pwease pwease pwease let me get what i want

there have been a ton of pwe trades flying around the blogosphere over the last few months, and I've played my role in a fair share of them.

sometimes, these envelopes contain pancakes

one card, as was the case with an envelope from wes.  that card was this 2005 donruss leather & lumber steve garvey hitter's inc. insert

panini has brought hitter's inc back (as hitter's ink) to us in recent years as an autograph insert set.

a couple or three months ago, i tried my hand at a 'free stuff friday', with the caveat that any card or cards claimed would require sending me a card from my want list. i am happy to report that all participants came through in quick order, making for a successful endeavor.  here is the card that matt from diamond jesters sent me:

that is a very attractive 2019 topps stadium club chris taylor red foil parallel. it is much more appreciated by me than the card(s) i gave up to get it.  thanks matt!

sometimes, the envelope contains multiple cards.  case in point is this more recent trade with adam at infield fly rule.  one of the cards he sent me was this 2016 topps update chad qualls

it's not a photo variation, it's qualls' base card. that means someone at topps either didn't know or didn't care that qualls is wearing number 42, which that year was a reason to create a variation. i wish topps would do this more often and skip the more interesting photo as a variant scheme. this is a great add to my '42' collection!

adam also included this 2017 topps daniel descalso card

which features a dodger stadium background and this 2014 topps joe blanton card

that gives a great look at the patch that the angels wore for dr. lewis yocum. unfortunately for blanton, he's not going to supplant mike trout in my memorials mini-collection.  thanks adam!

brian at highly subjective completely arbitrary and i have completed a number of trades, and one of his most recent envelopes was heavy in tatooine goodness.

those are 1995 pinnacle lou whitaker, 2009 bowman adam laroche, 1998 fleer tradition vintage '63 kevin young, and 1996 pinnacle summit above and beyond marquis grissom cards. nothing but dirt goodness, all of them.

as i was going through my collection to find cards to send to brian (and others), i found a few more cards for this particular mini collection, such as this 1997 upper deck brad radke card,

this 2002 topps total omar vizquel card,

and this 2016 topps update xander bogaerts card

that had somehow previously been overlooked.

finally, i have also been inspired by a couple of bloggers out there to order some cards from sportlots, which also typically arrive in pwe fashion.  first, fuji showed off this 1998 topps gallery kevin brown card

a long time ago, and more recently, daniel from it's like having my own card shop showed this 1993 upper deck sp card

of brown on his blog.  both posts had me heading to sportlots to track down copies for my own collection.

all of these cards made for happy mail days!  let me know if you are up for trading - i am always game! and, for those of you who made it this far, i am planning to have another go at an 'almost free stuff friday' this coming friday with a posting time of 7:55 pm central. hopefully there will be something for everyone, although it will likely only be baseball this time around.