Adding More Cards To The Collection... and Trade Bait

Well, I don't even know where to start today... I have lots of stuff to post about...

First, I guess I'll go with the highlights from Cards from the Quarry's July group break. July? Really? Well, let me explain... the package got sent to my Houston address. Postmarked 8/18/2011. I moved of course in early August so it got re-routed and forwarded... but the post office decided to hold onto it for, oh, about a month. The "forward request" label is marked 9/26/2011, and in the process knocked around the package enough to but an annoying "ding" in the bottom corner of almost all the cards. Thanks a lot USPS, you continue to lower my expectations...

The Berkman jersey is just plain sweet. Got a couple of Hunter Pence rookies. I love that Biggio insert as well, and since it didn't have a true corner, no DING! Thanks Johnny for another great group break. I hope life settles down a bit for you and we get to see you blogging again.

Next up, I have some contest winnings from Cam at Cardboard Heaven. He ran a contest to name the teams used for the fonts of his page redesign. Anyways, I got a consolation prize which included some Astros and a couple hits:

Next up, well, this'll take some explaining... BigHit Sportscards over in Spanish Fort, AL is absolutely the best card shop I've EVER been to, hands down. Many many reasons, but for the purposes of this post, TRADE NIGHT is freakin' sweet. Basically, a bunch of collectors come together, watch football on tv, trade cards and the shop does a bunch of pack wars, door prizes, trivia contests and a grand prize. Well, there were 2 pack wars for baseball this month: Heritage Minor Leagues (boo, not a fan) and Lineage. Since I am on a tight budget right now and I only needed three cards from the set, I only bought 5 packs of Lineage this month. Well, I did very well. The pack war was for the highest numbered Lineage Venezuela card, which Jose Bautista (#TV22) won for me! I was going to try and scan what I won, but it's hard to scan a baseball.... but I won a Hank Aaron autographed baseball!!!! (with COA). Anyways, needless to say, I was super excited. Oh yea, I also scored this SWEEEEEEEET card from my Lineage packs:

$40 BV? I'll take it! Haha! Great awesome auto... anyways, it's up for trade...

Then there was a trade I actually made with another guy there. He's got lots of autos and jerseys cards... so I picked out a few I liked and we put together a nice trade, here's my loot:

 Another nice addition to my Eddie Mathews collection...

 Man, if Mier can get his swing down, we've got a nice SS prospect in the system, a bit of a gamble but I thought it was a nice looking card.

And some trade bait... this one will get some offers I do believe!

Finally, Nathan, from BigHits, had some stuff set aside for me to look through... a bunch of Nolan Ryan stuff... well, here's the highlight for me: a commemorative program from the 7th No-Hitter:

There were a couple of Beckett's from the early 90's and then a couple of the Classic brand card game packs. The wife and I might bust those open and see if we can actually play them... and a Nolan Ryan Starting Lineup Figurine. Very awesome. Thanks Nathan!