Summer PWEs

Some plain white goodies from @breakdowncards as well as a pair of envelopes from a Dodgers fan. 

 

I'm up to more than 90 trades on TCDB now, but there were still a few envelopes kicking around from the traditional "through the blog" trade method. These are almost always blind packages and are much more fun than knowing exactly what you're going to get.

The first one came from gcrl and was sent back in July. I was on a big tear for awhile in trying to acquire 2018 Jack Flaherty cards, and with a nice performance in his first game back from his latest stint on the IL, I remain cautiously optimistic about his prospects again. (I even bought a Jack Flaherty t-shirt while on vacation in St. Louis recently. This is usually the kiss of death.)

The recent rebirth of Bowman Heritage has been one of the lazier things Topps has come up with, and there's plenty of competition for that. They basically take the same checklist as the regular Bowman cards, and in most cases the same photos, and slap on one of the original design templates (in this case, 1992.) For some reason, people were really excited about this! Of course, there were parallels, and I need those pesky parallels. I wonder how many buttons someone had to click on a computer to make all of the photos black & white.

Cardinals on the old Target red bordered cards did look a lot better than this one-off "red hot foil" parallel design. I think just about everyone liked the special diamond anniversary parallels in the 2011 set, and then it was just diminishing returns after that. (Actually, 2012's "gold sparkle" might be my least favorite.)

Envelope number two is from fellow Portland resident Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown. The first pair of cards are from a pair of Cardinals who have cloudy futures. I believe these cards are from one of those throwback or "flashback" type of online-exclusive sets. I can never remember if Throwback Thursday or Flashback Friday is the more accepted thing to do.

The cards have a very 1990 vibe, which is nice. There's ivy in the background, so it must be Wrigley Field, right?

This one is a shiny gold (parallel?) from the 2001 Topps Archives set. I'm trying hard these days to remember Jimmy Edmonds as a heck of a ballplayer because he can be insufferable at times as a broadcaster.

I had to shrink the image of this mini version of one of my favorite Cardinals base cards ever, because it would otherwise look exactly the same size as the rest of the standard-sized cards here.

Gavin is a huge collector of those Topps Retired autographs from the mid-'00s, and he occasionally tosses a card or two from that era my way. I really liked the 2003 Topps base design and would love to see this re-used more often than, say, 1987 for the millionth time.

I clearly forgot to do this in chronological order, because the third envelope is actually the second of the day from gcrl, although this one has a June postmark on it. I did intend to save it for last because someone really leveled up here, so to speak.

In addition to another doomed DeJong, gcrl sent a pair of shiny catcher cards. (Speaking of doomed, what in the world are the Cardinals going to do without Yadier Molina next season? Andrew Knizner is fine and all, but it's hard to see anyone on the 40-man roster currently getting a starter's share of the innings next season behind the plate.)

This shiny parallel is from the days where Topps hadn't apparently run out of gold foil to stamp their cards with. I mean, is that what really happened? There hasn't been anything resembling gold on Topps gold cards for many years now.

Folks, there is once again a new Hamm King and his name is gcrl (okay, maybe not his real name.) Do you have what it takes to unseat the Hamm King? Send me your Hamm(s)! (But maybe don't send your Hamm's.)