Cubs Surprises in Thursday's Mail And I'm not a Cheesehead

I was expecting all five packages that arrived on Thursday, but I was surprised by the contents of two of them.

Last week I posted on Twitter the 2018 Allen & Ginter card of Theo Epstein. It was on the anniversary of the Cubs hiring him as the President of Baseball Operations. Stephanie in South Carolina reached out and said she wanted the card. She had previously posted she had a redemption for a Madison Keys autograph from Allen & Ginter and I mentioned she grew up near my hometown (Keys is from Rock Island, Illinois).

Stephanie said she would send it for the Theo. I asked what else she wanted because the Epstein is just a base card, and she said that's okay. Then a package arrived from South Carolina that obviously had more that a baseball card inside.

A Cubs alarm clock from a Wrigley Field giveaway! Awesome, and I already found a place for it.

Not only was there the alarm clock, she included four Cubs cards, including the two golds of Kyle Schwarber and Kris Bryant that I didn't have.

Thank you so much, and I'll be on the lookout to send her something for the generosity.

A third trade package from a Facebook trade arrived from Chris in Wisconsin. I'd call him a fellow "cheesehead," but I can't come to terms calling myself one. Growing up in Illinois I rooted for all Chicago teams. Each summer in the 1990's my mom and dad would take me to Platteville, Wisconsin for Chicago Bears training camp. We made a week's vacation out of it for a few years and visited various spots in southern Wisconsin. Early on we stopped at a place that was selling cheese heads, and I was disappointed when my dad adamantly refused to allow me to wear such head gear. I'm glad he did! Go Bears!

Anyway, Chris sent me over 400 Cubs cards from the early 1990's. These cards were probably released the same summer my dad rightfully rejected my pleas for a cheesehead.

Eli in Iowa shipped over a pile of Cubs including eight Kris Bryant cards. Two were needed for my collection: Topps Fire red wave Parallel and Topps Big League Ministers of Mash Insert.

Jim in one of the Facebook groups was having a sale of some autographs for $5 each. There were only two Cubs, including one that was a must have for my collection.

I've been looking (not too hard) for one of these Leaf Trinity Cubs autographs with a message like this. Jim had one other Cubs Auto, and it was also Clifton.

He was offering a small discount with the purchase of five autos, so I checked out his other cards and found three to put on the side in hopes these prospects pan out.

And Jim also added some extras with six bonus Cubs cards. Bigger bonus: I didn't have any of these six cards in my collection.

Finally, a really sweet eBay find. Occasionally, l will search Cubs on eBay and see what's out there. I found a box of cards I had never heard of: 1981 Topps Giant Photo cards.

This was a "home team issue" featuring only Cubs and White Sox. Each pack contains one giant photo. You can see through the wrapper to see which card it is and this box of 36 unopened packs contains 19 Cubs and 17 White Sox. Since I am going to leave these unopened, heres an example of what a Cubs photo looks like.

One Million Cubs Project Stats

Thursday's (11/1/2018) Cards: 449

Thursday's (11/1/2018) Packages: 5

Weekly Count: 1,251

Total Count: 180,112