My Friends Are Generous

I went to the Dodger game last night and the giveaway was a Clayton Kershaw bobble head.  I met up with some buddies in Los Feliz for some pre-game beers.  A couple of the friends that I met up with are also card collectors.  Whenever I see one of them, he usually gives me a stack of cards.  Sometimes, I bring cards with me to give him and sometimes I don't.  Which makes me feel guilty.  This time I brought over some Dodgers GUs and a Quinton Groves rookie auto to give him.  Groves is a linebacker on the Oakland Raiders.

I picked up an extra Rod Barajas autograph at the appearance that I attended recently.  The extra auto was for my other collecting buddy that I was meeting up with.  I wasn't expecting any sort of return for the Barajas auto.  But, he gave me a very sweet card in return.  I will have to hit him back with some other goods.

Here is a sampling of the type of stack that I usually receive from the first buddy that I mentioned.  I gave him a couple GUs and the Groves auto.  I probably owe him more for all the cards that he has given me over the past several months.

 He usually doesn't throw in any vintage.  But, I am happy to pick up a 1976 Topps Jim Palmer.  I am also happy to pick up a Jack Morris rookie card.  I am slowly building a collection of Jim Palmer cards from the 70s.  This is completely unintentional.  For some reason, his cards are usually cheap, even though he is a hall of fame pitcher. 

These are the types of cards that I expect from my friend.  He joins a lot of group breaks, especially higher end products.  I am not able to join too many high end breaks so, some cards from those sets usually don't find there way into my collection.  The Ichiro is a green refractor numbered to 199.  That is some great looking shine.  The Ryan Zimmerman is numbered to 299 and is a blue refractor.

These are a couple cards from sets that are completely new to me.  I have never heard of Dugout Axcess.  This was a product released in 1998 and produced by Skybox.  When I think of Skybox, I think of all the flash and pizazz that they put into there basketball sets back in the early 90s.  The baseball set that they released in '98 is really dull looking.  1998 Dugout Axcess may be the most bland looking set that I have seen in awhile.  I almost don't believe that Skybox would come up with a set without bright colors.

The Mike Piazza card shows a nice photo of him getting ready before a game.  As I like to mention, the Dodgers should have never traded a catcher that mashes and has a cool mustache.

The Raul Mondesi card is from 1999 Ovation.  The seams of the baseball are raised and kind of simulates the feeling of a baseball.  This is an awesome looking set.  The detail on the stitching makes it look like actual string.  Upper Deck used a lot of great detail when designing this set.

Let's get back to some modern shine.  The top card is a Ryan Braun card from 2008 SPx.  My friend also included several other base cards from this set.  I like the vertical die cut design with a hologram.  The card looks to be from the future.

The bottom card is from 2005 Donruss Elite featuring Kerry Wood and Shawn Green.  The card is serial numbered to 1500.  I didn't know that Elite has been around so long.  I thought the set was only a couple years old and focused on college players.

This was the card that I wasn't expecting to get.  Like I mentioned earlier, I was just going to give my friend the extra Barajas auto.  He wasn't having any of that.  So, he gave me a Johnny Podres game used card.  I was shocked that he gave me this.  Podres was a World Series hero for Brooklyn in 1955.  He shut down the Yankees in a Game 7. 

I am so glad to have friends that collect cards.  I am also very thankful that my friends are so generous.