The Best Surprise Card I've Ever Received?

It's been hectic in my neck of the woods these past couple of weeks, with little time for scanning, sorting or posting. I managed to find a couple of free hours this morning which will probably be the last I have to myself until at least this weekend, so it's time for a very necessary thank you post detailing a package that arrived shortly after I returned from vacation.

While I was away my buddy Dave H from Wax Stain Rookie dropped me a line and let me know there were some cards headed my way from the Great White North.  Dave's one of those bloggers who have become part of my "inner circle" of trading, we exchange a few packages a year and I've generally always got a stack of cards building up on my desk for him (which I do now as a matter of fact!).  He's sent me some amazing cards in the past, including things like an original 1951-52 Parkhurst card, but I think this time he's outdone himself!

Staring me in the face when I opened the package was this Jarome Iginla insert from 2008-09 Upper Deck, commemorating a hat trick he scored against the Minnesota Wild.  Unfortunately Jarome was one of the Bruins who just couldn't get it going against the Canadiens in this year's playoff series.  Will be interesting to see where his career goes next...

A good way to make a trade envelope a success is to somehow track down a Hartford Whalers card that I don't already have.  It's getting harder and harder to do, but Dave managed to hit on one of the two Whalers cards he sent in the form of this Certified Throwback Threads Ray Ferraro insert (numbered to 500).  Even better, when I scanned and cataloged this one it became my 1,200th unique Whalers card!

Inside the bubble mailer were five separate inserts from the 1991-92 Parkhurst set...

...pretty cool to get an Alex Delvecchio card from the person with the best Delvechhio collection I know of...

Very cool inserts, I've got to make an effort to track down the rest of them now that I'm more than halfway to a set.

Oh, the pain...

...the pain!  I appreciate a couple of new Bruins cards, but the wounds are still too fresh to write anything up about them.  Thankfully posting about this awesome package is helping to ease the pain.  For example:

I've wanted this pre-rookie (I think?) of Paul Kariya from the '91-92 UD Czech World Juniors for quite a while now.  I commented about wanting one when Dave sent me a different card from the set in his last package, and lo and behold here it is just a month or two later!  I even had it sitting in my cart on Sportlots, guess I can safely remove that now.

These weren't even all the cards Dave sent, I'm saving a few others for future posts I have planned.  There was one card, however, that completely blew my mind.

Without actually going back to check I'd have to say this is one of the best cards I've ever received without having any idea it was coming.

It fills a long-standing, fairly major, gap in my hockey card collection.

You can imagine my surprise when out of the envelope fell this...

Whoa!!!  Yes, that is a Sidney Crosby rookie card, my first ever Crosby RC.  Yes, I know he had a disappointing playoff run, as did many of my favorite players (cough cough, David Krejci, cough cough) but there are few who could argue that he's not one of the most talented players in the history of the game.  Really the only thing that's been able to slow Sidney down is injury.  This year he managed to stay healthy and appear in 80 games.  The result?  The only 100+ point scorer in the league, and the winner of the scoring race by a giant 17 points!!!

With the Stanley Cup Championship, Olympic Gold, all the hardware and highlight reel goals, it's easy to forget that Sid is still just 26 years of age.  If he can manage to stay on the ice he'll go down as one of the best offensive players to ever lace up a pair of skates, so having his rookie card is as significant for my collection as any other player.

What an absolute beauty, a week or so later and I'm still stunned by the generosity that exists in this great hobby of ours.  Dave, I can't thank you enough, and I plan to send you a nice package to show my appreciation.  I've got a couple of things in mind including one or two cards I picked out for you on Sportlots and COMC.  Thank you for adding this awesome cornerstone to my hockey card collection!!!