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 #53: Three Surprise PWEs

I'll admit, I'm way behind on these. Three different people have sent me PWEs over the past month or so (in some cases longer) so in the interest of time and space, I'm covering all three of these in one giant post.

First up, an envelope from Greg over at Night Owl Cards. I'd commented about the Kayla Harrison card back when he tore into some Olympic and Paralympic cards so he was gracious enough to include it. It doesn't hurt either that she's a local athlete, literally from the next town over. While I think the picture could have been a little better, it's still a nice card that will reside in my miscellaneous cards section.

Greg was also nice enough to throw in some Reds cards. Not pictured are the Topps Bunt cards of which I already had thanks to a previous package. However, everything else was new to the collection. I am all for anything Hal Morris since he was one of my favorite players growing up. Heck, anything from the mid-to-late 90s Reds is good! Case in point, the 1997 Stadium Club card of John Smiley. 

Rounding out the PWE from Greg were some newer cards of Reds prospects Jesse Winker and Robert Stephenson. Both of them should be competing for a roster spot come spring training. Of the two, I think that Stephenson has the best shot at making the club as he could round out the fifth spot in the rotation. Winker might need a bit more seasoning at Triple-A Louisville before coming up to the big club, especially with the outfield spots pretty well sorted right now.

For Exhibit B, we have a pretty football-centric PWE from Trevor at Bump and Run Cards, who sent me these cards along with his updated address. The Bengals have been nothing short of disappointing and awful this year, which means I've watched hardly any football. However, getting new Bengals cards in the mail makes up for the slog it's been watching them stumble and bumble this year.

Panini Prestige always has a pretty cool design. I bought a few retail fat packs last year but barely got anyone I liked so most of them ended up getting traded away. Since then, I've sworn off buying football packs. Anyway, the middle row is made up of cards from the 2013 Prestige issue and features BenJarvus Green-Ellis, who was comedically nicknamed "The Law Firm" when he played here. Everything else was a nice mishmash of recent cards of Gio Bernard and Vontaze Burfict and a card of Rudi Johnson from 2007 Score. 

Trevor also threw in two Reds cards to fill out the envelope. Joe Oliver was the primary catcher for the 1990 World Series squad and hung around until after the 1994 season when he was released after only appearing in six games. He came back for the 1996 and 1997 seasons after which he bounced around for a few more years. LaValley seems like he's been in the farm system forever, but he's only been playing since 2014 and projects to either High-A Daytona or Double-A Pensacola next season.

Continuing on with the Bengals theme and wrapping up this post is an envelope I received from AJ at the Lost Collector blog with players made up of a few players I've heard of and others I've mostly forgotten. Most of these cards were numbered in some form or fashion as well, including the Jon Kitna card which is out of 3216 (side note, that's a random number, must be his passing yards or something). The only thing I remember Kitna for is backing up Carson Palmer is the ill-fated playoff game years ago against the Steelers after Palmer got his knee torn to shreds.

Speaking of quarterbacks, my absolute favorite card from the envelope is the Andy Dalton Topps Valor card. Valor was one of those sets that Topps issued rather hurriedly at the end of last season before their football license ran out. I really, really like the design on it with the big logo in the background and the artsy look of it. I don't go after many football cards these days but I might have to track down some of the legends cards from the set. 

That puts the bow on these fun PWEs. I got a good amount of cards to add to my Bengals binder, one for the miscellaneous collection, and a few more Reds cards. I'm nearly caught up on all the trade packages, only a few more to go. 

Four Packs of 2016 Topps Heritage High Numbers

I'll admit it, I was a little harsh on Heritage this year. The first four packs I opened back in the spring did absolutely nothing for me and the design was very bland with generic poses. As I mentioned a few posts back, I was at the card shop to get some supplies and wanted some packs to rip as well. There wasn't much that caught my interest, so I decided to give Heritage another try with some High Numbers packs. I wasn't expecting much based on my previous experience. I won't break it down pack by pack but I'll show off some of the better cards I pulled. 

So far, so good. Three decent rookies here and the Stephenson card is a short print landing 1 in every three packs. I'm not too familiar the Goeddel as I don't follow the Phillies that close but judging by his 2016 stats, he seems to be a serviceable outfielder.

Hazelbaker and Story had quite the hot start out of the gate at the beginning of the season (that feels like eons ago) but Hazelbaker fizzled off while Story kept plugging away until an injury ended his season. I like the Rookie Performers insert set as it provides a bit of color to an otherwise bland design.

When I pulled out the Joe Maddon card, I thought for a split second it was a relic card because of the design. Alas, it was not to be but still, another nice insert card. 

Lastly, the Mookie Betts/Xander Bogaerts "Beantown Belters" card is another insert according to the official checklist, although it could be easily be mistaken for a part of the main set. I like the background of the Tim Anderson card and could pass as a true "sunset card" as it appears the photo was taken at dusk.

I'm still not a big fan of the design but these four packs did help change my opinion of Heritage this year. I think the problem with my initial packs was that I didn't do my research and know what to look for. This time I did and was pretty happy with my findings. Happy enough, in fact, to go get a blaster of this at Target. That's another story for another day.

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.

You've Got Mail #47: Ain't Nobody Got Time for Cardboard

A few months ago, I threw a message out to Andy of the Ain't Nobody Got Time for Cardboard blog since he mentioned in a post that he was looking for someone to take Indians cards off his hands. I obliged. We traded some emails back and forth about other cards he was looking to rid himself of and before I knew it, there was a giant brick of awesomeness sitting on my front porch when I got home from work one day. He warned me that it might take me a while to sort all the cards out and it certainly did.

I'll start with this Robert Stephenson manu-relic. I'm not totally against cards like this like but I'm not completely for them either. I'll be honest, if I opened a box of Topps Flagship and got a manu-relic as my only hit, I'd be a little bummed. However, if nice cards like this become available, I'm certainly not going to pass them up. For someone like me who collects on a budget, they're certainly a nice way to get "hits" of superstar players or players that would normally command a higher price (such is the case of Robert Stephenson around my area) for cheap. Stephenson had a decent showing in the limited time he spent in the majors this year, but didn't completely blow anyone away either. I'm hoping he works out the kinks and contends for a rotation spot in 2017.

To say that this package was varied would be an understatement. These are from the assault on the eyes and the mind known as 1995 Fleer. I have to believe that the NL Central design is probably the most subdued of any of the six designs they came up with. One time, I went to a Reds game and had seats along the third base side near the visitors dugout. Since I was there way early, Xavier Hernandez of the Reds was sitting on top of the dugout signing autographs. I was about 9 years old and had brought a softball glove with me in case a foul ball came my way. I walked up for an autograph and handed him my glove to sign. He looked at the glove, looked at me and said "That's a little too big for you, don't ya think." He signed it with a sly grin and I still have the glove to this day.

There were tons of shiny and chrome cards included. Bowman isn't my favorite product to get as I'm not a prospector, plus I've never really been a fan of the designs but these I like. The big topic this offseason will be if the Reds will trade Zack Cozart. Personally, I don't think they will but then again, they shipped off Todd Frazier last offseason so anything is possible. Raisel Iglesias started Opening Day this year for the Reds but ended up being put into the closers role after coming back from injury and after J.J. Hoover had what most would consider a nuclear meltdown.

I picked up exactly zero Stadium Club this year but it's all good as Andy loaded me up with a giant lot. I wasn't sold on the design at first but after having the cards in hand, I've definitely changed my mind. I'm not going to chase the set or go buy any packs right away but these are certainly some nice cards. The one thing these have going for them over last years design that I really like is that it's much easier to tell the gold parallels from the base cards, such as the Peraza card.

Donruss Optic was another product that I was introduced too via this package and again, I really like these. I like these enough that I might see about getting a box of them over Christmas when there are some good sales to be had. I really like the Diamond Kings "chrome" cards for lack of a better term.

Speaking of chrome cards, here's some Topps Chrome from this year along with some sepia toned parallels of the same. I'll admit, I almost fell over when I saw the Stephenson cards were included.

Topps Bunt was a hit when it was released over the summer, at least for lower end collectors like myself. This is my first taste of this and I really, really like it. The inserts like the "Future of the Franchise" are really nice looking and just a generally fun set.

Closing out the Reds portion were these oddballs from the 1988 Pacific Eight Men Out set, which is one of the better baseball movies out there. It's been a while since I've seen it but I remember that in a pre-law class during high school, a friend and I had to write up a defense and a case summary for the Black Sox to be presented in front of the class.

Moving on to the Indians part of the package, first up some nice new Francisco Lindor cards to add to my collection. 

I've been waiting to get some of the 1969 Super inserts from this year's Archives. This Andrew Miller card is the first one of them I've gotten so far. If I can find some more for cheap, then I'll pick them up. I like the clean simple design on them. I'll get these added to the want list so if anyone has any extras lying around, feel free to send them my way.

Gypsy Queen is one of my favorite releases every year. I need to see about getting some of the Queen's Throwback inserts as well to go with my new throwback uniforms mini-collection. 

To pad out the package, Andy threw in a bunch of random Indians cards which I can totally appreciate.  

This is my favorite batch of the Donruss Optic cards that were included. There's a Jason Kipnis base card, a parallel, a Tyler Naquin Rated Rookie, and a Michael Brantley Diamond King. To me, these come across as better than Topps Chrome just because of the different variety of things.

Speaking of which, here's more Chrome including a Tyler Naquin RC and a Carlos Carrasco sepia parallel.

I'll close out the Indians portion just like I did with the Reds portion, with some Bunt cards. 

Normally I only go for Bengals cards or legends cards when collecting football. I typically stray away from college stuff mainly because I don't have deep connection to any local college. If I had to pick though, I'd say Miami of Ohio or University of Cincinnati since that's where I went to school. Ohio State is really big here though and since Andy asked before sending these, I was cool with it. 

This is my first taste of 2016 Donruss football and I like it. The feel is definitely there of the 1990 Donruss baseball. After getting my hands on these, I'll be on the lookout for more Bengals and for some of the legends cards from the set. 

There were a lot more Bengals cards included than what I've shown here. The Prestige cards are ok, not my favorites but they are another 2016 product that was thrown in and that I got a sample of. The highlight for me here is the Ickey Woods card which catches him probably in the midst of him doing the Ickey Shuffle. Cold cuts for everyone!

I'll end this post by showing off the hockey and wrestling cards that were sent over. The hockey cards were a good smattering of Devils cards with Mike Modano and Jaromir Jagr thrown in for good measure. The WWF cards all feature action from WrestleMania 6 in 1990. The feature bout on that show was Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior in a match that was better than it had any right to be.

This was probably the most extensive trade package I've gotten in a while. All my collections were covered and I got a good sampling of some 2016 products that I hadn't tried yet.