BWTP's Secret Santa Goodies

I participated for the second year in Bob Walk's Secret Santa shenanigans. I recently received a bubbler from Captain Kirk which hit on a number of my current collecting interests. There was more than what I scanned but, short on time, I focused on the best stuff.

Kirk knocked off the remaining two needs from the Dodgers' portion of 2001 Topps American Pie. This appealed to me back in the day because it's such a nice looking set and I'm glad I'm finally done with it after all of these years.

Four more Want List needs followed with these additions to my 1975 Fleer Pioneers of Baseball Set. It's still one of my favorite sets and is full of so many interesting players.

Captain sent along four brand new additions to my Clayton Kershaw Collection.

Somehow this Matt Kemp didn't already reside in my Bison PC, which honestly stuns me as I feel like I had numerous copies of this at various times.

Finally, three of my all-time favorite Dodgers.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

Trade With State of The Hobby...I'm Your Average Card Collector: Kershaw and Snider Present The GREATEST Trade Ever.

I treasure every trade I've made, but good god this one is just on another level entirely. That's no slight against my previous dealings....keep reading, and you'll soon see why I've dubbed this the GREATEST trade ever. Anyhoo, I completed my first trade with Jon of State of The Hobby...I'm Your Average Card Collector. He posted some amazing, sick trade bait way back when, and I quickly jumped on a pair of cards I absolutely had to have. After many moons of picking up chunks of cards for him, I was finally able to put together a small army of hits that was thankfully enough to pry the two cards away from him I so desired. You can see what I sent his way here. My bounty is below. And damn, I'm still delighted by it.

The Duke of Flatbush! This is my first certified autograph of the Dodger legend and Hall of Famer, and second overall, as I traded for a TTM Snider signature once upon a time. To top off an already fantastic card, it's a triple relic/auto, and numbered 97/99. Any Duke autograph is, well, a work of art. I am beyond thrilled to own this card. I've wanted a certified sig of Duke for some time, and to finally own one is a tremendous feeling.

Clayton! Auto! Relic! Exclamation points!!!!! Serial-numbered 46/99 - the base version, not a parallel - this bad boy marks Kershaw autograph number fifteen, and is a welcome addition to my Kid K Kollection. It's my third Clayton Tribute autograph, with the first two of the 2009 iteration of this high-end product.

Jon threw in three cards simply because he's a swell guy, and my favorite of the three, by far, is the above Russ Martin jersey swatch, which I did not own. It serves as Martin hit # 53, and pairs exceptionally well with the gold parallel /50 I picked up off of the Bay a while back.

The other two "throw-ins" were the below 1971 Topps Don Sutton (my first '71, and these are even better looking in person, as it's difficult to beat a black border) and 1959 Topps Solly Drake.

Thanks for the absolutely incredible trade Jon! I'm glad you enjoyed your end of the deal, and I look forward to our next swap, perhaps for those high-end Russ Martins you have. I've got a few Brandon LaFells that are pretty nice and have your name on them.

Trade With The Mojo Beard: Chad Billingsley, Meet Don Sutton

The Mojo Beard is comprised of three excellent card aficionados. This is part one of two trades with two of those gentlemen. And the third was generous enough to send me cards and not want a thing in return. That will get a post of its own eventually (hopefully much sooner than later), but for now, I have the task of recapping my trade with Beardy, whose real name just so happens to be Greg. So I automatically like the guy. Greg card bloggers: taking over since I realized there are at least three card bloggers named Greg.

Beardy busted a box of 2009 UD Legendary Cuts back in mid-January and pulled a dual relic of Messrs. Billingsley and Sutton. I inquired, and after a bit of e-mailing, it was mine. I sent my fellow Greg an Eddie Murray jersey relic from his Indians days, a 2010 Ginter Lords of Olympus mini he needed, and a 1968 Topps Vic Roznovsky card in fairly good shape outside of a pair of creases.

Greg also sent along some other cards, which I don't feel like taking pictures of (hence why I still need to get me a scanner). There was a nice Koufax Masterpieces and a pair of Fleer Avant cards which are really quite spiffy looking (don't think I had previously seen them), as well as one of the remaining three 2010 Ginter cards I need to complete the Base Set + SPs, amongst others.

Thanks so much Beardy, hope the cards I sent are to your liking, and I'd love to trade again!

Trade With Thoughts & Sox: Sutton, Snider, Pedro, Garvey, 1992 UD

My second trade with Adam from Thoughts & Sox. Follow this friendly link to read up on our first deal.

Adam posted some trade bait a while back, and I hopped on the Dodgers. He sent those, a nice '81 Stolen Base Leaders card, and near about the entire Dodgers' Team Set from 1992 Upper Deck (19 of 30). Which includes a nice rookie/early card of Pedro. Oh, what could have been.

I had one of the remaining eleven '92 UD cards needed for the team set, so I've added the remaining ten to my Want List. I never intended to, but what the hell, I'm close enough that I may as well take a shot at completing the team set.

1979 Sutton, a pair of 1983 Garveys.

If anyone wants one of the Garveys, let me know.

Action Valenzuela!

Much thanks Adam! I have some cards in mind that I'll be sending to you, one in particular I think you'll enjoy - just need to grab it from it's current resting place. Keep an eye out for the postman; I plan to send something out in the next few weeks. Hopefully the cards will be to your liking. And if they are, post them!