True story

Gather around collectors and listen to a story about a card collector named Shane.

Shane contacted me about a month ago and asked me whether I'd be interested in a trade. He had traded with a couple of bloggers, and I had noticed their enthusiastic response to the cards they received, so I gave it try.

Damn glad I did, too.

What follows is not the greatest card package I ever received. But it is in the top 5, easily. Shane has a crazy eye for detail as you'll soon see. He hit virtually every collecting interest that I have.

The package started out with some cool random stuff like this 1982 O-Pee-Chee card of Fernando Valenzuela, who was a "Etoile de la L.N." in 1981.

And there was one of the eleventy billion combo cards featuring Russell Martin.

At the last minute Shane added a member of the Nebulous 9 to the package. Jim Tracy's stay on the nebulous list was mercifully brief.

Then Shane moved on to set-building needs. He's a set-builder himself, so he understands. He found a few cards for my 1981 Topps quest, including future Sawx broadcaster Jerry Remy.

And Remy's teammate, Mike Torrez, standing next to the disembodied glove.

Then Shane went way back with a bunch of great 1972 Topps needs. Here's Mo.

And here's The Rooster, looking for a place to spit.

He found some 1971 Topps want list needs, as well. Just 96 cards to go!

And there was a WHOLE BUNCH of great 1984 Donruss cards. Carlton and Carew. Hernandez and Gibson. Murray ...

... and Rose ...

... and Seaver.

Best of all, there was Sid Fernandez in a Dodger uniform! (Sid was traded to the Mets for Bob Bailor and Carlos Diaz. That didn't work out so well for L.A.)

OK, I lied. Best of all, was The Chicken card from the '84 Donruss set! I didn't know the Chicken actually had to field ground balls.

Shane even found some dastardly high numbers from that 2008 Heritage set.

Then he went after the night cards. Wow, did Shane find a stack. The most I have received in one package.

Here's Reggie doing something at night that I'm sure I didn't like.

And here is Daisuke with his red glove glistening under the stadium lights.

The best part of any card package are the Dodgers. Let's say there were a few of those.

Yes, Juan Marichal as a Dodger. Look how happy he is to be out of that Giants uniform.

There were archive cards of Dodger greats.

There were fan favorite cards of Dodger greats.

And there were real, live vintage cards of Dodger pretty goods.

There were happy cards of the last great Dodger era.

There was a relic card (a little marked up on the edge) of Game Over.

Shane found a number of cards of the Dodgers stars of the 1990s. There were Mondesis ...

And Piazzas. (Those are 4 absolutely awesome cards. The Hamburger Helper Piazza card gets special mention because it looks like it was cut right off the box).

And Nomos!!!!!! They make me so happy.

Then Shane sent something totally unexpected: a few autographed cards that he received through the mail.

Yes, autographed Dodger cards. Wow. That is really fantastic. But here's one even better:

Ben Diggins? Who? Where's his photo? I barely know who this guy ... Ah, never mind. I was just messing with you. Here's what I was talking about. ...

EL TIANTE! Now that is tremendous.

Finally, because it's my blog, here are two Ron Cey cards I didn't have. The first is from the Archive set from a few years back. The second is the 1978 O-Pee-Chee card. Very cool.

So, that's the true story of collector Shane and his rockin' ability to personalize a card package. It's quite the tale, if you ask me.

And between the cards I got from Joe L. and Shane, now you know what I've been doing the last few weeks. But the cataloging is finally DONE. Tomorrow I shop for binders and pages.