PWE prizes from bloggers

In my small corner of the hobby, not much beats a PWE from other bloggers.

I recently received two of them on the same day, which was surprising, as most PWEs nowadays are from the TCDB (a great place to trade if that's your sort of thing). While both appeared out of the blue, neither were necessarily 'just because.'

The first I opened was from Chris at The Collector. He held a PWE swap meet, where I sent him a random batch of basketball cards. In return, he sent me a Yankees themed PWE:

Very nice assortment. Older X-fractors still hold up. I also like the Goodwin Champions of Paul O'Neill and his big head. But my favorite card, not pictured above, was a cloth sticker from 2011 Lineage of A-Rod. Man, I really liked that set. If the cards had stats on the back it could have been an all-timer.

Thanks, Chris! Fun cards.

The other PWE was from Elliptical Man over at View From The Third Floor. I won his NFL Draft contest, and was awarded some auction points. He sent a note saying that he decided against an auction, so sent me a PWE of Yanks. No problem there!

Another really fun batch. A 1972 Topps Ron Blomberg?! Great card from a great set. That one takes the cake for me, although I liked the Gleyber inserts a lot too, as I'm still finishing that set.

Two excellent PWEs from two excellent bloggers. Thanks, guys!

PWE Heat from Zippy Zappy

An unexpected PWE is still one of my favorite parts of this corner of the hobby.

I get a lot of PWEs, but most are from TCDB so I know what's inside. However, getting one in that familiar light blue pen, usually from the Luis Torrens Fan Club, is always something to get excited about. 

I'm talking about a Zippy Zappy PWE.

He has since apologized for not sending me one of his bombs, which is usually a flat rate box of goodies. Candidly, I'm relieved. Those are always very generous, but then I 1. Have to organize them and 2. Feel in debt. When the sender prefers not to get bulk in return, it always makes for tricky retribution. 

In this PWE, there were two cards. But both are <fire emoji>.

The first is a 2011 Bowman Sterling Refractor of soon-to-be-All-Star Gary Sanchez. It's numbered 057/199. Man, this card  is from 2011?! Gary has been around a long time. When he made his mark in 2016, this card would have fetched some serious cash. Gary is no longer a hobby darling and hasn't been in years, but I'm still a big fan of him despite his frustrating play. Look at how young Gary is here. He's got a whole lifetime of hitting .230 and playing bad defense in front of him.

It's also one of the nicest Bowman Sterling designs ever.

The next card is super cool. A 2016 Diamond Kings Elements of Royalty Game Used Bat card of Hall of Famer Tony Lazzeri. Now that is cool! Solid design, and Lazzeri is a guy I don't have much of in my collection outside of a few Diamond Kings card. I had nothing like this though!

ZZ, thanks as always for thinking of me!

The Summer of PWEs

Holy moly. This summer is going fast.

For being stuck at home, the summer is sure finding a way to move quickly, as most summers do. I expected this one to drag, but here were are, mid-August.

Since it's really been the summer of PWEs, I thought I'd show off a few that have tricked in over the last few weeks.

Coach Tom sent a good one with a few different fun cards. The highlight for me was this Aaron Judge Syracuse Orange parallel from Big League.

A few other Big Leaguers. I love getting Gerrit Cole Yankee cards!

A couple Tinos! The diecut Retrospectives is a sweet design. I love the colors, too.

And as he tends to do, Tom sent me a few HOFers for my sons binder!

Thanks, Coach!

Kerry from Cards on Cards hit me up with a good PWE as well. I always like his, as they tend to be a mixture of Yankees and Knicks.

I wish the Knicks were in the Bubble since Kevin Knox cards would be worth like $50 a pop if he had a good game.

I like this CC from Big League, as well. Why didn't Topps give him a tribute card in flagship? That seems like an odd omission when a future HOFer hangs 'em up, right?

And finally a quick swap from Bru! I like the Defensive Wizards insert set as well. Players in outer space always goes over well with me.

I hope a lot of stuff from Covid time goes away, but I hope the PWE momentum continues to stay.

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!

The PWEs are alive and well

I don't come home to many bubble mailers of cards anymore. I've slowed down my trading a bunch - I just don't buy enough product anymore to create a few teams bags and send them away.

Plus my post office situation stinks. There's one by my work but that means I have to schlep a card package into NYC and then duck out during the day. On weekends, the post office in my town is open 9-12, and I can think of a lot better things to do with my Saturday morning.

So the packages I'm sending are few and far between, and in return, the ones I receive are few and far between. And that's ok!

But alive and well are PWEs, either via trade or random acts of kindness. And I've got one of each to show off.

The first is a Mark Hoyle special, sent earlier in the summer after he seemingly delivered every blogger some of those hard to find Utz Topps cards. The was the second Utz PWE he sent me!

I say it a lot, but holy crap is Gleyber Torres an incredible talent. He's a 22 year old middle infielder with 33 homers. He plays a very solid 2B/SS as well. He's cut down on his mental errors and, to my untrained eye, his base running gaffes. He's a star and I'm not sure how much better he can get, but I'm excited to find out.

The second PWE was from a Twitter follow named Tommy. We've exchanged a few cards before, as I usually send him a few Mets for his nephew. Out of the list of cards he send me to review for our swap, I chose the two above.

Thanks to you both for the excellent additions!

The rest of the PWEs from Japan

Yesterday, I showed the Tino Martinez 2003 Kanebo card(s) that Zippy Zappy zapped me from Japan. There were six other cards throughout the three envelopes as well.

These three are from from 2003 Topps Kanebo Japan Series 2, best I can tell. Interestingly, I don't see the Kanebo OR Topps logos on any of them, unless in Japanese, which is entirely possible. Topps is included in English in the legal language on the backs of the cards.

I like the looks of these cards in teal versus the blue in standard 2003 Topps. Actually, I'm not sure if I like the teal more, or if it's just because it's different than what I'm used to seeing. Probably the latter.

This 2009 O-Pee-Chee Derek Jeter has dotted lines along the edges and a blank white back, so I'm thinking it came on a box of cards of some sort, similar to the Topps Big League from this past year.

Now we've got two unique Japanes cards from 2016 BBM. This first of of Japanese lefty Hitoki Iwase. I have to be honest, I haven't heard of him, but I did notice he was born in 1974, which means he would have been 42 at the time of this card. He also had 402 career saves as of the time of this card. A little bit of googling shows he's the Japense Marino Rivera, as he's the NPB record holder in saves and appearances! Very cool!

Also, the Dragons logo makes me laugh every time I see it! That must be the least intimidating dragon ever. He should be friends with the mascot from my alma mater, Otto the Orange.

And finally, a Ceremonial First Pitch card Hinako Sano. Sano, no relation to Miguel, is an actress and model.

Pretty awesome couple of PWEs, ZZ. Thank you!

A simple swap

Sometimes, I tend to limit myself in trades because it feels like I have to exchange a quantity of cards, like a team bag, or a jersey/autograph hit card. However, trades can be just easy and enjoyable swapping a card or two in a PWE.

Bryan from Golden Rainbow Cards reached out recently with three cards from the Aaron Judge Topps Series 2 set. I didn't have any, so of course I was interested.

I was a able to counter with a Hank Aaron Longball Legends from 2018 Series 2, as well as an Ender Inciarte foil parallel from Series 1.

Quick, easy trade! Thanks, Bryan!

The surprise PWE is the best

One of the best parts of our community here is the surprise PWE. It shows up out-of-the-blue, unannounced, packed with a few cards someone else thought that you'd appreciate more than they would.

It's easy to get excited about a trade package or an eBay purchase coming in, but when the unannounced PWE shows up, I get even more excited and certainly more appreciative.

Earlier this past week, a perfect 9-card PWE arrived from Oscar over at All Trade Bait, All The Time. Oscar, as many do (including myself), filled up row from a binder page, with three cards per row. Love this format.

Gotta start with Aaron Judge, as he doesn't show up much in packages anymore. We'll call it 2.5 Judges because one is a team card. I'm very happy to add the Superstar Sensations insert, as that is one I missed when I opened Series One.

I also didn't find much 2018 Donruss, so I appreciate a new Gary Sanchez. Hope he's back from injury very soon.

A pair of lefties! One who starts games, one who finishes them.

I absolutely love this 2018 Heritage Rookie Stars featuring two of the Yanks best young players. Miguel Andujar has been very good in his rookie campaign, and Clint Frazier just needs a chance to play. He's too good for AAA, and I really hope he's not traded unless it's from a top of the line starting pitcher.

I'm always willing to take these Jeters off anyone's hands!

Lastly, a surprise autograph from former Yankees prospect Mitch Jones. He was drafted by the Yankees, but never made it with them despite showing massive power, including 39 HRs in AA in 2004. He latched on with the Dodgers and had an 8-game cameo in 2009, his only MLB action. He hit .308 but didn't homer. In all, he hit 254 minor league homers. Sad he never got one in the Bigs.

Oscar, thanks so much for a great PWE and making my day.

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!