Mailbag Catchup: Commish Bob, Reader Angus, Mark Hoyle, Bob Walk the Plank,...and a Mystery

With Monster 1 of 6 Monsters looming on the horizon, I need to get caught up on some cards that have come in to the card room over the past couple of weeks.  So, let's walk through some of those.

The Mystery

First things first -- an apology. The reason for the apology is that I should know who sent me these two awesome Braves:

I should know because I remember corresponding by email with the mystery sender from Oklahoma who sent me these. I remember it well, in fact.  But I'll be damned if I can find those e-mails, and I certainly want to thank the man/woman who sent me my first 1963 Fleer card and a 1956 Topps card.

I just couldn't find any notes inside the envelope to identify the sender.  Compounding matters was the fact that it was trash day, so the bubble mailer went straight into the recycle bin and to the curb -- and it was gone before I had the chance to pull any information off the envelope.

So, to borrow from quickly-forgotten alt-rock band Geggy Tah:

eBay

The next item I received recently that I want to highlight was a bit of an impulse buy on eBay. Perhaps the worst thing that I could have ever done in my life was install the eBay app on my iPad.  I say that because I wake up during the night and have trouble getting back to sleep with some regularity.  The iPad can help my brain shut off or at least wear me out enough to get back to sleep, so that's often what I do -- pick it up and waste time.  One night, though, I spotted this card:

Then, I saw the serial numbering:

With the hope that the Brewers hold on to Lucroy as they are suggesting they will, I slapped a bid on the card.  Then I forgot about it until I got that "your auction is ending soon" email from eBay.  No one bid after me on it, so I got a card numbered 3 out of 5 for the starting NL All-Star catcher last year for a total of $6.25 including shipping. Yeah, it's Bowman-parallel hell and all, but it's nice to have a low serial-numbered card for a reasonable price.

As it stands, this card is also my only Bowman card to date.

Commishbob

Commish Bob of the always excellent Five Tool Collector also hooked me up recently without even a note of warning.  Bob did sent me a note, saying that he believed the cards he sent hit my want lists and, then, this...

...with the note saying, "The Burdette Exhibit card is cool, no?"

Oh, yes.  Yes it is! But I do have a question for you: it looks like the stat-back Exhibit version, but the back is blank.  Perhaps I'm not looking at the right websites/resources, but was there a blank-bank and stat-back variation with the same photo on it?
Bob also fed the Burdette PC a little bit more -- and the Adcock one too -- with these completely incredible 1954 Bowman cards:

And he threw in Wisconsin boy Andy Pafko to boot:

Add in some 1961 Topps, and you continue to make me wonder how I can ever repay you, Bob!

THANK YOU BOB!

Reader Angus

I don't know how to thank Angus enough for his largesse. This was the third time he sent me cards (here's the first and here is the second) in the space of about a month or so.  The other envelopes were excellent -- don't get me wrong -- but I feel like this envelope was by far the best.

Why?

It's not these cards, though they are great and go into player collections:

No, that's not the reason.

The reason is O-Pee-Chee!

Sorry, Hall of Fame O-Pee-Chee.  36-Year-Old O-Pee-Chee.  Just incredible.  

And, then, just when it doesn't seem like it could get any better, he goes and out oddballs me:

I mean, seriously, an oddly sized popup of Paul Molitor from the 1991 All-Star game at SkyDome n/k/a Rogers Centre?  And, Angus was cognizant of my PCs enough to send me two of these -- one for the team collection too!  Just awesome.  THANK YOU, ANGUS!

Mark Hoyle
Mark is the original reader-trader, at least for me. I feel 100% sure that he is the first non-blogger who sent me cards.  And, usually, when Mark is the one sending cards it means that you are in for a vintage treat.  

Not this time, though!

This is nearly as close to vintage as it got this time around -- a 1983 Donruss Action All-Star of Robin Yount, a 1986 Donruss Action All-Star of Paul Molitor, a 1988 Fleer card of Mark Kiefer, and a 1993 Pinnacle Dave Nilsson. Otherwise, it was new new new!

But then, something popped out of the envelope that looked to be vintage...but it's not really...

This made me do a double take.  I didn't think Stormin' Gorman had a 1973 Topps card...and indeed he does not!  I flipped the card over, and it was a blank white back.  I know what it is now, though -- a Bob's Lemke custom card without the back on it. printed on photo paper.  Seeing how gorgeous this photo and color looks in hand, I may just breakdown and buy a couple Brewers customs from Bob yet!

THANK YOU MARK!

Matt from Bob Walk the Plank
Finally, a package from Matt at Bob Walk the Plank arrived.  Matt is still trying to dig out from the war that he had with Jaybarkerfan -- and trust me, I have fear in my heart already with the onslaught that is on its way.  I viewed Matt's war with JBF in the same way I viewed all the snow in the Northeast -- it was great to watch from afar, but I wasn't sure how I would react in the same situation.  

Matt handled himself well and valiantly tried to survive the avalanche.  He did it, but just barely.  Thankfully, he immediately started thinking about others -- as he always does, it seems -- and lo and behold, a package showed up from him.

Let's start with the two cards for my PCs -- one for Rickie Weeks and the other for Ryan Braun:

The Weeks is a Donruss Diamond Kings Materials Bronze Parallel serial numbered to 100, and the Braun is the Gold Refractor Parallel from 2011 Topps Chrome serial numbered to 50.  An odd thing to me is that I don't own the base Chrome card from 2011, but now I have a card of which only 50 were made!

The remainder of the cards are excellent as always -- Matt seems to bust more wax and have more inserts, serial numbered cards, jersey/bat cards, and autographs than nearly anyone else I've encountered.

What more can be said about Matt and his generosity?  He's just a great person to deal with.  Thankfully, by the time I had received this package from him, there was already another one on its way to him.  

THANKS MATT!

And thank you all for reading.  With the monsters on the way, I have one post of Brewers from the card show from almost two weeks ago now and then....it's all Barker all the Time!

He's coming....and he's got his (second) wife with him: