My Dodger prize ... and my Dodger giveaway

Since the start of this blog, I have entered a fair number of card contests. Shockingly, I have won several of them. This is stunning because prior to blogging, I never won contests. I may have mentioned that before. But it's the reason why I cling to the memory of the honorable mention ribbon I received in my seventh grade science fair, and the two circus tickets I won on a radio call-in show as a kid. Because those are the only documented cases of me winning anything that didn't include cards.

But thanks to my recent winning streak, all that is ancient history. I have a whole lot of cards that I won from contests. I couldn't tell you how many. But the boxes that house them could, and I'll get to that in a minute.

The most recent victory came in the contest held by Grand Cards. Dan received about 12 boxes of cards as a gift and couldn't possibly keep them all. So he gave most of them away. I came the closest to guessing how many cards he kept, so I won all the Dodger cards from the boxes.

Now, I entered this contest knowing full well that I would receive a load of junk wax Dodgers, many of which I own already. And I did.

There is the stack of dupes that I got:

That's some recycling material for ya.

Now I'll show you the overhead view:

Very, very familiar stuff there. 1990 Fleer. 1991 Score. Going through the cards, I couldn't believe anyone owned that many 1991 Upper Deck cards. Mercy.

I did receive some cards that I didn't already own, and I knew that would happen when I entered the contest, too. There are always Dodgers -- even from the early '90s -- that I don't have yet.

I'll get to those cards in a bit. But I wanted to address the doubles further. Those Dodger dupes will be going in my Monster Box of Dodger Dupes. That box, although massive in size, is starting to get to overflow stage. That's not good.

I force myself to organize that box of Dodger dupes because sometimes there is trade material there (and other times I find a card that isn't actually a dupe. How embarrassing). I hate organizing that box. Next to shopping for pages and binders, it's the most tedious part of the hobby for me.

So, this is what I'm going to do. I need to thin out the dupes. IF YOU ARE A DODGER FAN, leave a comment that you want some of the cards. I will send you some. But you must also send me an email (the address is in my profile) with your mailing address.

I ask for nothing in return. If you want to send me one card in return, fine. But don't send me a bunch in return. This is a divesting exercise, not an accumulating exercise.

If several Dodger fans ask for cards, that will take me longer to send out, and there won't be as many cards, but you'll get some.

A lot of these cards are junk wax Dodgers. If you're a veteran collector, perhaps you have many of these cards already. But a good amount of the dupes are also cards from this past year and the last few years. It's a decent mix.

I know what you're asking: What about gcrl? Doesn't he get most of your Dodgers? Yes, he does. But I'm fairly certain he has 95 percent or more of these cards. I'll probably send him something anyway just because I'm spreading card cheer to Dodger collectors.

If you aren't a Dodger fan, but know someone who is, then I'll consider sending you some cards, too. But if the Dodger fan you know is ME and you send these cards BACK to me, I will bip you with so many 1980s cards that your TV will play nothing but "Full House" reruns until the end of time.

OK, on with just some of the cards that Dan sent that I didn't have:

I'll start with a 1993 SP card of Jose Offerman, displaying the right cross he unleashed on the umpire in the Dominican winter league game recently. How did Offerman know he was going to punch an umpire 17 years later? Don't ask me to get inside the mind of Jose.

There is a bunch of 1992 Leaf that I needed, including a nice black gold card of Lenny Harris. I've mentioned before that I don't like gray cards. Er, silver cards. Whatever. Don't like them.

A couple of 1993 Stadium Club Dodgers that had escaped my clutches.

Two mid-90s hurlers from the best Fleer set of the 1990s. The difference between 1994 Fleer and 1995 Fleer might be the biggest makeover in the history of cards.

Speaking of year-to-year changes, here is a selection of 1994 Select. I like the 1993 Select cards a lot. But 1994 Select is not too cool. When you line them up like this, it takes a few seconds to figure out where one card ends and the other begins.

Dan also contributed a good bunch of vintage Dodgers. I'm showing six of my favorites. The Willie Davis card is the only one I needed. But vintage doubles barely qualify as doubles, and a lot of these won't end up in the Monster Box of Dodger Dupes.

There were some other Dodgers that I needed, too, like that great 1988 Rite Aid Pedro Guerrero card at the top of the post, some 1994 Stadium Club, 1995 Donruss and 1992 Classic. It was well worth entering, and I'm proud of my contest victory.

If you'd like to get in on my victory and grab some Dodger dupes, now's your chance.