Orange is the New Black

I've tried watching the show "Orange is the New Black".  Not awful, but not exactly my cup of tea either.  I think I made it through the first season and then trailed off.  Anyway, this post has nothing to do with that show.  It's just that the show was the first thing that came to my mind when I opened my latest PWE from Mark Kaz of This Way to the Clubhouse, since just about every card inside was of either the orange or black variety.

The orange came courtesy of 2012 Topps Chrome.  I am a confessed total sucker/addict when it comes to the Topps Chrome colored refractors, give me any year and any color when it comes to the Red Sox.  I had quite a few oranges from the 2012 set already, but Mark managed to find a pair I had yet to acquire in Jon Lester...

...and Mike Aviles.  Great stuff!  There was also a Jacoby Ellsbury in the envelope, but I already have one of those.  No way Mark could have known this though, as Zistle has not yet applied my change that indicates it's a Red Sox card.  No matter, I'll be passing it along to a fellow Sox collector in a future mailing.

With these two new ones in hand, I have just three more 2012 Topps Chrome Orange Refractors to track down for a complete team set.  Alright, with the orange portion of the PWE behind us, let's move onto the black...

Mark recently stumbled upon an amazing dime box that had a nice chunk of these 2011 Topps Wal-Mart exclusive black parallels (among many other drool-inducing pieces of cardboard).  I've always been a fan of these but have never had the good fortune of stumbling across too many of them.

Luckily I've got a friend like Mark who must have scooped up just about every Red Sox card in the box with my collection in mind!

This PWE contained no less than five of these black beauties, which is beyond awesome as I owned just a single one of these (JD Drew) prior.

Amazingly enough, I got a PWE from Dime Box Nick just this past Saturday that contained yet another one of these.  Not only that, but it was not one of the ones Mark sent either.  At this point I feel like the Cardboard Gods are trying to tell me I should complete this team set.

Oh yeah, and there was one non-orange/non-black card to be found in the package as well, this 2016 Topps Spring Fever card of Big Papi!

Mark, thanks yet again for another great trade envelope.  I was insanely jealous of your dime box scores when reading your post, but I guess if you can't be browsing the dime boxes yourself then having a buddy to pick through them on your behalf is just as good!  I really appreciate you going out of the way to find these great cards for my collection.  I'm sure I'll have another envelope of Mets headed your way soon!