Hole-y ... not again

 

The majority of my card-sends these days are via the once-shunned, plain, white envelope.

The size of the packages are smaller, and now that we've dispelled with that long-held fallacy that you're asking for trouble sending cards in a PWE, it's the more logical, and cheaper, option.

I still do send out larger stuff in sturdier envelopes and I receive cards in those yellow 5-by-7s or 7-by-9s, too. But those padded envelopes are no guarantee because just last week ...

... the dreaded bullet hole again.

That's some distasteful arrival, especially for 5 dollars and 30-something cents. The last time this happened to me was almost 10 years ago now (wow, I've been doing this too long). So I guess I can handle once-every-10-years, but it's still a shock when it happens. It makes me not want to send another PWE ever.

 

This envelope also arrived with the corner torn -- and the innards sticking out! Just not a good sign for the contents within.

 

But I'm pleased to say that the cards Cardboard Catastrophes shipped in that envelope were in perfect shape.

Maybe the extra packaging of the 1991 Kellogg's Baseball Greats helped cushion the shock. These cards get me to half way there on this 15-card set, pretty good for something I haven't exactly been focusing on.

OK, now, here's something I've been focusing on -- way in the back of my brain -- for more than 40 years!

I recall seeing these 1976 Laughlin Diamond Jubilee cards advertised in the old TCMA Advertiser that used to come to my home. I wanted these cards very badly, like everything else in the catalog. I just liked the way they look, Laughlin's artistry has always appealed to me.

The set honors the 100th anniversary of the National League and the 75th anniversary of the American League. The cards are oversized, around 2 3/4-by-4 inches, but I can easily see trying to collect the entire 32-card set (or if I get intimidated or lazy, I can just add the one other Dodger in the set).

I was interested in seeing the back because, you know those sales catalogs, they never show the backs! 

 

So I'm very glad that this card showed up intact. That was a tragedy avoided.

 

Now, a couple of other PWE's that I received around the same time appeared in perfect shape, so explain that.

 

The Diamond King, in fact, sent two separate PWE's with no trouble at all.

 

He's run a couple of giveaways to thin his inventory and I'm happy to add that 3-D Kershaw card from this year, as well as that wildly, over-the-top Mosaic parallel of Sandy celebrating. You don't really need to do all that weirdness with Koufax, Panini.

 

I'm also happy to finally have the Gavin Lux Bowman rookie card. I've recently been adding 2020 Dodgers to my online carts, trying to catch up on those cards issued during the pandemic, which I couldn't obtain originally, either because product wasn't coming out or product was being swooped out from under us lowly collectors.

 

The Ryan Mountcastle cards are mostly for my nephew. He has a birthday coming up and I've got a little stockpile to send.

 

 

Finally, from another PWE and on the 11th day of Christmas, some mostly 2022 Holiday Dodgers from Johnny! These are from my most recent giveaway winning.

All that's left from the Holiday set is the Cody Bellinger -- he always seems to be the last guy still, even though he can't hit anymore.

Johnny also added one of the Master Photo inserts from Stadium Club. I've already said how I like the new tidy size of these. They're cute.

I will get back to mailing cards out next week -- I took a bit of a holiday from it, most weather-related, some cash-related -- and a few of the sends will be in those supposedly sturdier mailers.

If one of my packages arrives with a bullet hole, maybe let me know. After you call the police.