Dime Box (Nick) Red Sox!

I am long overdue in thanking Nick from the fantastic blog Dime Boxes for two exceptional packages of cards he shipped my way this summer.  Here's the first!

I'm guessing this fantastic Luis Aparicio from 2001 Upper Deck Decade 1970s is a dupe or cast-off from Nick's players signing autographs collection.  I don't recall seeing this interesting shot of Aparicio before receiving this one.  A unique start to the package for sure.

Henry Owens seemed to have about 10,000 different cards produced of him last year, despite the fact that he never really pitched all that well.  Still happy to give this Gypsy Queen mini a home though.

This one's a Rainbow Foil parallel from last year's flagship set featuring the "Killer B's" (Bradley Jr, Bogaerts and Betts).  I like the celebratory shot that Topps chose for the card, though I still wish they'd do team photo cards like they did back in the '60s and '70s instead.

A nice Heritage Mike Timlin here, made especially cool by the fact that it's from 2004 which (in case you were living under a rock) was a pretty significant year for Sox fans.

At this point it looks unlikely that Jon Denney will ever make The Show, but I'm really happy to have landed this one given that I'm an absolute sucker for Bowman Chrome Wave Refractors of all types.  These cards just plain look awesome in hand.

Hey, what do you know?  I just got the Mookie Betts Infinite insert in a package from Joe Shlabotnik, and here's the only other Red Sox player on the checklist.  Drew has been perhaps the most under-rated starter in all of the American League here in 2017.  Of course, I'm biased in my opinion.

How about a trio of Red Sox from 2017 Archives?  On the 1982 Topps design (my birth year!) we have Jackie Bradley Jr....

...and Nomah.  Garciaparra was my favorite player during the latter half of the '90s/early '00s, so it's nice to get a card of him on the design from the year I was born.

Lastly, as far as Archives goes, is Mookie Betts juggling on the '92 Topps design.  A nice little chunk of a team set right there.

This is just my second card from 2016 Gold Label, and if I'm not mistaken both of them were supplied by Nick!  I'm a fan of this release, I think Topps did a good job with the design.

What would a package from Nick be without some oddballs!  From 1977 TCMA we have Jackie Jensen...

...and from the 1979 TCMA '50s set, Jim Piersall!  Both great photos, but it's hard not to favor this full-color beauty.

This one's neat, as it's printed on acetate like the Topps Tek releases.  Manny certainly had his issues, but you can't argue with the fact that he made the team interesting to watch.

Love the photograph on this Sports Illustrated Greats of the Game Lonborg.  The long evening shadows are just perfect.

If the TCMA oddballs didn't satisfy your appetite for weird, then perhaps a glow-in-the-dark wall sticker will?

Here's a nice, shiny Bryce Brentz rookie.  This guy has been absolutely crushing the ball in AAA this year.  Because if this, I think it surprised a lot of folks that Boston dealt for Rajai Davis this past week instead of promoting Bryce and giving him a shot.  Who knows, maybe he'll get a call-up when the rosters expand here.

I got my first look at 2017 Diamond Kings when processing Joe Shlabotnik's PWE the other day, and here we have another.  I commend Panini for their player selection here, you don't see many new Harry Hooper cards nowadays!  Not to mention, the lack of logos/licensing is less noticeable on the older players in my opinion.  Great card.

My favorite card in the entire package though would have to be this Carlton Fisk Kellogg's release from 1980.  Like seemingly every baseball card collector out there, I adore these 3-D lenticular beauties.  At this point I think I have nearly all of the Red Sox cards from the Kellogg's run, however I certainly did not own a copy of Carlton here.  Nick hit an absolute home run with this one!

1987 Topps #58 - Thad Bosley

Nick was also kind enough to include a pair of Cubbies buybacks with this particular delivery.  I've said it before but I'm so grateful for folks who think to send me their buybacks.  They don't seem to be well-loved or well-received by most collectors, but I'll happily take them all for my franken-set project.

In order for the '87 Thad Bosley to make the binder in slot 58, it would have to displace this '79 Bob Randall.  I think I'm going to go with the Randall based on the backdrop alone.

Yup, that turned out to be the difference.

1978 Topps #175 - Jerry Morales

The other buyback that Nick included fared better however, as slot 175 in the binder was actually vacant!  Jerry Morales has been slid into place, and is now the 462nd card in the franken-set binder.

Nick, thanks for a great package (and an even greater one still to be posted!).  I've been stuffing a bubble mailer for you over the past few weeks (including the entire contents of the lone A & G blaster I bought this year), and should be shipping out soon!

Franken-set Progress:  462/792 (58%)
"Rejected" Buybacks:  294
Total Buybacks in Collection: 756

Pack Rip - 1996 Fleer Update

Quick pack rip for you tonight, 1996 Fleer Update baseball.  14 cards for $1.99 in 1996, or you can wait 20 years like I did and get the pack for half that price.  Not bad either way given that your average pack nowadays contains just 8 cards and costs $2.99 or more.  I miss the '90s.

Here's my first card, Izzy Alcantara of the Expos.  Fleer was doing some prospecting here, as Alcantara wouldn't appear in a Major League game until the year 2000 (with the Red Sox!).

Here's a look at a back, which I think Fleer did a nice job w ith actually.

The design on the front is very minimal, and the cards are a matte finish rather than glossy, which is something unusual that 1996 Fleer is remembered most for.

Fleer seemed to do a good job producing a true Update set here, unlike the All-Star and subset-saturated offering we've gotten from Topps of late.  The last two guys here appeared in just a handful of games each for their respective clubs in '95 and '96, yet made the checklist.

Here's another one, as Pedro Castellano appeared in a total of 51 career games, all with the Rockies between 1993 and 1996.  Yup, if you like cards of obscure players this set is for you!

I received one insert, and I think I did pretty damn well with it.  This "Soaring Stars" Chipper Jones card is perfectly '90s.  Looks kind of like something you'd expect to see in a Metal Universe release.

Here's the back, every bit as loud and gaudy as the front!

The 15 games Ricky Jordan played with the Mariners in 1996 were the final of his MLB career.

Rey Ordonez appeared in an impressive 151 games as a rookie in 1996.  He was a staple in the Mets' lineup throughout the rest of the '90s and into the early 2000s.

So much green!

Had I actually opened this pack back in 1996, this may have been my favorite card.  Klesko was a beast that year, clubbing 34 home runs (which would turn out to be a career high).

Sweet, an appearance from Mr. Rec Specs himself, Chris Sabo!

This is a "Tiffany" parallel, which I believe fall one-per-pack.  They have a glossy finish, and use a shinier/rainbow foil.

Bobby Hughes finally broke through to the Bigs in 1998.  He appeared in 133 games for Milwaukee between '98 and '99, and that was it for Hughes.

Greg Gagne signed as a free agent with the Dodgers in late November, 1995.  My assumption is that based on this date, Fleer couldn't get a shot of him in a Dodgers uniform into the flagship set in '96, thus here he is in the Update release.

That's quite a facial expression from Gagne.  Is it me, or does he not look like he just spent a snowy winter in the Overlook Hotel?

Last card here.  Bob Tewksbury had been around forever at this point.  Like Greg Gagne though, he signed late in the 1995 off-season for what would be his lone season with the Padres in '96.

Each pack comes with a scratch-off game card as well.

I didn't win anything, oh well.

That was a fun rip overall, and a good excuse to kill some time typing a blog post as well, all for a dollar.  No complaints here!

A Shlabotnik 12-pack

I'm so backlogged with trade packages that tonight, when I had a few minutes free for a change, I decided to just randomly grab one from the stack I have waiting to be processed on the desk in my office.  The winner was a PWE that I received from Joe Shlabotnik just this past week.  I still have two other packages from Joe that came in before this one that haven't been posted, but you have to start somewhere right?

In the lead-off spot is a nice Mookie Betts insert from last year's Stadium Club release.  Collectors seem to have cooled just a bit on Betts in 2017 after his absolute monster 2016 season.  While he's not going to reach the very high bar that he set last year, Mookie is still having a solid season.  He leads the club with 130 hits at the time of this post, has already collected 35 doubles, and has a real shot at a 100-RBI campaign.

I don't typically care much for Stadium Club inserts, but as those go this one's not half bad.

Newer Red Sox cards (from the past two seasons) seemed to be the theme of this PWE.  I don't mind in the least, in fact it's pretty damn convenient as I just haven't had the time to pick up much new cardboard of late.  This Johnny Damon is just my second Red Sox card from the latest incarnation of Archives, with both coming in trade.

Jackie Bradley Jr. here represents my very first look at 2017 Bowman in hand.  Not a bad card, but not a classic either.  A muted, somewhat forgettable design, which is just about par for the course for Bowman.

Could have sworn that I already had a copy of this Bogaerts Diamond Kings from last year, but my records seem to disagree.  I'm still in the painful and slow process of recording my collection on The Trading Card Database after the collapse of Zistle, and so far this is the 39th Xander Bogaerts card I've entered.  That's good enough for #1 overall in my baseball card collection at this stage.

Another new Mookie, and my first look at 2017 Panini Diamond Kings.  I must say I like these just as much as the 2016 release.  This set, along with the 2017 Donruss release, really makes me wish that Panini had a license.

This is a nice Ted Williams card, but with logos it really could have been something special.

My small Mookie Betts collection really got a nice uptick with this particular delivery.  I'm not sure just how I feel about these "Infinite" inserts from 2017 Topps Bunt.  Part of me thinks they look unlicensed and a tad boring, but another part of me is appreciating their "90s Studio" feel.

Here's the second card of the package that I could have sworn I already owned a copy of, but again it appears my instincts were incorrect.  David Ortiz cards seem to grow on trees, I hope Topps gives it a rest for a few years after his retirement here before they start flooding products with his retired cards.

Here's one from the Donruss set I mentioned a moment ago.  In one of my few moments of retail weakness this year I opened a couple of rack packs of this stuff and I actually really enjoyed it.  There's a variation of this card (because of course there is) where instead of Wade Boggs for the player name it simply says "Chicken Man".

Here's another one from 2017 Bunt, a Programs insert.  Love the concept here, though if I'm being honest I think it was executed better in last year's release.  Still a cool card of the 2016 AL Cy Young winner.

My favorite card of the entire package might be this Rafael Devers.  This guy has been tearing it up since being called up to Boston a couple of weeks back, and I can only assume I'd have to pay a heavy local tax for a copy of this card here in New England.

Joe's note accompanying the cards stated that some were cards he pulled from packs while others came from dime boxes.  I'd assume this one was the former, because if it was the latter that was one hell of a dime box find!

1974 Topps #137 - Al Bumbry

Last but not least, a buyback, and fittingly, an Oriole.  A cool buyback to get too, as Bumbry was coming off his 1973 AL Rookie of the Year campaign when this one was being pulled from packs.  He'd later win a World Series with the O's in 1983, and is enshrined in the team's HOF.  A nice old Yankee Stadium backdrop here also.

Larry Wolfe's '79 release has been resident in slot 137 of the binder for some time now, but it can't really hold a candle to the Bumbry card.

Easy call there, and the franken-set is adjusted ever so slightly as Al Bumbry muscles his way into the binder.

Thanks for the fantastic cards Joe!  The smattering of recent Red Sox was much appreciated, and any trade package featuring cards that force their way into the franken-set binder is an automatic winner in my book.  Although I'm sure it probably feels like it, I promise I haven't forgotten about posting your last two packages, and more importantly about returning fire.  Soon!

Franken-set Progress:  461/792 (58%)
"Rejected" Buybacks:  293
Total Buybacks in Collection: 754