The Night Owl Mixtape

Better late than never??  Let's hope so.

The one-and-only Night Owl recently sent me a bubble-mailer (thank you!).  Does October count as "recently?"  I'm going to say yes and show you the goodies in it regardless of my belated response.

This was during the Playoffs, so Free Agency hadn't even begun, but Night Owl kicked off the package with this note:

Lorenzo Cain was expected to be on his way out the door.  Same with Moustakas, Vargas, Minor, Escobar, and Hosmer.  The Royals went hard after Hosmer, but the Padres went harder.  Somehow, we re-signed Moustakas!  Escobar too (for some reason?).  But of course, that note reminded me of this song:

So I figured, let's make this whole post a music post!  Every card I'm showing will get a music video.

I am still slowly working on this subset from 2013 Ginter.  The addition of Mercury is like the addition of Freddie Mercury!

 X-fractor-y David DeJesus just collided with...somebody. Was it Howie Day?

 A "sepia parallel" is just another name for Brown.  Like Zac Brown.

 

Night Owl threw in a good little stack of 1973 Topps Royals, including Mr. "Monty" Montgomery.  That's his real name.  Perhaps he should have been named "John Michael Montgomery" instead?  

Steve Busby threw not just one but two no-hitters for the Royals between 1973-1974.  That's why he was immortalized in lyrics by Wham!

"Wake me up before you go-go,

Busby just threw another no-no." 

Really.  Those are the lyrics. Trust me.

This card of Sluggerr features him wearing the Johnny Cueto dreadlocks from 2015.  Speaking of unexpected dreadlocks, here's P.O.D.!

This is a mini "black" parallel of Alex Gordon from Ginter, but these black parallels have so much white in them, I can't tell if they are black or white.

  What can I say about Salvy?  This Salvy is BLUE.

There we go - a song for every card.  Which card/song is your favorite?  Which songs would you have used for any of these cards?

What I Like About Blue

I could have titled this one, "What I Like About Night Owl," but that doesn't sound like a song-title.  At least not one that I have heard, anyway.  Maybe it's a dubstep song, but I don't know anything about that.

Night Owl sent me a PWE back in March and it was blue, through-and-through.

He sent these blue Royals:

He sent these blue Dodgers:

He even used the BLUE TAPE. 

 I can not stress enough how much better it is to get the packages with the painter's tape versus the ones with clear scotch tape 3-layers-deep over everything (that's right, Listia, I'm talking to you).  Bloggers, if you aren't using this stuff for shipping, do everyone a favor and go buy some.

So I told you this package was blue through-and-through.  That was a lie.  He included one more color.......

YELLOW!!!

1991 Fleer...can't beat it.  :-)  Thanks, Night Owl!

Nothing Plain About These

I've got a few more goodies to show off courtesy of Roy-Z at "Plain Gray Swatch."  There's nothing plain about these, though.  It started off with an autograph of David DeJesus signing an autograph.  He is truly a class act -- graciously signed in-person for me once and tossed a BP ball to my wife before a game at Angels Stadium.  Just another reason why he's my favorite Royal.

And a few more that are NOT TOO SHABBY....Topps Chrome Purple!  Hosmer and Herrera.  Boo-yah.  These are very pretty in-person.

Alive and Kicking

1999 Omega - Jason Hanson

Very occasionally, a baseball player will spend 20 years with one team.  Less-than-never does a football player do so.  Except that's what we have with Mr. Jason Hanson.  When this 1999 Omega card was printed, he already had 6 years with the Lions.  He is STILL their kicker.  All those years haven't helped his hairline.

Cards of kickers are fun fun fun.  Punters, too.

I pulled off another great Zistle trade with Steve D. (user SDre31 - go trade with him if you can).  In exchange for a whole mess of Yankees (who wants those anyway?) I got the Hanson card and all the following sent back to me.

2005 SPx Signature - David DeJesus - #29 - #'d/225

Beautiful!  It's a sticker autograph, but the card is great.  And one of my favorite players, too. 

It would have been a great trade with just one relic card, but Steve included this one, too!

2011 Bowman Sterling Rookie Relics - #MM - Mike Moustakas

That's some good stuff.  Here's a #'ed Guillen parallel, too.

And here is an example of how Zistle rocks.  When you are a collector of lesser-known players, it is pretty rare that someone will send them to you in a regular trade.  However, when they are on your Zistle wantlist, EVERYONE there will know that you want them.  So it's easy to make a match with their automatic system.  And that is how I received a card of Iowa State alum Loren Meyer (from Ruthven, IA, FYI). 

1995-1996 Topps Loren Meyer - #213

Look Out, Ruben Sierra!

Look out, Ruben!  Things are getting bad -- Giant eagles are attacking from the sky!  They are dropping huge class rings on people to capture their prey!  (I think these eagles are working for Jostens). 

Eric Hosmer has the good sense to run for cover.  Though he is encased in a bronze paper frame, he has eluded the rings and eagles so far. 

Billy Butler and David DeJesus have an alternate plan.   They are going to bash the ringed-eagles out of the sky with large sticks of wood.

They can't  hold them off with the bats for long.  Little to no assistance is coming to them from the outside.  Only one person can save them now -- the fireman!  USE YOUR HOSE OF POWER!!!

Oh no!  Something has gone horribly wrong!  The eagles have warped Montgomery's mind!  He has turned into some sort of fireball-throwing maniac. Mankind is DOOOOOOOOMED!

As he watches the apocalypse, Alex Gordon wishes he was back in Nebraska.

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

If any of you have survived to read this, you will be happy to know that all these cards came from Colbey at Cardboard Collections.  Some were part of his Stadium Club Monster Group Break (Ruben got randomed to me), and others were some extras that he threw my way.  Thanks so much, Colbey!

Also, if anyone else has any of those other Ginter State Cards (particularly John Buck (WY), Brian Bannister (AZ), or Casey Blake (IA)) to trade, I'd love to have them. 

History of the World, Part I

No Mel Brooks movies here.  This is all cards, baby.  I've had the good fortune of recently receiving three history-themed trades and I'm going to show them off.  This first set of cards came to me from Laurie at LV's TTM Autographs.  She and I actually made this trade happen over Zistle.  Her profile is here.

She and I worked out a great deal where she sent me the two cards above..."Minds That Made The Future" from 2011 Allen and Ginter.  I think that this is a subset that I am going to chase.  I'll have a few more of those coming up in the next few posts, then I'll post a want-list. 
 

The other subset that I want to chase is the "Historical Turning Points" set from 2012 Allen and Ginter.  Laurie included one of those for me, too.

2012 Allen and Ginter - Culinary Curiosities - Kopi Luwak

Yep.  That's poop coffee.  Kopi Luwak. 

We've got a flashy pink Bo, a Pacquaio, and an old Willie Wilson.

Sweeney blocking the plate.  There's that Bo!  If you remember my sealed box post, then that was the main card I wanted from that box.  I'm definitely not cracking open that box now.

2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary - David DeJesus

Here was the favorite card she sent me.  Even though DDJ was no longer with the Royals, he's still one of my favorites, and that sparkly card is beautiful.

Thanks again, LV!

Mutual Coincidence of Wants -- Platter Style

When I was taking economics in college, I remember the professor saying that money is important because it does not require you to trade items directly with another person, but allows you to sell something to one person and buy something from another.  Bartering or Trading, however, required a "mutual coincidence of wants."  That is, trading only works when you have something I would prefer to what I have, and I have something you would prefer to what you have. 

Luckily in the card community, the pseudo-random distribution in packs and boxes makes this scenario very likely.  When collectors prefer certain players, this becomes even easier.  Case in point, my recent trade with Spiegel at Nomo's Sushi Platter.  Obviously, his favorite player is Hideo Nomo.  My favorite player is David DeJesus.  When I have a stack of Nomos and he has a DDJ relic -- THAT is a mutual coincidence of wants! :-)

Here's what he sent me as the "meat" of this trade:

2012 Golden Moments Relic - David DeJesus - GMR-DDE

He also looked through my want-lists to see what else I was looking for.  I haven't bought much of anything from 2012, but have been cutting into those  Royals team sets piece-by-piece through trading.  Here's a few Ginters.

2012 Allen and Ginter - Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas

I like coach/manager cards...but I especially love GRUMPY manager cards.  Here are two that definitely fit the bill from Topps Heritage.

Finally, the fine mustachioed gentlemen of the past and present have come to pay us a visit.

Stan Wall is "so 1977" right there.  John Axford is a modern man, but looks like a swashbuckling, Spanish pirate....of which I completely approve.  :-)  He has the style of a true Canadian.

Thanks, Spiegel.  May our wants coincide again in the near future!

Sewing Machine Guy HOOKED ME UP - Baseball Style

Still not the "Real" Sewing Machine Guy

Like said in the last post, Sewing Machine Guy hooked me up plural.  (Btw, stay off that ankle and Get Well Soon, man!!)  I showed off the football cards already, but there was a STACK of Royals baseball that he included, too.  I have neither time nor space to display them all, so you will get my favorites here.

First off, some oldies but goodies -- One for my managers collection and one for the KC collection:

1969 Topps #547 Billy Martin

1972 Topps #205 Dick Drago

Three Generations of Ginter:

Allen and Ginter - 2007 #34 Mark Grudzielanek, 2008 #347 David DeJesus, 2009 #337 Billy Butler

SHINIES!  Shiny Royals!!

2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary #244 Mike Aviles, #658 Mitch Maier

More Shinies!  Well....Chromies.  The purple on the Espinal is sweet.  The George Brett might be my new favorite card -- the chrome on it looks AMAZING. 

2010 Bowman Chrome Purple #BCP84 Yowill Espinal, 2001 Topps Archives Reserve Chrome Reprint #9 George Brett

SMG hit a bunch of my favorite players, too.  I love cards of Mike Sweeney when he was still a catcher (played 1B and DH for much of his career).  Billy Butler is my favorite current Royal, while DeJesus is my favorite Royal period.  The DeJesus card is a perforated parallel - designed to look like a ticket on the top and bottom.

1999 Stadium Club #178 Mike Sweeney, 2011 ToppsTown #TT-37 Billy Butler, 2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom #10 David DeJesus

SMG, these were awesome.  He included one other Royal I wanted to show off. 

Oh well.  The color scheme is still good.  :-)  I guess that one must have fallen into the trade box by mistake.

My Cheesiest Trade Ever - Most Wanted List Success!

Chris over at Nachos Grande was running his regular Trade Stack feature, and I decided to go for it.  I was shooting for the Carlos Beltran there, and I got it.  But when I looked at NG's trade bait, I saw something else there...

 

That's the DeJesus card I wanted! It was on my Top 10 and everything!

So I fired an email off to Chris asking if I could get the DeJesus, too.  I had a Barry Larkin purple Classic card to offer.  He was cool with that, so I popped it in the envelope, too...And now I've got it!  That's the first one to cross off of my Most Wanted List.

Here is the Beltran that I really wanted from the Trade Stack, too.  He must have covered a LOT of ground to get to that ball.

2001 Stadium Club #146 - Carlos Beltran

There were a couple of Topps Town cards in there, too.

Thanks, Chris!