You've Got Mail #7: Baseball Card Breakdown

Gavin at Baseball Card Breakdown had offered up a really cool Edwin Encarnacion 1st home run medallion card for trade after he broke into a blaster box of Topps Update about a month ago. The week before Thanksgiving it arrived and was accompanied by a whole boatload of Reds cards on its cross-county journey in the confines of a priority mail box.

Here's the card that triggered this whole trade. It's even nicer in person and it's the first medallion card I have. I'm not going to go out chasing these but there are few other Reds ones out there (Josh Hamilton and Johnny Bench) that I would definitely like to pick up.

These are my two favorite Votto cards in my collection right now.

One of the podcast hosts I like to listen occasionally says "If you haven't see it, it's new to you!" and these are definitely new to me. I had no idea that Stadium Club chrome cards existed. Pokey Reese (left) was a good second baseman for the Reds in the late 90s and Scott Williamson was a lights out closer for the Reds in 1999 but kind of flamed out a year or so later.

A few old school style cards. Word around the campfire is that Arroyo is interested in returning to the Reds and he's just the kind of mid-level starter the Reds need to eat innings and give the young guys a rest ... of course, he has to prove he's healthy first. The Dunn is from 2002 Upper Deck Vintage, a set I actually took the time to put together when I was last collecting in the early 2000's.

Archives is one of my favorite brands and these cards from the 2015 set are great. I almost didn't catch the fact that the Jay Bruce card is one of the #1 Draft Pick inserts.

Two of my favorite Reds players right now, Tucker Barnhart and Todd Frazier. I've been on the lookout for a nice Barnhart RC and this will do just fine.

Two nice Cingrani cards. I'm guessing that the one with the Illinois flag in the background is a parallel of some sort?

Jose Rijo had a great comeback story. He was out of baseball for over 6 years with assorted arm injuries and made a surprise comeback in 2001 as a reliever and was a nice story for a Reds team that was the worst of the decade. In 2002, he made a bunch of starts and started the final game ever at Cinergy Field.

Finally, here's a nice card of Jesse Winker who is really close to being ready for the majors and will hopefully be a regular in the Reds outfield in 2017.

There were a ton of other great cards that were in the box too but these were the best ones I picked out for scanning. Thanks Gavin for the giant trade box. I'm digging through my cards and working on finding you some stuff to send in return.