Breaking Down Trades of Substance

Aloha, everybody, 

A couple of weeks ago the great custom card artist, Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown, ran a ruthless March Madness PWE tournament  in which my PWE of Padres was absolutely CRUSHED when it was put up against a Mark Hoyle PWE chock full o' vintage. It was a massacre. 

The PWE match up was all in fun, but it got me to thinking about the cards that I send out to folks. From time to time a trade will be very specific. For example, I just put together a swap of a Jim Thome Batting helmet card for a Pee Wee Reese swatch card. No surprises. Everything prearranged and set. 

Other times I'll drop a fistful of Mets or Angels or Cubs into a package and ship them off to someone who collects those teams; what we often refer to as a "blind trade". 

Both types of trades are fun, but I realized I'll have to take a bit more care in checking collectors want lists before I ship base cards out. Some collectors don't want every card from every player on the team. As I mentioned to Gavin in our conversation about this topic, "The next Jose Offerman card I get is going to be the thousandth one I don't want." 

Which leads me to the PWE that ol' Gav sent out to me, in which he led off with this gem...

The note is on the penny sleeve, so my new "O-for-man" card remained pristine. Nevertheless, I won't be submitting it for grading. It might have remained a joke between friends if that was all there was in the envelope, but Gav doesn't roll like that. In fact, there really were some cardboard gems awaiting in that PWE. 

Exhibit A. A card featuring one of my favorite all-time Dodger pitchers. The GREAT and underrated Ramon Martinez, known to most of you as Pedro's brother...

If only the Dodgers had listened to Ramon when he told them his younger brother was going to be even better than himself. *sigh*

How about this never-before-seen cardboard beauty...

 That one boasts baby-faced and moustachioed versions of the Penguin. 

Speaking of the captain...

You want more Brooklyn? I got yer Brooklyn right here...

Gavin's artfully crafted PWE spanned the Dodgers from the New York boroughs to tomorrow's heroes of Chavez Ravine...

Young Trayce just got the call up and his first ML hit when slug Franklin Gutierrez recently went on the 10-day DL. 

I'll close out the post with cards that feature the man being honored by MLB today, the patron saint of ATBATT....

The Dodgers will honor the great Jackie Robinson with the unveiling of their first stadium statue tonight, and yours truly will be there. 

I'm always happy to attend a ballgame, and extra juiced when it's Jackie Day, but I'm super thrilled to see the statue tonight, because it's featuring (as you read my prediction here first) the pose of  Jackie ....Stealing Home. 

Thanks for the great PWE Gavin! 

Aloha!