Dime Box (Nick) Red Sox!

I am long overdue in thanking Nick from the fantastic blog Dime Boxes for two exceptional packages of cards he shipped my way this summer.  Here's the first!

I'm guessing this fantastic Luis Aparicio from 2001 Upper Deck Decade 1970s is a dupe or cast-off from Nick's players signing autographs collection.  I don't recall seeing this interesting shot of Aparicio before receiving this one.  A unique start to the package for sure.

Henry Owens seemed to have about 10,000 different cards produced of him last year, despite the fact that he never really pitched all that well.  Still happy to give this Gypsy Queen mini a home though.

This one's a Rainbow Foil parallel from last year's flagship set featuring the "Killer B's" (Bradley Jr, Bogaerts and Betts).  I like the celebratory shot that Topps chose for the card, though I still wish they'd do team photo cards like they did back in the '60s and '70s instead.

A nice Heritage Mike Timlin here, made especially cool by the fact that it's from 2004 which (in case you were living under a rock) was a pretty significant year for Sox fans.

At this point it looks unlikely that Jon Denney will ever make The Show, but I'm really happy to have landed this one given that I'm an absolute sucker for Bowman Chrome Wave Refractors of all types.  These cards just plain look awesome in hand.

Hey, what do you know?  I just got the Mookie Betts Infinite insert in a package from Joe Shlabotnik, and here's the only other Red Sox player on the checklist.  Drew has been perhaps the most under-rated starter in all of the American League here in 2017.  Of course, I'm biased in my opinion.

How about a trio of Red Sox from 2017 Archives?  On the 1982 Topps design (my birth year!) we have Jackie Bradley Jr....

...and Nomah.  Garciaparra was my favorite player during the latter half of the '90s/early '00s, so it's nice to get a card of him on the design from the year I was born.

Lastly, as far as Archives goes, is Mookie Betts juggling on the '92 Topps design.  A nice little chunk of a team set right there.

This is just my second card from 2016 Gold Label, and if I'm not mistaken both of them were supplied by Nick!  I'm a fan of this release, I think Topps did a good job with the design.

What would a package from Nick be without some oddballs!  From 1977 TCMA we have Jackie Jensen...

...and from the 1979 TCMA '50s set, Jim Piersall!  Both great photos, but it's hard not to favor this full-color beauty.

This one's neat, as it's printed on acetate like the Topps Tek releases.  Manny certainly had his issues, but you can't argue with the fact that he made the team interesting to watch.

Love the photograph on this Sports Illustrated Greats of the Game Lonborg.  The long evening shadows are just perfect.

If the TCMA oddballs didn't satisfy your appetite for weird, then perhaps a glow-in-the-dark wall sticker will?

Here's a nice, shiny Bryce Brentz rookie.  This guy has been absolutely crushing the ball in AAA this year.  Because if this, I think it surprised a lot of folks that Boston dealt for Rajai Davis this past week instead of promoting Bryce and giving him a shot.  Who knows, maybe he'll get a call-up when the rosters expand here.

I got my first look at 2017 Diamond Kings when processing Joe Shlabotnik's PWE the other day, and here we have another.  I commend Panini for their player selection here, you don't see many new Harry Hooper cards nowadays!  Not to mention, the lack of logos/licensing is less noticeable on the older players in my opinion.  Great card.

My favorite card in the entire package though would have to be this Carlton Fisk Kellogg's release from 1980.  Like seemingly every baseball card collector out there, I adore these 3-D lenticular beauties.  At this point I think I have nearly all of the Red Sox cards from the Kellogg's run, however I certainly did not own a copy of Carlton here.  Nick hit an absolute home run with this one!

1987 Topps #58 - Thad Bosley

Nick was also kind enough to include a pair of Cubbies buybacks with this particular delivery.  I've said it before but I'm so grateful for folks who think to send me their buybacks.  They don't seem to be well-loved or well-received by most collectors, but I'll happily take them all for my franken-set project.

In order for the '87 Thad Bosley to make the binder in slot 58, it would have to displace this '79 Bob Randall.  I think I'm going to go with the Randall based on the backdrop alone.

Yup, that turned out to be the difference.

1978 Topps #175 - Jerry Morales

The other buyback that Nick included fared better however, as slot 175 in the binder was actually vacant!  Jerry Morales has been slid into place, and is now the 462nd card in the franken-set binder.

Nick, thanks for a great package (and an even greater one still to be posted!).  I've been stuffing a bubble mailer for you over the past few weeks (including the entire contents of the lone A & G blaster I bought this year), and should be shipping out soon!

Franken-set Progress:  462/792 (58%)
"Rejected" Buybacks:  294
Total Buybacks in Collection: 756