Thankfulness: Nard Dogged, Trades, Card Show Fail & Darrell Evans, Whats in Papa Jack's box?

THANKFULNESS

Any fan of The Office will remember an episode titled "Double Date" in which Dwight Schrute does things for people so they would "owe him one." One Andrew Bernard though would not be out-polited. Well, P-Town Tom just Nard-dogged me. In the same way someone would send a thank you card to someone for a thank you card, Tom dropped a JJ bomb on me. Big Time.

For anyone looking for a Cub collecting trade partner; I would avoid him all together. He sends too much and follows up packages with crazy bonuses. Avoid the headaches. I will keep trading with Tom to keep everyone else out of the monotonous mess of amazing cards he sends. All of this is in sarcastic fun of course. P-Town Tom is top notch and his blog ain't bad either!
I have to say I am very gracious to be a part of and thankful for all the friends I have found through blogging.
Gavin of the blog Baseball Card Breakdown is one of those friends. He and I completed our first trade and it was a doozy. In my eyes at least.  I bothered him about 3 cards he had posted and we set up a deal. Here is what now calls my house home:

This sucker is numbered!

Deivi Cruz wasn't a bad player by any means but his bat just couldn't compete with others at his position at the time.

I don't want to promote rape or whatever the hell Chad Curtis's hobbies include nowadays but this card might be my favorite in the stack.

FINALLY! I have sent TTM requests to Wily Mo for years and got nothing. I always wondered why his auto says W-I-L-L-Y but he doesn't actually spell it that way.

Hudson /99. Heck yes!

Raining JJ's

On top of Tom's JJ care package, I scooped up this sweet auto card on ebay for cheap. I also recently flipped the Eloy auto card I pulled a while back on ebay in order to join some breaks. I will have some sweet pulls to post when they arrive.

Another cheap ebay pickup.

Darrell Evans and a Card Show Fail

So, I had this Darrell Evans fella scribble on one of Papa Jack's old cards this past weekend. Mr. Evans was great and told some really awesome stories while I waited my turn. When I got up to him he sat and stared at this card for a long time without talking. Then he said "You know this card is almost 50 years old?" I told him I inherited it from Papa Jack and he said he hadn't seen one in this good of shape in decades. That was pretty awesome. Back in the book it goes.

I walked into the card show for 3 things...#1 Darrell Evans Auto #2 Grab some stuff for my secret santa recipient and #3 Buy as many penny sleeves and top loaders as I could. Well, one and two went on without a hitch. Number three however did not happen. Not even a little bit. FAIL. The dimeboxes called me like the lure of a siren mermaid to a sailor. I fell elbow deep into a few dimeboxes and barely made it out of there with my tigers fanny pack intact. Here is a little bit of what I found.

I'm not a fan of chrome finishes but somehow this Canseco doesn't seem to have a scratch on it.

I don't know what the deal was with the chrome retro cards but this Richie Sexson chrome reprint had to come home and hey, El Duque!

I thought the pose on the Hudson card was cool.

Oldies but goodies.

I thought the DeRosa photo was funny; American past time, American Football, kind of an all American picture with a huge maple leaf right in the middle, eh?

I found a ton of these variations. This Pinnacle Charlie Hayes is one of the coolest I have ever seen. In Little League I broke my nose one season and my parents made me wear that helmet.

More

and More Shiny Stuff!

Tiger fans should remember this young lefty from the 'pen.

This Max is #'ed /150! I got it and the card below and above it for $1 each.

I don't pick up a lot of hockey but sometimes certain cards catch my eye.

Ooooooh.

I don't know why but I thought this Glaus card looked cool.

Even with the big booger stuck to the top, this Mo Vaughn GOLD is awesome.

Pat Burrell looking thrilled to be here, Clemens not so much.

More PC guys.

Some other frozen randoms.

Billy Koch was a beast for a short time. Billy Ripken's go to pose for 75% of his cards. He stayed out of trouble with this one.

Some grocery store cardboard.

I rooted for Shelley Duncan no matter where he played. He never really could find it, but he flashed it. Whatever "it" is.

Theres a name you say "Oh Yeah...I remember him" to. I recently read on someone else's blog in an older post that he has since passed. Too bad.

Holograms.

Wainwright RC for 10 cents. Cha!

I forget what these cards are called. They have the raw texture on the back. I've never had one, now I have two.

Randall Simon could put a hurting on a ball. I would have loved to see him in a homerun derby.

What's in Papa Jack's Box

I posted a while back about a huge box of factory sealed junk wax I received from my wife's Papa Jack. I thought about one long post to share everything inside but that still wouldn't do it justice. Instead, I think this will be a reoccurring section of this blog.
On thanksgiving I took a sealed box of 1990 Donruss Baseball and half a box of 1990 NFL Pro Set from Papa Jack's box to bust with my brother. As most people my age, 1990 Donruss is the epitome of Junk Wax and everyone has opened it at some time. There are however cards I have always wanted from the set and just never pulled.
The NFL box was a mystery to me but after a little research I found the gem of the box is card #204 Fred Marion. There is an early version of the card that shows an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction for one of the players pictured but it actually looks like a much worse malfunction than it actually is. Knowing 1990's card collectors to be pervy little nerds, the card was airbrushed to fix the issue in later releases. I was hoping of landing that card.

So first we did pull the hot card! Just not the earlier dangly photo one. We pulled the airbrushed one. Dang, so close. The Donruss however relieved me of a few wants:

I have always been chasing the Juan Gonzalez reverse error card. I know its not uncommon and I could have bought it anytime really but pulling not one but two was outstanding fun! The Tom Glavine/John Smoltz card was another I never had as a kid. It was so fun finding those too. It was a great holiday and a lot of fun to be kids again with my brother break old junk wax. There are at least 4 more sealed boxes of 1990 Donruss in the box. Nolan will have fun with those someday.

Which One Hates Me: Allen or Ginter?!

I know one of them has it out for me!

Tonight I picked up my 5th, yes 5th Allen and Ginter Blaster Box. I won't count the packs I have bought in this rant and PLEASE nobody tell me how I could have bought a hobby box or two already with the money I've put in. Anyway, I have yet to pull a single hit from any of them but see guys getting them all the time. My brother pulled some unknown comedian's auto card from one. So, shamefully I bought another. At least I finally got a short print; the Vogelbach rookie. Alas, no real hit again. I did receive two minis in one pack which I think is the sets way of saying give up since I don't enjoy minis. Here are the highlights if you want to call them that:

 I don't think I like the look of this years set. My favorites have been the borderless cards. I understand the look they were going for and achieved, its just not for me. When the set has so many unnecessary pop culture and historic cards in it I don't think it can be taken serious for an aesthetically pleasing antiquated looking set. I feel like each card is the player checking himself out in the mirror. As usual, everything is available. I might keep the Upton.

 That is two disney references in posts this week. Sorry, I will try to get out of the house into the grown up world soon.

TTM Return? Thats still a thing?

I got my first TTM return in months. It was as much a sure thing as it gets but still a great return. TTM auto legend Pat Neshek now with the Rockies.