Almost as overwhelming as going through my email after a week away from work ...

Take it easy. I said "almost." I would never bring you folks down to the level of drudgery I currently experience with my present employer.

It's just that "catching up" has been on my mind, seeing as I have been on vacation all week. On Monday, I'll take the first hour-and-a-half of my shift to wade through the ridiculousness of the past week while I was away (I know what you're thinking. But I absolutely refuse to check my work email when I am on vacation. I would much rather go through the "Monday after" ritual than do that).

Plus, I returned home from three days away and couldn't believe the number of card blog posts logged since early Wednesday. Wow. How'd you guys fit in time to eat Thanksgiving dinner? I threw in a couple of pre-written posts, but aside from that, I was basically a long way from blogville.

It took me a few hours, but I think I'm officially caught up, although I'm sure I've missed a few.

One thing I'm not caught up on are trade posts. I came home to three more card packages, which means I'm about 7 or 8 posts behind. You know what that means. I'm going to have to start double-bagging some of these.

But I won't with this one here. I figure he's waited the longest, so he gets a post all to himself. Besides, Max, always produces some terrific cards.

Unlike the last time, when he showered me with about two-thirds of the 1984 Donruss set, this was a package filled with Dodger goodies. So, as we enter the Christmas season, let's see what the good jacob mrley dropped down the chimney:

Max is always good for a sample card. I love sample cards. Not as much as oddballs and blue refractors, but they're somewhere on the list of my favorite kinds of cards. Yes, that's a future post. Sure, you can steal it if you want.

More from the "favorite kind of cards" list. O-Pee-Chee! OPC is much better if the photo is different from the main set. But these aren't.

Oh, this definitely is not a favorite kind of card. I received a few of these. Press proof parallels was a disease of the '90s. The die-cut look and the wacky repetitious Donruss symbols in the background add to the craziness that was card collecting in the '90s. (I did note that each card on the back says "1 of 1500." Not sure what that means).

I enjoy the Ted Williams Card Company cards. Max sent a couple of Roy Campanella. You have to appreciate a card that features someone in an Elite Giants uniform on the front and the phrase "one heck of a bat" on the back.

This is a cool card. I believe these 1991 Ballstreet cards came from a magazine. There was card investment information on the back as well as a colossal failure of a prediction: "Look for Strawberry to head the Dodgers to a World Series, as he will undoubtedly have a great season in L.A." It also says that Strawberry's '84 Donruss card could hit $100 by the end of the year.

Chew on that while you wonder why Strawberry is sitting in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

Some Timeless Teams Steve Garvey. I love those cards.

Max sent what I believe was the entire team set of 1985 Fleer, plus at least one of the Update cards that I needed. I think I only needed 4 or 5 of the cards from the regular set. But he knocked them all out.

Speaking of a set completion, I needed 3 of the 4 Dodgers to complete the 1982 Topps Traded set for the team binder. Max took care of that, too.

And, he apparently is paying attention to the blog, because he sent the last Dodger 2009 O-Pee-Chee card that I was lacking. Yay! Completion from the weirdest set of 2009!

Last card. It is a completely awesome card from 1996 Fleer Ultra of Hideo Nomo. It's transparent and looks great on a black background. I'm almost hesitant to put it in a binder.

Max sent a bunch of other cool cards: Score traded needs, Ticket to Stardom and X needs, a Fleer Ultra '91 update card. Wonderful.

He also sent a couple of cards of Ron Cey in a Cubs uniform. I'm going to ignore those. They just look wrong.