You've Got Mail #80: Two Surprise Envelopes

Last week must've been designated "card week" for me by the cardboard overlords because in addition to the 2018 Topps that I splurged on, I got two small, unexpected packages in the mail early in the week, followed by another mailing a few days later. The two unexpected ones were from Peter at Baseball Every Night and Matt at BWTP and since each one was fairly small, I figured I would just combine these into one post.

First up, Peter's envelope consisted of primarily Indians cards from 2018 Topps. I know I pulled some of these went I ripped into the 2018 Topps packs the other day but one card I know for sure I didn't pull was the Jay Bruce card. It's nice to see that he got a proper Indians card, even though Panini put one out in their Chronicles line last year. 

Also included, that appeared to be more for backing on the cards than anything else, was this 1989 Bowman Luis Aguayo card. After looking him up on everyone's favorite research site, Baseball Reference, it turns out this is a sunset card of Mr. Aguayo as he finished his career with the 1989 Indians in a bench role, appearing in only 47 games.

Matt's envelope contained only three cards but what three cards they were. First, there's this autograph card of Wladimir Balentien, a name of Reds past I haven't heard or thought of in years. He only played 40 games with the Reds in 2009, his final season in the majors. He spent the 2010 season in Triple-A Louisville and then signed with the Yakult Swallows in Japan, where he's been ever since.

Autograph cards are neat and all but I've always been a fan of relic cards more than I have been autographed cards and getting a bat relic card from one of the heavy hitters of the Big Red Machine is super cool.

This was the gem of Matt's envelope, a nice Tony Perez card from Panini's 2012 Prime Cuts line. Sure, the card looks a little bit plain but in person, it's really nice and a great piece to add to my collection.

A big thanks to both Peter and Matt for the surprise envelopes. I really appreciate it fellas!