Look What the Lost Collector Has Found!

I received a plain white envelope at the tail end of last week.  PWE surprises at the end of a long work week are the best kind of surprises.

That is one sweet Pacific card. That background is super!  I think AJ forgot to mention "holographic goodness" in his note.  Don't worry, AJ. I got it!  CHECK!

AJ, from The Lost Collector, seems to be pretty good at finding cardboard for others.  Thanks, AJ!  I'll see if I can't return the favor before too long!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Doubling Up: A Trade Post

Well, that crazy Wampa did his best impersonation of the Tazmanian Devil and my once organized card system is now all up in arms.  Two of my more recent trade packages were part of the casualties. My apologies go out to Scott and David who sent me a couple of nice packages in response to my last trade bait post. Everything got mixed up together and I can't figure which cards came from which package. Also, this is normally where I would plug the blogs of my trading partners, but to the best of my knowledge neither Scott nor David run a blog. 

Things are kind of off to a rocky start with the this post.  My bad.  So, let's move on to the cards.  Baseball cards always help me forget my problems!

That's a 1992 Classic card of Brant Brown in a Fresno St. Bulldogs uniform on the top left followed by a Topps Finest card of Brooks Kieschnick, which is a new addition to my Kieschnick collection.  A mini A&G black bordered ARam is joined by a silver and gold foil-stamped card of randy Myers on the bottom right.  That's a nice start!

Here's a couple of quality Hall of Famers.  I love me some Gypsy Queen.

 Two new Sandberg cards.  Studio cards have always been one of my favorites the Sportflics card shows Ryno having some fun!

Hey, a new A&G Kosuke Fukudome! I'm up to 97 different Fukudome cards now.  The century mark is just around the corner.

I think a couple of these Kerry Wood and Andre Dawson cards are new to me as well.  Thanks, guys!

 Hey!  My first 2014 Stadium Club card.  I love this action shot of Castro about ready to unleash a throw to Rizzo.  I bet Rizzo is probably wishing Castro would use the four-seam grip on his throws.  The two-seamer sure can have some late movement!

Both packages had some Sammy Sosa cards enclosed and when they're mashed altogether it looks pretty impressive. 

Yet, only one of the packages contained these Kerry Wood and Sammy Sosa cards.  Somebody likes to Bip others in their trade packages.   David?  Scott?  I honestly am not sure.

If they were actual Bip Roberts cards I think I'd be a little bent out of shape, but these cards, even in quantity, have found a good home.

Sorry for mixing up the packages, but thanks for a great trade guys.  We'll have to do it again sometime!

Finishing off the Wampa Box

When I last left you I had to sign off quickly to round up that crazy Wampa. He was climbing the curtains and making a mess of the dining room.  What a pest.  He's back in his box now, but I think he's pouting.

Dealing with a nuisance like the Wampa is well worth the hassle, especially when there's a Blue Label Jumbo Pack involved!

 Remember, friends: Blue painter's tape is your friend!  This is the third large plastic card case from the Wampa box and not a smudge of tacky residue can be found anywhere.  The Wampa sure does pack his cards well before dropping in for a visit!

Let's crack in and see what this Jumbo Pack has to offer.  It's going to be picture heavy from here on out!  Hold on to your seats! (Especially when the Wampa is around, he may pull it out from under you!)

 Woo-Hoo! Rookies!  The Mad Dog is a pretty sweet addition!









The Brett Jackson to the left is a parallel, which ties in nicely with the other parallels and serial numbered cards below.

The Rafael Dolis is the second pink parallel from the 2013 Topps set.  It's pretty slick looking, but I think the blue chrome Eris Karros is the sharpest card of the bunch.

Next up, guys from my player collections:

 Another parallel and a sweet chrome autograph of Fujikawa.  I'm still waiting to hear what the Cubs decide to with their veteran reliever from Japan.  All signs point to him being bought of his contract and being eligible for free agency.  That would be too bad.  Stupid Wampa.  He's in the corner point and laughing at me, because of nonsensical fondness for Fujikawa.

 I've seen these manupatches before, but this is the first one that I'll be keeping in my collection. It's a pretty slick looking card, but I wish it commemorated the 1990 All-Star game at Wrigley Field instead.

 Woo-Hoo!  A Dillon Maples sighting and another Fukudome rookie.  Off to the binders they go!

 I love the 3-D Super Stars Billy Williams and it's in great condition when compared to the other older cards of its kind in my collection.  The orange Ernie Banks is just gorgeous and numbered out of 50!

 More Kris Bryant!  I was afraid I would never be able to track down his cards this year, because I have issues with paying more than a few bucks for a single card on eBay.  Thanks to Wampa, this is no longer an issue.

Vintage.  Sweet, round-corner, slightly faded, mis-centered, older than me cardboard.  There's some awesome sixty year old cardboard there, but my favorite of the group is the Ron Santo from the 1963 Fleer set.  What a well done card!


And now the true madness begins and it starts with three Kerry Wood relics.

Aramis Ramirex, Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster, Sammy Sosa, and Mark Prior...   five of the bigger names in the last 20 years of Chicago Cubs baseball.

The Hawk and Rick Monday!  I gotta say, the Monday card is so bright I used it to blind the Wampa when he was trying to steal my snack from me.  What does one feed a Wampa anyway?

 The relic in the upper right is nifty and I'm sure it went for a pretty penny back in 2000.

How about my second game-used base card?  Nice!  The other one in my collection is from the 2012 Panini Triple Play set and is not attributed to a single player.  It's part of the "Real Feel" subset.

 This base is somehow tied to Sammy Sosa and the card doesn't lay flat; it's as though the chunk of base is about to pop from the card.  Regardless, it's very cool.

Autographs?  Yep, the Wampa was trying to hide these from me, but I was able to wrestle them away from him.

 On the left we have four guys who never made it to The Show and on the right we have four who played a role for the Cubs back in the mid 90's. (Ozzie Timmons, Frank Castilllo, Larry Casian, and Bob Patterson)

A few more autographs...  On the right, Clevenger played a small part in helping the Cubs earn a 5th place finish a couple of seasons back and I think this is my fourth Shawon Dunston, Jr., auto.  Hehe... I'm cornering the market.

 The card on the left features a dynamite red background behind fan favorite Henry Rodriguez.  The guy on the right, although smiling, was not the best teammate and it didn't take long for the Cubs to show him the door.

We've hit the mother load!  Printing plates!

 It wasn't too long ago that I didn't have a printing plate in my collection, and now I'm up to six.  Starting at the top left and going clockwise we have Mark Prior, Rafael Dolis, Brandon Sing, and Scott Moore.

 

 Robert Hernandez was a name I was unfamiliar with and after looking him up I now understand why.  The last season he pitched was in 2009 and he never made it higher than single A.  But, he did pitch for the Peoria Chiefs.  Nice.  By the way, this is the first letter in my collection.  The Wampa tried to take it back because he said he needed it to spell his name.  What?  There are no E's in Wampa!  He's an ornery and misinformed bugger for sure.

We're on to the home stretch!

 The cardshop didn't have a top loader thick enough to protect this Zambrano card.  To be honest, it's thicker than most pack of cards you'd find at one of the big box stores.  Crazy.

 The above Cashner card has a sticker auto, but otherwise it is absolutely stunning.  I'll never actually rip open a high end product like Topps Marquee, so this is a pretty sweet card for my collection.

And last, but not least...

 This Ernie Banks card is numbered to 25 and makes me smile every time I look at it.  Mr. Cub.  Wow!

Well, I made it.  Another couple hundred Cubs card to add to my collection including a slew of parallels, serial numbered cards, relics, autographs, printing plates, and a Wampa to boot. 

I'm not sure where JBF comes up with all the cardboard that he does, but it sure is nice to be on the receiving end of such an onslaught of heart-warming generosity.  Wes, I've been working on a return package for you and it's coming together quicker than expected.  Heck, the annual local card show is next weekend and I'm sure I'll find a couple of things to polish it off.  Be ready, my friend!

Oh, and the rest of you should be ready as well, because you may find a Wampa clawing at your front door!

No worries, I think I have successfully rehabilitated the Wampa.  At least that's what this last picture would suggest! 

Look, I found him outside picking flowers to give away on his next visit!

Excuse me, you'e sitting on the flat-rate mailer.

Some Wampa's can be so rude. 

After a little coaxing, I was able to remove the falt-rate mailer with my hand attached.  That was a close one!

The box was covered in Topps coins from 1990.  At first glance it looks like I'll probably have a team set.

Woo-Hoo!  Four team sets!

Here's a few more cards left over from the last post.  I forgot to remove them from the camera the first time around... that may have had something to do with the fact that I had a Wampa rampaging the room.

You'll have to wait to see the insides... hold on!

Reed Johnson is one of my favorite Cubs from the last twenty years.  I'm sorry he couldn't stay longer in Cub blue.  Matt Walbeck played in Peoria when I was a wee tike and love the guys from my childhood.

Vintage!  Glorious vintage!  I think I got Popoviched!

The infamous Ryno "3B" error card.  I remember when this one was valued at $20 back in the day!  

I've never seen the Soriano before.  I like the black and white.

Kris Bryant!  Holy Smokes!  Base and chrome!  The Wampa has sure been keeping tabs on who Chicago is all excited about!

All of the below are new to me.  The 2014 Donurss is obviously the newest release of the group and it's also another addition to the Ryno player collection.  I'll have to update that before too long.

 I heard Mark Grace just found a new job with the Diamondbacks.  Good for him.  I miss Gracie.  The card on the bottom right is pretty slick.  Again, I fall for the artsy card.  Go figure.  Shiny, artsy, vintage... I'm easy to keep to happy!

Alright, back to the insides of the Wampa's seat!

 The insides of the flat-rate box surprised the heck out of me for sure.

 But, it'll provide me with some great blog fodder down the road.  I love to pit new product against older material in my Pack Wars series.  These will work out perfectly.

 

Again, the Wampa is trying to confuse me.  Notice those packs from the White Sox Documentary set by Upper Deck.  Yeah, I think those will find their way north as well.   The last thing I need to do is expand my collection to another team from Chicago!

The best from JBF's Wampa package is yet to come.  I think I can squeeze it into one post, but we'll have to see if the Wampa takes issue with that.  He looks so big in the Star Wars movies, but he's more like the size of gremlin... and a personality to match.  He's pretty ornery.   Full of mischief, that one.

Hey! 

Stop climbing the curtains!  . . . Sorry guys, I gotta go...