You've Got Mail #74: Sportscards From the Dollar Store

It's been a long time ... a very long time since I've had cards grace my mailbox so when a random package arrived from Douglas of Sportscards From the Dollar Store recently, I was giddy with excitement that someone actually sent me cards in the mail!

As always, a package from Douglas has a nice variety. As much as I like the Edd Roush card here, I think I have to talk a bit about the Royce Clayton card. Clayton was at the near the end of his career in 2006 when he was acquired by the Reds from the Nationals in a bonkers trade still questioned by some fans to this day. It was a weird trade where the Reds got Clayton, Bill Bray, Gary Majewski, and one other for Austin Kearns, Ryan Wagner, and another player. To this day, I don't think anyone is sure what the Reds were trying to accomplish with that trade. Clayton finished the year as the Reds shortstop then moved on to Toronto as a free agent after the season.

Getting new Blue Jackets cards is always a blast, especially since they may be the lone major league team in Columbus soon (another story for another day) and I'm hoping I can maybe find some decent priced ones at the card show next week. The top three are from last year's Upper Deck Champs set, which is basically their version of A&G. It was a pretty cool product and it's something I hope they bring back this year. Brandon Saad was shipped back to Chicago after two seasons but in return, the Jackets managed to steal Artemi Panarin in return in a shocker of a deal.

This card was definitely one of the best of the batch and is a fantastic addition to my Brodeur collection. It's a thick card, really shiny, and has an amazing picture on it getting Brodeur in mid-catch to save a goal. 

The other thing I can count on for Douglas to send is lots and lots of Bengals cards, and there were a lot. So I'll go through them quickly. First, there were these neat cards of past Bengals QBs, although many try to forget the Jeff Blake era.

Joe Mixon was the Bengals top pick in the draft this past summer and has seen a lot of action recently, especially since the Bengals dropped Ken Zampese as their offensive coordinator and replaced him with Bill Lazor. The offense that had been sleepy in the first two games, woke up once Lazer was installed, and Mixon seemed to get more carries.

There was also this nice batch of Andy Dalton cards. My collection of his is slowly growing with some quality additions like this.

Same can be said for A.J. Green, one of my favorite players to watch on the Bengals. I'm starting to get a decent collection of cards of his as well.

There were also a nice batch of parallels included in the package as well, these were the best of the batch.

Thanks to Douglas for sending all these great cards over, I greatly appreciate it. I'll try to find some stuff to send back to you at some point.

You've Got Mail #62: Sportscards From the Dollar Store

One of my goals is to take a trip to Canada sometime. To start with, it'd be a few days in Toronto for the Hockey Hall of Fame, either a Blue Jays or Maple Leafs game (depending on the season), and assorted other things. My main thing one day is to take a trip through western Canada and see places like Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg. Since I don't have the funds (or a passport) right now to do such a thing, I'll have to experience Canada vicariously through trade packages from everyone's favorite blogger to the north, Douglas from Sportscards From the Dollar Store.

Hockey is pretty popular north of the border, not so much down where I live though, but I do see the rogue Blue Jackets hat or shirt now and then. Speaking of which, these Blue Jackets cards are very cool, especially the Brandon Saad, which feeds my new addiction of "shiny cards". I haven't officially declared shiny cards as a mini-collection yet but in time, I might. The Jackets have trailed off recently  and are now floating in between as the #1 wild card seed or third place in the Metropolitan Division.

More Blue Jackets cards, this time of the Score variety. I like Upper Decks offerings every year but some of them can be on the expensive side when buying packs. I kind of miss Panini being in the hockey card game sometimes as they would have sets on the cheaper end of the spectrum, like Score. These are all nice but look at the Sergei Bobrovsky card. It's definitely a bit odd and I'm not sure why Panini would use a horizontal picture but use the vertical name stripe.

Speaking of Panini hockey products, here are a couple cards from the 2013-14 Rookie Anthology release. Each of Columbus home uniforms are represented with the blue one being their alternate. Personally, I'm partial to the white and blue jersey as the alternate just seems a little boring.

Hockey cards weren't the only thing that made their way down from the great white north, baseball and football were included as well. The Palmer card filled up the empty slot in the back page of my tiny football binder quite well and the other two cards went right into the Reds collection. I was pretty happy to see a Robert Stephenson Dayton Dragons card as Dragons cards are hard to come by.

There were also a good number of Reds from 2016 Topps Series 2 and Update. Some of these may be dupes, I'm not sure though. I know the Jay Bruce All-Star card is for sure. I'll need to do some sorting to double check on the rest of them.

Finally, this was the star of the show, a nice three-color swatch from former Bengals RB Mohammed Sanu. My football collecting has slowed down a lot recently but it's still nice to add a cool card like this to my relic and autograph box. 

Again, a big thanks to Douglas for sending over these cards. I'll have to find some more stuff for you to send out later this year. Two more packages to get through and then I'll be caught up on trade posts!

You've Got Mail #49: Sportscards From the Dollar Store

Having a connection north of the border is nice. You get sent things like hockey cards and ketchup flavored potato chips that are nearly impossible to find. Speaking of friends of the north, Douglas of Sportscards From the Dollar Store sprung a package on me filled with some Columbus Blue Jackets and a few other cards (but sadly no ketchup chips) after I left a comment about a Marion Gaborik card on his blog.

Here's the aforementioned Gaborik card, along with a Brandon Saad and a very foil-y Sergei Bobrovsky. Saad was a huge pickup for the Jackets in a trade with Chicago before the 2015-16 season. While the Jackets stunk up the joint at the beginning of last season, Saad gives them a pretty solid name to build around. 

Every time I see Rick Nash, I still think it's weird to see him in a Rangers uniform. I still think of him as a Blue Jacket as he was one of their first homegrown talents. Thanks to Douglas, not only has my Nash collection expanded with these cards, I've also added him to my hockey PC list. Also, side note, I wish Panini still made hockey cards as anything from the Contenders line is just aces in my book.

Besides Rick Nash, there was a nice selection of former Blue Jackets stars included as well. I'd forgotten that R.J. Umberger had suited up for them but I definitely remembered Ryan Johansen and Sergei Federov. 

Blue Jackets cards weren't the only thing Douglas included. There were these Reds and Bengals cards which helped pad out the package a bit. I wasn't planning on buying any 2016 Stadium Club this year but the cards I've gotten from other fellow traders, along with the Billy Hamilton card included, I've finally decided to give in and try to find a cheap box or perhaps a blaster around Christmas time. With that, another great trade package comes to an end.