A Free Ryu Relic From eBay

An eBayer included this for free with a card I was much more excited to receive.

Thank you, random eBayer.

Topps Chrome Coreys

I received a two-card package from Judson of My Cardboard Habit fame. Judson has a penchant that I would kill to have if I opened wax -- pulling Corey Seager cardboard. He was kind enough to think of my Seager PC and send them my way.

Both cards hail from 2016 Topps Chrome. The first is the Youth Impact insert RC which is just fantastic all-around. Great color, a great shot of Seager's sweet swing, and there's even a signed version of this I probably will never land.

The second comes out of the Perspectives subset and features a really cool shot of Corey in the on-deck circle. You can make out Clayton Kershaw immediately to Corey's left (near his left knee) and Hyun-Jin Ryu to Kersh's left.

Thank you for your generosity Judson!

All The Billingsleys Your Heart Could Desire: Chavez Ravining Loot Part 2

Here's the next installment of "stuff I bought from Chavez Ravining last year." Today's post will have a very distinct theme to it: long-time PTSIA favorite and underrated Dodger Chad Billingsley.

First up, five autos including a really cool in-person auto on a 2006 Fleer Blue Chip Prospects card. I remember Alex posting the card and I was captivated immediately. It looks like it's certified until you have it in-hand which is a cool touch and a credit to Fleer, really. The dual with Jon Meloan is numbered out of 35.

Jersey cards are still cool to me most of the time. I don't really chase them but I still find enjoyment in adding them to my various collections when the opportunity presents itself. Top left is /35 and top right is /50.

There was a small chunk of Bills base. My favorites are above. I feel like there are not nearly enough rosin bag-related shots of pitchers. Maybe. Maybe.

Finally, I'm sneaking in a pair of Hyun-Jin Ryu rookies. Because he's awesome.

Thanks Alex!

Mini Southpaw Gypsies.

Just a couple more cards I plucked from the binder DL left for me at work.

Another beautiful Kersh for the PC. That Ryu is killer too.

Thanks dude!

Trade With Chavez Ravining: A Mini A.J. Ellis and a Grip o' Ginter (2014 Edition)

I completed my third trade with my good friend Alex over at Chavez Ravining. You can check out our first foray here and second swap here. Alex has sent me a couple of card-filled packages over the last few months and I've been a bad and super-slow blogger. Apologies. Away we go....

A.J.! This brilliant mini relic was a card that caught my eye when Alex posted it and thankfully he was willing to move it even though it fits into his collection. A.J. will have a lessened role with newcomer Yasmani Grandal now wearing Blue but I think it will suit the future voice of the Dodgers well.

Let's wrap up the scanned portion of the show with some random goodness. Shiny Greinke, Kenley, and Ryu cards for those modest PCs; it was real Hanley; a pair of Gerrit Coles for my collection of the former UCLA standout; and minis of Cole Hamels and one-time Dodger draft pick Chase Utley.

Alex was also purging a ton of cards from his collection and I decided to take the plunge and go after the 2014 Allen & Ginter Base Set (including SPs) as well as a number of the inserts, all of which he was able to help me out with. And when I say help me out, I mean he sent me a tremendous amount of cards which I need to go through as I slowly put together my Want List for '14 A&G.

As always, the cards are much appreciated Alex!

Trade With DocHoloday: Kemp, Kershaw, ALL YOUR DODGERS, and A Custom Archer Sketch Card!

I completed my second trade with Matt from DocHoloday. It was quite the gigantic trade, and he sent me a ton of amazing pieces of cardboard. You can see what Matt received by following this here link.

This sweet addition to my Bison Collection is numbered out of a scant /25 (12/25, to be exact). It's the XFractor parallel out of 2007 Topps Finest.

Clayton! This new Kershaw is a mini black framed relic out of 2013 Gypsy Queen. It scanned crooked each time and I gave up after three attempts. But still. Kid K!

More adds to my Kemp/Kershaw PCs. 13 new Bisons takes my Kemp PC over the 350 unique card mark. 8 new Kershaws always makes for a swell collecting day and the Russell Martin is a sweet, sweet refractor of a great play at the plate.

My Long Beach State PC gets a boost with this sweet Troy Tulowitzki bat slice, numbered 272/399. Tier One is such a pretty set, but one I will only pick up cheap singles from because boxes are crazy expensive.

A fantastic dual relic featuring a pair of sweater swatches from Bobby Ryan and Cam Fowler. It's numbered 258/300 to boot.

A potpourri of fantastic cards is up next. There's a sweet Julio Urias RC right smack dab in the middle; a troika of awesome Hyun-Jin Ryu rookies; a miiiinnnniiii blue Joc Pederson /250; Puig and Seager, Bowman Platinum style; a tremendous die-cut of The Duke of Flatbush; and a brand new Ryan Getzlaf parallel that's serial-numbered 985/999.

Some pure random goodness. The Piazzas are tremendous, especially the Diamond Duos card (Hideo Nomo is on the reverse) and the Star Attractions die-cut. A page full of Piazza cards always makes for a good day. The Zack Greinke Heritage is easily one of the best cards of the year, and I had never seen that Pee Wee Reese card before (it's quite pretty). The red Nolasco is really a red Puig in my book, and I've always enjoyed the AJ Ellis card on the top left.

My first auto of future reliever -- if he remains in L.A. -- Matt Magill.

And finally, a true surprise as Matt included a custom sketch card of one Sterling Archer! Much like the custom Archer sketch Gavin sent me, this baby is headed straight for my Archer PC. Seriously, if anybody wants to ever sit down and sketch me a custom Archer sketch, I will more than happily add it to my collection. If you wanted to draw Krieger doing something exceptionally Krieger-ish, that would be totally cool as well. Not that I'm hinting or anything....

Thanks for a truly phenomenal trade Matt! It was well worth the wait!

Dodgers and Ducks Goodies From ENOUGH ALREADY.

I received a surprise package from Tim over at ENOUGH ALREADY. Inside were some sweet new additions to my major PCs.

First up, two new Matt Kemps; one new and very blue Clayton Kershaw (#'d 037/199); and a red parallel (#'d 147/399) of Ryan Getzlaf. The Legends in The Making Bison is die-cut and fantastic, and the Bowman Chrome is a refractor.

Last but not least, brand new Puig and Ryu cards which will fit very nicely into my modest collections of the second-year Blue Crewers, as well as an Andre Ethier jersey swatch.

Many thanks Tim!

Trade With Bob Walk The Plank: Kemp, Kershaw, Puig, Bauer, Magill, Ryu, Cole.

I completed my first trade with Matthew from Bob Walk The Plank, a relatively new card blog. Matthew contacted me about a swap of cardboard and he sent over some fantastic cards. Go check out his site and work out a deal of your own, as you will not be disappointed.

Another Yasiel Puig RC in the books, and I'm very grateful I've been able to trade for the vast majority. This will forever be one of my favorite photos of ManBearPuig.

Matt had this fantastic Trevor Bauer on-faux-baseball John Hancock as bait, and it immediately caught my eye. Bauer and I attended UCLA at the same time, and I enjoy picking up hits of his. I still believe he'll be a good starter at worst in the bigs.

A brand new Matt Kemp and a new Clayton Kershaw are due up next. The Kemp card is awesome and that Kid K is just all sorts of perfection. A mini with a black border; a vintage-y throwback look; a great action shot of Clayton; and the Brooklyn B on the cap just go oh so well together.

This Matt Magill auto is my first signature of his, and though he struggled last year in spot duty, I think he can still be a solid number five or even four starter due to his swing-and-miss stuff and youth.

A potpourri of Blue Crew goodness. The Kemp gold rookie is my second, and I'll take as many Bison cards from 2005 Topps Update as I can get my hands on. The Ryu Archives Rookie is sweet and the Koufax and Jackie are obviously nails.

And finally, some randomness highlighted by three Gerrit Coles (go Bruins!). This will be the second Juan Uribe card to call my collection home, which is two more than I ever thought I would own.

Thanks for the great trade Matthew and welcome to the blogging community! I'm working on a return package of Pirates that I hope you'll enjoy!

Trade With The Daily Dimwit: Puig Galore, An Eventual Seager Orange Auto, and Ginter o' Plenty.

I completed my ninth trade with the great Sam from The Daily Dimwit. You can check out our first deal here, second here, third here, fourth here, fifth here, sixth here, seventh here, and eighth here. Sam has thankfully come out of blog retirement, and we recently finalized a trade that had been in the works for some time. You can see what headed Sam's way here.

I'll start off with some Yasiel Puig RC goodness! Sam sent along Puig's 2013 Ginter A&G Back Mini RC, base RC, and a Puig rookie from 2013 Topps Pro Debut. All are much appreciated and are swell additions to my modest #ManBearPuig PC.

Next up, a redemption that has been entered for a Corey Seager Orange Parallel Auto from 2013 Bowman Inception (on-card!). I can't wait to have this beaut in-hand and part of my #ManBearSeag PC!

More Corey Seager! Seriously, how can you not absolutely adore a card with a raptor on it? I can't get enough and plan on taking in some Rancho Cucamonga Quakes' games while he's still a member of the team. In-person graphing will be the desired result of those games.

A nice mix of stuff is up next. We've got a Ryu Rookie (one of 2013's best cards); a new Matt Kemp; a new Clayton Kershaw (it's the regular back mini); a Joc Pederson Minor League RC; and an AJ Ellis for my PC of the charismatic catcher. I'm working on some sort of rainbow for AJ's 2013 Ginter card, another great offering amongst 2013's slew of cardboard.

Finally, Sam knocked out a ginormous chunk of my 2013 Allen & Ginter needs in the form of:

93 Base - Complete!
17 SPs
45 Across The Years
The last 4 Martial Mastery cards I needed (!)
6 Civilizations of Ages Past
7 One Little Corner
7 Palaces & Strongholds
4 Codes, Ciphers & Cryptographs
13 Heavy Hangs The Head
5 Famous Finds
7 Inquiring Minds
3 The First Americans
3 Peacemakers

Sam, as always, thanks for another phenomenal trade!

My 2013 IBWAA MLB Awards + Updated Ryan Getzlaf 2013-2014 Season Tracker

	AL MVP	AL CY YOUNG	AL ROY	AL MANAGER	AL RELIEVER
1	Mike Trout	Chris Sale	Wil Myers	Joe Maddon	Greg Holland
2	Josh Donaldson	Max Scherzer	Jose Iglesias	Bob Melvin	Koji Uehara
3	Miguel Cabrera	Yu Darvish	Danny Farquhar	Terry Francona	Joe Nathan
4	Chris Davis	Hisashi Iwakuma
5	Evan Longoria	Felix Hernandez
6	Robinson Cano
7	Jacoby Ellsbury
8	Manny Machado
9	Yu Darvish
10	Max Scherzer

	NL MVP	NL CY YOUNG	NL ROY	NL MANAGER	NL RELIEVER
1	Andrew McCutchen	Clayton Kershaw	Jose Fernandez	Clint Hurdle	Kenley Jansen
2	Clayton Kershaw	Adam Wainwright	Yasiel Puig	Mike Matheny	Craig Kimbrel
3	Matt Carpenter	Jose Fernandez	Hyun-Jin Ryu	Fredi Gonzalez	Mark Melancon
4	Carlos Gomez	Matt Harvey
5	Joey Votto	Cliff Lee
6	Paul Goldschmidt
7	Troy Tulowitzki
8	Jose Fernandez
9	Yasiel Puig
10	Yadier Molina

In retrospect the only changes I would make would be moving Scherzer ahead of Sale for AL Cy; moving Max ahead of Darvish for AL MVP; moving Goldschmidt up some in NL MVP voting; and moving Molina up as well.

That's not to say Sale was unworthy, as I believe Scherzer, Sale, Iwakuma, Darvish, and King Felix all had great cases to be made. I've just changed my mind ever so slightly after some further examination and thought.

The AL Cy Young and NL MVP votes were by far the toughest, as each race had at least 5 excellent candidates you could make a case for.

Oh, and Mike Trout is by far the best and most valuable player in baseball, and he didn't win a major award. There's something fundamentally wrong with that. Unless you truly believe he "didn't do enough to get his team into the postseason," in which case you need help unrelated to baseball.

--------------------

In other news, I've updated the Ryan Getzlaf Season Tracker on the right sidebar so that it's aligned with the current 2013-2014 season.

Trade With Brad's Blog: Ginterpalooza -- Maury Wills Auto, Puig/Ryu RCs (+ A Sick Fedorov Ducks' Patch)

I completed my second trade with Brad from Brad's Blog. There were many layers to our latest deal but all were fantastically awesome. Brad busted some 2013 Ginter and had a lot available for trade, and thankfully I had enough hits of Philadelphia teams lying around to entice him.

First up, this awesome on-card auto of Maury Wills. It's just my second certified Wills John Hancock and third overall, as I met Maury a few years back. Next up, we move to hockey and my love of sick patches.

I sadly don't remember much of future Hall of Famer Sergei Fedorov as a Duck, but I'm quite pleased to add a patch of his (numbered 035/220) to my Ducks' PC. Finally, the meat of the deal: GINTER set needs!

Highlighted by RCs of Yasiel Puig and Hyun-Jin Ryu - both of which will go towards my set - Brad sent along a ton of '13 A&G. All told, he contributed: 73 base cards, 6 SPs, 2 Martial Mastery, 2 Heavy Hangs The Head, 11 Across The Years, 3 Palaces & Strongholds, 2 One Little Corner, 2 Inquiring Minds, 1 Codes, Ciphers, & Cryptographs, and 1 Ages of Civilizations Past to the 2013 Ginter Cause. The Ryu is easily one of the best cards in 2013, period. So much awesome.

Thanks for another outstanding trade Brad, I appreciate it!

Hadouken!

I think this is a most appropriate post considering it's Free Comic Book Day. No, my modest Silver Age comic collection is not on display today. Instead, I'll feature this sweeeeeet 1/1 custom sketch card of one of the newest Dodgers.

It's actually the second custom sketch card I've snagged off of eBay for a stellar and cheap price. This is the "blue 1/1," if you will. You can never go wrong with lots of blue on a Dodgers' card, or a card of a Dodger, for that matter. Hyun-Jin Ryu doesn't have anything in the way of American cardboard yet and for $1.34 delivered it was an easy auction to go after. The artist responsible is Cincinnatus.

Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw, and Hyun-Jin Ryu Dance. I Think.

I don't know what to say, really, when it comes to the below.

Except to say it's the most amazing thing ever, and I think Matt Kemp missed the point. Or he got the point exactly right.

Video is even better. Although the added context isn't necessary, really. Just a few dudes dancing suggestively.

Trade With DodgerBobble: Jose Bautista and Don Mattingly Sweet-Spot Autos.

I completed my third trade with DodgerBobble. You can check out our first trade here and our second here. DB has moved to collecting signed baseballs and he had his eyes on my Hyun-Jin Ryu ball that I acquired at 2013 FanFest. I really liked that ball but I was willing to consider parting with it for a couple of reasons. First, he's signed for six years and I'm confident I can track him down and get him to sweet-spot a ball at some point within the next half-decade. Second, the ball means more to DB right now, and I'm always happy to help a friend. And third, he traded me some amazing stuff.

Case in point, the jewel of the deal for me, this fantastic sweet-spot ball of masher Jose Bautista. I've got a few Joey Bats' RCs so when I saw this ball in DB's Bait I couldn't resist. eBay prices and the fact that he plays in Toronto would make it extremely difficult for me to ever acquire this piece otherwise so I jumped at the chance to add a sweet baseball to my collection of a dude who put up back-to-back seasons of 6.5 and 7.8 fWAR.

Bobble made it clear he'd be "willing to overpay" to knock Ryu off his list and not have to worry about grabbing his auto at a game or appearance. He was more than happy to go beyond the Bautista, so I requested the above Donnie Baseball ball and DB kindly obliged. Now I'm the one who doesn't have to worry about snagging Mattingly at a game, though I don't think it would have been too difficult as the Dodgers' skipper seems like a willing signer. It mostly means I don't have to go out and buy a baseball. :o

My main bobblehead amigo said he would toss in a particular signature because he remembered me posting about missing this player at FanFest each of the last two years. His generosity results in my ownership of a fantastic A.J. Ellis signed program which commemorates his winning the Roy Campanella Award in 2012. I always enjoy adding a signature of A.J. #WeWantMoreBetweenTwoPalmTrees

I was sent a slew of scans when we first started discussing the deal, and one card jumped out at me. Bobble doesn't collect much beyond autos but I had an extra Kemp/Kershaw dual relic lying around so I offered up a one-for-one swap for the above Bison patch and thankfully the deal was accepted as part of our larger sweet-spot swap. Numbered 061/199, it features three pieces of jersey from a road uniform and a sweeeeet patch piece with stitching and a seam, also hailing from a road jersey. It's my newest Mattycakes hit and I've been after one for ages so I'm stoked to be able to cross it off of my list.

A brand new Kid K made an appearance in the box of goodness DB handed to me, and it's even more killer considering it's the great blue frame parallel, numbered 533/599, from 2012 Gypsy Queen.

Finally, some random cards and in-person graphs were included as a throw-in, highlighted by a cool chrome C-Bills and an Ethier Ginter auto. Also, the Steve Yeager '78 Topps is awesome, largely due to the fact that Yeager is an awesome dude. So awesome he was even chain-smoking at a Caravan event I attended a few years back. Not that I condone smoking or do so myself, but it was just such a badass thing to see.

Thanks for an epic and awesome trade, my Bobble compadre! And good luck to the both of us in tracking down Greinke!

Trade With Nomo's Sushi Platter: In-Person Trades Rule All Trades.

I completed my eighth trade with Spiegel of Nomo's Sushi Platter. You can check out the first here, second here, third here, fourth here, fifth here, sixth here, and seventh here. Mike had a team bag full of cards for me when we met up at the Dodgers' recent FanFest event held at Dodger Stadium.

Mike included two new additions to my major player collections in the form of a new Bison and a new Russ Martin. I really dig the Kemp.

An Animal in Peril I was without found its way to me while eluding extinction. I'm slowly chipping away at 2011 and 2012 Ginter, both of which I would love to be done with by the time 2013 Ginter hits shelves and the internet everywhere. Oh, and now all I can think of is Sexual Harassment Panda.....

Some random goodness, Platter style.

Finally, Mike was gracious enough to give me a brand new baseball to use at FanFest, which led to the above fantastic sweet-spot auto of Dodger import Hyun-Jin Ryu. The ball could potentially wind up in DodgerBobble's hands as he's expressed some interest in it and I could perhaps be swayed into parting with it.

Thanks for the great trade Mike! I'll get to work on a splendid return package!