something in the air

generosity has been prevalent in the blogosphere for a long time, and recently there were some giveaways and surprise envelopes from multiple sources. i figured it was time to highlight some of these instances that have furthered my collection.

first, the diamond king had a giveaway featuring shohei ohtani cards. i requested a 2018 panini diamond kings card

and true to form, kevin included a couple of extras. this is a 2017 panini black friday cody bellinger card

comc calls it rainbow spokes, tcdb calls it wedges. whatever it is, it's great!  and this is a 2022 topps chrome platinum anniversary max muncy card

platinum cream toile & rose gold refractor, and it's numbered on the back to 75.

kevin wasn't done there, as a while later, he offered up some paul skenes cards. i requested a 2024 bowman insert chrome prospect card

and once again, kevin included some bonus dodgers.

that's a 2020 panini chronicles phoenix ruby wave cody bellinger card numbered to 199, and this is a 2018 topps fire duke snider orange parallel card

numbered to 299.

thanks kevin - i hope the cards i sent your way made it there ok!

next up, rod from padrographs had posted that there were some mailings sent out from padrographs hq, and that one of them was a poster in a tube mailer. well, guess who got the poster?!

rod sent me the steve garvey "out of the blue" poster that looks like this:

mine isn't signed, but it was easier to find a photo online than to try to roll it out and take one myself. i have a couple other garvey posters that i need to get set up somewhere.

rod also sent some cards, including one of the garv

along with a 1982 fleer roger erickson signed card

there were also some unopened packs, including 2002 upper deck world series heroes. nice to see don drysdale on the wrapper!

i don't really believe in unopened product, so here we go. my pack included a duke snider card

plus some other folks who played in the world series at some point

other packs included two 1992 upper deck minors which yielded some fun content, including chad ogea in tailored shorts

these days a few players are wearing these "above the knees" pants for real. here's the immortal skeets thomas

with one of the better broken bat cards out there.

there was one dodger card in the packs - greg hansell

i already had this card in my collection, but i found someone who needed one for theirs...

that would be tom, from angels in order. the hansell came in handy because i was preparing a return envelope for tom thanks to him sending me some cards a couple of weeks earlier. he sent these three cards from 1992 classic update white travel edition

along with a 1993-94 fleer excel roger cedeno minor league card

and a 1995 upper deck minor league top prospects karim garcia future stock card

i don't typically seek out minor league cards so it's great to have someone sending them my way!

not to be outdone, tom later had a giveaway in which i was able to procure this card:

2013 bowman platinum yasiel puig prospects chrome green refractor /399. it's really shiny and a great lead-in to st. patrick's day.

thanks kevin, rod, tom, and everyone else out there for bringing the generosity to the blogs. i am feeling inspired to do another "almost free stuff friday" in the near future. stay tuned!

a common thread of collector generosity

earlier this fall, i received three different mailings from three different collectors. a common theme? dodger stadium.

first, i received an email from andy at stadium fantasium who previously sent me most of the dodger giveaway sets from 2018. this time, he let me know he was sending these cards:

those are four of the five dodger 2021 topps national baseball card day cards produced by topps, but represent the full set that was distributed at a dodger game in august (trevor bauer's card was held back by the club). they are rainbow foil-ish and i am happy to have them.

next, i received a package from brian of highly subjective, completely arbitrary. in it, there were a couple of cards - a 2021 topps mookie betts 1965 chrome insert

and a 1991 juan samuel

o-pee-chee

card. oh my!

but the main contents were a dodger stadium guide

and their 2021 yearbook!

world champions yo!

as usual, there was lots of great stuff in the yearbook. some of the larger articles centered on the 40th anniversary of fernandomania

and the passing of tommy lasorda

nice to see lasorda with steve garvey and ron cey there. i would also like to see the tommy lasorda photo at the bottom right of that page make it on to a card at some point please and thanks.

lasorda also led off the "in memoriam" segment of the yearbook, with don sutton and vin scully's wife following

this section also included tributes to stan williams, ben hines, ron perranoski, norm sherry, jimmy wynn, dick allen, guy wellman, sweet lou johnson, jay johnstone, and three staff members who passed.

another item i will show is the gallery photo of the dodgers' alumni group that makes appearances on behalf of the team. let's remember some guys:

i think al ferrara might have been one of the inaugural members of this group, along with joe moeller, but i can't be certain. great to see so many players from the team of my youth, but this page is proof that time waits for no man.

finally, reader and fellow garvey collector alex reached out a while back noting he was filling out a comc order with one of my top non-dodger wants, a 1992 classic update white travel edition royce clayton card. well, the card finally arrived, and alex passed it on to me

obviously, i wanted this card because of the dodger stadium background - not because of the giants player.

i am very thankful to each of these collectors for thinking of me and sending these items, all tied to dodger stadium - blue heaven on earth!