The Trading Post #123: All Trade Bait, All The Time

It's curious that I seem to do a lot more blogging in the winter months than when baseball season is actually going on. There is a lot to talk about with games every day, but I think baseball itself keeps my interest in the summer. It's during the offseason when I turn to these little cardboard rectangles to keep me going. That, and I like spending more of my free time outdoors when the weather is nice.

We all know Rogers Hornsby's famous quote about what he does during the offseason: "I stare out the window and wait for spring." Well, cards are as good a window as anything.

My notes say this trade package from All Trade Bait, All The Time arrived around the 4th of July. So this is a long overdue post. And there are plenty more overdue posts to come.

1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond #436 Henry Rodriguez

Most of this package consisted of shiny Dodgers. I can't say I'm the biggest fan of the Dodgers, but shiny cards are shiny cards. Leading off are a couple 1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond cards. Outfielder Henry Rodriguez is doing his very best Ken Griffey, Jr. against a very dark background. It has to be one of the darkest cards in the whole set. The horizontal orientation makes the most of the design in the main area, but it causes the inset version of the same photo in the lower left to look that much more squished.

The foil on these isn't just silver; it looks a little like the 2014 Stadium Club Rainbow Foil cards. Slightly less sparkly, slightly more noticeable. The back is unchanged, and has another posed shot of Rodriguez decked out in Dodger blue warm-up gear. UD was going for a Studio look with this card.

1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond #266 Cory Snyder

Cory Snyder's card, on the other hand, is more traditional-looking. Instead of being squished, the inset photo is comically elongated. An astrophysicist might say it is "spaghettified", the colorful term used to describe what happens if you fall into a black hole.

The lanky outfielder is shown standing on a base, flanked by the Cardinals' Luis Alicea on his left, and an unidentified Cardinal on his right, possibly first baseman Gregg Jefferies, who is sharing an intimate moment with Snyder's right leg.

It's pretty difficult to make out on this card, but we can just barely see the memorial patches that the Dodgers wore in the '93 season. On his right sleeve is a patch remembering both Don Drysdale and Roy Campanella, who both died in midsummer 1993. And on his left sleeve is a black patch of #52 for Tim Crews, a teammate who died in the same preseason boating accident that took Steve Olin's life. 1993 was a dark year for the Dodgers organization.

2011 Topps Lineage Diamond Anniversary Refractors #59 Duke Snider

Both Campanella and Drysdale were teammates of Duke Snider back in Brooklyn. This shiny card from 2011 Topps Lineage, one of my favorite sets with retired players, shows Snider taking some swings in the cage, long before batting helmets and batting gloves. This shininess came from Topps' Diamond Anniversary, which was already eight years ago. Not sure if they'll do anything for their 70th, but the 75th is traditionally diamonds again. Buckle up for 2026.

The card back doesn't have any photos or stat lines, just a bold color and a quick paragraph. Snider's mentions his membership in the Hall of Fame, in the context of the superstar New York outfielders that were his contemporaries, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, both of whom made it to the Hall before Snider.

2012 Topps Gold Sparkle #253 Tim Federowicz

Topps expanded the shiny color palette a bit in 2012, offering this Gold Sparkle parallel. Upon close examination, the Topps logo and the two foil lines surrounding the "surfboard" are a slightly lighter shade of gold than the rest of the card. Nothing is different about the RC logo, the first of journeyman catcher Tim Federowicz' career. The card back tells us that he and then-prospect Ryan Lavarnway progressed through the Red Sox farm system together. I can't say I know too much about either of those guys.

Federowicz and Matt Kemp were traded to the Padres shortly after the 2014 Winter Meetings, and the Dodgers got longtime catcher Yasmani Grandal as part of that trade. Grandal just signed a one-year deal with the Brewers, opening up the catcher slot in LA for Russell Martin to return. It seems that Federowicz will keep bouncing around the league as a third-stringer.

2015 Topps Update Chrome #US280 Mike Bolsinger

I only have about four cards from 2015 Topps Update Chrome, but I have a desire to someday complete it. It's come to me via trade a few times, and I'm still on the lookout for more. It's really one of the sparkliest of sparkly sets that Topps has ever done. It actually works pretty darn well with the 2015 design, especially with those rows of tiny dots at the bottom. The "Future Stars" wording at the top does fade into the design a bit. But that's OK, because Mike Bolsinger hasn't quite developed into a star. I think he was on my fantasy team briefly, but he hasn't played in the Majors since 2017. Right now he's overseas playing in Japan.

1997 Topps Awesome Impact #AI-6 Todd Hollandsworth

Our next shiny card delves back much further into the Topps vault, all the way back to 1997. Maybe it was printed in advance of the annual awards, but this card doesn't say a darn thing about Todd Hollandsworth winning NL Rookie of the Year in 1996, capping off a run of five straight Dodgers to win that award.

What we're seeing here is an insert card from 1997 Topps Awesome Impact. There are all sorts of shapes visible in the background, and a larger-than-usual Topps logo. He's even wearing Cory Snyder's #28 from a few cards back. There was another Dodgers commemorative patch for '96, which Hollandsworth has on his left sleeve. It marked the 35th season the Dodgers played in Dodger Stadium, beginning in 1962. They played in the LA Memorial Coliseum for several years after leaving Brooklyn, which hosted an NFL playoff game just yesterday, where the LA Rams beat the Dallas Cowboys.

That blows my mind a little bit. I'm turning 35 this year, and it doesn't really seem like that much time. In my mind, the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn was ancient history, but 1996, the 35th year of Dodger Stadium, feels very recent. It's also surprising when you look at the context of this set, which featured top young stars like Scott Rolen, Derek Jeter, Andruw Jones, Billy Wagner, Chipper Jones, Mariano Rivera, and more. The checklist looks more like this year's Hall of Fame ballot than a list of up and comers.

That's the Awesome Impact for me right now, realizing how long ago the mid-'90s were. Even Todd Hollandsworth's time as a Rockie is coming up on two decades ago.

1999 Black Diamond Triple #42 Chan Ho Park /1500

Let's bump it up a couple years to 1999, an even twenty years ago. Upper Deck debuted their Black Diamond set that year, which came in a few parallel varieties. If you can look past the bright gold color, you'll spot three diamonds in the upper left, signifying this is a "Triple Diamond". Base cards just have a single black diamond in that area, and I would assume a similar pattern for the Double and Quadruple varieties.

It doesn't really jump out at you, but there is a large black serial number on the back, #675 out of 1,500. It's a nice card of the first Korean player in the Majors.

1999 Flair Showcase Row 1 #15 Kevin Brown /1500

Our final Dodgers card of this post carries an equal degree of scarcity, this time printed in gold right on the front. From what I can tell about this fractured set, The Row 1 Showpiece cards appear to be the scarcest, uh, cycle(?), other than the traditional parallels.

At the time, Kevin Brown's mark of 46 postseason strikeouts in 1998 was an all-time record, according to the card back. It's been eclipsed a few times since then, most notably by Curt Schilling in 2001. What's even more interesting about this card is that it compares Brown's stats through 1998 with Don Drysdale's through 1963. They had surprisingly similar statistics in their careers, though Brown pitched into his 40s and Drysdale hung up his spikes at just 32. He retired young, just like Sandy Koufax. One wonders what would have happened if guys like Drysdale and Koufax got the benefit of modern surgical techniques.

2000 Metal Talent Show #TS15 Ben Petrick

That does it for the division rivals, but my fellow trader was nice enough to throw a couple Rockies in the stack. This is one of the more tame-looking cards from Skybox Metal, the final one from the Talent Show insert checklist. The players in it are about what you'd expect for a prospect-heavy collection, a few guys you've never heard of, others that had some playing time like Erubiel Durazo and Ben Petrick, plus some bigger stars like Alfonso Soriano and A.J. Burnett.

The Cardsphere has a healthy appreciation for Ben Petrick, and it's surprising how often I see his cards. Not a ton of other Rockies from this era show up in my mailbox so consistently besides the obvious ones like Larry Walker and Todd Helton.

2018 Topps Heritage #348 German Marquez

Back to current times, this year's Topps Heritage gave us the 1969 design. Night Owl just got a ton of these, a surprising number of which depicted players without hats. German Marquez, one of my frequent Topps Now subjects, does indeed have a hat, as well as a giant Topps All-Star Rookie trophy. He's not actually an All-Star yet, but there's the trophy nonetheless. It's a pretty basic design, and the Rockies existence translates well to the retro design.

The card back uses some archaic terms, sort of like that Don Newcombe card I got from Night Owl. We're told that Marquez "emerged as a reliable moundsman in 2017". Spellcheck does not recognize that word, nor have I ever heard anyone refer to a pitcher that way. But by leading the Rockies in strikeouts, clearly his "slants" are solid.

We're less than three months away from the baseball season, and I can't wait to see this moundsman challenge his own record for whiffs in 2019.

The Trading Post #108: All Trade Bait, All The Time

It was my own fault, I suppose.

Here I was, mentally acknowledging that I actually felt, you know, good. Happy. Content. And of course that lasted all of about eight minutes, because I had unwittingly tempted fate. Following that thought, what did Blogger decide to do to cut me back down to size than to overwrite a completed post when I was uploading the images with a completely blank draft?

Thanks, autosave.

So please forgive me if this second draft isn't as cheerful or well-written as the first.

But that doesn't change the fact that a fellow blogger, specifically All Trade Bait, All The Time, sent a PWE as part of his Operation Cardboard Christmas initiative. There are several piles on my side table from the usual generous bloggers, including one from Nachos Grande that I haven't even opened yet. But it's the holiday season, and I decided to let this Christmas-themed one jump the line a little bit.

1998 Topps #274 Andres Galarraga IL

The Winter Solstice happened just three days ago, and the days are finally getting longer. It still gets pretty dark at a quarter to five, but the trend is heading in the right direction toward its astronomical opposite, the Summer Solstice, a date that this Topps subset card is only three days removed from. (Yes, I ended a sentence in "from". Deal with it). Interleague play was a big change for the 1997 season, but the way this particular game played out is pretty much what you'd expect for one played at Coors Field.

Heading into the bottom of the ninth with a three run lead is a good situation to find yourself in. But sometimes things don't go your way, and that inning on June 18th, 1997 got away from Rangers' All-Star closer John Wetteland rather quickly. An early error let the leadoff runner on, and after he allowed another batter to reach, Andres Galarraga promptly evened the score at 9 with a three-run homer before an out had been recorded.

As this card tells us, the Rockies kept the Blake Street magic going the rest of the inning, loading the bases, still without recording an out, until the sharp-eyed Walt Weiss came up and drew a walk, forcing in the winning run. As the Rangers' win probability continued to fall of a cliff, that walk elevated the score to 10-9, elevated John Wetteland's ERA accordingly, and led Topps to document the occasion on their first of two straight gold-bordered sets.

That was just the sixth Interleague game in Rockies history, and just the second at home. You can spot an empty Rockies dugout behind the Big Cat's power stroke, and his pinstripes further cement this as a Coors Field card. To my eye, this looks better than a lot of the base cards in 1998 Topps, partially because it's a lot more readable. I do have one gripe, which is that the home team is usually listed on the right, opposite to this card's design. But that's the only point of confusion, as the pinstripes, stadium, and wild 9th inning pretty obviously locate this in a pre-humidor Coors Field.

1997 Upper Deck #197 Vinny Castilla GI

Vinny Castilla was on base during the above scenario, drawing an intentional walk two batters after Galarraga's homer. Remember those? When pitchers had to throw four actual pitches to put a batter on? Those were the good ol' days. And perhaps went just a little further in rattling Wetteland that day than if his manager could do it with a gesture.

Anyway, Galarraga's fellow Blake Street Bomber appeared on another subset card, this time from 1997 Upper Deck, shiny but somehow devoid of copper. I once opened a box of '97 UD, and these Global Impact subset cards were everywhere. I seriously wonder if they were double printed. My fellow blogger must have experienced the same, as he sent me Larry Walker's card in a previous trade. That covers the countries to America's north and south, Walker being from Canada and Castilla from Mexico, even though his card looks more like the Italian flag. You can just barely make out the central eagle feature of the Mexican flag under his left shoulder.

2005 Bowman #56 Jeff Francis

If Bowman International parallels existed in 2005, this one could have had the Maple Leaf behind Jeff Francis, giving us a nice tour of the world's flags. But this is a base card, one with a nice splash of red on the sides. I guess you could sort of pretend that's the Canadian flag. Jeff Francis didn't appear in a Major League game before 2004, but seven appearances that season was enough to qualify him as a veteran in 2005 Bowman, earning these red accents on his card instead of the usual blue for prospects.

I will never really understand Bowman, try as I might.

His photo on the back caught my eye, as it's pretty similar to his 2005 Diamond Kings card, sent by Daniel. In that, Francis is pictured wearing Canada's World Baseball Classic jersey along with his Rockies cap. At the time, I guessed that was an artist's rendering, perhaps to drum up interest in the first-ever WBC in 2006. But Francis has the same jersey on the back of this 2005 card, leading me to assume that it must have been taken during a qualifying round.

Canada never had much success in the World Baseball Classic, which was created in the wake of the International Olympic Committee's 2005 decision to remove baseball following the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The sport was absent from both the London and Rio games, but it will be making a return in Tokyo 2020, surely thanks to the increasing global popularity of baseball. Israel was a favorite underdog in the 2017 WBC, and it's even gaining traction Down Under. I hope the WBC continues in 2021 and beyond, and I think it's important to keep interest going, which was part of the reason that baseball was removed from the Olympic lineup in the first place.

I can't say I fully agree with the IOC's original decision, as there is lots of interest in the sport outside of the USA. "World" Series jokes aside, both Japan and Korea have highly competitive leagues, and the first three players in this post are from three different countries, Venezuela, Mexico, and Canada to be specific.

2016 Topps Archives #174 Tom Murphy (RC)

Tom Murphy adds the USA to that list, and he's a catcher prospect that the Rockies keep banking on.

The two big news stories this offseason are the Angels signing Japanese star Shohei Ohtani, and yet another Marlins fire sale. But in case you missed some of the more minor news, the Rockies are bringing back Chris Iannetta for 2018, penciling him in as the primary catcher. Veterans Jonathan Lucroy and Ryan Hanigan became free agents when 2017 ended, and it doesn't look like the Rockies are pursuing either of them. But no one can catch 162 games, so that means that Murphy and Tony Wolters will be the backups.

The batter's eye at the Salt River Fields practice facilities, Spring Training home of both the Rockies and Diamondbacks, is becoming a frequent sight on their Topps cards, especially in sets with lots of posed shots like Heritage and Archives. This 1979-esque card will go along nicely with several other cards from 2016 Topps Heritage. I just hope that Murphy starts showing up in the lineup as often as he appears in my collection.

2017 Topps Gypsy Queen #19a David Dahl (RC)

The Rockies outfielder situation, as usual, is a lot clearer. Even with the likely departure of Carlos Gonzalez, David Dahl and Raimel Tapia are waiting in the wings, and there has to be somewhere to put them. Topps is already mentioning Dahl in the same breath with retired legend Todd Helton. Both Dahl and Helton turned in .315 batting averages in their rookie year, which is about the extent of what's on the back of this sparse Gypsy Queen design.

2017 Topps Gypsy Queen Green #24 Adam Ottavino

In addition to that GQ base card, this green parallel arrived, which is a bit better centered than the Tapia card that Scott sent in a recent trade. Surprisingly, even though this appears to be precisely the same thickness as Dahl's card above, it feels a lot sturdier.

I have seen a few examples of this year's Gypsy Queen set, but I didn't truly notice the gentle rainbow gradient at the bottom of the design. Somehow the green border made it a little easier for my eye to catch. On the photo side, GQ tends to be hit or miss for me. This one is quite nice, and the shadows aren't obviously highlighted, unlike a particular Ben Zobrist card that I haven't quite been able to forget.

Ottavino had a rough season in 2017, but that was largely due to one rough road outing against the Dodgers. We started this post with that theme, where John Wetteland gave up four runs without recording an out in the middle of what was otherwise a pretty solid season. There's just no telling what will happen on any given day, and it doesn't even need to be in Coors Field. I'll kindly remind you that both roller coaster games in the 2017 World Series took place at sea level.

Depending on what happens with Greg Holland, Adam Ottavino is likely to play a larger role in the 2018 Rockies bullpen, despite his rough patch last year. The team as a whole is set to look quite a bit different next year, with numerous players throughout the talent range hitting free agency. Holland, CarGo, and Lucroy I already mentioned, Mark Reynolds is still on the market, and Tyler Chatwood and Pat Neshek have already signed on with other clubs. There's still lots of young and retained talent; I just hope that reaching the 2017 Wild Card game isn't the high water mark for the next decade.

The Rockies still have some work to do this offseason. But not right now. It's the Holidays, and I hope the Rockies and their front office are all set to spend some quality time with friends and family.

And I wish the same for you.

Just like I did the first time I wrote this.

The Trading Post #96: All Trade Bait, All The Time

Dante Bichette always wore #10.

1997 Upper Deck #60 Dante Bichette

Except during the occasional Spring Training game, as pictured on this copper-heavy 1997 Upper Deck card.

I know a lot of people talk about 1993 Upper Deck as one of the best sets of the entire overproduction era, but all the little details, dates, and tidbits found on the 1997 set really appeal to me. Thanks to that little white line of text, we know the exact date that Dante Bichette suited up with #8. It's an appropriate card for today, which happens to be Jackie Robinson Day. Every Major League player wore #42 today, in honor of the player who famously broke the color barrier seventy years ago.

It can be a bit confusing to the casual baseball fan to watch when everyone is wearing the same number. But it's probably even more confusing to rabid fans when regular players are not wearing their normal number. On rare occasions, the uniform even has a mind of its own, as a number fell off a jersey mid-pitch during a recent Minor League game.

2017 Topps #152 Nolan Arenado LL

You can't quite make out Arenado's number on his League Leader card for 2016 NL Home Runs, but he wears #28, something I'm reminded of every day when I open my closet door and see his jersey. Just like in 2015, Arenado finished the season tied for the lead in home runs. In 2015, his 42 shots were on par with Bryce Harper, and he almost equaled that total in 2016, tying Chris Carter with 41. Since then, Topps decided to feature single-player league leader cards for the 2017 set, rather different from the three-player cards they had been using for quite a while.

Of course, that brings up the question of what to do about ties. Arenado played second fiddle to Harper on the 2016 card, but pretty much took over the entire 2017 card, getting the featured photo, team color coding on the back, and the first listing at the head of the top-ten list.

Maybe one of these seasons he will have the lead all to himself.

2017 Topps #17 Daniel Descalso

Daniel Descalso didn't lead any categories in 2016, nor is he even a Rockie in 2017. He migrated southwest in the offseason to sign with the Arizona Diamondbacks, so as a member of the NL West, he's sure to remain a familiar face to Rockies fans. He's no stranger to the division, either. Judging by those yellow seats, this shot came from Dodger Stadium, and offers one of the final images on cardboard of the Rockies' old shade of purple.

This Descalso card came from a recent PWE from All Trade Bait, All The Time, one of the many Dodgers fans in the Cardsphere. My Rockies and his Dodgers square off frequently, and the Dodgers were even the visiting team for the Rockies' home opener last weekend. The Rockies are on the road for now, playing in San Francisco. Tyler Chatwood turned in a marvelous pitching performance today, a complete game shutout, and he was perfect through 5.2 innings.

2017 Topps #311 Tyler Chatwood

Speaking of Chatwood, I didn't have this card originally selected when I started this post. But after that shutout against the Giants on the road, I gave it a second thought and decided to include it. I'm probably nearing completion of the Rockies team set in 2017 Topps by now, and while it may not go down in history as one of the great all-time designs, it is starting to grow on me. Especially that beautiful purple on the back.

2013 Topps #461 Drew Pomeranz

Like Descalso, Drew Pomeranz has moved on, even venturing to an entirely different league. An All-Star last year with the Padres, he now pitches for Boston. He built up a dismal 4-14 record in three seasons with the Rockies, but has turned things around since leaving Denver, good enough for about a .500 record in recent seasons.

And that's not a bad Coors Field card in the 2013 set, statistically likely to have been taken during one of his nine losses in 2012.

2016 Topps Chrome Youth Impact #Y-I5 Jon Gray

Jon Gray took the hill three times so far this season for the Rockies, but was pulled early from Friday's game after aggravating a foot injury. Turns out he has a broken bone in his foot and is likely to miss more than a month. The Rockies are still in second place, not that unusual for the month of April, but the injuries are piling up at an alarming rate. Trevor Story is off to a slow start, many of the names that sportswriters picked as key players for the 2017 Rockies are injured, and if not for strong starting and relief pitching, a surprising performance by Mark Reynolds, and Tyler Chatwood's complete game shutout, things would be looking pretty bad.

At least Jon Gray can spend the next month admiring this awesome insert card from 2016 Topps Chrome. It could easily pass for a Topps Finest card, shows off his uniform number 55 perfectly, and evokes images of stained-glass windows. The color scheme is muted a bit on the back, but this will be an eye-catching specimen no matter which direction I display it in the binder.

I always like writing with a ballgame on, but especially so when I can write about a trade during a Rockies win. April is a fun month for Rockies fans, no matter what the uniform numbers say.

The Trading Post #83: All Trade Bait, All The Time

Even after 82 posts under The Trading Post theme, I am still making connections with new bloggers. All Trade Bait, All The Time is the latest to be added to the list. I claimed a card from a stack he offered up, thus earning a spot in his "Operation PWE". The card arrived a few weeks ago, along with a handful of other Rockies.

1997 Upper Deck #182 Larry Walker GI

I've actually opened some packs of 1997 Upper Deck, a product I found on sale at Dave & Adam's a couple years ago. I always liked the copper-heavy set, and the frequent use of actual dates on the card front. This subset, however, always confused me a bit. They definitely have the look of inserts, but are just part of the main checklist. They seem to be quite plentiful, making me wonder if some of them were double-printed. And the write-up on the back, in this case talking about Canada and its contribution to Major League Baseball, is only a partial paragraph, continued on card 183. I do have card 183 already, so I was able to see the final word of Walker's write-up, which is "season", before leading into the next player's write up.

It's a little bit like those articles where you have to click to a second page to see the final eight words. But it's nice and shiny, and I can't stay mad at a shiny card for long.

1997 Pacific #291 Larry Walker

Keeping the international theme going, Walker appears on another shiny card from Pacific, which means that this card is primarily written in Spanish, with English as a secondary language. Two-run homer translates into "cuadrangular de 2 carreras".

I grew up with Pacific cards much more than the Canadian O-Pee-Chee brand, whose cards contained both French and English. Especially living in Colorado, I've had way more exposure to Spanish as a foreign language. I even took four years of it in middle and high school. I can't speak it worth a darn, but I can usually get the general gist of a written paragraph.

I guess this card really isn't all that shiny other than the gold foil. Pacific loved their gold foil, and the vertical name on the left seems to have influenced 1999 Fleer Tradition.

1995 Score Hall of Gold #HG63 Ellis Burks

To go along with the Dante Bichette Hall of Gold card that Brian sent me a while ago, I now have Ellis Burks' card from the same set. This insert set was large enough that numerous Rockies made it in, and while there's a bit of fragility around the edges, the gold stripe through the middle of the card breaks up this action shot well. He's sporting some great flip-down shades on the back, which also mentions that he was the NL Player of the Month in 1994.

This didn't happen until later, but Burks became the first Rockie to enter the 30-30 club. In fact, three Rockies hit that milestone in two seasons, but it hasn't happened at Coors Field since.

2003 Upper Deck #545 Dontrelle Willis

A Marlin or two made their way into this envelope, with Dontrelle Willis showing off his high leg kick. He was an exciting pitcher to watch, and he was decent at the plate, too. This Upper Deck card is from his first season, in which he won the NL Rookie of the Year. He followed that up with an even better 2005 season, finishing with a 22-10 record. But the wheels started to come off after that, as his next two seasons in Florida were rather mediocre. He was traded to Detroit after that (along with Miguel Cabrera for a slew of prospects), but never regained his former glory.

He wasn't a complete bust by any stretch, but he did peak rather early. He'd probably still be on the hill now if his career took a different trajectory.

2016 Topps Allen & Ginter #32 Falcon 9 Rocket

And now we come to the main event, the card I originally requested. It's a great inanimate object from the always-entertaining Allen & Ginter set. The Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX's crown jewel, has had numerous successful launches (and a few failures), but it was just about a year ago that they finally managed to safely land the first stage after a launch. This card does not make mention of that historic feat, but it will go well with some of my other space cards.

Elon Musk knows that reusability is the key to bringing down the astronomical (pun intended) cost of space travel. The Space Shuttle certainly had that concept down, and the solid rocket boosters (the side ones) were reused as well as the shuttle itself, but it ended up being a rather dangerous vehicle, and was never launched with anywhere near the frequency originally intended. It took several tries, but SpaceX is now consistently able to actively guide the first stage back home safely, saving millions of dollars. They've even landed them out at sea.

One fun fact that Musk likes to point out is that the average airline ticket would be about $1.5 million if they had to build a new plane for every flight. Again, I wish the card mentioned something about this, but I'm glad to have it in my collection.

And I got to add a few Rockies along with it.