Generous Jeff - Another Doozy

Recently I was the recipient of another great brick of cards from reader Jeff.  It was just a couple of months back that he dropped a nearly full 800 count box of Red Sox and Whalers on me.  I haven't even gotten around to scanning and inventorying all of those cards yet, like this awesome Xander Bogaerts die-cut insert from last year's Bowman Platinum set.

Or this Ruby parallel of his rookie card from the same set.  Just awesome.  Once again, this package from Jeff was significant in size, so in the interest of not further delaying this very overdue thank you post the below is just a sampling of the great stuff I received.

Somehow I'm still missing 2011 Topps base cards.

Same with 2004, and Jeff knocked out a quintet from that set!

Former Norwich Navigator Ramiro Mendoza!

I like the Sporting News All-Star subset in 2004, a little busy but well done.

One out of three still counts for my Red Sox collection.

Another lot of five from a set I had very few cards from, 2010 Bowman...

Jose's swatting an impressive .333 with Detroit so far this year.  Always liked this guy in his brief time with Boston, and happy to see him playing well after missing all of last year due to injury.

A couple from 2006 Topps Chrome, putting me just one or two cards away from a complete team set.

I really like the older Turkey Red sets, back when they were standalone sets and not inserts.

Classy looking cards.

How about not one...

...not two...

...but three Bowman prospect cards, not one of whom played in a single MLB game.  They represent my first 2006 Bowman Chrome cards nonetheless.

Nice, Electric Diamond were right up there with Topps Gold cards as some of the earliest parallels I can remember.

One '90s Topps card closer...

I like the regal feel of this 2002 Upper Deck World Series Heroes set.  I'm a little confused though as Boggs never won a World Series with Boston.

Here's a snoozer insert from Fleer Authentix.  The perils of team collecting...

Luis never made it with Boston, but did get into 9 games of action with the Orioles back in 2012.

A little tough to make out the name on this Chrome card, but you're looking at Felix Doubront, who didn't exactly leave on the greatest of terms.  Doubtful we'll ever see him in a Red Sox uniform again.

Awesome, one card closer to the 2001 Fleer Red Sox 100th set.  Thanks to a healthy stack of this stuff acquired during my last raid of the quarter boxes at my local hobby shop, I think I'm around 2/3 of the way to finishing this 100-card set.

A nice Pedro from 2004 Bowman Heritage, done in the style of '55 Bowman.

Dustin Pedroia from the World Baseball Classic.

Circa '96, gaudy even for the mid-'90s!

Upper Deck's blatant rip-off of '63 Topps.  Nice looking card regardless of who printed it up.

This one I had to look up.  It's apparently from the 2001 Sunoco Dream Team set.  Maybe these were given away at Sunoco stations with a fill-up?

This is my first 2001 Donruss card, period.  I'm digging the design, and it really suits the Red Sox well.

Here's a really cool Trot Nixon mini from 2005 Bowman Heritage.  Looks just like, and is roughly the same size as, an original '51 Bowman.  Great stuff!

This package wasn't all about the Red Sox, as Jeff hit on a couple of other players that I casually collect as well.

First on the list was Ozzie Smith.  While I don't have any particular reason, other than being mesmerized by his back-flip antics as a kid, I've always liked picking up new cardboard of The Wizard.

Some interesting new Smiths for sure.

While I don't consider myself a player collector per se, the one guy I probably accumulate more cards of than any other on the baseball front is Nolan Ryan.

Nearly every time I'm perusing comc.com or eBay I at least take a quick glance at any Nolan Ryan cards.

Jeff managed to add a few recent inserts to my collection, which now stands at around 250 cards of the Texas strikeout king.

A reprint of a Nolan Ryan I do not yet own, but hope to one day, his 1970 Topps issue.

A reprint of a Nolan Ryan card I do own, and one I've always thought was under-rated as far as Ryan's career Topps run goes.

To show you how out of touch I am with a lot of the modern stuff, I had no idea (or had forgotten) that there was an insert set dedicated to Ryan in this year's Heritage product.  Glad Jeff brought this to my attention!

Finally, not to be missed on the players I sort of collect front, a new Will Clark card!  A great full-bleed photo of Will's time with team USA here.  I've never seen this card before, happy to add it to my Clark binder.

Last but not least, my favorite card of the entire box.  These 2003 Fleer Hardball "On the Ball" relic cards are really creative and fun.  I love the idea of a baseball shaped card.  Even better, this actually claims to contain a game-used (as opposed to event-worn or unknown) swatch.  This is easily one of the more unique relic cards in my entire Red Sox collection.

It's not every day that someone sends you a game-used relic of a HOFer, and hundreds of other great cards, just because.  Jeff, you're an extremely generous guy and a great trader.  All of the awesome stuff you've sent is truly appreciated, and I hope to find the time to feature even more of the goods in the coming weeks as I continue to scan and inventory.  Thanks again!