Best Mail Week, Part One

Lately I had actually grown a little bit grumpy with my mailbox. I make myself a little excel list of cards I'm expecting, whether they're coming from trades, purchases, random emails, or wherever. But with taxes and school and everything being busy, my list of things to come has backed up immensely, and sat on Monday at eighteen expected packages that hadn't yet come. Some have been on the list for less than a week, but others have been on there for literally months - I just hate giving up on a package! But it can get disappointing when the number of packages I'm expecting just grows and grows without anything showing up.

However, this week so far has knocked three packages off the list! I got some contest winnings from Traded Sets, random cards from a reader named Michel, and an ebay purchase that I recently made. I also received a thank you package of cards from Roll Out the Barrel, which hadn't been on the list, so that's super nice. And to top it all off, I finally received my last tax form AND a form I needed for my job paperwork, and so I can knock two other things off my list of life. Clearly it's been an amazing mail week, cards and otherwise, and I'd like to share some of the card part with all of you! Part one will start with Traded Sets, the ebay purchase, and Roll Out the Barrel. Michel's stuff came today, so that'll get posted once I take pictures!

The Traded Sets contest started about three months ago, and was an attempt to get bloggers reading Baseball Reference on a more regular basis. I know it worked on me - I now check the site once a day, where before I maybe checked it once a month! Turned out I read (and commented on) the site so much that I was one of the contest winners. As a winner I got to choose any of the 12 relic cards that I wanted, and I went with a classy one that looks oh-so-nice, this Ripken-Tulowitski Dual Relic card:A real beauty, no? I'm actually not sure which relic piece goes to which guy - at first I thought Ripken's was on top, but now I think it might be down below his face. Could anyone enlighten me there?

Traded Sets emailed me before sending the card asking if I had a favorite team, mentioning that I could get some additional cards if I sent my email back quick. I said Red Sox and I guess I answered quickly enough, because I also received a large pile of Sox! Here were my favorites:
That's like my 5th or 6th 1991 Mo Vaughn RC by the way. I love those little accidental collections that we bloggers end up with.


Next we move on to my ebay buy, which initially made me a bit sad but actually ended up being totally excellent. I've picked up (a lot) more hours at work recently, but I'm still feeling poor and so I've been trying to not purchase anything on ebay at all. This card had a starting price of $0.99, and so I put in a first bid on it, figuring that I'd get outbid, which was fine. Well, with $3 shipping, no one else wanted to bid, and I won. At first I was bummed to pay $4 for a card when I'm broke (I know, not really that much money, but still). After seeing the card in person, I'm not bummed at all. Here's my 2004 Sweet Spot Home Run Heroes Fred McGriff, serial numbered 028/199:
This is my very first McGriff relic with more than one color, and the card really looks amazing. It's hard not to bid on McGriff relics that are under $5, and there's two more I'm watching on ebay right now that are still under $3. So though I'm trying to stop purchasing cards online for a while, it's not going to happen. Too many nice deals!

Check out the thickness of the jersey on this card by the way. Easily the thickest jersey back I have dealt with to date:


Last but not least, I got one heckuva thank you package from Ed of Roll Out the Barrel. He recently posted a 1988 Topps Want List (which is still active, CHECK IT OUT!), and I sent him a bunch of cards off of it as well as some Brewers. He insisted on thanking me and sent me like 40 cards for my player collections. Here are a few that really stood out:

First we've got two magnificent Mannys, his propaganda card and a gorgeous Topps Stadium Club. I especially like the TSC - look at how everyone's head (including the catcher, pitcher, and crowd) turns to watch Manny's slice down the line. Manny just has such a sweet swing, I don't blame the entire stadium for being mesmerized by its result.

Next we have the nicest Joakim Soria that Ed sent me. Joakim is one of my toughest pc's to add to because a ton of people collect him, and he's only had a few years in the league. But I definitely love every card of his that I get - thanks to Ed I'm now over one full page of Sorias, at 11 total cards!

Here's a few Princes from Ed, and the start of my "parallel show and tell." Here the left and right cards are from Ed, while the center is a card I already had. Interesting that the rookie cup switched sides between Opening Day and Chrome.

Here are my three Topps Peavys. Left is Ed, middle is chrome, right is chrome red border serial numbered to 25.

And two baseball heroes Peavys, left is one I had, right is charcoal from Ed.

I'm saving the best of Ed's cards for last, as I absolutely LOVE this Turkey Red Jake Peavy. Look at the epicness - doesn't get much better than that:
Thanks for all the cards Ed, you really didn't have to send anything but I'm glad you did! And thanks again Traded Sets and...Ebay! Two relic cards and a ton of player collection stuff? Sounds like a good start to the best mail week ever!

Coming soon, part two!