2024 trade package #12: Chronicles of Fuji

He might not be a Matt, but the sender of my final trade package of May was a Mark: Fuji of the Chronicles of Fuji. And just like the others he sent me some very cool stuff back when the (K-12) school year wasn't quite done yet, which is funny since I've since received another package from him, getting here just before the bell rings on another year of hard work for a very dedicated teacher.

Here's what Fuji sent my way this time:

Gladden and Gullickson hail from Leaf's excellent looking Black Gold parallel which, for the millionth time, should have been the base set look that year. Gladden's best know as a two-time World Series winner with the Twins after starting his career with the Giants, but he spent his final two years in Motown. Gullickson played out the last years (four) of his 14-season career in Detroit and somehow won 20 games in '91.

The next cards I'll group together look like 2019 Topps base issues of Miggy, Castellanos, and JV, but they're actually from a set produced to promote the Clear Travel service, billed as a shortcut through airport security. As Mark noted in his post about them, the fronts are the same but the backs of the 100 cards featuring numbering in the format of "CP-#." Score another win for Fuji's beloved flea market purchases!

And the last group in this scan comprises hits. First up is a two-color patch of former Detroit pitcher Jeremy Bonderman, a guy who saw action on some of the best and worst teams in franchise history in the 2000s. It's got some Tigers orange on it and the offering from 2008 SPx is numbered to 50, marking my 6th hit (all relics) of the Washington native. Next up is a 2019 Topps Chrome auto of one-time prospect Dawel Lugo, an infielder who came over in the universally panned trade of J.D. Martinez to the Diamondbacks in 2017. His signature may be mostly his initials but I like the big loopy autograph all the same, plus the card is a reminder I saw him play for Lansing, Toronto's A-ball team at the time, in 2015. And last up is the only Michigan alum in this post in the form of former Yankees prospect Michael O'Neill (the whiny Paul's nephew). The three-year Wolverine appears to have been out of affiliated ball since 2019 but made a nice number of card appearances while he could, like this 2013 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks Prospect Signatures Prizms auto (man, that's a mouthful!). I remain the #1 collector of this particular O'Neill on TCDb.

And getting his own scan, to end today's post we have an oversized card of damn-well-better-be-elected HOFer Lou Whitaker. "Sweet" Lou comes to us from Donruss's 1986 All-Stars set where each card measures in at 3x5. 1985 marked his third of five straight All-Star nods and he went 0-2 in that game as the AL's starting 2B in a 6-1 loss to the elder league.

Fuji, thanks so much for sending these all the way back in May, and for the subsequent package I'll show off as soon as I can! I hope the new school year treats you well, and before long I'll be treating you to a fun response to what you sent here.

And everyone who follows can look forward to a May show recap post coming up next.

2018 eBay purchases: last in, first out

No resolutions over here, just more collecting fun, but I may try to do a quick 2018 recap after skipping that the last year or so.

Nope, instead I'm posting my final purchase of 2018 despite the fact that I have lots of Sportlots and COMC loot to show off.  But why not?  It's just one card so this'll be an easy post!

My very last pickup last year was an eBay auction I won this past Saturday, the 29th, for $5.49 delivered, and it showed up in my mailbox today.  Proving once again that small things come in good packages, this is my first printing plate of former Yankees OF prospect Michael O'Neill, one of my many Michigan Baseball PC guys. 

Not to be confused with fellow prospect Mike O'Neill, the current Rangers farmhand is pictured here on a magenta plate from the 2014 Bowman Chrome Mini Complete Set product Topps put out that year.

(Here's the base version)

Each complete set guaranteed 30+ parallels of the colored Refractor variety plus the chance at 1/1s (plates and Superfractors) like the one you see above.  The scan you see is roughly the size of the plate (with both sides pictured as I like to do), and it appears to be the smallest such card in my collection, smaller even than a few of the Topps Mini versions I own.

Getting down to the numbers, it's 31st O'Neill card, my 114th 1/1, 356th Michigan Baseball hit, and 50th total baseball 1/1.  That's all pretty cool as far as I'm concerned!

Hopefully I'll finally be able to make some more headway on Michael's checklist this year, and I can at least tease that I have one other new card of his to show off before much longer.  Until then, Happy New Year to everyone that's stuck around and continues to follow!

2017 trade package #12: Cards on Cards

Kerry from Cards on Cards is a guy I don't trade with often, but since we're fairly similar collectors--we both chase MLB and college teams--our deals are always great.  The last time I posted cards from him on this here blog, not quite a year ago, I was the happy recipient of a buttload of useful Tigers and a plethora of new Ripkens.

The man who calls himself Madding took things to another level this time by doing major damage to my player collections, hitting a ridiculous 13 of them.  "Hope you can use some of these!" said the guy who, in addition to another buttload of Tigers (seen below), flipped me 19 PC cards, an outstanding 16 of which were new to me.  And I'm not talking a dime card here and a common there, either.  Can I use some of these?  Has Topps disappointed me for 10 years running?  Hell yeah!

Jake Cronenworth 2015 Bowman Chrome Draft Blue Refractor (#030/150)

Tampa's seventh-rounder out of Michigan two years ago, Jake's off to a pretty good start in high-A ball.  This lovely Refractor is my ninth card of his out of his run to-date, all of which comprises a 19-card 2015 Bowman/Chrome Draft rainbow.  For a Wolverine alum you can't do better than blue!

Chris Getz 2014 Topps Camo (#32/99)

This parallel of Getz is one I could have sworn I had, so I was glad I needed it after Kerry went to the trouble of sending it my way.  It features one of the best photos on a Getz issue and is my 10th card from Chris' 17-card sunset season rainbow (and #81/106 overall).

Ken Griffey Jr. 1993 Hostess

Ken Griffey Jr. 2003 Fleer Showcase

I think you all know I don't supercollect Griffey--I'm not made of money--but I'll happily take anything I can get of one of my favorite 90s/2000s stars, like this interest pair that spans a decade.  Oddballs like the Hostess food issue are always interesting to me since I usually know so little about them that I'm generally unable to peg the year or brand at a glance.  And Showcase is one of Fleer's better mid-end issues, with Griffey's card a textbook example of a classy and pleasing design.

Rich Hill 2016 Topps Rainbow Foil

I can't say I've ever received what I'd call a bad trade package, but whenever Rich Hill appears in one I'm more than happy to call that envelope a winner as he remains my favorite guy to PC.  This Rainbow parallel is my eighth of his 18 2016 flagship...uh...rainbow cards, featuring one of the dumber choices in photograph.  What can I say?  Topps gonna Topps.  Anyway, this marks my 259th of Hill's 374 cards I have checklisted, and #276 overall.  Good luck to Rich on a return to health and effectiveness for the Dodgers!

Ryan LaMarre 2016 Topps Allen and Ginter Mini

Ryan LaMarre 2016 Topps Rainbow Foil

LaMarre made what I thought was a surprising appearance in last year's flagship and A&G sets, the former with his second team, the Red Sox and the latter with the Reds, the team that drafted him.  Since then he's signed with the Angels and then been flipped to Oakland, with whom he's appeared in three 2017 games.  I actually landed the Cyan plate of the A&G mini before I landed the card above, my first of his six from the product (besides two from A&G X).  The Rainbow parallel makes its second appearance today as my sixth of Ryan's run from last year's flagship.  Kudos to Kerry for helping me cross the 50% mark as I own 28/54 of his issues so far.

Heath Murray 1998 Bowman Golden Anniversary (#13/50)

This was a package full of surprises, and few of the items were as surprising as this limited parallel of Murray, a guy who's not exactly obscure but appeared on just 30 cards, 24 of which I already owned.  Two of the five I now need also hail from this product, the Chrome International Refractor and Chrome Refractor version of this card, limited to just five(!) copies.  I tip my cap again to Kerry for digging up a need like this.

Michael O'Neill 2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects Series 2 Blue Wave Refractor

The best part about getting this card, besides the fact that it's a Refractor and another one to knock off the checklist, is that it got me to look up O'Neill and realize that he's now with the Rangers after signing a minor league deal with them a few months ago.  Hooray for not having to collect more Yankees if he gets to appear on more cards!  And hooray for a new Refractor, my 10th of his 42-card 2014 Bowman Chrome/Mini rainbow and 30th of 85 overall.

Jim Paciorek 1993 BBM

If the Murray was surprising, the inclusion of this foreign Paciorek issue was straight up jaw-dropping!  A much more obscure former Wolverine, Jim's career consisted of 48 games in 1987 along with two cards from that year:  Fleer and its Glossy version.  After nabbing those I hadn't even looked into other Paciorek card possibilities.  As it turns out, Jim played six seasons in Japan:  four with the Yokohama Taiyo Whales and two with the pictured Hanshin Tigers, as depicted on this card out of the pretty well-known BBM brand.  What a fun card to dig out of a trade package!

J.J. Putz 2008 Topps Triple Threads Emerald (#103/240)

J.J. Putz 2008 Topps Triple Threads Gold (#70/99)

Kerry's no putz as he managed to send me two new '08 Triple Threads parallels of Michigan native J.J.  Besides an All-Star patch card and five multi-player relics, Putz appears on a base card and five parallels, and of those six I now own four (the base and Sepia are the others).  With the retired pitcher unlikely to make any future cardboard appearances hopefully I can continue making some headway towards his 327 cards; I currently own 193 (and 205 including 1/1s and others I don't count toward his mainstream checklist).

Cal Ripken Jr. 2002 Upper Deck AL Centennial Memorabilia jersey

This sweet Ripken jersey relic from 15 years ago (seriously?) was another huge and much appreciated surprise.  I've sent Kerry a few decent Cardinals and Ducks hits over the years but nothing that I'd assume would warrant something like this of a HOFer I love to collect!  It serves as a nice history lesson as well as the younger of the two leagues began in 1901 with eight teams, including my Tigers.  As for Cal, this serves as my 10th relic (two of which are manufactured) and 12th hit overall.  Nice!

Alan Trammell 1991 Topps (#389)

Speaking of All-Star shortstops that are should-be HOFers, this '91 Topps subset of Alan Trammell is one of just three PC cards that wasn't new to me.  Not that I'm complaining about getting any dupes of half of Detroit's famed double-play combo!

Justin Verlander 2013 Topps Chasing History (#CH88)

Justin Verlander 2017 Donruss (#95)

Justin Verlander 2017 Donruss Dominators Blue (#135/249)

And speaking of Tigers dupes, I thought the Chasing History insert was a new one for my Verlander collection but was mistaken.  Again, no complaints since I'm happy with any JV card new or old!  The others from this year's Donruss product (hell yeah!) were most definitely new additions, though.  As usual I like the look of the base design while its lack of MLB logos barely registers on my radar.  The numbered Dominator insert is great too, with a design that doesn't remind me of previous iterations.  Nice job by Kerry to pay his respects to this here blog's namesake!

Lou Whitaker 1988 Score

Lou Whitaker 2005 Topps Retired Signature

Last up for my PC guys is a sweet pair of Lous; you can't have Tram without Whitaker and vice-versa!  The card on the left from Score's debut is another fun dupe for me, but the Retired Signature card is a huge get for a couple reasons.  First, as I'm under 50 cards to go in my pursuit of his collection, it's getting harder to find stuff that's new to me.  And just as importantly, some base cards like that one tend to attract unreasonably high asking prices for some reason.  That makes it a big deal for me, besides the fact that I like seeing the combination of older photos with some of the newer designs.  

You got to see three guys in Tigers (well, Detroit Tigers) uniforms up there, but they weren't alone as they were bundled up with a hoard of other Tigers, pretty much all of which I can use, Kerry, believe you me:

This first group could be called "The Killer C's" as future HOFer Miguel Cabrera (Heritage Chrome Refractor!) and maybe-not-as-awful-a-human-being-as-people-thought Ty Cobb book end Nick Nicholas Castellanos, who seems to continue to improve.

Another nice group is headlined by 2016 AL ROY and Tigers ace(?) Michael Fulmer, an insert focusing on Jose Iglesias' glove, and Mr. Tiger Al Kaline.  Those are joined by a pair of RCs of CF Jacoby Jones, who should be getting more looks in the Detroit OF this season.

Donruss Elite!  If anybody on Detroit should be give that title it's All-Star 2B Ian Kinsler, seen here on a card numbered 934/999.  Recuperating-turned-resurgent slugger J.D. Martinez makes a couple appearances courtesy of Opening Day and Topps Stickers.  And I loved the inclusion of the '86 Topps leaders card featuring Lance Parrish, a catcher who might just feel at home in today's game.

Sanchez has been a tire fire this season, Scherzer is unfortunately gone, and Zimmermann's results have been mixed at best, but Upton has been a nice story this season, putting up some pretty good numbers early for a change.  My hope is that he does well enough to opt out of his contract so Detroit can put that money to better use.

Here's one last bunch of Tigers that don't really fall into the group I collect by player but deserve to be shown off anyway.

And last up is one more hit, a Signature Rookies autograph of former #1 pick (11th overall, 1995) Mike Drumright, a pitcher who cracked Baseball America's top 100 prospects the two years after this card was made.  Although he never panned out--no surprise, pretty much nobody did for Detroit in the 90s--he's got a very nice signature, though I'm probably lucky not to have received one from closer to the end of the 5000(!)-card print run.  Nice find!

Kerry, once again big thanks to you for an amazing trade package that did lots of damage to my PCs and will beef up my Tigers box.  I actually have a few things set aside for you and on the way so I'll be happy to be able to respond a bit, though maybe not in a way that's worthy of this envelope just yet!

2016 COMC purchases: MLB Michigan Men

All right, let's start looking at some of my loot from COMC purchases from 2016, including cards purchased during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend!

First up are some cards of six PC guys that all have one thing in common:  they played baseball for Michigan.  Three or four of these guys should be pretty well known to most of you, and hopefully some of you will become aware that I collect the others and eventually help me find new cards of them as well!

On with the cards:

First up alphabetically is Jim Abbott and this Dugout Collection parallel from 1996 Score.  It's a bit of a strange photo to use and reminds me of one of my favorite memes:

I've always admired the simplicity of the '96 Score set, though, and consider Dugout Collection cards (and its relatives, such as Gold Rush) to be solid parallels.

Cronenworth is one of those guys I'm betting few, if any of you, know.  I first wrote about him last May when I started collecting his stuff, which so far is limited to 2015 Bowman Draft/Chrome.  That means chasing a bunch of parallels, but at least many of those are Refractors, like this Purple version (#134/250), which gives me eight of his 19 cards so far.

It's always a celebration around here when I can add new cards to my favorite PC, that of Rich Hill, who I hope continues to enjoy success with the Dodgers in 2017.  First up is Hill's Mini Green Back card (#26/88) from 2008 UD Goudy.  It was the last card I needed to sew up that product, and I may put up a separate post soon showing off the six-card rainbow.

The other card is much more recent and shows Rich with his other 2016 club, Oakland, on his 2016 Topps Gold parallel (#0557/2016).  That's only my second Hill card from the product besides his base card, though I'll soon be showing off another in an upcoming trade post.  For now, these two put me at 252/373 Hills, with a denominator that's grown a bit in the last few months, a happy development in my opinion.

Here's a card that was an easy buy:  I love collecting Larkin, I love '96 Sportflix, and I think Artist's Proof parallels are great.  Plus the nostalgia factor looms large--I opened a bunch of packs of this product when it came out and wouldn't have dreamed of pulling a card like this as such parallels were relatively rare at the time.  As a pleasant surprise the scan turned out quite nicely--I like when you get a glimpse of multiple facets of a hologram-style card like this.

The other player in today's post I'm betting almost none of you are familiar with is Yankees farmhand Michael O'Neill.  That's not a huge surprise since the 2013 third-rounder hasn't advanced past AA yet.  I scored two more of his cards this time to add to my small-but-growing collection.  First up is a new autograph (my 13th), a Green Refractor version from 2013 Bowman Sterling, giving me five of his 10 cards from that product.  As you can see, Paul's nephew has a very nice signature.

The other card is also a Refractor, this one a Pink Wave out of 2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects Series 2.  O'Neill has a ton of cards from 2014 Bowman Chrome products--I count 42--so every little bit helps.  I don't know how I feel about the "Wave"-style Refractors, but pink is a reasonable color for the iconic parallel.

Make it 29/85 cards (including a couple of dual autographs with Yankees legend Paul I wasn't aware of until yesterday) in O'Neill's collection.

Finally, you can see that I got on a nice little run of George Sisler pickups.  As it turned out, Black Friday was a great time to chase a bunch of inserts (and a few base) of Gorgeous George.  First up in this starting nine is Sisler's base from 2002 Sweet Spot Classics, one of my favorite looking sets that I don't own but should definitely grab someday.  A classic photo with a classy design is always a desirable pair.

Next is a trio from one of Topps' best offerings, 2003 Gallery HOF.  Honestly, if Topps made more products like this I wouldn't be crapping all over them in every single post.  These cards are flat out beautiful and well executed.  The first two represent George's base card and then a variation (sans ad on the outfield wall) while the third is the Artist's Proof version of the former.  As usual, Topps nails it with a Gallery product, and I'm going to enjoy having these in my collection.

The next pair comes from a less interesting but still solid product:  2011 Topps Marquee, which should have been named "Why Didn't We Just Make Stadium Club?"  At least it has the borderless design I like along with some cool photos.  The two cards you see there are Blue (#292/299) and Copper (#137/199) parallels featuring foil corresponding to the parallel color along with serial-numbering up front.

Panini's 2013 Cooperstown set has appeared on my blogs a few times thanks to appearances by Sisler and fellow Wolverine Charlie Gehringer.  Here, Sisler makes another cameo in the form of a very nice Blue Crystal parallel (#095/499), which goes along with the base and Green Crystal versions I own.  Stop me if you've heard this one before, but The Scan Doesn't Do It Justice!

Our eighth and ninth hitters both hail from Panini's 2014 Hall of Fame product, and they're two of my favorite inserts that came out of it.  On the left we have a card done up in Donruss' fantastic Crusades design, an insert that dates all the way back to 1998.  These shiny gems used to be highly coveted due to their scarcity and great looks, and I'm glad Panini brought the design back for use with Hall-of-Famers.  And speaking of homages to past designs, our last card is a throwback to Donruss' Elite Series, an insert that was absolutely huge when it burst onto the scene in the early 90s.  While the one Panini used here isn't my favorite, I love the throwback to another early Donruss set.

These nine newbies gave my Sisler collection a nice little boost to 64 cards.

Stay tuned for more COMC, eBay pickups, and trades soon!  Also, please head over to TMM this evening for even more COMC loot.

12/3/2016 show report: minding my PCs and quarters

A couple Saturdays ago I decided to give the monthly show in Taylor another shot.  Prior to that day I'd gone in June and July, spending $3 and $12, respectively, then made a couple other trips in some combination of the following three months.  The latter, in addition to the lack of spending during the former, turned me off for a bit since it seemed like a waste of time.  But I figured I'd take one more stab this year.

And I'm glad I did.  One of my favorite sellers, who's not always around--he tends not to be there on Sundays, which is often when I go--was in attendance and I made the best of it by hitting his quarter, $0.50, and $1 boxes, spending a total of $45 (and more than an hour!) on lots of nice stuff for me and for some Christmas trade packages.

Here's what I picked up for myself (with the rest available as usual on TMM this evening):

I happily plunked down a quarter for this Dean-o parallel from 2001 Fleer Platinum, numbered  061/201.  Palmer is one of my favorite Tigers to collect and I've always been a fan of '01 Platinum, so this was the kind of find I love to dig out of a quarter box.

Among the quarter cards I also surprisingly found a pair of complete Fleer insert sets, each of which featured one of my PC guys.

First up is 1995 Fleer Pro-Visions, a fun illustrated set highlighting 1994's MVPs, Cy Youngs, and ROYs in both leagues, which made it a six-card set:

Maddux, of course, is my PC player here.  1994 marked his third of four straight Cy Youngs as well as a career-low 1.56 ERA, which the card notes was literally more than a full run better than runner-up Bret Saberhagen in the NL; his lead over AL counterpart Steve Ontiveros was just a bit less.  Insane!  Anyway, it was fun to add Maddux and the rest of the guys from the set here--a who's who of the mid-90s.

The other set was a five-card insert from Fleer's product the following year.  Post-Season Glory highlights some of the best performances of the 1995 playoffs, and it serves as a great reminder of how exciting the post-season was 21 years ago:

Again, you all know that Griffey is my PC guy here.  Junior socked homers in games 1 (two of them), 2, 4, and 5 of the '95 ALDS against the Yankees, including an eighth-inning shot in game 5 against David Cone that brought Seattle within a run (which they got later in the inning thanks to a Doug Strange bases loaded walk that scored pinch-runner Alex Rodriguez).  When the game went into extras, New York plated a run in the top of the 11th and things looked grim for the Mariners until a leadoff bunt single by Joey Cora followed by a Griffey single up the middle.  Edgar Martinez's follow-up double scored Cora, then Griffey followed with a mad dash around the bases and into history.

(I should also note that the other performances highlighted here are also quite amazing!)

Moving away from those complete sets and back to individual PC stuff, here's my first Mets card of Curtis Granderson.  For a while I had a self-imposed embargo on Grandy's non-Tigers cards, but fortunately I got over it, and now I can enjoy cards like this 2016 Chrome Prizm Refractor.  Refractors rule!

Here's a couple more Griffeys I dug up.  The first is a Milestones insert from 1998 that anticipated Junior's 300th HR.  After an outstanding 1997 season in which he clobbered 56 bombs, Ken needed just six in 1998, and he hit the mark on April 13 that year with his second blast of the game, then bash another 50 to match his previous season's total!

The other card is Griffey's issue from the '82 insert set out of this year's Donruss product.  The callback to that design is fun, as is the photo.

Just a couple Gwynns this time, but they're fun ones in my opinion (the only one that matters when I'm the one paying!).  On the left is a Chrome reprint of Tony's Topps RC, and the "Topps 50 years" banner is what gives it away as a member of the 2001 Chrome Through the Years insert.  I also have his non-Chrome card as part of the complete set.  To its right is a very shiny and hard-to-scan insert from Donruss' 2003 Estrellas ("stars") Spanish language product, titled "Leyendas Del Pasado", or "Legends of the Past."  The silver and gold look up front is very classy, and naturally it looks nicer in-person.

I lucked out by finding three different Barry Larkin cards this time, which made me very happy.  First up is a silver foil-y '96 Upper Deck Hobby Predictor.  Barry was the '95 NL MVP and was a good candidate to try to win NL Player of the Month honors for this to be a winner.  In the middle is Larkin's 1999 Topps Gold Label Class 2 Black parallel (as indicated by the color of the foil in the upper-right).  The Class 2 version from this gorgeous set features a running/hitting photo combo while the Class 1 card combines fielding and the same hitting shot.  Last up is a completely ridiculous insert from 2000 Vanguard that completely captures the essence of Pacific's all-over-the-damn-place approach of the mid-90s to early 2000s!

Maddux makes a second appearance today thanks to this card he shares with fellow Braves legend Chipper Jones.  Out of 2005 Diamond Kings (love that product!), it notes that the pair joined Atlanta the same year--1993--with Maddux signing as a free agent and Chipper making his MLB debut (an eight-game cup of coffee).  I definitely need more Diamond Kings cards in my life.

I was quite surprised to find a Michael O'Neill card among the copious number of boxes, and even more thrilled when I realized I needed it.  The Yankee farmhand (who appears to have finished this past season at AA) and nephew of whiny guy extraordinaire Paul is one of the many Michigan Baseball alumni I collect, and this is my 27th card of his out of what I count to be 83 made.  Hailing from 2013 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks (there's a mouthful), this is a Green Prizm parallel of his Draft Hits insert, giving me three from that particular rainbow and eight overall from the product.  I'm not quite at a third of his run yet but do have a couple coming in from COMC.

And last but most, here's a nice five-spot of Cal Ripken Jr.  First up is a pair from the 50-card Ripken tribute set called Iron Man out of 2007 Ultra.  These have a great black/orange/silver design with excellent photos, and I may have to piece together the whole set.  For all I know I may have a few I haven't even scanned yet, but for now here's card numbers 17 and 27.

Next is Cal's card from the same 2016 Donruss '82 set as the Griffey above.  It's fun to have him back on a card with this design since the original can claim his Donruss rookie card!

The next two are from this year's Topps, though I mistook the first, a Perspectives insert, for one out of Stadium Club since that product's inserts don't usually suck like flagships have done over the last decade.  I would have loved to see another shot of Cal facing the warehouse in right field at Camden, but that's been done plenty and this photo looks fantastic on its own.  Meanwhile, the Back to Back card pairs Ripken with two-time teammate and fellow 3000 hit club member/HOFer Eddie Murray.  With middle of the order hitters like those two it's no wonder Baltimore won it all in 1983.

That's it from this month's show, but I'm happy to have had so much luck this time after striking out the past few months.  Plus I was able to add some fun stuff to trade packages, many of which may even be in the mail as you're reading this!

Also, don't forget to head over to TMM this evening for some serial-numbered-ness that falls a bit short of what I'd call insanity.