Pirates, Clowns, and a Free Prize Inside!

Today's post comes courtesy of Joe Shlabotnik of The Shlabotnik Report.  As the post title indicates, Joe's latest PWE came with a free prize inside.  We'll get to that shortly though, first let's take a look at some excellent new Red Sox cards that were included in the envelope...

We'll start off with a couple of junk wax "how did I not have this already?" cards.  You have to love the awkward portrait shots with locker room backdrops that make up the '94 Studio set.

Was really surprised that I didn't already own a copy of this one.  Was also really surprised that this is the photograph of Mike Greenwell that Donruss decided to go with for this set.  This has to be up there among the ugliest cards released in 1992 by anyone, right?  Photo aside, it's not even cropped well.  Looks like I still need 2-3 Sox from this set, hope they're more visually appealing than this one.  As any team collector knows though, they can't all be gems.

Michael Chavis is currently ranked the 9th best prospect in Boston's organization.  He was drafted right out of high school in 2014, and is still just 20 years old, so time will tell I guess.  I believe this is a refractor, though it's not noted as such on the back (collecting pet peeve of mine, it shouldn't require a ton of detective work to determine what card you're holding in your hand).

Sweet, one card closer to a 2016 Archives team set!  Brian's got the stuff to pitch at the MLB level, at least it seems so, but struggles with anxiety.  He's battling his way back from this, and is currently working his way through the Boston farm system again.

I've mentioned this a few times now, but Classic cards are some of my absolute favorite oddball releases from the '80s/'90s.  Any trade package that introduces a new one to my collection is an automatic winner.

Nice shot of Wade Boggs here on one of those Glossy Send-in cards from the mid-'80s.  This pairs nicely with the Jim Rice I have from the same set, which I believe also came in trade (and possibly even from Joe).

I shouldn't have been surprised to find a 1976 SSPC card included, as Joe is basically single-handedly responsible for getting me most of the way to a team set now.  I will never get tired of receiving new SSPC cards, Red Sox or not.  For those who care, this is Doug Griffin.

Lastly, a new '70s Red Sox card from Canada!

Now, those eight cards alone would have made for a great PWE, but as I mentioned this one actually had a free prize inside.  Like myself and many other traders, Joe uses one row of a nine-pocket sheet when sending a PWE, and when I removed the sheet from the envelope this was staring back at me from the middle pocket:

I believe this is officially the first ever prize I've received in a PWE!  When I peeled back the cover I found my prize safely nestled inside a handful of '87 Topps Fred Lynn cards:

As you can see, Wade survived the journey up the East Coast just fine.  The Lynns were layered to just the right depth to protect Boggs on his travels.  If you're wondering how many Fred Lynns it takes to protect a Wade Boggs coin, the answer is four:

The best part of the whole prize, which I neglected to notice until cleaning up the mess, is that the cover cards on either side of the stack of Lynns were customized Shlabotnik style:

Thankfully I don't have a fear of clowns.  I know a co-worker who'd likely experience nightmares after getting a look at that Tom Magrann card.  By the way, something about '90 Donruss sort of works well with a clown card in some weird way.

Thanks for the great PWE Joe, and for the excellent prize!  I'll have something headed back in your direction by the weekend...