Yep, and I think I’ve about got a return package ready for this one finally. It comes to me from Baseball Card Stuff, and it is awesome as can be, so let’s get right into it and check out the majority of what was sent!
That 20-10 topps card isn't part of the trade, for some reason I combined them with scans of this trade (twice as you will see). Poor planning on my part.
Why does Opening Day get so much crap for being the same as the base set when almost every year, the little tweaks actually make it BETTER looking than the original?? The blue foil is better (or at least more interesting) than the regular silver on the ’06s, and the white border completely and utterly destroys the black-bordered design of the ’07 set. I’m not normally all about the white borders (if you’re going plain white borders, just make it full-bleed, cuz that’s much less boring), but it actually makes the ’07 design look nice.
Also, Derrick May! And a nice Upper Deck design, which brings me to my next rant. To the people that dislike Upper Deck’s general lack of base set design, I strongly disagree with you (and they change it up enough to tell the difference from year-to-year, so come off that BS). An analogy: I watch my wrestling for THE WRESTLING, not the silly skits & promos and crap. The extracurricular crap only works to raise the interest in a match when it’s good, and quite frankly, it usually isn’t. This is the same reason I generally prefer Upper Deck’s flagship base sets over topps’, they tend to be free of the frequently not very good design clutter of topps and let the great photography do the talking.
To each their own I guess, and it’s not like I’m a set collector anyway, but topps, ehh… I can take ’em or leave ’em. They may have the history, the tradition, but I think tradition is overrated, especially when it comes to baseball. I may catch heat for that, but I’m not saying it all willy-nilly. There are reasons for it.
Rant mode off.
For now.
Maybe.
No rants here, just some good ol' quality Mark Grace action. This is the other one I foolishly combined with 20-10 topps scans that I'll probably never use, though I managed to put a keeper up in the same row as the trade cards this time.
I guess the lack of mid-’90s baseball card collecting (I was all about the basketball back then when I was first starting out) is why I have so few Mark Grace cards in my collection, so these are all greatly appreciated. The ghostly Graceface on the Pinnacle card is foilboard I think. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have sudden urge to go grab a bottle of RC. Dunno why… 😛
Now we're gettin' to the nitty gritty. Griffey, Dawson, Bell, that Fukudome I have about a half dozen of now...
Yeah, I have a lot of that UDX Fukudome. If anyone has a spare Heritage or Goudey Kosuke Rookie, I’d gladly send a UDX (or two!) for it.
I’m planning to pare down my Griffey collection, but the Profiles and Record Breakers will be staying.
I think I might have to make a player collection for George Bell, since I’ve been keeping the few pre and post-Cubbies I have of him too. He’s just cool.
Speaking of cool, Andre Dawson, ladies & gentlemen. I think that Hawk is my first very first Leaf card of that year. I don’t even recognize the design, though I’m sure I’ve seen it before.
And wow, I never realized this, but ’84 topps is like the unholy offspring of ’83 and ’86 topps, lol.
This scan is so full of win!
A Kosuke parallel #ed /99 flanked by two different ’83 Fergie Jenkins’!! ~ Win x3
My first ever ’80s Sportflics! ~ Win
The total mindblowage that is Eck & Lee Smith being on the same team at the same time combined with the fact that I’m pretty sure I’ve never even seen an ’85 Donruss card before! ~ Win x2
And as my dad noted when he saw the card, not only the is mustache above Buckner’s lip impressive, but the mustaches above his eyes are pretty amazing too! ~ Win for my dad’s sense of humor.
And that’s not even getting to the fact that I need both the Hawk & the Ryno. ~ Yet more win.
See? Full of win. Thank you very much, Jake. Awesome cards. I will get stuff sent as soon as I can.
Oh, I almost forgot. Jake also sent this lil guy along:
Andre Dawson Coin! I was pretty geeked up to find this in the package. 🙂
Now then, though the interest has been better than I was really expecting, we’ve still got 9 or so more spots still to fill to make the Opening Day Group Break happen. It will be a max of $25 for two random teams and the boxes busted will most likely look pretty similar to the rough draft from a couple posts ago.
Next time, Gadget…
Life and Baseball Cards 