Shoebox Legends: Red Sox Collection

This past month Thorzul held a cheapo group break. He acquired a large miscellaneous lot from eBay and divided the cards up by team, you could claim a team for just $10 which included shipping. I was fortunate enough to snag the Red Sox. My cards arrived last week. This isn't everything, but here is a random sampling of what I received, maybe 3/4 of the cards. Mostly base and inserts from the last few years with some older 80's/90's stuff thrown in. For someone who buys more vintage than anything and doesn't rip a ton of modern wax this was great, I needed the majority of these cards:

2007 Fleer Ultra Josh Beckett, my first 2007 Ultra card...

A handful of Roger Clemens cards, all from the time period when he was actually still liked by Red Sox fans, before he "mis-remembered". Included were this Emotion card...

...one from the 1994 Stadium Club set...

...and this 1992 Fleer insert, which is part of a 15-card set celebrating Clemens' career to that point.

A couple of 2009 O-Pee-Chee base cards...

Two of these This Day in History inserts from 2010 Allen & Ginter. There were also three 2010 A & G base cards included...

...Clay Buchholz...

...Victor Martinez...

...and Adrian Beltre, card #308 in the set, which I believe is a short print! These are much appreciated given that I didn't rip so much as a single pack of 2010 Allen & Ginter (haven't touched the 2011 stuff either for that matter).

Also included were quite a few Bowman cards from recent years. It was nice to get a few of these because Bowman/Bowman Chrome/Bowman Prospects and any other Bowman variation are all sets that I stay away from. This is a Team USA insert from 2010 Bowman Chrome. Mr. Swihart here recently signed a $2.5 million contract with the Red Sox.

I think this is an insert from 2009 Bowman, I guess there were various colors of these Prospect inserts. Add that to the list of reasons I don't buy Bowman. All the cards look the same to me, and maybe it's just because I never purchase it, but every time I acquire one I feel like I need to do 10 minutes of research to even identify exactly which card I have. After going 4-10 with a 5.47 ERA for Boston's AAA affiliate last season, it seems as though he's possibly out of the game?

Here are three more Bowman inserts, all from the 2011 set. The first two are Bowman Prospects and the one on the right is a Bowman Chrome Prospect. Bermudez is currently patrolling the outfield for the Pawtucket Red Sox, Cecchini is with the AA Lowell Spinners, and Britton is a highly rated prospect.

A couple of StarQuest inserts from 2009 Upper Deck. These are both the common variation, the Youk is a turquoise common and the Beckett a purple common.

My one and only 2006 Upper Deck card. What can I say, I didn't start collecting again until 2007...

A 1988 Topps UK Mini of Dewey...

This one was pretty neat, an '89 Donruss Pop-Up insert of Wade Boggs. I've been resisting the temptation to pop him up and and display him on my office desk.

A few minor league cards, the Kottaras is a 2008 TriStar Projections card, the other two are from a set put out by Best in 1998. Kottaras has seen action in 37 games for the Brewers this year. I don't think Yennaco ever cracked a big league roster. Brian Rose appeared in 58 career MLB games spanning 5 seasons.

Can hit the ball a country mile, but that's about where the talent stops...

My first 2007 Opening Day card. I like the white much better than the standard black 2007 Topps cards.

2009 SP Authentic Kevin Youkilis...

My very first Obak cards of any kind...

A couple of 1991 Leaf cards, Tom Brunansky...

...and John Marzano. For some reason the Marzano card was in a top loader.

One 1992 Leaf, Jack Clark. This is my first card of Jack as a member of the Sox. Shortly after this card came out Clark would declare bankruptcy. Apparently he had an appetite for luxury cars, and went broke trying to pay for more than a dozen of them at once. There were a few Topps Chrome cards in the package, which as usual display the need for me to clean my scanning bed.

From 2010 Topps Chrome we have Jacoby Ellsbury...

...David Ortiz...

...and Josh Beckett.

Josh's 2009 Chrome card was in the lot as well.

There were two over-sized cards to be found, this 1985 Donruss Action All-Stars Jim Rice...

...and this 1986 Donruss All-Stars Wade Boggs. The John Marzano that I put next to the Boggs to illustrate the size difference was in a penny sleeve, I guess whoever owned this lot was a Marzano fan?!?!

A couple of base cards from 2009 Bowman. I always liked Justin Masterson and am glad that he's enjoying a successful season with the Tribe.

Three cards from this year's Bowman release.

Three 1992 Donruss, including Mr. Boggs once again.

Two 2010 Topps base cards. I already had the Baldelli but needed the Hermida.

There were a handful of cards from the atrocious 2010 Topps Update Series set. I didn't get any Red Sox in the pack I ripped of this crappy product, so these fill some holes...

I've always liked the "third base line angle", it makes for a nice card.

Nava gained some attention last year, becoming just the second player ever to hit a grand slam on his very first big league pitch. He cooled off fast though, that would be the only home run he hit in 60 games with the Sox last season. He was designated for assignment back in May of this year, and has not seen an inning or at-bat with the Red Sox in 2011.

Home Run Derby card of David Ortiz. I guess this one's not too bad considering he won the event.

There was one solitary 2011 Topps base card in the package, and I needed it for my set!

The mini version of the Ted Williams Obak card shown above...

...a Jason Varitek T206 mini, Piedmont back....

...and a 2010 A & G Mike Cameron mini. His career with the Sox was less than impressive, he was ultimately released earlier this season.

There were two Turkey Red inserts from the 2010 Update Series set, John Lackey...

...and Tris Speaker. Not too difficult to guess which one I like more.

Whoever owned these cards initially had a man-crush on Bruce Hurst I'm pretty sure. Included were his 1989 Donruss card...

...his 1989 Topps card...

...this 1989 Topps Glossy Send-In...

...a 1988 Donruss mini-bipping...

...an '89 Donruss All-Star...

...a couple of '87 Sportflics...

...and a couple of 1986 Topps. I think there was actually a third one of these that I tossed because of a gigantic gum stain on the back.

I would've been pleased with these cards alone for just $10, but Thorzul also came up with a creative way to divide up some of the cards that weren't affiliated with any particular team. From time to time he would throw up a "claim it" post, featuring 5 or 6 cards from the lot. It was first come first serve in the comments, and luckily I was the first one in on quite a few of the posts. Because of this I was able to snag some pretty cool mini cards from 2010 Allen & Ginter: