TTM Return From Patriot Marv Cook

Marv Cook played TE for the Patriots from 1989-1993, and made the Pro Bowl twice as a Pat.

1991 Upper Deck #534

1991 Score #71

Marv dry-markered me in 7 days from his home in Iowa City, Iowa.

The Other Half Of The Trade With Jason's Sports Card Blog

A couple posts back I showed the little completed 2006 Upper Deck Collect The Mascots set that Jason helped me finish. Well, here now are the other cards Jason sent, all from my Patriots Wantlist.

My wantlist only goes through 1994, and these cards take a nice chuck out of that.

The 1990 Topps are especially cool because they are a variation of the base set.

Check out the back and see what I mean:

1990 Topps "Disclaimer Back"

The card on the left is the base card, on the right you can see the "Disclaimer" print at the bottom.

There is a whole second set of cards that have this back.

Not sure of the origin of these though, maybe the result of a lawsuit?

Great stuff again Jason.

Much appreciated.

Blog Bat Around - Origins of Player Collections

All, with the exception of one, of my Player Collections revolve around former Angels. Obviously I need one example of every player in his Angels uniform since I am a team collector, but beyond that, my PCs only consist of those players cards for the OTHER team(s) they played for. That way I don't have to have two of each Angel card: one for the PC and one for the Team Collection.

Following are the six individuals comprising my PRIMARY PLAYER COLLECTIONS, in order of importance.

#1 Nolan Ryan

One of my Favorite Angels as a kid growing up near Anaheim Stadium.

Ryan meant a lot to the Angels community, still does.

My dad was at his 3rd no-hitter.

#2 Frank Tanana

The Tanana/Ryan combo in the 70's was awesome.

Tanana was just as fun to see as Ryan was.

#3 Wally Joyner

Who didn't love sitting out in Wally World hoping for a home run ball?

I still think he would have made a better Rookie of the Year selection over Canseco.

#4 Jim Abbott

Inspiring from day one.

My jaw was stuck open for every pitch he threw, just amazing.

And to think he threw a no-hitter.

#5 Mike Napoli

My first baseball man-crush.

I'm still peeved that Scioscia let him go and held on to Jeff Mathis instead.

Follow Napoli around to the different teams he's been on and you'll see the guy is magical.

#6 John Olerud

A big dude, with a sweet swing, that can crush the ball and wears a helmet in the field?

Super cool.

Add all business and a great respect for the game.

That's why he's the only non-former-Angel in my PC.

SECONDARY SIDE PCs

Todd Greene

I kept coming across some really nice cards of Todd Greene.

Like every card of his is just awesome. And he's such a great TTMer that I kept sending him cards to sign. So I made him a PC.

But this is the sole card in his PC, so I need to beef it up.

Bo Jackson

The guy is all-around amazing.

If you never saw him play you really missed out on something great.

And those are the players in my Player Collections.

TTM Return From Albie Pearson

1960 Topps #241

1963 Fleer #19

Mr. Pearson now owns and operates a ranch for abused, abandoned, and neglected boys, called A Father's Heart Ranch.

He returned these cards in 7 days from his home in La Quinta, CA.

Completed Sweepstakes 2006 Upper Deck Mascots Set

Shortly after asking for help to complete this little 3-card set, help was received and now I've completed it.

2006 Upper Deck Collect the Mascots and Win!

I guess I'd have to say that those are the top three most recognizable MLB mascots, although I'd probably replace Wally with the Famous Chicken.

Not sure how difficult it was to originally pull all three cards from packs, but if you did YOU WERE A WINNER!

Of some sort.

Here's some of the prizes as noted on the back of the card:

I'd love to hear if any of you entered and won something from this contest.

So, cool little sweepstakes set to add to the collection.

Many thanks to Jason's Sports Card Blog for sending me two of the three cards I need.

And a bunch of Pats I'll be posting later.

Trade Mail From Cardboard Hogs

Ken reached out a while back for a trade. I didn't have much by way of Redskins except for a pretty cool 1959 Topps Pennant card. I filled out the rest with some 1960's baseball and PCs from his wantlists. if I recall. Ken sent some really sweet Angels cards in return.

2014 Topps Heritage Chrome #140 Purple Refractor

Wow! Can't wait to get this team set done. Fantastic looking card.

2011 Allen & Ginter's #218 Code Puzzle Border

Never understood these. 

2010 Upper Deck Portraits #SE-41 Gold Parallel 08/99

Nice low number of a low numbered parallel (that mar is from my scanner, the card is pristine).

2011 Gypsy Queen #128 Mini Red Back

Another nice variation card, this may be my first red back.

The Yunel Escobar right there is a gum stain parallel.

So cool.

Great stuff Ken, I'm super pleased.

Thank you.

Trade Mail From The Lost Collector

AJ ripped a box of Bunt recently and sent me the Angels he pulled.

Maybin left the cookies in the oven too long, he's rushing to get them out with that oven mitt on his hand.

I really like the blue parallels.

And a couple extra Angels cards.

Another blogger recently got the Finley or Langston Topps Finest in a repack box and as I'm reading the blog he's debating peeling the cover off. As I'm reading I'm yelling, "NOOoooooooo".

He peeled it.

Thanks AJ.

Sweepstakes Card Bomb From Nachos Grande

Chris saw I was collecting these sweepstakes cards from a post about them and took it upon himself to bomb me with a bunch, since he is, in his own words, "A Pack Rat".

1998 Fleer Diamond Ink

Big chunk right there. Hard to believe one person would have so many of these to trade.

'97-'98 Fleer Million Dollar Moments

Pecking away at this big 50-card set. Apparently there is a Redemption set as well that looks exactly like these mail-ins except they have "THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL GAME CARD" printed on back.

Wow, do I chase that set as well?

1999 Upper Deck Draw Your Own Card

1998 Upper Deck Collectors Club

A couple more one-off found in packs of cards.

Griffey collectors probably have that one in their PC.

and $25 for a box of Upper Deck and all that other cool stuff?

Sounds like a great deal. Anyone reading ever take them up on it?

I thank you for you rat packness Chris.

Big Fun Game And Then Some

I picked surprise number 14 in Wes' Big Fun Game back in April. You can see what I won HERE. The game was a blast, eagerly awaiting the next pick/steal and seeing what all the prizes were.

2008 Topps Blogger Jaybarkerfan #WM, Authentic Autograph 58/98

This post is to show the Angels cards that Wes graciously threw in with my prize.

And there they are.

The Nolan Ryan Materials card is fantastic.

But here is where I get confused. On my desk, directly below the team pack of the cards from Wes shown above, was another team bag stuffed full of Angels. It didn't have a label or identifying card so I don't know if these were also part of what Wes sent, or from another blogger.

It was over a month ago you know.

So, if these were also from you Wes, thank you again.

If from another blogger, I'm so sorry to not give you the proper credit.

Some really great cards in there.

Johnny's Trading Spot's Chinese Christmas

Another fun game was held at Johnny's Trading Spot. I drew the third overall pick, so I picked #11 (Drew Bledsoe's jersey number) which was revealed as the Kyle Kendrick error card. Pretty sweet card. That was subsequently stolen from me so I decided to steal this from Raz:

1964 Topps #32 Buyback

And I got to hang on to it!

John also threw in these:

2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Checklist set

and one of the Bowman Hobby checklist cards.

Fun game John, thank you.

June 2017 SI For Kids

This months issue.

Phenom Hunter Greene makes the cover of the June issue. Glad to see another baseball cover.

I'll definitely have to keep an eye on this kid, he's highly touted.

The poster inside is of Christian Pulisic - Soccer and Madison Bumgarner - Baseball.

And here's the card sheet:

Cards #622-630

One baseball player in Nolan Arenado. Kinda surprised Hunter Greene didn't have a card. The Sergio Garcia card is cool because I watched him strike that pose when he won the 2017 Masters on TV. Makes this kinda like a Topps Now card.

TTM Return From Winston Llenas

1971 Topps #152

1974 Topps #467

1975 Topps #597

I included $5 to cover Dominican return postage. 

Winston returned these in 126 days from his home in Santiago, Dominican Republic.

A Random Trio From The Commish

A PWE came with a total of three cards inside. But the three cards were three AWESOME oddball cards for the Angels collection.

1962 Post #78 Albie Pearson

Nothing better than a card you had to cut off of a cereal or jello box. The cellophane wrapped cards that came later like those found in potato chip bags or in Mother's Cookies were pretty fun too.

My Angels collection for Jello and Post cereal cards is lacking, so this a really nice addition.

1970 Topps Story Booklets No.3 Jay Johnstone

Sole Angels representative in this nifty 24-booklet set.

This oddball set had some oddball players featured like Wally Bunker, Denis Menke, and Al Ferrara. I have to assume that they all had an interesting story to tell.

1988 Fantastic Sams Baseball Superstars Sweepstakes

Distributed at the 1,800 haircut salons nationwide. 

Again the sole Angel in the set is Wally Joyner. 

I'm not even tempted to scratch this thing off to see what my prize would have been.

On the inside is the entry form and the players statistics.

I suppose the big blak box was so folks could hold them up to the light to reveal what was under the scratch-off.

Super cool cards Commish, thank you.

Lying In Wait

I was thumbing through a trade box just now and came across a card that I've had for a long time. I've looked at it many, many times and have thumbed right past it. I mean, seriously, it was in my TRADE BOX. I'm telling you, it doesn't matter how many times you look through the same box of cards, you see something different every time. This time though I thought I would flip it over and take a look at the back (which I am sure I have done in the past):

2006 Upper Deck Fat Pack, Collect the Mascots and Win,

Phillie Phanatic #MLB-2

Holy cow! Its a code/contest card!

And there's only two other cards to the set, which I for sure know I don't have, so it should be an easy set to complete. So, anyone out there happen to have the Mr. Met #MLB-1 or the Wally the Green Monster #MLB-3 cards from 2006 Upper Deck? At the least I have an extra MLB-2 Phillie Phanatic for trade if you do.