The Trading Post #7: The Card Papoy

My seventh trade (which I still need to reciprocate) came from Kevin of The Card Papoy. Kevin collects mostly Blue Jays cards, and resides all the way across the pond in France. It's been said in this community before, but in a country where the basements, garages, drugstores, and hypermarkets aren't likely to contain baseball cards, he must have a hard time adding to his collection.

Kevin sent mostly mid-1990s cards of the Blake Street Bombers, such as Dante Bichette hitting off a yellow tee while wearing his trademark wraparound sunglasses.

1995 Upper Deck #175 Dante Bichette

As though this card weren't goofy enough, there's a rather shady-looking character in the background checking his mobile phone or pager (hey, this was 1995). Apparently he trusts that Bichette won't foul one back off that tee.

There were a few "hits" as well, like a Topps Certified Autograph of Rockies starter Jeff Francis.

2006 Topps Autographs Green #TA-JF Jeff Francis D

It's nice that they left so much room for the player to go wild with his signature, but I am having a hard time trying to visualize any other design with that much empty space, especially on the front. But it is an on-card autograph, rather than a hologram sticker that seems to be generally less desirable.

There were cards from numerous different years of Topps Stadium Club, a brand that Kevin seems to enjoy. In fact, he posted earlier today about the enormous 1992 set, so I'm not surprised to have found lots of TSC in this assortment. I'll have to keep that in mind before I send his trade package across the Atlantic.

2003 Stadium Club Royal Gold #59 Todd Helton

The thickness of this card made me wonder if it was some type of special parallel. If memory serves, this era of Stadium Club parallels had a refractor finish, so I looked it up to be certain. Sure enough, this is the Royal Gold parallel. Turns out I even had the base card already. This will go well alongside another card I already had of the Royal Gold variety.

2003 Stadium Club Royal Gold #65 Albert Pujols

Interestingly enough, both of my cards from this parallel set are horizontal. This is not true for all cards in 2003 Stadium Club.

Over the years, Stadium Club got to be a bit like Fleer Ultra. They always used full-bleed photographs and some type of foil, but they never really changed the designs much. You could always count on a nice-looking card, but being able to tell each year apart remains a challenge. Frankly, the same goes for some of Upper Deck's later releases.

2002 Stadium Club #9 Mike Hampton

2002 Stadium Club #30 Larry Walker

I haven't found any 2014 Stadium Club yet, but I do welcome the brand's return, especially after the long-ago demise of Fleer.

As I mentioned before, Kevin threw in lots of Blake Street Bombers, and one that particularly caught my eye was a sparkle-fest from Score Summit.

1995 Summit Nth Degree #105 Dante Bichette

1995 Summit #105 Dante Bichette

The scan of this "Nth Degree" parallel came out pretty blue, but in reality it has more of a silver appearance. As if that weren't enough, Kevin even threw in Dante Bichette's base card! For being a mid-1990s set, Score Summit is one that I don't see very often.

To wrap up this Bichette-heavy post, here's a card from one of my favorite parallel sets of all-time, 1994 Topps Gold.

1994 Topps Gold #372 Joe Girardi

My sister and I got Girardi's autograph once at the Rockies "Dugout" merchandise store in Boulder, where he was signing next to Eric Young. I remember it quite vividly. Dinger was present and up to his usual triceratops antics, I congratulated Joe on his home run the previous night, and he gave a live radio interview before heading back down to Denver for that evening's game.

Such great memories to be jogged by a stack of cards that have traveled all the way to Europe and back.