Tradin' with Troll

It's a rare thing for me to post trades, let alone two days in a row, but that's what I'm doing today. I shared my end of a trade with GCRL yesterday and today I'm showing off what the always giving Collective Troll sent my way.

The best part of the box that Troll sent was that he included cards/items for both me and Kalina. She did a guest blogging post to thank him a couple weeks back and now it's my turn. I have to start out with the more surprising and unusual items he included.



Like these two 14 year old starting lineup Orioles figures. My dad and I collected most of the Cal SL figures, but we never expanded to the other Orioles. These two have piqued my interest into possibly collecting all of the Orioles who were featured. But in addition to my bobbleheads, shelf space is a bit tight around the house already so I might need approval from Kalina before I start on this one...

He also threw in a few Cal card "packs" from the heyday of card production when you could buy cards in cans, tins, barrels, coffee mugs, and water bottles. Of course I kid, but only slightly.

Troll also threw in some awesome vintage O's and many of my 2009 Topps & Heritage set needs.

As I mentioned at the top of the post, Kalina already thanked the Troll for her cards, but we didn't have anything scanned at that point.

He included this awesome Nyjer Morgan autograph,

some really nice Carlos Pena cards, including this bat relic, and a HUGE stack of Scott Kazmir cards, including probably 10-15 jersey patches. 

THANK YOU so much Troll. This was an amazing trade package and we have a box with your name on it set to go out, hopefully by this weekend. Oh, and congrats on being a new grandpa! Atlas is a lucky boy!

My Turn to Thank big D

Kalina did a great job with her guest post yesterday, but I still have to throw in my two cents on this one. big D deserves two posts for his kindness!


I have seen custom cards from big D and others pop up over other blogs, but this was the first time that any were sent my way. It was extremely kind of him to make these cards for both Kalina and me and I now have a totally unique Matt Wieters card. Believe me, there's no way I could ever afford a 1/1 of Wieters that was put out by a card company, so this is now the gem of my collection. The only question now is, do I keep it as is, or try to get it signed?

It's amazing and extremely kind of him to have done this for us. big D-Kalina has talked about doing a guest post on here for 6 months, but never fully had the motivation until she received the Nyjer Morgan card that you made for her. We are both blown away by your kindness and skill!


Not only did big D send us both a custom card of our favorite players, but he also sent a few additional Nyjer cards for Kalina and some cards from my set needs list as well.

You are truly the man, big D. I highly suggest that everyone immediately check out his blog, Hey That's Mine, if you somehow haven't found it yet.

Nats Picnic in the Park And Get Well Nyjer!

I wanted to lead with something about Nyjer Morgan but couldn't make it sound right, but I promised Kalina that I would post about Nyjer, our pictures of him, and his ill-timed injury this week.

This post is going to showcase the pictures and autographs that I got two Saturdays ago at the Nats Picnic in the Park autograph/meet the team event, highlighted by Mr. Morgan.

Who's that guy? It's Nyjer!

He was very cool and even knew a little bit about baseball cards; mentioning both Upper Deck and Topps to us as the Nationals assistant next to him kept trying to get us to have his Nats program card signed.

I decided to have him sign my 08 Heritage rookie card.



Ron Villone (with his son) was at the table with Nyjer,



and did a double-take at the 15 year old card I had of him.



Another highlight was getting Adam Dunn's autograph...



on this sweet Topps Trading Card History card.



Dunn was at a table with Jorge Padilla, who I didn't have a card of.
But he made this funny face at Kalina when she took his picture.



Rob Dibble was showing off his crazy tattoos.



Saul Rivera and Ronnie Belliard (obviously pre-Dodgers trade)



This is one of the cards the Nats have been giving out in their game-day programs all season.



Ronnie was really cool to the fans.



JD Martin(on the left) and Mike MacDougal were at a table together.



J.D. needed a new sharpie.



I'm a big fan of Mike's autograph for some reason.



We ran into Elijah in a hall on the club level.



Jason Bergmann representing the Nats




And finally, Marquis Grissom was signing for everyone. Did someone say mid '90s Braves?