Beginning a Bundle of Bombardments

I'm currently sitting at a desk at work designated for breaks (so people can use a computer on their break if they need to).  I got off my shift an hour ago and decided to stick around until the fight tonight.  It'll probably be a good atmosphere to watch, plus its free here... and I'd rather not spend the $100 it costs to get the fight on pay-per-view.

Sitting here waiting for the main event forced me to slow down a bit which is good since I feel like I've been going 100 mph recently.  What with work kicking into high gear paired with a couple recent vacations, I've had very little time for cardboard recently.  I've devoted the time I have had to both organizing and bindering my recent break, plus getting together a whole bunch of trades to get a jump start on this year's set.  If you take a gander at my updated wantlist, I think you'll see that I've done fairly well so far.

Suffice it to say that I'm on major trade post backlog at this point and I don't think it will get better anytime soon.

Today's trade post comes courtesy the Night Owl himself, a surprise package that arrived on my doorstep only a couple days after my case break.  I'm fairly certain the above card was the motivator for the package, as a while back Night Owl mentioned he despised this card and had no use for it.  I told him I could give it a home, and lo-and-behold, a month or two later and its here!

There was a bit of everything in this package, but it mostly contained a shared passion of ours.  MINIS!!!!  Not just any old minis mind you, but minis hand-picked from my want list.  You don't see too many full-body shots in Allen & Ginter any more.  It certainly makes this A-Rod mini stand out and this kind of variety was what made 2008 (the best year of Allen & Ginter) so special.

This card made me happy.  First, I had totally forgotten about Jack Cust as a player.  I remember him as a masher of sorts, but he seemed to have just disappeared from the league.  I went and looked up his stats and apparently he led the AL in strikeouts for three consecutive years.  That's doing something!  Second, the green background on this card makes me super happy.  This 2009 set has really grown on me throughout the years, so much so that it probably only trails 2008 as my favorite Ginter set.  The mini versions of the base cards really accentuate the colored background.

Case and point here.  A '09 Brad Hawpe next to an exceedingly ugly '10 version of the same.  Of all the Ginter sets I collect, 2010 probably has the most minis left that I still need.  I'm not sure I would be too upset if I never finish it.

Julius Caesar and Samardzija rounded out the minis included from my wantlist.  This mini plus a couple more from a few other recent trade packages made it so my remaining needs number only four for 2016 (116, 121, 194, 254).  That's quite exciting!

Night Owl also sent me a smattering of brand spankin' new 2017 minis.  Mind you, I received these long before I had a wantlist up for this year.  Heck, I received this before I had finished full sorting out my whole case.  Regardless, Night Owl somehow knew exactly what I had pulled because I didn't receive a single duplicate mini in this package.

The last card in the package was this 2015 Topps Stadium Club card of Julio Teheran.  Included within the penny sleeve was this note stating the card had a non-glossy back.  I took the card out to examine, and discovered that it did indeed have a very strange feel to it.  I think I agree with Greg that this probably isn't a parallel.  However, I know what really happened to this card.  I see past his shenanigans!  He was so mad at Teheran for pitching well against the Dodgers one evening that he took this card and rubbed it against his chair so hard that he made the gloss come off!  Then he sent it to me because it brought back bad memories.

Oh wait... that cant' be true.  Ughh, Teheran is 0-6 with a 5.52 ERA all-time against those Dodgers.  Eeshh.

Thanks for the package Greg, and great guesswork with those minis!