Christmas Cards from Kin

Last month I was the recipient of a wonderful and completely unexpected batch of cards from my hobby friend Kin Kinsley.  Kin included a wide array of cards that hit on various hobby interests of mine, and I only barely scratched the surface of his package during the first post.  Today we'll finally finish up with the rest of the goodies...

This would probably be delayed even longer than it already has been if I attempted to show everything, so instead I picked just some highlights, like this fantastic Stadium Club card that I'd had my eye on for a long while before finally receiving a copy of here.

The Sox had some real gems in this year's set, and Hanley Ramirez's card with a guest appearance from Wally the Green Monster is no exception.

For some reason my scanner created some wavy lines on these Stadium Club cards.  Can't say I've seen that before, but they look just fine in hand.

There were a whole slew of Bruins cards in the package.  Just a couple of them were dupes which I already have set aside with new homes in mind.  Most were keepers for me, including Tuukka Rask...

...and David Backes Upper Deck Ice cards.  One way to make any trade package a winner in my book is to include something printed on acetate like this.

Here's one that brought a smile to my face.  From the 2011-12 Upper Deck National Hockey Card Day promotion, a great Tim Thomas card.  What an awesome photograph of Tim raising the Cup after the Bruins recent championship.  It's still the only time in my lifetime as an NHL fan that I've been able to see the team I was rooting for win it all.  For me, it was extra special as it occurred in conjunction with my wedding and honeymoon, which was also my first ever trip to Europe.  Awesome card.

Here's a neat one, from 1993 Pacific.  The "Tercera Base" designation is a tip-off that this is from the Spanish version of the set.  A nice oddball for my Red Sox collection here.

I've really built up a decent little collection of Anders Bjork rookies.  Unfortunately, he's kinda stunk this year, and hasn't been with the NHL club since November.  Who knows, maybe he'll turn it around someday.

From the same set as the Tim Thomas above, a new Willie O'Ree card!  There seem to be precious few cards out there of Willie, who was elected to the Hockey HOF this year.  In fact, this appears to be the same photograph used on my prized O'Ree autograph from Upper Deck Masterpieces.  I will never turn down a new card of Willie!

Kin gave my Whalers collection a nice little bump to start the new year here, as he sent a handful of cards from the 1996-97 Skybox Impact set.

Five cards to be precise.

Those five actually constitute a complete Whalers team set!

Just like that another set bites the dust as far as my Whalers collection goes.

It's an unofficial goal of mine to try to build the #1 Whalers collection on The Trading Card Database in 2019.  With these added my tally on that site is up to 1,442, good enough for 4th place.

How about a few more baseball cards?  I recently opened a pack of 1989 Donruss as part of a repack, and my Diamond Kings card was less than enthralling.  Thanks to Kin though I now have the one I'd want most, Mike Greenwell.

Here's a National Baseball Card Day David Ortiz, appropriate to show one of these on the baseball side after the two Hockey Card Day cards above.  Ortiz is just a few cards away from overtaking Xander Bogaerts for player with the most cards in my baseball collection.

This 1993 Pinnacle Cooperstown card of Andre Dawson was much appreciated.  I finished the two-card team set in Dufex format a while back, but didn't have any of the ordinary inserts until now.

I agree with many collectors that the sheer number of parallels in modern sets has gotten out of control.  With that said, if I'm going to receive any as a Red Sox fan it might as well be these Red Foil parallels from Stadium Club.

New Bogaerts, score!

Kin actually included four of these, very generous.

Back to a few more hockey highlights now to close it out.  This one pairs nicely with the Tim Thomas above, featuring a photograph from the Bruins last Stanley Cup championship almost 40 years prior.  I'd somehow never seen this card either.  A perfect throw-in from Kin.

The last of the high series 2016-17 Young Guns Bruins cards I needed, defenseman Brandon Carlo.  I've nearly grabbed this one on COMC about ten times now, feels good to have a copy in hand.

Here's a cool insert from 2012-13 Panini Limited, numbered to /499.  I was pretty hot on all three of these guys at the time, especially Dougie Hamilton.  Fast forward a few years and not one of them is still with the team, though they're all still in the NHL at least.

My favorite active player for about ten years running has been David Krejci, and Kin hooked me up with a nice serial-numbered addition to my Krejci collection from Upper Deck Artifacts.  David's having a strong season, and reached the 600-point milestone earlier this year, which is certainly no small feat.

Here's the last card I'll show, an absolutely beautiful Seismic Gold parallel from 2015-16 O-Pee-Chee Platinum.  These parallels are tough to come by, being numbered to just /50.  I was really shocked and amazed by this one.  This is just my second Seismic Gold parallel to date, joining my prized David Pastrnak RC from the previous year's set.  Can't think of a better parallel given that the Bruins colors are black and gold.

Kin, I really appreciate your kindness in sending me this solid batch of cards.  Everything you sent was right in my wheelhouse as far as cards that I enjoy, I had an absolute blast going through all of these.  I've got a stack already started for you to return fire, just need to find a few more additions and will have it on the way!