Very Cool Stuff From Padrographs

Rod had a sudden Free Stuff Friday post last week after a time off from hitting us consistently with free stuff  through March and April. I was able to claim some pretty sweet cards, some that I had never seen before. But before we see those, I wanted to show off Rods new logo sticker:

I've alway thought that this was one of the more genius logos out there. It tells you all you need to know about Rod: Padres and Autographs. I love it.

1961 Topps Sports Cars

I have never seen these before, and when I did on the Free Stuff Friday post my eyes popped out and I asked for all 7 of them. I then realized that there was a 4-card cap, so I asked Rod to pick out any 4, and he picked me out some beauties. The complete 66-card set is pretty pricey, and I'm glad to have these 4, but I'm pretty sure that I wont be chasing the set.

2020 Donruss Signature Series SS-PS

Rod also included this sweet Patrick Sandoval autograph. Sandoval had 9 starts for the Angels last year, and went 0-4. He was aquired via trade with the Astros for catcher Martin Maldonado.

Thick as a Brick

I received a fat bubble mailer today from Too Many Verlander's and it was pretty close to being as thick as a brick.

Thick as a Brick Part I

Three stuffed team bags of mostly Angels and Patriots, sealed with the complementary blue painters tape (THANK YOU for NOT using scotch tape!)

When I saw the note on the painters tape above, I was a bit confused at first because even though I am a Patriots collector, I'm not a Michigan Wolverines collector. Fortunately Dennis also included a postcard note that cleared up my confusion: Dennis is a Wolverines collector, and most if not all of the Patriots he included are dupes from his Wolverines collection.

Thick as a Brick Part II

2006 Sweet Spot Signatures #SSS-GM

Whoa! Heavy hitter here of a sweet signed mini-mini helmet. Unfortunatly for Mills though, after being drafted in 2006 he was fourth on the Patriots depth chart at TE, behind studs Ben Watson and Daniel Graham, and never got to play. He bounced around to a few other teams before the Pats signed him again in 2011, but relegated him to the practice squad.

See how thick this thing is? I think that this may just be the thickest card in my collection.

1990 Topps #420 Regular and Disclaimer Back

If your a purist team collector you have to know about the "Disclaimer Back" variations in 1990 Topps Football. Therefore, you need two team sets. On top of that, I believe there is a variation to the disclaimer backs as well. THREE team sets of 1990 Topps Football?

1996 Upper Deck SP Holoview #32

VERY cool card, you have to see it in person to get the full effect: like a magic-motion, holgraphic, refractor. Glenn goes from a serious football look to a big ahppy grin as you move the card back and forth.

1993 Upper Deck SP #262

One of the few Abbott cards showing him batting, let alone showing his right hand. I love it. Love his expression, love the coach manning the camara, love the chain link fence all beat up and hanging down.

1988-89 Broder Type NNO

Love this card too. Not sure that it's a Broder though, I'll have to do more research.

1992 Triple Play #168

If I were Junior Felix, I wouldn't be too happy about this card. There's more of Pete O'Briens backside than there is of Junior Felix.

1992 Pro Set #381

Great card. Even though it's a 1992, I love the old-school look of Marv Cooks pose and the way he wears his uniform. The handwarmer with the old Pats logo is an added bonus. Great that he's running right at the cameraman too.

1993 Pinnacle Team 2001

At one time I had started collecting the Team 2000 sets, but that desire petered out and I never finished them. It's a great design, and I even have a couple that are printing errors: the gold foil never got printed on the cards.

A Couple Stunners From Card Buzz

Look at this From Card Buzz:

1997 Score Showcase Series #494 Artist's Proof

Is that not one of the most stunning cards you've ever seen?

I sometimesfsometimes that there are some really beautiful cards from the 90's. I tend to lump late 90's in with early 90's cards, blech. But man, Artists Proofs, Museum Collection, and some of the cards from Pacific...awesome.

1994 Fleer Pro Visions #2

I have a love/hate relationship with Fleer Pro Visions. Some of them I really love, and some are just terrible. The 1991 Mark McGwire in front of the American Flag...LOVE. The 1995 Mike Mussina...TERRIBLE. Obviously this one of John Olerud I LOVE.

Trying To Catch Up

Blogging has a been a bit dry lately, but trading hasn't. I've gotten a lot of cards in the mail recently. I've been spending more time on my other hobby, model building, and that has infringed on my time to create posts about trades. I literally have a stack of 13 envelopes of cards I've received from trades the past couple of months. I need to knock these thank-you's out, so I'm combining them into one post. I typically like to show the entirety of the trade but this time I'll need to show only one or two from each trade. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Bump and Run Football Card Blog

Trevor sent a PWE with 13 cards including this 2020 Gypsy Queen Logo Swap of David Fletcher, and this sweet 1995 Pinnacle Drew Bledsoe. He also pulled some cards for my 2009 Upper Deck Set, several more Patriots and a few other Angels.

2. The Chronicles of Fuji

Fuji crammed 17 cards in a single PWE with only one stamp, some kinda new record. The stamp, however, says "Non-Mchineable Surcharge" on it so that probably means it probably cost more that a forever stamp. The Glaus card is a real beauty, the scan does it no justice. There were also other Angels cards and several sweepstakes/info cards.

3. Johnny's Trading Spot

I won a 5-card lot in the May BFG which included this 1989 ProCards Triple A All-Star Game card of former Angel Terry Clark. There were also a few vintage OPC cards as well of players from other teams. Also got another ticket for the big end-of-year game.

4. Johnny's Trading Spot

My June BFG winnings were a 6-card lot of, again, vintage cards. I seem to be a magnet for the vintage card lots. Looking forward to July BFG!

5. The Diamond King

Picked these two Angels cards up from a free-card giveaway that Kevin have regularly. Always fun when someone is offering up free Angels cards I need. Glaus was heavy hitting third baseman for the Halos back in the early 00's, I miss him.

6. Cards on Cards

I think that I picked up this 2016 Donruss Optic Pink from one of Kerry's Free Stuff Fridays. He also threw in a couple other Angels cards in the PWE for kicks.

7. Dime Boxes

Nick had a Free Card Friday as well, and I was able to pick up the magazine card and the Trout card for sure. The Ohtani and eleven other Angels cards were graciously thrown in, and included several Angels parallels, chromes, and refractors.

8. Baseball Cards Come To Life

Bo checked my wantlists and saw that I'm collecting the 1991 Classic Best set. He sent 8 cards towards the set. He also send 6 different baseball cards #444 for that collection as well. Love those #444s.

9. Night Owl Cards

ANOTHER giveaway, but this one was by invitation only. You had to have commented on Greg's blog to get the invite to the free stuff. I selected this 1987 Fleer Game Winners box set, mostly for this Dale Murphy card, but also for the six Fleer Logo Stickers included. I'm collecting the Fleer Logo Stickers sets. There are a few Angels cards in the set as well.

10. Night Owl Cards

Whoop! A 1960 Topps Dodgers card! The 1960 Topps Dodgers team set is one of only two non-Angels team sets I've been collecting. The other is the 1954 Bowman Dodgers team set. I'm also trying to complete this 2012 Topps Pennant Ever Wonder set. These came in a PWE with a handful of other Angels cards, and actually came before the Fleer box set above, as a part of Greg's first mailings in the early days of the Covid scare.

11. The Lost Collector

AJ pulled a few Angels, including this 1995 Topps Cyber Stats Tim Salmon, and several checklist cards, popped them in a PWE with a nice handwritten note, and sent them off to me. The perfect trade.

12. The Collector

Chris goes the extra mile when sending cards. Each of the eight cards in the PWE were in thier own penny sleeve. That works great for me as I was running a little low on penny sleeves. Very glad to have the 1975 Tanana, one of my favorites and the several Patriots cards included. The 1986 Topps Andre Tippett card completes the team set!

13. Cards That Never Were

Jeremy's fat bubble mailer of 46 cards hit just about all my needs: Angels, 2006 Fleer Tradition, Fleer Million Dollar Moments, Topps Ticket to History, checklists, info cards, scratchers, you name it! Lots of great stuff in there. This one will take a chunk of time to organize for sure.

Well, that does it. Took me almost 3 hours to create this post. Glad to finally be caught up.

One Page of Bobby Winkles

This series will highlight "one page" at a time from my binder of correspondence and autographs from former Angels and Patriots players and personnel.

   Bob Winkles Manager California Angels 1973-1974

I sent to Mr. Winkles twice. The first time (top) was sometime prior to 2004, and the second time (lower) in 2005 included the 1973 Topps card. Bobby Winkles just passed away recently in April, he was 90.

Long Overdue TTM From Roland James

Todays mail brings a long lost request home again. Patriots Great Roland James took advantage of Covid home confinement (I'm assuming) and decided to sign and return a couple cards I had sent him in March of 2015.

1989 Pro Set #251

1990 Pro Set #577

For those scoring from home, that's a 1,926 day return.

A 2014 Forever stamp did the trick. Gotta love forever stamps.

Mr. James was kind enough though to also answer a few questions, for which I am very thankful.

You Win Some, You Buy Some

Recent additions from Listia and Ebay.

First up, Listia winnings.

1972 Topps #478b (Large Font)

The difference between the large and small font variations is really hard to tell, but I'm pretty sure this is actually the large font version, even though it wasn't advertised as such.

1986 Burger King All-Pro #12

I ate a lot of Whoppers back in the day in California, unfortunately at the time, these cards were regional to Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

1986 Meadow Gold Super Star Series #6

This Beatrice Foods set is completely new to me. Apparently a 2-card panel was printed on boxes of popcycles and ice cream bars, in the West and Midwest. This set is considered one of the toughest regional sets to complete. Very cool.

1985 O-Pee-Chee #63

I don't have many OPC Ryan cards in the collection.

I also won this lot of Dale Murphy cards. These came in an envelope with some pretty cool stamps affixed:

And lastly, an ebay purchase:

This is an oversized promotional card for Topps 1993 Batman The Animated Series cards. You can cut the smaller card if you want, but why would anyone do that?

A super nice addition to the Animated Batman set I'm working.