Christmas Cards! Golden Treasures Part VII

Time for the final installment from the Golden Treasures repack box that my parents gifted me this past Christmas.  We've got two packs left to go, plus the promised 5 random vintage cards.  What definition of "vintage" is the vendor going with in this case?  I'm expecting late '70s, but perhaps we'll be pleasantly surprised?

Before we get to that though, the packs...

Today's first pack is 1991 Score, Series 2.  Believe it or not I was actually pretty excited to see this one fall out of the box.  As junk wax goes, I actually enjoy Score's 1991 effort quite a bit.  I like the multiple colors of borders, and there are so many strange and interesting subset cards to be found as well.  Let's see how I did...

Each pack contains 16 cards, and they're broken out (roughly) to four cards of each border color.  First up we have the blue border, which is appropriate I suppose for the Mariners...

...and the Brewers.

It was all pitchers all the way in terms of my blue-border quartet.  The highlight is definitely this great shot of HOFer and color commentator Dennis Eckersley.  This one's a definite keeper for my baseball collection.

Each pack contains one "Magic Motion" lenticular trivia card.  I don't typically hang onto these since they're a pain to store.

Next up, the black border cards.  These might be my favorite of the different color options used on the borders.  My streak of pulling pitchers continues.

Finally get a position player six cards in, and it's the somewhat rare "IF" (for infield) designation.  Don't see that every day!

The black bordered cards yielded a keeper for my collection as well, with this early-career Curt Schilling.  This card is very dark, between the black border and the upper portion of the photograph that is so dark you can barely make out Curt's arms or hat.

My pitcher-heavy pack continues with seven out of eight here out of the gate.

Next we have the white bordered cards, which contain the Rookie Prospect subset.  I didn't do all that well with my rookies in Paul Faries...

...and Kevin Belcher.  Just over 100 combined career games for the pair.  Oh well.

The other two I pulled were Geronimo Pena, who lasted seven years in Major League Baseball and at least swung a halfway decent bat...

...and Paul Marak, whose entire MLB career consists of 7 starts for the Braves in 1990.

Finally, we have the teal or aqua border providing the last four cards of the pack.

No pitchers at all to be found in the final quartet.

My lone horizontal card in the pack, Randy Ready.

Closing it out, another good action shot featuring catcher Joe Oliver.  I wouldn't say that was an All-Star pack, but at least I got a couple of nice cards for my collection in Eck and Schilling.

Last pack of the box is...

...1994 Topps!  I certainly opened plenty of this as a kid.  Will I be fortunate enough to pull a Black Gold card?  Probably not, but let's find out...

My one-per-pack Gold parallel is Brewers slugger John Jaha.  Look at those pinstripes!

Hey, how about that!  A Black Gold winner card!  I believe this could be mailed in for section "B" of the set, which contains the 11 cards depicted here.  I honestly have no idea if this was a rare pull or not, but interesting nonetheless.

Fantastic action shot here on Sandy Alomar's card.  Probably the best overall photograph in today's post.

Hey, here's a keeper for me!  I've always idolized Jim Abott (how can you not?), and while I don't actively seek out his cards often I do tend to hang onto any that I run across by chance.

Alright, this pack turned out to be a definite winner with another keeper card here.  I sort of half collect Julio Franco just because I enjoy athletes that play at the highest level until a relatively old age.  I did not have a copy of his '94 flagship card prior to pulling this one.  Awesome.

I really dig the design Topps used for the Future Star subset in '94.  He may not exactly have been a stud player, but Rich Becker did go on to play in well over 700 MLB games before hanging up the spikes.

Another great action shot here, the catchers really seemed to do quite well in 1994 Topps.

I like this one, just because Mike Timlin was coming off that epic World Series win with Toronto in '93, and because he later pitched for the Red Sox (though his long flowing mullet was a thing of the past by that point).

Three kind of boring pitcher cards close out the pack.

I'd say that was a successful ending to this repack box.  Despite me being much more selective about which cards I keep these days I still found a couple of keepers in each pack.  Can't beat that.

Now, let's see the five random vintage cards that came in the box...

Whoa!  I was not expecting this, that's for sure.  I can't believe a set from the '50s was included among the vintage cards, and a Red Sox player no less!  Not only that, but aside from being slightly off-center this one is in fantastic shape for a card that's over 60 years old now.  I had a copy of it previously, but this one is actually a condition upgrade.  Regardless of what the other four cards end up being here, I'm considering this a win.  Amazing.

Next up, pitcher Buster Narum of the Senators from the '66 set.  I like this one as well, being a fan of teams that are no longer.  I already have a copy of this card though, so if any of my trading partners want my dupe just let me know and I'll throw it in my next package to you.

I'm pleased with the next card also, if only because I have so few '68 Topps cards for whatever reason.  Without double-checking, I'd have to say it's the least-represented Topps set of the '60s within my collection.

Here's a card that I already had in buyback form, but not in original 1969 Topps format.  Again I'm very surprised by the condition these are in.  I was expecting some real beaters but these are in as good a shape as any '60s cards I own for the most part.

Last card of the Golden Treasures repack box, another '58 featuring Gus Triandos of the Orioles.  This one's in even better shape than the other four vintage cards, and from a set I adore.  In fact, sometimes I wonder whether I made a mistake in working on a '59 Topps set rather than a '58.  Who knows, maybe someday down the line I'll take a shot at '58, and if I do this one will certainly be included.

I could not be happier with how those random vintage cards played out.  I was honestly expecting five late-'70s commons, but to have every card be from the '60s or earlier and to land two '58s was a pleasant surprise.

Well, that was quite an enjoyable gift!  Thanks to those of you that read along on Saturdays over the past couple of months, and thanks to my Mom and Dad for providing a fun walk down memory lane as well as quite a bit of content for the blog.

I have one last post to go in order to get through my Christmas spoils, as my parents also gifted me with a $50 eBay gift card.  I think I did quite well with it, but check back next weekend and you can judge for yourself...