Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Zippy Claus Zapped Me

Aloha, everybody, 

Christmas is just around the corner, so I'll take this opportunity to wish all of my fellow collectors, traders and readers a very Merry Christmas. I may post again before the big day, but who knows who will be reading then, so I'll take advantage and send these holiday greetings to you all right now. 

I've talked about it too many times, but WTH, it's the holidays, so I'll bring it up one more time. The reason I launched this humble little blog was to connect with like-minded folks across the country, but I had no idea just how wonderful it would be to meet you all through our community. 

One of the best guys that I met in the blogosphere (and with a friendship that has expanded to the Twittersphere) is Zippy Zappy, from Torren Up Cards. ZZ has earned a reputation of creative generosity through his legendary Zippy Zappings (trademarked yet?), and the joy of Christmas brought one to me. 



See that? It was in a plain brown wrapper, but the fact it was from ZZ meant there was nothing plain inside. I began oh-so-carefully snipping at the outer wrapping like I was trying to defuse a nuke. 

Hmmm...bubble wrapped goodies of various shapes and sizes. You can't see it in this photo, but through the plastic wrapping I thought I saw....


"THE ROLLING STONES".....what? No way. 

More careful snipping revealed the stash! 



Whoa! 



Sure, cards are nice...but as anyone who has known me for more than five minutes knows, I'm a big Rolling Stones fan, and ZZ just dropped a 3-cd anthology of Stones musical goodness on me! 

Bonus: The CD booklet with photos and liner notes. This is really important to me. Most people buy digital music these days, and like them, I recently bought the latest Stones release in digital form. The drawback is...no booklet, no liner notes, nothing to read - and hold - while listening. This time I got one! THANKS, ZZ!

I know, this is a card blog, you didn't come here to read about the Glimmer Twins, you want to know about cardboard singles. Let's check out what else was in that bubble wrap...



Leading off is the NL's shiny new ROY, Corey Seager, on a shiny, shimmery card. Beautiful. 

Here's some more Seager goodness, this time he's sporting number 12, 



ZZ specializes in prospects and rookies, so natch he sent a few more of those to me. 

Here's Rob Segedin, former Yanks prospect, now a Dodger. In his first game, Segedin had a franchise rookie debut record, 4 RBIs...



Another Dodger who just joined the big club in 2016...



 Really nice to get some Urias pre-Dodgers cardboard in my collection. Here he is with Oklahoma City...


For those of you who noticed Julio's left eye and don't know the story, his near-closed eye is a result of a birth defect. He's had one surgery to correct it, and I believe there is another one to come. Good luck, Julio! 

Richy here was sent to the Phillies as part of the Chase Utley trade...

This blue Richy is numbered 166/199...



I didn't mind Richy being traded so much as I hated to see first-round draft pick, Grant Holmes get sent to Oakland. The Dodgers got Rich Hill, whom they just signed to a three-year deal (might be worth it), and Josh Reddick, who was a bum as a Dodger, and somehow duped the Astros into wasting millions on him for 2017. 


Alex Verdugo is still with the Dodgers. Look for him to play beside fellow Dodger Adrian Gonzalez for Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic. 



ZZ keeps close connections with Japan, which allows him to get cool stuff from overseas. Like these cards from my favorite Japanese team, the Hanshin Tigers...



My scanner does no justice to this beautiful card of Atsunori Ito. The card is from close to the end of Ito's career. He's now a coach with the Tigers. 

Here's a Tigers team card...



I love the team displayed in one riot of bats ready to take on all comers. If only they played as well as they look on cardboard. 2016 wasn't a good year for the Tigers. The Colonel will stay dry until 2017. 

And then there was this...



A custom job commemorating the patron saint of ZZ's blog. 



Am I the only guy in the blogosphere who doesn't make customs? 

Oh, almost forgotten was this little guy...



NOW I've been Zippy Zapped.  Thanks for everything, ZZ. Whew!

Aloha! 

4 comments:

  1. Glad you got a kick out of the package. I originally wanted to just buy the Stones albums I wanted digitally but I opted for a remastered anthology version instead. I got it at Barnes & Noble and still play the files to this day. I thought it'd be perfect for a Stones fan ;).

    And just know that your Tigers will never be as bad as my Dragons in the NPB ;).

    Also, when I looked at the scan of my custom, I realized I need to add that he's now with the Padres *tear*.

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  2. I've been really enjoying the remasters. Was listening in the car today. Driving in a light rain and the Stones as my soundtrack. Loved it!
    Hmm...I'm glad I got one of the last customs with him as a Yankee

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  3. That is fantastic stuff from Zippy. Such a thoughtful gift.

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  4. Zippy's Zappings never disappoint!

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