The final days of the million card giveaway

I have been offering this particular item up for whatever late 1950s Dodger card I can find on the Million Card Giveaway site.

I'm hoping it will land me something from 1959, a great year in Dodger history. At the very least, I'm hoping that the people I've made offers to don't out-and-out ignore me. That is very annoying. How can you have redeemed a late '50s Dodger card and not pay attention to the MCG site at least periodically? Or is it really that difficult to hit the "decline" button?

Anyway, I've got to at least try with this card as it's the oldest one I've redeemed.

This will be one of my final acts on the MCG site. I have left a few older cards, like Georgey boy, in my portfolio in hopes that they will entice someone to trade me something that I like more. Then my very last act will be to order shipment of those final cards before the March deadline. I'll probably do that in January, before the 2011 cards hit shelves.

Meanwhile, I ordered up a few cards from my portfolio -- ones that I didn't want to trade or ones I couldn't see getting me anything better than I already have.

This is the second time I've requested cards from the MCG site. My first experience was pretty good. This one was better. I ordered my cards shipped on Sunday and they arrived today. The first order took two weeks. This one took two days (since I'm assuming Topps isn't working on Sunday).

I asked for five cards. Each cards was placed in a penny sleeve, which was then placed in a top loader. Each top loader opening was sealed with a single piece of tape. The top loaders were bound together by a rubber band. Perfectly satisfactory shipping arrangements.

Here are the cards:

Don't laugh. I know they're from 2004 and 2005. But each card completes the Dodgers team set for me for those respective years. I am very pleased with these two cards.

This card is for my fledgling 1977 Topps completion mission. I like early cards of Claudell Washington. This was back before he seemed to play for a new team every year. There were lots and lots of trade offers for this card.

I really, really want to put this card in my Dodger binder. There is nothing about this photo that says Royals. He is an airbrushed Dodger all the way. I am going to have sleepless nights over where to put this card.

By the way, I received this card in one of just five MCG trades that have not been initiated by me or any of my fellow bloggers. That means only five -- well, let's say a little more than five -- people made trade offers that weren't crimes against the good name of trading. There were some other trade offers that might have been legitimate but I already owned the card. But the vast majority crushed my faith in humanity. A 2007 Aaron Harang for a 1972 Ollie Brown? A pox on your collection.

There's Ollie now. I traded a 1970 card for this card because I don't care about the '70 set, but I am collecting the '72 set. This is the second 1972 card I have redeemed from the site and both of them have been Padres.

You probably noticed that Ollie is way off center. Lots of white space up top. Out of the five cards, it was the one in the worst shape. Everything else was ideal. Of course, you expect the 5- and 6-year-old cards to be perfect, but I was a little surprised at the condition of the 1969 Campanis card. Perfectly centered and the corners are practically sharp.

I'm still liking the Million Card Giveaway. And I'm going to be sad on March 16.


EDIT: 9:42 p.m.

SUCCESS!!!!

Goodbye, Georgey, hello, airbrushed Don!!!

Yep, I'm gonna miss ol' MCG.