A Surprise from Mario

Continuing on with the mailbox bounty postings, here's some good stuff I received from Mario over at Wax Heaven. I'm not sure exactly what I sent his way to warrant this package, but there's been plenty of packages going back and forth between Georgia and Florida at any rate. My current Marlins pile is starting to get fat so there will have to be another one going south soon. Here's what came in a well protected package filled with lots of top loaders.

2001 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Chipper Jones Home Opener Souvenirs Base

Now this is a memorabilia card. Fluffy clouds, bunting, a future Hall of Famer and the card itself is thick as a brick. Seriously, the card is thicker than an entire pack of Bowman Chrome. The relic piece is from a base, which is kind of weird, but if you look at the back things get a little better.

There's not only a picture of the actual base, but they have listed the exact game where it was used. Not a good game unfortunately, as the Mets pounded the Braves in the home opener at Shea. It's still pretty unique and it's cool to see the exact game the relic was taken from. My Chipper collection just increased by one which is highly appreciated.

Some 2008 Bowman

There's a few Bowman cards in the package including a Quentin Davis prospect card that I don't think I had. Quentin just won a Southern League Championship with the Mississippi Braves, but he looks like he has a lot of work to do before he'll be called up to the bigs. Along with these two there's also a Bowman card of...

Greg Maddux!

Ah, Mario understands that for a few players it doesn't matter what uniform they are wearing, they are always a Brave. Maddux is definitely one of those players. He's practically a Brave here anyway. Just take the R in Padres, move it after the P, add an extra bump to the P to make it a B, then mangle the D until it looks like a V and you've got Braves. There's four Maddux cards in here, including three from Chrome.

Heritage Chrome!!

If I had unlimited money and time the Heritage Chrome set would be one I would chase down a card at a time. The Chrome cards really look good with the '59 design. I'm kind of worried about next year's set though, I love the 1960 design, but I remember seeing some Chrome Wrestling cards that also used the '60 design and they were not attractive. Might be the wrestling guys on 'em, or maybe they were just plain ugly. The jury's out on that one, we'll just have to wait and see. One card that looks absolutely awesome though is the...

Blue Refractor!!!

Daaaaaaaamn these cards look nice! Even the photo with a stone faced Greg about to get caught in a storm at spring training looks good when it's blue refractorized. I want to go out and buy a box of Chrome now just for the blues. But wait, there's...

Even More Chrome

Here's a good chunk of the Braves team set for Chrome. I know I didn't have the Blanco RC yet, I'll have to double check on the rest. There's a nice Xfractor of Francoeur too, just in time for a good September for Frenchy. April through August? BARF. Don't be surprised if Jeff is sporting a Royals jersey next year. KC GM Dayton Moore was part of the Braves organization that drafted Jeff and there's talk that they might be willing to give up a starter like Greinke or Bannister for a shot at Francoeur's potential. After this terrible year, it might be worth it for the Bravos if they can get a solid starter. Lord knows erratic hitting outfielders are much easier to come by than arms nowadays.

A few Goudeys for good measure

I've got the whole Braves team set from 08 Goudey, but now I can work on all those slightly different shaded backs for another team set. Plus where there's Goudeys, there's...

Mini Cards!!!!!

Yeah! I love the Yesco mini and I really love A&G mini cards. Tex? Not so much. Black borders? Oh yass. Two more for the binder right there.

Thanks for the swag, Mario! You might see some Marlins coming your way before too long.