Favorite 2015 Topps Card - David Cone

2015 Topps - Free Agent 40 - #F40-13 - David Cone

What makes a good card?  Photo?  Color?  Design?  Subject?

I think it's a little of each of those, which is why my favorite card thus far this year is the David Cone  "Free Agent 40" card shown above. 

David Cone is a guy who isn't really "on-the-map" for current cards, so it was great to see one of him in this current release, especially in a Royals uni (rather than a Mets one).  The scan does not do justice to the colors on this one -- they are very saturated, and the glossy finish plus the foil make it really pop.  And it's all in delicious Royals blue. 

Yo! Colbey Raps!

Well....I don't know if Colbey raps (though he seems like the type!), but the cards he sent me sure do.  He recently sent me a lovely yellow envelope full of good stuff in response to some Charlotte Hornets/Bobcats that I sent his way. 

Regarding 1999 Skybox Thunder -- it is one of my card-collecting guilty pleasures. :-) I will take any of this that people want to get rid of!!  In case you didn't know, some white boyz were writing the backs of the cards for this set, and did a (wonderfully?) horrible job making raps

 Throw your hands in the air,

And wave 'em from here to there

You're bringin' life back to the K.C. scene

With talent that's mean and lean

Eh.  I guess that's no SO bad for Beltran.

1999 Skybox Thunder - #268 - Carlos Beltran

You're the King of the Royals,

And you've got all power.

K.C. is your kingdom,

And you're rulin' like no other.

Yes, really.  That's what they came up with for Jeff King.  Luckily, this one was a "RAVE" parallel, and it was #'d /150.  I missed that the first 3 times I looked at this card.  Only when I was entering it into Zistle did I notice the difference.   

1999 Skybox Thunder Rave - #43 - Jeff King

Man, you tore it up in the minors last year.

Now, you got your eyes on the bigs for '99.

And you've got that Rookie of the Year award on your mind.

1999 Skybox Thunder - #6U - Jeremy Giambi

What the heck was that rap!!!???  I love the "Wheaties" vibe on this one...at the bottom instead of the package size it says "Net WT 185 LBS (83.9 kg) NET HT 6'0."

He gave me these goodies, too. 

Thanks a bunch, Colbey!

Garvey Sweeney Russell Lincoln

I made lots of trades in January/February.  Then everything went bananas and I didn't post a thing about any of them.

So here is the first of several of these trades.  I posted a bunch of Dodgers stuff back then, and Jim of Garvey Cey Russell Lopes contacted me about several of them.  He looked at my want-list and sent me a small BOX of stuff. 

It was mostly Royals (naturally) -- here were some of my favorites:

Mike Macfarlane with a Play at the Plate.  Vince Coleman romancing his bat.

Heads.  Lots of  Royals heads.  Hey -- lookie there!  More Macfarlane!!  He's pointing the way to the Playoffs.  Not really.  The Royals don't make the Playoffs.

Here's a gold Randa and a wrinkled Brett.  "Gold Randa" sounds like a good name for a Private Eye.  Maybe I'll write a book starring him.  The title of the first novel will be "The Case of Gold Randa and the Wrinkled Bretts."

I like the 1987 Donruss design for some reason.  And the Carrasco is a weird dot-matrix serial-number. 

Here is a sampling of the stuff from Upper Deck - A Piece of History:

Misters Lincoln and Ponce De Leon.  Apparently the Spanish had gained colorization technology a few centuries before the Americans did.

Pink submarines and a turkey.  That's the history of America in a nutshell.

Jim threw in one more thing that I found to be....AWESOME.

2000 Stadium Club - Mike Sweeney Relic - #SCS5

That's my third Mike Sweeney relic, and I am happy to add it to my collection!

Thanks so much, Jim!

(He already posted the stuff that I sent him HERE and HERE)