A good, old-fashioned Christmas storm

 

Merry Dr. Christmas Jones, everyone!

 

I am writing this post in advance, mostly because I'm not sure if there is going to be any power on Christmas Eve, which is when I traditionally write this. Also, the Bills are on tomorrow afternoon ... um, if there's power. 

 

The storm has hit, it's a whiteout as I write this late Friday afternoon. We're supposed to get like four feet by the end of Monday. That will be the second four-plus-feet storm of the winter already and I'm ready to move out of this stupid place. It only took me 30-plus years.

 

But let's not diminish the Christmas spirit! I've come here to show cards from others full of Christmas cheer! They sent these cards early enough that they not only showed up in time for Christmas but they arrived before the travel ban and mailmen started being arrested for walking on the streets (this didn't really happen -- I don't think -- I can't even see out my windows). 

One person was so on top of things that he gave me my Christmas gift earlier this month.

Inside this Peanuts Christmas card was something distinctly Canadian and therefore distinctly Angus, as he's the only Canadian card collector I've met in person.

Yes, Panini stickers, straight from the overproduction era! But that is not nearly all.

Panini -- No This Is Not O-Pee-Chee -- Canadian stickers! All the Dodgers!

Angus told me months ago that he had landed a bunch of these and then waited until we met to hand them off. I believe he's sent other stickers to other team collectors as well. Quite embarrassingly, this is something I had no idea existed until Angus told me about them. I'm such a self-centered American.

Max, from Starting Nine, is always good for a Christmas greeting. He also sends along Christmas wishes via email and I really enjoy that. He's a good egg, just like Angus, and I don't know what I'm doing hanging around all these Mets fans.

The highlight of this envelope is the Kershaw Utz card. I've come down from the Utz Panic of a few years ago when I was actually wandering store aisles searching for a potato chip brand I had never purchased in my life -- I don't even like potato chips that much -- to find a card supposedly protected from all that grease (how did they package those anyway, I never found one advertising cards).

The Scherzer All-Star card is interesting, too, because everyone knows Max Scherzer never pitched in an All-Star Game with the Dodgers, but Topps could do stuff like this because in 1987 Topps was just awarding All-Star cards willy-nilly according to their own special All-Star rules that had nothing to do with the game being played.

Also, I'm dying to know where they shot that Brett Butler photo.

Yes, it's now my turn to show off my Altered 1991 Fleer card from Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown.

If you read his post (go read it), it documents how he wanted to produce a kinder, gentler version of the glaring 1991 Fleer set through some sort of chemical process.

Then he sent them out to various collectors but not before dressing them up in a Christmas theme (don't worry, it was all drawn on penny sleeves). I don't know what Santa Carter is looking up at -- did the reindeer take off without him?

Once out of the penny sleeve, you can see that the card is a pleasant off-white color. My brain did not react well to this at first, panicking that I had been sent some sort of variation or rarity from 1991 Fleer and, good gracious, how many of THOSE Dodgers do I have to collect from that infernal set???

Here you see the massive difference between the two cards -- and, yes, I will be bindering the cream-colored Carter in my Dodgers binders in the '91 Fleer category.

Gavin apologized for not being able to create one of these cards for Hershiser or Valenzuela, but I'm happy with Carter. There aren't enough Gary Carter Dodger cards anyway.

The most recent Holiday Greetings package that I'm showing today appeared a mere hour or so before the annoying rain turned into very angry, angry snow.

It was from Marc of Remember The Astrodome, who has been back to posting this holiday season!

Marc thanked me for the 1975 Topps I've been sending him and then hit me with a bunch of modern Dodgers. A nice selection of Kershaws and also lots of new-to-me cards from this year. 

So awesome. My first 2022 Holiday Dodgers -- festive! -- and also my first look at Heritage High Numbers from this year.

Well look at that, an actual Joey Gallo Dodger card. I didn't know that kind of thing existed.

 

 

All right, that's all for this year's Christmas post. I probably won't post again until the 26th.

 

I don't know if I'll get any cards for Christmas this year. I have a suspicion I might get a blaster of something. But it doesn't matter if I don't because there was another Christmas box on my porch today that was so impressive, I'm going to have to wait until after the holiday to go through it. You have to see it.

I hope everyone has a pleasant time and that there is not too much weather where you are. And if you're missing some weather, find your way up here. We have plenty of extra to go around.

She's going to have to dress warmer.