May Day! May Day!

If you read the mega-post the other day, then you would have caught word that the site was down for a few days back in June. This was supposed to go up after that, but I got busy, and then, well, the stuff in the last post happened. Anyhow, go read it. I left the intro to this post the same.

While there was a (very mild) disaster around here the past couple days, things have not completely fallen apart – and this post isn’t really about that! I just wanted to show off a bunch of cardboard that arrived in May. And because I can’t get into a consistent posting habit, you’re going to get a deluge of most of my May pickups in this post – at least what I thought was scan-worthy. The links will take you to a trader’s TCDB profile, so that you can find awesome trade partners too!

Aaron (Awesomeo1389) swapped me a PWE of Super ‘Stros in exchange for a similar amount of mostly Verlander and Scherzer cards. These three Altuve parallels were the main highlight for me. Are parallels way out of hand? Absolutely. Do I love almost all of them? You bet!

Brannon (BLWinborn40) is one of my most frequent trade partners, always hitting me up for a quick little PWE swap in exchange for some Braves he needs. Two Greg Maddux cards from 2001 netted me this Electric Blue Big League Bregman and the “Rapture” version of a Gurriel insert.

Brinton (BumgarnerBoys) and I packed a pair of PWEs in a Panini-heavy swap, with some Elite Extra Edition, Diamond Kings, and Capstone involved involved in the exchange. My favorite, though, was this 2022 Topps Orange Foilboard card of Urquidy, numbered 226/299, with the “cracked ice” treatment.

Remember that Gurriel insert? Of course you do, it’s literally in the images you just read about. This here is a “Vector” version. Raleigh (rcxheth) requested a silver foilboard Michael Harris II parallel I’d pulled from my 2023 Topps super-mega-whatever-they-were-called-box, and an Ozzie Albies from 2022 Stadium Club. A quick two-fer no-brainer here.

Mike (yessamekim) offered up a PWE swap, which mainly consisted of 2022 Donruss Optic and a couple 2023 Flagship inserts. These two were my favorites, a Silver Prizm parallel of Altuve and an Alvarez insert which tops off the “team set.”

Joseph (Ymmat) offered me a splendid little swap, which polished off my Astros needs for a TCMA set (Larry Mason never made the big league club), netted me a couple of Spacemen, and a sweet Holo Orange Luis Garcia parallel from 2022 Donruss.

I’d sent a 65 dupe, a couple 95T Spectralights, and some 23 inserts and Big League in exchange for a nice little stack that hit several lists, which finished off with three great cards for my 1965 set build. That build gained a bit of traction last month thanks to another lot, but that’s a different post.

Eric (Easymoney2x) wanted two Variteks and a Juan Gone that was numbered out of 201 in exchange for these. Hell yes we’re taking that deal, because these Chrome reprints from 1999 Topps are not exactly easy to come by.

Rob (robglessner) requested a dozen 2013 Bowman cards and a 2018 Donruss Buster Posey SP in exchange for these. That’s a dang no-brainer, especially because three of them are serially numbered. Technically I think the Mouton is a “limited edition” as well, but those sets were numbered to like 100,000 or something, lol.

Thomas (tomb) wanted a Mark Teixeira card and a Randy Johnson insert for these, straight up. That’s a no brainer, because the only other way I’m gonna come across Inception cards is in someone’s quarter box if I can ever make it to another show.

David (frankgifford) shot over an offer requesting a couple dozen White Sox cards in exchange for an absolutely packed ‘Stros lot and a handful of others, including some of the 2022 A&G mini inserts. I need to put want lists up for those. These Bagwells were a really enticing opening volley – any chance to get more Pacific Bagwells is always appreciated.

There were a pair of Biggios in there as well, including a faux Donruss 2000 from 2001 when Donruss returned after a two-year hiatus. Then there’s that dude that temporarily displaced him, and two more parallels of some of my favorites through the years, Morgan Ensberg and Kyle Tucker.

This package ends with a pair of great horizontal cards – a sweet Red Rooster card and an Orange Foil Power Zone insert from Stadium Club. In the top left you can see that the Springer is numbered 11/50. Getting something numbered to 50 or less always feels insanely cool to me. Plus it’s George, plus the orange pops with the Astros uniforms – it’s hard not to love something like that!

There’s a little more from May that I didn’t post here, but this just about covers it. There are a few more that deserve their own posts, and with my track record, who knows if those will see the light of day. Thanks as always for reading, and thanks to all the wonderful trade partners for filling my mailbox!