Trade With Too Many Verlanders: Printing Plates, Relics, Vintage, and Ginter, Oh My!

I completed my fifth trade with the legendary Dennis from Too Many Verlanders. You can check out the first here, second here, third here, and fourth here. Dennis and I agreed to a blind trade, and he sent along some awesome stuff that hit multiple areas of my collecting ways.

Bobby Ryan! I believe this is my first printing plate of the former Anaheim Ducks' sniper. I'm too lazy to check that at the moment I'm typing this but I'm 99.99999% sure of it. I miss Bobby.

A sweet new Bison relic in which the bat slices spell out "The Bison." Fitting, really. It's numbered 29/36 and is the Base Parallel.

The Hebrew Hammer! This beauty is an upgrade in every way condition-wise over the 1954 Topps that currently resides in my collection of the 1953 AL MVP.

I was probably most excited to see these nine cards fall out, as they knock off 7 of the subsets I was working on from various years of Allen & Ginter past. They were the most surprising cards I received and I'm stoked to cross them off my Want List.

A heavy as can be Kemp pin. Also, it's a new Bison.

A Dre auto. He's so close to 10/5 rights, which is scary.

Finally, random goodness. That Piazza looks sooooo much better in-hand. The Martin is a new parallel /150 and the Kemp was one I was surprised to find I did not already have in my collection.

Thanks as always Dennis! BB4L!

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!

The Last Great Los Angeles Dodgers' Outfield: Matt Kemp, Manny Ramirez, Andre Ethier

It's always been difficult for me to pass up a good deal on a card that fits into my collection, even if the price is more than I would normally like to pay. When that card that is already appealing also happens to feature an autograph my collection is lacking, it makes it all the more tough to bypass. Such is how I came to acquire my first Manny Ramirez John Hancock for a killer price.

This beautiful piece of cardboard is numbered 21/36 and features three different relic pieces: an away gray jersey swatch for The Bison; a home white swatch for Dre; and a bat slice for ManRam. I've always believed a high-end product like Triple Threads should only have on-card autos, but I can live with stickers when the card looks so fantastic. It's a most welcome addition to my Matty PC.

299 Bison Roaming.

I had discussions with a fellow blogger about acquiring the below card once upon a time, but talks stalled and a deal was never consummated. Years later, I stumbled upon it as one of the best eBay sellers was yet again listing a slew of phenomenal Dodgers' cards. For $6.50 delivered, I took a chance and thankfully my bid proved to be the winning one as I added Bison #299 to my PC.

It's numbered 27/50, you say? That happens to be Kemp's number, you remind me. Yes, that was a big draw, but it's a card I've wanted for a long time and it was very affordable, so it would have been on my radar regardless.

Win A Contest, Win A Puig Chrome RC.

I won a "guess what I pulled" contest over at Play at the Plate, and for my prize Brian had me pick between two rack packs. I went with 2013 Topps Chrome. The highlight of my three packs and bonus pack was actually the final card I pulled, and boy is it ever a BIG ONE.

Such a great photo of #ManBearPuig. For a last card, it's hard to beat. Thankfully, I now don't have to chase this beauty, and I've been able to track down a number of Puig rookies on the cheap, which I never thought I would be able to do.

How about an orange refractor with a most excellent Rookie Cup of the best - and yes, most valuable - player in baseball, Mike Trout? Don't mind if I do. This baby was at the top of my bonus pack of orange refractors, which I opened up first.

We'll end it with the other two orange refractors I pulled, both of which feature former Dodgers: Shane Victorino and a RC of Allen Webster. I happened to pull a few other cards of note which will find their way into my collection and into trade packages for you wonderful people.

Thanks Brian!

Matt Kemp Appreciation Week Day 3: 2007 Topps Triple Threads Gold Triple Relic /9 (with Ethier and Weaver)

Day 3 brings us a really cool triple relic that brings to the party Andre Ethier and Jered Weaver. It's the gold parallel and is numbered 6/9 as well as being graded a 9 by BGS. The grading couldn't be any less important to me, but it didn't bump up the price of the card, so it's not something that even factored into my decision to pick up this beauty.

White swatches for Dre and Jered flank a bat slice from The Bison. I've seen maybe one other copy before, and it just slipped past me all those months ago. With that in mind, I wasn't going to let this bad boy allude me again, especially if the price remained reasonable. For under $12.50 delivered, I'd say it most definitely was wallet-friendly. It's a most welcome addition to my Kemp Collection.

2013 Allen & Ginter Blaster Break.

I'm not a retail guy, but if someone is going to buy me a blaster of 2013 A&G, I can be your retail guy every day of the week. Such was the case last month (yes, I'm just now posting it). My favorite card from the blaster was an easy one to pick:

Kid K! It's going towards my set and I can't wait to pick up another for my Kersh PC. I did land a (roughly) case hit as well, which is headed to Sam:

The People on Bicycles insert set is one of the few '13 A&G sets I'm not chasing.

The rest of the best: an Ethier A&G Back Mini, a Spartans Martial Mastery, a Shelby Miller Mini RC, and the Pele base with the text missing on the back.

My 2013 box of Ginter used in Gint-A-Cuffs V can be found recapped here.

A Pretty Sweet Andre Ethier Rancho Cucamonga Quakes Bobblehead

The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes held Andre Ethier Bobblehead Night on Friday, July 12th. My buddy and I made the trip, and the Quakes took down the High Desert Mavericks in an incredibly sloppy 7-5 game. 7 combined errors and 4 HBPs will do that for a minor league game. Hell, the Quakes played just like the Dodgers in committing 5 of those 7 errors, but somehow held on for the win.

I didn't end up with the bobblehead when I entered, as the line was ridiculously long, but my buddy made it into the stadium before me and landed one. He dealt it to me for my extra James Loney bobble, a trade I'd make 101 out of 100 times.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Trade With The Daily Dimwit: A Triple Threads Treat and A Mess of 2012 Ginter.

I completed my eighth trade with Sam from the wonderful The Daily Dimwit. You can look back at our first foray here, second swap here, third trade here, fourth deal here, fifth exchange here, sixth encounter here, and seventh transaction here. Sam pulled a card many months ago that I had to have, and after a while I found something equivalent to send his way. We expanded our trade and had another great one in the books. You can see what I sent his way here.

The meat of the trade that I saw way back when and knew I had to get. Numbered 11/18, it's a sweeeeeet triple relic from 2012 Topps Triple Threads. I love that there are two blue patch pieces and they belong to the two gentlemen on this card I care about, Messrs. Kemp and Kershaw. Why Dre got center-billing, I do not know. The relics spell out "Bleeding Blue," which accurately describes the 2013 season.

Pee Wee! Wool jersey! Exclamation points!!!! Numbered 193/199, it's just the second Reese relic to call my collection home, joining a slice of bat. I told Sam to save this bad boy for our next trade but he sent it along anyways. A kind gentlemen, you are. You'll be getting something extra next time, of course.

Billy Wagner was a fantastic relief ace and I'm stoked to land his John Hancock. On-card and as an Astro, to boot. See Sam, not everyone hates Houston.

3 awesome Bisons and a pair of Kid Ks. Matty wearing 42 in mini form is NAILS.

Koufax and Verlander make a great pairing. I already have the A.J. Ellis Spring Fever auto, so the base card is a much appreciated throw-in. My first Hanley and Adrian Gonzalez cards as Dodgers were nice surprises as well.

Sam also took a big bite out of my remaining 2012 Ginter needs, sending me 4 of the World's Greatest Military Leaders, 23 of the What's In A Name? behemoth subset, and the last 3 SPs I needed to complete the Base Set (SPs included).

Thanks for yet another phenomenal trade Sam!

Andre Ethier: One Of The Most Overrated and Overpaid Players In All of Baseball.

Roy-Z over at Plain Gray Swatch wrote a post a while back in which he asked why so many Dodgers' fans seemed to be down on the "ever-consistent" Andre Ethier, viewing him more as a liability than as a star. I happen to be one of those people that has never been a big Ethier fan and advocated trading him long ago, so I thought I'd lay out the reasoning behind my stance.

Ethier has been a fan favorite for a long time, and in his early days had the support of pretty much all Dodgers' fans not running the day-to-day operations of the club. People clamored for him to not lose playing time to retreads, has-beens, and never-weres, as has so often happened to young Blue Crew players over the last decade when they first make it up to The Show (see: Matt Kemp, etc.).

Once Andre became a full-time starter, however, it was soon apparent that he was nothing more than a platoon player whom fans fell in love with because of things like batting average, RBIs, and the rantings of "analysts" like Steve Lyons, one of the few who has long held that Dre is a Gold Glove right fielder. Those RBIs and his perceived excellence led to a ludicrous contract extension of $85 million over five years with a sixth-year option that's highly likely to become guaranteed and push the deal past the $100 million mark.

Let's get the obvious, much-discussed out of the way. Andre Ethier can't, has not, and will never hit lefties well enough to be a full-time player you can count on for the majority of a season. His career slash line against southpaws looks frightening, mostly because it is:

.239/.297/.358/.655 with a .290 wOBA

Dear every God that's ever been prayed to.

Dre is shockingly bad against lefties, immeasurably bad, you could say. It's not that there aren't ways to measure his ineptitude against southpaws, it's just that I thought any statistical system would crash and be eternally demolished trying to run his atrocious numbers against port-siders (oooh, we should totally get that into the baseball vernacular as another term for lefties).

It's not as if Andre has been unlucky in these situations, as his BABIP against lefties is .292, meaning he's been neither lucky nor unlucky. What we've all seen is what he is: god awful when a right-handed hurler is not opposing him. It's also not as if this can be chalked up to a small sample size issue, as Ethier has put up these numbers - and I use put up very, very lightly - in 1,134 plate appearances entering April 16th.

When tacked on to his below-average baserunning (career -4.7 BsR) and defensive shortcomings (i.e. he's a terrible right fielder, costing the Dodgers ~ 23.2 runs per year), Dre's inability to hit lefties makes him the ideal candidate to platoon with a righty bat that can hit lefties and actually field the position.

The potential has been there, and the Dodgers definitely won the trade with Oakland to bring him to LA - giving up Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez - but Andre has never been able to live up to that potential. His fWAR has never topped 3.2, and it's likely to never top the 3.5-4 range because those massive struggles against lefties drag down his bat, the one area he can contribute in.

If left-handers didn't exist, not only would Andre be more appreciated, he'd be a star amongst stars. Well, if lefties and fielding and baserunning weren't on the table, he'd be upper-echelon easily. His career line against righties is an outstanding .310/.388/.523/.911 with a .389 wOBA. Andre walks more, strikes out less, hits for more power, and is actually competent against right-handers.

Unfortunately for Ethier, we live in a baseball world where lefties do exist.

And he should never play against them.

Ever.

Andre Ethier is not underrated in any sense of the word. It's quite the opposite, actually, as he's one of the most overrated players in baseball.

Sorry to burst your bubble, non-statistically-inclined fellow Dodgers' fans.

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!

Who Is The Best Power Hitting Prospect In The Dodgers' Organization?

Pure raw power is what I'm looking at here when it comes to Dodgers' prospects. Cuban import Yasiel Puig is the obvious choice and likely the correct one. Let's put aside the absurd .600 ISO in 9 Rookie Ball games because 9 games is 9 games and he had played professionally in Cuba prior to jumping ship to the States.

I also don't care about the .096 ISO he posted in 14 games in High A ball. When you're just a reported 22 years old and already stand 6’3”, weigh 215 pounds, and look like the Cuban Arnold Schwarzenegger, you better hit for power. I don't expect Puig to be up with the big club until mid-2014 at the absolute earliest, so his performance in full seasons in AA and/or AAA will sway my opinion of him more so than his reputation in Cuba or his early time in America.

Another candidate is the recently-drafted Justin Chigbogu. Selected in the fourth round of the 2012 draft, the first baseman possesses a lot of natural power at just 18 years of age:

Chigbogu has played in just 31 professional games, all in Rookie Ball. He amassed just 131 plate appearances and put up a disappointing ISO of .113 with three dingers and four doubles, but again, he's not even nineteen yet.

The Dodgers drafted Chigbogu knowing he'd need ample time to develop and if he progresses in his development and with his power I could see him as a solid starter at first down the road. Whether that will be with the Dodgers, who are tied long-term to Adrian Gonzalez, is another question entirely. But with his massive power potential and good eye at the dish - 10.7% BB% in his 2012 Rookie Ball stint - the upside is there. Of course, he's going to have to really cut down on that 38.2% strikeout rate if he ever wants to be a regular and not a platoon or bench player.

Last but most certainly not least is another 2012 draft pick, outfielder/first baseman Joey Curletta.

That right there is what we call Prodigious Power. If you put Puig into his own "freak of nature athletically" category Curletta would garner my vote. An 18-year-old who ISO'd .273 his senior year of high school, Joey was taken two rounds after Chigbogu and took part in 25 Rookie Ball games. He didn't fare well with an ISO of .027 as he whiffed in nearly 30% of his 85 plate appearances but again, he's extremely raw and is at least three years away from threatening to make the major league roster. Three years is conservative but he seems like a toolsy player with more than just power in his bag, from what I've read.

The crazy power potential is there and in my wildest dreams I imagine him figuring it all out by the start of this season so he can be the right-handed platoon partner of Andre Ethier in right field. Hell, I imagine anyone being Dre's platoon partner.

Also, Curletta is listed at 6'4", 230 - yes, bigger than The Cuban Missile Puig.

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The Puig at the top is a Gold Parallel from 2012 Leaf Valiant and is numbered 03/10. It was had for half a blaster and was followed by the 04/10 copy which the seller accidentally sent in a separate bubbler. I sent it back. The Chigbogu is a fantastic on-card auto #'d 544/797 that ran me a few bucks. Curletta, unfortunately, does not have any cards that I know of or that have made their way to eBay.

Trade With BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet: Kemp, Kershaw, Allen Webster, and Kai Forbath.

I completed my second trade with Mike from BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet. Mike returned after a long hiatus, and we restarted trade talks from before his temporary departure. The bubbler that arrived had some cool stuff in it, beginning with another sweet Matt Kemp Ginter relic, my fourth from 2008.

On top of that Kemp, I received three new Bisons to add to my Matty collection, as well as a new Kid K. The Clayton gives me 150 unique cards of the Texas Southpaw. The stickers are sweet, and serve as a bit of a different PC addition for my collection. The sticker featuring the old Brooklyn throwbacks is by far my favorite card of the entire package, and it's not even a card.

A fantastic Bowman Platinum Refractor autograph of former Dodgers' farmhand and touted pitching prospect Allen Webster is the next card of note.

Next up, a pretty cool card of former UCLA Bruins' kicker Kai Forbath, who was on the team while I was on campus. It's from 2011 Sage and is a Make Ready parallel, numbered 36/50.

And finally, a Karim Garcia signature. I don't remember Garcia at all, and that's probably a good thing.

Thanks for a great trade Mike, and I appreciate you joining the last card draft as well!

2012 Dodgers' FanFest Recap: Better Late Than Never.

Yeah, this happened way back on May 19th. After putting it off for so long, here's a quick recap. It was hot as hell, I had a cast on, and the line system was terrible. I picked up three autos while I was there. Here's the first, on what I was hoping would be a sweet-spot but in turn led me to classify this as a "team ball."

Thankfully Chad Billingsley is signed to a multi-year deal, so I'll have the opportunity to pick up a sweet-spot signature from one of my favorite Dodgers in the future, and hopefully get him to sign a handful of things, as he's long been one of my favorites.

The last two autos came from former Dodgers in Wes Parker and Sweet Lou Johnson, and found a nice place on my "Dodgers who played for a World Series winner mini-helmet." The mini-helmet, which I haven't focused on in any major way, is coming along quite nicely.

I got pretty close to Andre Ethier, A.J. Ellis, Kenley Jansen, and Tommy Lasorda, but due to line configuration and new signers coming to the tables, I missed out on all of them. I have a great item for Lasorda to sign, and hopefully I'll have the opportunity to meet him in the future and get him to sign it.

A quick shout-out to Spiegel and DodgerBobble, both of whom I met up with, and to my best friend for accompanying me and helping me out with my then one-handedness.

Celebrating Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, Hope Diamond Edition.

I stumbled across an auction for one of the best parallels in recent years, and with the combination of Matt Kemp and a great price being involved, well, you know I just had to add another sweet card to my Bison PC.

Numbered 15/60 (one of those cross-sports 1/1s I'm so fond of), it's the first Hope Diamond that will find a permanent home in my collection. The card commemorates Matt and Andre Ethier each winning a Silver Slugger Award for their 2009 efforts. These Hope Diamond parallels are magnificent in-hand, and I'd highly recommend everybody pick one up immediately.

The blue works so well with Dodger Blue, as you might imagine. Absolutely stunning.

Dodgers' Sluggers, Well-Loved.

A card that any Dodgers' fan would love to have, and one I needed, no matter the condition. And as you can plainly see, this one is no spring chicken. Rounded, rough, and frayed corners, surface scratches everywhere, worn edges, and creases. I still love it. Sadly, there is no equivalent when looking at the present-day Dodgers. Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and a bunch of nothing, really. I'd throw-in Jerry Sands, but beyond Jerry, A.J. Ellis is a stretch power-wise (though 2012 has been a pleasant surprise) and everyone else is terrible.

I'd love to pick up a second, cleaner copy to replace this one in my Campy Collection, and have this low-grade version just be part of my larger Dodgers' PC, or even my small Snider PC.

I probably overpaid for this, but it was one of those bids you place - well, I've found myself placing them, I won't speak for anyone else - where you don't actually expect to win, but you can't possibly see the card selling for so little, so you bid. I certainly had no expectations of my last-second bid succeeding, but it did.

Site News: Card Draft Spots Available, New Cards Added, and My Broken Wrist.

There are spots remaining in the Second Plaschke Card Draft! I'm flexible when it comes to payment, so if you're interested please let me know! All of the payment info can be found here; it'll be well worth your time. On that topic, I was unfortunately forced to postpone Card Draft # 2 due to my broken wrist, but I promised the participants I'd add in some cards as a thank you for their patience. Here are the first few new additions.

Dre is a refractor.

In terms of the wrist, I've been out of a cast and in a brace for just over a week, and have an appointment scheduled in about ten days. Hopefully, I'll be all healed up by then and able to package cards and complete trades, on top of the obvious in regards to reigniting the draft.

Trade With TheLostCardsFile: What Do Clayton Kershaw and Johnny Podres Have In Common?

I completed my first trade with Nicholas from TheLostCardsFile. Nicholas is new to the blogging community, so head on over and add him to your blogrolls, as he's already shown off some really terrific pulls and other creative hobby-related ideas. Moving on to our first trade. I spotted a card that interested me, and while Nicholas decided to hold on to that, we were able to work out a great deal for the below cards. You can see what I sent him here.

KKKKKKKKKershaw! A sweet 2010 Topps Tribute auto/relic of the dy-no-mite young lefty, and it's numbered 95/99. This marks Kid K signature number eighteen in my PC - my second base auto/relic from '10 Tribute - and was without a doubt the highlight of the deal. That wasn't all I received, however.

My second Johnny Podres autograph is the awesome 2010 Topps T-206 American Caramels Back autograph above. Always happy to add a nice hit of the 1955 World Series hero!

Nicholas also sent along an Andre Ethier Marquee base card, as well as a pair of hits I already have, but am very happy to receive nevertheless. The Kershaw Heritage jersey swatch will serve as an upgrade to the one I already own, which arrived long ago from eBay with a slightly dinged corner. The Lindblom is available for any of my Dodgers brethren: DodgerBobble, Owl of The Night, Spiegel. A fight to the death appears to be the only way to solve this! Or, whichever one of you is interested. The former would be more entertaining though. DB, this could be one of a bajillion cards in exchange for that high-end hit you're semi-contemplating dealing, or towards that Lob City Kia auto. And by bajillion, I truly mean bajillion.

Thanks for the fantastic, fantastic trade Nicholas! I look forward to many more, and welcome to the community!

Trade With $30 a week habit: A Dirty Teemu Selanne Relic, Ryan Getzlaf, and Matt Kemp

I completed my fourth trade with Robert from $30 a week habit. You can find our first foray here, our second swap here, and our third trade here. Finding a bubble mailer in the mailbox always puts a smile on my face, so imagine my reaction when I returned home late at night from my recent Vegas trip to find a big box of goodness from Robert. Inside was my end of our latest trade as well as contest winnings from a great contest Robert had held. Here's what I received in exchange for a Leafs autograph and a numbered dual relic of former Ducks backstop J.S. Giguere.

An absolutely sick Teemu Selanne relic. Robert and I have both been utterly stumped when it comes to deciphering what is on this jersey swatch of the Finnish Flash. My best guess is sweat, which Robert postulated might be the case. It's my second dirty relic, and both have come in trades with Robert. Whatever it is, one thing is certain: it's an AWESOME card, and one I'm thrilled to add to my small Selanne PC. A PC that desperately needs a signature to cement it.

Another Ryan Getzlaf relic for the collection, and it's serial-numbered 145/150. Any new Getz hit is a friend of mine. UD Artifacts is a very aesthetically-pleasing set, which is another positive. With Getzlaf encompassing the top spot in my hockey collection, you know the first card had to be sick enough to bump him to a supporting role in this post.

My fourth 2008 Matt Kemp Allen & Ginter relic. I love Ginter, and it's Matthew Ryan Kemp. Simple as that.

Robert also threw in a #'d and chrome-y Andre Ethier, as well as a couple of random Ducks. The contest winnings will get their own post, probably the first week of the New Year. Or perhaps tomorrow. I'm not entirely sure yet.

Thanks for the trade Robert! Hopefully your end of the deal has already arrived!