he's playing well he's really good. On the flip side, I'm pretty shocked that Jacob Lindgren isn't a bigger part of the Yankees pen at this point in his career. Injuries.

What on earth? Never seen these in person. They are awesome!

Hard to tell from the scan, but this is a very foily Cano. Where did Bowman Heritage go? I assume they ran out of designs?

Speaking of Heritage, there were a bunch more. I love that Matt Lawton made it into a set.

Lastly, here are a few more new Jeters. This summer I am going to count my Jeters. I really think I might have 500, although it's probably less than that and I'm just over-exaggering. It might make for a fun contest post.

Jeff, this was a great package. I needed a TON of these. Thanks again!