From vintage to the very latest and back again

It's been almost nothing but vintage on this blog since the first of the year, so I thought I'd change it up a little bit with the very latest and greatest.

Yup, the 2013 Phungo Cards have hit the streets, and you're seeing them here first. It's the only chance I get to have a card exclusive (stupid Beckett), so humor me on this one.

The best thing about Phungo Cards, outside of annually beating the pants off of Topps as the first cards of the year, is that the packs contain a nice mix of original Phungos and cards from other card companies. It's all a big happy family in those packs. No arguments about exclusive licenses or copyright infringements. Just a nice orgy of cards.

So, let's see the original Phungos first since they came out of the pack first (by the way, that's the wrapper up top. Not liking the Buster Posey cover boy).

That's the design for this year. I like it. Blue borders always go well with the Dodgers.

Oh, no. How many times do I have to tell you to keep stinkin' Giants out of my packs? Maybe if I squint a little bit, I can convince myself this is David Ortiz.

AJ Ellis is a little bit loopy on the Twitter. Good guy, though, and had one of the best quietly great seasons in the majors last year.

Ooooh, another Jackie insert! This is my third one. I'm going to get the entire set yet.

Kersh! Love the "ace" notation. Love the photo.

I now have a Phungo card of Kemp and one of Kershaw. Pretty happy about that.

OK, now we've hit the "other cards" portion of the pack. This is an insert from Baseball Cards Magazine. It's pretty fitting as I always confuse Jose Offerman and Jose Vizcaino.

Awesome. This is one of the "Village" inserts from the Panini Cooperstown set. That's a shot of Otsego Lake, which is in Cooperstown. And if you think that's beautiful, I grew up an hour from there, and there are lots of places around where I lived that look like that.

Hey, there's Cooperstown Jackie now -- DON'T LOOK AT HIS CAP!!!

Oh, boy. It's a Dodger MINNNIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!! This is what is known as foreshadowing.

Yes. There are 1972 Topps in Phungo Card packs. Don't try to tell me that Topps does anything cooler. It doesn't.

The pack ended with three cards of my all-time favorite player, Mr. Penguin. It's not easy to find a Ron Cey card I don't already have, but Phungo found one with the '76 Hostess Cey. So tremendous.

A year ago, when I opened my Phungo Cards, I found some non-card items along with it, including a 45 rpm record of Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55."

There wasn't anything like that this time.

Instead, there was ...

... more cards!!!!!!

The 1970 checklist cracks me up. Phungo said he was inspired by a past checklist post of mine. Not sure which one that was. Maybe this or this. At any rate, it amuses me to get a 1970 Topps card since I have so few of them. And the card is in absolute perfect shape.

A couple of other cards to point out before I go:

I have waited months to check this card off my list. I am hoping it is the last time I ever show a card from the 2012 Gypsy Queen set on this blog. Thanks, Phungo, what a relief!

This is phenomenal. Celebrating a victory by showing the other team bumbling. Do White Sox collectors put this in their collection? This card made me laugh instantly.

And, finally, '75 MINNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

All in all, you can't get that kind of variety out of any pack you buy today.

And that's why the blogs rule and why I'm dedicating myself to fewer 2013 card purchases this year.

We have ways of making ourselves happy without spending 5 bucks for a pack.