Gavin's Trade Package:..a doozy (Reposted?)

Note: I'm not sure what I did wrong previously but this post showed up as being published back on June 9. I hope this re-publishing effort works.

I've had a couple of four envelopes come my way and each has had something very cool inside. Today I'll post envelope #2. This is from Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown.

Gavin send three modern and new-to-me Elston Howard cards my way. Hard for me to pick a favorite from these but the more I see of this Panini 2014 Classics set the more I think I should buy it. It's dirt cheap and looks like fun.

This Archives reprises his '56 Topps card. The action picture part of the '56s are always fun to research and.....

.....Getty Images produced this 1955 shot of Ellie. This has to be the same play from a different angle.

BTW..that is Billy Hoeft scoring. Although Getty lists the pic as being created on August 1, 1955 the actual date of the game is August 6. The boxscore shows that Hoeft walked with two outs in the 6th and then scored this run on a double by Harvey Kuenn. Hoeft went on to beat the Yanks 7-5.

The third Ellie card is a Fleer Greats of the Game. My scanner HATED this card but I made it work. I always defeat my scanner!

Next is a 2003 Topps Earl Weaver card. I've never seen one of these before and it's one of if not the best post-career card of Earl. Most of the ones I've come across use pictures that were taken while he was suffering a serious case of heartburn.

Matt Wieters....on a Topps card...wearing that weird All Star game gear...OK! This goes on my Wieters page. Notice I didn't say binder. I barely have enough Wieters cards to fill a nine pocket sheet never mind a binder
.

Speaking of catchers...I have to be getting close to the full Orioles team set of this Hometown Heroes from Panini. I'll have to look into it. What's interesting about this one of Rick Dempsey is that they left the orange trim on his chest protector intact. It makes it look more Oriole-ish and less 'unlicensed'. 

At this point in the package things took a turn for the surreal.

Apparently I'm the only memorabilia blogger who had never heard of the Confex Baseball Enquirer set. Every one of you people has done a post about one card or the set and somehow none of them penetrated my consciousness.

But now I own the Billy Ripken from that 1992 set.

We know it's Billy Ripken although his name appears nowhere on the card.

So now I know what the Confex set is. These next two stopped me in my tracks. These are 1/1's and are way better than the phony 1/1's I see for sale on eBay. Check our Gavin's Billy Pierce custom:

Neat, right? It reminds me of those Beehive photos of NHL players that were popular way back when.

I love how Gavin made the reverse resemble the back of a picture frame.

Great stuff....it's a cool addition to my Billy Pierce collection. 

And then there was this:

Batman! A sketch card Gavin did for my project. He spilled the beans on this one over on his blog but it's certainly worth showing here.

Gavin's sketch will take a spot in the top row of my Batman Sketch Card sheets along with my two commissioned cards. I've been pretty quiet about it lately but that project isn't dead, far from it. My original goal of nine crads is far behind me. I'm nearing 27 now.

Back to Gavin's card. It;s signed and inscribed on the back.

All in all it was a great (and unique!) package that took me very much by surprise.

Thanks again Gavin!