Phenomenal Fuji 'Trade'

I put the word trade in apostrophes in the title of this post because it was never meant to be a trade.

I commented to Fuji and let him know I had most of the cards he needed to finish a 1993 Upper Deck baseball set he had picked up. He sent me his address and I got the cards ready to ship and............TOTALLY forgot about them.

I know we have all done this. But I forgot about them for the better part of a year!

So, when I suddenly recalled them after looking through old emails I sent them on their way, hoping he still lived at the same address.

And he did, thank goodness.

Then I saw they had arrived safely there and he posted about the cards.

Then he mentioned in the post he was sending a package of Cubs and White Sox cards my way.

I was not expecting to get anything back for the cards since I sent them as a favor but I was excited to find that out since I root for all Chitown teams equally.

A few days later I get a package in the mail and start to open it not knowing what to expect and certainly not expecting what he ended up sending.

What I received was an insane amount of awesomeness compared to what I had sent out, including a hard to find card which only a few lucky people get to possess.

On to the cards!

First there was this card:

1994 Pinnacle The Naturals Insert

This is just a mesmerizing card to hold in one's hands. It does not show here but the card is finely etched foil with a shimmering, transfixing effect when viewed at different angles. Pretty cool card and I would have been happy if that was all that was in the package.

But it wasn't.

1996 Fleer Ultra Rawhide Insert

This sweet card had an embossed, faux leather background on it. The set only had 10 players and Gracie was definitely in the top 10 best gloves in the '90s.

Two cards, two of my favorite Cubs. Pretty sweet so far.

1994 Collector's Choice Silver Signature Parallel

While this card is a big departure from the first two it is a silver signature parallel and at one time he was one of the highest rated prospects in any system.

Goes to show you why they call them prospects, I guess.

1990 Wonder Bread Stars

Here's a cool, never before seen by me card of a prospect who did pan out......for one glorious year in which he was the NL Rookie of the Year in 1989.

1995 Topps Cyberstats

I love these Cyberstats cards from 1995 Topps.

And I really liked One Dog, a.k.a. Lance Johnson, when he was leading the league in triples for 4 straight years. He also went on to lead the league in hits in both leagues, which I believe is a record that he may own alone or with a select few.

He also owned a record company called One Dawg.

1992 Topps Gold

Wilson was looked upon to be a stud for years right alongside Jack McDowell and Alex Fernandez. That tends to be expected of one when they throw a no-hitter in their second MLB start.

He never studded out to projections but he did appear on this cool card.

2013 Topps Chasing the dream

And another nice card of a Cub who I hope does turn out to be the hitter this team needs.

1993 Topps Gold

I am building the 1993 Topps Gold set since I feel it tops the regular set by a factor of infinity and it is nice to get this card of the loud, outspoken man who brought this town its first World Series title in decades.

Here's a good time to mention why the Cubs are actually cursed.

In 2003, they had a great opportunity to win it all if it wasn't for Alex Gonzalez bobbling a simple grounder. It had nothing to with Steve Bartman.
If Gonzalez makes that play the game is over. In 2003 the Cubs had the longest championship winless streak.

In 2004, Boston had the second longest losing streak and managed to grab their championship.

In 2005, the White Sox had the third longest streak behind the aforementioned teams above. And they brought home the goods.

So in a period of three years the three longest droughts in World Series history could have been reset. Two of them were.

Cursed. Or accursed.


Oh, did I forget to mention Fuji also sent me some used cards......or GAME USED cards, I should say!

Four of them, to be exact:

2008 Upper Deck Spectrum

An awesome card of a face to the fence fielder who made the World Series possible in 2005 for the Sox.

2002 Bowman's Best

This beautiful card has a embossed design with a shininess to it.

The humongous piece of bat actually has a smell to it. What? I was curious.

Gripp was lined up to be the Cubs third sacker for a while but them some guy named Aramis came along and shot that career down. His bat and plate discipline was compared to Nick Johnson, the Yankees unmaterialized star.

I guess you could say he never came to grip(p)s with his career. Ugh, sorry.

2001 Fleer Game Time Uniformity

Man, do I miss Fleer.

They always issued nice clean designs and had great price points on their products which seemed to give you bang for your buck.

Here is a set that I never even bought one pack of but this card is a superbly designed insert.

Rondell played well when he was in Wrigleyville.

I love this card.

2008 Upper Deck X

Love this card as well. That is quite the design, isn't it?

Jerome had a solid White Sox and overall career.

But after his last productive year with the Sox he was expected to hook on somewhere else as a DH or platoon/Dh guy but no one ever called him. I never could figure that out since he still had a bat. and was only 35.

Good player and great card.

Oh, I forgot to show you that rare card which so few of us have ever actually held in our hands or actually owned:

2008 Topps Fuji SP Variation w/o sparkle

When I saw this card in the package I was thrilled to see it. I've seen it on a few of the blogs out there in cardbloglandia but to actually get one was a rush.

It is the shiniest card I've ever seen. It must have no less than 679 coats of gloss on each side. You can see your soul when you stare at it.

It does not have a watermark so I can't use Christian Bale's quote from that movie which crept me out, but you know which one.


All I can say about all these great cards which I never even expected to be sent my way is that I feel like the Cardinal's GM in 1961 or 1962 who sent some Ernie guy to the Cubs for some guy named Lou.

Fuji, you are an amazing Blogger and even more so a trader, even though as the title states, this wasn't even to have supposed to been a trade at all.

Thanks very much! :)