Short respite

 

The birthday went pretty well. They're quiet these days. The highlight may be a new chair for my desk area where I type these posts. Yay! Also, I did use the gift card (actually two of them) for some current cards. You'll see that in the coming weeks.

 

After this post I'm taking a few days off from the blog. There are vacation things to do, yes, but also I've been getting a little cranky about blog stuff and that's an indication that I need some time away.

 

It'll also allow me to rededicate myself to some other topics besides showing off the latest cards, which I've done a lot of lately ... and am doing now.

 

A series of arrivals have been piling up on the roll-top desk and it's a mess so I'm clearing out. Enjoy the card view.

 

 

These were my latest claims on Diamond Jesters' Time Travel Trading. Both probably need explaining. For the Sweetness card, I added it simply because his earlier cards have been so difficult to obtain. Might as well grab whatever I can just in case high prices inflict all his other cards.

 

I did little with the Upper Deck Goudey series when it was out at the start of my blog days. It's grown on me a little (the 2008 one at least), so here's one for the collection.

 

 

This fantastic card arrived from Cardboard Catastrophes. Jeff said it's been sitting on his desk for months, which is really only a little bit longer than I wait for some cards I've ordered to go through the post office lately.

 

He said that he realized that I already have this card, and I do. I got it from Thoughts and Sox a number of years ago. But this is definitely an upgrade (the other has a vertical crease down the center), so I can't wait to add it. That makes the other one available for anyone interested -- Dodger fan gets first dibs.

 

 

Crocodile Greg sent some Dodger cards recently. It was an eclectic bunch. I was surprised I had most of the 2005-07 cards he sent, that's an area where there are holes in my collection, or at least I think there is.

 

But several cards stood out like this foil Dustin May from last year. Glad May is back to doing well. Not happy it's with the Cardinals.

 

 

This certainly stood out. This is from the Shoebox Treasures set featuring paintings from Andy Friedman (no, I don't know who that is). Although I don't mind card art, I thought we were done with this stuff. It's pretty weird.

 

 

This card has been driving me a little crazy. I either have it already or I don't. TCDB says there's one for Series 1 and 2 and I cannot tell any difference between the two. This usually means I'm missing something obvious, but for now I'm going to put them in a page side-by-side and wait two years for the light bulb to go off.

 

 

I'm sure you saw that post on Crocodile Sports Cards where he completed this 2022 helmets set. Impressive. I guess he had some extras -- goody for me!

 

 The only one of these I pulled myself was the Shohei Ohtani. I think I showed how thick they are back then. I still don't know how to store them. Putting them in a binder with regular cards seems like asking for trouble.

 

 

I thought this was a duplicate, as I own a 2023 Bowman Platinum autograph of once-Dodger prospect Jose Ramos. It turns out this is a numbered parallel while the one I own is a "base" auto. Thanks to Bowman hijinks, this is a new card for me.

 

Ramos is now in the Mets organization and actually playing not that far from me. 

 

 

The other cards I'm showing are from The Shlabotnik Report. Somehow he sent a bunch of Dodgers (and a few Sabres) that were all needs!

 

The highlight might be this 2004 MLB Showdown card of Adrian Beltre. It's from the Pennant Run set, which I don't know if it's a separate set or an extension or whatever. I just know there are now four other Dodgers to get.

 

 

2012 and 2017 parallels. All needs. I've been slacking on my Dodger gold parallel run chases, so this temporarily makes me feel accomplished.

 

Some very modern Dodger cards, quite unexpected from The Shlabotnik Report! I sure do appreciate that Ohtani.

 

 

And this 2025 Heritage parallel of Clayton Kershaw. I recently figured out how to better process my card downloads on my computer. This post is the first indication of that, so hopefully I'll be done with the blurry images that has plagued some of my recent posts.

 

I also received a couple of other modern Dodgers in this package but I'm saving them for another post. For now, enjoy some Sabres.

 

That's some photo choice for the Ryan O'Reilly card. None of these cards will end up in the Sabres binder -- not old enough or new enough -- but I am happy to have them.

 

It's a relief to finally have those cards off the desk and have some free time to add them to their respective binders or boxes.

 

I'm sure I'll be doing some card stuff while I'm away from the blog, I just won't be writing about them ... for a little bit anyway.

 

I'll be back sometime next week.