Now That's How You Stuff a PWE

I'm very overdue in thanking my longtime hobby friend Nick of Dime Boxes for a fantastic PWE that he sent my way some time back.  Let's get to it so I can stop feeling guilty and get these cards added to my collection proper at last...

I really don't buy much new product these days, haven't for a few years now. so believe it or not this PWE contained the very first 2019 cards I'd seen from any manufacturer or set to date!  They came in the form of five Red Sox singles from the 2019 Topps flagship set.  I'd seen the fantastic image on this Eduardo Nunez World Series Highlights card around the blogs, very pleased to have my own copy.

Another interesting shot on JBJ's card.

Any trade package that includes a new-to-me Xander Bogaerts is an absolute winner.  I do wish Topps hadn't decided to crop this photo so tightly though.  I can't help but feel like this would've been a nicer card had we actually been able to see the infield dirt along the bottom.

At this point I have precious few cards of J.D. Martinez with Boston, pleased to land one here.

Finally, Rafael Devers' flagship card.

Those were just the tip of the iceberg, as Nick really has a way of cramming a lot of cardboard into a single plain, white envelope.  Here are some of the other goodies I found inside...

A shiny card from one of my absolute favorite parallel sets of the decade that was the '90s, 1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection!  Some day I will own this entire set in parallel form, mark my words.

Here's one that's from a brand new set for me, 1978 Grand Slam.  I confess that I really don't know much about this release at all.  I'm most excited to get my very first card of Babe Dahlgren, who doesn't have a whole lot of cardboard out there.  Just 32 cards of the All-Star and World Series winner in The Trading Card Database.

Another oddball here, which is no surprise given who these came from.  Obviously "inspired" by the 1966 Topps release, these were included in issues of Baseball Card Magazine in 1991.  A couple of awesome and really random additions to my team collection with this last pair!

Of course, there were some other cards from licensed, major manufacturers as well, like this Fleer Tradition Milestones insert of Nomah.

Or this extremely shiny, thus extremely pleasing, Jason Varitek courtesy of mid-2000s Donruss Zenith.  I believe this is known as a Museum Collection parallel, at least I hope I cataloged it accurately as such.

I really liked these Tarot inserts from 2018 Gypsy Queen when I saw them on a few blogs last year.  So much so that the Chris Sale card from this insert set is actually the only 2018 Gypsy Queen card of any sort in my collection so far.  Nice to have Rafael Devers' card to accompany that one.  Nick hit a home run with this one.

Here's another Fleer Tradition insert.  The last one featured one of the best hitters on the team during my teenage years/early 20s, this one features one of the better pitchers from that same time span.  I'm not sure how I feel about this design, but I have to give Fleer credit for including a lot of green grass on a baseball card I guess.

If you sat down and asked me to design the "loudest" baseball card I possibly could, I'm not sure I could do better than Pacific Revolution.  I can totally see why someone wouldn't like this set, but having collected as a kid during the early to mid-'90s busy cards like this are just fine with me.

The other shiny Garciaparra that came in this batch is one I wasn't familiar with at all.  This is a throwback insert that was actually in the 2017 Bowman's Best release.  Easily one of my top 3-4 favorite cards in this package.  I like the clean design.

Nick managed to include a couple of vintage cards as well.  There was a note on this one reminding me to check the back, as soon as I saw that I knew this was a brand new 1970 O-Pee-Chee for me.  Love this shot of a smiling George Scott, and the timing is perfect as well given that Topps is doing their 1970 release for Heritage this year.

Another card down in my painfully slow pursuit of a 1959 Topps set as well!  A significant one at that, especially for a Red Sox fan.  This is my 298th card from this release now.  I'm past the 50% mark for the set, and will hit the 300-card milestone very soon, which feels significant.

Finally, one last card, a buyback!

1969 Topps #542 - Bob Aspromonte

Bob Aspromonte's 1969 card.  This one came as a box-topper in 2018 Heritage, though I'm sure Nick probably plucked it out of one of those insane discount boxes he always seems to find.  Wherever it was sourced from, I sure am glad he decided to send it to me.  While maybe not politically correct in this day and age, that's certainly a unique shoulder patch that Bob is sporting.

Will this buyback make the franken-set?

Well, there is already a card in slot 542; Ricky Horton on the '87 Topps design.  I like the contrast between the wood-grain border and all that red between the Cardinals logo and nameplate in the design and then Ricky's uniform, the bunting, and splotches in the crowd.

I don't think it does enough for me though to beat out a sweet Heritage box-topper like the one Nick sent.  Into the binder with the new card, out with Ricky Horton!

Nick, I apologize that it took me so long to properly thank you for this great delivery of cardboard.  It's amazing not only that you were able to cram so much into a single envelope, but also that every single card was an absolutely enjoyable keeper for my collection.  I'll have something headed back your way in the coming days...

For now, I'm off to see if the Bruins can somehow rally in the third here.  Ugh.

Franken-set Progress: 646/792 (81%)
1990 Topps Buyback Set: 111/792 (14%)
"Rejected" Buybacks: 586
Total Buybacks in Collection: 1,343