Night owl makes trade post history

I know what you are thinking:

"Is this the kind of trade post history that will affect me? Or is this only some sort of personal milestone for Night Owl that I don't care about in the least?"

Ah, my dear reader, that is something I won't reveal until the end of the post.

But first you must get through a rather hefty trade post in which I regale you with the tale of multiple transactions. No fair scrolling to the bottom. That's the tactic of weenie blog readers. And you're not a weenie are you? Besides, Santa is watching. So be good.

I have several stacks of cards that have been waiting patiently to show their faces on the blog. So, let's get to it:

CARDS FROM: Dan of It's Like Having My Own Card Shop
FAVORITE CARD FROM PACKAGE: Ted Lilly gold card

I received some cards out of the blue from Dan. Well, actually, they weren't out of the blue. Once upon a time I had expressed interest in the Lilly gold card and then promptly forgot about it. I swear I'm like a 4-year-old child who is throwing a tantrum about something he wants in the store one minute and then totally oblivious 2 minutes later.

But Dan didn't forget. So I have the card of the Dodgers' No. 3 or No. 4 starter. L.A. has a rather nice rotation. It will need it.

Here is another rotation member. I would like to see a completely incident-free season from Billingsley in 2011. Make it happen.

My favorite non-night-card-but-it-looks-like-a-night-card-that-you-can-only-get-by-buying-blasters-you-don't-want-parallel. Is it possible to get a complete team set of these things? Anyone who answers in the affirmative goes on my naughty list.

This is my third version of this card. I still love it just as much as the first time I received it. But, you know, you other Hershiser lovers should have the benefit of knowing Psychedelic Shades Orel. So I'll be happy to ship one off.

Dan also sent a couple of Club Penguin packs for my daughter. In a case of Club Penguin karma, my daughter happened to be on the Club Penguin site as I pulled the packs from the package. She was quite stoked. (Yes, I used "stoked" and I've never snowboarded in my life).

Thanks, Dan

CARDS FROM: Scott of Smed's Baseball Card Blog
FAVORITE CARD FROM PACKAGE: Don Newcombe '94 Upper Deck Heroes

Am I the only one who doesn't get these manufactured patch cards? I have panned them over and over, and yet I don't hear anyone joining my cause.

Oh, well, I'll go it alone. PATCH CARDS ARE STUPID!!!

There. I feel better.

This is the rare patch card where everything makes sense. Duke Snider played in the 1959 World Series for the Dodgers. He actually did quite well in it. So I'll ignore the fact that it's barely a card and the photo is one-fourth of the size that it should be, and that there exists acres of gray nothingness on the surface of the non-card.

But thanks, Smed!

This is more like it. You have a Brooklyn Dodger. You have a pitcher batting. You have a floating head. Newcombe was a terrific hitter. One of the greatest who ever existed. People need to mention that more.

 Ooooh, throwback variations. I didn't know anyone still bought these. I do like them, and if they were more plentiful, I'd ditch the glossy index card base set in a second, which explains why Topps doesn't make them more plentiful.

These two Topps Update gold cards have me questioning my desire to see a world without gold parallels. I am suddenly interested in getting all the gold parallels of the Update Dodgers, only because I think I have 4 or 5 of them, which might be a record in the pathetic way that I note records for things like "Total Gold Parallels, Year."

The first sign that Pinnacle would eventually disappear from the market. Why was this card a good idea? The gold foil monster on the left has just consumed Eric Karros' entire right arm.

Scott sent a number of night cards, which I am stockpiling in the event that the Awesomest Night Card Tournament ever ends. But I am showing this one because I especially enjoy the photo. Mr. Posey you've just been Pwned!

Code's been used. I checked.

This is a TCMA card of Boy of Summer, Dick Williams, who would go on to be a Hall of Fame manager. There are actual players in the background of this photo, unlike the Jackie Robinson card in this set in which he appears to be in a desolate field battling zombies.

Metal kind of went soft at the end. No mutant insects. No swirling vortexes (or "vorticies," if you wish). Kind of boring.

Smed sent a card that I showed earlier. I totally forget what it was and I'm too lazy to look. It was very cool, though.

I'm such a jerk.

Thanks, Scott!

CARDS FROM: ... Joe of The Sandlot
FAVORITE CARD IN PACKAGE: Matt Kemp '09 Topps Unique red parallel

Caught any good group breaks lately? There sure are enough of them. I've gone on group break shutdown during the holiday season. It's kind of painful as I fear some great Dodger will be pulled. But there's no way my bank account can afford that stuff.

One of the last group breaks that I did was Joe's Unique break, which I thought was pretty cool. No, I didn't really want a Bat Nob Card. I just don't get a chance to purchase sets like Unique, so that's what attracted me to the break. It took forever for me to send my cash (sorry, Joe), but now that I have, I can show the cards.

There's the red parallel of Mr. Ethier. The card is thicker, too.

And there's the red parallel of Mr. Kemp, which will go nicely with my base Unique Kemp. Wait 'til you see Kemp's 2011 season. I'll never be able to afford Kemp cards after that.

Two former Dodgers who appeared to be on their final at-bat when they left L.A. Thome's still going strong. I don't know what Martin will do. I just know if I was a Yankee fan, I'd be a little concerned. Their team seems to consists of a handful of aging stars surrounded by a bunch of role players. If it wasn't for Cano and Teixeira, you'd be looking at the make-up of a third-place team.

This qualifies as an insert in Topps Unique. The boring non-Bat Nob insert kind. Hudson is now with another team. For a guy who is the Ideal Chemistry Guy, he sure moves around a lot.

Joe also threw a few other cards from his 2010 Chrome break and some random sets. These are a couple of cards that I needed.

Earlier, Joe also added to my monstrous Jon Link collection (I refuse to use "PC," by the way) with an autographed Link. I expect to hear from Beckett any day now about my tremendous player collection.

Thanks, Joe!

CARDS FROM: Reader Max
FAVORITE CARD IN PACKAGE: Cal Ripken '09 Goodwin night variation

Up until a couple of weeks ago, I had failed miserably in obtaining a night variation card from last year's Goodwin Champions set.

The only one I had managed was one of a non-baseball player, Tiger Woods.

Sure, you could consider the Manny Ramirez base card a "night card."

But it's not a variation. It's more of a "sunset card," anyway. Or a "volcano has exploded, flee from the flowing rivers of hot lava and accompanying choking acrid smoke card."

Fortunately, Max needed the Woods variation card and was able to send me the Ripken variation to give me the baseball night variation card that I wanted, yay!

I'd still be willing to trade it for a Dodger night variation, though.

Not that I'm not happy with Cal. Nobody came after him with a golf club, that I know of.

Thanks, Max!

CARDS FROM: Reader Michael
FAVORITE CARD IN PACKAGE: Dodger McGriffs!

On a scale of 1-10, I would rate my failure to find other Dodger collectors to trade with as a "6". That is starting to turn around with the recent emergence of some other Dodger bloggers to go with myself and gcrl.

But I always appreciate more Dodger card fans, because I have so many dupes that need to disappear. Michael recently answered my plea. He's a big Dodger fan and we completed our first Dodger transaction! As my daughter used to say when she was little, "I so cited!"

The first of what could be many transactions began with some '90s/early '00s needs. But that also means players I'd rather not think about again.

Like these two guys.

Or this guy.

Or this pair, that never amounted to much.

Fortunately, Michael made it all go away with a couple of McGriffs! I love seeing Fred in a Dodger uniform. I know he wasn't exactly productive. But when I see the cards I pretend that he was.

There's a little more misfortune of the last 15 years. This portion of the trade post is getting me depressed.

I'll end it with a Manny biography card. The game that Upper Deck is featuring happened to be the day before this happened. So this was one of the last great days of Mannywood. Some great memories before that point.

Thanks, Michael!

CARDS FROM: Larry of Emerald City Diamond Gems
FAVORITE CARD IN PACKAGE: 1992 Pinnacle Shades Eric Davis

Trades come in a variety of packages -- the bubble mailer, the parcel box, large Fed-Ex packages, ripped-up PWEs.

But once a year, they come in card form -- greeting card form.

Mariner1 sent out some Christmas cards to some his trade buddies.

There's the card. Blitzen is taking the slacker route.

Out of the card fell these:

That just doesn't happen enough. Think of all the times you've opened a greeting card. Shouldn't there be at least SOME times that baseball cards fall out?

There should. Fortunately, I can say it's happened to me at least once.

And, best of all, the Eric Davis Pinnacle card you see puts me one away from finally completing that '92 Pinnacle team set. I don't know why it's taken me so long.

Thanks for the Christmas wishes, Larry!

And that means I'm finally at the end of the trade post. I suppose you're wondering what kind of history I set here.

Well, go back and read the first word from each of the respective trades -- the first word in the first sentence after the Favorite Card in the Package line.

I'll wait.

...


See? You ended up having to read part of the post anyway, you weenie Scroll-Aheaders.

But aren't you proud of me? I've officially blogged about ALL my of trades! There are no stacks left to scan or write about or hound me. It is the first time in TWO YEARS that I can say that!

Now, I am up to date on trade posts but that's not to say that I am up to date on trades going out. Still have a few of those to finish off. And as far as recording and filing cards, well, I'll never be done with that, unless I ditch the hobby for good.

But it feels real good to be caught up in at least one area, especially at the end of the year.

Let's see how long it takes for me to fall behind again.

(OK, you slow ones, if you haven't figured it out yet, putting the first word in each respective trade write-up together in a sentence reads: "I am caught up on trades.")