It's a Christmas Miracle!

This wrapping paper is simply... Marvelous.

Me. Me posting to the blog is the Christmas miracle. Sorry I've been away so long. It uh... It has been a year. But in catching with the Card Blogger Secret Santa at the last minute, I vowed to our fearless leader Jon that I would at least get my haul on the blog. I had hoped to do more, since I also had a 300 card (precisely 258 of which were for myself) monster COMC haul featuring 30 sketch cards and tons & tons of non-sport & multi-sport items. But of course, I screwed that up pretty quickly. Oh well, maybe next year. January will be another massive shipment that will be mostly major sports cards, so I will need to at least get December's scanned & filed away, even if I don't do anymore bloggin'.

The tin will get lots of non-trading card use..

But anyway! The Secret Santa haul! I only had the time & (not even really the) energy for photos for this post, unfortunately. Getting the post up was the most important thing though, so... Here goes!

Mainly for haulin' art supplies places..

My goodness, Collecting Cutch did such an amazing job with this in every way. The presentation was magnificent, and not cheap. I don't have the box handy, but I believe shipping was something like $8? Then there was the appropriately treasure chest shaped Christmas tin they came in, wrapped in that delightful Marvel Comics wrapping paper at the top of the post. Inside the tin, the cards themselves were even wrapped in small lots. I wish I'd had the money & energy to put that kind of care into mine, tbh. It *felt* like a Christmas gift. So cool!

Now for some cards!

All I could muster was what looked like a pretty typical trade package. I did repurpose a bit of the wrapping paper to partially cover the lot and wrote a lil note of holiday wishes, but it badly pales in comparison. Bryan went all out, and I am so not worthy of that level of effort.

More base Cubs..

As for the package itself, as you can see, there were a handful of random Cubbies. I think I had everything but the Heritage in these first couple pics, but these were mostly filler anyway.

Buntybois..

I think the Bunt cards may be entirely new to me though. I only ever bought a pack or two, and I believe my only Cub was a blue Lester parallel. Anyway, the design is really nice. Floaty ball pics are also cool.

More Buntybois & Schwarbers..

The black & White Schwarber may well go straight to his binder page & stay there. It just looks good. Hendricks could also make it in as temporary filler, at least. I like my single pages to be blingier, but I still don't have much in the way of fancier (#'ed, hits, tougher inserts, etc) stuff of The Professor yet.

Bryzzo..

Finishing the Cub run with a nice blue Walmart blaster parallel of Rizz & one last Bunt of KB. Good stuff. Happy to see there was plenty of useful filler in there. But now onto the meat of the package.

McCutchen!

Before we move on from the baseball, a little McCutchen-y goodness from the supercollector himself. The tree is an on-card painting! And given how thematically on-point everything else in this package was, the thought balloon being on the penny sleeve functions as a nice subtle homage to our host Jon as well. 😁

Brad Utterstrom Prints!

Apologies for the terrible pics on these rad Brad Utterstrom promos & prints. I didn't realize how badly they came out until I transferred them from my phone to the computer.

More promo/prints..

Adequately capturing the sheer quality would've been nigh impossible anyway, I guess. These things belong in a museum. I am making the these two cards available to whoever wants them, however. I like to spread the love around when I feel I've been treated far too kindly anyway, but also, zombie stuff just ain't my thing. And the Wampa should probably be in the hands of a more serious Star Wars fan than myself as well. So go ahead & claim them in the comments & email me your address and I'll send it your way PWE style sometime early next year. One per person. First come, first served.

Last of the prints..

I was initially confizzled as to whether or not this incredible Mickey Mantle and the landscape above were prints or real because this one felt like it had actually been drawn on, but Bryan confirmed they were prints over on the Twitters. It was mainly just so I knew which binder to put them in, because they are rad as heck regardless.

WWE Superstar "The Outlaw" Jane Russell..

Moving away from the art prints but still keepin' it artsy with some Breygent movie posters. They are kinda glittery! I dunno if these are parallels or just base cards or what, since I've never had anything but sketch cards from this run of sets. They're pretty cool though!

That growth on the side of his head ain't messin' around..

And one more for good measure. The hand growing out of ol' Stagger Lee's face is packin' heat! And now you'll never be able see or think about him without the vision of his massive gun-totin' face boil haunting the very depths of your soul ever again! Christmas!

Front..

Back.. 

Heading down the stretch with this AWESOME Carddass (really?) Street Fighter card of underrated G1 (or would it be Gen 2?) combatant Edmond Honda! Gotta find one of these of my girl Chun-Li now.

Thank you so much for sticking with me this long. Now comes the reward for your patience. It's hit time!

Careful Ems, there's a snake in that sand trap!

Outside the top tier names, Goodwin Champions are always pretty cheap hits, so Emily making is an easy choice for a smol budget Secret Santa event like this, but from what I can find, a Jessica Henwick auto would probably more than break the $10 limit all on her own! Aside from her role on GoT, she can also be found in the Star Wars & MCU franchises in somewhat similarly situated roles as pilot Jess "Testor" Pava and Colleen Wing, long saving grace of the lamentable Iron Fist series on Netflix.

If you didn't see why I felt extremely spoiled & felt the need to spread the love around, well...  We haven't even gotten to the sketch cards yet!

Multiple Man by Dave Strong..

First up, one of my fave underutilized X-Men dudes from the early serieseseses of Upper Deck's revival of the ol' Fleer/Skybox Marvel Masterpieces line. This is dated 2008 on the back, which makes this series two or three, I believe. So yeah, it's from a time long before the brand name went high end in the mid-2010s. This is also cool because I'm a huge sucker for multi-character sketches, even when they're just of the same one three times, lol (my favorite amongst my suddenly expansive Wasp sketch card collection is also like that).

Witchblade by Jon Racimo..

And Bobby Lastly but not Bobby Leastly (shoutout to the dude Tom Campbell), we have a Witchblade sketch card. Racimo is on the lower end, and I do have a couple by him from this set already from the massive 57 card lot I picked up a few years back. But I like this one way better than the ones I already had, so this will be the one that gets the binder spot!

That's it! What a haul. Thank you again, Cutchmaster B. You are a legend. I don't know when exactly it will be, but a thank you sketch of your dude has been dialed up in my art queue. May the force

Thanks everyone for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful holiday & rest of the year, and a pleasant 2020. Live long & prosper/May The Force be with you/May the odds be ever in your favor/etc/so forth.

Until our next...

The Trading Post: Breakdown Cards

It took a long time, but I finally managed to get a few long overdue trade packages out this month.  Gavin was the first one to hit me back with something and here (almost all of) it is!

2017 Diamond Kings Artist Proof #'ed 85/99.. 

Starting off with one of the cards I knew was coming.  I love Panini's current run of Diamond Kings, but aside from a couple blue frames from 2015 and three discount blasters worth of 2016 (where I scored that sick Corey Seager auto/patch /10 from my All-Autograph Team post), I don't have very much of it.  Money has only gotten tighter since those discount blasters, and they were hard to justify even then.  So it's nice to get a little taste like this once in awhile.

2005 Absolute Memorabilia Absolute Heroes #'ed 205/250..

These first two cards nicely highlight what I said about keeping my Fergie Jenkins collection in the Pick Five Blog Bat Around post the other day.  While the career run collection can feel like a futile, endless grind, he has tons of fun modern stuff to collect that keeps it interesting.  Though his post-career stuff is probably at least 95% Cubs & Rangers (Donruss absolutely loved him in a Rangers uni), playing for four different teams in his career helps vary it up just that much more.

2017-18 Panini Status D-Rose "Red" #'ed 190/299..

The checklist over on Cardboard Connection says this is a red parallel, but it looks way more pink or magenta to me.  But anyway, I love Status & still needed a couple more cards to complete my Rose page, so this a great addition.  I don't remember if I claimed at some point or not, but it's a really nice addition.  Seen approximately a pretty good number of people say this reminded them of early Skybox and I am 100% on board with that assessment.  These are on foilboard and all have the same background design, but the computer generated graphics on a stark white void (when the bottom half isn't mostly colored in reddish-pink) does feel noticeably nostalgic to me.

2008-09 Topps Tip-off Gold #'ed 66/99..

This is another one I'm unsure how I ended up with, but it's a worthy inclusion on the Laker page if I ever decide to go through with my idea of making binders of team pages out as a way to organize the nicer random baseball, basketball, & football cards I'm not too attached too but can't seem to and/or don't really want to get rid of.

Kris Bryant sketch card!

Of course I can't let a single post go by without sneaking a sketch card in there.  But seriously though, getting back to the baseball with this sweet Gavin original of Kris Bryant!

Prizm Draft Schwarber..

I think I have at least a couple of these already, but extra early Schwarbers are never a bad thing to have.

2006 Topps Rookie of the Week..

I have no recollection of this program at all, how hard they were to come by, or who the rest of the checklist consists of (this is card 24 of 25), but Ryno on the '83 Topps design is all I really need.

2011 BowChro Trey McNutt Prospect Auto..

I've never been much for prospecting, but even in the most meh designs with the most forgotten failed prospects, Bowman Chrome autos are always nice & clean.  McNutt topped out at AA and is currently trying to keep his career alive on the indies.

2015 BowChro Prospect Purple Refractor #'ed 225/250..

Here's a nice purple refractor. I'm not sure yet, because it's mighty tempting to keep it for myself, but I might add it to my mom's pink & purple parallel binder whenever I'm next over there.  Sands was a fairly high draft pick in 2014 and started strong, but injuries, ineffectiveness, and an influx of newer, much readier draftees lead him to being released this spring.  As far as I can tell, nobody has picked him up since.  He's only 23 though, so the clock on his career hasn't ticked down nearly as far as some of the other names in this post.

2015 BowChro Bruno Prospect Refractor Auto #'ed 199/499..

Another nice Cubs prospect auto, this one a numbered refractor version.  Bruno is closing in on 28 and seems to be struggling mightily at AAA this season, so unless he comes on strong and can catch on elsewhere, he might be independent league bound as well.

2014 BowPlat Green #'ed 128/399..

This might be another dupe, but I'm not sure.  This is from the last Platinum set before the brand went on a short hiatus, returning a couple years later as an only slightly retooled Walmart exclusive.  Alcantara made the show with the Cubs but couldn't hit enough to stick on a team that was suddenly about to start contending.

2009 BowChro Prospect X-Fractor #'ed 179/250..

I'm typically not a fan of X-Fractors, but this version from 2009 is legitimately amazing.  I wouldn't be nearly as dismissive if they all looked more like this one.  Despite putting up generally respectable numbers, Rosa has bounced around the minors, independent, and international leagues for over a decade without ever being all that close to making the show.

Inception Magenta #'ed 80/99

I've owned maybe a half-dozen (counting football) Inception cards ever because it's typically a higher end prospect product with barely any cards per box and is frequently quite hideous to boot.  But the 2017 version looks decent, at least in magenta parallel form, and I'm happy to add any new #'ed Javy regardless, especially now that he's starting to fully realize his potential.

2005 Benchwarmer AJ Almasi/Laura Davis dual auto..

Finally, closing it out with some pretty ladies in very little clothing.  This sweet dual auto is arguably the centerpiece of the package, and I am excited to finally have it my possession.  And remember what I always say about Benchwarmer cards...

Backside..

Always scan the backs, because they are the gift that keeps on giving!

Haha, anyway, thank you Gavin!  As of my June shipments, I finally have all the trade bait I picked up for you & others last year on COMC in-hand (so many Christmas cards!), so I expect we'll be trading again soon.  Hopefully it won't take me 18 months to get send stuff your way this time.

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next...

Prize Winnins!

I won a cool thing on Twitter early last week.  It was a blaster (minus one Yadi insert) of 2018 Topps Series 1 that was apparently an unclaimed prize in one of Kerry's annual pick 'em contests on his venerable blog.  To win, you just had to guess the player on the bonus manufactured relic, and I did the thing!

Players Weekend Manupatch!

This is the closest thing to a Kris Bryant hit I own.  I still don't even have any #'ed cards of him yet.  I find it funny that they felt the need to note on the front that it's not a player worn item when it's clearly not even made of fabric.  I can't tell for sure if it's metal or plastic, but commemorative pin or medallion feels like a more accurate description for it.  It sorta reminds me of the couple Pokemon pins that were in various boxes when I went on a lil Pokemon card kick last summer.

Anyway, here's a look at some of the other stuff the blaster had to offer.

Spot the difference..

They look virtually identical, but the card on the right is (allegedly) a gold parallel #'ed 46/50.  The grayer background bits of the boxes or bricks or whatever the hell they're supposed to be are ever-so-slightly darker, though they more resemble bronze than gold to me.  It's so absurdly subtle that it's ultimately pretty pointless and lame. Like I said, I genuinely couldn't even tell the difference until @JunkWaxTwins pointed it out to me on the twerting machine.

It's true, I swear!

So yeah, it doesn't look like much, but it is what it is.  Certainly a lower numbered card than you'd normally pull out of a blaster of almost anything, so I guess it could be worse.  I offered it up to Julie on Twitter but never heard back, so call ya shot if you want it.

More Opening Day inserts..

There were a whole mess of Opening Day inserts.  Seven total, I believe (Khris Davis & Eric Thames not appearing today, but Thames already has a home in mind if I don't choose to keep it).  And I literally just noticed as I'm putting this post together that the above Machado is a blue parallel.  It's less subtle than the gold, but I completely missed it.  The blue insert parallels are not numbered and, according to the internet, fall 1:12 packs.  There were three, from three different sets, in the blaster.

All Rise..

Judge and Bellinger both showed up in the blaster as well, both with an insert and a base card...

No cool nickname that I know of..

...but Bellinger got the shaft on the insert front.  These things are atrociously stupid & hideous looking.

The base..

The relative symmetry in their base cards is pleasing to the eye, though they'd be a few pages apart in a bindered up set, being cards #1 & 42.  Still though, useful for blogging purposes.

Enough with the Jeter retrospectives already, Sooz!

Back to the inserts.  Here's another blue parallel from the obscenely pointless Jeter Highlights insert set.  It looks a little nicer than the base at least.  There were four of these, counting the parallel.

Finally, a nice looking insert set!

The above Miguel Cabrera was the third blue parallel.  This is far & away the nicest looking insert that came from the blaster.  It's also where I'm told the one Yadi insert Kerry kept is from.  So counting that I believe there were also four of these as well (Chris Sale is the one not pictured here).  I'm not sure if I'll be keeping the KB or not.  I pulled one from my tiny handful of loose packs earlier in the year, but it seems like it might've been a blue parallel, which I didn't know existed until I had to look them up when this arrived.

Actually kinda like the look of this one..

And here are the rest.  Not much to say about any of this.  It's all available though.

The obligatory '83 throwbacks..

I'm still mad these have glossy backs.  I wanted to draw on the backs of them!

These are pretty nice..

It's a nice enough design.  Definitely a lot better than the Opening Day for multi-photo inserts.  Not a fan of the player at all though (Update as I re-up all my photos in late-August: He's now a Cub 🤣).

Salute your shorts..

This year's Salute inserts aren't great, but at least they look like something approaching an actual insert set instead of a rejected, below average base design this time.  They do, to my eye, bear a passing resemblance to the Award Winners above, however (and these look worse).

Future me: wrong again. He's been a disaster this year..

The final insert we have to talk about is this Home Run Challenge thing.  There's a good chance Sano will hit a few this year.  The trick is guessing when it'll happen.

Foil parallel

The only base parallel was this foil Lach... Zach Davies.  I like the design a lot more than anyone else that I know of, but yeah, that the damn waterslide partially covering the players' first names knocks it all the way down from a borderline all-timer to just average.

This year's most hyped rookie..

There were tons of RCs in this, and Rhys lead the way.  Other notable names to show up were Amed Rosario, Victor Robles, Max Fried, Austin Hays, Richard Urena, & Alex Verdugo.

Photography!

Here are my favorite photos from the base cards in the blaster.  Intensity and contemplation.

This card is ridiculous..

And we'll end it on this, my lone base keeper.  There were five base Cubs, but no one I'm very attached to.  So yeah, pretty much everything but the Bryants & Seattle Slayers are available.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next...