Spotlight On ...

Over the course of  eight months, Johnny has made several appearances in my mailbox.  Not literally of course.  He is one of the more prolific traders around.  Most of us have been recipients of big fat mailers and boxes full of our favorite teams and players.  I had three trade packages from him ready to share and just when I thought I was done - along came yet another package.  Here's a few cards from the most recent package:

That is one shiny lot of refractors!  All but two were needed for a team set.  The pennant was a great accent to this picture and made me smile when I found it tucked in a toploader.

Love these 87 Coke cards.  I have a few of these packs still sealed and tried opening one but it didn't go so well.  I will eventually have the whole set with the help of trade partners. I should put a list together.

John included three post-card size team sets:

1988 Kroger

1989 Marathon Gas

1990 Kroger

 A little bit of Leaf Preferred and Pinnacle Zenith

New Heritage

2005 Topps 205 - like these a lot!

 A smattering of Tiger greatness in Fan Favorites design.

    

   A very cool schedule!  I can't say old since there's only ten years difference between it and me!

Thank you John!  If you are new to the blogs, be sure to check out two of his regular features:

Shadow Shots and Wacky Wednesdays.  Both are favorites of mine.

And new or not, you are welcome to join now in another giveaway from the disCard pile! We'll let this one run through Wednesday night, 8pm EST.  That gives me time to have it on the way to our winner before the holiday weekend!  Open to all 50 US States, with  previous winners excluded. Your part?  Comment on this post and ask to be entered.  One catch... your comment must be different than other comments.  For example, I'm in can only be used once. Count me in and please count me in would be considered the same as would I'm down or put me down.  The point is to be original. I'll randomize the list four times and post the winner on Thursday evening.  Oh, and the winner will be the fourth name on the list.  Your prize will be a three to four hundred count box.  The cards are random - a mix from 90s to now.  There may be an older card or two but junk wax is not part of this deal.  The 80s find their way into nearly everything - a bit like cockroaches.

Have fun with your comments - and thank you for reading!!!

Help Wanted: Spring Cleaning Continues

Yikes!  I am buried in cardboard!  It's not the most terrible way to go but I'm just not ready!  I pulled two more boxes from the closet.  One was mostly for trading and the other contains cards purchased just before moving in June of 2015.

1500 or so cards

Topps, Upper Deck, SP, Chrome, Pinnacle - this box held a bit of everything and needed sorting, of course.  I hired some help about a year ago too but having no thumbs, Jingles is paid to do very little.

Taking a union break

Adding cards to the Salvation Army box.

She is the sweetest kitty.  A year old this month, she and her two siblings were abandoned in a box by the vet's back door at three days of age.  One was adopted, the other sadly did not live.  Jingles was bottle fed by the vet until she was old enough for me to bring home.  She has only known love. Jingles likes kisses and will pull your face to hers when she wants one. Still...what a freeloader!  

With her help, over half of the cards made it to the trade stacks.  Others will be donated and some added to the discard box to be given away later.  The trade cards must be moved into their team spots. There is one small problem...SPACE!  When I began this project a few weeks back, I had one big box for trade cards which has morphed into three.  I have at the very least, another 500 cards to squeeze into these which doesn't take into account those yet undiscovered. 

Original trade box on the left.

In the midst of the sorting, I took some time to edit trade photos.  There is a fellow out there, a non-blogger who puts a great trade package together.  I don't know how many of you have swapped with him but he comments as Xavier Higgins and trades as Rocky Quinn.  He sent two packages months ago and one just recently,  probably 100 cards total.  I can't possibly share all of these but here are some highlights:

1992 Topps with Micros!!  Love these tiny cards!

FOOD ISSUES: 92 Mother's Cookies Pudge and 96 Pizza Hut Piazza

VINTAGE TIGERS AND A BUCKY DENT

PLAYER COLLECTIONS

2017 HERITAGE

ALTUVE AND MIGGY

SWELL!!!!

NICE KINSLER RELIC  AND A GORGEOUS TICKET REFRACTOR

I don't collect hockey at all but do love that Hawks Jersey!  Xavier remembered my player collections too.  I so appreciate this!  Thank you for the diverse selection of cards.  It was great fun!  Sorry it's taken so long to share these.  I want bloggers to know how generous you are!

Spring cleaning continues.  If you've made it this far then my reader friends, you deserve a chance to claim another Cracked Bat disCARD box!  I did mention there'd be another giveaway later.  There are cards to move. To be eligible for  a random chance, you must live in the USA - any one of our 50 great states will do.  The other little detail - you aren't a past recipient of a discard box.  I want to spread good will around the blogs.   We'll keep the opportunity open through Sunday evening.  I'll run the Randomizer around three times.  The box will go to spot number two.  Now all that's left for you to do is comment.  

A Random Thought

My power has been up for nine days now and one of four heavy deadlines at the office [March 15] has passed.  There is now time to enjoy the blogs for a couple of weeks then April 15th steals my fun for a couple more.

In lieu of blogging this weekend, I took time to tackle another box, fishing for more discards to share. [I was tired of sitting in front of a computer screen.]

It contained a random assortment of cards packed before I moved in June 2015.   The 1000 count box is not 94 Pinnacle.  I haven't gone through it completely but largely contains refractors, numbered cards and relics I picked up for trading.  The paper bag contains sleeved singles picked up from my last card show in Dallas 2015.  I'll share some of these next time.  Hey - there's my Jack in the Box Antenna Ball! Wondered where that went...

There were two boxes of:

Seals were broken for the autos: Jose Abreu #/50 and Jorge Soler RC #/10, both tucked away in another undiscovered location.  The sets are complete.  I'm contemplating breaking one up for trades.

A box of 1993 Action Packed All Star Gallery purchased for the the HOF and retired player content :

A sealed CD which some Cubbie Fan out there might enjoy.  It contains the catchy song we heard so often during the Series - Go Cubs Go.

Also buried in this treasure box - an unopened box of 94 Fleer Extra Bases, oversized cards with a clean full bleed design.  I still like them.  Let's crack a pack:

Molitor for me and trades for you.

I'll keep the Bagwell and Nokes too. Looking forward to opening the rest next weekend.

The title of this post promised a random thought. So here it is...comments are rewarding.  Thank you for taking time to check out Cracked Bat.  All Bloggers appreciate readers!  I love giving stuff away and prefer not to ask anyone to 'pimp' the blog.  I certainly wouldn't stop you though.  ;)   In an effort to reward my regular readers, contest notices won't be placed in the post titles but within the post itself.  

I found your petitions to the Randomizer in my last post most entertaining.  It is time to award the first 400 count box of my discards.   I presented the list before the Randomizer which chose to cycle three times before spewing forth a name.  One quite new to me made the top spot...

Congrats Jason!  Email acrackedbat at gmail dot com with your mailing address.   Thanks to all who entered.  We'll do this again very soon as my discard pile is growing rapidly!  Thanks for your patience - and thanks for reading!