Long Overdue Thanks to Sal!

A few weeks back a package arrived in the mail from one of my all-time favorite traders and bloggers, Sal of Puck Junk. I think I've probably traded with Sal more than I have any other blogger out there. This latest package was small in size but immense in content! Included inside were two exclusive cards from this year's National show in Chicago!

First up is a Tony Esposito card from Upper Deck's National set. As everyone knows, Sal is a huge Blackhawks fan. He also knows that I accumulate Tony Esposito cards, so this isn't the first time he's sent a new one my way. These were given out at the Upper Deck booth in packs of 5 cards during the show. In case you missed it Sal had some insane luck with pulling autos from these packs, ending up with Jeff Skinner, Sydney Crosby and Bobby Orr!


Next up is a Tim Thomas card from In The Game's National VIP set. A great looking card. I appreciate this one because I don't own many Thomas cards depicting his new mask from the last couple of seasons. Good stuff!

There was one other hockey card in the package, one that I think would make any Bruins fan jealous:

This is from the 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Metal set according to the back. I don't have any cards from this set, in fact I'm not even sure I had heard of it before receiving this beauty. Maybe the 2008-09 Metal set was so bad that I just tuned it out the following year. What an awesome card though, with swatches of Ray Bourque, Adam Oates and Cam Neely. Two Hall-of-Famers and the guy with the most career points of anyone not inducted. This will go nicely with my Trilogy Classic Confrontations card, which also features these three players.

In addition to the three hockey cards, Sal threw in a couple of baseball surprises as well:

This Wade Boggs card, which came in a 1990 Sports Illustrated for Kids magazine. A great oddball card for a Red Sox fan like myself, this is possibly my first punched-from-a-magazine card of any kind.

Finally, there was this cool oddball Red Sox item:

This is a 1988 Donruss Red Sox team collection book. It's too large to scan when fully opened up, but it contains uncut sheets of 1988 Donruss Red Sox cards, including a few cards that were not included in the base set that year. Also included inside is the full, completed Stan Musial puzzle from the '88 Donruss set.

Sal, thank you for thinking of me while perusing the floor at the National! Just another example of why hockey card bloggers are the best. True, I couldn't make it out to Chicago, but thanks to Sal's generosity I've still got some awesome National-exclusive swag.