The good stuff

I know what you're saying:

"What? A full set of 1987 Topps and 868 1992 Upper Deck Eric Karros cards isn't the good stuff?"

And while the above two things make for excellent blog posting, it is not what excited me about the second box that Rob sent me. It was all of the other things in the box.

Among those things were a game program from an August 2015 Dodgers game, a Dodger pennant and Cooperstown pennant, another stack of penny sleeves and more library books. Here are some books that will keep me reading for the next 10 years (that's how often I pick up a book these days):

The Dodgers media guide from their last championship season. I love media guides. I'm partly convinced that I became a sports journalist just because you get free media guides. Of course, now teams don't make media guides, or they make an online media guide, which isn't really a media guide at all but go ahead and pretend its real, and all of the perks of being a sports reporter man are now gone. But at least I can look through my 1988 Dodgers media guide and cry nostalgic tears.

I'm gonna read this one first, probably before the month is out. This is a historical account of baseball cards, as told from 1987. This should be highly entertaining. And worth at least a blog post or two. I can't wait.

 Oh boy, hijinks a-coming. I've never read the Bill Lee book, so looking forward to that. As far as "Balls," -- yawn -- it's about Yankees.

More hilarity! It's obvious that Rob likes stories of practical jokes. (Maybe the 868 Eric Karros cards clued you in already).

That's all well and good, you're saying, but where are the cards?

I hear ya.

How about this?

That is 42 cards of Roger Cedeno from 1993 Bowman. Unfortunately, they were overshadowed by the Eric Karros bip bombing.

Rob's unhealthy obsession with a mid-1990s Dodgers prospect showed itself in a stack of other Cedenos.

Yeah, I had all these cards already. And, no, I'm not sending 78 different TTM requests to Roger Cedeno. I see a craft project on the horizon.

Let's move on to something I wanted to collect when I was 13.

These are Baseball Comics, which Topps issued in 1979. It was a test issue and apparently didn't do well, which is shocking to me, because I remember seeing advertisements for the set and desperately wanting to get my hands on them.

Unfortunately, they never showed up in my area and soon I forgot all about them. Now Rob sent me 19 of the 33 comics in the set.

These are pretty flimsy, printed on the same paper that ol' Bazooka Joe appeared on, and the backs are blank. But I love them so much. Why oh why weren't these made in cardboard form?

Three more.

Rob also sent a whole bunch of parallels from four years ago.

Lots of sparkly. I remember when these first came out a few collectors announced they were trying to complete the set. These are mostly from the Update set so I don't know if they're useful to anyone. But I've got a modest amount to trade.

So many liquorfractors that I am slightly tipsy writing this. Please note STRASBURG in the middle.

Here are a couple of the legends shortprints. I still have a difficult time thinking of someone who was playing in 2004 as a "legend."

Rob also sent a fair amount of Dodgers parallels from 2011. Unfortunately, I was still a bit parallel mad at that time, so  I had most of them. This Kemp, though, is new. Let's drink in his poor Home Run Derby performance one more time.

This is totally a Kershaw card. He's the only guy still on the same team!

I've mentioned it before: it's always good to get cards from Dodger fans who live in Dodgerland. They have so much access to stuff I don't. Rob sent a couple of pocket schedules and these autographed cards of late Dodgers players.

Multiple Franklin Stubbs autos, as well as a lightly signed Dave Anderson.

Here are a couple of Reggie Williams. I like how he doesn't abbreviate his first name, he abbreviates his last. We should all do this.

This one is very amusing. Reggie Wms starts out signing on the front ...

... then decides he's done that already, let's sign the back. FULL NAME THIS TIME.

Returning to '70s oddball world -- my favorite world -- here are four Hall of Famers who you could find with your Zip'z sundae. Baseball photo discs AND a sundae! My childhood ruled.

Here is Michael Jack again, this time on a crookedly cut 1978 Hostess card. This is simply outstanding.

And not to be outdone in the crooked-cutting department, here is Terry Forster from the Hostess set I want to collect the most, the 1976 bicentennial set.

Don't think it can't be done. I already have one of the more significant cards in the set obtained.

Rob sent this downright molested copy of the '76 Hostess Pete Rose. How many other Rose cards were damaged by irked Fox viewers this postseason?

All right, now we come to the Topps vintage portion of the proceedings. Here are six key cards from 1973 Topps, a set I may pursue one day. There's nothing like getting the "You Gotta Believe" McGraw card out of the way long before committing to collecting a set.

Moving on to 1970. I was just viewing the Bill Mazeroski card when I was researching the "capless" post. I said to myself, "this is one of the best capless cards ever." And now, here it is. That's some card collecting magic.

I separated the Pedro Borbon card because the back has one of the more memorable cartoons of the '70s.

Makes you forget all about his 6.15 career ERA huh?

We're heading back in time, can't you tell? Now we're in 1969 and these are a bunch of guys who were pretty famous in 1969. And a couple others were a lot more famous in later years. I'm most happy about the Gibson card.

1969 Topps is known for a few things. Probably the most cited one is the bat boy posing as Aurelio Rodriguez. I never owned that card. Now I have nifty miscut version.

I also have both variations of the Donn Clendenon card.

And both variations of the Clay Dalrymple card.

I think someone wants me to collect the set.

Rob sent some heavy hitters from 1968 Topps, too. Still feeling sorry for kids who collected that year.

These, however, I've always liked. One of the better-presented All-Star subsets.

This was my favorite part of the package. A healthy selection of 1967 Topps, one of my favorite Topps sets (actually fifth favorite -- I know because I did a countdown).

I would never be so bold as to start a 1967 Topps binder, I'm so far from that stage. But these cards are making me think of that for the first time. I really love these.

I guess I'll show you one more card before I finish.

It's Jim Palmer's rookie card.

Jim took a ride in some kid's pocket a time or 12, but I don't care. There's no way I'm spending 30 bucks for a Palmer rookie card from a set that doesn't interest me. This does very nicely. I could even make it my new wallet card without messing anything up.

So that's what happens when someone downsizes and makes you the heir.

I got a lot of strange stuff, but I got even more good stuff.

This will keep me busy, categorizing, cataloging and probably sending some items in trades.

Thanks, Rob for thinking of me. You can bet it's all appreciated. Once I figure out what to do with those Eric Karros cards, I'll appreciate it even more.