Wednesday, October 23, 2024

I've Got A Secret

Last week while I was working on a post about several packages I had recently received, I started having a conversation with Jason, the source of one of those packages.  He'd gotten some more 2024 Genesis cards in and had picked up the one remaining player card I wanted from the set - Junichiro Kishi, who like six other players, was in Genesis but not BBM's 1st or 2nd Version set.  Jason also had several jersey cards available and I decided to get one of them as well.  

Now, I feel like it's too much effort for Jason to ship me just two cards so we started having a discussion about what else he had that I'd be interested.  I started asking him about "Secret Versions" - BBM's short printed photo variants - from this year's 2nd Version set.  It turned out he had a couple.  Then he checked 1st Version and discovered he had a couple from that set as well.  It kind of snowballed after a while and ultimately I ended up getting fourteen of these cards from the past four years.  I received the package today and I thought I'd do a quick post showing off what all he sent me.

The first card isn't actually a "Secret Version" - it's an "Ultra Secret Version".  As the name implies, these are even more short printed than the "Secret Versions" (although I don't know how rare either one is).  Since I had not gotten any of the "Ultra Secret Versions", I was happy to get this one:

2021 BBM 1st Version #066 (USV)

I still do not have any of the even rarer "Super Ultra Secret Versions".

Here are the remaining "Secrets" he sent me:

2021 BBM 1st Version #041 (SV)

2021 BBM 1st Version #014 (SV)

2021 BBM 1st Version #282 (SV)

2022 BBM 1st Version #230 (SV)

2022 BBM 1st Version #067 (SV)

2023 BBM 1st Version #309 (SV)

2023 BBM 2nd Version #429 (SV)

2024 BBM 1st Version #225 (SV)

2024 BBM 1st Version #299 (SV)

2024 BBM 2nd Version #491 (SV)

2024 BBM 2nd Version #472 (SV)

2024 BBM 2nd Version #367 (SV)

2024 BBM 2nd Version #347 (SV)

Here's the two cards from the Genesis set I also bought from him:

2024 BBM Genesis #099


It wouldn't be a package from Jason without a handful of surprises.  He included a couple numbered parallels from the 2021 Epoch Swallows Stars & Legends set and the 2023 Topps 206 set:

2021 Epoch Swallows Stars & Legends #40

2023 Topps 206 #154

He also included a couple signature parallels from the 2020 BBM 2nd Version set:

2020 BBM 2nd Version #366

2020 BBM 2nd Version #539

Finally he included a couple "color variants" parallels from the 2023 BBM Swallows set.  I've got the base on the left of each of these images for comparison:

2023 BBM Swallows #S04

2023 BBM Swallows #S28

2023 BBM Swallows #S50

So thanks for the cards, Jason!  As always, it's a pleasure doing business with you!

One last, non-baseball related comment.  When I came up with the title to this post, I had an old song running through my head.  There was a musician in Delaware in the mid-80's named Jones "Woody" Purcell who I'd seen a couple times - in fact it was his band playing at Gallucio's Downtown in Wilmington the night I turned 21 and could legally go to a bar to listen to music.  I remember them being very loud and at one point we suddenly realized they were playing "Ode To Billy Joe".  I saw him a couple more times over the years and picked up a tape of his stuff that I really liked.  The tape included a song called "I've Got A Secret" which is just a fun little pop song.  I've long ago gotten rid of the tape but I decided to do some searching on-line today and I discovered two important things.  The first is that the song (along with the rest of the tape) is available on SoundCloud:


The second is that unfortunately Jones Purcell passed away a few years back.  I'll be raising a cold one in memory of Woody this evening.

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