So Long Rusney? (and Other Cardboard from Dimebox Nick)

Towards the end of last week I found a plain white envelope in my mailbox with a nice Elvis Presley stamp on it.  That can only mean one thing, goods from Dimebox Nick!

Nick always manages to stuff a great variety of cardboard into just a single envelope, and he certainly did so again this time.  In the lead-off spot we've got the $72 Million mistake named Rusney Castillo!  He was actually put on waivers a couple weeks back.  Nobody claimed him (shocker, as he's still owed more than $50 Million), so he's with AAA Pawtucket for now.  In any event, this card had been on my Zistle want list for over a year before Nick sent a copy my way...

Next, let's look at a couple of cards from 2002 Donruss Super Estrellas.  With all the patriotic colors this Garciaparra seems quite appropriate for the upcoming 4th of July weekend here in the States.

I also got this great poster of Pedro Martinez from the same set.  This is about the size of a standard card when folded up, but unfolds to four times that size as you can see here.  Very cool oddball item of arguably the most dominant Red Sox pitcher ever, and certainly one of the larger items I've ever received via PWE!

This is one of those green tint parallels from 2011 Topps Heritage Minor Leagues.  Whatever that advertisement is in the background, it makes it look like there's a giant man lurking behind Anthony.

This is the first of a few Henry Owens cards that made an appearance in this package.  I've said this before, but taking the lack of a license into consideration I think Panini did a great job with this year's Donruss set.

Here's the Topps Wal-Mart Black parallel I alluded to earlier in the week.  What a coincidence that I received this one only days after getting a batch of these parallels in another trade package.

Another new Garciaparra card, and this one screams '90s.  I have no idea what Fleer was going for with this design, but as a child of the '90s I like it.  I now have over 150 different Nomar Garciaparra cards, not too shabby for someone I don't specifically chase.

Nick is really keeping me up to date when it comes to modern releases as well, as this represents my very first 2016 Topps Series 2 card.  I feel like this set just came out, and here I'm already getting them sent to me in the mail.  There are certainly some very friendly and generous people in this hobby of ours.  I'm tempted to call this a Xander Bogaerts card as well, maybe not totally proper but close enough.

How about a nice trio from the most recent Gypsy Queen set?  Nick was kind enough to send me Henry Owens' base card...

...Blake Swihart's base card...

...and the Framed Blue parallel of the Owens card.  To me, the framed parallels have always been the highlight of the show when it comes to the Gypsy Queen sets.  Glad to get my hands on my very first one from 2016.

I told you there was a lot of Henry Owens representation in this particular package, with this fourth and final card coming from 2016 Archives.  I picked up a couple of packs of this at my local hobby shop a few weeks back but haven't had the time to scan or post them yet.

Nick actually sent me four Red Sox from the set, none of which I had pulled in my small sampling of packs, which is great.  Always nice to add a new Mookie Betts card to the collection.

This is just my second "Craig Kimbrel as a Red Sox" card to date, with the other being 2016 Topps Heritage.  I like this one quite a bit more than the Heritage card; Topps did a bang-up job with the '91 cards in this year's Archives set.  Speaking of which, here's my favorite card in the entire package:

Just awesome.  I'd seen this one posted a couple of places and had been looking forward to landing my own copy.  It's interesting that Topps used two different Red Sox logos between the Kimbrel and Williams cards, not sure what's up with that.

Nick, I'm very glad that you're back in the blogging game, and I really appreciate you sending these my way.  I'll do my best to get a return PWE put together over the long weekend!