Mark Kaz Strikes Again!

Just before I took off for vacation a couple of weeks ago, I received a bubble mailer from a familiar address in Delaware, and I knew that my friend Mark Kaz had struck again!

Inside were a whole bunch of new cards for my Red Sox collection, more than 130 to be precise!  Among my favorites was this great team card from 2005 Topps, which depicts the 2004 team that "reversed the curse" and brought a World Series championship to Boston after so many decades of futility.  I'm not sure why Topps removed the team checklist cards from the flagship effort, but I wish they'd put them back.

Mark takes the time to look over my collection on Zistle when sending a package, so I know that virtually every card that falls out of the envelope is one I need.  Like Carlos Quintana here, and eight of his buddies that were also included from the '92 Topps set.

There were also half a dozen cards I needed towards the '91 Topps team set.  I bought so much of this as a kid, and while I didn't appreciate the set much at the time it's really grown on me.  This is one I'd like to pick up a factory set or wax box of sometime...

Yes, even the ugly releases like early '90s Fleer are welcome in my collection.

Mark really hit on a bunch of sets that you'd think I'd have finished off by now, but inexplicably haven't.  I'm many steps closer now on quite a few fronts.

I really like this Leaf card featuring a bat donut and some mean facial hair.

I swear I have like 60 unique Red Sox cards from the '94 Score set, but I didn't have this one.

Mark really hit a home run with variety in this package, covering many different years (decades for that matter).

This '91 Donruss Carlos Quintana is so ugly you just have to love it.  Carlos seems about as enthused for this photo as your average collector would be when pulling this card from a pack.

For whatever reason I don't seem to come across much '86 Donruss, so I really appreciated this Rich Gedman.  Just my second or third Sox card from this release.

This is one of those '77 Topps Cloth Sticker inserts from 2012 Archives.

1988 Donruss Rated Rookie!

The Red Sox are one of the few teams who actually look decent on the '88 Donruss design.

Any trade package with a new Oil Can Boyd is a successful trade package.

A couple of Rockets.  Not sure which one is uglier!  Despite Roger being a gigantic D-bag, Clemens cards are hard to come by for whatever reason (for example, they're almost always removed from bulk Red Sox lots that I've bought online).  Glad to have these two in hand.

This Steve Avery is a nice looking card but it's from one of those sets that's got to be annoying to collect, as its card number is something like "Section 2 Row 4 Seat 135".  No, I'm not joking.

Really like these Varitek and Nixon cards as they're from an era that's very under-represented still in my baseball card collection.

Who didn't love the Pinnacle Team 2000 inserts back in the day?

Another Jody Reed Rated Rookie, this one Leaf style!

A half dozen from the '97 Topps set were included in this envelope, the best of which was this awesome shot of Mike Greenwell.

Before the infamous Janet Jackson Superbowl Halftime Show, there was Heathcliff Slocumb 1997 Topps.

Man, card companies would try just about anything by the mid '90s.

Another much-needed Clemens.

Varitek was missing out of a good number of sets over the years due to contractual issues, so I'm always excited to land a new one.  This Donruss RC is pretty sharp looking.

Killer shot of Danny Darwin on this one from 1994 Upper Deck.

A great photo of the Wakefield knuckler in action.

I'll always remember this guy for charging the mound with a bat in the minor leagues after his MLB career had ended.  Anger issues.

Pedro Martinez is still the best pitcher I've seen in a Red Sox uniform during my time as a fan (was really too young to know what was going on during the Clemens era of the mid to late '80s).

Here's a great retro card featuring a somewhat creepy photo of Dante Bichette.

Middlebrooks has been kind of disappointing so far this year, but so has most of the team really.  I'm not sure if he'll ever get back into the form he was in a few years ago when it looked like he could be a 30HR/100RBI guy at the MLB level, but I still get excited whenever I get a new card of Will...

...or two!

2009 SP Legendary Cuts is a set I really liked and wouldn't mind getting some more of.  The stamp style design really works in my opinion.

Some more very nice Pedros, including this one from a set I'd never seen before, 2003 SP Authentic.

Mark also tossed in a couple of cards from this year's Heritage release...

...both of which I needed!

Finishing things off is this fantastic mini from last year's Archives set.  I've had my eye on this card a few times and nearly pulled the trigger on COMC once or twice, but now I can cross it off the list.

Mark, thanks again for the awesome package of Sox!  The cards you sent now have me on the verge of crossing the 3,000 unique Red Sox card threshold.  I got a return package sent yesterday, but I definitely need to send you some more cards to offset this one...