No PWE is too small

A couple of weeks ago (more like 3...), I received a direct tweet from everyone's favorite Luis Torrens fan, Kenny, asking if I'd received a PWE in the mail from him from Japan.  I replied that I hadn't, but I had seen a couple of post in the previous days from others who had, so I was hopeful.

That day, I received my PWE, which contained 2 cards that without Kenny's generosity, probably would have never seen the light of day in my house.

First up, Carlos Delgado.

Now I know what you're thinking.  We've all seen the 2003 Topps Carlos Delgado card a million times.   Take a closer look, as there's no Topps logo....

Had to do a bit of hunting, but this appears to be a Topps Kanebo card, featuring the slugger and all his status from the first decade of his career.  Using Google translate I was able to figure out a couple of things, such as the team name says Blue Jays (not just Toronto, or the full Toronto Blue Jays).  It will be fun to try and figure out what the biography says someday....

But this next card is certainly something I thought I would never own.

This is a 2000 BBM Preview card, #P30 featuring Ichiro in his Orix BlueWave uniform.

Absolutely wonderful! 

What I got a kick out of on the back is there's a "Did You Know" in English, then the factoid is written in Japanese.   Wonder why they used 2 languages for that. 

The big thing for me on the card back is his stats.  1992 he started in pro ball as an 18 year old, and fared OK in his first season, struggled in his 2nd, and then just tore up the Pacific League for the next 6 seasons. 

What I learned from looking at his career stats is that if you combine MLB and Japanese stats, Ichiro has 4367 hits.  All time hit king?

Great envelope Kenny, thank you very much for thinking of me! 

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Inbound and Down #9: All Trade Bait, All the Time

Not to be outdone, Oscar from the Dodger-centric All Trade Bait, All the Time blog sent me 5 cards to rival the 5 I sent his way during the 100 words contest.

Here's the vertical 3.  The '16 Osuna I already have, but the Benoit/Bautista pair I certainly need for the 2017 Blue Jays team set. Love Benoit rocking the old school Blue Jays cap.

Here's the horizontals.  Grilled cheese and the Blue Jays team card, if you please.  Two more cards off the Blue Jays '17 flagship want list, which hasn't even been created yet.

In hindsight, I could have used these cards to try and do another 100 word post.  But in the end, this post ends up short and sweet, just like a 5 card PWE should be.

Oscar, thank you very much, the cards are appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Torn

Got a nice PWE the other day from the uber creative Gavin who runs the Baseball Card Breakdown blog.  Totally unexpected, which is always the best, this 4 card envelope of fun hit the sweet spots.

My first Topps Triple Threads card from 2016 is the Troy Tulowitzki card you see on the left.  It is the Amethyst parallel (really, aren't we stretching for colors just a bit too far now?) #'d 78/340.  I'm going to have to dig into my collection because my want list says I don't need the Jose Cruz Jr. card in the center, but I sure don't ever remember seeing it.  The Nazem Kadri on the right is a great card, a nice shade of red to contrast the Maple Leaf blue and white.  That one goes right into the SNI hockey set, and is the 6th Leaf to be posted so far...

Now, I have to show this off, because I'm honored to be one of the 25 people on the planet to receive one of these homemade rip cards...

Now, first I'll say God bless Tony Gwynn, he left this planet far too early.

But what do I do here.  Do I tear the card, hoping for something I might really like inside.

Do I keep the card intact, potentially creating a one of a kind collectible if the other 24 recipients pretend to be 8 year old kids and gleefully tear into theirs?

Do I tear the card, hoping to help reduce the Tony Gwynn '89 Fleer card population enough so that the price might climb another 5 cents?

I'll leave the decision for another time...

Thank you for the cards Gavin, greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

I'm a little late to the party, but I have an excuse

Part of my monthly card show purchase a couple of weeks ago was something I hadn't bought in quite a while.  I splurged for a hobby box of 2016 Topps, for a couple of reasons.  First, I'm building the set, so instead of piecing it together with a shit load of retail packs, I thought I may as well get it over with (most of it anyhow) in one shot.   Second, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

First of all, the base set collation was good.  I only pulled one duplicate (Mark Melancon) which I can live with.  Second, I was very curious as to what I was going to pull when the dealer said "good luck" after I paid for the box.  Lottery, here I come!  I needed just 40 cards to complete Series 1 after opening the box, and that dropped to 30 after opening a couple of rack packs.  Manageable for sure.

I do not mind the base set, there are some good photos in there.  I like that Topps included World Series, team cards and cards like the Hollywood Production card (battery powered, a cute play on words).  

As it is every year, the inserts are just too damn tedious for me.  I don't care for them, and never will.

Nice pairs of teammates on these cards, but they just don't fit for me.  I'll never be a master set builder, so these are available. 

OK, I get it, these guys got to pitch.  Did any of them do it a few days after an appendectomy?  If not, then I would say that they were hardly "pressed into service".  Unless they did it just after their uniform was ironed.   Available to anyone who wants them.

Cards commemorating a ceremonial baseball toss.  Only Mo'ne Davis should be on one of these, the rest of them I'm sure didn't get their pitch to the plate.  Even better, Carrie Brownstein was in the box twice.   Anyone want any of these?

Perspecitves.  OK, some pretty good names and photography on these.  I'll call this the insert set of the year so far.  Still, not my cup of tea.  I also pulled Craig Biggio twice.   Up for grabs to anyone...

LOL!!  Berger's Best in my opinion is just a rehash of "Cards Your Mom Threw Out" a few years ago.  For me, it's a big fail.
The 100 years of Wrigley is a nice tribute to a stadium that I still have to visit someday.  All 4 of these cards are available.

Now, these 3 cards are truly a mixed bag of emotions for me.  One, they made me laugh.  Helping me enjoy my box break certainly helped.  Maybe these would have been better in the Opening Day release, which is more geared to the younger collector, in my opinion.  The kielbasa catchers mitt is my favorite of these...which are all available.

Another type of parallel set.  Foil.  Sorry kids, no comment on these.  They're available.

All of you who have read my blog over the years knows that I enjoy a good gold, pink, black, blue, green or yellow parallel.  But the borderless cards for 2016 really make these parallels disappointing for me.  I really liked pulling gold parallels from packs the past few years, because you could actually tell they were gold.  I actually missed the Gordon and Holliday cards until I looked at all the cards a 2nd time.   Not good.   These 5 are available.   Speak now.

I really haven't pulled any great hits from hobby boxes (outside of the Gwynn auto a few years back from A&G).  This Mauer jersey with a thin pinstripe isn't that bad though.  Joe does need a shave though.   It's available to any Twin or Mauer collectors in the blogosphere.

I didn't bother scanning the 2 buyback cards that I pulled, because to be honest I'm tired of the concept.   Would rather have had 2 base cards that I needed rather than a '74 Boots Day or a '84 Ron Oester with the special stamp on them.   You want them?  Let me know.

I'm no designer, so I will not comment too much on the design other than to say it's OK, but I do miss the borders.  Leave the full bleed to Stadium Club or the other higher end products is what I say.  Want to make me happy Topps?  Cut the number of inserts down, or failing that, quit reusing old ideas.

That's my $60 worth...

All of these cards are available....leave a comment, and if you only want 1 or 2 of these cards, let me know if a PWE works for you.

Thanks for reading, Robert

A PWE that has me seeing red

I don't know about everyone out there, but I know that the best envelopes that I receive in the mail are the ones that I'm not expecting.

It means that someone out there is taking the time to think about me, and send a little cardboard goodness my way.

Jeff from the One Man's Junk (Wax) blog recently sent me one of those unexpected surprise envelopes, which contained 4 red Blue Jays parallels.

It's funny how things change so quick in today's baseball world; only one of these 4 players still are part of the Jays organization.  The one player out of these 4 who I am really interested to see what happens to him is Brandon Morrow.

Morrow signed with the Padres this season as part of their huge makeover.  Their depth chart on MLB.com shows him as the 6th starter, which means he's likely headed for the pen, which I believe might be a blessing in disguise for him.  With the injuries he's had the past 3 years, pitching for shorter stints just may be what he needs to help out the Padres staff.

4 great adds to the Blue Jays collection are really appreciated Jeff.   Thank you very much!!!

thanks for reading, Robert

How to effectively rid oneself of unwanted '91 Donruss

I had contacted Dennis, the proprietor of the Detroit based sports card blog Too Many Verlanders, the other day and alerted him that I had a few cards that I wanted to send his way.

Dennis confirmed my request to make sure I still had his correct address, and at the same time he let me know that a PWE was headed my way.

That PWE arrived today and I quickly ripped it open, and take a guess as to what the first card I saw was...

Gerald Perry!  1991 Donruss!  Hold on....

Am I collecting this set?  (brain shuts down to think....give me a minute please)   No, I am not.

Royals?   Blue uniform is correct, but the logo is a little off.  Beginning to wonder if I was being pranked.

OK, there's blue tape on the top loader, let's see what's underneath the Perry.

Whew, a couple of cards more my speed!   A pair of serial numbered Bowman cards to add to the SNI project.  The Steven Ramos on the left takes care of the lowest number that was remaining, 29.  The Cardinals are now just 3 cards away from the 50 card goal.  The Frank Herrmann on the right is serial numbered 255/500, and gives the Indians 41 cards in the set. 

Dennis has also been a frequent contributor to the project, as these are cards #40 and #41 that he's sent my way.

Thank you for the PWE Dennis, it is greatly appreciated!

Note:  this post does not constitute an endorsement for anyone out there to send me their unwanted '91 Donruss cards.  Yes, my collecting interests are wide, but not that wide!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Yes, it's still going

The one project that has been going for almost the entire length that this blog has been running is the Serial Numbered Insanity set.   I haven't had the opportunity to add to the set lately (nor have I thought a lot about it), but leave it up to an old reliable PWE sender to get me thinking about the project again.

Pat from the Hot Corner Cards blog sent me a single card yesterday, bringing me one card closer to completion.

Serial # 618

A very young looking Alberto Arias becomes the 1255th card in the set.  Once lagging way behind, the Rockies are now creeping closer to the finish line.   The Rockies now have 45 cards out of the 50 needed for the set, pretty much negating the worries I had a few months back about how I was going to get this particular team completed.

Now about those Tigers.....

Thank you for the card Pat, much appreciated!

thanks for reading, Robert

My how time flies

Gotta love the unexpected PWE's that arrive on your doorstep, especially those filled with a handful of cards that hit various needs.

I received such an envelope while I was away for the weekend from Doug at Sportscards from the Dollar Store.  Doug not only hit a couple of my hockey wants, he also knocked off a couple of serial numbers that I needed for the insanity set.

I updated the list this evening, and couldn't believe it had been 4 weeks since I had removed anything from the list. 

Behold, the 53rd and 54th cards from the 2013 Topps base set that are now part of SNI:

Evan Gattis on the left is the 40th Braves card out of the 50 required.  It looks as if Evan is going to surpass all his rookie totals in hits, HR, RBI and batting average.   Not sure if he's making Braves fans forget Brian McCann yet, but it appears as if over time he will.  Gattis' card is serial number 1074.

Not sure how I missed Juan Nicasio's card in my top 5 for the 2013 Topps set.  What an amazing facial expression that Topps captured on his card!  Nicasio was sent down to AAA a week ago to make room for 24 year old Kyle Parker (0 for 6 with 4K's so far).  Nicasio's card is the 27th card for the Rockies out of 50, and is serial numbered 885.

Just 368 cards to go to reach the 1500 mark!  Still need help with the Rockies, Orioles and Astros.  All 3 of those teams are still under the 30 card plateau.

Doug, thank you for the envelope, all the cards are great and really appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert

This card should have went to another blogger

Building on last night's post about a couple of PWE's from Pat at the Hot Corner Cards blog, I actually found a trio of '62 Topps cards in one of them.  While checking the 3 cards off of the want list, I immediately was struck with the cartoon on card #92 of Sam Jones:

Of course anyone who is in touch with the blogosphere sees the cartoon and thinks of Matt Scott's blog Bob Walk the Plank (OK maybe it's just me who thinks like that).  I've seen his name so often on trade posts lately I'm beginning to wonder if he owns his own card shop.

Matt, I think you need to steal this photo and put it as your backdrop for a few days....just a suggestion.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Black and blue and Thome too

First off, I just want to remind everyone that the 2nd play in match is still going on.  If you haven't voted yet, but would like to cast your vote, please comment on the 72 vs 71 post from last Saturday.

Now, I had a pretty good finish to my day today.   I had to work the close shift, so I didn't get home until 9 pm.  What awaited me when I arrived home was a great pile of envelopes, totally unexpected.  I'm sure that all of you out there read the Night Owl Cards blog on a regular basis, and if so you may remember that he mailed out a bunch of PWE's at the end of last week.

I did not expect to receive one of those today, because I only knew of one card that I had asked to be set aside...

Everyone out there maximizes their PWE's by sending multiple cards, and the black bordered Reyes was not the only card inside.  Greg hit the jackpot on the Topps Opening Day blasters a short time ago, and I was lucky enough to be the recipient of two blue parallels.

Jean Segura is serial #'d 1360, and is the 35th Brewers card out of 50.   Gerardo Parra on the right is serial #'d 1055, and represents the 32nd card for the Diamondbacks.   Better yet, these two cards bring the total of cards I have to 1125, which means that I am 3/4 of the way finished.

It seemed like quite a while since the last serial #'d cards came in, so these were definitely a welcome sight.

Last but not least, there was a great Jim Thome base card for the PC in there.

 

Great shot of Thome providing either a pre game or post game interview.  I guess he needed two bats to prop himself up.

What's shameful on my part is updating the Thome have list on the PC tab, and realizing that I've had a dozen cards that have been sitting on my desk for 3 weeks that haven't been added to the list.  I think that this weekend is going to be spent updating my pages, and cleaning off the piles of cards that have accumulated on my desk again.

Greg, I have that Joc Pederson card set aside for you, plus a few other Dodgers.   Should be in the mail this weekend.  Thank you for what you sent, very much appreciated!!!

thanks for reading, Robert

Standouts

I mentioned in yesterday's post that there is always that one card in an envelope that stands out above the others.  The Bill Singer card was very cool and an unexpected pleasure from Max at the Starting Nine blog.

There were two other cards that also got my attention, and could have been the stand out card in many other envelopes.

First, a little purple for your Thursday evening?

I don't remember seeing any purple parallels anywhere in the blogosphere for the '14 Topps set, and then Jose Bautista makes his way to my door step.  I like it.  Great shot of Jose swinging for the fences, and the purple is nice and dark, which is much preferred to a lighter shade such as lilac (did I really just write that???)

This next card of Aaron Loup is really an arm bender.

Baseball is wondering why there are so many Tommy John surgeries?  Good God man, look at this photo, it just screams ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction.   Say that five times fast.

Max, thank you for the cards, they are greatly appreciated!!  As always, a fantastic envelope...

Now it's time to get prepped for the card show, because I'm actually going tomorrow night!!   An unexpected gift from my wife, who was willing to fore go our regular Friday night out so I can attend. 

Spoiled rotten...yes, I know.

Thank you for reading, Robert

Black and Blue

A few weeks ago I sent off a few OPC cards to Justin at The Hopeful Chase to help out with his 2012-13 set pursuit.   No need to send anything in return I advised, as I was happy to send him a few cards that were just doubles for me.

Guys in the blogosphere sometimes just don't listen!!

Check this out...

2013 Topps Black parallel of Mark DeRosa!!  Serial #'d 16/62, and a great add to the Jays collection.

A great PWE, and a great way to start the weekend.

Thank you Justin, very much appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert

Another handful off the list

Still doing a reasonable job keeping up with the incoming Blue Jays cards.  The 2014 issues are arriving faster than I ever could have imagined, and with new releasing seemingly happening on a weekly basis, I have to be sure to keep the Jays want list up to date.

Thanks to these 3 cards, I already have 10 of the 2014 Heritage Blue Jays team set in hand.

Say cheese Munenori!

Gotta love the Munenori Kawasaki card.  I'll be hard pressed to find a card that I'll enjoy more than his in any of the 2014 releases.  His offensive stats weren't the greatest, but his hustle and personality won him a lot of fans in Toronto last year (myself included).  We'll see if he makes it back to the major league roster again in 2014.

This next card is my first 2014 Opening Day card, and it's a beauty.

get a grip

The blue parallels from Opening Day have always been a favorite of mine, and the red Canada Day uniform on R.A. Dickey just stands right out.   Great card!!  Speaking of 2014 Opening Day, my want list is now up, and I was a bit surprised that there were only 4 Jays cards in the set.  With only 220 cards in the set, I know Topps is kind of limited, but 220 cards divided by 30 teams would mean 7 cards per club, right? 

I guess logic doesn't always win out.   That's why I don't make the big bucks folks....

The last card that I'll show off tonight is a reverse of the R.A. card...but it's not him.

Thank you again Pat, great PWE!!

Red border along with the  blue uniform top of Kevin Pillar is featured on the Target red border card you see here.  This is the 1st Target red parallel I've received, and I don't know if it's just me, but there just doesn't seem to be as many flagship cards flying around.   I haven't seen a lot of the big box store parallels on the blogs at all, and I wonder if that's because people are tired of them already. 

Maybe Topps needs to reinvent the wheel, come up with something that isn't quite so square?

Pat and Jason, thank you for the cards, they are tremendous!!  Always appreciated...

thanks for reading, Robert

Two for the price of 1 and a quarter

Pat did it again.  Out of the blue, 2 envelopes arrived in my mailbox yesterday.

Oddly enough, instead of the usual pair of PWE's that Pat sends me, I received a bubble mailer and a PWE.

Sorry Pat, I have to say this.  Remember, this statement is coming from the guy who claims insanity on a regular basis.

A bubble mailer and a PWE on the same day?

I know, I know.  Never look a gift horse in the mouth, especially one that has been very generous to me as Pat has been.  None the less, this prompted an interesting conversation between me and the Mrs.

Near as we could figure out, Pat mailed out the bubble mailer full of these...

  
And realized later that he forgot to include these...

My scanning skills hard at work

See, I knew that getting that Blue Jays list up early would pay dividends!!  These 5 cards complete my 1990 Blue Jays team set.   Nice!

So, for the price of one bubble mailer plus a postage stamp (which is a little less than a quarter of a bubble mailer), I have one team set completed, and I'm now down to 5 cards for the 2014 Topps Series 1 set.  (40,171,179,197,280)

Pat, as always, thank you very much!   The cards really are appreciated.

Thanks for reading, Robert

This pile is a lot more manageable

You've read my posts lately talking about the piles of Blue Jay cards that I've been sorting through.  I've typed the word "piles" so much lately that I think I'm starting to become the king of hemorrhoids. 

Don't get me wrong, the giant envelopes full of cards that I've received recently are appreciated.  But the PWE I received today from Marcus at all the way to the backstop was the kind of break I needed.

4 cards, all Blue Jays, easy to add to the spreadsheet.

A couple of 2014 Topps parallels start this off:

I wonder if DeRosa knows that the Bills aren't coming to play in Toronto this year.  Redmond did well as a part time starter for the Jays last year, and has a chance to become a full time starter with the club this year.

 

The Jays probably should have checked Scott Brow's birth certificate before drafting him, because he sure doesn't look like he's at least 18 years old on this card (actually, he was 25).  Brow only pitched in parts of 3 seasons with the Jays in the mid 90's, and then finished up his career with the Diamondbacks in 1998.

Finally, this Vinnie Chulk 2006 green parallel was a great find.  I didn't even know that there were multiple parallels of this set (a quick eBay search and I found other different colored parallels as well).   It makes your head spin just how many cards UD printed in 2006, because there are 1250 cards in the set, and with parallels #'d out of 50, 99 and 299 (that I know of), the printing presses probably worked a lot of overtime back then.  Still this is a cool card to add to the Jays collection.

Marcus, thank you very much for the PWE!!  Totally unexpected and appreciated!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Survival of the fattest

This post is a thinly veiled disguise to show 5 more cards for the Serial Insanity set.  I received a great envelope today from Doug at Sportscards From The Dollar Store.  How great was this envelope you ask?

I don't think I've ever received a PWE with 10 cards inside.  Talk about staying power, check it out!!

That envelope had a nice tear, taped (mummified might be a better word) from head to toe, and yet the cards inside were as nice as the day they were ripped from a pack.

Here's 5 of them for you, all from the 1998 Topps Stars set...

Two sons of major leaguers in the top row flank the 47th card for the Mets.   They are the first team to be just 3 cards away from being "complete". 

There were also 4 more SNI cards inside, which I'll save for the next serial numbered post.  The 10th card was one for the Joe Sakic PC, from the 2012-13 Artifacts set.

Great cards all around. Thank you for the PWE Doug, much appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

The week in review: holding tight so far

It's only been a week and a half since the start of the new year, but I've done well in the first 10 days to keep to the New Years goals I set.  If the past is any indication, I'll get the itch for pack busting in the next week or 2.  I did manage to avoid grabbing a pack during my visit to Wal-Mart this evening, so there's progress so far.

Money spent on the hobby this week:  $45.00

I did well at the show last weekend, only hitting the one table, and sticking with the plan of only buying vintage.  If you read the blog at all this week, you saw the cards I was able to add from the show.

Best card of the week:  Melky Cabrera '13 Bowman Chrome green parallel refractor

I'm sure there's a lot of you saying "how can this be better than all of that vintage you bought?"

Well, that's a good question.  To be honest, I just got this card today from Pat at the Hot Corner Cards blog (I have a couple of PWE's for you btw Pat....), and it jumped right at me.

The scan doesn't do it justice, it really is a great looking card.   It's also a Blue Jay, and even better it is something that I wasn't expecting.   The cards that come to you out of the blue are the best, aren't they??  thank you for the PWE's Pat!!!

The Phil Dunphy Challenge:   This has been good for me.  I've been on the elliptical for 13 straight evenings, and I'm finally hit 20 minutes in this evening's session (believe me, that's good for this guy....).  I was going to post my daily results on the blog, but then I thought better of it because this is all about the cards here.  I do post daily on my Facebook page however.  The total mileage so far is 15.1 miles, which leaves me with just under 197 miles to go.  I'll keep you up to date on the weekly recap.  

Thanks for reading, Robert

Three

This post is the tale of two PWE's that I received in the mail today.  Why is the post called "three" you ask? Three cards were in those two envelopes.

One of the envelopes I was expecting to arrive, and it contained one card.  The other envelope was a pleasant surprise from a fellow blogger, and it contained two cards.

The first envelope was an eBay auction that I won last week for one of the remaining '75 Topps cards to complete my set, # 180 Joe Morgan.

I paid $3.99 + $1.99 shipping for the card.  For that price, the card arrived on my doorstep in a PWE, in a top loader with the front of the top loader taped to a piece of cardboard.  There wasn't a penny sleeve used, and everyone knows what happens to a card when it is placed in a top loader without a penny sleeve.  Tip it over, and it falls out.  The card was sticking about a quarter of the way out of the top loader when I opened the envelope.

Wonderful.

This is what I get for impulse buying.  Two of the five cards I bought on last Monday's buy-a-thon were minis, the third was the Morgan you see above, and the other two were actually in good shape when they arrived.  Not only did I learn my lesson about impulse buying, but I've also learned to look a lot more closely when I buy cards from eBay and make sure that shippers use bubble envelopes.  I understand that people are looking to save a buck wherever they can, but I'm sure that sellers that do well on eBay (and any other selling forum for that matter) do so because of repeat business.  I will not be a repeat customer for that seller.

Bitch fest over.  By the way, I'm down to three cards to complete the '75 set.  I hope to obtain those this weekend.

The other two cards that arrived in a PWE came from Pat over at the Hot Corner blog.  A pair of gold birds were found inside this unexpected pleasure...

I haven't heard anything regarding Ricky Romero and what his status will be for 2014 and beyond.  I imagine that the Jays are going to have to eat his salary for the next 2 years and buy him out after 2015 unless a miraculous turnaround occurs.

The Adam Wainwright on the right is another piece of the serial insanity puzzle.  One is better than none!
Thank you very much Pat for the unexpected PWE!!

I also received another dose of generosity today from another blogger, and that will get its own post tomorrow (hopefully).

Thanks for reading, Robert

I had titles aplenty

It's funny how the mind works sometimes.  I try to come up with catchy or creative titles for my blog posts, something that may catch the eye or make people think for a moment. 

Today, I received a simple PWE from Zach over at the Underdog Card Collector blog with a handful of Blue Jays goodness.  Five cards that I enjoyed looking at, and for some strange reason the contents had my mind stirring with post titles immediately.

First, there was the jersey card that made me think of the title "I drive a VW bus", but then everyone might have thought that I'm a hippie stoner trapped in the 60's...

I believe that this is the first Leaf jersey card that I own of a Blue Jay player, and the scan doesn't do the shininess of the card justice.   Love it.

The 2nd title I came up with is regarding the 3 Heritage cards that he sent, including a R.A. Dickey SP.  If you saw the post earlier this week, I showed off another R.A. SP card, so I was going to title this post
 "2 Dickey's are better than one", but then people might think I'm a pervert, or worse yet I may swing for the other side (trust me, I don't).

Finally, the fifth card was a great surprise, it's a Blue Jay that I already own the emerald green parallel of.  I'll let you look at the card first..

I believe that this is the slate (help me out here) parallel that you receive when you send wrappers in to Topps??  I immediately thought of the title "a different colored Colby", but I thought better of it because people may perceive me as racially insensitive, which of course is not the case. 

Now, I also had a title that referenced an acronym for Zach's blog.  I could have called the post "I'm down with the UCC (not the OPP)", but then I looked up the lyrics for the song "O.P.P." and thought I better not go down that road as well.

So you can see, I had titles aplenty for this post, but being sure to be careful and not offend anyone, I just made up a generic, bland, non-eye catching title. 

Zach, thank you for the PWE, it was greatly appreciated!!  Or you could say I was down with it....

thanks for reading, Robert

PWE's are all right by me

One of the things I've tried to do on my last couple of trips over to Sam's club is to bring home bubble mailers.  They have a pretty good deal on boxes of 25, so for an extra $6 on the grocery bill, I keep myself stocked up for trading purposes.  I actually have two full boxes in reserve right now, along with the one I have open with about 2/3 remaining.

Now, the PWE revolution seems to be beginning.  I honestly don't blame any of you out there either for starting to send stuff in a PWE.  It's cheap, quick and you don't have to wait in line at the post office (unless you need stamps of course).

I've even bandied about the idea of getting a few PWE's together for some of you, heaven knows I probably owe a few of you out there.

Speaking of PWE's, I received one today from Matt over at Card Anathema with three more pieces of the 1500 card serial insanity puzzle, all courtesy of 2011 Topps.

I just noticed, all 3 are in gray unis.  And what do I see in the middle, an Astro!  They are the last team to be 1/3 complete, as Barmes is the 17th Astro towards the set. 

Matt, thank you very much for the cards, they really are appreciated!!   PWE's, yes they are all right by me.

I may have to look into whether Sam's has a good deal on PWE's. 

Thanks for reading, Robert