Santa Rod pays a visit

 

 

If you visited my card room -- and I still plan to do some sort of blog tour of it someday -- you would note that one blogger has a notable physical presence in the room without actually being there.

That's Rod of Padrographs. He has sent me so much quality stuff over the years. I don't just display anything in a spot where I can see it every day but Rod manages to find things that I don't mind seeing every day. Two of the posters on my card room walls -- the Ron Cey/penguins Nike poster and the owls poster -- are both from Rod. There's a Sandy Koufax children's book on display high on a shelf. That's from Rod, too. And, of course, the Ron Cey-signed birthday card greeting that Rod engineered is in full view as well.

The cards in my card room are mostly stored neatly in binders or in boxes, not visible unless you open them. But if you did -- and I do -- you'd see Rod's contributions there, too.

The number of cards from Rod in my collection grew recently because he sent me a whole bunch of them from the 21 blasters of different card product that he received for Christmas. After opening them on his blog, he distributed a lot of them to fellow bloggers. I got a whole bunch of Dodgers. But I also got a whole bunch of a couple of other teams, good for future trades. I also received a super-healthy stack of Orioles.

 

These came in team bags that were labeled for my nephew, who I've mentioned is an Orioles fan, like his dad. That's real nice of Rod. I selected just a few of the cards to send to my nephew -- he's going to be graduating soon and heading to college and I'm sure he doesn't need a bunch of cards weighing him down. It's generally known that attending college and collecting cards don't mix.

So there will definitely be some extras, but let's move on to the stuff I will definitely be keeping.

 

Rod opened some 2023 Topps Heritage High Numbers and he emailed me when he pulled the Davey Lopes insert, which you saw at the start. That card I needed. These cards I all have, but as I mentioned before, I'm trying to get to 660 total Heritage cards with the high numbers cards and these will come in handy.

Ah, what would modern collecting life be without parallels and inserts? I may be able to rid myself of a Bowman prospects Dodger cards but it's going to be a good while before I do the same with stuff like this.  The Walker Buehler Gypsy Queen "gypsy head" parallel could not be more dumb -- like all GQ parallels -- yet I enjoyed the hell out of receiving it.

These are exclusives from some multi-pack special box Topps is putting out on store shelves. I can't tell you more than that. I remarked that they look like something out of National Baseball Card Day sets, and they do. But I didn't know they're thicker than your average card, which isn't something a binder-user wants to hear.

More parallels of the Stadium Club kind! ... Or they're from the Chrome set. Who knows! I don't! Let's make it confusing as hell for collectors so the older ones say dumb stuff like, "I miss when there was only one set to collect"! And I do! I do miss when there was only one set to collect! Thanks a lot Stadium Club Chrome or Stadium Club With Chrome Parallels, whichever one you are, for making me sound old and dumb!

Some more random Dodger needs, including the final 2023 Bowman Platinum Dodger I needed. I sure do appreciate all the Mookie Betts cards in this package, please, everyone, don't hold back on the Mookies.

 

Like this. This is what you should be sending me. This is the first time I've seen one those Stadium Club Instavision inserts in person. These aren't easy to pull, or to buy. They're cool, but not quite as cool as I built up in my mind.

Rod also sent a handful of A&G minis. These two are the only ones that fit in the collection, one into the frankenset and one in the Dodgers minis binder. The others will go to others, speaking of which, I need a Phillies collector to trade with again.

 

There were just a few older cards in the box. This one actually completes the 1997 Circa Dodgers team set for me. How did Rod know that? Has he been snooping around TCDB?

Now we've got some old cards. Rod's sent me old-timey Fleer cards before, I really like them. That Williams is just my third card from the 1959 Ted Williams set. I don't see myself trying to complete that set, but you never know.

Speaking of Ted, Rod has found a way to get another display in my card room. This is just my third or fourth Project 2020 card. Two of them are on display and I'll get this one a spot, too, seeing as he was my dad's favorite player.

There were a lot more cards -- A LOT MORE cards -- and those Dodgers dupes boxes need sorting again (gonna have to wait until next fall for that boys). So, you know, if you like Dodgers cards, I'm definitely your guy.

Congrats again, Santa Rod, on finding your place in my card room.