Catch-up time

With the National and everything, it's been an absurdly fun week around here.

As great as it was, though, it's time to get back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Perhaps the only downside to my recent National extravaganza is the fact that I've fallen way behind on one of the more crucial aspects of this blog.

Trade posts.

I am absurdly backlogged on these things, more than I've ever been in my blogging tenure thus far. So, if you've sent me something within the past few weeks, I will get around to writing about it. I promise.

As a result, today begins catch-up time here on "Dime Boxes". If you're a fan of trade posts, you're in luck. If you're not a trade post person, well, I'll still be trying to mix in some random posts about other topics in the coming days.

For this afternoon, I figured I'd get started on the myriad of awesome PWEs and other miscellany I've received in the past few weeks.

To start off, let's take a look at a few things from Steven, a reader of this blog. He managed to find a few hits to my mini-collections, including this stellar "play at the plate" shot of Mike Piazza. (Complete with a Terry Pendleton cameo.)

In a strange way, though, I owe a lot of my National experience to Steven.

Why, you ask?

Because he also generously sent me about 100 much-needed pages for my binders, free of charge.

Without them, I wouldn't be able to store away any of my National finds, something I've been doing vigorously for the past few days. As far as I'm concerned, sorting and storing is half the fun of new cardboard.

So, thank you, Steven. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

And, if any of you ever want to rid yourselves of some extra nine-pocket pages, I'm your man.

Speaking of the National (again), here's a pre-National PWE I received from Jeff of "2 by 3 Heroes".

I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff in person last week, as you might remember. He's long been one of the PWE kings around the blogosphere, as far as I'm concerned.

True, I already had this awesome Elroy Face/Hoyt combo card in my collection, although my copy didn't come without quite a bit of anguish.

Jeff said he found it in a 3/$1 bin at a show near his parts of Illinois, correctly noting that this shot was reused on a card in the '62 Topps checklist.

So, yes, these past few years aren't the first time Topps has recycled photos in their history.

They've been doing it since the '60s, man.

Like everything he's sent me in the past, this latest PWE was positively gem-tastic.

Considering what a train wreck the set was photography-wise, that's a shockingly nice photo from the ranks of '82 Fleer. I doubt the Marlboro ad would fly these days, though.

In case you're wondering, I do classify pitchers posing next to bat racks as "pitcher at the plate" shots. I mention this because my friends are constantly asking me what exactly constitutes one of those things. (Just kidding...most of them probably don't even know who the New York Mets are.)

All in all, it's a fantastic card of the "Second Spitter", Roger McDowell. I know he enjoyed a successful career as a reliever and makes a nice living as the Braves' pitching coach these days, but he'll always be the "Second Spitter" to me.

Thanks, Seinfeld.

I'm glad that so many of you keep your eyes peeled for gems from the overproduction era.

As always, if you have any you'd like to see in a future GOJW post, feel free to PWE 'em my way.

Pat, author of the great blog "Hot Corner Cards", recently did just that with this pair of spectacular "double dip" shots.

Perhaps it's time I started giving 1990 Score a bit more credit.

Knowing my love for anything oddball-related, reader Corey recently dropped a few minis and other oddities onto my doorstep.

This rather cleverly-named "All-Around Stars" circular piece of Tim Hudson was probably my favorite card from Corey's envelope, which weren't the first he's sent me.

My favorite aspect of his assortment, however, was the gracious note he included along with it. To summarize, he basically said how nice it was to see someone who appreciated base and insert cards, adding that such a thing is hard to find on the forums these days.

Being a now-retired member of the trading forums, Corey, I hear ya. Believe me.

But that's the beauty of the blogosphere. We all appreciate baseball cards for exactly what they are.

I'm far from the only one.

Next up are the contents of a couple different PWEs I received from Marcus, the mind behind one of my favorite blogs with "All the Way to the Backstop...".

Marcus is one of the more generous traders I know. In fact, he recently sent me an awesome package from a neat little giveaway he had on his blog. I'll be posting those as this trade post marathon rolls on around here in the next few weeks.

For now, though, let's focus on the PWEs.

Kicking things off is this awesome "throwback" shot of the former 27-game winner himself, Bob Welch.

I can't be positive, but I think that's an old PCL Oakland Oaks jersey he's sporting there.

While I didn't go anywhere near the autograph tables at the National, I did notice that Cal Ripken was signing at the event.

And while meeting him would've cost me about my entire day's budget, I did find it neat that "The Iron Man" offered to take a free picture with anyone who bought an autograph of his.

On a different note, that looks like a fairly typical "double dip" shot on the front of the Phillips. Upon closer examination, though, you might be able to tell that the sliding runner is actually current Padre Jason Marquis.

A pitcher.

That earns it about a million bonus points in my book.

More from Marcus.

I guess it's fitting that he'd send me the '91 Fleer Fielder, one that looks to feature a shot from the '90 Home Run Derby at Wrigley Field.

After all, Marcus did just start an entire blog devoted to the set, which just so happens to be one of my favorites from the overproduction era. 

If you're a '91 Fleer nut like myself, do yourself a favor and go check it out immediately.

Wes, author of the fantastic blog "Jaybarkerfan's Junk", has been known to drop a few PWEs on people from time to time.

Even so many as, oh...thirty-five of the things within the span of a few days.

This time, though, Wes was able to keep his PWE habits under control, just sending me a more conventional single PWE a couple weeks ago.

That envelope contained just a single card. But, boy, what a single card it was. This Hostess Jimmy Wynn has to be one of the better cards I've received during my blogging career.

"The Toy Cannon" has always been the focus of one of my most appreciated player collections, and the Hostess brand is responsible for my all-time favorite oddball set.

Combine those two and you've got one heck of a card.

To close things out this afternoon, let's take a look at a few things I received from my good buddy William from "Foul Bunt".

William's gracious gift-giving ways just kept on coming. First, it came with a package he sent over, one that included this awesome Jim Abbott card from Panini's USA Baseball release.

Mr. Abbott will forever be one of the more inspirational figures in sports history.

As if his MLB accolades weren't enough, the guy also won a gold medal with the 1988 USA Baseball team.

From reading the blogs these past few weeks, I saw that William and his good buddy and fellow blogger Drew took a trip to Cooperstown a few weeks back.

It's always been a dream of mine to make the journey up there. Once I can get a steady paycheck under my belt, one of the first things I'll do is start saving for a trip to the Hall of Fame.

In the meantime, William basically managed to send me the next best thing.

What you see above is an actual Cooperstown postcard, one that just so happens to feature the Hoyt-meister himself. Interestingly, Wilhelm takes after guys like Lynn Nolan Ryan, in that he went by his middle name. (Notice the nine different teams crammed onto his HOF plaque as well.)

Although I look to be at least few years away from my trek to Cooperstown, William managed to send a little piece of the mystical place to my humble abode here in Illinois.

All things considered, it's one of the better items I've ever received as a blogger.