The friday funnies

Ever since I started blogging, I've been able to add a ton of great new pieces to my collection due to the kindness of fellow bloggers and readers over the past few months.

It's one of the more selfish reasons I'm glad to be a part of this community.

The great trades just kept on rolling a few days ago when I received a package from blog reader Jeff, who had originally contacted me about some 2012 Topps inserts he had for me.

In this case, the extra cards he threw in ended up being just as good (if not better) than the initial agreed upon cards.

Bazooka was one of the first sets I was introduced to once I re-entered the baseball card market. It was just a fun set. But most of all, it fit well within an eighth-grader's spending limits. (I think the packs were $1.99 each if I remember correctly.)

Although the frame in the upper-right hand corner of this particular Ichiro comic is a tad disturbing, this was my favorite card from the package.

But that's the case with pretty much any new Ichiro cards I get.

Normally, I'm not a huge fan of multi-player cards.

These "4-in-1 stickers" are an exception to that, although I would've liked to see another Japanese player on this one instead of Chase Utley. It had the potential to be an "All-Japan" sticker.

Once again, this comes from the often under-appreciated Bazooka series.

Here's a couple of the original pieces of the trade with Jeff.

All I can say is, thank goodness Topps did away with these for Series 2. As many of you probably know, I'm a big Hall of Fame collector.

But even I don't want to see five Sandy Koufax or Hank Aaron cards in a single insert set.

The design on these actually isn't too bad. It's just that there's so many of them. I take them whenever they pop up, but I'm not actively chasing most of these "Golden Greats" cards.

Although I can never refuse a new Koufax for my collection, no matter what.

Finally, we have a couple Gold Sparkles from this year's Topps set.

The nameplates on these don't show up at all on the scans, even less so than the base cards. It's really the only problem I have with these, as they're nice to look at in person.

My first year as an Albert Pujols collector has gone smoother than planned. I could still care less about his cards as a Cardinal, but I'm actively searching for his new Angels issues since they're my favorite non-Chicago sports team.

This is easily the best piece of my budding "King Albert (as an Angel)" collection.

Thanks for the great cards, Jeff!