Bubbling Up

The latest in a long line of excellent trade packages from Too Many Verlanders.

The year already feels like it's slipping away from me, so I know that it's well beyond time that I finish up some posts about trades I've received in 2025. I really don't want to head in 2026 talking about something I got, like, last summer. Since the vast majority of what I add to my collection has been coming from TCDB for the past few years, the bubble mailers full of surprise goodies have been something to savor. This particular one came over from TMV back in June, when things were finally starting to heat up here in Portland. Of course, we're now well into November and I've been looking for breaks in the gloomy weather all week to just to have a few moments to sweep a bunch of leaves off of my deck.

Anyway... cards! David Freese cards! While Randy Arozarena's 2020 playoff Babe Ruth act wrecked a lot of Freese's postseason records, he was pushed down the lists a bit more by some prolific players this year.

Vintage Blazers?! Nice! I am fairly certain that a bunch of these are going to end up being upgrades over what I already owned when I finally crack open the Blazers binders again.

A Bol Bol rookie rookie? I'll always take these! He may not have spent more than a blink at UO, but I'll always be fascinated by him.

It's a 20 year old parallel of a Hall of Fame Cardinals player? You can't knock that.

Three Blazers, er, legends all signed this slab of wood, or so the scan would have you think. They actually signed clear stickers that were affixed to this wood-like card-shaped object. I did like Jarrett Jack for a time, but he was made expendable when Brandon Roy came around.

Dion Jordan seems to have a ton of "hit" cards from his rookie year, or at least I seem to own a disproportionate amount of them. I will never mind this as he will always remind me of the tremendously fun Marcus Mariota era.

I think Jalen Reagor was supposed to be a speedly slot receiver type when he came to the NFL out of TCU, but he didn't seem to progress beyond a third option to pass two and made some costly errors on the field in his two seasons in Philly. It looks like he is out of the league now. I kind of like the design on this relic card, however, or at least the placement of the Eagles logo.

There's that man again (and his signature!) 

Jordan Matthews played more football for the Eagles than Reagor. However, after being a heavy target early in his career, he eventually became more of a guy you call up on the phone when you run out of healthy players.

The early 2010s will always be a special time for me and watching Oregon football, even though Chip Kelly is kind of a turd. Kenjon Barner was a huge part of that, and it was fun to hear him join the broadcast during a Ducks game earlier this year.

Jimmy Baseball! Now that he's been off the air for a full season, it's easier to enjoy his baseball cards and playing career.

Arik Armstead is with the Jaguars these days, and has certainly come along way from his days at Oregon when he was a two-sport player (football AND basketball... both kinds!)

The last one up is certainly the most special one, at least for me. As I continue to contemplate how I want to spend my card budget dollars, I know that excellent cards of the Wizard need to take precedent over any random blasters I decide to buy on a whim.

World Headquarters Edition

Green football and loads of baseball. 

 

Awhile back, Dennis from Too Many Verlanders came into a bunch of cards and was generous to share some of the spoils with yours truly. As is often the case, the package came with an excellent selection of football guys I collect. You know, the guys in green! Nick Foles is near the top of my list of modern Eagles to collect as he led the team to the promised land not too long ago, so it's always great to pick up something fun like this rookie patch thing.

Green means Ducks as well (mallard green!) DAT was a fun player to watch, always a complete blur on the field. (Didn't they call the offense "the blur offense" at one point?) Many of my favorite looking Oregon cards were made by Upper Deck for some reason.

Patriots rookie (well, last season) Christian Gonzalez looks especially good here in a green parallel version. I'm glad this is from the draft set where Gonzalez is wearing his college gear, although I'm sure I'll eventually have a bunch of his cards where he's wearing that dastardly Patriots garb.

Marcus Mariota may not be wearing green here, but it's alright by me.

These playing card-themed inserts are pretty silly. I don't know that I've seen any other ones besides Gonzalez.

DAT is back again, this time on another Upper Deck card in acetate.

I don't think I have a clue about this brand. Pro Picks? It blends in with Wild Card and Leaf and Sage and whatever other small potatoes college brands are out there. I never really see this kind of stuff on shelves.

Akili Smith's son, also a quarterback, is set to join the Ducks next year. I wonder how much influence Smith Sr. had on his son's recruiting decision, considering how different things are at UO now than they were in the late '90s.

It's back to Eagles territory we go with a few more former Birds. The current team is set to open their season with the Packers in Brazil shortly.

I always thought Mack Hollins would make a much better name for a lineman, or at least not a skill position guy.

Jalen not-Hurts looks absolutely thrilled to be stuck inside this Christmas ornament. Does Panini release a holiday-themed version of their Donruss football set like they do with NBA Hoops, or was this just part of the regular set?

After all of those football guys to get your football weekend started (FOOTBALL!), here's a former Trail Blazer basketball pro. The backdrop of these cards looks like some cheesy computer generated graphic pattern that you could find in a Google image search or something.

The red bird baseball team can't avoid the green either.

Looks like mojo!

Elite Extra Edition is a weird and fairly janky looking product every year. It looks like this year, Panini got bored with their usual pink parallels and decided to unleash whatever the heck this is to the collecting world.

There needs to be a prominent set of round cards (or discs!) every year. It should be baked into every contract. I would actually order Slurpees if 7-11 ever decided to bring back their discs, and I never drink that kind of stuff.

We go from the circular to this die cut gem. I think these inserts are fairly tough to come by.

Speaking of tough to come by, I've run across these '90s Sportscenter themed inserts a bunch of times, but I'm pretty sure I've never seen a World Headquarters Edition parallel before. Nice!

Last, but certainly not least, is this huge pile of Topps Heritage cards (mostly short prints!) and Allen & Ginter minis that all checked off various needs from my various wants. One fuzzy picture from my phone can't possibly do this justice, but suffice it to say that I was very pleased with this overall.