DefGav Grabs the Late Night Bonus Prize

Aloha, everybody, 

Maybe I should say aloha, everybody on the west coast. As the prize goes to my friend in Oregon. Maybe my friends on the east coast were sleeping. 

Anyways, Gavin was the first to comment, so wins the prize...

Mint condition Big Unit Starting Lineup. Hope you like it, Gav! 

I'm off to the Dodgers game tomorrow afternoon, which means an early start in the morning. I probably won't update our game until late afternoon. 

Aloha and good night Best Coast. 

Cards Come in the Strangest Ways - Part 2

Aloha, everybody,

A few weeks ago I found a few cello packs of cards sitting atop my laptop, waiting for me to discover what was inside. 

They came as a surprise gift from the roommate. They were of a type I had never seen before, and were obviously of the repack strain. 

The fun that ordinarily comes from ripping packs slowly abated as each pack contained junkier junk wax and scrubbier scrubs than the last. After saying thanks, I let him know he'd be better off keeping his money rather than buying that brand of repacks. 

A few days ago a new brand of repacks were waiting for me atop my laptop. 

 That's right - Three packs of Ultimate Super Jumbo Pack - Baseball Edition!

I gotta say, USJP actually had a few humble surprises inside. No big time autos, no serial-numbers, but a little fun in every pack. 

There were a few cards from football, basketball and hockey. I've got no idea if Jose Theodore is any good as as far as goalies go, but he's got a boss Upper Deck card here...

Andre Reed's card features a great photograph here...
 

 But I'm not interested in cards from those sports. Cut to baseball...

 I love these early junk cards because they give us the funky hair and not cool mustaches, and the vintage uniform variations. Preston Hanna here is proof that the 'Lanta Braves invented the trucker cap. 

How about these old-timey Padre unis...

 

I can't ever think of Keith Hernandez without also thinking of his appearance on Seinfeld...
 

 One nice thing about these packs is they spanned a fair amount of years and brands, and they occasionally coughed up a player you and I have heard of.

Sure it's 1991 Upper Deck and who cares about that? 
But it's the Big Unit hurlin' one at you, in magnificent Mariners blue... 

Finally today, one of the best cards to come out of the packs. 

Billy Martin, manager of the New York Yankees...

How about that photo. Whatever is going on behind those eyes is not the game before them. 

No, Billy is thinking about the impending firing from Steinbrennar that he can literally feel upon his back, or he's wondering which bar he left his wallet in the night before. 

Either way, that Martin card is a gem. 

More on the repack junk coming soon in Part Three - The Final Repack

Aloha!



 

Jaybarkerfan Draft Loot (slash) Trade Bait

Hey everybody,

Here comes some new trade bait for all of you, courtesy of a great draft that was held over at the great  Jaybarlerfan's Junk.  Wes generously held a draft that was free, and offered some fantastic pakages and small groups of cards.

When he first announced his draft I thought it would be fairly simple to get in since there were plenty of spots and all we had to do was post a comment and then get picked up by the randomizer.  It didn't take too many missed rounds for me to realize every blogger around me was getting into the draft, but I was still on the outside. 

The entry selection process started to dwindle to the last 5 spaces and I started to feel like I might not make it.  Quick enough there were only 3 slots remaining, then 2, and then only one - and I STILL wasn't in!  As Vinny says, I was down to my last strike, and then the draft gods smiled upon me.  BANG!  I nailed the last slot and I was in.  Wahoo! 

Wes ran a fun and easy draft, and my prizes arrived just the other day.  I won the "Moonshots" package.  Presenting the loot...


Let's lead off with former Dodger backstop Paul Lo Duca.  Why is he trade bait?  I only want my Dodgers with Dodger gear, thank you.  That said, the awesome action photo really makes it a great card for a Lo Duca or Marlin collector.

Speaking of players whom I don't normally collect, but are featured on great looking cardboard, we get the Big Unit on a very handsome card - Numbered 411/799

How about this sweet card?  If nobody wants to trade I will be perfectly happy to keep this All-Star game - HOME RUN DERBY WORN relic in my collection.  This card is bad-ass...

Speaking of bad-ass, the  final card is the one Wes named the group of cards after.  It's a Shawn Green relic.  Yes, its got a generic scoreboard in the graphi, but I really dig this design.  The photo works great and the swatch blends in seamlessly with everything else.  

That's all for today folks.  Thanks for reading. 

Trade Me (Almost) Anything: Arizona Diamondbacks Edition

Hey everybody,

My first ever Trade Me Anything post has produced my first ever trade with Bert over at Swing And A Pop Up  .   Cool, right?   I say that's downright fantastic!

This all plays into a couple of the themes I read about on my travels through our blog community today.  Our buddy Night Owl wrote about "The ever expanding circle"   of trades and traders out there thanks to the blogosphere.  That post was spot on and matched  my newly expanded circle, thanks to Bert.

In another post on yet another blog, Nick, the prolific writer over at Dime Boxes , encouraged readers on the fence out there to create new blogs, while contemplating the personal reasons behind his own.  Nick, you declared you're not a "mainstream" collector.  Heck, whom among us is?  And that ever expanding variety of collectors, blogs and cards, my friends, is what makes our hobby so great. 

As my loyal readers know, I started this blog with the sole intent of generating trades and working on my collection.  Sure, I stretch my blogger wings a bit and occasionally post about the state of  my team, or on the state of the hobby, but trading is what I really love about blogging.  And that's been working out marvelously, thanks to all of you out there.

Continuing with tradition, here's the latest batch of cards for your trade approval.  It's the current opponents out here in Dodger Stadium, the Arizona Diamondbacks!

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Here's how it works:  In each post I'll offer cards from one particular ballclub.  I'm starting the offer at 9 cards, since 9 is what fits onto my scanner plate, and I can comfortably shoot 9 cards to you in a PWE. 

What do I want in return?  I'll accept whatever and however many cards you want to shoot back. It doesn't have to be 9 cards in return and they don't have to be all Dodgers.  My only request is you check out my "What I collect" or "Sets I'm chasing" pages here and use them as guides.

Once again, you don't have to match me for numbers of cards or perceived monetary value.  Say I send you 9 cards and you send me 1insert or vintage card.  Cool!

The intent here is simply to  TRADE, BABY, TRADE!
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THANKS for reading, everybody!