Another Round of Cards Coming In Hot

Just got back from a socially-distanced, no-airplanes, careful-as-hell vacation, and I had some new cards waiting for me upon my return. As I say to my wife when there's a stack of new envelopes in the mailbox with what are obviously cards I've ordered contained within them - hey, now how did those get here?

I'm just picking off piece-parts & players & stuff I like here and there, from the usual-suspect ordering sites, using my small stack of Paypal pretend money that I use to buy cards. Many of my most recent cards were excitedly added to orders because I saw them on someone else's blog - maybe yours. This 1965 Topps Bill Rigney for sure. He's either workin' a piece of chaw here, or just has one of the most baddest-of-ass expressions of any manager of all time.

This post is an excuse to scan a few of those cards. Here goes. First, here's a guy who you may know, Mr. Frank Robinson. His 1975 SSPC card both fills a need in my pursuit of that entire set, as well as a slot in my hallowed Frank Robinson player collection:

I'm also a big fan of Vladimir Guerrero, and I picked up his 2020 Panini All-Time Diamond Kings card, no. ATDK-22...! 

We just talked about Joey Bart on the blog last week - here's my newest card of his since that post, a 2020 Bowman's Best, #TP-21:

As I work toward collecting the 1971 Topps set - I'm nowhere near even 20% of the way there - it's gem cards like this Casey Cox Washington Senators card arriving in the mail that make me realize I never want to be done, and probably never will:

You guys familiar with Willie Mays? He's a Baseball Immortal. It says so right here, on these 1980-88 SSPC Hall of Famer cards that I just became aware of. This is card #168. 1979 was the year he was inducted.

Here's another Willie, and a Buster Posey as well - both from the 2013 Topps Archives Gallery of Heroes series. These are fantastic. Yes, they're effectively "stained glass" cardboard - light shines through them and makes pretty colors and all that. The black line you see on the Posey card just happens to be an ink stain on my scanner. The card is fine.

Finally, how about Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, throwing out the first pitch at a Seattle Mariners game in 2015? Oh yeah, I know she was on that funny TV show too, but I know her better as a guitarist for my wife's favorite 1990s band, a band I was taken to see at least 6-7 times during the latter half of that decade. This is from the 2016 Topps First Pitch series - when I saw that Brownstein had her own card, I reckoned I needed my own copy of it. According to the back of the card, she threw a total bullet, too.

My Vlad Cup Runneth Over

This guy. Vladimir Guerrero. I decided to collect his cards, put the word out on this blog that I was open to trading for his cards, and here we are. Now I'm doing just fine on Vlad cards, and I've really been able to procure some great ones thanks to my trading partners.

Case in point is this new haul from Nick at Dime Boxes. He kindly sent me a whole suite of what I like to call "idiot cards" - you can see some good examples on his most recent blog post - but he also had a bunch of Vladimir Guerrero doubles and leftovers that he thought might look better in my collection - and who am I to argue with such impeccable logic, right?

My first couple of Vlad batches were mostly Vlad-on-the-Angels cards, which I talked about here. Now thank to Nick I'm rocking many more Vlad-on-the-Expos as well, including some rookies and many from those bizarre-world late 90s/early 2000s card brands that I'm still getting a handle on - the ones that aren't Topps, Donruss nor Fleer (or if they are, they're sub-brands that I didn't hear about while they were at their peak, during the time I wasn't paying attention to cards).

I scanned a few of the exceptional cards that Nick sent over. I now have more Vlad than any other player save for Pablo Sandoval. And oh man - do I still have a ways to go, too.

Whole Lotta Vlad

It was a mere three weeks ago when I decided to add baseball cards from the career of one Vladimir Guerrero to my want list, and blocked out several pages in a binder in anticipation of my burgeoning Vlad collection. Man, I really enjoyed watching this guy play when he was around - particularly those early years with the Expos. He seemed to me to be a great non-Giant to start accumulating.

First card I grabbed was this 2002 Leaf Certified "Mirror Red" card with a little game-worn jersey encased in it. Number 029 of 150, it says on the back. Nice start, even if it doesn't scan all that well (trust me, it looks better in person. There are "Mirror Blue" versions available through the years as well).

Next, I was delighted to accept in trade from Tom of The Angels, In Order a set of hand-picked Vlad-on-the-Angels cards. I mean, he just plucked a bunch of doubles from his collection and increased my Vlad card count elevenfold. Thanks, Tom! Here are a few gems from that PWE:

 

You want to know what "Derek Jeter says..." in that 2008 Upper Deck card in the upper right there? Nothing! I turned it over. Jeter had nothing to say about Vlad. I'm sure there's a good reason he made it onto the front of this card, though, and I'm guessing some of you can tell me about it.

But wait! That's not all. Then I got a trade package from Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown, packed with more Vlad. This trading thing is something I'm a big fan of. I wish I'd gotten involved earlier. Gavin dropped in a couple prospect cards, plus Vlad of all eras - even on that Orioles team I'd forgotten he was a part of (dude still hit .290 in his final year). Here are a few that arrived in that package:

 

Superb stuff. Thank you, gentlemen. Those blogs again are The Angels, In Order and Baseball Card Breakdown. Like Vlad, they're good 'uns, and they have a damn sight more to teach me about the craft of baseball card accumulation than I've been able to glean on my own thus far.