A trade with Spiegel (in-person)

I completed an in-person trade with cool cat Spiegel of Nomo's Sushi Platter at Dodgers FanFest 2013 last Saturday.  This was my first in-person trade outside of a local card shop since I started collecting cards again in 2009.  I traded autographs of Chin-Lung Hu and John Ely to Spiegel.  Here are some of my favorites from Spiegel's trade package:

Chin-Lung Hu is currently playing for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.  I did not know that team or league existed until I looked up what Hu was doing nowadays.  Hell, I thought he was still on the Mets.  The Matt Kemp card is one of those holographic deals.  I think I still like the old "Rookie Card" logo more than the new one.

1995 Score Gold Rush #238, Orel Hershiser.  It is always nice to get new cards of Bulldog.  Hershiser has some interesting photos on his cards.  Look at that expression he's making on the back of this one!  Great.

1978 Tommy John #375 and 1979 Charlie Hough #508.  Nice condition vintage cards.  What do you think, should Tommy John have been elected to the Hall of fame?  The Dodgers have had quite a few knuckleballers in their history, the most recent being Charlie Haeger.  There was also Hough, of course, as well as Hoyt Wilhelm, Tom Candiotti, Dennis Springer, and Nap Rucker.

Three TTM autographs!  1991 Fleer Ultra Rick Honeycutt #249, 1974 Claude Osteen #42, and a 1991 Fleer Mickey Hatcher #206.

Thanks for the trade, Spiegel!

Card Giveaway and Part 3 of Dan's Other World Crazy Group Break Haul

Well, that was an unreasonably long pause between group break posts!  I have been in San Diego the past two weeks.  Here's a selection of various cards I received in Dan's The Other World group break (mostly Dodgers):

That Finest Orel Hershiser card is super cool.

Since this is the last post about Dan's group break, I will do a card giveaway!  There are five of them in total, but I will give them away in two sets.  It is easy to enter this game of chance.  I will think of a number from 1 to 100... now!  I have now written that number on a dummy card with my new surf colored Sharpie marker (yes, I am proud of it) and taken a photo of it next to the date and time - 12:40 AM on December 6, 2012 to be exact.  Simply guess the secret number that I wrote down in a comment on this post and also mention your first choice of the two sets that you would prefer to receive if you win the giveaway.  (It would also be nice, were you to follow me on Google - left side of my blog.)  Here are the cards you can win:

Set #1.  Three prospect autos from 2007 Tristar Prospects Plus!  From top left, clockwise: Eddie Kunz (heh), James Simmons, and James Adkins.  I have no idea who these dudes are, but maybe you do!

Set #2.  Two game-used jersey cards from 2008 UD Goudey.  Russell Martin and Josh Beckett.  Dan was awesome enough to throw in these two extra hits, but unfortunately I am trying to minimize my collection of relics.

So there you have it!  Have fun guessing the number between 1 and 100.  Naturally, closest number gets first pick of the card sets and next closest gets the set that is left.  I will leave entries open for a few days to a week at most.

Orel Hershiser

On this date, 24 years ago, the Dodgers won their most recent World Series title against the Oakland A's.  Orel Hershiser had a hell of a season that year.  He won the Cy Young and World Series MVP awards, among several other accolades.  It took me a while to acquire an Orel Hershiser autograph card, but I think this one was well worth the wait.

2010 Panini Century Collection, Orel Hershiser prime patch auto, #'d 13/50.

What a photo!