I Got a Cookie in the Mail

 Not this:

But this!

1971 Topps Cookie Rojas - #118

That flying Mr. Rojas (and all the cards in this post) came to me from Joe at The Sandlot.  We'd been working on a trade for awhile...he sent me the cards last fall(!!!) and I am just now posting them.

Cookie was the main thing I wanted from him, but I ended up with a bunch of other stuff I wanted, too.

The scan doesn't show it well, but this is an acetate card.

2007 Upper Deck Elements - #103 - Mark Teahen

This is a metal card

1999 Skybox Molten Metal Explosion - #126 - Jeremy Giambi

This is Jeff Montgomery shooting his arm as a gun.

1997 Metal Universe - #95 - Jeff Montgomery

And this is Keith Lockhart getting attacked by a ginormous spider and some vines.  Oh Metal Universe....how I love thee.

1997 Metal Universe - #94 - Keith Lockhart

Here's Greinke with a nice blue border.

2009 UD A Piece of History - #43 - Zack Greinke - Blue Parallel - #/299

And a couple of old guys:

2007 SP Legendary Americana - #62 - Jefferson Davis

2007 SP Legendary Americana - #68 - Samuel F.B. Morse

That Samuel F.B. Morse was quite a looker (and so many medals!)  Anybody know morse code?  I've got a hankering to go buy a telegraph machine now.  My first message will be:

"SOS - I AM A ROYALS FAN - PLEASE HELP"

Does anyone else have any "Legendary Americana"?  These are actually pretty neat.

Thanks again, Joe! 

Seeing Double

I can't help but see double when I get a package like this in the mail from Jack at Baseball Dad!

2006 Fleer Ultra - Zack Greinke - #152

It's two new Greinkes for me!  2006 Fleer Ultra base and Gold!  Thanks, man.  If you have any Indians or Jim Abbott cards to get rid of, make sure you check with Jack.

This picture captures Greinke's natural state pretty well -- slightly amused, not too concerned, thinking before speaking.  The Dodgers were lucky to get him this offseason - he's a heckuva player and can say some pretty funny stuff in his dry manner.

Nobody NEEDS an Angel Berroa card

2004 Upper Deck - Angel Berroa

As I was opening up my package from Spankee's most-recent Moneyball Group Break, (he's a NEW DAD, btw) I was showing the cards to my wife.  At first I excitedly said "Here's an Angel Berroa card that I still need!"  Then I came to my senses and realized that, as my post-title implies, nobody needs an Angel Berroa card.  I complained a lot about him during his time in KC, so my wife would prefer not to have anything in the house by which to remember him.

2009 SP Authentic - #23 - Zack Greinke

SP Authentic was one of my favorite recent sets.  Clean design, white base stock, very nice.  This Greinke is a great example of it.

Here were a few more prospect beauties.  Although Salvy is up in the bigs now and doesn't look like he's going back to the minors anytime soon.

1983 Topps - Paul Splittorf

I don't know why this was in the group break.  Maybe it came from one of those "oddball" repacks or something...I doubt Spankee was opening a 1983 wax pack.  Anyway, I still love it.

2002 Donruss Super Estrellas #39 - Carlos Beltran

Jardinero!  Jardinerrrroooooooo...........!!!!!

What's this junk?  An expired code to go to the 2008 All-Star Game?  I think that game has already occurred.  After all that good stuff at the top, Spankee, I think your break is really going to the dogs.

2012 Allen and Ginter - Man's Best Friend - #2 - Dalmatian

Yeah.  It's DEFINITELY going to the dogs.  No way this break can be redeemed now.  :-)

2007 Topps Chrome Autograph - Angel Sanchez

Consider yourself redeemed!  This was a throw-in from our gracious host. I didn't know this one existed, so it was super-fun to see this come out of the envelope.

Indeed I do, Sad Harry Potter clone!  Indeed I do.  Thanks, Spankee.

One Unique Trade

2009 Topps Unique - Zack Greinke - #654/1199

 I just completed a very unique trade with Nick from Dime Boxes.  (And it's not just "Unique" because of the Greinke above).

No, this trade was unique as it was a "Sweeney Swap."  He had mentioned in one of his posts that he had a Mike Sweeney collection.  What a coincidence -- so do I!!!  So a few emails later, we knew which doubles we could exchange.  I sent him a stack, and he sent these guys to me.

 Those were all new to me. 

 He also gave me this sweet Conine and a couple Gold Sparkle 2012 Topps Royals.

All of those are going into my "Keepers" collection.  Thanks so much, Nick!

Stealing Home, Stealing Hearts

At the beginning of April, I was trying to wrap up some other trades, when Oscar -- Mr. "Stealing Home" -- from All Trade Bait contacted me out of the blue for another trade.  A few emails later, and boom - a little yellow envelope was showing up at my door.

Now, before I go any farther...my wife is cool.  She's not a card collector, but she likes looking at what comes through the mail before I put it in the boxes/pages.  She also likes the Royals, which means she knows quite a few of the players. 

However, when she saw this come out of the package...she was ELATED.

2010 Upper Deck - UDGJ-ZG - Zack Greinke

The blue in the jersey pops a lot more than it does in the scan.  We all thought this card was very "pretty" and liked that it had our (former) player and Cy Young winner.  Greinke, how we miss thee.

But Oscar wasn't done.  He included this auto:

1996 Leaf Signature Series - #171 - Jon Nunnally

This card is not serial-numbered...but COMC tells me that this was limited to 3500, while there was also a silver version limited to 1000, and a gold version limited to 500.  That means ol' Jon Nunnally had to sit around and sign 5000 of these.  Poor guy's hand is probably still cramping.  Although that's nothing like what Marshall Faulk endured when he autographed 125k cards for the Madden games.

I also have the Keith Lockhart signature from this set.

1987 Donruss Opening Day - Bo Jackson - #205

There were a bunch of cool base cards, and the best one was this Donruss Opening Day Bo Jackson.  I had never seen one of these before, so had to do a little research to figure out what it was.

Here's all the goodies I sent him. 

Thanks again for the trade!