Rocket Rookie in the Mail!

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a reader named Jeff. I don't believe Jeff operates a blog or anything that I can link to here, but he had a whole bunch of Red Sox cards that were looking for a new home that he wanted to send over.  I dug up some Upper Deck Young Guns and Canvas cards that he had an interest in, and a trade was born.

Probably the most significant card in the lot was this 1985 Topps Roger Clemens RC!  I can't believe it took me so long to finally end up with one of these, and I truly appreciate Jeff's generosity in sending it to me.

Receiving this card alone in a PWE would have been significant, but Jeff (like so many people in this hobby) was so generous that he sent me all of the Red Sox he had that I needed just because...

This is how the package looked when it arrived on my doorstep, an 800-count box of goods!

As you can see, it was mostly stuffed full as well.  This has to be one the single largest lots of cards I've ever received in a trade.  Over the past couple of weeks I came to the realization that if I tried to follow my standard procedure of scanning, cropping, inventorying and posting each and every card I'd be at it for weeks or months.  Given the number of trade/thank you posts that I've had piling up to get to, I decided to scan in just a few highlights for now...

To go along with the legit Clemens rookie, I also received this 50th Anniversary reprint.

I doubt Jeff would have guessed this, but one of my absolute favorite cards in the box was this 2009 Topps 206 mini of The Great Bambino.

Inside the box I was pleased to find a pair of 1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond parallels.

These came at one-per-pack, and are the perfect cards for a parallel junkie like me to get in a package.

I'm only showing one of them here, but Jeff did some major damage (to the tune of 30-40 cards) to my 2001 Fleer Red Sox 100th Anniversary set.  With these in hand I'm definitely making it a goal to finish off this set in 2015.

Back to parallels, how about some of the oldest parallels I know of, early '90s Topps Gold!

I really dig the 2005 Bowman Heritage set, which draws its inspiration from the '51 Bowman cards.

I'm just a couple of cards away from killing off this team set now.

Got my very first look at 2003 Topps Opening Day as well.

From 2004 Topps, a nice shot of Tim Wakefield delivering his knuckler...

...and something I miss dearly in most sets these days, manager cards!

Manny Ramirez and Derek Lowe represent my first 2001 Upper Deck Red Sox.  Standard Upper Deck fare, minimal design and excellent, full-bleed photographs.

Fleer did a nice job with the team cards in their 2000 Fleer Tradition set.  For the most part, this card looks like it could have come out of the '50s or '60s.

I will never get tired of picking up new cards that showcase Jose Canseco's brief stint with Boston in the mid-'90s!

This one was a definite highlight for me.  I don't run across 2001 Topps Heritage very often, and it seems like about 75% of the Red Sox on the checklist were short-printed as well (just like this one!).

I had quite a few 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Sox before receiving this box, but this was the first I'd seen of these Framed Red parallels.  They are very similar to the framed parallels from Masterpieces and Gypsy Queen a few years ago now.

In closing (for now), a couple of Mahogany parallels from the aforementioned 2005 Bowman Heritage set.

Just awesome!  Jeff, thank you so much for the amazing amount of generosity you showed in shipping this many cards blindly to a stranger.  I hope my return package gave you even a fraction of the amount of joy that this one brought me.  I hope to post some more of the contents of this box once I get caught up on my other trade posts.

On that note, I owe an apology to Tony, Tim B. and a few others.  I hope to have all of my thank you posts published by the end of this week.  I hope nobody is offended at the amount of time it's taking me to given them proper thanks, I've just never been so busy on the trade front in all my years of operating the blog!

One Card Post - Karate Youkilis

What:  2011 Topps Marquee #51 - Kevin Youkilis
Where:  COMC
How Much?:  $.45

Why?:  The more I see from the 2011 Topps Marquee set, the more I like it.  For 45 cents I have to say this is probably the best image of Kevin Youkilis that I have in my Red Sox collection.  Based on the crowd, it looks like this photo was taken on a cold Fenway night, and I like that Youk is lined up perfectly in front of the stadium bunting in the background.

Signature Sundays - New York, New York!

This past week I had to travel to New York City for a couple of days to complete a project for work.  It was hectic, and stressful, but all went well.  To pat myself on the back for a job well done, I even managed to find 10 minutes of free time on my way to Penn Station for my return trip to stop by a card shop I know of near our office.  I've stopped here and made a purchase once before.  This time, in a quick scan through the two display cases there were a pair of cards that stood out to me as potential pick-ups.  They were priced fairly to begin with, but the owner agreed to knock even a few bucks more off if I purchased both.

From the streets of lower Manhattan to my quiet card room/office in Rhode Island, here are the two new additions to my autograph collection:

I've talked about these 2005 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes autographs before.  In fact, this is the 7th one I've been fortunate enough to pick up and show off from this set.  This is also my second certified Wade Boggs autograph.  My first is a Red Sox card, whereas this one pays homage to his 1996 World Series Championship with the Yankees.

Sort of a nice side-note to be able to buy this card in New York City, only miles from the Stadium where Wade took his at-bats in pinstripes.

The other card that came home with me is from the same set, my very first autograph of first ballot HOFer Robin Yount!

Really love this one!  It's a nice feeling adding a new HOFer to my autograph collection, and Yount's auto is big and bold.  For the most part the players who signed for this set really took advantage of all the space offered by on-card autographs.  Out of the two cards I purchased this one was the biggest surprise, only because they've typically sold for much more than I'd be willing to pay on eBay in the past.

With just 99 of each of these in existence, I was beyond surprised to find two of them within the very small selection of display case cards in this tiny shop.  Even more surprising was the reasonable price tag, and the willingness of the owner to negotiate below that.

A successful project for work and two solid autographs for my collection, I'd call that a solid trip to the city that never sleeps!

Bucs for Sox

Recently I exchanged cards with a brand new trading partner, Mark of Battlin' Bucs.  I've been enjoying his blog for a while now, so when I realized I had quite a few Pirates cards occupying space in my trade box I looked him up.  I'm way behind on posting trade packages, but since Mark has already shown me up by posting the goods I sent him the day they arrived, I decided to move him up the priority list!

I would say I needed 90% or more of the cards Mark sent along, which is fantastic.  The Clemens above, from 2007 Moments and Milestones, was atop the stuffed team set bag.  A sleek looking card #'d /29.

I like the concept of this insert set, and as a Red Sox fan man am I glad those stripes changed!

This becomes one of the nicer Curt Schilling cards in my Red Sox collection.  It's a parallel, #'d /45 on the back.
 

Every card in this post was new to me.

1999 Bowman might have the most-difficult-to-read player names of any design I've ever seen.

See what I mean?  I'm sure you knew the last card was Pedro, but any idea who we've got here?

I got my first look at 2013 Pinnacle thanks to this package.  I'm not typically big on unlicensed sets, but with a few of them in hand I actually like them.  They do a great job of capturing that '90s Pinnacle feel in my opinion.

I'll be on the lookout for the rest of the Red Sox from this set for sure.

Another first for my collection, 2013 Triple Play.  I definitely dig the comic book feel of these.

Nomah!

This Eric Hinske from '07 Updates & Highlights is the red back variation.

A nice Hanley Ramirez from his first go-round with Boston.

This card would be unremarkable were it not for the fact that it's got perhaps the greatest card number of all-time.  From the 2004 Topps Traded set, Jerome Gamble received slot #T206 on the checklist!

Look at those specs!

This Donruss Originals card featuring Garciaparra on the '86 Donruss design was my single favorite card in the entire lot.  Great stuff!

Will forever be remembered for having his potential no-hitter (through five innings) rained out against the Orioles.

Mark, thanks for a great trade.  Glad I could give those Bucs cards a new home, and the Sox you sent are greatly appreciated.  With these in hand I'm on the verge of crossing the 3,700 unique Red Sox cards mark!