The one and only

 

I tend to underestimate the size and depth of my collection. When someone says I should set up a table at a show to sell cards, I instantly scoff. I could never have enough cards that could interest people enough to buy them!

 

That's the way I'm built. I'm not a natural boaster and generally feel inadequate much of the time (though I'm getting better the older I get). I always assume others have more/are better. And that's the way it is in the card world, too.

 

None of that's true, though. I've been receiving cards from people around the world for more than a decade. It's obvious I have a collection that is both impressive and unique. But I also know there are people out there with far more cards, far more impressive cards, far more expensive cards than me.

 

I don't know any of those people, I don't think. The one collector that I know who comes close to that -- in my mind anyway -- is Johnny of Johnny's Trading Spot. He's the only one I know who can throw a box on your porch, filled with cards, without seemingly blinking or needing three years recovery time before doing it again. He's done it repeatedly. And he can come up with cards, and in various ways, that I've never seen from any other collector who has sent me cards.

 

An example is the card at the top of the post. I can't find that on TCDB. That doesn't happen to me very often. All I found are these:

 

At first I thought that the card I couldn't find was just one of these with the order form information separated. But the card at the top of the post has an order form on the back and these two attached versions have scratch-off games on the back. So the card I can't find is some other Crash the Game sweepstakes entry. But I'm sure its probably on TCDB and I'm just not able to find it due to my usual confusion about the '90s.

 

So, here's a better example:

 

These are all the Max Muncys in the box that I didn't have prior. Now that is impressive.

 

I owned, according to TCDB, 177 Max Muncy cards prior to receiving Johnny's send. I now have 212. That's nuts. It's particularly nuts because Johnny claims to be a Braves fan, though every time anything like that happens I question whether that's true. What Braves fan has so many Max Muncys that he can send 35 to a decades-long Dodgers collector without one being a dupe?

 

I know only one.

 

Per usual I had a difficult time sifting out my favorites from the package. I'll go through 10 notables, though in no particular order:

 

1. A night card that makes the night card binder

 

That is particularly difficult to do for a card numbered 50 or under, which this card is.

 

 

2. Shohei Ohtani cards that I didn't have before

 

Personally, I think the Braves fan should weed out all his Ohtanis like he did with the Muncys. There sure are a lot of Ohtani collectors for a player that gets so much social media flack.

 

 

3. BOSS

 

I don't fully know what these Circa Boss cards are, I just know that they were a big deal among some '90s collectors when I was first blogging and I don't see them a lot, especially one of Mike Piazza.

 

 

 

4. Early 2000s insert of The Duke

 

It feels special to land an insert of a legend from one of those early 2000s legends sets. This is from 2002 Fleer Fall Classic.

 

 

5. Recent Dodger parallels

 

As time passes, the parallels of a particular year tend to fade away and I lose interest. But the recent ones still get me excited, yeah, even the yellow ones, which is not a parallel color I like to chase.

 

 

 

 6. Look, more Outmans

 

Johnny was not only ridding himself of Muncys but also of Outmans. I really like that green Inception card. Not enough to start collecting that brand though.

 

 

7. A new-to-me 2002 Kaz Ishii

 

2002 was the year for Kaz Ishii cards. I've got a bunch. But this was from the Fan Club Update set, which was nothing but rookies. Fortunately, this is the only Dodger.

 

 

8. '94 Pinnacle Museum Collection

 

These are kind of cool in person but a bitch to photograph. They don't come around that often either and there are still lots of Dodgers I need from the set.

 

 

9. NOMOS I DIDN"T HAVE!

 

Always the highlight of any card package.

 

 

10. The last card to complete a team set

 

Another highlight. I didn't know that one Babe Herman card was all I needed to finish the Dodgers team set for 2004 Fleer Greats. I sure did enjoy checking that box.

 

Of course there were far more Dodgers than those in the box.

 

And there were junk-wax era parallels that I needed:

 

One tiffany and one micro

 

 

Then there were things that I think got mixed up in distribution. Were these supposed to go to Fuji? And if so, what's the Chuck Knoblauch doing there?

 

But I will take a couple of Fleer Greats Tigers (and of course current Bills).

 

I could go on and on about the contents (Wacky retros, Montgomery Club (ick), etc.), but you get the idea. Johnny finds stuff that no one else can. And in bulk.

 

If I was able to send him a box the same size that he sends just once, then maybe I wouldn't feel inadequate about my collection anymore.

 

P.S.: Don't worry, I know I have it good. In fact I think it's time for a Dodgers binder update!