On the horizon

Do you see it?  Out there, just at the edge of the horizon?

There's a contest coming...yes, it's coming straight for you.

You won't want to miss it.

May 1st.

An Arbitrary Call

 I've seen a lot of box breaks.  I've seen a lot of case breaks.  I've taken part in a few of each.  I've only seen one group "trade" break and as it turns out, it was pretty fun.  (He says sheepishly since he still has to send his part of the trade out.)

Brian of the delightfully named Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary did just that.  He bought some boxes, busted them and all he asked in return was a trade of similar cards.

I'm not entirely sure John Wetteland understands how this is supposed to work.  John, you throw the ball, I catch ball.  Brian sends the cards, the other Brian sends cards back.  Got it?  Ummmm....maybe?

Brian sent a nice batch of cards, including the ever popular Deckle Edge cards.

Michael Young worn a jersey to an event and Topps chopped it into little bits and now I have one!  Ok, it's not that exciting, but still...

How about a little 1984 Olympic Gold Medal Allen and Ginter goodness?  I like it.  It fits in nicely with my growing Team USA collection.

Brian, I'll be working on your return package this weekend.  Thanks!

You know you make me wanna shout!!

Card packages are so much fun to open. Small ones, large ones and everything in between.  They are all great, especially when you don't know what's inside.

You might get a very excited Pudge with a silver signature.

You might get a Hall of Fame Catcher, a soon to be Hall of Fame catcher and...who?

You might get a card that combines the best of your two favorites...Team USA and Will Clark.

You might get a beautiful card that combines THREE of our favorites (shiny, Team USA and Joe Mauer) with one of your least favorites (Panini).

You definitely might get a shiny blue card that would be gorgeous if it had logos.  Said card might also be #2/75 on the back.

You could also get a shiny, non-logo card that is #17/25.

The package might well contain a 2003 Fleer EX Rafael Palmeiro #56/82.

You might also just happen to find a Jurickson Profar Finest auto in said package.

Yep, you sure might get a package that looks like that.  Except that I DID get a package like that and it came from Jon over at Community Gum.

Thanks a bunch Jon.

The Greatest Bip of All Time

Every team has one.  It may not be spectacular and unbelievable like the Rangers', but every team has one.  I'm talking about the biggest Free Agent bust in team history.  You may want to say it was Alex Rodriguez and his 10 year, $250 million contract, but at least he produced numbers.  Sure, they were steroid induced numbers, but they were numbers.

Chan Ho Park on the other hand...well, lotsa dough, little production.  Chan Ho Park played 4 seasons for the the Rangers.  He went 22-23 and made $48,648,770.  That's exactly $2,211,307.73 per win. Nice work if you can get it.

I said all that to say this: being a team collector means you have to suck it up and collect a guy you'd rather forget.  That's why I say thank you to the great Fuji of The Chronicles of Fuji, for this Chan Ho Park tablecloth relic piece.

Fuji also sent me this not yet Ranger, but now former Ranger Alex Rios Diamond King dual bat relic card.  I'm betting he thought this was a Rangers card, because I've made the same mistake with that Toronto T.   I've also received a fair number of Toronto cards from this era in trade packages and I can only assume it's for the same reason.  It is a low numbered beauty, #49/50.

Not to leave out the real Rangers, Fuji threw in this Hank Blalock jersey/bat Diamond King.  One might think this was also numbered to 100, but one would be wrong.  This one is #75/100.

That leads us to the best Bip Roberts card in the history of Bip Roberts cards.

This is a wonderful, amazing, stupendous, out of sight, off the charts, PLAY AT THE PLATE 1993 Stadium Club Bip "F"ing Roberts!!!!!!  I'm in cardboard love my friends and it's all because of our little cupid friend, Fuji!

Thanks for the great package my friend!!

You crack me up

Back on Valentine's Day, Julie from A Cracked Bat offered up some beautiful Kelloggs' cards.  I am almost ashamed to admit that I own very few of these wonderful cards.  I vaguely remember them from my youth, but at that age, my two older brothers, devils that they were, would have taken any cereal box prize before I had a chance at it.

I jumped at the chance to get some of these for my collection, but like many a generous blogger, Julie didn't just send the Kellogg's cards.  She threw in a few diamonds and green...wait, wrong brand.

Julie's package was chock full of goodies, but I just pulled out a couple to show off.  Take this 1974 Bill Sudakis for example.  It's awesome vintage showing off the Rangers equally awesome powder blue uniforms and a big Topps Original 2015 Stamp.  This one came from a pack of 2015 Series One cards and although I'm not a big fan of the stamp, if it's a Ranger, I need it.

Next up is a Sweet Swatch from Hank Blalock, better known as "What the hell ever happened to that guy that played third for the Rangers" Blalock.  He doesn't look like he could explain it either.

Last up today is the friendly foursome of Kellogg's cards Julie sent over.  The first and smaller three cards are from 1980 and feature Johhny Bench, Buddy Bell and Fergie Jenkins.  Two HOFers out of three ain't bad.  The big brother on the right is the 1981 Buddy Bell.  He is amazing.  That's a yellow border I can get behind.

Julie, I have a package just sitting here waiting for a trip to the post office.  I'll get that out soon.