A Dodgy PWE Round-Up

 

Three envelopes from two Dodgers fans, including @nightowlcards and more. 

It's time to check out the contents of a few more envelopes sent with good ol' fashioned stamps. First up is one from gcrl / cards as i see them. This one was chockful of Cardinals, which are always appreciated around here and less appreciated in Dodgers-loving homes I'd imagine.

I honestly don't remember when Panini's Absolute set came out last year. It always seems to be one of those things that's released with very little fanfare, as if Panini is contractually obligated to put it out somehow. Panini base cards are always appreciated, just because I feel the vast majority of people I trade with primarily buy Topps stuff, and unopened Panini product can be absurdly expensive.

This Bobby Del Greco card from 1957 Topps could not be more different than those Panini cards. Old cardboard is truly the best cardboard, unless you're talking about an old box that's been slowly decomposing in your basement somewhere.

The second of three numbered cards in this gcrl envelope is from the 2003 SP Authentic set. Instead of just serial numbering all of the rookies in the set, it looks like Upper Deck also saw fit to throw some former rookies into the mix.

Ex-Cardinal outfielder Tommy Pham is featured on this purple parallel from the 2018 Finest set. Pham has had a lengthy injury history, but has nearly always been productive when he can actually stay healthy and on the field.

Last up is a red foil parallel from the 2021 Stadium Club set of the dean of the Cardinals. I don't think the term "dean of the [team]" is ever used anymore, but I remember it appearing on all of the Team Leaders cards in the 1986 Topps set, which I found fascinating as a ten year old. Did you get to wear some sort of crown or special belt for being the longest tenured player on the team? Probably not?

Envelope number two is from the world famous Night Owl Cards. This one is full of set needs, including a number of Allen & Ginter cards. I'm a bit surprised that I don't have all of the Dick Perez art cards from the first couple of Ginter sets, because I could have sworn at one time I had a huge stack of them.

Night Owl usually has a ton of minis lying around, or so I imagine anyway. I've been lucky enough to be the beneficiary of quite a few of his extras over the years. The Mark Reynolds is actually one of the rare unnumbered versions.

Here's a few more Military Leaders cards. I'm still hoping that Topps will make a World's Biggest Jerks mini insert set, or something along those lines.

Here are some very good animals. I'm not sure how the pony card ended up upside-down, but at this point I'm not about to fix it.

A Cardinals card did manage to sneak into the Night Owl envelope -- it's one of those sepia-toned parallels from the most recent Stadium Club set, non-Chrome edition.

The final envelope of the evening is also from a Dodgers fan, and it's gcrl once again! This is just a basic Adam Wainwright mini, but it didn't happen to be in my collection at all yet.

I didn't add a ton of George Springer cards to my collection last year. I'm not sure if it had to do with his move to the Blue Jays or just a lack of apathy towards adding to some of my player collections. I've still added a few things here and there, but I should probably take a look at who and what I want to focus on collecting at some point in the future.

Both envelopes from gcrl featured cards from the 2021 Panini Absolute set. This one is a green foil parallel of Ken Boyer's Statistically Speaking insert card. You don't see a lot of Ken Boyer cards in Topps products as they tend to stick to the same handful of retired players they have deals with.

Nolan Arenado hasn't quite reached Icon status in St. Louis yet, but if he can string together a few more seasons like 2021, he certainly will. A nice playoff run would do wonders as well.

This time around, gcrl included some set needs as well. Here's a few cards from various Topps Heritage sets, including a Sonny Gray short print.

We also have a few more Allen & Ginter inserts, including a barn, a huge tower and a mineral.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me plain white envelopes over the months (and years). Let's keep that exchange coming. It's always fun to open up the mailbox and see something like this pop out.

It's April, so... Merry Christmas?!

My Secret Santa gifts from @GeoffCards are right on time. 

 

No, I can't blame the postal service for severe mail delays. I am still very behind in catching up on sorting and posting about the stuff I've received from people lately. There's actually a pretty good chance that I will catch up relatively soon, however, as my mailbox in 2021 has been pretty quiet. I entered a Secret Santa type group with some fellow Crackin' Wax break regulars and ended up with some pretty nice stuff.

Payton Pritchard's cards haven't quite gotten the attention than Justin Herbert's football cards have, of course, but I'm still seeking them out whenever I can find them. This is my first signed card of the guard who was a four year starter for the Ducks, running the point even as a freshman on the team that made it to the Final Four back in 2017.

There are actually two Pritchard cards in this Prizm Draft Picks base set, and I still need to track down a copy of the other one -- it looks like the green parallel at the top of this post.

The gift package wasn't all Pritchard and the Ducks, however. A few choice Cardinals were included as well, like this Tommy Pham black insert numbered parallel from a few years back.

There was also a KK auto from last year's Panini Absolute, a set that mostly escaped me, probably due to the cost.

Lastly, there was a Project 2020 card of the late, great Bob Gibson, shown here with the full stash of cards in the package from this photo that I put out on Twitter shortly after receiving the goods. This is actually the second Project 2020 card that crossed my desk last year, both of which were a complete surprise. I've since re-gifted the other card since it wasn't a fit for my collection, but a Gibby card clearly must be.

I'll say this much. There's so much about Project 2020 and other similar offerings that Topps has produced of late that embodies exactly what I don't want as a card collector. And yet... now I will forever own an actual piece of cardboard history from the craziness that was (and pretty much still continues to be) 2020. For a better look at the card, you can check this out from Topps.