Squaring Up with Jeff

Today I will finally get up to speed with thanking at least one of the many great folks I exchange cards with, my friend Jeff S.  As I was scanning and cropping the last batch of cardboard Jeff sent just a few weeks ago, another package rolled in.  I have no idea what I've done to be treated so well, but I certainly can't complain!

I got my first taste of a couple of 2016 releases courtesy of this package, the first being Gypsy Queen.  I soured on this set over the years since its inaugural release, which I absolutely loved.  I'm not sure how I feel about this one, but my first impression is that it's better than the last few years at least.

I'd at least like to complete a team set, and this pair is a good start.

These on the other hand, are just awesome.  For a company lacking a license, I commend Panini for its Diamond Kings set this year.  Not only will I be grabbing all the Red Sox, but I hope to pick up a few parallels as well, and possibly even some retired greats from other teams.

I mean check out this Dom DiMaggio.  Logos be damned, that is a sweet card of a man who doesn't get enough hobby love.

There are ten Red Sox in the base set, and Jeff hooked me up with five of them.

New Xander Bogaerts!  My Bogaerts collection has really been picking up steam, and Xander has been killing it this year at the plate.  He's pacing the AL in hits, and has more hits than anyone in baseball since the start of 2015.  I'm glad I was onto this guy early as a Red Sox fan, because I was able to build up a pretty decent collection before his prices got too high.  I think I've shown around 50 of Xander's cards here over time, and I've got some really nice ones backlogged to feature here throughout the season.

There was some other nice cardboard in the package to accompany the 2016 stuff, as Jeff did some damage to my set building want list...

Flair baseball was right up there with Topps Finest back in the day in terms of "high end" sets that to an 11 or 12 year old seemed like cardboard gold.  Each pack of the inaugural Flair baseball set came in its own little box, and they were expensive as hell by the standards of the day.  Well, the Flair set has certainly cooled over time, and I've been working on building it since busting a cheap hobby box years ago.  I've got the base set finished, just tracking down the rest of the Wave of the Future inserts and I'm one closer now.

I also received a trio of cards I needed towards my '82-83 O-Pee-Chee set.

This is my favorite of the three, check out the blood streaming down Crawford's neck!  Also, those flying V sweaters were just atrocious.  This one looks like it was made with a couple of rolls of colored duct tape.

All of those were great, and helped me get closer to some sets, but they kind of paled in comparison to the final two cards.

Two pretty much mint '59 Topps cards for my set!  I'm putting this together in absolutely any condition (I have cards with paper loss on the back, cards missing corners, etc), but the two Jeff sent along are real beauties!

Even if I completed '59 Topps some day and went back to start upgrading, I wouldn't have to touch these.  I don't recall the last time I was so pleased to get a pair of Yankees cards in the mail!

Since I'm aiming to get completely caught up with Jeff, I actually have a few more cards to show.  These are the last remnants from my scans folder of a trade package that he sent me around a year ago!  So yeah, I'm long overdue in getting to these...

A quartet of Nolan Ryan cards leads off the remainder of this stack.

I didn't realize it, but it looks like Ryan got a handful of cards in this Golden Greats insert set from 2012 Topps.

Sweet, this one had been on my Zistle want list.  It's a pesky short print, happy to have this one in hand!

Alright, back to the Red Sox with a couple of prospects who haven't exactly made it yet...

One of a seemingly infinite number of '90s Garciaparra cards that I'm missing.  1998 Donruss definitely has a patriotic design to it.

Remember Will Middlebrooks?

This Pacific Private Stock mini of Nomar Garciaparra is pretty cool.  Had no idea there were mini Pacific cards.

Here's an insert from one of the nicer sets of all-time, 1993 Upper Deck.

Yes, there are still 1992 Donruss cards that I'm actively looking for.  Not many, but a few, and this was one of them.

Random Henry Owens USA Baseball insert from Bowman Chrome.

This Trot Nixon insert from 2002 Leaf is actually serial-numbered to /100.  I seem to get a lot of nice Trot Nixon cards in trade, which doesn't bother me in the least!

My favorite two players on the current team in 2015 Allen & Ginter form...

Another Nomar from the '90s that I was inexplicably missing.

I'll close it out with an impressive trio of oddballs, cards I absolutely would have picked out and paid for myself eventually, had Jeff not sent them to me.  First, a mint 1980 Kellogg's Jim Rice.  Jim was an absolute beast at the turn of the decade, and like many collectors I think Kellogg's are some of the best oddball issues of all-time.

This one is even cooler, another HOFer in Fergie Jenkins from the 1977 set!  Jenkins was the only Red Sox player on the checklist, so this would be a complete team set as well.  Not bad, especially since I knocked out the '72 Kellogg's team set a few posts ago.  I really need to get together a list of the rest of what I'm missing and try to finish off the Kellogg's run this year.

Last "card" for today.  These Crane Potato Chip Discs are fantastic.  Carlton Fisk here is my second one, both received from Jeff actually.

Jeff, your generosity continues to amaze me.  I truly appreciate all the great cardboard, and I am definitely going to make an effort to get something out to you soon.  My Red Sox collection got a really solid boost from these couple of packages for sure!