3,792 Miles

The cards in today's post came a long way, across the Atlantic Ocean in fact, to join my collection.  I know many folks feel the same way, but to me probably the single greatest thing about writing this sports card blog is the fact that collectors in this community mail each other free cards from all over the world, just because.

It's a nice little reminder that despite what you may read in the headlines people across this planet are, generally speaking, very kind.  On that note, here are just a few highlights from the latest package of hockey cards sent to me by my friend Oscar in Sweden.

Oscar and I have never met in person, but that hasn't stopped him from packaging up some hockey cards and shipping them close to 4,000 miles essentially just to brighten my day.  He's done this probably close to a half dozen times now.

Aside from that, Oscar's sent me some really kind notes of encouragement regarding the blog, and all in English.  Just an all-around solid guy!

This latest delivery contained a little bit of everything, from junk wax, to new Whalers, and even a high-end modern parallel that really surprised me.

When I say junk wax, I mean that affectionately.  My years of childhood card collecting came right smack in the middle of the junk wax era, so I actually get quite a bit of enjoyment and nostalgia out of cards like these.

For example, I had completely forgotten that Rick Tocchet had a brief stint with the LA Kings.

Fleer had some really bright and obnoxious sets in the mid-'90s across all sports.  One of the better examples of this is their 1994-95 hockey release.  This Adam Oates has to be one of the most yellow cards in my entire collection.

A nice early career card of Alexei Yashin.  I always thought the '93-94 Leaf set had a classy look to it, especially compared to some of the other stuff that was being printed up at the time.  If you ask me, the design has held up pretty well throughout the years.

This fantastic "sunset card" of Adam Oates represents the 60 games he played with Edmonton to finish out his HOF career in 2003-04.  This is actually my very first card, period, from the '03-04 Upper Deck set.  Can't think of a better first card to get than a career-closing card of a HOFer with an obscure team you don't picture him playing for.

Oscar also hooked me up with my very first card from '03-04 SP Authentic with this sweet Sergei Fedorov!  Once again another HOFer on a team you don't think of him as having played for.  In fact, I have over 130 unique Fedorov cards now, and I believe this is my very first one featuring him with Anaheim.  Just an awesome card, one of my favorites from this latest package for sure.

Here's a nice Larry Robinson insert, with a photograph from a time before helmets were prevalent.  The players in that era definitely had some guts stepping out on the ice without head protection of any kind.
 

Oscar typically includes a few nice Bruins cards in each package, and this time was no exception.  That is one young Patrice Bergeron, with this one being printed up all the way back in 2007.

Here's a more recent one, from last year's O-Pee-Chee set.  I was pretty crushed with the B's dealt Dougie Hamilton away for draft picks.  At the time I predicted that the Flames had fleeced the Bruins in that trade, and would win their division this past season.  Well, the Flames didn't look too great at all last year, and Dougie didn't exactly light the world on fire either, so maybe this is one of those trades that looked much worse initially than it actually ended up being.

As I mentioned above, Oscar managed to find a few Whalers cards that I needed, which is something that is getting harder and harder to do.

There were actually half a dozen in this package that were totally new to my collection.

The best player among that lot of six is certainly defenseman Chris Pronger.

And the shiniest card of the six is undoubtedly this Andrei Nikolishin Gold Medallion parallel.  Oscar has actually sent me a few of these now over the past couple years.

I also got a pair that I was missing from the 1995-96 Upper Deck Special Edition set, centers Andrew Cassels...

...and Darren Turcotte.  Nice cameo by Peter Forsberg with the Nordiques on this one!

The most surprising card in this trade package though was a parallel from last year's O-Pee-Chee Platinum set.  Behold!

I was pretty stunned to find that Oscar had included this one.  These Blue Cubes parallels from 2014-15 OPC Platinum are some of my favorite parallels from any hockey set in recent years.  They look stunning in person, and are serial-numbered to just /65.  Bobby Ryan is the sixth one in my collection now, but it's the first one that anyone has sent me in trade.

Oscar, you really know how to assemble an A+ trade package my friend!  I truly appreciate your generosity and kindness, and I'm already working on a package that will travel 3,792 miles in the opposite direction soon!