Ten Random Cards

Hectic week here, not a lot of time to crank out blog posts.  Let's go with something quick and dirty, ten random cards that I just added to my collection.  In reality this translates to ten random cards that I bought in some cases long ago, but just got around to scanning and adding to my "officially tracked" collection now.

Starting off is a simple '57 Topps card.  Always loved this set, as I do nearly all Topps and Bowman releases from the '50s, but doubt I'll ever take a serious crack at it.  Nonetheless, I generally grab cards from the release if I find them in good condition for a buck or less.  I'll certainly grab cards of stars like Camilo Pascual here for that price!  This one came from a dollar box if memory serves, though it was long ago.

I was a big fan of Adrian Gonzalez during his brief tenure in Boston, and briefly player collected him during that time.  I'm pretty certain I snagged this silk version of his 2012 Topps flagship card (#'d /50) on eBay right around when it was first released.  I thought it was a unique addition to my collection, but if I have a gripe with it...

...it's that they didn't bother with any sort of back whatsoever.  I get that replicating small, detailed statistics would've been tough here so I'm not suggesting they should have attempted to replicate the actual card back on this material, but any effort at all would have been nice.  I could see myself selling this one someday, perhaps soon.

Around 16 years before Adrian Gonzalez briefly held the title of My Favorite Red Sox Player, that honor belonged for a good long while to Nomar Garciaparra.  I happily snagged this Future Stock parallel of his '95 Upper Deck Minors card from a quarter box way back when.

My love of buybacks extends beyond baseball cards.  Here's another of those buyback versions of the original Star Wars cards (foil stamp is lower right) that were included in that 40th Anniversary set Topps did a couple of years back.  I don't search for these all that actively, but nonetheless I'm up to a dozen of them now.

Sticking with the Star Wars theme for a moment, here's a rare (#'d /25) "Cloud Diffractor" of the Wampa from the 2015 Star Wars Tek release.  They sure have some strange names for the parallels in this set.  Honestly, this doesn't really fit into my collection at all.  I believe I grabbed it just because I was buying something else from the same seller, it was dirt cheap, and they offered combined shipping.

I hardly ever encounter any of these one-per-box yellow parallels from 2009-10 Champ's hockey that I need anymore.  What a frustrating project collecting this 100-card set has been.  Mike Modano here gives me 55, with 45 remaining.  I highly doubt I'll ever encounter even half of those 45 in the wild over the remainder of my collecting years.  I'll keep looking though...

Let's wrap things up with a dollar spent on four quarter box pulls.  The first two are from the '81 Fleer set, Danny Ainge's RC...

...and a colorful Billy Martin, rocking the not-often-seen white A's cap with green trim.

Probably my least favorite card of tonight's grouping, this was added to my stack simply because I've enjoyed the Fleer Provision inserts since their debut in '91.  This '94 set is particularly cool.

Lastly, a nice Donruss flagship card from Wade Boggs' prime.  I find this hard to believe, but this is the very first '85 Donruss Red Sox card in my entire collection.  Surprising for sure, but at least I picked a great player to start with I guess.

That's about all I've got time for tonight, thanks as always for stopping by!