Dice Back?!?!

The latest in the seemingly never-ending back and forth series of PWEs between Rhode Island and Delaware arrived a couple of weeks ago now.  Yup, my friend Mark Kaz from This Way to the Clubhouse strikes again...

The most interesting card in the package was this Victor Martinez from 2010 Topps Heritage.  Why is that?  Well, check out the back:

This is apparently a "Dice Back" parallel, also sometimes referred to as a "Dice Game" variation.  The backs are done in the style of a dice game Topps released back in 1961, which I can honestly say I'd never heard of before.

Evidently these parallels were a relatively tough pull as well, falling at just 1:72 hobby packs.  Put it this way, I couldn't locate an available copy of this card right now, at any price, on eBay, Sportlots or COMC.  The best part?  Mark pulled this one from a dime box!

Of course, being the generous guy that he is, that great card was just the tip of the iceberg in yet another impressive PWE from Mark.  This envelope also provided my very first exposure to the new Archives set.

I didn't realize until I went to catalog these just how many Red Sox are in this set.  There are 16 in the 300-card base set alone, plus another 3 of those impossible-to-find short prints.

Bryce Brentz made it up for a cup of coffee with the Red Sox at the end of last year, and as a result he's apparently going to be included in every single Topps set this year.  Even though he's the 19th ranked prospect in the Boston farm system.

A nice Jim Rice done in the style of '83 Topps rounds out the Archives portion of the package.

I've decided I'm going to try completing the Stadium Club set this year, and Mark provided one I needed with this package.  Only two more Red Sox left to track down now.  Shameless plug, my want list is up to date and I've got some doubles to trade if anyone else is working on this set.

Here's a nice Curt Schilling from 2007 Upper Deck.  This set is really starting to grow on me, and the timing here is great as I just received half a dozen of these in that monster package from Hackenbush.

How about a new Cracker Jack card?  As a Mets fan, Mark is much more familiar with Jay than I am, however I thought he was a solid, serviceable player in his lone year with the Red Sox (2005).

Last, but certainly not least, my "sleeper" card of the envelope is this 2000 Topps Stadium Club Brian Daubach.  This is just my second card from this visually appealing set.  Brian had a very solid four-year stretch with Boston from 1999 - 2002, where he consistently hit 20 or more home runs and drove in 70 runs or more.

Mark, it goes without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway.  Thanks for another great envelope of surprises!

Pumping Iron with Peter McCall

I think this might be my new favorite soccer card.  Just awesome.

COMC6 - From Lindros to Betts

Not much time today, so let's enjoy another half dozen cards randomly plucked from my latest COMC shipment...

A nice mid-'90s SP insert of Eric Lindros.  This is my second card from this insert set, both coming from COMC and both setting me back just $.50.  There are 30 of these Premier inserts altogether, so it's doubtful I'll ever finish it.

I'm totally hooked on last year's Bowman Chrome "Bubbles" refractors at this point.  I'm hoping I can complete the Red Sox team set of these parallels.  I believe there are 9 total, and Lackey here is my 3rd, so I'm getting there slowly but surely.

A nice black refractor, serial numbered to /100, from 2013 Topps Chrome.  I thought this photograph of Middlebrooks was one of the more interesting used in the 2013 set, so I pick up different versions whenever I can find them cheap.  Cards in the $1-$5 range like this one are where I find COMC to be most effective.  In fact, I just checked my purchase history and it looks like this one set me back just $.75!

My quest for Champ's Yellow parallels continues.  There are 100 of these one-per-hobby-box cards in total, and Daniel Alfredsson here makes 15 now in my collection.  A long way to go, and truthfully probably one of those projects I'll never ultimately finish, but it's rewarding when I do find one I need from time to time.

If you collected hockey in the early '90s like I did as a kid, it's hard not to like these throwbacks from the Fleer Retro set that came out a couple of seasons ago.  This Patrice Bergeron is done in the style of '93-94 Ultra, and does a decent job mimicking the original if you ask me.  It looks sort of like Patrice has a small third arm growing out from his shoulder, and how about Tim Thomas lurking in the background there?

In closing, a really, really, really shiny Mookie Betts card.  When I first stumbled upon this one I did a double take, as I had no recollection of Betts being on the checklist for these inserts when Bowman was released last year.  Well, it looks like Topps released these same inserts across a variety of Bowman products in 2014, with this card actually having come in Bowman Sterling.

Alright, that's a wrap!

Signature Sundays - Finest?

Got a couple of new autographs for my Red Sox collection that have come in this past week to show off today, both from 2015 Topps Finest...

Here's the standard autograph of $70 million AAA player Rusney Castillo.  There's still time for things to change, but currently that's looking like one of the poorer contracts the team has given out in recent memory.  Maybe they can trade him to the Dodgers this off-season.

I'm not wild about this year's Finest design.  A little busy and random for my liking.  At least the autographs are on card.

Here's the other one I picked up, a Blue Refractor auto of Hanley Ramirez.  These are serial numbered to /150.  Hanley's had decent power this year, but his average is down a bit.  He's missed some time due to injuries, and there have been the typical issues of sporadic poor fielding, and a perceived lack of motivation.

Finest?  Not exactly.  I guess it's hard to get jazzed up about the current team with the way they're playing.  At least I got a look at the 2015 set in hand with these pick-ups.  At just $8 a piece I didn't exactly break the bank on them, and I didn't have autographs of either player previously, so I'm satisfied...

Whoa!

I'm in my 8th year of operating this blog.  In that time, I've received countless amazing packages of cards from readers and other bloggers.  It's not every day that you receive, unexpectedly, a card like this one though:

Yes, that is a legitimate 1972 Topps Nolan Ryan.  And yes, I found it in my mailbox.  It caught me completely by surprise.  Who was generous enough to send me such an amazing card?  Hackenbush, of Can't Have Too Many Cards.  He's commented on my blog perhaps more than any other single person, so a while back I reached out to send him some Cubs cards to show my appreciation.  I did not expect anything back, and I certainly didn't expect this.

This card could have arrived on its own, in a plain white envelope, and I would have been blown away.  That was definitely not the case though.

Instead, Nolan had literally hundreds of companions.  There was a pretty large cardboard box totally filled.

For starters, I found nearly the entire 100-card 2006 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts set.  I had just a handful of these previously plucked from quarter bins, I was shocked to find just about the entire set.  There are some really interesting cards on the checklist.  Every good baseball collection should have at least one Eddie Gaedel card.  This was actually one of the few that I did have already, so I've got a spare one of these kicking around somewhere now.

There were quite a few Red Sox cards in this set for such a small checklist, and I needed all of them.

My very first Hugh Duffy card.

Love this bat barrel shot of Yaz.

Definitely my first Sloppy Thurston card as well.

To go along with the Ryan and the sweet SP Legendary Cuts lot, Hackenbush threw in a giant sampling of Red Sox cards from all years.

Once I sorted through everything, there had to have been at least 100 new cards for my Red Sox collection.

I don't turn my nose up at any Red Sox cards, even lowly commons from the junk wax era.

Somehow I was missing this '94 Score Clemens, which features a relatively unique warm-up shot.

Got half a dozen new 2007 Upper Deck cards.  There are north of 35 Red Sox cards in this very large set, and I really do like the photography quite a bit.  This Spring Training shot of JD Drew is a nice example.

A trio of 2008 SP Authentics completed my team set!

Really like the image used for Daisuke Matsuzaka's 2009 Allen & Ginter card.  This is the A & G Back version of the mini card.

Sticking with the mini theme, this Buchholz Goudey rookie is the mini red back parallel.

Some of those pesky '80s mini boxed sets finally got knocked off my list with this package.  These things are the bane of a team collector's existence, always nice crossing them off your list.

I found some sets I don't think I've ever heard of before, like this Leaf Certified Materials release.

A ton of variety here, even some minor league cards were included.

One of my favorite sets from the past 10 years or so has to be 2009 O-Pee-Chee.

I'm quite a bit closer to finishing my team set with those 5 in hand.

The inserts from the set were pretty great, too.  Of the handful of cards I have paying tribute to Lester's no-hitter, I think this one might do the best job.

Shiny Nomar.

Here's some older O-Pee-Chee, in the form of an '85 Rem-Dawg.

I was happy to encounter some of these 2000 Just minors cards.  The Trenton Thunder were the AA affiliate of the Red Sox at the time, and Morgan actually saw some action with Boston in 2000 and 2001.

2 career MLB games with the Red Sox in 2003.  An awesome, obscure addition to my collection.

Here's one that's even slightly better!  One single career MLB game, with the Red Sox in 1999.  Love it.

A new card of Rhode Island native Rocco Baldelli.

A few new Conlon cards...

Manny's 'fro in cartoon format.

How about a couple of new Pedros?

Finally, an appropriately loud late-'90s Varitek.

There were so many great cards in this box that what I've shown here is only a sampling.  There were even some cool Bruins cards that I plan to show in the future.  It was definitely a tremendous boost in my drive towards 5,000 unique Red Sox cards.  I got some amazing trade bait as well.  Anyone need an '83 Topps or Fleer Wade Boggs rookie?

Still, it's hard for anything to compare with this...

Thanks for an incredibly thoughtful and generous batch of cards Hackenbush!  I apologize that it took me so long to get this up, but that's only due to having to scan and inventory the sheer volume of what you sent.  I don't think I'll be able to repay you for this, but I'll certainly keep trying.