Oscar Winning Cards

(Author's note: This is my first official post back. I'm out of practice with writing blog posts so apologies in advance if these aren't as descriptive or well-written as before. I'll get back to form soon. Also, thank you for all the great "welcome back" comments. I really appreciate it!) 

During my hiatus, I received a few packages in the mail, some of which I documented from the "Epic Baseball Card Adventure" blog I attempted (and have since uploaded to this blog). 

One package I received after that blog kind of dropped off the face of the earth was from Oscar at the "All Trade Bait..." blog. Apparently I'd send him cards a while back and he said these returned the favor. So let's take a look and see what he sent over.

Lots of Expos were included in the package, including this Ron Hassey card which I had no knowledge of. This is also a sunset card as Hassey retired after the 1991 season. Several of the late season 1991 cards showed him with the Expos but this is the only 1992 card he had in a major set.

More Expos including longtime Brewers pitcher Bob McClure, who is another guy I never realized suited up for the Expos.

One last batch of Expos. Is just me or are the blue uniforms of the late 80s/early 90s completely wild?

The majority of the package was made up of Hall of Famers I enjoy collecting like Robin Yount, Nolan Ryan, and the like.

There was also this nice batch of Cal Ripken cards. I think the 93 Donruss one may be a duplicate. My collection is so disorganized right now, I'm not even sure.

There were also some nice George Brett cards as well. My favorite of these has to be the 1988 Score card with the baseball coming into the picture. I wonder if he got a hit on that at-bat or not?

Some random horizontal cards here with a pair of All-Star cards from 1993 Topps and two Barry Larkin cards.

But this is probably my favorite card of the pile, a 2008 Topps Joey Votto rookie card. I'd been considering adding a Votto rookie to my collection for a while but when card shows were still a thing, the cards were so overpriced, I always took a pass. But to have one come in a trade envelope is really super cool.

Many thanks to Oscar for sending over these cards back in the summer. I really appreciate it!

Into the Mailbag

I haven't gotten cards in the mail in a real long time but in the span of a week I received one bubble mailer and a few PWEs.

It's amazing what happens when you make a blogging comeback.

The wonderful 2002 Reds team card above was part of a nice PWE I received from Fuji about a week or so ago. It's probably one of my favorite team cards in my collection now. There's several cool things about it ... the dirt infield, the interesting uniforms the team was wearing then but my favorite thing is that it's one of the last team photos from old Riverfront Stadium (which just celebrated the 50th anniversary of its opening on June 30th).

There were also cards from players I enjoyed watching when I was growing up, namely Barry Larkin and Sean Casey. 

Some cool horizontal cards. I remember how emotional everyone was when the Reds traded Aaron Boone to the Yankees in 2003.

Another one of my favorite Reds players, Hal Morris, on a card design I've always liked, 1992 Leaf.

It's not just Reds players that Fuji threw in, he also hit up some of my other player collections. I always welcome cards of Hall of Famers.

Charlie Hough is a guy I always liked collecting, especially when I was a kid. I'm not sure why I gravitated towards his cards, maybe it's the insanely long career he had and the fact he played for the Marlins of all teams when they weren't even around when he debuted.

In a separate mailing from Fuji way back in January, he loaded me up on cards for my 1984 Topps set build that I've been working on seemingly forever.

Lots of good stuff, right?

Anyway, look for an updated 1984 Topps waitlist to show up on the blog soon as soon as I get these filed away and can figure out what I still need.

Thanks for all the great cards Fuji! Really appreciated.