You've Got Mail #59: Ain't Nobody Got Time for Cardboard (aka Secret Santa 2016) - Part 2

While I'm sure everyone will be posting about the Hall of Fame inductees tonight, I'm continuing on with part 2 of my Secret Santa package. As I mentioned in the part one, Andy from Ain't Nobody Got Time for Cardboard won the draw to be my Secret Santa this past Christmas. Picking up from where I left off, here's the remainder of what Andy sent over.

No Christmas package would be complete without some of the snowflake cards from the Topps Walmart exclusive Holiday boxes. I opened one box of them myself and I though it was a pretty fun break, especially with the guaranteed relic card. I'll share my findings on that in a future post. The Cubs cards were a nice surprise that were thrown in. 

All of these were packaged together with a note that said they were part of a "parallel universe". I couldn't agree more. Of all of these through, I think the chrome Robert Stephenson card is my favorite.

While I didn't have this Barry Larkin card on my most wanted list, it was one I had my eye on here and there. I really enjoyed the 2015 Panini Contenders baseball set and was disappointed when I didn't see it make a return, although I guess it kind of did as inserts in the Elite Extra Edition set. Vintage cards like the Griffey card are always welcomed to my collection. I've got a special section in my vintage binder reserved for Reds cards just like this.

Finally, to close this out, there were some Bengals thrown in as well. While I've cut back on my Bengals collecting, I'll still welcome new cards for some of the top players. The bottom two cards are my first experience with the Gridiron Kings cards and I must say that I really enjoy them. While I'm not going to race out and buy any packs, if there are a few Bengals cards like this in bargain bins the next time I hit up a card show, I'll definitely consider picking them up.

This was an awesome secret Santa package and it went way above and beyond what I expected. Again, a big thanks to Matt at BWTP for organizing everything and thanks to Andy for the great cards.

You've Got Mail #18: Highly Subjective & Completely Arbitrary

I'm trying to spread out the trade posts with the other stuff I have planned for March but the fact that the trades keep coming in I've got to try to keep up somewhat. This nice PWE from Brian of Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary (my first official trade partner when I launched this blog) arrived at the tail end of the week a while back.

This PWE was stuffed full of random Reds goodness plus a bonus Bengals card. Since there were nine Reds cards, I'll cover them in batches of three. First up we've got the trio of Adam Dunn, Terry Lee, and Ryan Wagner. Of these three, Dunn definitely had the best Reds career. Wagner was a decent pitcher but never really stood out in a sea of mid 2000's Reds teams with horrible pitching.

Cool! Some Score Gold Rush ... and of Tony Fernandez, which is even better. Fernandez held down the hot corner for the Reds in '94, his only year with the Reds, after Chris Sabo headed to Baltimore as a free agent. Milton was a big free agent signing for the Reds and was pretty much a bust from day one. Kearns was a solid outfielder and I always love some Topps Total!

Our final trio, Billy Hamilton, Scott Williamson, and Ken Griffey. The more I see it, the more I like last year's Bowman, even though I'm not a prospector at all. The photo is just great too, with Hamilton in mid flight trying to rob a fly ball. The Williamson card is my first Topps Gallery card and  it's just as nice in person as I've seen it on the blogs. Finally, new cards of members of the Big Red Machine are always welcomed.

There was one football card in the envelope, this framed parallel of Jeremy Hill from last years Gridiron Kings set. This was in the same vain as the Diamond Kings set although Panini can actually use team names and logos since they have an NFL license. 

Thanks again Brian for another great PWE! The Twins stack is slowly growing for you and will be going out soon with my next wave of Super Trader packs.

You've Got Mail #8: Wish They Still Came With Bubblegum

I had some extra Falcons cards recently so I offered them up to noted Falcon fanatic Jeff of Wish They Still Came With Bubblegum. He and I worked out a trade (unfortunately no bubblegum was discussed) and I received a nice package from him right before Thanksgiving.

Let's start with some 2015 Stadium Club! This gold parallel of Luis Gonzalez going crazy after winning the World Series is tremendous.

A few nice horizontals, including a Devin Mesoraco cameo on the Dilson Herrera card.

One of the main reasons I'm putting together this year's Stadium Club set is the photography and the simplicity of the design. Here, Dalton Pompey surveys a homer while Zach Britton makes some friends.

It was nice to see that Jeff included these as well. I'm a sucker for pre-1970s players on modern cards. The Griffey definitely knocks off one of the major cards I needed for this set.

Closing out the Stadium Club portion with three more nice cards. All of these should put a nice dent in my checklist.

Stadium Club wasn't the only thing included though, Jeff also threw in some Reds and Bengals cards.

Starting off the Reds portion was this nice mini of Joey Votto. I like the 87 Topps design on this.

These are the first mascot cards I've ever added to my collection. I just need Mr. Redlegs to complete the trio.

A few more Barry Larkin additions to the collection. As a kid, I always thought the Post Cereal cards looked weird without the logo on the uniform. Still, it's always nice when I get these in a trade pack as they seem hard to come by.

A few more random Reds cards to close out that portion featuring Todd Coffey (like the drink, only not spelt the same), Griffey Jr. doing some batting practice, Billy Hamilton seemingly floating in mid-air and a sideways Zack Cozart.

Finally, on to the Bengals portion and starting off with some very nice Score cards of Jeremy Hill and A.J. Green, two guys who have really contributed to the Bengals success this year.

Another Jeremy Hill card and my first Bengals team card!!

Here's the rest of the Bengals portion with some older names that I recognize (Jeff Blake, Darnay Scott, Boomer Esiason) and some I don't (Eric Ball, Kevin Walker).

Thanks for the trade Jeff! I really appreciate you sending these my way.