Saturday Smorgasbord

Alright, well I've been checked out for an entire week thanks to some insane illness that completely kicked my ass, followed up by the holidays.  How about a totally random assortment of cards to get back into the swing of things.  It's time for Saturday Smorgasbord...

First up, I received a few packs of cards from one generous gift giver this year.  I'll be enjoying them slowly over time (I often save packs for years if you can believe that), but I figured I should at least tear into one right away.  I chose this hobby pack of 2008 Upper Deck Series 2 baseball, containing a solid 20 cards...

One of the best pitchers of all-time straight out of the gate.  A great start to the pack even if it is a tubby, late-career photo of Maddux.

2008 Upper Deck flagship was actually my favorite baseball set released that year, which was the second year of my return to collecting.

Here's the man on the wrapper, and the lone Red Sox card in the pack.  This is card #795, and the huge checklist is one of the things I like about the set.

Best name in the pack, Norris Hopper.

A nice photo of a stretch at first.

The simple, almost non-existent design combined with the crystal-clear full-bleed photography make for a set you either love or hate.  I fall into the camp that loves the cards for the amazing photos, but I've heard many collectors who more heavily value card design complain that this set just mails it in.

Here's my insert, a Jeremy Hamilton USA Baseball.  As far as I can tell he never made the bigs.

You could build a pretty decent team at the time out of the guys from this pack.

Love this Lincecum card.

I miss Upper Deck.  That was a fun look back at a favorite of mine.  I'll be sharing the other packs I was gifted in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, here's some other random clutter from my card desk...

Speaking of great Upper Deck sets, here's one from the 2005 Baseball Heroes release.  I've been trying to accumulate the five Will Clark Emerald Autos (#'d/99) from this set for years, and while I was sick I missed out on an eBay auction I was watching that represented the first I'd seen of one of them in years.  Ugh.

Here's a baseball card that's really a hockey card.  I find it funny that I own exactly two 2011 Goodwin Champions baseball cards, and they're both hockey players (the other being a Cam Neely base card I received in a trade).  Lindros was a beast during my childhood NHL fandom, so I couldn't pass up this interesting swatch.  I must have bought this a year or two ago now, but only got around to cataloging it this week.

Last but not least, I recently showed off some box bottoms from 1989-90 Topps.  Well here's another I picked up recently, Ron Francis from 1988-89 O-Pee-Chee.  A different photo than what was used on his standard card in the set...

I'll be back tomorrow with some on-card autographs...