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.

Sunday Funday PWE Round-Up

Catching up with chunky cards from @sanjosefuji and more! 

 

I don't even want to get into how far behind I've fallen in card stuff here or what led to this situation. Let's just look at some cards! The first bunch came over from The Chronicles of Fuji. Fuji managed to cram a sweet stack of memorabilia cards and relics into a small envelope way back when, and I'm excited to finally show them off to you all.

Oooh, even Joey Heisman thinks these cards are pretty sweet!

Of course, Harrington only finished in 4th place in 2001, but he and his school managed to raise his profile enough that he went on to a decently sized (but not terribly successful) NFL career.

Here's a blast from the past -- it's Josh McRoberts, or McBob as he was affectionately known during his short time around here in Portland. This is one of those neat looking letter patches that I own so few of. It's even autographed! It's just a manufactured patch, of course, but it definitely resembles the lettering on the Blazers jerseys at the time during the Adidas days.

The Blazers hits just keep on coming. This signed sticker auto comes from decorated Spanish star Sergio Rodriguez, who spent the latter half of the '00s in the NBA before resurfacing stateside for a season about six years ago. He's still playing professionally these days.

Zach Collins is the NBA's only living and breathing vampire (that we know of.) He's currently a key member of the Spurs after starting his career with Portland.

I think we all know this guy, for better or for worse. There's kind of a strange cut-out for the jersey piece on this card to go along with the wood theme.

Ha is still apparently the only player from South Korea to play in the NBA, which is kind of a cool distinction as he otherwise didn't have much of an impact on the league. He tantalized with his size, but I don't know that the league had as much structure in place twenty years ago to develop raw talent that they do now.

I really liked Gary Trent Jr. while he was with the Blazers and it felt like his trade to Toronto was the beginning of the team's downward slide, even if we didn't know it at the time.

Next up, we have some goodies from long time PWE trader (and Dodger fan) gcrl. A couple of the online exclusive Topps Mini cards were on offer, including this insert from the 2017 set.

This one is even more special as it's numbered to just 25. Ponce de Leon has bounced around a few organizations after his last appears with St. Louis, but he hasn't resurfaced in the big leagues yet.

I also snagged some Allen & Ginter set filling needs from gcrl, including a couple of base cards and this Randy Johnson insert. Will we see a normal late summer release for this year's Allen & Ginter set? I haven't checked the calendars in a bit because my budget for cards has dropped off dramatically of late.

Here's a few more inserts from last year's Ginter set. I kind of want to burn the card at the top.

Lastly, I claimed a few random set fillers from The Angels, In Order back in the winter. (Yeah, it's been awhile!) Those Royals jerseys definitely scream early '00s to me.

The 2014 Topps Heritage New Age Performers design is one of my least favorites. It squishes the player photo over to the side unnecessarily. I get how they were trying to make this look like it should with with the 1965 Topps theme, but it doesn't work for me.

I also claimed this slightly smaller ("mini"...ish) parallel card of Mike Sweeney from the 2005 Bowman Heritage set. I've managed to add some Bowman Heritage cards to my meager set builds since I started trading on TCDB, but that area could still use plenty of work.

Thanks again to everyone who has sent me envelopes of all sizes!

Supersized Supertrade!

The want lists take a beating again thanks to @sanjosefuji and some huge goods from two sports. 

After complaining for years about having no A's fans to trade with, I unloaded a pallet full of Oakland-based cards on a couple of people this summer, with Supertrader Fuji taking a healthy share. While I'm not sure a ton of it will fit in his collection, I am hoping it was at least an interesting lot to sort through. Meanwhile, he responded in kind with a ton of Cardinals needs -- and a few non-Cardinals surprises.

Any time you can add an Edmonds to my collection, it's a huge occasion. This is one of those classy sets that Fleer put out, probably as a one-off, that looks better than a lot of the junk we've been seeing recently.

This year's Stadium Club set ain't no junk (nor joke), however. Here you get a small Randal with one L against a large backdrop. The Arch, Coca-Cola, and absolutely no signs of any adult beverages.

I don't recall ever seeing any cards from this set, which appears to be one of Topps' 50 year tributes they put together in 2001. They Chrome'd up the "entire" 2016 (Series One and Series Two) set this year, but it would be interesting if they randomly chromed up a set from the '80s for no real reason.

Fuji sent a lot of Cards cards from the 2014 Topps Museum Collection set, which was really nice because I'm sure these packs (or boxes or whatever) are way out of my price range ordinarily.

Ah yes, Jose Oquendo. This was one of the many failed attempts at melding baseball cards and card games into one sort of thing. Topps is still forcing these ideas on people today, only they are people with smartphones. (Also known as just phones.)

Also nice? This Topps Traded set rookie card of current Cardinals broadcaster Ricky Horton. I believe I'm down to just needing one of the Cardinals from the 1984 Topps Traded set if I'm not mistaken. Yes, I still need cards from the '80s.

Aside from that glorious end of 2013, Michael Wacha hasn't quite made it as a star yet. He's had some struggles with injuries, one of those things pitchers like to struggle with.

I'd never seen this USA Baseball card of Kolten Wong, who is listed as an OF/C on the back. This card came out a year before he was drafted by the Cardinals, but Topps must have had some sort of rights to make cards of players on Team USA before they actually turn pro. I don't understand how these things work. I am pretty sure that the Cardinals told Wong to donate his catcher's gear to a good cause when they drafted him, because of this guy...

Yadi!

Fuji also sent some glorious Blazer memorabilia cards, like this one of fallen hero Brandon Roy. Well, he's not actually "fallen", he just can't play basketball anymore because his knee turned to dust.

The artist also known as McBob wasn't a Blazer long, but while he was he was that 12th guy off the bench that people would cheer for.

Travis Outlaw had some good years with the Blazers after being drafted out of high school and developing into a stretch four, before that terminology came into wide use.

I love throwback jerseys. I love throwbacks in basketball. I wish the Blazers would use them more, but they've gone to more of a fauxback jersey in recent years instead. It still looks good, sans sleeves of course.

SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED! And we have reached our final destination.