Helping Each Other Out

It's that time of the year... where it's starting to get a little chilly, peppermint is making its way into coffee, and care packages are starting to pile up.  I love it all.

With care packages... I usually try to write individual thank you posts, but at this point... I don't want the people who sent them to think I've completely forgotten about their generosity as there are two packages in my stack that I received a few weeks ago.

One was from Johnny's Trading Spot and the other was from The Diamond King.  I'm going to lump John's care package with three other blogger care packages and share them today, because they all have one thing in common: 2020 Allen & Ginter.  The Diamond King's care package will be next in line though.

Let's get this show on the road.  Right before Thanksgiving break, I wrote about my decision to build the 2020 Allen & Ginter set which was inspired by a friend who donated a 500ct. box filled with base cards and inserts.  After combining the cards from my blaster box with his, I was over 60% of the way to completing the entire 350 card base set which includes the 50 short prints.

Right after publishing that post... four bloggers offered to help me with this set build.  The first one was John over at Johnny's Trading Spot.  He sent me a huge stack of A&G cards... which I scanned a while back.  Unfortunately, I think I accidentally deleted the scans and the cards have already been collated into the set.

Don't worry.  He sent an entire flat rate mailer filled with goodies.  Here's a peak at the highlights:

My favorite card in the lot was this 1981 Fleer team sticker:

Who doesn't enjoy those Laughlin backs?  Thanks John!

The other three bloggers who assisted me with the set build were:  Elliptical Man, Dime Box Nick, and GCA.  All three of their packages arrived within a few days of each other.

First up was a PWE from Elliptical Man over at The View from the Third Floor:

He crossed off ten singles for my set build... along with two inserts I needed.

Originally, I was going to send him some hall of famers and retired player duplicates I have... along with some non-sport inserts... but he has decided against building that project.

Elliptical Man... please let me know what sort of stuff you're looking for and I'll put together a package for you.  I think this is the fourth or fifth PWE you've sent my way.  I owe you big time.  Until then... thank you for helping me with this project.

The next package was from Nick over at Dime Boxes -- The Low-end Baseball Card Collector's Journey:

He sent a huge stack of A&G... but a few were ones that were part of Johnny's package.

Let me know if you want them back Nick... otherwise I'll pay it forward to anyone else building the A&G set.  It was really nice to finally get my hands on the Tony Gwynn... as well as the Hoffman (which is one of the SP's).  In addition to the A&G set build, Nick also sent me a pair of 2017 Stadium Club cards for that set build.

And rounding out Nick's care package were a bunch of cool base, parallels, inserts, and vintage cards for my A's, Padres, and several player PC's:

The SI for Kids card was a huge addition to my MJ collection.  I'm sure I'll spotlight that card on my blog at some point.  Nick also pointed out that the three 1970 A's cards were O-Pee-Chee.  I love me some vintage OPC.  Just like I love me some memorabilia cards:

2020 Panini Absolute Rookie Threads #RT-JL

2015 Topps Update All-Star Stitches #STIT-JU

Thanks Nick!  Glad we were able to help each other out... and I'm always happy to exchange care packages with you.

Last, but certainly not least, was a padded envelope from Greg over at The Collective Mind.  He also sent me a large stack of Ginter cards... some of which I had already received from either John, Elliptical, or Nick.

However I was able to add these fifteen:

Among the base cards were the Luis Robert and Bo Bichette rookie cards... which I had assumed I would need to purchase at some point.  He also helped me out with two of the non-sports insert sets I'm building.  The Clarence Darrow is for the 1992 Starline Americana set I'm building.  I'm down to only needing three cards for that set build.

And the big surprise of the package was this R.L. Stine relic card:

2020 Allen & Ginter Relic #FSRA-RS

I can't remember if I left a comment on his blog... or if he read a comment I left on someone else's blog... but this is a relic card I was planning to eventually add to my collection.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Mr. Stine, he's the author who wrote the Goosebumps series for kids.

Back when I first started teaching... I bought a collection of these books, because the kids loved reading them.  This card reminds me of those years... which is why it's so special to me.  Thank you Greg for helping me with all of these sets... and crossing the Stine off of my want list.  Glad we were able to help each other out.

And thanks again to John, Elliptical Man, Nick, and Greg for helping me cross off a whopping 61 cards off of my want list.  That catapults me over the 78% completion mark... with only 76 cards left to go:

I'm still hoping that Topps includes a blaster of A&G with their Future Stars Club at some point... otherwise I might have to suck it up and buy a blaster off of eBay.

If anyone out there has any singles laying around, I have a ton of extras myself.  Maybe we can help each other out.

Here's a peek at the inserts I can use as well:

Well that wraps up another Mailday Monday.  Stay tuned for a couple of COMC haul posts tomorrow and Thursday.  Have a great week.  Happy Monday and sayonara!