Card bloggers who have been at it for a dozen years or more are aware of Dave from Tribe Cards and his seemingly never-ending giveaways.
I've mentioned a few times now that he was my introduction to how wonderful card blogging could be. People sent you cards just because you asked. For free. And good stuff, too. The first stuffed box I received not even two months into my blogging career contained a 1950 Bowman card. I had arrived in the blogging world just to write about cards -- isn't that wonderful that you could do that? -- and now this?!?
So when Dave announced almost four years ago that he was launching another giveaway -- a return to the 12 Days of Cardmas Giveaway, even though it wasn't Christmas -- I signed right up, very enthusiastically.
Years went by and I forgot about the whole thing until Dave reappeared last month to announce he was sending stuff out. The original call for sign-ups provided a sign-up "sheet," requesting our top three choices for teams and players, as well as any other random interests. I completely forgot what I requested other than I'm sure "Dodgers" was on the first line. So everything else was a complete surprise!
So was this:
The box arrived a week ago Monday. This was four days before what was left of Hurricane Debby damaged Upstate New York. Prior to that, it hadn't rained for a week or more. So why was the whole middle of the box soaking wet, like it was just pulled upside down out of a giant puddle 10 minutes earlier?
Oh this wasn't good. What a terrible thing to do to free cards.
The contents, in the poor battered box -- except the box used to be packed full. I was forced to throw out about one-fifth of the cards. They were way too damaged to save. Cards had been sealed against each other due to the wetness and they couldn't be pulled apart. Cards were wet and stained and the weakened edges and corners crumbled.
Most of this came from the center part of box and most of the damaged cards ... thank goodness ... were Braves.
That's because the largest allotment of cards were from my second-choice team, which was the Braves, because I was dealing with a lot of Braves collectors four years ago and that's still the case. Even though there was great variety in the box, I didn't have to throw away many key cards. A lot of them were from the late '80s/early '90s, stuff everyone has seen before.
These are the stacks of Braves cards that survived the deluge. Quite a few of them. Johnny will be happy to find out that I found about 15 cards in there that he needs and none were damaged.
There weren't as many Dodgers in the box because others who signed up requested Dodgers, too. (This happened the last time Dave announced a giveaway, too). But there was still a generous selection and, best of all, almost all of them avoided drenching.
The team bags probably helped.
It's only expected that most of these cards were dupes, I just have too many Dodgers cards. But some were needs because that's how much variety Dave provided.
Miguel Vargas and Cody Bellinger have been banished to struggling Chicago teams. Walker Buehler is still trying to find his 2021 form. Last night's return to the mound was a bit painful to watch.
The Mike Piazza Donruss card was also a need, too. Always nice to land a 1990s Piazza card as there are so many elusive ones.
This was another highlight, one of the inserts from Archives last year, it's a riff on the 1979 Topps Comics design. I like these a lot but the only one I had seen (I pulled it) was the Mark McGwire. It's nice to get the best one.
(I'm just noticing Topps has the date wrong above Robinson's head).
This was the only sad part for the Dodgers. This Jackie Robinson relic card was the only Dodger to show obvious water damage. The coolness factor of this card is lessened, though, because the back says the military uniform relic, while from the World War II era, was not worn by the athlete. In a weird coincidence, I had learned that fact separately when I saw this card for the first time (it's from 2021) just a few days before I received the box, but don't remember where.
That's the back and you can see the water damage by the brown discoloration in the upper right of the card.
I must have requested some Bills cards from pre-1993 as these arrived and each were needs. I really love the '80s cards, of course.
The other team I apparently requested was the Cardinals, to keep that trade streak alive with Cards On Cards (let's see if we can get it to 20 years).
There weren't many Cardinals in the box, as I think Cards On Cards himself asked for cards. These ones he doesn't need, so I'm keeping them for myself. The Lou Brock mini, unfortunately, took a water hit. (Jeff Granger wasn't a Cardinal, he was a Royal, but it's a '92 Traded card, so I put it with the other ones).
This was the oldest card in the box and I'll keep it, thank you. Claude's got a crease going down his front leg, but at least he's zipped up this time.
Finally, a smattering of music cards, which again I must have requested. the MJ card is from a Panini set from 2011. I have no idea what the other two cards are or who they are. I have a feeling they're from music I don't enjoy).
Still, that's pretty darn fine for free cards. Even after tossing the water-damaged cards, there are around 350-375 cards to distribute/keep and no rain ... or sprinklers going off inside the post office ... or whatever the hell happened can ruin that.
Dave's giveaways are an institution and nothing's going to spoil that.
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