It Pays to Comment

If you're a blogger and you're like me, then you love it when someone leaves a comment on a post.  It's like being in 5th grade all over again and finding a note from the girl you like in your Pee Chee folder.  Okay... maybe I'm getting a little carried away... but all joking aside... it's nice to see that someone has taken the time to read your post and reply.

Johnny over at Johnny's Trading Spot must feel the same way.  Earlier in the year he held a contest and apparently I was one of the winners, because I took the time to leave a comment on one of his posts.

That's not really a chore, because I really enjoy his Shadow Shots series and of course reading all of the posts involving the Big Deal he acquired back in May.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, do yourself a favor and head over there.  I have never seen so many cool oddball issues before.  He's been slowly sifting through his epic haul and he's taking his readers along for the ride.

Here's a quick snapshot at the goodies he has so generously shared with me:

He sent me a medium sized flat rate box filled to the brim with stuff.  There were hundreds of Oakland Athletics cards in these newspaper wrapped packs.  

Here are a few of the ones that made it into the binders:

There was even one of those Topps Oakland A's Surf Detergent books from the 80's:

If you're not familiar with these books, they're really cool.  It includes a photo of every regular issue Athletics card produced by Topps from 1952 to 1987.  But one of my favorite things about this book is the list of every single player who ever wore an Athletics jersey.  I never realized that guys like Jay Johnstone, Lenn Sakata, and Johnnie LeMaster donned the green and gold.

Johnny also added some cool oddballs for my Japanese PC:

Here are two 1993 Takara team sets.  These were part of a baseball game, which according to Cardboard Connection is similar to Strat-O-Matic.

Another cool item he included was this Yomiuri Giants postcard set.  I think it's from the 90's based on some of the other stuff that Johnny sent, but I could be wrong.

He also included some unopened packs of 1995 Godzilla trading cards that seem to be from Japan:

Maybe one of these days, I'll finally get around to posting something over on A Pack to Be Named Later. When I do... I'll probably choose one of these packs, because I'm dying to see what the cards look like.

Rounding out the contest winnings are these three Zatch Bell spell books:

I have no idea what these are, but I'll probably open one and check out the special card that's included inside... then hand the other two out to my students as prizes.

Thank you Johnny for this generous prize package.  I had a lot of fun looking through everything two weekends ago.

Okay... time for me to pay it forward.  Next weekend, I'll be going to a card show at the Serramonte Mall.  It's actually more of a collectibles show with ten to twenty card dealers.  Anyways anyone who leaves a comment down below will be entered into this Pay It Forward/It Pays to Comment Contest.

What do you win?  Well... I'll spend at least $20 on stuff for your PC, so do me a favor and include a list of teams (or players) you collect in the comment section.

When does the contest end?  Let's wrap things up by Friday at 9am PST.   I'll reveal the winner in my Friday (or Saturday morning) post.

That's it.  Happy Monday and sayonara!