Friday the Zapteenth

A week or so ago, I got a nice bubble mailer – or a mini zapping – as he referred to it, from Zippy Zappy himself. While I don’t think it’s fair to classify it as a “mini” anything, I have been on the receiving end of his major zaps before, so I understand what he’s saying.

Still, it was a fun, generous package.

The highlight for me was this IP Domingo German autograph. I believe Zipster said he got this from an acquaintance who knows German, and he had two cards signed. He immediately said one was for me, which was so cool.

German has a lot of talent. He came to the Yankees from the Marlins in the Martin Prado/David Phelps for Nathan Eovaldi trade in 2014. After undergoing TJ Surgery in 2015, he made his big league debut last year and was called up to the Majors again last week. He had a nice outing in mop up duty of Sonny Gray last night, firing three innings of one-hit ball while striking out three.

 

Keeping it to autographs, we’ve got two: Mark Melancon and Nathan Mikolas. The Melcancon tricked me. It looks like a sticker but it’s not…it just has the outline there, I guess for the other stickers or so they all look the same, I don’t know. But the outline definitely make me believe it was a sticker autograph until I took the card out to scan it.

I just came across this great article that Mikolas is now acoach in the Marlins system. I hadn’t heard of him since the Yankees released him after the 2016 season, so cool to see he’s now on the other side helping to prepare young players.

Sweet relic of Chien-Ming Wang. I will never forget how running the bases ruined his career.

 

TTM fodder! I am definitely going to send these three cards out for a signature. I love the Bristro card from 2017 Choice. Also, Otto and Bristro have some very pun-able names, so I hope we get to see them with the Yankees one day.

And two cards of the Baby Bombers! While the Topps NOW inserts were a bit of an odd inclusion in 2018 Topps, it’s still a new Judge card. And Topps Fire was straight <fire emoji>, so that’s a great RC of the Yankees new villain Tyler Austin.

So sure, maybe it was “mini” compared to some previous zappings, but it still packed a big punch. Thanks, ZZ!

Cards from a Sox fan ahead of Yankees/Red Sox

With the Yankees and Red Sox facing one another tonight, it’s a good chance to show off some cards from one of the nicest Red Sox fans out there – Mr. Mark Hoyle. I’m not thrilled with the Yankees going into Fenway right now playing as poorly as they are, but they need to turn it around sometime. I don’t love the “it’s early” excuse. I think every game matters. When a team is fighting for a Playoff spot in September and is a game out, you better believe I’m looking back at losing two extra inning games at home to the Orioles in April.

Anyhow, maybe a road trip is what the doctor ordered to right the ship a little.

Back to the cards. Mark sent me a surprise package recently, and the highlight for me was definitely an unopened pack of Upper Deck cards from the 2006 National Convention. While tempting to leave them in the shrink wrap, that’s not how I roll, so I opened them:

Nice, three Yankees! I like the Jeter a lot. Scott Podsednik was an interesting inclusion. I figured each Chicago team had a card in the set because the National was in Chicago…but Google tells me it was in Anaheim. So I’m not really sure, other than those cards will go to those team collectors I trade with.

This was a cool item! A Mickey Mantle HOF postcard. I know I had this at one point of my life, but have no idea what happened to it. Glad to have it back!

Speaking of Mantle, a really nice Topps Chrome of “the next Mantle”, Ruben Rivera. Of course things didn’t pan out, but he really was featured on some nice cards as a prospect. I like the “new arrivals” logo on this card.

Mark also included these Clint Frazier promo cards. These totally count as a unique card in my small Frazier collection. Mark your calendars for June 13 when Series 2 comes out!

Mark, thanks for the kind package. Take it easy on the Yanks this week.

Taking a closer look

I feel like I've gotten a little jaded with my card collecting, especially when I get a new card in the mail. Notably, this is the case when I purchase a card on eBay. It doesn't apply as heavily with trade packages.

Often times, I open the envelope, make sure the card is in there, then stick the card away for filing. It takes about 5 seconds. That's not cool. Cards come in so frequently that I haven't been properly taking the time to enjoy them, from observing the photo, card design, and even pouring over the back.

I'm not sure when it got to the this point of being so lackadaisical with new cards, but I want to press the reset button and work harder to enjoy each new card that comes in.

I'll start with this one, a card I paid over a buck for on eBay because it's one I just hadn't seen before. From that, I can tell it doesn't pop up very frequently.  One is listed on COMC for $5.25 right now, so I gladly paid $.80 + $1.39 shipping to add a new Tino for just over $2.

This card is from 2001 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection, which was a small set with one autograph per year. Nowadays, base cards in those types of packs are thrown out, although I guess that could have been the case back then too seeing how rarely this card pops up.

On the whole, the card is nice, but not spectacular by any means. Decent, but not overly memorable design.

At first I liked the image. Good shot of Tino laughing. But then I noticed his blurry left hand, as he was obviously in movement. Historically, I don't think Upper Deck photography would usually allow for the blurry motion, even though it's not very apparent.

The back of the card is fine. Only three years worth of stats, but a nice write-up, including mentioning his World Series homer versus the D-Backs.

There you have it. No Earth-shattering analysis here, but still, I need to do a better job of looking at cards versus dismissing them so quickly.

Not a Pedestrian sized card

Yesterday I came home to a surprise PWE from just a few towns over from me. It was properly addressed, unlike the mysterious PWE from my previous post.

The return address was from Chris over at The Pedestrian Collector. We hadn't been working on a deal, so this was truly a random act of kindness.

The PWE contained one card...but a jumbo card. Literally.

While that might look like a normal card, it's actually a jumbo 3.5 x 5 card...so just a little bigger than an index card. Cool! This card is new to my collection, and is Tino #841 for me.

Collector's Choice was absolutely one of my favorite brands growing up, and it definitely takes me back each time I see that horizontal logo along the top of the card.

Thanks so much, Chris!

Did I get hate mail?

Last week, I won an auction for a Tino Martinez card that included free shipping. I was expecting a PWE, which is fine given free shipping plus what I paid.

When the envelope arrived today, it was one of the most bizarre pieces of mail I've ever received.

Take a look at this:

I mean, what?

Look at the stamp. Just floating out in the middle of envelope. My name wasn't on the envelope. It simply stated this person's address (with no city or state), then "to" and my address without my name either. (I obviously scribbled out the address, but you can still see the weirdness)

It's truly baffling. I expected to find a letter inside made from cut up magazine letters.

Now, the printing was horrible too. And I feel bad if I'm poking fun of someone who may be mentally challenged, but the eBay listing seemed coherent enough. It's truly baffling.

And if you're wondering, the card arrived safely.

So I guess all is well?

Where's Oswaldo?

Over the weekend, in came an unexpected TTM success. When I saw the envelope, I figured it was a final spring training TTM success. Surprisingly, it was not!

Yankees prospect Oswaldo Cabrera signed three of my cards, although sadly none of the cards I sent featured him. But still, I like these better than the generic-looking "signature cards." Funny enough, the logo sticker and hologram are both older than he is!

Interestingly, these were post-marked from Charleston, and sure enough, Cabrera is starting the season there, so looks like he and his teammates arrived safely. The Riverdogs once again look to have an exciting team, headlined by guys like Luis Cedeno, Nick Nelson, Glenn Otto, Anderson Severino, Wilkerman Garcia, and Steven Sensley.

Cabrera has the potential to be a very good prospect, although he’s still quite young. He’ll play all of this season at age 19. He did play in 89 games at the same level last year, but it’s not a surprise to see him return to A-ball given his age. He does move around between 2B, SS, and 3B, although I’d expect Garcia to get the lion’s share of time at SS.

Still, a very nice and unexpected success, and perhaps Gavin can turn one of these into a cool cut signature at some point down the road!