Too Many Verlanders: Christmas cards

Showing posts with label Christmas cards. Show all posts

Monday, December 4, 2023

Announcing Christmas Cards 2023!

Hello, friends, and happy December! I'm still way behind on posting (and what else is new?) but that doesn't mean I haven't been hard at work.

And I'm thrilled to announce that that work has resulted in

Christmas Cards 2023!

Once again it's time for one of my favorite yearly traditions! It's the season of giving and that sure is one of my favorite things to do.

As is usually the case I put some work into looking at wantlists and identifying some fun stuff for a few of you on COMC, eBay, or some combination of the two. Each envelope should also include stuff I found for you at card shows and maybe items pulled from my collection as well.

While I'd say I didn't hit as many blogging buddies as I sometimes do at this time of year, I still sent out a nice bunch of packages to folks in both that community as well as friends on TCDb. So I'll apologize to anyone who may have had their hopes up for something from me around now as I simply couldn't include everyone, but I hope those of you left out enjoyed what I sent you throughout the year.

For those of you who are due to receive something from me, I'll keep you in suspense and let you be surprised. But I at least wanted to announce that as of tomorrow, all but one of my blogger Christmas packages will be on the move, with the exception waiting on a couple eBay shipments. I look forward to the reactions (and especially blog posts) of those who get a gift under the tree from Santa TMV!

While I'm waiting on those cards to get delivered I'll be doing the same for a few of my TCDb friends, plus my Secret Santa recipient as I joined that tradition on the site this year for the first time. Besides the last blogger envelope I'll soon be sending along a few PIFs to some of the site's members that are on my "good" list this year because, 'tis the season, right?

I hope you all enjoy a relatively stress-free holiday season if possible and if you don't have friends or family nearby, don't forget we're all a really cool community in this hobby. Speaking of which, I'll really try to finish covering all of these trade posts soon-ish!

Happy red & green season from a guy who always goes blue!

Monday, December 19, 2022

2022 trade package #26: the Collector

Now that I've made lots of progress getting Christmas packages out in the mail, it's time to get back to what I was fortunate to receive this month! Chris (the Collector) went the Xzibit route, sending Christmas cards with a Christmas card:

Chris is a nice dude, confirmed (as if I didn't already know that.

Here's the cardboard contents:

Scan number one includes cards of a couple local teams: the Tigers and Wings. I love that Chris hit both my former and current blog namesakes in Granderson and Verlander. Curtis is seen on a Mets-appropriate Orange parallel (/250) from 2014, though of course that color also works for his original team. JV appears with both the Tigers (Topps' Chasing History insert) and his new old team, the Astros. Dig the back of the latter, which is just a blast to look at:

Since that injury-abbreviated 2020 campaign he tacked on an 18-4 record/1.75 ERA/185 K NL Cy Young season and his first World Series winning decision while earning ring number two. To say his career has been special is an understatement!

Current (though injured) Tigers pitcher Skubal joins the orange party with that parallel from last year's Topps Big League to sew up the baseball group.

Over on the ice we have a fun group of Wings. Datsyuk and Zetterberg are two Detroit players I associate with each other because they were longtime European teammates (02-03 through 15-16) that were late round draft pick gems (sixth and seventh rounds, respectively) back when the Wings were great at that. They also won the 2007-08 Cup together while spending their entire careers with the franchise, and tallying more than 300 goals.

Chris Osgood is another name that's known well around Hockeytown, even if he wasn't initially given the respect he deserved. After backing up veteran Mike Vernon in 96-97 he led the team to a cup repeat. A few years later he'd be off to the Isles and Blues, but he'd return to Motown in time to run it back with the 07-08 squad mentioned above.

I have less to say about Hirose because he's a Michigan State guy, but as with those in other sports (see: Kirk Gibson) I'm willing to give him a shot.

As for Michigan State's big brother, here's some cards of guys that played football and hockey for my old school. Brady, Manningham, and Woodson are all legends of the Ann Arbor gridiron, and all won Super Bowls in the NFL too. Tom's 2022 Father's Day card looks great with the old college action photo, which appears way better than his NFL season, which proves he should have hung 'em up and put time into his marriage. The Manningham (hey, another former blog namesake, that's all three!) 2011 Rookies & Stars parallel is absolutely sick, a beautiful blue that works for his alma mater and pictured team. That one's also numbered /75 and is definitely my favorite of the bunch. That's not to knock the die-cut UM card of GOAT CB Charles Woodson out of '98 Press Pass, though, because the design, including a textured football, kicks all kinds of ass!

Heading back to the ice one more time we have a really nice pair of cards of former sniper Mike Cammalleri. The 15-year center scored almost 300 goals while suiting up for five different teams, including two stints each with the Kings and Flames depicted in his two above cards. On the left is a base from 2007-08 UD Mini Jersey, a fun product with the thing in the name as something to chase, plus what I believe to be a red(?) Prizm parallel from 2013-14. Whatever the actual color, Chris continued to kill it with the team-appropriate parallels in this package.

Chris, thanks so much for the warm Christmas wishes and cards of both types! I'm happy to report that a present of your own is on its way back to New Jersey as we speak, possibly in time for Sunday, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I loved these early gifts!

Saturday, December 17, 2022

Announcing Christmas Cards 2022!

I promise I'll work on getting caught up covering everything that still needs a post, but recent positive developments have made this announcement higher priority, namely that my COMC order arrived several days before it was even originally due to ship! So, with a better idea of where things stand, I can happily formally announce

Christmas Cards: 2022 Edition

As I previously teased, I went back to the old COMC well to find some fun stuff to send some of you, generally tailored to your collections and wantlists. Not quite everyone who's getting a Christmas cards package from me is getting something from COMC, but most are.

Other sources of items in these packages include:

Recent shows
TCDB trades
eBay
Sportlots

The COMC delivery leaves me short items in-hand from eBay for a couple folks, and Sportlots for a few more (waiting on packages to hit my box before shipping). The people getting cards from Sportlots will almost certainly have to wait until after Christmas for me to mail their envelopes because I don't even know when I'll have everything.

That said, a majority of you who have Christmas cards coming from me can expect them to start moving through the USPS this week, very possibly in time to see them before the big holiday.

Over the years I've learned that I really enjoy giving and this is one of my favorite traditions that I've been able to observe for most of the 12-ish years I've been blogging here, so I'm possibly as excited about getting these cards (and more!) under your trees as you are to tearing them open!

As for whether or not you're one of the lucky recipients, well, in addition to three of my TCDB buddies, I'm currently looking at gifting stuff to about 15 current and former bloggers and Twitter friends.

I'm going to keep this post short so I can start gathering, packaging, and labelling stuff so I can get a bunch out on Monday. In the meantime, please enjoy this flat-out awesome duet of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" featuring UM's own Darren Criss (in a sweet Michigan holiday sweater) and the extremely talented Lizzy McAlpine:

Merry Christmas, friends!

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Announcing Christmas Cards 2021! Plus Facebook collection trade bait

You didn't all think I'd go the entire month without posting, did you? Well I kind of did, but I finally got motivated enough to post tonight. While I have lots of great stuff to show you I have two things I want to get to tonight that I consider more important.

First up is announcing this year's Christmas Cards! Despite completely ditching COMC I have lots of stuff for a number of you and will be working on packaging and mailing things out over the next few days, whether or not they arrive by Christmas. It's the thought that counts, right? Anyway, it's one of my favorite yearly traditions so I'm excited to fill up some mailboxes with stocking stuffers once again. Keep an eye on yours, or on your favorite bloggers' blogs, Twitter, Youtube, and more!

Second, somewhat in conjunction with Christmas Cards, I've finally gotten organized enough to show off more of my loot from that huge Facebook collection purchase earlier this year. In this case, I'm posting the stuff I'd love to get rid of. There were boxes and boxes of commons/set-fillters plus near sets, and a fun mix of other stuff I'm happy to make available as well to any interested parties. Depending on your interest and the timing with which you let me know plus other logistics, some of these items may be able to be included in Christmas Cards packages. One thing I want to highlight quickly before proceeding:

A number of items you see below may be large and cause increased shipping charges, so I may ask for special considerations for them (help with shipping, a specific trade offer, etc.). That said, I'll do everything I can do accommodate everyone.

I'm hoping everyone will be considerate with their claims. But again, I'm also motivated to clear this stuff out as best as I can before I decide to post some of it on TCDB and/or throw boxes of commons back on Facebook/Nextdoor to get it out of my life!

Set fillers range from "not a whole lot" to "5000 count box full of it!" and my priority would be to help finish folks' sets, but I'm not necessarily against helping player collectors either. Complete sets are self-explanatory and near sets are on offer before I decide to see about possibly completing them myself.

With all that explanation out of the way, please take a look over what's available below and leave me a comment/email/Twitter message with what you're interested in!

Set fillers:

1988:

Pacific Legends I