Catching up on Trades

I have gotten buried this week by stuff going on in life and by having gone a little overboard on buying on eBay and buying unopened stuff.  The buying stuff this week is what led me to my reflectiveness in my last post, while the poker with the neighborhood guys is what led me to get behind on posting.  I'll get to the unopened stuff in another post, but I want and need to get caught up on some trades that came in for me this week.

First, Pat from Hot Corner Cards sent me a fantastic box of 2013 update and 2014 Topps cards to help me fill in gaps in my collection of those sets.  I am still sorting through all of them, but I wanted to say a hearty "Thank YOU!" to Pat.  In his honor, I'm posting something I got through the mail back in about 1987:

Pat, I agree with you -- Alan Trammell belongs in the Hall of Fame.  He had the misfortune of having a career at the same time as several all-time greats -- everyone from Robin Yount (who had a 4-year head start and started in the majors as a teen just a bit earlier) to Cal Ripken Jr. (on whom Trammell had a 4-year head start) to Ozzie Smith (almost a direct contemporary) to Barry Larkin (10 years later) and Derek Jeter, whom Trammell overlapped by a year.  He also had six injury filled years at the end of his career that cost him any chance at 3000 hits.  Trammell was a great player and one I thought at the time did not get enough credit.

I also grabbed a nice serial numbered card (325/499) from the Quarry and some other fine Brewers cards to help continue filling that gaping hole in my collecting years called 1991 through 2007.  Here's the cool Prince Fielder I snagged:

In the mail today I was the recipient of a bubble mailer from The Card Chop.  I still owe The Chop a return package, which I'm putting together this weekend along with a couple of other envelopes I'm about ready to send.  But I always appreciate getting a great oddball Robin Yount to add to my collection -- especially one with a note saying that Yount was going to a good home.

A Canadian General Mills sticker from MSA in the 1980s is heading to the Hiatus Yount binder to replace the yellow piece of paper placeholder.

Also making the trip from Idaho was a card from my childhood non-Brewer favorite, Gary Carter, from the Topps Archives set in 2012:

All in all, it was a good week for trades here.  Now, over the rest of this weekend, I have to figure out what I got in the other stuff I got this week.  It includes everything from one of the earliest Brewers sets ever printed to cracking three boxes of 2012 Topps Series 2 to two wonderful Hostess Panels from the 1970s.

Stay tuned!

Through The Mail Autographs

I remember to this day why I started sending mail to get autographs through the mail.  In fifth grade, as a project, I had to send a letter to one "famous" person to get their autograph and ask them a series of questions.  I used that project as an entry into the world of the TTM.

In looking through my old card boxes, I came across two of my first successful TTM autographs.  One of these guys is actually in the Hall of Fame -- Lee MacPhail.  Lee and his father Larry are currently the only father-son pair in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  At the time, Lee was the American League president.

The inscription is "To Tony, Best Wishes, Lee MacPhail".  Deep, I know.  

The other guy is Chub Feeney.  At the time, he was the National League President.  His daughter Katy was brought into baseball by her father.  Katy is the person with Major League Baseball responsible for sorting out the master schedule each year.

Chub went all out and wrote, "Best to Tony, Chub Feeney"