a very cool mail day, 1/1 !!!

Friday's mail brought a bill, lots of junk mail, and one yellow envelope. Inside was a card I'd been waiting for. It features my favourite soccer player, keeper Edwin van der Sar of Manchester United. Only it's not from Panini, or Topps, or Upper Deck. But a little known company out of Texas. Big D cards.

 the backs are unusually personal and informative. Well, about care instructions anyways.

and each and every card comes hand signed by the owner of the company. Awesome.

Thanks bud! It looks great in my player binder. Now, if I can only get you to do one of his days playing for the Nederlands.

oh, and if you're interested in my latest card show story (or at least the first half of it) check my other blog at Just A Bit Offside. Thanks.

New additions to my PC, all the way from Europe

my latest additions come from two ebay sellers in England and France. That right there should let you know I'm not talking about Adam LaRoche.

Scanning ebayUK I was able to find a few new Edwin van der Sar cards for my collection. Now most of you may not be very familiar with Mr. van der Sar. Well he's a football player. Soccer to you Yanks. He's a Keeper really. An outstanding one. (That's what they call goalies) Think Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur all rolled up into one 6'6" goofy Dutchman. Awesome.

The first five new cards are actually stickers. From Panini. You may have heard of them. They've been in the news lately. Well, this is what made them famous and rich. Well, actually wealthy. Not rich. There is a big difference. Like Chris Rock says, Kobe is rich. The white dude who signs his cheques, he's wealthy. Anyways...

all of those came from the French seller, who despite the language gap, was a very nice fellow. I love buying things from Europe. Everyone there is so nice and friendly.

From England I bought one card. The latest '09/10 Topps Attax card.

This one cost me around $7. For a base card. Yeah. The game is popular. There is an SP version of Edwin from this set that regularly sells for over $30. Those Europeans play hardball. But Edwin is worth it. Easily the most powerful card in the game. It doesn't get much better than a rating of 100/100, does it?

Since the dude from England spoke English, I asked him if he had any other cards of Edwin I could buy since mailing just one seemed silly. "No worries mate" I was told. And that was that. When the envelope showed up, I found four other Edwin's in the envelope. Three of them shown here, and one scan that has escaped and is now at large in the computer scannerverse.

This is last years Topps Attax card. One of the nicest cards I've seen. If Topps did baseball this well, I'd have bought some last year.... or this year....

you can't tell in the scan, but Edwin and his ratings and position are in a smooth high gloss finish. The background and border are in a matte textured finish. Quite striking actually.

Another shiny Panini sticker.

and the sparkliest football card I have ever seen. You need glasses to look at this thing in the light.

Thanks Mr ebayUK seller!!!

I've always admired Edwin and the way he played. He now holds records for most "clean sheets" (shutouts), most consecutive clean sheets, and most wins.

He also has played more games internationally for his country than anyone else.

He's Edwin van der Sar, and you're not.