Five Mailday Friday And a Carson Sands Rainbow

This weekend has been used to feverishly get caught up on the hobby, as I’ll be broadcasting the Illinois high school softball state finals over the next two weeks.

My Friday mailday post is a few days late. In all, five packages totaling nearly 800 Cubs baseball cards arrived in my mailbox. When I brought the yellow slip to the clerk, he responded, “You get A LOT of mail!” And he followed up with, “what’s this One Million Cubs Project?”

Notes with trade packages are always cool and a big thanks to Brian at Wicked Curve Cards for the Cubs with this note.

His package included well over 200 Cubs baseball cards.

Mike in Milford, Indiana sent a box of almost 150 Cubs cards. We’ve been working on a trade for some time, as I sent him some Fernando Tatis Jr, Javier Baez (this was hard), John Smoltz, and Mike Trout. While I did deal away two Baez cards, Mike sent eight to me, so I can live with that!

A new addition to the collection in the form of a 2019 Topps Albert Almora 150 Years stamp.

This is a Jon Lester from 2015 Gypsy Queen. Love the white and silver border, and the border is raised up. I need to look up what these are called, as I’m always curious when they arrive in my trade packages. I’ve never been into Gypsy Queen. If I do buy any, it’s a blaster here and there.

A couple vintage Cubs team cards from 1966 Topps and 1975 Topps.

Bat relics are cool. I’m always on the look out for them. At some point I’m going to do a list of my most wanted Cubs cards. A bat knob is defintely on that list. Here’s a Ryne Sandberg bat relic from 2002 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts.

Another bat relic and it’s Mark Grace. This is from 2006 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts.

Brandon in Lexington, Kentucky sent a package that included some 2004 Upper Deck SP Prospects. These are great looking cards. I did notice they doubled up on the photo on the front of the cards. Initially I didn’t like that, but upon further review it’s pretty cool, like a shadow effect. It’s also neat to compare names: Carlos Zambrano, Mark Prior, Renyel Pinto, Carlos Vasquez, and Michael Wuertz. Differing careers amongst these five!

One other prospect card was this 2008 Topps Finest Team Favorites Felix Pie.

Brandon in Nebraska sent a package that featured a newbie for me. It’s the 2019 Topps Willson Contreras yellow parallel. This is my first colored parallel from 2019 Topps. The yellow parallels are exclusive to Walgreens, while Meijer is home to purple parallels.

Pretty sure I have this 1996 Pinnacle Summit Ryne Sandberg card, but it’s pretty cool. For some reason I have a liking to the Sandberg cards of the mid-1990’s. It’s probably because I was out of baseball card collecting at this time.

Another card that’s already in my collection, but as I look over this 1982 Fleer Dick Tidrow I think to myself....can you imagine stepping to the plate to face this monster on the mound?!?

Thomas in Chicago sent an amazing box of Cubs cards. It actually deserves its own post! A new add is this Wrigley Field giveaway from June 6, 2004. Not only cool because it’s new to my collection, but it’s also my birthday!

A couple autographs from 2012 Bowman Sterling of Paul Blackburn and Pierce Johnson.

Pierce Johnson autograph from 2014 Bowman Chrome.

An in-person autograph from Michael Barrett on a 2005 Topps card.

This is new and there are not many autographs of Angel Guzman in my collection. This is a 2005 Bowman Heritage. I enjoy the “No Pepper Games” behind the signature.

Gioskar Amaya autograph from 2013 Bowman Inception. Sweet looking design. I love the clouds in the background. The autograph and Cubby blue really pops on this card.

Starlin Castro relic from 2011 Topps.

Now this is where my jaw dropped. I pulled a stack of cards and started flipping through them. Carson Sands. Carson Sands. Carson Sands. So many colors. Like a rainbow. I will have to get out the checklist and see what I am missing. I’ve never come close to a rainbow, so this is defintely the closest, and in one trade package. Wow!

Now I'll have to be on the lookout for the Carson Sands superfractor. A Cubs superfractor has also been on my most wanted list.

One Million Cubs Project Stats

Friday's (5/24/2019) Cards: 765

Friday's (5/24/2019) Packages: 5

January's Cubs Count: 9,343

February's Cubs Count: 8,980

March's Cubs Count: 15,704

April's Cubs Count: 11,651

May's Cubs Count: 6,383

Total Trades/Donations: 138

Trade States of Origin: Arizona Alabama (2)

Arkansas California (10)

Colorado Connecticut (8)

Florida (8)

Georgia (3)

Idaho (2) Illinois (14) Indiana (4)

Kansas

Kentucky (2) Maryland (6) Massachusetts (4)

Michigan Minnesota (2)

Missouri

Nebraska

New Hampshire New Jersey (10) New York (11) North Carolina (4) Ohio (6)

Oregon (2) Pennsylvania (3)

Rhode Island

South Carolina Tennessee (4) Texas (5)

Virginia Washington (4)

West Virginia (2) Wisconsin (10)

Countries of Origin

Korea (1)