Trades from Collectors (Five Tool & Pedestrian)

I've got a couple of great trade packages to cover today, the first of which came unexpectedly from Commishbob of The Five Tool Collector.  Bob caught me totally out of the blue with a random act of kindness when he sent me the Dwight Evans buyback he pulled from a pack of 2017 Topps.  As if that wasn't enough, I found a nice little stack of '59 Topps baseball in the mailer alongside Dewey!

Aside from my buyback franken-set, the '59 Topps baseball set is probably the project that I've been devoting the most time and effort to over the last few months, so these are greatly appreciated.  It would be the oldest set I've ever completed by a long shot, and I'm still a long way off, but Bob certainly put a nice dent in my want list.

All told I received 15 of these beauties; 14 of them were set needs and the last one was a condition upgrade.

At this point in my venture I'm really just looking to fill open binder slots, so there is no card too beat up or worn out for me to accept.

With that being said though, the majority of the cards Bob sent are actually in really great shape and will probably never be removed from the binder again!

Based on the green seats and those bright red handrails I'm thinking this photo was taken at Seals Stadium.

The Sporting News Rookie Stars subset?  Bob covered that as well.

While I appreciate each and every "lowly" common, this package had some star power as well, including 8x World Series champion Hank Bauer.

Here's a local guy for me, as Chuck was born in Boston, MA!

Even got a new Red Sox card out of this as well, can't beat that.

Wow.  Not even sure what to say about this one.  I'm just about a decade into writing this blog now, and I'm still astounded any time someone sends a '50s HOFer out of the blue.  Simply awesome.

Bob also included some semi-high number cards as well in #475 Jack Harshman...

...#495, the infamous Johnny Podres...

...and #505, Yankees' shortstop Tony Kubek.  I've only got two cards in the binder so far with card numbers higher than this one.

I can't thank you enough Bob for this wonderful surprise mailer!  I already felt guilty that I hadn't reciprocated for the wonderful TBT Bogaerts card you sent me last season, but now I'm really in your debt.  I don't know what I could possibly send you to make up for this but I'm going to have a look around here...

The other trade package I'm overdue in showing off the contents of comes courtesy of Chris, who writes over at The (Pedestrian) Collector.  I only got in touch with Chris and began following his blog recently and he's already hit me up here with a nice stack of cards.  Like Bob, Chris' package also contained a buyback (1975 Topps Nelson Briles) that made my franken-set.

In addition to that though, Chris hooked me up with some set needs off of my want list, including a quartet of 1993 Flair Wave of the Future inserts.

The inaugural Flair release came right smack in the middle of my childhood run at collecting, and as such I have fond memories of this set, which was ultra high-end at the time.

I still remember the packaging these came in, with each pack wrapped in clear cellophane inside a small cardboard box.  I picked up a hobby box when I first got back into collecting, and have since finished off the base set.  After this grouping from Chris I'm down to just 8 more Wave of the Future inserts to finish off my master set.

I also received some much-appreciated hockey cards from Chris, including a pair from the 1994-95 SP set that I'm very close to completion on.

It's a bit difficult to make out, but Chris Gratton is sporting a very '90s hockey mullet here.

Closing things out for today is a nice group of '82-83 O-Pee-Chee cards, a set that I've been plugging away at for far too long.  This checklist is actually card #396, the final card in the set.

Jack Brownschidle actually played for the Whalers for the final 39 games of his NHL career, which seems appropriate given that Chris originally hails from CT just like me, and is a Whalers fan as well!

Mario Tremblay is probably most known for his clashes with Patrick Roy when he was coaching the Canadiens in the '90s.  He's the guy who left Roy in during that blowout that eventually resulted in Patrick departing for Colorado.

This card was a very thoughtful inclusion from Chris.  I'd posted a copy when I reviewed the top scorers in the NHL for the '82-83 season, but noted that it was pretty beat up.  Well, Chris came through with a nice condition upgrade for me, score!

I'll close it out here with what is probably my overall favorite card that Chris sent.  Tony Esposito is one of my favorite old-school netminders, it's really inexplicable that I didn't have a copy of this one yet.  I actually had a copy of this in my COMC cart and had been going back and forth with the seller trying to agree on a price when Chris' package arrived.  Perfect timing!

Thanks Chris for the great package, I've got a small stack going already for you, and am really going to try to make a push to add some more cards to it and get it in the mail this coming week.  I'm notoriously slow but I like to think that I always come through in the end.

A couple of great packages there indeed, just the latest examples of the amazing generosity that exists in this hobby we enjoy.  Thanks again gents!