Vintage, Oddballs, Ticket Stubs and Buybacks - Another Great PWE from Dimebox Nick

A few weeks ago now I was the recipient of another jam-packed PWE from my good buddy Nick, king of the dime boxes.  It's always an exciting feeling getting a package from Nick, because you truly never know what you'll find inside.

With the level of generosity in this hobby I feel like I'm constantly saying this, but had you told 9-year-old-me that someday in my adult life I would arrive home after work and find Red Sox cards from the '50s in my mailbox that someone sent me just because, my head would have exploded.

Nick is known for oddballs, and he lives up to his reputation here.  I'm relatively certain this is a 1990 Score Pepsi Roger Clemens card.  The last year of stats listed on the back is '89, and the back also has very much the same look and feel as other '90 Score cards I own.  The only reason I'm not 100% confident in my declaration is that a search of "Pepsi Clemens" on COMC does not return any copies of this card.  Same with eBay.

While technically not a Red Sox card in the strictest sense, I do appreciate this Team USA Blake Swihart card from Panini.  This isn't a set I'd enjoy a whole box of I don't think, but the occasional single is kind of cool, especially when it's a young player still with the Sox.

Maybe serial-numbered cards are more your thing?  Well, Nick covered that as well with a pair of pitchers from 2003 Leaf Limited.

These are numbered to /999 on the reverse.  They look much better in person, but as usual my scanner was overwhelmed by excessive foil.

Parallels?  Check!  I got a pair of Target Reds.  From 2013 Update, Daniel Bard, who quite literally forgot how to throw a strike...

...and from 2012 flagship, Jacoby Ellsbury in one of my favorite play-at-the-plate shots.

The award for the most unique card in the package goes to this 2004 Fleer Authentix "Ticket Stud" Nomar Garciaparra.  Once you can get past the awful name, this is actually a nice card.  I commend Fleer for doing something different at least.  What you see here is the card folded in half, the way it would have been discovered in a pack.  But when you unfold it...

...you get a ticket stub.  Not bad at all, in fact I really like it.

With just 15 of these, I'm somewhat tempted to try completing the set.  Too many other projects at the moment, but I'll certainly keep them on my radar.

This PWE wasn't all about the Red Sox, though.  Nick was kind enough to include a pair of Chrome Update cards that you find in those retail holiday mega boxes.

He remembered that I completed the 2015 version last year, and so sent these along.  Really thoughtful, and since I accomplished my goal of curbing my retail spending as far as the card budget went last year, these are actually the first two in my collection from the 2016 set.

Without question though, my favorite part of the PWE came in the form of half a dozen buybacks for my franken-set project.  I'm fairly certain these came from an epic garage sale that Nick attended in November.  Let's see how they fared in terms of the franken-set...

1968 Topps #459 - Dick Simpson

Dick Simpson bounced around a bit at the Major League level.  He'd just been dealt to the Cardinals during the '67 off-season, which is why he appears hat-less here, but would only last until June before being shipped off to Houston.  Either way, this is a sweet and relatively high numbered '68 that filled an empty slot in the binder.

1969 Topps #242 - Frank Kostro

Frank Kostro was a utility infielder who was winding down his career when this card was printed up.  His last MLB appearance came in September of '69, followed by a year in Japan before hanging up the spikes.  This one makes the set uncontested as well.  A nice pair of '60s cards to strengthen the franken-set!

1973 Topps #347 - Kansas City Royals

Jumping forward a decade, here's a Royals team card from '73 Topps.  Looks like they're sitting on a very green lawn in front of a very green hedge.  If you let your eyes blur a little it almost looks fake, like they're sitting in front of a green screen.  That, or I've been staring at my laptop screen too long.  Either way, this card makes the franken-set as well.

1958 Topps #471 - Lenny Green

I was really smiling by this point.  This is just the 9th card from the '50s to make my franken-set, and it's by far the highest numbered of that bunch at 471.  This one filled a slot that was otherwise likely to stay empty for a while, and did so with style!  Amazingly enough, there were a pair of buybacks that excited me even more than this one did.

1968 Topps #12 - 1967 AL Strikeout Leaders

For a Red Sox fan, it doesn't get much better than the cardboard representation of Jim Lonborg's incredible 1967 Cy Young season.  Just awesome.  Getting this card into the franken-set was essential, but I already had a card in slot 12...

...and it was a Red Sox buyback to boot.

No offense to Don, but I'll take a third of a '60s Lonborg over a full '70s Aase.  That sounded bad.

1967 Topps #151 - Moe Drabowsky World Series Game #1

The star of the buybacks for me though was this '67 Topps World Series subset card that pays homage to Moe Drabowsky's 11k Game 1 performance in 1966.  That feat was extra impressive given that Moe didn't even start the game!  Drabowsky was called into action after just 2 1/3 innings from starter Dave McNally, and proceeded to "mow down" 11 Dodgers, including 6 straight at one point.  A great card representing an impressive post-season performance, I'm honored to welcome this one to the franken-set!

Five out of six on the buybacks, and the one that had a conflict won out easily.  Can't beat that!  This might have been your most varied PWE yet Nick, and I really appreciate the effort you put into assembling something that touched on so many areas of collecting that I enjoy.  Thank you!  I'm working on filling the 3-pocket sheet you used back up here so that I can return fire soon!

Franken-set Progress:  274/792 (34%)
"Rejected" Buybacks:  75
Total Buybacks in Collection:  349