Cards for Christmas!

Still catching up here on some posts from 2011...

Over the last week or so, I've seen a few other bloggers out there display cards received as holiday presents. Until this past year I never really received cards, or anything card related, as a gift. This year one relative, my younger brother, broke the mold and gave me four awesome hockey cards:

First card is this 1975-76 Topps Cesare Maniago. This one was much appreciated as this is one of the 1970s Topps sets that I have the fewest cards from. In fact, this is just my 16th 1975-76 Topps card.

The back has a trivia question about the dimensions of a puck, which I failed...

Next up is a very unique item, a 1984-85 7 Eleven Disc of Ron Francis. My brother went above and beyond with this one, as he located it on my Zistle want list. This disc uses the same "cutting edge" technology as the Sportflics baseball cards of the era, and displays either Ron's mug shot or the Whalers logo depending on how you tilt it. Definitely a cool oddball item for the Whalers collection.

My Cesare Maniago collection is really picking up some steam. I think with the two I got here I've added around half a dozen older Maniago cards to the collection in the last year or so. I have quite a few 1977 O-Pee-Chee WHA cards, but this is my first from the '77 O-Pee-Chee NHL set. As usual, I'm amazed at how much brighter and clearer this card is than its Topps counterpart.

'70s goalie cards are right up my alley, I mean I've got a handful of them in the blog header that's been up for the past couple of months. I really appreciate the thought that went into picking out these cards.

Finally, my favorite card of the four:

This is one nice vintage hockey card! I just started pursuing the '73-74 set and definitely did not have this one. Two 50-goal seasons in the NHL for Mr. Leach. 1975 Stanley Cup winner. Won the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP in 1976 despite the Flyers losing to the Canadiens. Something about 19 goals in those playoffs. In the opinion of some, he belongs in the Hall of Fame. The best thing about this card to me though is the Seals gear.

I have to confess that I did not know Reggie was called "Little Beaver". Fittingly, I am told right beneath the cartoon to watch NHL Hockey on NBC-TV. Well, I actually will be doing that when I enjoy the 2012 NHL Winter Classic in just a few hours here.

This gift was an absolute score. I had none of these four cards, and they are all right in my collecting wheelhouse. Tom, if you read this, thanks for the killer gift!