And 1

Recently I received 2 PWEs from John over at My first blog.  Welp, another PWE showed up from John.  Who doesn't love PWEs?  Seriously?  Awesome right?

He definitely is hitting on the wasteland that is my Angels from the period of my collecting inactivity.  I have to say though, Disney did the Angels no favors with their rebranding.  They switched the team from my favorite logo/color combination the Angels have employed:

 

to that powder blue wing thingy.  The team did have some star power though.  You have the Mo Vaughn signing (bust), Garrett Anderson came up (overrated, but still a good ballplayer), and Troy Glaus there (power).

J.T. Snow is modeling the unis ther for us.  There's a lot going on there in the bottom corner on Darin Erstad.  Stuck in a "metal universe" snowstorm I guess.  Up top there's a Tim Salmon to add to my growing PC.  When I saw the back of the George Hendrick there, I thought "I have that.  Junk Wax, duh".  But no, its a "Topps reproduction" (from the back) of the 1988 card in 2001 Archives.

Thanks again John.  I think I managed to find some more cards from your want list, so keep an eye out.

Great Mail

Today was a great mail day.

0 bills.

4 envelopes of baseball cards.

That's a ratio you can't beat.  2 of the envelopes were eBay wins.  I typically troll for good deals on eBay, put in a bid and get outbid.   No harm, no foul.  I like to look for big lots of "vintage" cards.  (parentheses due to the definition of vintage.  I'm using pre-1980 as my definition).  If I can get a big lot (say - over 200 cards) for 5 cents a card, I'm good.  Lately though I've been picking up Mike Trout cards.

That's the second Panini Prizm I've gotten this week.  I'm a huge proponent of a second MLB license to eliminate Topps' monopoly, but both of the Panini cards have actually looked pretty sharp.

But the real star of the mailday were the two envelopes I received from John over at My first blog.  I reached out a week ago and offered up some Braves cards.  He sent back a bunch of 1990's Angels.

I think that Washburn is now my oldest chrome card.  When did those things start being produced?  And a Tim Salmon there which will go in my Frankenset, which will add a little variety to the very 80's-centric nature of the project at the moment.  You can't go wrong with Rickey in a Halo uni.

I remember when Rod Correia was playing for the Angels.  You had the sense that he was a bench type player, but I rooted for him to be star anyway.  There's 2 new Salmons for that player collection, and they're sharp looking cards to boot.  I like the look of 1994 Score.  Those two cards bring my total of the set up to 3.

That Baylor is awesome.  It'll go with the Grich I got from Dime Box Nick.  Another Rickey.  Even at 38 with a .183 batting average, I think Rickey was a good pickup in 97.  Todd Greene was a slugger that the Angels moved from outfield to catcher.  I had high hopes for him...

I like the Donruss Classics.  Good looking cards.   Those Upper Deck Vintage really are a cross between new cards and 80's cards.  They look like thy're from the 80's (or earlier), but they feel like new cards..almost.

All in all, an outstanding pair of packages.  Thanks John.