Easter Giddiness

The Oakland A's and San Diego Padres have each dropped three in a row.  And the San Jose Sharks lost on Friday night.

Despite the recent struggles of three of my favorite sports teams, this weekend has been pretty rock solid.  Yesterday, I went to the flea market, found some vendors with cards, and added a few things to my collection which I'll post later in the week.

And this morning, before heading out to Easter brunch, I spent over an hour opening up two care packages and sorting cards.  It made me feel as giddy as a little kid hunting for Easter eggs.

Here's what I discovered...

Package #1: ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession

Adam sent me a small flat rate box stuffed with goodies.  There were nine cards I needed for my 1986 Donruss set:

I'm down to needing only 34 more cards... and the Jerry Koosman was the final Diamond King I needed.

There was also a partial 1988 Mother's Cookies A's set, which featured a ton of star power:

Seeing the likes of the Bash Brothers, Stew, Eck, and the Cobra reminded me just how loaded those late 80's Athletics rosters were.

Speaking of the Bash Brothers, Adam loaded me up with inserts and oddballs of both guys:

Plus he included a bunch of other A's base cards, inserts, parallels, rookie cards, and oddballs for the collection.

I'll start building a nice San Francisco Giants care package for you... plus I should be able to return the favor and help you with some of those Hometown Heroes insert sets you're building.  Stay tuned Adam.

Package #2:  Nomo's Sushi Platter

A few weeks ago, Michael hit me up on Twitter (@SpiegelMichael) about the possibility of working out a trade.  I explained that I'd be down for a blind trade if he was willing to wait a few weeks until my Spring Break.

He was... and last week I received his trade package that included a little bit of everything... starting with two new Hideo Nomos for my binder:

He also sent me a bunch of "hits" for my Japanese baseball player collection:

In addition to the "hits", he also brightened up my day with some refractor "shine":

Next up are some Oakland Athletics' "hits":

And a pair of IP or TTM autographs:

And rounding things out were a handful of Steve Carlton and Tony Gwynn inserts:

Thank you Michael and Adam for these generous packages.  I had a blast sifting through the cards, putting them into my binders, and scanning them for my website.  My goal is to have your packages in the mail by the end of the week.

Happy Easter and sayonara!