obectively, brian earned some vintage

i received a package from brian, the brains behind highly subjective and completely arbitrary, a couple of weeks ago now.  i had just sent out 12 packages and a couple of pwe's of my own to various folks, but now need to compile a return package for brian.  there will be vintage included in that package, because brian sent me some older dodgers.  i asked 'who wants to deal for vintage?', and brian responded.  have a look.

1963 topps peel-offs don drysdale

hadn't seen these before.  the backs actually encourage the kids who bought these packs to peel the back off and stick big d on folders and the like.  i'm glad that the kid who got this one didn't follow directions.

1971 topps tattoos wes parker

i did not realize the the mid-80's tattoos were a revival of a previous issue, but here you have tattoos from 1971.  nice of brian to send my way.

1954 bowman carl erskine

there was also a 1954 bowman george shuba card which is a nice upgrade for me, but the erskine was new to my collection. i realized after i opened the package that i hadn't deleted shuba from the want list.  that is sloppy want list maintenance, folks. i'll try to do better.

brian also included some more modern pieces, although still quite interesting.  this is a 1982 national baseball hall of fame sandy koufax card

it's the type of thing you might see in a panini set these days. it's really simple, but way cool, to have hall of fame plaques on a standard card rather than a postcard.

speaking of sandy, here's a 2015 topps archives card that brian also sent

how cool are those two kids over sandy's shoulders?  it would be great to see myself on a card like this.

from koufax to kershaw, with a 2015 panini diamond kings clayton kershaw card

i see now that kershaw (as of 7/9) had the lowest career era of any starter over the last 100 years.  lower even than koufax.

2015 topps heritage hyun-jin ryu holofoil parallel

another dodger lefty, though he hasn't realized as much success as the previous two.

2003 donruss studio hideo nomo studio stars

studio stuck with the credit card insert for many years. too many, in my opinion.

last card of this post is a 2015 donruss carl crawford jersey kings relic card

the card says 'los angeles' but the relic screams 'tampa bay'.

thanks brian!  i'll pull some cards together to send back your way soon!

the numbers don't add up to junk

it's not often that i receive a package of cards that contain no plain old base cards, but that's what happened a while back.  for some reason, i've been delinquent in posting about this particular trade package that i received from wes at jaybarkerfan's junk, but that doesn't reflect my level of appreciation for it.  there were 8 cards total, with all but one being serial numbered.  have a look.

2002 fleer tradition update eric gagne all-star glossy edition; numbered /200

the sport goggles! game over!

2003 donruss studio hong-chih kuo numbered /1500

that's a nice angle on the top deck and reserve sections of dodger stadium behind the giant kuo.  these days, those seats are baby blue or sea-foam blue or whatever it was that the o'malley's originally had installed in the stadium.  as for the card, this is kuo's base card, but he was a rookie, so his card in the set is serially numbered.

2003 topps kevin brown gold parallel numbered /2003

2003 was brown's bounce-back season for the dodgers as he returned to form with a 2.39 era and made the yankees want to trade for him despite his huge contract.

2003 topps chrome andy ashby gold refractor numbered /449

that is a nice shiny card.  unlike brown, ashby was 3-10 with an era over 5 in his final year with the dodgers.  still, he wasn't unwanted, as he returned to san diego as a free agent for the 2004 season.

2004 donruss classics edwin jackson numbered /1999

similar to the kuo card, this is jackson's base card - it's just numbered because he was a rookie.  i've mentioned seeing jackson's final 2003 start before - it was in san francisco, and he allowed 2 hits and no runs over 6 innings.  he struck out 7, but gave up 8 walks!  still, the dodgers were up 1-0 after 8 innings, barry bonds had struck out twice (and walked and was hit by a pitch), and i was looking forward to seeing eric gagne get a save.  the dodgers went and scored three times in the top of the 9th, so even though gagne pitched, he didn't get the save.  in fact, i think that the only game in which i saw gagne earn a save in person was the night before shawn green's 4-homer game in milwaukee.  that was in the early part of gagne's career as a closer, so it wasn't quite the event that a gagne save eventually became.

2006 topps finest jd drew xfractor numbered /250

moving on…

2007 bowman russell martin orange parallel numbered /250

martin has caught nine extra-inning complete games this season, including a 16-inning affair.  i don't know if that is abnormal or not, but it's a cool stat.  he's also hitting .292 on the season which would look nice for a catcher in a dodger box score these days.

so i noted that there was only one card in the package that wasn't serial numbered, and it was this 2014 topps ricky nolasco trajectory auto

topps went all out with nolasco in 2014, adding his sticker auto to cards in multiple sets, and then he went and signed with the twins.

thanks again for all the cards wes!

giving thanks for through the mail successes! (part 2)

steve kemp signed his 1978 toppsand 1984 fleer cardskemp is channeling lou ferrigno in the 1978 card. i collected his cards because i expected big things from him.

al hrabosky signed his 1978 toppsand 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic cardsthe mad hungarian. nuff said.

jon olerud signed his 1994 upper deckand 1999 upper deck century legends cardstwo of my favorite upper deck sets. i was a big fan of olerud's when he played in toronto.

sean casey signed his 2003 donruss studioand 2006 bowman heritage cardsthe studio card was mine, but i sent another card that the mayor replaced with the bowman heritage card.

finally, craig breslow signed his 2008 upper deck timeline cardi pulled these cards like nothing. i must have had at least 6 or 7 (short print my arse) but by the time i got around to sending out the request, breslow was with the a's. still, he came through and that's what counts.

thanks to all these guys (and all the others) for keeping the through the mail dream alive!