Shipment update: packaging...shipped!

I'll get back to "regular" posts soon but tonight I wanted to share some season's greetings and let some of you know that you have some Christmas cards on the way from me!  In addition to a package I sent out on Thursday, here's a look at what I packaged and mailed today:

Ok, that's not nearly festive enough.  Just a minute...

Much better.

Anyway, so this post isn't too short, here's a few stats on what's going out:

• 16 total packages
• 1 bubble envelope
• 2 PWEs
• 5 medium flat-rate boxes
• 8 flat-rate padded envelopes
• 13 states (plus Canada) will be receiving them
• Around $142 spent in postage
• ??? total cards (and more...) since I didn't count
• ??? total weight (I thought the receipts would tell me but I guess they don't when you do flat-rate packages)
• Expected delivery dates of this coming Wednesday and Thursday for most

In some cases I sent out stuff I was generally getting rid of, but I did a nice amount of shopping at shows and on COMC and eBay for a number of you.  I look forward to seeing trade posts go up before and after Christmas as giving is my favorite thing to do this time of year and I love to see everyone's reactions!

May everyone reading this here blog have a happy and safe holiday season and hopefully enjoy some Christmas cardboard!

2015 trade package #33: Christmas with the Planks OR Yes, West Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

(Yeah, I've been stretching it on the titles recently, so what?)

It's the night before Christmas Eve and I'm excited to have a pre-Yule trade package to celebrate the occasion.  For the fifth time on this here blog alone this year I get to show off cards I received from my favorite West Virginian (suck it, "regular" Virginia), Matt from Bob Walk the Plank.

Matt's such a generous trader that you really never know what you're gonna get, but rest assured, if the package is light on cards, it's heavy on awesomeness.  Bob Walk's #1 fan sent me two cards this time with a promise of more to come (we're not just gonna stop trading?  Whew!) and just wanted to make sure to send me something before Christmas, which was very thoughtful of him.

Here's what he sent:

Nick Castellanos 2014 Topps Five Star Golden Graphs auto (#02/50)

See what I mean?  Dude sends you some high end stuff!  This isn't the first time Matt's sent me a Castellanos autograph this year--in fact, it's at least the third!  This time it's a Five Star issue, thick as hell with a signature in bold gold, which looks as great on a card as it does on signed memorabilia, especially thanks to the effective black background.

I now have five 'graphs of the Detroit 3B, and I'm pretty sure all but one of those have come courtesy of Matt, who somehow finds a way to score great stuff like this and send it my way, which makes me glad I put as much thought as I do into what I send down to Morgantown.

Al Kaline 2015 Panini Cooperstown Induction Signatures Red auto (#36/49)

And speaking of high-end cards, here's the highlight of the envelope, all decked out in Christmas red!  Back before September, I had exactly zero autographs of Motown great Al Kaline in my Tigers collection.  Then Matt struck with not just one, but a pair, that month.  Now he's gone back to that well and bumped up my Kaline signature count another 50%, and I'm simply floored.  What a great looking card from this year's excellent Panini Cooperstown product!  I love the integration of the Hall of Fame logo, but most of all, Kaline's outstanding signature makes this card a winner.

Matt, I don't know how you do it, but whether you send me two cards or 22, I'm surprised every time.  Thanks for another amazing year of trading, and I can't wait to see what 2016 brings.

In the likely event that I don't post anything tomorrow, I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and say thanks for making 2015 another great year of collecting.  I hope some of you are enjoying the Christmas cards I sent your way, and that all of you get some nice stuff in your stockings, if not your mailboxes, this holiday season!

2015 eBay purchase: Christmas is the time to say I love Lou

December is a fun time of the year for me when it comes to collecting because I know what's left in my collecting budget and that means I can sometimes aim a bit higher than normal (such as last year when I landed my Tom Brady autograph!).  Thanks to some reasonably careful spending this year, not to mention some solid COMC sales, I was in position to take shots at cards I wouldn't really consider most of the rest of the year.

I'm happy to report that I've managed to land two such cards over the last few days, and the first of those arrived today.

Pretty much anyone that follows this here blog knows I'm a big fan of former Tigers 2B Lou Whitaker--big enough of a fan that he's my first non-UM player collection.  One major PC component of his I've been lacking is a certified autograph (I do have one IP auto of questionable origin and this Leaf Ink card). That isn't too shocking since he doesn't have many of those; I count 11 non-1/1s (I don't include brands like Historic Autographs and ITG), and all but one are fairly limited in production.

Here's the 11th card:

Lou Whitaker 2001 Topps Archives Autographs auto

Maybe it's because I haven't seen the other options, but if I had to pick one Whitaker autograph to own, this would be it.  Retroactive cropping of the four-player card aside, I really like what Topps did with its Archives autos back in the 2001 product, and not just because other Tigers Bill Freehan and Kirk Gibson were also part of the set.  The idea of an autographed rookie reprint simply appeals to me, especially when it's a guy like Lou that's lacking in hobby love (not to mention Hall of Fame respect).

In opening this post I mentioned that I'm able to spend a bit more if I need during a month where I know exactly what my budget will be, but I was surprised that I didn't have to spend nearly as much as I thought for a card like this that pops up on eBay from time to time, but not terribly often.  Believe it or not, about $27 delivered was enough to send this white whale of sorts straight to my PC, and that's much less than I've seen these going for in the last few years.  Hooray for Christmas miracles!

I'm sure my fellow Tigers fans--and possibly others--will agree with me that this is a cool purchase, but I should have an even bigger surprise in store for y'all tomorrow!