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. 

You've Got Mail #35: Sportscards From the Dollar Store

This is the last Supertrader package I'm behind on and it comes from Douglas, the Mets representative in the group, and resident of the Great White North, who sent over a nice variety package, including something cool he found at the Toronto Expo.

Even though I know it's baseball season, I'll start off with this batch of Bengals cards. I seem to be on a tear of getting Gio Bernard cards in the mail and I like the ticket stub design of the Contenders card.  There's also a pretty wild looking Jordan Shipley jersey card and a nice Geno Atkins parallel.

Six new cards for my growing Martin Brodeur collection. I'm liking all of these, especially the O-Pee-Chee on the top left. Note to future trade partners, you can never go wrong sending me Brodeur cards.

Staying with hockey, here's the card that Douglas found at the Expo for me, a 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee of Michel Dion, one of the cards that was listed in the "top wants" on my want list. This completes the Stingers team set for me. My next goal as far as the Stingers is concerned is to complete the 1975-76 team set. 

Here's a nice batch of Reds thrown in, including a Homer Bailey I didn't have. There's also the Bryan Price manager card, which is pretty cool. There was also a nice selection of cards from the Panini Hometown Heroes set that I didn't show here mainly because I just showcased them in another recent trade post and I have nearly, if not all of the team set now.

Finally, here's a card of Reds outfield prospect Jonathan Reynoso. He's currently playing high A ball for the Daytona Tortugas and has been hanging out in the low minors since 2010. His stats are nothing worth writing home about with only a .254 average and seven homers in his minor league career so far.

It feels good to finally be caught up and I'm going to try to stay somewhat caught up on trade packs as I've got a few smaller ones that I need to recap here shortly.

You've Got Mail #34: Wes (jaybarkerfan) - Part 2

Continuing on with Part 2 of the epic Super Trader package I received from JBF ...

First there were loads of these TCMA cards celebrating the surprise 1961 NL champion Reds. Some notable names here include Leo Cardenas, Jim Maloney, and Wally Post.

Here's some 2016 Heritage. I really like the Killebrew/Votto Then and Now card. Jay Bruce looks as befuddled as Bryan Price does in the dugout sometime.

There were a number of cool Bengals cards included in the package as well. These were the best I found to share. The Giovani Bernard cards are really cool.

Back to baseball with some Kahn's team issue cards. One day I'll start working on collecting these  and I have enough now to perhaps do a blog post on. I enjoy these as there are obscure names like Brandon Claussen, Luke Hudson, and Jacob Cruz in these sets I'd completely forgotten about.

Retail oddballs are awesome, especially those from chains like Kaybee and Hills that have long since disappeared. The middle two cards of Lee May and Tony Perez are Circle K cards I believe. Every time I see Woolworth's I think of the line in O Brother Where Art Thou where Delmar tries to figure out if they were kicked out of one Woolworth's or all of them.

It can't be a package from Wes without some oldies but goodies. The most notable name on the 1982 Future Stars card is Paul Householder, who is hardly a household name. That 1982 Reds team is currently the only team in Reds history to lose more than 100 games. This year's squad had a good chance to become the second.

A handful of card that I picked out to represent just how much variety was included. The Frank Robinson card is cool as he's in color and everything else in the picture is in black and white.

Some shiny Chrome cards. I'm not too high on the Topps and Bowman chrome stuff, especially since it's double the pack price for half the cards.

These all red parallel cards on the other hand are pretty sweet. I'm not sure if these were a Target exclusive or not but they are tremendous.

And I'll close this out with my first taste of Upper Deck Masterpieces. Johnny Bench and his sideburns, that's all that needs to be said.

A big thanks to Wes for the awesome batch of cards, both hits and non-hits alike. I've got one more Supertrader package to get through and I'll finally be caught up on them.

You've Got Mail #33: Wes (jaybarkerfan) - Part 1

I'm still sorting through the epic yard sale find from a few weeks ago so while I'm doing that, I've got a few Supertrader packages left in in the backlog so I'll plow through those before showing off the yard sale goodies.

JBF sent not one, but two packages out before stepping down as the team rep for the Braves in the Supertraders group (quick aside: someone needs to hit me up via email with the contact info and address for Johnny's Trading Spot please). There was so much madness and chaos contained within that it'll be hard to contain it to one post.

So, with this post, it'll be focused on the "hits" included, next part will just be base cards.

The scan of this card got all messed up but you get the general idea. It's a Giovani Bernard shadowbox style RC numbered 32/50. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Bengals bounce back this fall after a disastrous, self-imploding exit from the playoffs last year.

This Cueto card is pretty sweet. It's still strange to see him in a different uniform, especially for the dreaded Giants. I think the Reds could have definitely afforded him if they hadn't wasted a giant amount of money on Homer Bailey.

Some more Bengals hits. Yeah, the Mario Alford is another one of those shadowbox style cards, but my favorite has to be the Tyler Eifert card. Yes, it's just a normal plain white swatch but I really like the background design on it. Sometimes the beauty is in simplicity.

Another batch of Reds hits. Heisey never really got going as a reserve outfielder and has bounced around a bit since the Reds traded him off to the Dodgers for Matt Magill. The Sauer card not only my second card that has a Crosley Field relic in it but it's also my second Hank Sauer card. The Votto card is from this years Donruss, which so far is my favorite release this year.

Finally, Wes had offered up a bunch of cards for the taking earlier this year and I claimed these Wally Szczerbiak cards. While I'm not much of a basketball collector, I will grab cards I think are cool here and there. Szczerbiak went to school and was a college star 20 minutes down the road from me at Miami of Ohio, so I claimed these since he's a local guy.

Part 2 of the awesome envelope coming up soon!

You've Got Mail #6: Sportscards From the Dollar Store

Happy December everyone! I'm back after a long break over the Thanksgiving holiday that went by way too fast. I hope everyone else had a nice holiday as well. I ate way too much turkey, watched way too much football, did zero shopping on Black Friday, and even made time for some hockey.

Speaking of hockey, Douglas, the fine proprietor of Sportscards from the Dollar Store, mentioned recently he was going to the Toronto Expo and asked if anyone had any requests. I asked if he could look for some Cincinnati Stingers cards since they are incredibly hard to find, at least in my area. He gladly obliged and sent these my way

These are fantastic. The top four are from the 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee WHA set and the bottom are from the 1975-76 WHA set. I really like the one of Robbie Ftorek in the Phoenix Roadrunners uniform. I'm only one card short of completing the team set from the 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee set now!

Stingers weren't all that Douglas sent, he also included a plethora of other stuff:

This nice Ben Bishop started it off. I became a fan of his during the Stanley Cup playoffs last summer and this is a nice addition to my growing hockey collection.

This Giovani Bernard die cut is awesome! Even though the Bengals aren't undefeated anymore, I still think they'll secure a nice playoff spot, maybe even a first-round bye.

Old school Bengals are the best, especially when it's Esiason and Munoz!

Here's a bunch more Bengals that Douglas sent over. All of these are really nice and will go well in my Bengals binder.

Thanks for the trade Douglas! Hope you enjoyed my return pack.