50 for 50

After going a bit overboard with my 2018 Topps Heritage purchases, I decided to take a couple of weeks off from buying cards in order to monitor my collection as well as funding for the collection a bit better. I made a purchase with a Sportlots store credit last weekend (which, in my mind, doesn't count cause it's a credit from sales) and I did place a COMC order pretty recently. However, for a couple of weeks I didn't buy a single card. Now, that's pretty good for me, but this didn't mean I wouldn't be receiving cards in the mail.

Beau from the One Million Cubs Cards blog sent a stack of 50 player collection cards my way. In exchange, I sent him, well, 50 Cubs cards to get him 50 cards closer to his goal. Seriously, check his blog out. The amount of Cubs cards he receives is insane. 

Beau looked at my player collection list on the blog in order to know what he could send to me. He found pretty good card totals of about 5 players to send my way. One of those players, as you can see here, was Rickey Henderson, who happens to be one of my largest player collections at about 150 cards.

A grand total of about 10 Rickey Henderson cards were sent my way, all of which featured him on the A's. This is pretty surprising given how many different teams Henderson played for, but it is the team people generally associate him most with, so I understand why people have so many cards of him on Oakland. Plus, a few of them showed Henderson doing what he's known for which is stealing a base including the 2 bottom cards on the picture above.

Another player whose cards were sent my way was Reggie Jackson, with all 4 cards above showing him on the Angels. People don't generally think of Jackson as an Angel right away, but I persoanlly love any card showing him in an Angels jersey and am very pleased that I was able to receive a quartet of said cards in the trade. My favorite of the bunch would have to be the 1985 Topps Circle K card in the bottom left corner. I've never gotten one of these cards before, but they remind me quite a bit of the late 80's Topps Glossy Rack Pack All-Stars, which I like a lot. So it makes sense for me to appreciate these cards as well. 

The final 2 Reggie Jackson cards were both from the 1987 Topps set. The card on the right is the base card showing him on the Angels while the card on the left is a Turn Back the Clock to his 1977 Topps card that was released 10 years prior to the 1987 set. 

There were also Randy Johnson cards, many of which showed him as a Diamondback where it could be argued that he had his best seasons. It includes 3 modern-looking cards including a 2004 Topps, a 2003 Flair card, and a 2002 Upper Deck SP Authentic card. The trio of modern cards was joined by a 2002 Bowman Heritage card that pays tribute to the 1954 Bowman design.

The next couple of Randy Johnson cards were from the 1995 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Special Edition set. I have to say, although each of these cards have a lot going on, the colors do look pretty cool and do a good job at reflecting the fun and colorful parts of the 90's. The card on the left includes a cool design that features a light blue circle with purple on the side while the 2nd card has an interesting looking baseball in the background. It's hard to find this amount of color in modern baseball car products, meaning these cards should be appreciated for their color despite being from the junk wax era.

The next player I received cards of was an interesting choice, but a good one nevertheless. I have many player collections that are much smaller than the big ones I usually talk about. One of those collections is Lance Berkman, who I have not gotten a new card of in at least a year. There were a few years that he was in tons of products, but since he isn't that collectable, I don't typically see him at the card show. Beau was able to provide multiple cards of Berkman, including 4 that are from sets modeled after extremely old products (2 Allen & Ginter, a Turkey Red, and a T206 card).

The next 4 Berkman's are the exact opposite of the cards shown before. These cards feature way more modern designs, especially the chrome shown on the 2010 Topps Chrome card in the bottom left. Another card shown is from a set that I actually really like, 2006 Upper Deck Future Stars. I've accumulated some cards from this set over the years, with Berkman being the most recent addition. The base set with the light blue color looks pretty great, and the affordable parallels such as pink make this set relatively inexpensive and fun to collect.

And while there were cards of quite a few different players sent to me, there was no player more prominent than Jeff Bagwell. Beau must have had quite a large total of Bagwell cards available in order to send me 11 different cards in order to beef up my Jeff Bagwell player collection big time. Just to put that into perspective, over a 5th of what he sent me were Bagwell cards, but with gems like this, I'm not complaining.

Some of my favorite Bagwell cards that were sent are shown above. These include a Fleer Rookies & Greats card from 2003. However, my favorite of the 4 shown here is without a doubt the 1999 Upper Deck Ovation card in the bottom right. The Ovation set is yet another example of an oddball set that I really enjoy. The baseball looks great on the card, and it even has a texture similar to that of a baseball. I've acquired a couple cards from this set, including Pedro Martinez, who happens to be my favorite of the bunch. So, if anyone has some of these cards out there to trade, please let me know.

However, I would have to say that the card I like the best, even more than Ovation and Future Stars, is the 1997 Upper Deck Collector's Choice sticker card of, yes, Jeff Bagwell. The card features 5 different stickers that include the Astros logo, the Collector's Choice name, and Bagwell himself along with a couple of fun designs that include Bagwell's name and the set name. This, unlike some of my other favorite cards from the trade, is a card I have never seen before. This makes it all the more tempting to track some of these cards down. Along with '99 Ovation and '06 Future Stars. Damn, Upper Deck made some really creative sets.

Thanks for trading Beau. Hope those 50 Cubs cards helps you to make at least some progress at achieveing your awesome goal of 1 million.