A Surprise Mailing from The Commish

On Monday I found a PWE from Commishbob of The Five Tool Collector waiting in my mailbox for me after work.  When we were emailing a couple of weeks back he indicated that he had another buyback to send me for my franken-set project, but I certainly wasn't expecting an entire 9-pocket sheet of awesome cards!

For starters I received this 2016 Heritage Combo Card insert featuring a couple of guys who had pretty great seasons last year.  I don't buy a whole lot of modern cards typically, so while I'd seen this one before I always assumed it was part of the base set.  Now I see that they were actually an insert.  You learn something new every day.

There was one hockey card among the group of nine, this O-Pee-Chee Rainbow parallel of B's netminder Chad Johnson.  I love me some shiny cards, so this one is perfect.  Chad is still playing in the league too, he's with the Calgary Flames now and has made 34 starts with them so far this season, splitting time with Brian Elliott.

Bob recently completed the 1958 Topps set, which is quite an accomplishment to say the least.  He was kind enough to share what I assume are some of his duplicates with me here!

Sammy White once scored three times in a single inning for Boston, and caught Mel Parnell's 1956 no-hitter as well!

Bill Renna was just winding down his MLB career with Boston in the late '50s, playing his final two seasons (1958 & 1959) with the Red Sox.

This one is particularly cool as I can never get enough cards of the great (and somewhat strange) Jimmy Piersall.  His '58 release was one I was missing previously, thus this well-loved copy is one of my favorite cards from this PWE.

Bob also included two cards from the fantastically colorful All-Star subset in right fielder Jackie Jensen...

...and third baseman Frank Malzone.  This was the first year that Topps included a separate All-Star subset in its flagship release and the cards are just beautiful in my opinion.  In fact, I enjoy them so much that I completed the entire 21-card run in a grade of PSA 6 a few years ago.  It's great to get a couple of raw copies for my Sox binders, the only one I'm missing raw now is some guy named Ted Williams!

As promised, Bob sent along a buyback as well, though he actually surprised me again here and sent not one but a pair!

1959 Topps #392 - Whitey Herzog

Whoa.  Talk about a solid buyback to start off with.  This '59 Herzog is from the 2014 Topps release; the first year they really did the whole buyback thing (outside of the Heritage box-toppers).  Whenever I hear Herzog's name I think of him as a coach first and foremost, since those were the first cards of his that I saw as a kid.  It's great to get a buyback from his playing days, especially one from a set I like as much as '59 Topps.

I assumed this one would be a shoe-in for the franken-set when I found it in the PWE, but as it so happens I added another nice #392 buyback to the binder only yesterday:

Man.  I really love the photograph on this one, as well as the fact that it came out the same season that the A's made it three straight World Series championships.  This was a painful decision, and I actually had to remind myself that this project is supposed to be fun, not something I agonize over.

It pains me to say it but I'm going with the Dick Green, based largely on the photograph.  I'm fairly certain this might be the first HOFer I've rejected to date, but I'm sure it won't be the last.  I really do love all buybacks though, and even my ever-growing box of franken-set rejects is one of the most prized parts of my collection.

Besides, Bob had better luck with the other buyback he sent along:

1985 Topps #675 - Tony Perez

Sweet!  From the 2017 Topps buyback program comes my very first buyback of 7x All-Star, World Series champ, and HOFer Tony Perez!  What an awesome buyback to receive completely by surprise.  A great action photograph and a nice, large Reds logo make for a very visually-appealing card.

Like with the Herzog buyback, there's some existing competition here for the binder:

This buyback, featuring a "less than flattering" photo of Tim McCarver, was part of a contest winnings package from Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown.

I hope Gavin won't be offended, but I have to go with the Perez over Tim here.

Bob, what a spectacular surprise this package was, you certainly know how to brighten up a Monday!  Two HOFer buybacks and some '50s Red Sox, it truly does not get much better than that.  Thank you!

Franken-set Progress:  344/792 (43%)
"Rejected" Buybacks:  135
Total Buybacks in Collection:  479