Well, I’m about to get back in the saddle after a great week off and out of town with the family. Last weekend started off rough with “Invasion of the Kidney Stone” but after trying to fight it on my own, I finally succumbed to the “minor procedure” on Monday, which set us back a day on our planned start. But, we were able to extend it another day so we got the same time away! It was Little G’s first trip to Disney and Bailey’s third, although I think Bailey had more fun. Nine seems to be the perfect age for Disney. She could ride all of the rides and managed to handle the full day much better than the rest of us. Animal Kingdom on Friday was a zombie walk for all of us but we did get to ride Expedition Everest 4 times during the day! I was a little nervous the kidney might not like the ride but it did alright.
Spring Break is always fun with the family but it always has to come to an end as well. The dreaded 4 1/2 hour hike back up to Georgia always takes about 8 hours between shopping and bathroom stops. We always get home and have to check on the animals, make sure nothing is breaking at the house and then we have to unload the truck. I’d have rather been left in Orlando to be forced to ride “It’s a Small World” for a week straight than have to unpack. There is always one good part about coming back home though – several days of Mail! This past week did not dissapoint either! I had 4 packages waiting for my arrival – enough to make me put it off until Sunday so I could fully investigate and appreciate.
Package 1 – My first pack was from Cole’s Cards (@colescards4sale). This was my first purchase from Cole’s Cards but the experience was very pleasant, very easy and the shipping was A+++. I’d recommend buying from him anytime you see something you like. My purchase was this sweet Topps Class Marks DJ Shockley. Shock was and always will be a DGD (Damn Good Dawg) and was a member of two UGA SEC Championship squads. He was the MVP of the 2005 SEC Championship Game. The only thing that ever stopped Shock was David Greene, who won his fair share of games at UGA as well.
Two years ago, Shock picked me out of his Twitter followers to commission his fantasy football team in the Atlanta Falcons Fantasy League. We (me and 2 friends) got to go up to Atlanta, meet Shock, hang out at Arthur Blank’s offices and draft our team. It was an experience of a lifetime and he could not have been a nicer guy! I only wish I had performed better with his team as we missed the playoffs by one game. Our 2 big mistakes were dropping the Broncos D early in the season (#1 Defense) and drafting CJ Anderson in the first round. I kick myself often for that missed opportunity at glory. All was not lost however as we did win one of the weekly prizes, an authentic NFL jersey of our choice. I chose the old black Falcons jersey #21, Deion Sanders. I say all of that to make clear that any time I can add some DJ Shockley ink to my collection, I try to make it happen! Thanks Cole!
Package 2 – My next pack came from James Finley (@jfin6147). I’ve become solid twitter friends with Mr. Finley and we both have great Braves memories based on our proximity to Atlanta. James won one of the randoms I do with many of my blog posts and I sent him the oddball set from the post. In a cool gesture, he offered to send something back my way. He found this old autographed ball in his collection from a Braves caravan many years ago. You can’t make out all the names but the Murph is on there. It seems rather vintage at this point and I really like it. Along with the ball, he sent me two IP autographs of Steve Avery and Brian Hunter. I wonder if Avery has had any cases of mistaken identity since “Making A Murderer” debuted on Netflix.
As for Hunter, believe it or not, he was my favorite Brave for a couple of years, along with Gant. I don’t know why I liked him so much but I thought he was never really given a fair shake at the everyday spot. He had some pop and was fairly reliable at the plate. I don’t remember his defensive skills but he wasn’t atrocious by any means. I don’t have any Hunter autos because he was only around for a couple of years and I never met him in person. This is a really cool addition. Finally, he included this sweet old Skybox collectors tin. This will be the perfect holder for the huge box Break haul I landed a couple of weeks ago from Marshall (@tradeorsellusa). Thanks J Fin!
Package 3 – The third pack waiting on me was from my good friend Steve Cornell with @collatingcards. This is the second mail day I’ve received from Steve and this one was huge for my Ron Gant PC. I was able to check off several on my needs list! I have a very slim stack of mid 90’s cards so those 94 Ultra Home Run and RBI Kings were huge gets. While I do have a good many 89-93, I did not have the Topps McDonalds Gant. The split card at the top with Gant and André Dawson is a sticker card with Barry Larkin on the other side. Then the ’91 is actually an SP from 2012 Topps Archives. I also have one of the Braves issued Stadium Club Gants but not this one. This was a tremendous score for the PC efforts and Steve has been a wealth of Gant additions. Thanks so much my friend and be on the lookout for some Mariners coming back at you!
Package 4 – The fourth package was a nice haul from Jim of @TheSportsJim fame. Jim is a very entertaining follow on Twitter and has an affinity for Ketchup and Peeps. He also either hasn’t seen The Breakfast Club and Fast Times at Ridgemont High or I’m not catching the sarcasm. Either way, those movies are not to be joked about Jim. At any rate, Jim reached out to inquire about some Michigan cards I may have and I did have a really sweet Devin Gardner Trinity Pure Glass auto numbered to 10. Not being a Michigan guy myself, it wasn’t really a PC item so we started discussing a deal. It turns out that Jim was a big card collector and cooled off until recently. He shared a picture of a closet or storage with all of his cards boxed up and it was one of the neater storage stacks I’ve seen when it comes to cards. The boxes were labeled and stacked neatly. I was impressed with the effort.
So Jim went to work digging through the stacks of cards and uncovered some great gems for me! First, I got a nice stack of Gant cards to add to the PC pile. One of the cards, 1989 Score Rising Stars was a part of a 100 card set that year. I remember them fondly but couldn’t put my hands on any I had kept. So Jim sent the set to me and there are some sweet names in there. The first card in the set is Gregg Jefferies, everyone’s ’89 Rookie Darling. Also included were Hal Morris, BamBam Meulens, Edgar Martinez, Ramon Martinez, Chris Sabo, Mark Grace and early 90’s regular Eric Yelding. He also included a couple of Terrell Davis cards and some DGD autos! The autos were of the aforementioned David Greene, Fred Gibson and Ben Watson. These are all players revered by Bulldawg Nation! Big Ben has gone on to have a very solid NFL career and has a great mind and voice on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for the big adds Jim!
It’s also very possible that another mail day or two might creep in as the Mother-In-Law picked up our mail on Wednesday. I’ll post those up on Twitter if there are any more gems in there. Trading has become a new way of life for me since joining the twitter community. I never knew it still existed. It was such a vital part of collecting for me in my youth. I have grown somewhat weary of the EBay surfing and non-personal contact you have with buyers and sellers. It’s still an excellent form of buy and sell but I was missing the interaction. I’ve found that here with this group of collectors and am so glad to be a part of it. Many wishes of big mail day’s in your future and thanks for taking a look at the blog. Next on the agenda is cracking this ’91 Stadium Club box for a Retro Review. I’m trying to come up with a sweet giveaway for it so keep your eyes peeled!
J-Dub