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!

Incoming Goodies from Bloggers

I'm working on a 2022 summary post or two, but first, I must give some recognition to a few fellow bloggers for the incoming cards I've received from them. Trading on TCDB is great, but it still doesn't beat a good swap between bloggers. Though I've met exactly zero of you in blogosphere, I feel like I know you through your words over the years and the trades seem more personal.

 

First up, Tom from Angels in Order took a novel approach to initiating trades between bloggers by posting a bunch of cards for trade, giving readers a chance to claim cards they want, and requesting a return package. I chose these six for my collection. My favorite is the red parallel of former BYU hurler Jeremy Guthrie.

After seeing former BYU linebacker Kurt Gouveia on one of my posts, GCA asked which Gouvieas I lacked. As a Commanders (formerly Redskins) collector, he had a couple to send my way. It's not really visible in this picture, but the top left Gouveia is one of the cool Special Effects parallels from 1994 Topps. I've always liked those. Then he sent along a few other cards that meet the requirements for my NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team. Thanks a ton, Greg!

Finally, Kerry--of Cards on Cards--and I worked out a trade over TCDB. The top scan features a nice mix of collection needs. The bottom scan is a quartet of set needs. The highlight of this trade is the acquisition of 2022 Opening Day Joey Bart--AKA, the last card needed for the set. Thanks Kerry (Madding) for the set kill!

Speaking of completed sets, my next post will likely summarize all of the sets I was able to knock off the ol' wantlist in 2022. Opening Day was just one of them.

I Received 5% of Night Owl's 5,000 Card Giveaway

And it was pretty great. Actually, I don't really know how accurate that number is, either. To tell the truth, I didn't count to know if there were exactly 250 cards. And I don't know how many he sent other people. All I know is that I received a large envelope from upstate New York and I enjoyed going through it immensely.

There was a good variety. This pic shows the cards divided up by decade, plus some football and non-sport cards. I think Night Owl was glad to have someone like me who would gladly accept some random football cards in the package. More on that later.

Greg made sure to include some Cubs for my collection. There's a nice Coca-Cola food issue there and my first Topps Super 70 on-demand that I particularly love.

Here are some hits for my All-Star MVP and Rookie of the Year collections. Dustin Pedroia on the bottom is a box bottom cut out from 2009 O-Pee-Chee.

Speaking of 2009 OPC, N.O. sent a handful of those to me, but none were base cards. They were all the black-bordered parallel. I didn't have any of these before, so it was kind of cool to see them come in.

These six were just what I needed for my All-Star project. I now have cards of 1190 of the 1909 players who have been MLB All-Stars through the years.

These two made nice additions to my Frankenset. I couldn't NOT include Patrick Mahomes, Sr. in action.

Of all the football Night Owl sent, these two best fit in my collection: a Press Proof parallel of a former BYU Cougar and a shiny insert of All-2000s running back Curtis "My Favorite" Martin.

These cards didn't quite fit in my collection but were notable anyway. Those Panini Black Gold cards are THICK. I have a few of them and I think the shadow box effect is really cool on them.

Here are some interesting cards that just didn't quite fit in my collection, but I was still happy to receive them. The A&G Thunderlips (AKA, Hulk Hogan) and Fishing Lures cards already had TCDB offers before I even finished putting all of these on my tradelist.

Finally, some entertainment cards that Night Owl sent my way. These are the first Musicards I've ever owned. None of these are artists I have ever really listened to and some I've never even heard of (I'm looking at you, Bonham.). If I had to choose a favorite artist from this bunch, I'd have to go with Huey Lewis.

So thank you, Greg, for letting me take part in your massive 5,000 card house-cleaning giveaway. I don't know how many other lucky bloggers received football cards in their packages, but I was happy to take some on. I am sure, however, that everybody who got something enjoyed it as much as I did. A great variety of great stuff here, indeed.

Colbey's Affordable Breaks

Last month, I took a spot in one of Nacho Grande's breaks and had my stack finally shipped to me after I don't know how long. Then I turned around and did the same thing with one of Colbey's Affordable Breaks. I had bought into a few of his breaks and accumulated a stack, but I couldn't even tell you how far back my stack had been growing. I finally requested it and received the contents earlier this week.

I know it was probably a pain for both of these gentlemen to keep piling cards up for me and I appreciate their patience with my slow requesting. But one of the advantages to accumulating a stack over many months is the fact that when I received the cards, I had completely forgotten which breaks I was a part of, let alone what cards had been pulled for me. It made for a fun package opening.

Of course, if there is a break and the Packers are to be had, they will be my #1 pick. I got these three cards from a 2003 UD Patch Collection break. The Favre patch on the bottom was one of the highlights of the entire package from Colbey and is, interestingly, part of the base set. I guess that fits for a set called "Patch Collection." It's a really cool card.

I brought in the entire Packers team set for 1996 Topps Gilt Edge, and then some. I have to say, I don't really understand this set, but these are all new cards to me. Plus, how can you go wrong with multiple Favres and Reggie Whites?

I nearly brought home the entire team set of 1993 Bowman, too. I'm only missing the George Teague rookie. I love the foil cards (which are base cards, not parallels), the Mark Brunell rookie, and, of course, BYU Heisman winner Ty Detmer. I showed the back of Bill Maas (Kevin's brother) because it gives cool information, like a coach's assessment and a future forecast for every player.

I didn't choose the Packers exclusively, though. Here I picked up the Bengals, hoping to come away with former BYU lineman Scott Brumfield. Brumfield played for my high school's rival and was the head coach of their team when I was playing in high school.

These two breaks are examples that I have no recollection of buying. They're both 2020 sets, so I was probably just trying to add something from last year to my collection because I couldn't find any to buy. I was successful in adding to my collection. Aaron Donald, Tom Brady, and Derrick Henry are all keepers for me. But if you like the R&S Brady or Henry base, I did get two each of those.

I don't remember this 2006 Topps Rookie Progression break, but I'm guessing I picked up the Colts on the off-chance that I could come away with a nice Peyton Manning hit. I did get the base card, which is a nice pull from this high-end feeling set. I did get a couple of other good hits: both the Reggie Wayne jersey and Bob Sanders parallel are serial-numbered (Wayne /99, Sanders /299).

And the break that led me to ask for my cards to be shipped. This is 2021 Absolute. I picked up the Jets hoping for Zach Wilson, then added Washington and Houston because they were still available. I did get one Wilson, the Introductions insert. For me, those two blasters were Davis Mills hot boxes. I ended up with two base of the rookie out of Stanford and one of the hits. It's hard to see in the scan, but Chase Young in the middle is a Green parallel.

 Now on to the baseball. Like the Packers, I will typically look for Cubs in the breaks. I've found that the baseball breaks always sell out pretty quickly, though, and I'm usually too late for the Cubs. But these 2003 Upper Deck Standing O and 2003 Fleer Hot Prospects cards sure make me happy that I was able to get them.

 

I was also able to snag the Cubs in a couple of 2020 products: Diamond Kings and Stadium Club. Ernie Banks is a Red Stadium Club parallel and just an overall great card.

 

I got the Mets in 2020 Topps Big League. Somehow, I ended up with all of these cards already, minus the first Alonso Rookie of the Year award card. All of the others in this scan are available for trade to anyone who is interested.

Also for trade is any card you see here. I was trying to get some cards for my All-Star project, which is why I bought the Rangers spot in the 1997 Pinnacle Xpress break. I got every card you see here in triplicate except for the John Wetteland parallel, so all of these are available for trade as well.

I have just one final card to show. When I got my stack of Nachos Grande breaks, I found that I had gotten extremely lucky and pulled two Javier Baez boxtoppers. Well, my luck has continued. In my Affordable Breaks from Colbey, I pulled yet another oversized boxtopper, this time a 2020 Stadium Club Widevision.

I have to say, I'm pretty satisfied with these breaks. Thanks for running them, Colbey! Affordable breaks are always a good thing, especially those that are older sets that I still don't have much of.

 

Ain't No Break Like a Nacho Break

Last year, our principal decided to take advantage of the modified school schedule the school board gave us. He took the Wednesdays we suddenly had with no students in the building and instituted "Nacho Wednesday." Every Wednesday, we had Crock Pots full of nacho cheese sauce and bags of tortilla chips in the faculty room. I will never pass up nacho cheese. Seriously, my wife once bought me a #10 can of nacho cheese from Costco as a Valentine's gift. Thanks to Nacho Wednesdays at work, my wife has started to refer to my growing belly as my "nachos." I'm not complaining. I'm also not complaining that this year--though we're back to a normal schedule--the principal decided to keep Nacho Wednesday. So I sit here writing this post after taking a nacho break. Hence, the topic of my post today: Nacho(s Grande) Breaks.

I haven't done many team breaks of late because I've been more focused on different aspects of my collection lately. Well, that and it seems like the Cubs are already taken whenever I see Nacho's posts. But I got in on his recent Chrome break and asked him to send the stack that I had reserved for who knows how long.

There were only four Cubs in that box. Two of them were two different refractor types of Brailyn Marquez. Marquez only has 2/3 inning pitched in the Majors, in which he gave up 3 walks, 2 hits, and 5 earned runs. But, hey, these cards are cool! He was also the 6th youngest player in the NL this season, according to Baseball-Reference, so there is time for some growth and development.

 

At one point, I also bought into a 2020 A&G break from Chris.

I love these non-base cards from that break The Longball Lore set is especially appealing to me. I also picked up the Brewers in this break, so if you are interested in a Christian Yelich Longball card or a couple of Milwaukee minis, I have some for trade.

And I got the Cubs from this year's Heritage, imitating the funky 1972 Topps set. This is the problem with collecting Cubs right now: only three of these players still play their home games at Wrigley Field--and one of these is in a Padres uni on the card. Interestingly, #1 and #2 on the Pitching Leaders card were traded for each other last offseason. And the third won a World Series.

 

A few extra Nacho throw-ins (possibly a Stadium Club break? I can't even remember) brought me these Cubs from yesteryear. A new Kerry Wood is always welcome in my binders.

I feel pretty certain that the only reason I bought into a 2021 Opening Day break was to get one of the last cards I needed for the Outstanding Opening Day insert set. Well, mission accomplished. I have just two more on my wantlist (Giancarlo Stanton and Hank Aaron, if you can help out with that).

Up til now, there hasn't been too much exciting stuff in this haul. Where I really lucked out was the box toppers, where I picked up Javy Baez from both 2020 A&G and 2021 Heritage. That's not too bad! I love this picture, though, with four different sizes of Baez cards. Pretty sweet, I think.

Thanks for the breaks, Chris! Nacho breaks really are the best.