More cards from my weekend of impulse eBay buying. This time, it's another lot of Ichiros for 99 cents - twenty of them. Only one duplicate from the last pack, but sadly quite a few cards I already had. Still, there were some good additions, as you'll see.

These were the Topps and Bowman cards that were included. I really like the look of the Peak Performance card in the top left. It seems like I got everyone else's Peak Performance card in the boxes I busted, so it's nice to finally have this one.


There were also nine Upper Deck cards in the pack. Of course, I already had the Heroes and Spectrum cards, as I collect the entire Heroes set and am building the Spectrum rainbow. The Marquee Matchups cards with Dice-K is one that I've contemplated getting from Al's for a few trips now, but never did pick up. I guess I don't have to, now.

That's 18 cards. What were the other two? You guessed it - Ichichromes:


2009 Topps to go with my two 2010 Topps, and a 2009 Bowman Chrome as well.

Coming soon, another blaster of 2011 Topps, plus a pack of 2011 Australian Rules Football cards.

A few weekends ago, I was home by myself with 60 bucks in my Paypal account and an Australian dollar worth $1.05 US. That's a recipe for buying cards if I ever saw one. I have four saved searches set up for auctions ending soon worth 99 cents or less - one for each of my player collections. One of the listings was for a bundle of 25 Ichiro cards, and the seller shipped internationally. Sounds like a winner to me.

With these packages, you know you're going to get plenty of base cards. But the nice thing about players like Ichiro and Griffey is that there are so many insert cards floating around out there, that you're bound to get some cards you don't have anyway.

As for the 2011 Topps, I only realised it had scanned crookedly after I put the cards away. I wasn't going to pull them back out to re-scan a card I have ten of already.


Here's some of the gems of the set. The 2002 Topps rookie cup card was a nice inclusion, as well as the Bowman Platinum. I also liked getting the National Baseball Card Day card, and I thought the Sporting News insert was pretty neat. In bundles like these, you might even find the odd base card you don't have - such as that 2007 Upper Deck. We all know that the 2007 Upper Deck set was phenomenally ugly. Let's face it - between that and Topps, if I had gotten back into collecting in 2007 instead of 2010, I doubt I would have stayed for long.


Finally...Ichichrome! I already had one, and this one is just as bent, but hey...ICHICHROME!

A special surprise when I got to the post office today. Not one, not two, but three packages. When looking at the postmarks, I see that one was mailed on January 31, one on January 27, and one on January 26. So that means that at least one of these packages was mailed the day after Julie at Things are Funner Here mailed her package, but I got it a week later. I have officially stopped trying to figure out Australia Post.


I firmly believe that each trade deserves its own post, because the time and effort people put into making trade packages should be recognised and celebrated. So the package I’m highlighting today is the first one mailed (the January 26 one) from Joe at The Sandlot.

I sent Joe a package including a Heritage Box Topper with three Mets, some David Wright specials, and a Henry Blanco 2010 Topps Update card. Why Henry Blanco? Because that was the card Joe needed to finish off his Mets team set. I love being able to send someone the last card they need to complete a set. It’s a great feeling.

In return, Joe sent me a bunch of Griffeys, Ichiros, and cards to knock off my wantlists, too:

Here are the Ichiro cards, and they’re both shiny. And that leads into an announcement I would like to make. From this point forward, shiny cards of Ichiro Suzuki will be known as Ichichromes. Tell your friends.

And I am happy to accept any and all Ichichromes.


Joe sent some shiny Griffeys, too. The two 2010 Topps Chrome cards are the first ones I’ve gotten from that set – I was going to buy some until everyone starting talking about how warped they are. And guess what – everybody’s right! The Griffey card, in particular, is quite bendy – it seems to be bending in four directions at once. Just part of the “charm” of 2010 Topps Chrome.


There were three horizontal Griffeys in the package, including a die-cut Fleer Ultra. I love the card in the middle, and I think I’m going to have to try and find out more about this “1995 Mariners Memories” set – is it an insert, a locally-produced situation, or what? The back of the card features a mock-up of the front page of the Seattle Times, which makes me think it was produced in conjunction with the newspaper.


Some Griffey firsts – his first Diamond Kings card, his first Reds card (Topps 2000) and his first Turkey Red card.

Joe included eleven Reds cards from 2006 Fleer, which was of course made by Upper Deck by this point. This is the first I’ve seen of ’06 Fleer in person, and I quite like the look of it. I’m not sure if I’ll try to collect the whole set, but I definitely want to finish off this Reds set and look to get the Mariners, Orioles, White Sox and Athletics, too.


Finally, a card that has absolutely nothing to do with Ken Griffey or the Reds, but one that I was glad to see. The Hank Greenberg/Ike Davis Legendary Lineage card teams the greatest Jewish hitter of all time and the latest Great Jewish Hope. I’ve already got the Greenberg/Ryan Braun card from Series 2 in my Legendary Lineage binder. But I’m not holding my breath that Topps is going to release a Sandy Koufax/Scott Schoenweis Diamond Duos card this year.

Joe, thanks a bunch for the cards. Any day that I can get a padded envelope full of cards in the mail is a great day. To get three, well, it was worth the wait. To find out what else arrived in the mail, check back later...