At the Trade Deadline 28: Christmas Cards from Too Many Verlanders

I call this a trade post, but in reality it was more of a gift. Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders sent out a whole pile of packages in something he called Too Many Christmas Cards. A giant bubble mailer arrived in my mailbox with stacks and stacks of cards packed inside. I chose a few of my favorites to show off here. This first group features some recent Denver Broncos, including Von Miller, Demaryius Thomas, Montee Ball and Tom Brady's former man-crush, Wes Welker. Of course, now that they've had some time to see other people, Brady isn't feeling too much pain. I'm rooting against the whole Super Bowl this year. I hope no one wins. Or maybe Katy Perry could win the Super Bowl. That would be okay.

These cards came from what was probably my favorite stack of cards in the package. There was another stack in close contention, but someone in the postal service used the other stack as a bludgeon (I'm guessing to knock out a mugger or a rapist) and left a big ding on the corner of every card in that pile. I hope the brave letter carrier received a civic award for valor. Shannon Sharpe was my favorite Bronco of that era, and Elway wasn't half-bad himself. That Terrell Davis Hidden Gems Refractor is the 2nd-coolest card in the package. I love looking at it. While Tim Tebow may not actually have been a Complete Player, he was the face of a very exciting run by the Broncos. Although everyone knows that strong defense, clutch kicking and a lot of luck were the true heroes of that season, Tebow made for a much better story line. And he does a buttload of charity work that really brings a lot of good to the world.

In spite of questionable card design, that Nolan Ryan is a pretty good picture of one great pitcher. You have to love a guy who can intimidate so well while wearing a flippin' rainbow. I thought I had all of the 2013 Mascot cards from Topps Opening Day, but that Orbit card looks unfamiliar. Maybe his wooden gaze is just confusing me.

I loved drafting Michael Bourn in my fantasy baseball leagues for a few years, and he always sunk my teams. He's not a bad player, but I drafted his stolen bases too early and forgot that he wouldn't be providing any Home Runs or RBIs, and power is expensive in fantasy baseball. Speed is always available on the waiver wire.

Finishing up this group is a nice 'grip' card of R.A. Dickey, my current favorite player to collect. Unfortunately, the shine of his 2012 Cy Young season is long-gone and he is no longer featured in every set checklist. The Blue Jays' checklist slots are now mostly taken up by Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and maybe Marcus Stroman from time to time. With R.A. Dickey and Josh Reddick getting fewer cards lately and Press Pass going out of business on the NASCAR front I have been focusing more on my Jon Singleton player collection and some non-sport stuff. I've grabbed a few sketch cards, some comic and TV stuff, and some artist sketches lately that I think are pretty cool. I'm still looking forward to another season of baseball cards, though.

Here are a few Seattle-based players. I have to admit that having the Seahawks completely dismantle the Broncos last year in the Super Bowl kind of soured me on them a little bit, and I think they do a little too much talking (or not talking, in Marshawn Lynch's case), but I do like their colorful uniforms and I suppose I still root for them a bit. I still hope that everyone loses the Super Bowl. Michael 'Sticky Neck' Pineda makes the cut for an appearance here and so does a pretty cool picture of Jeff Clement with a ball in his glove.

And here is the card that kept Terrell Davis' Hidden Gems card from being the coolest card in the package. A Muggsy Bogues autograph! How can you not love this card? This is my second Bogues autograph, with the first having been purchased in the infancy of this blog.

This was a great gift, and I certainly owe Dennis plenty of Verlander and Michigan hits whenever they happen to fall to me. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have spent half of this post bagging on Tom Brady. Kind of a backward way to thank a guy for some cool cards, isn't it? In spite of the fact that I find it incredibly humorous to make fun of Tom Brady, I really enjoyed getting these cards in the mail. It is unfortunate that I took so long to post them, but the posts with the most scans seems to take the longest to write.

Thank you, Dennis!

What eBay Hath Wrought 5: Variations

One thing I've found I like is variation cards. They're fun, and they're rare. I especially like this Spud Webb variation from 2013 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions. It doesn't just feature Spud Webb; Muggsy Bogues makes an appearance too! Both players were famous for making their way in the NBA despite their height. Webb is 5' 7" and Bogues is 5' 3". The variation cards in the set are expanded horizontal versions of the regular base cards, as you can see from the base card below. I was never much good at basketball, but guys like these two showed that you didn't have to be well over 6' tall to be successful at the pro level.

This is one of the more famous photos of Muggsy Bogues, in which he is standing next to the tallest NBA player, Manute Bol, who was 7' 7". Unfortunately, Bol died in June 2010 due to an aggressive skin condition. After his basketball career, he was famous for using his wealth and NBA name recognition to help the people of his native Sudan. He is tied with my 2nd-favorite player, Romanian Gheorghe Muresan, for the record of tallest NBA player. I may just start a Manute Bol player collection. It probably wouldn't take much to collect most of his mainstream issues.

Here is another variation, a 2012 Topps Update David Wright card. But I didn't get it for David Wright, I got it for the guy standing next to him, R.A. Dickey. It's a pretty good card of a couple of teammates enjoying the All-Star game, and it came a lot cheaper than the $20-$25 folks on eBay are asking for Dickey's 2013 Opening Day press conference variation card.



These are a couple of good additions to my player collections, and they're a lot of fun to collect. Variations are a good way for the card companies to make the base cards more interesting, although I like base cards plenty anyway. Contrary to what the internet would have you believe, the base cards are more than just a vehicle for delivering hits.