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.