PWE Variety Pack!

I've been trading with my good buddy Mark Kaz of This Way to the Clubhouse for a few years now, and I can honestly say that his latest PWE packed about as much variety as one could possibly hope for.  Oddballs, die-cuts, refractors, parallels, short prints and even buybacks, all in the same envelope and all shipped for a single postage stamp.  Let's dig in!

We'll start things off with the oddball, a tribute to '71 Topps courtesy of Sports Collector's Digest Baseball Monthly.  This was plucked from a 1991 issue of the publication, and whomever cut it from the magazine did so with some good precision.  I didn't scan the back so you'll just have to trust me that it's a very good representation of a '71 Topps back.

Next up, a die-cut from the 2002 Donruss Fan Club set.  Prior to receiving this PWE I had never even heard of this particular release from the folks at Donruss.  As with many of the die-cut cards released in the '90s and 2000s, there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to the way the card was cut.

Mark is aware that I'm a huge fan of Atomic Refractors so he was kind enough to throw this Donnie Sadler in the envelope.  I honestly had no clue there were Atomic Refractors in 1997 Bowman's Best.  This one didn't scan quite as well as the Atomic Refractors from the Topps Chrome releases that I'm more familiar with, but in hand it's a beautiful card.

From there it just kept getting better, as we have a serial-numbered gold parallel of Victor Martinez from 2009 Topps Updates & Highlights.  Victor was very solid at the plate during his quick tenure with Boston, and when healthy has enjoyed continued success in the years since.  Nice to receive this one from Mark in trade, as I know he himself is a big fan of the Topps gold cards.

Here's another 2009 Topps parallel, this time of the Wal-Mart black border variety.  I lost track of George Kottaras after he left Boston, but it looks like he certainly bounced around a bit.  He would see action with the Brewers, Athletics, Royals, Indians, Cardinals and even a few games with the Blue Jays all between 2010 and 2014.

This Luis Tiant is a double whammy for my collection.  Not only is it a brand new Red Sox card, but it's one of the remaining short prints that I was still missing from 2012 Archives.  Trying to collect this set was a lesson that collecting sets with short-prints isn't really for me, but I'm far enough along with it that I still seek out the ones I'm missing from time to time, and hope to finish it off someday.

Here's a Single-A All-Stars insert from 2011 Topps Pro Debut.  To this day I'm still astounded that Will Middlebrooks turned out to be a bust.  Will the 6 games he appeared in with San Diego earlier this year end up being the final half dozen games of his MLB career?  Certainly seems so at this point in time.

Speaking of busts, here's a nice green refractor of bullpen arm Daniel Bard.  Daniel quite literally lost complete command of his pitches and was almost unable to throw a strike at times.  Though he hasn't appeared in the Majors since 2013 he did sign a contract with the Cardinals back in May.  With the way it seems to go with pitching out in St. Louis, he'll probably turn into the game's top closer within a year or so here.

Final Red Sox card, from 2011 Topps Update.  This is a set you don't ever see cheap wax from, thanks to Mike Trout's rookie card being on the checklist, so I'm grateful for this Target Red parallel of Bobby Jenks.

So, that concludes what would normally be our standard 9-card back and forth exchange.  But wait, this time Mark snuck three bonus cards into the envelope...

Buybacks!  Mark read that I'm working on a giant buyback franken-set so he decided to toss some that he had laying around into this latest package to help me out.  What a guy!  Mis-cut and airbrushed Dave Rader here makes the cut for the set too, as the only card I have so far in the #427 slot.  As an added bonus, if he ever gets cut from the set I know a buyback and mis-cut fan who would be the perfect person to forward this card onto.

Gene Clines is card #171 in the '79 Topps set, and as such he makes the cut for my franken-set as well.  I don't know much about Clines, who wrapped up his MLB career before I was even born, but he did stay involved with the Cubs in a coaching capacity when his playing days had wrapped up.  Gotta love that shoulder patch!

Last one here, card #434 from the 1976 Topps set, Morris Nettles.  As it turns out, Morris was already finished with his career by the time this card came out.  He makes the cut as well though as the only #434 I've got so far.  So, Mark went 3-for-3 on the buybacks, what a nice boost to my slowly growing set.

Franken-set Progress:  43/792 (5%)

Mark, this PWE really went above and beyond.  I truly appreciate it, and plan to show my appreciation with a return PWE headed your way later this week!