Grandes Nachos (and More!) from the Third Floor

Even though I haven't been very active on the blog and I put my trading on hiatus, I've still got a few cards from my fellow bloggers delivered into my mailbox.

First, I have some cards from Tom at The Angels in Order. He ran a giveaway a few weeks ago that I'm just now getting around to displaying. I claimed both of these Rangers oddballs with the thought of giving them away to my Rangers baseball team next year. I didn't realize that they were oversized until they arrived. Now seems like a really opportune time to lead with some Texas Rangers, as they play in Game 1 of the World Series tonight. However, I'm wearing a D-backs hat as I write this. I may be in a very, very small minority, but this is the exact World Series that I wanted as soon as my Cubbies were eliminated from contention in late September. I didn't think there was any chance I'd see it happen, but I'll be with my two Arizona fan sons, cheering on the Diamondbacks.

These cards technically came via a TCDB trade before I shut down my trading for the year. But they were a trade with TCDB user Madding, AKA Kerry, AKA Cards on Cards. Here we have a few ROYs and ASG MVPs, a pair of All-Star project cards, and some set help for my 2014 Donruss, 2013 Opening Day, 2022 Opening Day, and Opening Day Bomb Squad builds. Joey Bart kills off my 2022 OD set, in fact.

 

Earlier this week, I came home to a surprise bubble mailer. I wasn't expecting it at all, but Dennis from Too Many Verlanders sent me a good-sized package of BYU Cougars and Chicago Cubs that he had been picking up for me. Man, card bloggers are some of the best people out there!

Here is an entire page worth of John Becks, including some relics and an auto! The SAGE Write Stuff insert is kind of interesting. On the back is a handwriting analysis of his signature. I don't know how accurate it is, but it was interesting to see. I assume there is an autograph version of this card as well, but I've never come across it.

More Cougars here. I love the shiny, serial-numbered Luke Staley and the acetate Steve Young. Great stuff here.

Bridging from the football cards Dennis sent to the baseball cards, we have a couple of oversized items. I remember having some Fleer Gameday football cards and even completing a set of NBA Jam Session cards, but I never realized that Fleer also made a tall Extra Bases set during the same time period. Steve Buechele is my introduction to that set.

Dennis also included some pretty cool Cubs cards. A couple of acetate stars, a few serial numbers, an auto, a relic, two A&G mini parallels (black border and A&G back) of Rich Hill, a cool Topps coin of Jerome Walton, and Ian Happ sliding into the snow are among the goodies. I learned that I previously had no cards of Sergio Mitre, Jon Leicester, Scott Eyre, and Blaise Ilsey, though they all spent time in the Majors with the Cubs and some even had pretty long careers.

Elliptical Man from The View from the Third Floor had a fun series/contest in which readers tried to guess who he had included in his page for each NFL team. I would have loved to participate more, but I'm still having a weird Blogger issue that doesn't allow me to comment on most things. Apparently, I guessed his Houston Texans page pretty well and he rewarded me with a PWE of NFLers in their college unis. Five of these cards are dupes for me. Anybody want to take a guess which five?

Finally, these are cards from a PWE I just received yesterday. Chris, AKA Nachos Grande, posted about the passing of his friend and custom-card maker Ryan. As a tribute, Chris is spreading the Custom A&G love. When I got the cards yesterday, I was surprised that--even though I never had any interaction with Ryan--I already had three of his customs in my collection and had never known where they came from. There are some fun ones here.

Included in the envelope was a touching tribute Chris wrote. He mentioned that Ryan had even created some parallels and serial-numbered version of his cards. The David Price I received was one of them--a custom Bazooka A&G back numbered 9/25. Thank you, Chris. I think you've done a wonderful job in his memory.

A big thanks to Tom, Kerry, Dennis, Elliptical Man, and Nachos Grande. After years of blogging, I should have realized that even though I hit the pause button in trading, bloggers would still find a way to slip a little something into my mailbox. You are all awesome people!