I got Destroyed in a Pack War

HOLY SMOKES!!!!!

I've traded with Shawn over at Pack War once before and it was a good time.  Sometime later, I inquired about a couple new cards that he'd pulled and made available for trade.  It completely slipped my mind for awhile, but eventually I made it back to it (it probably had something to do with noticing my Seattle-based cardstuffs starting to get really out of hand, lol) and offered to dramatically widen the scope of the deal if he wanted.  Eventually it came to pass.  This is the scan heavy result.  You may wanna pack a lunch, or at least an energy bar.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG..

I've developed a habit of leading with the big bopper of any given post, but dude... Duuuude.  It will hard to ever top this one.  How about an OG T206?!  That is insane!  I could geek out about this forever, about how epic it is finding something like this in what is an almost entirely blind trade package, about how this package came in the same week as Melike and Cano, but there's a lot more to get to.  Still though... *several minutes of loud, obnoxious squeeing noises*

Sweetness + a cameo by the most overrated running back of all-time..

Alright... *muffled squeeing continues* Get it together me!  We've got a lot more cards to show.  Shawn hit me all over the wantlist, including places that don't get enough attention, like the Walter Paytons above, and the Matt Fortes below.

Lots of fancypants base and an insert..

Acetate '90s promo front...

...and back.

The reason my football don't get enough love anymore is that the sport itself just doesn't really do it for me anymore.  After discovering the Red Zone channel, I stopped being able to sit through the horrendous slog of a single game (I can still watch a full baseball game despite the existence of MLB Tonight though).  Then the Bears started sucking the past couple years, shockingly because of the defense.  There's been a lot of talent on the offensive side of the ball, and the offense has been truly dynamic at times, perhaps for the only time in franchise history.  But yeah, I like the new GM's moves this off-season, but my team still probably doesn't figure to seriously contend for awhile yet.  Strike two.  Strike three is that... it's just uncomfortable to watch, now that I know CTE is a thing and a decent amount of these guys are gonna have extremely serious health problems somewhere down the line because of their chosen profession.

More handegg..

The urge to keep up with things and continue collecting my favorites remains though.  There just won't be near as many new faces I'll be invested in enough to want to collect as time marches on.

Pennant die-cuts are always awesome though..

The above Forsett and Winston/Mariota dual insert are two of the three cards that originally stoked the fires of this trade.  The third you will see amongst the hits towards the end of the post.

A lil bit of everything..

Some basketball and MMA.  I'd like to get into both a little more, or back into, in basketball's case, but I haven't had a TV in awhile, can't afford the kind of financial commitment required for league-issued streaming services, and I've never been a big user of the shadier streaming sites out there, so I don't get to see near as much of anything as I'd like.  Oh well...

At last, back to the baseball!

Moving on, we've arrived at the meat of the post: Baseball.  The thinking man's sport.  Maddux was the thinking man's pitcher, who, for most of his career, thrived on command and control rather than overwhelmingly dominant stuff.  Jackie Robinson makes you think about history, about where we've come from, where we are now, and where we want to go.  Starlin just makes me think about what could have been.  He's still a competent, capable everyday player, but he looked like a legend in the making when he first arrived on the scene.

Rizzo, as the on-field leader of the most dynamic team in baseball, doesn't so much make me think as he does dream, of a day when I can stop saying "Wait 'til next year" and instead say "This is our year."  He makes me dream of World Series trophies and the way he carries himself reminds me of some of the greats to ever play this wonderful, heartbreaking game.

Minis!

Some nice additions to my (eventual) mini binders.  I'm almost certain I have the Kimballs, but I dunno where.  I might have traded them, so they are still useful to me.  Floating heads never go out of style, not even the faux vintage ones.

Young Nomah bling..

Young Vladdy bling..

On the non-Cub, full player collection front, we have a Topps Tek DramaTEK Performers insert and shiny base card each for should-be Hall of Famer Nomar Garciaparra and 1000% lock Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero.

Base versions of the above minis..

There is just something so serene about these two cards when they're sitting next to each other like this.

More past Cubs greats..

The Legendary Cuts are just spectacular looking.  And a Kerry Wood RC!  Always nice to check another key rookie off my list. :)

Fonsies..

Spring Fever Cubbies..

Closing out the Cubs portion of the post with a couple shiny Spring Fever cards from 2013.  Down the stretch we come with the rest of the hits from the package!

1972 Topps Gale Sayers..

Visit Chicago..

I actually already have this card, but I gotta say, there's a certain sense of wonder and/or giddy joy in having duplicates of vintage Hall of Famers.

2015 Topps Chrome Rookie Relics Purple Refractor #'ed 66/75

This right here is the third card that prompted the original trade talks, and it looks much nicer in person.  Don't they all though?

2001 Upper Deck Legends of New York Bat Card..

I could do without the audible shudder-inducing fuzzy BS on the Legends of NY base cards, but the bat cards are, as the kids used to say, hella tight.

2013 Topps UFC Finest Fighter Autographs..

I liked the Girl-Rilla right from the start, but even more as time went on, because that first fight remained the only halfway decent challenge Rousey got all the way up until Holly Holm finally out-gameplanned and outworked her and knocked her the eff out.

A little art by the good Corky hisself!

We've reached the end of this trade post, but we're going out in style, with a Teen Titans Go-esque Raven sketch card drawn by Shawn!

Fancy back too!

Thanks again to Shawn for this outstanding trade package!  I got blindsided by all my technology breaking on my all at once, and I've been struggling to dig my way out of an even worse financial state than usual while I pay off the new computer, but I will definitely start sending cards your way once September rolls 'round.

Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next...