A Double Dose of Kaz

As I did the other day with Nick from Dime Boxes, I'm going to combine a couple of PWEs into a single post here in an effort to catch up a bit on trade packages.  For today I've got a pair from my good friend Mark Kaz of This Way to the Clubhouse fame.

We'll start with the older one first, which showed up at least a couple weeks ago now.  What's this, a Mets card?!?!  I've been (very) slowly chipping away at the 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes set, and Mark was observant enough to notice this card on my Zistle want list.  I love the raindrops coming down in the photograph.

This puzzle piece card from 2008 Opening Day definitely has to be one or the more unique/odd cards Mark has sent my way, but a new Sox card is a new Sox card!  Tracking down all of these and displaying them in a binder page would probably look pretty cool.

From there, let's move to a junk wax era classic, 1993 Upper Deck.  I love the face that Billy Hatcher is making here as he prepares himself for a slide into second base.

My list of Red Sox needs from the 2015 Topps Update set is really starting to dwindle, and I can cross another one off courtesy of this David Ortiz Tape Measure Blasts card.  I can't imagine anyone but a team or player collector would bother chasing these, but I'll take it!

This Trot Nixon is just my second card overall from the 2000 Pacific Paramount set.  Sports cards were about the furthest thing from my mind at the turn of the century, always nice to get new cardboard from this era.

Here's one I know I had as a kid, but was inexplicably missing a copy of in my collection.  Upper Deck did a great job with this Williams hologram, and it even scanned half-way decently to boot.  This one might be the under-rated star of this first PWE!

I have to say that the Prizm hockey releases look so much better since they're able to use the team logos and names.  I know it's not going to happen anytime soon, but I really wish MLB would allow both Upper Deck and Panini to make licensed sets again.

This '94 Finest throwback comes from the 2015 Finest set, and I think Topps did a great job with these.  Takes me right back to the mid-'90s!

Mark even managed to lay another new minor league card on me with this Rafael Orellano.  The Trenton Thunder were the AA affiliate of the Red Sox at the time, so according to my rules/OCD this counts towards my Red Sox collection.

Rounding out the first PWE is this Bob Ojeda Museum Collection parallel.  I know I've said this more than a few times before, but I absolutely love these Dufex beauties, especially the '94 set.  I grabbed quite a few of these during my Black Friday spending spree on COMC over the past weekend, as well as some of the Rink Collection hockey cards from the same year.

The back and forth mailings between Mark and myself have been going at a torrid pace lately, so before I even had a chance to post a thank you for that great PWE another arrived last week.

This one was the standard Red Sox fare that I'm used to, which is great.  It introduced me to an entirely new set with 2000 Skybox Dominion.  As I've said before, the sheer number of sets released in the early 2000s never ceases to amaze me.

Here's an unfamiliar name from 2010 Bowman, Ryan Dent.  Looks like Ryan advanced as far as AAA within the Red Sox system, but is now with the Cubs organization.  Theo Epstein must see something in him, because he was in charge when the Sox drafted him, and was also influential in signing him to the Cubs' system before the 2015 season.

Another new Upper Deck All-Time Heroes card courtesy of Mark!  This is one of those sets I enjoy so much that I could see myself expanding beyond just the Sox and trying for the complete set.  Beautiful design, and who doesn't like some quality black and white photos from the game's past?

Speaking of black and white photos, here's a shot of Boomer Wells against a backdrop of the Boston skyline.  Maybe not the most inspired Donruss Studio design of all-time, but I always liked Wells during his time in Boston.

Stefan Bailie's pro baseball career was plagued by injury, leading to his retirement in 2005.  He had advanced as high as AA Portland in the Red Sox farm system.

A nice Pinnacle rookie of Scott Hatteberg.  I like the Opening Day bunting in the background of this photo.

This is sort of my first Morgan Burkhart Red Sox card.  I have two others, but one is a minor league release and the other is a shared card with another player.  I guess now I can finally, and properly, cross him off my all-time Red Sox list.

I can't believe this is true, but Mark included a little note with this PWE that said this appears to be my first Gabe Kapler card, and sure enough it is!  The funny part is that a while back I picked up a lot of Kapler cards on eBay, figuring I could keep any Red Sox ones and send the rest to Mark for his collection of Gabes.  Well, when it showed up there wasn't a single Sox card in the lot, so I ended up shipping them all to Mark.  Now he's returned the favor!

Last card for today is this obnoxiously over-foiled Metal Universe Mike Stanley.  I can see how these sets might be way too busy for a lot of collectors, but to me they're a definite collecting guilty pleasure.  Maybe it's got something to do with being a child of the late '80s/'90s, but I really dig these.

Mark, thanks as always, it's been a pleasure trading with you in 2015 and I hope we can continue our PWE reciprocation for many years to come!