Julie's Card-a-thon comes to a close

Today is the final day of the marathon of posts I guess I'll call Julie's Card-a-thon.  If you haven't had the chance, please check out her blog, A Cracked Bat.  I always enjoys her posts.

Today we will start with some chrome.  All solid cards, I like the Escobar card the most. I was a favorite of mine in the base set, and I think I have a couple of the parallels as well.  The Salvador Perez card is nice too as he looks really intense in the photo, which is a far cry from his happy persona.

Just look at the Emerald 2013 Topps card of Salvy.  That's more like it.  That's the one I'm use to.  I've never been one that needs to get every parallel of every card, but I believe I have a few of these Emerald ones now, so I might go after the rest.  I still prefer the base set cards though as they should be the main focus of the card companies, but thats a rant for another day.

Moving on, we have some 2011 Topps.  I really liked this set and still do.  The design might seem basic, but it works.  I don't remember having the Melky card, so that is a nice addition.  What is crazy in baseball is all the transactions in baseball.  Gregor Blanco, Melky Cabrera, and Chris Getz were all featured as Royals in 2011 sets, now 3 years later, now are on the team.  While I understand there are many reasons for this, I wish I lived in an era where players stayed on the same team for most of their career.  That's one reason I like George Brett and Derek Jeter as much as I do.  I know Jeter was able to stay a Yankee pretty easily, but its still nice to see them don the same uniform for so long.

Another player no longer a Royal is Zack Greinke.  He wanted out to go to a team with a shot at a Championship. Also for more money.  I'm not mad at him for that, it worked out for KC pretty well actually.  I would still like him to be in KC, but that's how the MLB works now.  Team loyalty went away a long time ago, and you have to do what's best for yourself.  I hope he wins a ring one day, but hope the Royals win one first.

How about some more 2012 Topps?  I'll be honest, I liked the 2011 set so much, that I didn't like this set too much.  As a matter of fact, I'm still not a big fan of them.  Though I will take them to finish the set.  I had a couple of these already, but still needed most of them.  A double dose of Frenchy, Pena sitting on the job, Johnny Gio getting to bat in a MLB game... this set had it all.  Again, lets look at the turnaround.  Moose, Crow, Escobar, and Gordon all played for KC last year, while Luke was out for the year on the KC 60 day DL.  I think Johnny was in Omaha all year.  Not too bad I guess Oh, and Salvy was obviously on the team.  Side note: Congrats to Salvy, Gordon, and Eric Hosmer on the Gold Gloves.

So only Frenchy, Melky, and Bryan Pena weren't in the Royals system last year.  Not too bad I guess.  By the way, I again love the Melky card.  He seems to have decent cards.

Here's some Flashback Friday cards.  I don't remember Felix Martinez.  This is a nice looking card though, so no complaints from me.

Another Kirk Gibson Royals card.  I like it.  Well.... I like the card, I am not a fan of the uniform selection of the card.  If you have powder blue pants, go with either a powder blue top or a white top.  I can't fault Kirk or Topps for that though.

I liked Brayan Pena when he was in KC.  I have nothing against him now, but I don't follow him anymore.  This is one of the diamond giveaway parallel card from the 2011 Topps.  I liked these when they came out, but the luster has worn off.  I'll take the base set any day.

This might be my favorite card in this package.  Sure I've spent this blog talking about my preference of base over inserts and parallels, but much like opening a pack of cards, find an insert is a bonus.  This was a nice bonus.  I hope myself and the rest of MLB haven't put Yordano on too high of a pedastal and expect too much from him.  Though having said that, it will sting less losing James Shields knowing we have Ace Ventura and Brandon Finnegan.

On the flip side is Kyle Zimmer.  He hasn't been a bust yet, but he hasn't been able to break through.  Last week it was announced he is having another surgery and will be out for at least the first part of next year.  His window of opportunity is closing.  Having said that, this is a nice addition to have.  Die cut cards have never been my thing, but it seems to be the hip thing now, so I don't plan on not collecting them.

I even got some hologram stickers!  I have some of these but non of the Royals.  I plan on using one of these on one of my binders and keeping the other intact.

Here's another Johnny Damon card I didn't have.  It's odd seeing him in a Royals uniform but being an Oakland card.  That reminds me that while I have been slow on updating the Royals checklist, I have fallen way behind on my Damon, Brett, and Maddux collections.

Speaking of which, how nice is this George Brett.  That's how a powder blue uniform should look.  The Triple Threads have an incredibly think card stock.  I was surprised when I first saw them.  This is a nice design and overall a nice cards.

We close up the Card-a-thon with Greg Maddux.  If you read Julie's blog you have seen this card before.  As a matter of fact, this is how the entire trade started (which I promise I will send something soon).  I fell in love with this card and when I held it in my hands it felt even better.  I can't wait to display it with my other Maddux cards.  I don't think I have very many #'d Maddux cards, so this was sweet to get.

Thank you again Julie for the great cards.  I don't think I have anything that will get you as excited as I was when I opened these packages up.

That will wrap it up today, but I still have another package to show off, and a few Listia wins I'll be showing in the coming days.  Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.