remember the astros?

earlier this year i completed a trade with bru, whose site used to be call 'remember the astrodome' but now oversees a much more personally named site.  anyway, the trade went so well, that we are in the midst of another one as i type this in early november.

it's always nice to get some brooklyn boys - pee wee reese, gil hodges, and duke snider

all were needs/wants. it was nice to see topps bring gil hodges back in to the fold last year. i see that hodges fan steve garvey has appeared in a couple of releases late this year, which is hopefully a sign of things to come.

i did not buy any 2019 topps holiday cards last year, so i am thankful (i guess) for those i receive in trade packages, like this cody bellinger 

i do appreciate the design of the 2019 holiday cards more than those of previous years.

here's a 2020 panini donruss rated rookie card of gavin lux

lux will turn 23 in a couple of days, so he has time to live up to the hype. it's a bit crazy that there remains a premium on his cards though as he has not looked up to the task so far.  

here are a couple of clayton kershaw cards - 2019 panini leather & lumber and topps stickers

topps left the open fly on the sticker.

here are three cards of world champion max muncy

2019 topps allen & ginter, 2019 topps stickers (back), and 2002 panini donruss. muncy wound up doing better in the postseason than he had in the 60-game "regular" season - he had an obp over .400 in the last three series which was nice to see.

here's a lot of sticker backs from the 2019 topps sticker set - kershaw, aj pollock, justin turner, bellinger, walker buehler, and kenley jansen.

world champions, all! now, i would have preferred the dodgers to have beat the astros back in 2017, but what happened happened. i am glad that the two teams didn't meet again in 2020, because who knows what damage george springer might have wrought.  thanks bru - looking forward to more!

everyone wishes for silver and gold

hard to tell, but this 2019 panini leather & lumber walker buehler card

is the base version with silver foil lettering.  this clayton kershaw card,

is the embossed parallel with gold foil lettering.

both cards came to me from night owl. this continues a nearly 12-year trading regimen wherein i receive some dodger hand-me-down goodness.

there were other cards in the pwe, of course.  here's a 2020 topps silver pack clayton kershaw card

and a couple more gold cards to continue with the theme

that's a 1997 fleer ultra pedro astacio gold medallion edition card. for some reason, in 1997, fleer decided to put a different photo on the gold medallion cards making them more of a variation than a parallel.  speaking of parallels...

that's a 2017 topps update justin turner gold parallel, featuring yadier molina's back.  not everything in the envelope was silver or gold, but the remaining cards were more than welcome.  here's a couple of 2019 bowman prospects - keibert ruiz and dj peters

ruiz is a catcher and made it to triple-a last season. he's only 21. peters, whose initials are actually d.s., spent more time in oklahoma city last year than ruiz. both are on the 40-man roster but are blocked to some degree from the bigs.

last but certainly not least is this 2019 topps mlb sticker collection sandy koufax sticker

there's a national on the back, but nobody needs to see that.

thanks greg!