Pt 3 - When a fourth equals a thousand

I decided to try this a little differently for the 3rd installment of cards sent to me by Andrew. Instead of laying out the cards that made the cut, I scanned in a representative offering. I mainly did this so I could talk about certain cards in particular. Before I get to that, though, I wanted to give you some stats. First of all, this stack of cards had 36 duplicates, many of which were cards Andrew included himself. Much like my own giveaways, there were duplicates in the cards he sent. That suits me just fine, because after my last giveaway, I could use some trade items! Yesterday, I had 8799 cards. After going through this stack, I have bumped my collection to 8907! It blows me away that I am rapidly approaching 10,000 Indians cards! That truly boggles my mind. Then again, if you happened to have been involved in PunkRockPaint's Yahoo fantasy draft, you know it doesn't take much to boggle my mind. I'll get back to the draft later.

Meanwhile, this grouping included some very unique cards that I had not seen before (or sure don't remember seeing). The Kenny Lofton Dugout Axcess Double Header is actually a two-dice, two-player game! You and a friend take turns rolling the dice and what you roll determines how things go for your respective teams. When I was in 5th grade, a friend of mine's father showed us a baseball dice game but he made up what happened before the game. Every game was different because the friend's father liked to spend a lot of time at the local bar before coming home to teach us about dice-based baseball. Funny how certain cards can trigger weird memories, huh?

Also included are things like Russell Branyan's UD Star Rookie foil card, an Upper Deck Retro Futurama card of Jaret Wright. I had never seen that weird thing before. In the scan above, it's the 3rd card down on the right. Roberto Alomar's Topps Finest still had the protective layer on it. Notice I said "HAD." Are you a 'peeler?' I sure am. I hate that 'protective' sheet, so I rip those off unless it's a duplicate. I figure if I am going to trade/give the card away, the recipient may not be as 'liberating' as I am.

Lots of chrome, cool inserts and parallels, and even a Sportflics "1987 Team Preview" of the Indians was in this stack! In '87, the outlook was good. Or so Sportflics thought. The card touts the talents of Joe Carter, Brett Butler, Pat Tabler, Brook Jacoby and Cory Snyder. Pitchers include the "ancient Phil Niekro." Ouch. In the end, "It's the Indians turn to win a title..." Ten years later, we came close. And we would have won it, too, if it weren't for those meddling fish!


I received a lot of Thome cards that I needed! Fantastic stuff! I love the Topps Laser cards - like mainstream oddball gimmicks! And, I had never heard of "On-Base Leaders" versions of Fleer Ultra until now. The Ovation series always appealed to me because of the feel of the stitches. I can remember the first time I took one of those to my Dad (and we were both very much adults by then) and we 'oooed' and ahhhed' over these. In fact, the very first memorabilia card I ever got, I took to him and we both reminisced about the 'old' days of card collecting. You know, the BGUE cards (Before-Game-Used-Era).

Bowman left me dazed and confused once again with the bizarre naming of the cards they have: BDP, AFL, etc. I was able to determine that the AFL cards had something to do with AFLAC, though the Standard Catalog made no mention of the set.

I received several O-Pee-Chee's including a very cool Baerga All-Star redemption card! There were a lot of different brands, years, etc just like the previous posts! The Topps D3 Albert Belle is an eye-watering marvel of technology. If you stare too long, your eyes water, like trying too hard to see one of those stereogram pictures.

I have but one lonely stack of cards left in the box that Andrew sent. We shall see what treasures are discovered tomorrow!

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About the draft: I lost out on a couple of Tribers because I was not paying attention to my "Your Team" list that shows you who you've already picked. That's okay, I snagged a few non-tribers for trading or for use when the Indians aren't playing. That's actually funny, because the truth is, I usually set my team and let it ride for most of the season. This time might be different since I actually know the other folks playing. I've warned everyone that I usually fail miserably at these kinds of things. Don't believe me? Well, in my "Cards on Cards" college basketball pick'em bracket, I am currently in 7th place. Which out of 20,000 might be great. Out of 8, however, that's pretty sad.

All I can say is "LET'S GO TRIBE!" Maybe my "Trundles" can become "Trouncers!" Hmm, I'm not sure what word I thought I was using when I chose my team name, but it turns out that 'trundling' means to spin or roll be means of wheels. So, I'll either be hot-rodding or grasping for the wheelchairs by the time it's all said and one. Either way, it'll be one heck of a ride, kid!