Free cards (for me, not you)

 

The card blogging world has taken another hit with even some of the blogging diehards of the last 10 years deciding they're too busy to generate regular content.

That's an individual choice, obviously, although it forces me to read the vacant card thoughts of Twitter folks rather than the well-crafted and informative prose that has helped shape my card opinions for the last dozen-plus years.

 

Not even free cards are keeping those blogging tabs open for those folks. Too bad, more for me, I suppose.

 

I took advantage of another Time Travel Trade from Matt and this is what I received, simply for reading and unloading a few cards I don't need:

 

I have no intention of trying to complete the 1976 Topps football set. But it is the first set I saw in which I was aware that "there are football cards, just like there are baseball cards." The first football card I actually saw was the 1975 Topps Alan Page. But at the time I couldn't tell you anything about the card other than "football guy," "purple" and "cool."

'76 is where the warm fuzzies begin for me for football. And they continue through 1977, skip entirely over '78, and travel through '79.

Even the '76 backs flip the nostalgia meter. Probably the first football backs I ever noticed. The right sidebar cartoon/quiz fascinated me. Something about that being on the right (rather than, say, the '77 baseball cartoons on the left) that is very effective.

 

The other cards that arrived in the Time Traveling came straight from the '80s. An OPC card is now a requirement for any of my TTTs and Graig Nettles checks that box. The Fred Lynn Super Star card helps fill a hole in my '80s box set collection. This particular Topps issue never crossed my radar and I have so few of these. As for the '89 Score Larry Parrish, I grab an '89 Score card I don't have every time. Parrish is a bit ragged for an '89 card, though. People should've been protecting their cards as the investments they thought they were by then.

 

 

Moving on to Johnny's Trading Spot's daily -- that's right, I said daily -- free giveaways. I've been the lucky winner twice now after going like a couple weeks without winning anything.

The above assortment of Dodgers pitchers, who all had their "sensation" moments, are dupes. But it gets better.

This is a card that Johnny showed that I knew right away I didn't have. Surprise! It was for me! It's a super-shiny Pacific card from the Super Shiny Revolution brand, circa 1999.

 

If you read Johnny's blog, you've seen the Kobe custom card. As you know, basketball means zip to me and I don't live in L.A., so Bryant's legend gets a shrug, but, sure, he's wearing a Dodger cap -- there are folks in my binder for less than that.

The Buffalo Bills' offensive trifecta from the days I covered them are from some playing cards set that I tried-and-failed to find on Trading Card Database. I'm sure it's there somewhere.

The second collection of free cards packed a greater punch:

These are most welcome, especially after opening a blaster of 2022 Chrome last week and coming up with zero Dodgers and what seemed like 14 White Sox (probably closer to 5 or 6, but still). Urias and Muncy each made an impact in last night's win over the odious Padres and their ridiculous get-ups. Andre Jackson had no impact because, of course, the rookies that Topps pushes almost never do.

 

And the highlight of the freebies! This is my first look at 2022 Gallery and Johnny almost wiped out all the Dodgers needs from this set. I went from having none to needing just four more! Also a very timely arrival, showing up on the day Trea Turner hit a HR and doubled and Julio Urias pitched the win.

So, yeah, I guess other folks don't have time for cards and reading about them, but I'm still squeezing it into my busy schedule because all of the above are cards I don't have to buy now!

I'm sure you know that saying about how "no one says at the end of their life, 'I wish I would have worked more'"? Well, nobody ever mentions the rest of that thought. The whole saying goes: "No one says at the end of their life, 'I wish I would have worked more,' they say, 'I wish I would have found more free cards.'"

Anyway, you know where to find me.