Coronavirus Packages Episode II - The Clone Wars

A bit of a stretch on the post title?  Maybe, but I've been cooped up inside for weeks and may or may not be starting to go a little loony.  Anyway, it's not that much of a stretch, given that it is the second package I've received while sheltering in place here, and given that five of the six cards in today's package from Douglas of Sports Cards from the Dollar Store could loosely be defined as imperfect "clones"...

For example, here's a "Holo Blue" parallel of Chris Sale from 2020 Donruss.  A slightly altered clone of the base card, no?

Douglas' package provided me my very first in-hand look at 2020 Donruss, and the crazy thing is that I got some really nice parallel and insert cards from the set before ever receiving any base cards.  We have some of the absolute friendliest folks you'll encounter in this hobby of ours.

I mean, look at this one!  This JD Martinez is an Artist Proof parallel, and is serial-numbered to just /10.  I know modern-day, unlicensed Donruss isn't every collector's cup of tea, but you have to appreciate receiving a card serial-numbered to just /10 out of the blue!  Simply amazing.

It keeps getting better, as this Rafael Devers "Season Stat Line" parallel is the latest addition to my growing player collection of the young Boston star.  I've mentioned before that aside from Xander Bogaerts, Devers is my favorite current Red Sox player to land new cards of. 

Sure, it looks like Devers is taking a cut wearing purple and grey pajamas here, but I love the shiny, holofoil effect and I won't turn down any of his cards that I don't have already, especially serial-numbered ones like this.

Closing out the Donruss portion of the package we have the one card in this post that can't really be compared to a clone.  I actually really like the look of this relic card.  While I do wish MLB would grant Panini a license to produce trading cards, this photograph is well-chosen and the lack of logos is nearly unnoticeable here.

With four cards, Douglas made a huge impact to my 2020 Red Sox collection here.  But that's not all, as he contributed a pair of cards featuring my favorite team on the hockey side as well...

You may be saying to yourself, "wait a second, you have over 1,700 Whalers cards and you didn't have a 1990-91 Score Peter Sidorkiewicz until now?".  Well, I do have the entire 1990-91 Score set, however...

...this is the Canadian version, complete with French text!  Douglas has been sending me one or two of these over time, and I think I'm maybe half a dozen cards in towards the team set at this point.  A cool card and much appreciated, but the other Whalers card that was inside the package blows this one away.

Whoa!!!  There are few hockey cards on planet earth that make me happier to acquire than a very scarce Whalers parallel.  Aside from that, if you've stopped by here with any regularity over the years then you likely know about my love of buyback cards.  You've outdone yourself here Douglas, I was beaming when I came across this one in the stack you sent!

Released as part of the 2014-15 Upper Deck set, these buybacks from the inaugural '90-91 set are foil stamped (lower left corner above Jody Hull's stick), and hand-numbered to /25.  I'm not sure if it's because there were fewer produced, or if hardcore hockey collectors just embraced them more, or what, but these are difficult to come by.  If you ever see one, even a total scrub common, for less than a couple dollars then you've stumbled upon quite the deal.

It's unlikely that I'll ever be able to complete a team set of these due to their scarcity, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try!  This is the 9th one of these buybacks in my collection, 5 of which feature Hartford Whalers.  There were 22 Whalers in the inaugural Upper Deck hockey release, so I'm not even a quarter of the way there.  Maybe I could build a combined team set though featuring a mix of these buybacks, and the 20th Anniversary buybacks of the same set from a few seasons prior.  Still probably a stretch, but a more realistically attainable goal anyway.

In any event, this is an absolutely amazing card and a perfect fit for my collection.  Douglas, your generosity and sheer volume of mailings continues to amaze me.  Thank you so much for these cards, each and every one is a perfect hit!

To everyone else, thanks as always for stopping by and stay inside if you can...