The papoy yearbook : a trade post

Brian (HSCA) warned me that he had a two pounder coming my way, with some very fun stuff included.

Needless to say, I was excited. I always feel a little bad knowing that some of you spend so much on postage just for my pretty eyes (yes, I have very pretty eyes), but like my friend Matt says, all in all, it all adds up, and it doesn't matter that much (still, I appreciate it).

So let's see what was inside that huge envelope. And when he said 'fun stuff', it was an understatement.

At first, I hadn't realized that the logo was black. Which means it's one of the parallels. I didn't even know they existed. So this one is numbered 06/50 !

At first (again), I thought shoot, it's the one I showed yesterday. Turns out it isn't. This one is much better ! Why they'd use the same design is beyond me, though.

 At first (yup), I thought I already had that copy. But nope. I do have a 2012 Romero Archival autograph numbered to 399 (I'm not completely crazy), but it's not the same photo. Why did they do that ? No idea.

This one looks very nice in person. Can't go wrong with Delgado !

Nothing much for me to chase Blue Jays wise in Topps this year, and those cover most of my base set needs for series 2 (there are 12 in all, I think) .

Now that's one great looking card. If I had a small complaint towards this year's Stadium Club, it's that I feel like they put a little too much UV coating. But maybe it's just me.

Parallels ! The Reyes is probably an Ice something.

Flair ! (more on those later)

Now those are very, very shiny. The Clemens is a refractor (woohoo) and the Carter is a pretty cool looking acetate card. One thing's for sure : they scream 90s.

After the Blue Jays, here come the PC guys !

Baerga isn't officially listed as PC, but I mentioned not long ago that I liked him a lot. Always nice to see that some people read me !

Let's play spot the intruder...yup, the Hernandez is an ACTUALL 76 Topps. And it looks great.

On the customs form, Brian wrote that an Action fgure was included.

There it is. A Minion (Papoy ?) action figure ! This really cracked me up. The Blue Jays may have one of the worst looking mascots on the planet.

Brian was also nice enough to include a bunch of unopened packs :

Just imagine. You're in 96. You gather a few dollars to buy a high-end pack of cards. You tear open the plastic of the pack. Then the box in which the cards are stored. Then more plastic around the cards. And those are the ones you get. And, just to stay positive, you tell yourself that oh, at least, there's Javier Lopez in there.

Also included were a pack of each of the three 95 SC series. Like I said about one of Brian's posts, Dave Winfield always looks cool on his cards. The Bonds is a parallel.

Strangely and luckily enough, I pulled a couple of Blue Jays that I actually needed, of two of my all time favorites.

More packs : 98 Collector's Choice , 92 Fleer, and surprisingly enough, the 91 O Pee Chee premier was really decent, if you look at the 5 cards out of 7 that I pulled.

Even the packaging was very thoughtful and fun :

Shawn Green !

At first (it's the locution of the day), I thought that the entire set was included. Turns out it was just a box in which to put stacks of cards. I'm planning on getting that set one day, though, considering how in love I am with holograms. At least, I already have the box !

And finally, the really fun part, and THE object he got just for me from a country far, far away (Canada, that would be) :

The 79 Yearbook. It's the fist yearbook I've ever seen, and I love it ! I'm actually thinking about adding some to my collection, even though I technically only collect cards. But it's so much fun to look at, and includes so much info. I could actually write an entire post about it, as it made me smile a lot. Maybe I will...

Thanks again Brian for going the extra mile (literally) for me. It won't be either countering such an assault, but I'll try my best !