A Fond Farewell and Final Package from Area 40/Wes

For years, we have been delighted to get packages in the mail from the one and only Wes at Area 40 aka Jay Barker Fan's Junk. I had the pleasure as well to meet Wes on a couple of occasions when he made it down to BigHit Sports Cards in Spanish Fort, AL. Wes is genuinely one of the greatest guys in the hobby. I don't know where or how he finds the stuff that he literally gives away, the man rarely if ever asks for anything in return, and finds more numbered parallels than I can ever imagine anyone finding.

Anyways, in the last month, Wes went out with one last big bang. Literally, he bought boxes and such for a year and then gave it all away. I was late to claiming and missed out on one of my teams, but put in a request for a couple odd balls and my Astros. Additionally, it seems that Wes set aside some extras for me along the way, as he typically does. Here we go folks, it's a fun ride through this package:

First, a trio of TTM style autographs. The highlight to me here is the Jim Wynn, but getting a Rafael Landestoy auto is pretty freakin' awesome. Jason Jennings, man, why did we ever sign that dude? lol

A couple of interesting Jaelen Strong relics, low numbered and one auto'ed. Jaelen had multiple chances to succeed in Houston and just couldn't take a hold of the slot or 3rd receiver role before he was released. 

Picture didn't come out really great with the glare, but that's a /25 Lance McCullers auto! WOW! Some sweet parallels from American Heroes & Legends, a numbered Watson rookie, and then the Nolan Ryan gem at the end. Love it all. Also, happy birthday Nolan! 

Now, here we go with the odd ball. Haha. Gilbert Godfried relic from American Pie, I can hear him screaming. A Devery Henderson relic from the Saints. Then there are a couple hits from American Horror Story - which the wife loves watching. Auto/relic of Chloe Sevigny and the back of the card shows the piece of clothing that the swatch was taken from, pretty cool if you ask me. Then the Naomi Grossman autograph as the Asylum character Pepper. Two great autos for sure.

It gets odd-er. We have TENNIS autos! First up, I recognized the name immediately, as John Isner was the winner of the longest tennis match ever at Wimbledon. Then there are a couple of Russian ladies: Anna Chakvetadze and Vera Zvonareva, neither of whom I've ever heard of. Then there's Molly Sims' fabric relic from PopCardz - Molly has an... interesting... IMDB page. Finally, there is Lana Kinnear, who bared her assets on this card - and autographed it too! Oh Benchwarmers, you are a special, special set of cards...

There was a healthy stack of about 100 #'ed parallels, many of which were /99 or less. I could take pictures all night, but I do need to wrap this up...

Finally, it wouldn't be this grand of a package without a Bip-ing. Folks, enjoy some Wilbur Howard:

Yep, that's 11 Wilbur Howard cards, together at once and at last. Never to be separated again. haha.

Well Wes, I could go on and on about how great of a trader/collector/blogger you are, but all of that really doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things - here's what does mean something to me: You're a great friend and person. Thank you for everything through the years, and I hope our paths cross again some day. I have the Kobayashi card that will head your way - as well as anything else I can find for you. Take care bud, and enjoy your retirement from blogging.