Flea market comes to life, Pt. 2

Well, that's it.

I guess I can retire now.

If you'll excuse me, I'll be putting this up for auction righ...wait, what? You're telling me this is a reprint? Shucks. The fourth T206 Honus Wagner I've found in a dime box and they've all been reprints.

Okay, seriously. I'm not naive enough to believe I'll ever own a T206 Wagner. Much less find one in a dime box.

But this awesome reprint of the most iconic card in history is a great way to kick off the second and final part of my flea market recap. Tonight, we'll be digging through the rest of my dime finds from the one awesome vendor that keeps coming up over and over again.

Though it doesn't have an exact date on the back, I have to believe this reprint was produced during the '80s. The back lists the value of the famous T206 Wagner at $100,000.

Hmm. Anyone have a hundred grand I can borrow?

I'll guarantee you at least twenty times that in return.

I've had a love affair with reprints for as long as I can remember.

While I'm proud to say that I do own a few authentic Goudeys, I doubt I'll ever have the actual versions of these two stars.

Reprints, though obviously not the real thing, are a great way to enjoy the beauty of old, often unaffordable cardboard at friendly prices.

That said, I did procure a little bit of dime box vintage sweetness on Sunday.

While he was one of the greatest third basemen ever, Eddie Mathews wasn't the most successful manager. He had a 149-161 career record in one full season and parts of two others at the helm of the Braves.

I honestly didn't even know he was ever a skipper until fairly recently. Either way, finding a vintage Hall of Famer in a dime box had to have been one of the better scores of the day.

Besides, any card with a Lew Burdette mention is okay in my book.

I can't say I remember finding anything from SSPC in a dime box before.

Quarter and fifty-cent boxes, sure. But not dime boxes. This was the one and only SSPC card I saw on Sunday, and it sure managed to pack a punch.

The man above is none other than Bobby Bonds, pictured during his lone season as a Yankee in 1975. I had never seen this particular card before and couldn't believe I got it for so cheap.

Here's to finding more dime box SSPCs in the future.

As usual, this guy's dime boxes were packed to the gills with mini-collection hits.

This neat "autograph" shot of Hall of Famer Wade Boggs (complete with a few cards within the card!) was just the beginning.

Mini-collections are the only reason I'd ever voluntarily buy anything of Barry Bonds.

I can briefly set aside my hatred of the guy when it comes to throwbacks as great as those.

A couple for my "bat barrel" and "award show" themes.

I usually don't like sketch cards, but that Matsui is a rare exception.

Even some of the game's greatest pitchers can slot into my silly mini-collections from time to time.

The Maddux, of course, is a terrific shot of the new Hall of Famer at the plate. The Ryan is a great addition to my brand spankin' new "tip of the cap" mini-collection.

Perhaps more importantly, it also comes from the Mother's Cookies oddball set. Those are usually tough finds around these parts, considering they were distributed regionally and nowhere close to where I live.

One of my dreams is to find a dime box filled with Mother's Cookies cards.

Oh, how sweet that would be...

This might have been the most fascinating find of the day.

I've had many different people send me copies of Tony Fernandez's 1993 Topps issue. Considering the action-packed double play shot, I can see why. (Though I could do without the Barry Bonds cameo.)

You'll probably notice something a little different about this one. There's no nameplate on it, merely a blank spot where the ribbon-like '93 Topps banner should be.

I did a little research and couldn't find anything that suggested this was part of a special set or any kind of intentional release by Topps. Most signs seem to point to it simply being a printing error. A rather large one, at that.

Nobody's perfect.

Because there aren't that many to chase, I've never officially declared a "Man's Best Friend" mini-collection.

I'd call it something else, but dogs seem to be the only animals featured with ballplayers on cards. It's been an unofficial goal of mine to build this Milkbone oddball series, as each issue features a player with their beloved dog(s). They don't pop up too often, so I still have a long way to go.

I guess the flea market would be the appropriate place to find cards like these. Get it?

Hey, I never said all the jokes would be funny.

If you're at all a fan of the Ken Burns's Baseball PBS series, do yourself a favor and pick up the accompanying card set.

Having studied it religiously since the day my parents got it for me as a Christmas present so many years ago, I know the entire checklist by heart.

That's what made this trio of cards so surprising. The design was obviously familiar, but I didn't recognize any of the photos. That sent me off for another little research session.

I found that these are actually from an oddball set that Little Debbie also released in 1994.

Just when I thought I knew everything there was to know about the Ken Burns series, a new facet presents itself.

These are all great cards, but I was ready to glaze over them when they appeared in one of Sunday's dime boxes, thinking they were dups.

That is, until I noticed the rather, well, glazed feel each one had, vastly different than the old cardboard touch we've all come to know and love. That could only mean one thing.

Topps Tiffany!

Like so many other items I found on Sunday, Tiffanys aren't exactly easy finds.

Much less ones featuring big stars like these.

I don't care where this hobby takes me.

Finding short-prints in dime boxes is a thrill that will never get old.

I found a stack of those beautiful Cracked Ice parallels about halfway through one of the quartet of dime boxes.

I may be apathetic towards Bowman, but those things certainly stand out.

On that note, how awesome is it that a guy named Bo Bowman once appeared in a Bowman checklist? Sadly, Bo never got above Single-A and has been out of baseball since 2009.

Part of me likes to think that he made the Bowman checklist that year for his name alone.

Maybe Topps does have a little sense of humor left.

I dig into most dime boxes on a mission to find cards of failed rookies.

It's become kind of a side collection of mine over the past year or so. (As if I needed any other little projects.)

There's something inherently captivating to me about once-hotshot prospects who quickly became dime box fodder.

Most semi-devoted baseball fans should know the names of Corey Patterson, Andy LaRoche, Brandon Wood, and Kei Igawa. All were expected to do great things in the big leagues, but none came all that close to following up on their promise.

It's easy to see why they're dime box material these days.

Finding rookies of these guys for dimes, on the other hand, was a tad more surprising.

Each enjoyed vast amounts of success in the majors and (save for Canseco) had distinguished careers.

Aside from Doc Gooden, I wouldn't say I collect any player from the quartet you see above. Similar to the failed rookies, however, something inside me just couldn't let them go for a few silver FDRs.

Plus, the fact that I can find a Jose Canseco rookie in a dime box at all is funny to me. His '86 Fleer Update first-year is even an error card, to boot. Note the pitching designations (such as W, L, ERA, etc.) atop the stat lines on the back.

Curiouser and curiouser.

This is one of those sets that I can't decide whether to love or hate.

Like its inaugural release from the year prior, it's hard to deny that 1996 Fleer Emotion XL was (and still is) different from the rest of the pack.

Each player was given an adjective that supposedly described their emotion. They range from the common enduring (Lee Smith) to words like adroit (John Mabry) that sent me to the dictionary. (Clever or skillful in using the hands or the mind.)

I'll admit, I got a little excited when I found a budding stack of these things near the end of my dime box digs. I don't own a whole lot of them, and the set does feature a lot of players I collect.

But I'm still up in the air about how I feel about the whole Emotion brand.

Ask me in a year or two, and I probably still won't have a good answer.

Nearly half of a whole row in one of the 3200-count boxes on display was filled with just about every Tristar Obak card you can imagine.

Obak is one of those sets that I can't believe I didn't discover sooner. Sure, the cards themselves won't blow anyone away, but they cover a lot of those little pieces of baseball minutiae that I find fascinating.

There's Ernest Thayer, the man who wrote "Casey at the Bat", with a fine honey on his arm. There's "Crash" Davis, an obscure minor leaguer whose name was the inspiration for Kevin Costner's character in Bull Durham. 

And there's Eiji Sawamura, a man who struck out Charlie Gehringer, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, and Babe Ruth during an exhibition All-Star Game in 1934. Did I mention that Sawamura was 17 years old at the time?

Let's not forget a new addition to my Black Sox collection with the Chick Gandil centerpiece, a card I didn't even know existed before Sunday.

Obak is the gift that keeps on giving.

I already discussed the bulk of my oddball finds in yesterday's post, but these may have been the best of them all.

TCMA may be the best-kept secret in the history of baseball cards. Since most of their sets didn't have very wide releases and weren't distributed in pack form, they can be hard to find in today's hobby.

Luckily, I have people like my local flea market vendor to help save the day. This page of TCMA greatness comes from a few different award-themed sets the brand released in 1985. There were ten of them in this dime box, and I bought every single one. (Not pictured is Harvey Kuenn.)

I couldn't put them in my purchase pile fast enough.

I don't know if I had one surefire favorite card from Sunday's flea market bonanza.

If I had to choose, though, this '98 UD Piazza might get the nod.

The guy's dime boxes held dozens and dozens of Piazzas. I bought some for myself and even more for other bloggers, since all of them featured him with the Dodgers.

All of them, that is, except one.

When we're talking "short term stops", Mike Piazza as a Marlin is pretty much the ultimate. The guy was dealt to the Marlins by the Dodgers, played in just five games in Florida, and then was promptly traded to the Mets.

The strangest part is that it all happened right smack dab in the middle of Piazza's peak. He wasn't some old washed-up vet making the rounds. (Fun fact: Mike Piazza hit eight career triples in 16 seasons. One of those came during his five-game stint as a Marlin.)

This is my fourth card of Piazza in wildly unfamiliar Marlins gear. Odd, considering he only spent five games with the team.

It may well have been the best of the staggering 575 different dime finds I purchased on Sunday, along with my stack of 25 quarter cards.

After all was said and done, the ever-generous vendor charged me just fifteen bucks for the lot. Fifteen bucks.

There aren't many better ways to spend an hour-and-a-half on a warm Sunday afternoon. What really gets me is that the guy thanked me for spending so much time at his table as I walked away with a brick of baseball cards under my arms.

No, sir.

Thank you.

Flea market comes to life, Pt. 1

The flea market has been calling my name these past couple months.

Thankfully, the stars finally aligned this past Sunday. I was able to scrounge up enough cash to make the trip on what turned out to be a beautiful afternoon.

I had the idea to take a few pictures of the place for the blog. Make it come to life a bit. Just in case, you know, some of you still think I'm making all this up. (Although I wouldn't blame you if you do.)

I snapped this photo which, sadly, isn't a very good one. It doesn't even begin to show how huge my local flea market is. All you get here are the outskirts. (This is a way better shot.)

The excitement of the place got to me after a while, and I almost completely forgot to get any other shots during the rest of the afternoon. I did manage take one more important photo, which you'll see in a bit.

This place is kind of like heaven on earth, even if my shots don't exactly show it.

But enough about my horrible photography skills.

Let's get to the cards, people!

It's become sort of a tradition this year to get a shot of my day's finds after each flea market binge, all piled up next to one another. Whether they be keepsies or items I picked out for other bloggers, you're seeing the nearly 700 total cards I came home with on Sunday right there.

Total cost? Thirty dollars.

That's less than a nickel each.

Three of those thirty bucks, as it happens, were spent on nine-pocket pages.

I told one particular vendor the last time I attended that I'd buy any extra pages he had. Since then, however, I've received a ton of pages from a few ever-generous bloggers. One can never have too many pages, but I think I'm set for a while now.

Still, I didn't want to back out on my promise. The guy specifically brought pages for me on Sunday, and, although I didn't exactly need them, I didn't mind forking over three bucks for about forty pages. They were the good stuff, too. Ultra-Pro.

After I took the pages off his hands, I made a quick dig through the guy's dime boxes. As I've mentioned before, this particular vendor doesn't get a whole lot of new cards in from week to week, but I still manage to find a few new pieces I can use with each passing trip.

I know I used to have a copy of this superb Season Highlights Griffey, but I don't exactly know what happened to it. My stupid teenage self probably traded it away at some point.

Finding it again was like reclaiming a lost piece of my collection.

A couple other fun dimers.

Could a card get any more '90s than that Bonilla?

The guy also had a few quarter cards off to the side.

I didn't find much, but this "Play Hard" insert from last year's Opening Day is a fine addition to my rapidly expanding Matt Kemp collection.

Between the pages and the cards, I dropped a grand total of five bucks at this guy's table.

I found another familiar vendor a few aisles later.

He's new to the place this year, as far as I can tell. His quarter cards kicked off my flea market season back in April, and he's been back with new selections of cardboard every time I've hit his table.

He didn't have a ton of cards left once I found him later in the day. Only about a single row in his 3200-count box was filled. At the beginning of the day, as he told me, the cards were 3/$1. Later, 4/$1. By the time I got there, he'd marked them down to 5/$1.

The insider's deal.

For twenty cents, I'll take as many old Senators as I can find.

I ended up with about forty cards from the 5/$1 box after all was said and done.

What impressed me most was the selection of tough early-to-mid '80s Topps Traded singles the guy had on display. Big names, too. Morgan. Fisk. Sutter.

I rarely see these at card shows, much less flea markets.

The guy also had a few cards in another part of the box that I mistakenly thought were part of the 5/$1 bargain.

He told me they were priced as marked when I went to pay for everything. But, being a regular customer and all, he was willing to cut me a deal. He offered me the forty-ish 5/$1 cards and the six or so other individually-priced items I'd picked out for ten bucks total.

And I passed. I told him I'd just take the forty 5/$1 singles for eight dollars. The others went back in the box.

I fished a ten out of my wallet. The vendor pulled two singles from his pocket. My change. I had a deep moment of introspection as I handed the guy my ten.

You're SERIOUSLY gonna pass on Reggie, Nolan, and a pair of second-year Gwynns all because you don't want to spend TWO EXTRA DOLLARS?! Get it together, stupid!

After my internal rage died down, I told the guy I'd take the extras after all and had him keep the ten. 

Best. Decision. Ever.

There they are.

The flea market holy grail.

I don't know what else I can say about this next legendary vendor that hasn't already been said. The guy has an unbelievable array of cards out every week, and he always cuts me an unthinkable deal.

And, though I've been meaning to do so during my past couple trips, I finally got a picture of the guy's dime boxes on Sunday. Again, just in case you didn't believe me. You've got the "10¢" markings right there, for the remaining few dime box non-believers.

The box beneath the white sign was actually comprised of football cards. The two 3200-count boxes below the brown cardboard sign, however, were all baseball. And, while you can't see them here, there were two more baseball 3200-counters next to those.

So, if my math is right, that's over 12,000 baseball dime cards on display.

Yes, I looked through every single one.

And that's not even counting the four smaller boxes of quarter cards the guy had, either.

I didn't dig through them as thoroughly, but they amounted to easily another thousand cards to peruse right there. (Stupid old me forgot to take a picture of them in my haste. I was still drooling over the dime boxes.)

I only came away with about 25 quarter cards, but I tried to make each and every one of them count.

Among the best of the best was this rare Ichiro oddball, a VIP giveaway at the National way back in 2008.

I can't remember exactly where, but I was just reading about those "Slideshow" inserts on another blog recently.

I do remember wondering why I hadn't found one for myself yet. Luckily, I didn't have to wait very long. That magnificent Robbie became mine for a mere quarter. The photo does look and feel like an actual film strip.

Normally, I wouldn't spend a dime on anything of Alex Rodriguez. Much less a whole quarter. 

Let's be real, though.

That comic-themed insert was definitely worth a shiny Washington.

Who's the Hostess with the mostest?

Chet Lemon, apparently.

You'll have a hard time sneaking anything Hostess-related past me for a quarter.

Much less one that features those awesomely bad '70s White Sox getups.

Let's move on to the dime boxes, shall we?

The sheer number of oddities this guy's dime bins continually produce floors me.

My oddball collection seems to double every time I hit the flea market. This past Sunday was no exception.

The front of this Matt Williams issue features one of those God-awful Circa designs. Upon further examination, however, I found that the thing was actually a sample. Better yet, it opened up to create a pretty darn cool oddball.

But Mr. Williams was far from the only one.

Yup, that's four pages full of oddities I scored on Sunday from just about every company imaginable.

Jumbo Sunflower Seeds. Topps Magazine. Kaybee. Chef Boyardee. The list keeps on going and going.

The scary part is that these aren't even all of them.

It's like these dime boxes were created specifically for me.

These are nine of forty-seven, yes, forty-seven, different dime Rickey Hendersons I found.

Every facet of Rickey was covered. Rickey the A. Rickey the Yankee. Rickey the Met. Rickey the Mariner. Rickey the Padre. And, yes, even Rickey the Angel.

That's almost the entire catalog right there.

The 2014s came out to play as well.

Putting a dent in some of my more recent needs was a goal I was hoping to accomplish on Sunday. In the end, I got that and a lot more.

I found a good chunk of my remaining Series 2 wants in the guy's dime boxes. He even threw in a couple parallels for good measure. Usual suspects like GQ and Bowman were included as well.

I also got my first look at 2014 Panini Prizm, a set which might as well be called Panini Pointless (or Pointlezz?) for all I care. Panini is good for a lot of things, but this isn't one of them. As much as I might bash it, though, I couldn't help but pick up a few. Don't ask me why.

A couple Topps Museum Collection singles made for some of the more surprising dime gets of the day. I'm not used to seeing such a high-end set at bargain-basement prices.

The best 2014 find of the day, however...

...has to go to Yadi.

Astute collectors may note that this isn't the photo that appears on Molina's standard 2014 Topps card. That can only mean one thing, my friends.

This is a coveted short-print. And a pretty darn fine one, to boot. Certainly not anything I thought I'd ever dig up from a dime box.

It so perfectly sums up why I love going to the flea market every chance I get. There's no limit to what I can find.

Heck, the cards I showed tonight only account for half of the goodies.

Tune in next time to see what else the flea market gods had in store.

The dime box frankenset, Page 28: Numbers 244-252

Last week saw what I thought to be the first big upset in our frankenset voting thus far.

Win -- 1979 Topps #239 Willie Horton (7 votes)

Place -- 1982 Topps #237 Rusty Kuntz (6 votes)

Show -- 2004 Fleer Tradition #242 Desi Relaford (4 votes)

For whatever reason, the voting totals dipped from 27 two weeks ago to just 21 last week, but that didn't hurt the excitement all that much. I was expecting good ol' Rusty to run away with this thing.

Mr. Kuntz got my vote, but Willie Horton in all his reversed-negative glory came out with the narrow surprise victory.

Let's get those vote totals back up for our next page of frankenset nominees.

We're back to a full nine this week.

Today's page contains one of my personal favorite cards in this entire frankenset.

Let's meet the nominees.

1999 Topps #244 Andy Benes

Pitcher at the plate! 

(No relation to Elaine Benes.)

1983 Fleer #245 Vance Law

Those shades look clean to me. 

1980 Topps #246 Tim Foli

One of the better double dips you'll ever see. 

1993 Select #247 Kirt Manwaring

I'd have to go back and check, but it seems like Kirt Manwaring holds more spots in this frankenset than any other player. 

1997 Topps #248 Sean Berry

A dust cloud worthy of the Old West.

2013 Topps #249 Vance Worley

Throwback!

2000 Stadium Club Chrome #250 Rick Asadoorian

A superb "at the wall" shot. 

1992 Score #251 Mike Felder

A member of The Mike Felder Trifecta. 

1970 Topps #252 Lowell Palmer

The best shades in the history of baseball cards, bar none.

There you have it. Let's see if we can push those tallies up into the 30 range this week. Your vote counts! Treat yourself to a little frankenset fun.

The polls are now on the sidebar.

Happy voting!

Life needs more PWEs

I think people are starting to catch on to the growing efficiency of PWEs.

I still mail out packages from time to time, but envelopes are my route of choice now. Obviously, I can't fit as many cards in a PWE as I could in a package, but I can send three envelopes for less than half the cost of a standard bubble mailer. 

Three PWEs with about fifteen cards a piece equates to about as much as I usually put in most packages. 

It's a no-brainer.

I guess that's why I've had so many envelopes hitting my doorstep over the past month or so. Reader Michael likes to drop cards on me every now and again, and he hit me with a nice surprise PWE recently.

He knows how big of a Jim Abbott fan I am. I'll take any and all cards I can find of his.

Especially if they're oddballs.

I really enjoyed these dueling double dips Michael sent.

It's probably right to assume that these shots were taken during the same Astros-Cubs contest at Wrigley Field. The runner on the Biggio is a Cub, and the runner on the Sandberg is an Astro.

I may have to do a little research and see if I can find the exact date of these double plays when I get a little more time.

For some reason, there seem to be a lot of card collectors named Michael.

A different reader Michael sent a PWE my way recently as well. And, for what it's worth, the reader Michael that drops blogger boxes on me from time to time is yet another Michael. (My dad's name is Michael, by the way. It's my middle name, too.)

Anyways, this reader Michael found a fantastic "autograph" shot with Mr. Pugh here.

Stadium Club is a good place to find gems like these.

The Larkin is another addition to my double play collection, and I think I spy a Pokey Reese cameo on it as well.

My Darryl Kile collection has probably tripled since I joined the blogosphere. Michael added a shiny (and very '90s) addition to it with that Flair Showcase issue.

Keep the Kiles coming, people.

In the note he included, Michael wrote that my flea market posts inspired him to hit a few of his local flea markets.

I love showing all my great finds whenever I get a chance to hit the flea market (which may happen again tomorrow), but that's the reason I started writing those posts. You might not find anything good at your local gathering, but at least you can say you tried. Plus, at the least, it's a nice way to spend an afternoon.

Michael told me he was lucky enough to find a big lot of '66 Topps for three bucks at his flea market, a batch that included a Fergie Jenkins rookie and quite a few other gems. (I'd be insanely jealous if I didn't already have a Fergie first-year in my collection.)

He was nice enough to pass on some of his luck to me with this beautiful bunting shot of Glenn Beckert.

I still haven't declared "bunting" cards as an official mini-collection quest yet, but this would definitely be a good place to start if I ever do.

I've gone a bit out of my comfort zone by straight-up asking for cards from other people lately.

I inquired about a few A&Gs from Michael (another Michael!) of the newly-christened "Orange and Black Wax", and he was nice enough to set them aside for me.

I don't think I've ever turned down a new Bob Gibson card. And, although he's been overshadowed by Jose Abreu, Adam Eaton has emerged as one of the few bright spots for the White Sox this year.

He'll be hitting leadoff on the South Side of Chicago for a long time.

Have I mentioned how much I like the look of this insert set yet?

Yes?

Oh. Well, in any case, I guess it bears repeating.

"Pastime's Pastimes" is awesome.

Sometimes, comments can wind up netting me new cards, even if I never asked for them in the first place.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned my love for these "Forever" inserts from 2004 Greats of the Game on a post on "Waiting 'til Next Year" a while back.

As it turns out, these were both doubles for Tom, the mind behind that great blog. He dropped them on me without any warning whatsoever.

I probably don't have to tell you that those are the best kind of PWEs.

This page of 2014 Topps Series 2 came courtesy of Jeff, author of the terrific blog "One Man's Junk Wax".

He put out an SOS asking for people to help clear out some of his 2014 doubles, and I was more than happy to oblige. I'm glad to get any wants people can hit for me, but the Michael Wacha was especially sweet.

I'd pulled two different parallels of that one before Jeff sent me the standard base card, thus quelling a rampant case of collector's OCD.

The cardboard gods work in mysterious ways sometimes.

You'll have to go all the way to Portugal to find the culprit behind this next envelope.

Ana Lu of the spectacular "Hobby Cards Europe" blog surprised me with a nice little batch of '90s Collector's Choice recently.

Apparently, the Pedro we all know and love today had to be identified as Pedro J. Martinez to avoid confusion back in 1995.

How times have changed.

Hoyled (verb) -- The act of receiving cards from the one and only Mark Hoyle.

I think the act of getting Hoyled (or Hoyling, if you're into the whole brevity thing) is pretty well known by now. Reader Mark Hoyle has become legendary for the generosity he's shown to so many of us in the blogosphere.

He surprised me with a surprise PWE recently, which included the Goldschmidt sticker you see above.

By and large, however, this latest Hoyling contained Studio, Studio, and more Studio.

I think I made an offhand comment about warming up to the Studio brand in a post not to long ago, and Mark apparently picked up on that. 

This page consists of a terrific batch from '93 Studio. The giant team logo in the backgrounds of these really sell the design for me. 

Studio continues to be one of those brands that I enjoy more and more with each passing viewing.

Finally, gracious and all-around good guy Douglas of the awesome blog "Sportscards from the Dollar Store" hit me with another great batch of cardboard recently.

This Canadian Greats subset was certainly new to me. Apparently, these were exclusive to Leaf in 1998 and couldn't be found in the standard Donruss checklist that year. 

I guess it's appropriate that Douglas would be the one to find something like this for me.

After all, he's the premier Canadian Great of the blogosphere.

Douglas also sent me a few random recent issues.

The Zimmerman was a much-appreciated hit to my 2014 Series 2 needs, but it's got nothing on that striking Sandberg. Because of its uber-high end status, Topps Tribute isn't a brand that shows up too often in Dime Boxedonia.

While I may have problems with the whole $150-a-pack industry, I'd be lying if I didn't say that Ryno is a beauty.

As he's done so many times in the past, Douglas also found a few hockey-themed hits to my mini-collections.

There aren't a whole lot of baseball cards with better "autograph" shots than this one.

Of course, Douglas took the time to hit a few baseball mini-collections as well.

This Jose Bautista mini from 2014 Gypsy Queen is one of the better "bat barrel" specimens you'll ever find.

I have to imagine it was a double for Douglas, because I can't see him letting go of such a sweet Jays card.

Still, my far and away favorite of this batch was the Kenny Lofton insert you see above.

Coming from the "Spirit of the Game" series from 1993 Donruss, this is a fantastic "multiple-exposure" shot of my main man Kenny Lofton.

Every once in a while, someone sends me a HOW DID I NOT ALREADY OWN THIS?! card.

This was one of said cards. I have quite a few other issues from this particular insert series, yet the Lofton somehow evaded me.

Luckily, I have people like Douglas around to help fill in the gaps.

If you're not on the PWE bandwagon yet, you're really missing out. They're the gifts that keep on giving.

Life in the blogosphere would get pretty boring without a PWE now and then.