Thursday, August 22, 2019

Big Stack of Sox from Dimebox Nick, the Sequel!

Time for the second and final installment of amazing Boston Red Sox cards that arrived recently courtesy of my pal Nick!  No time like the present...

In tonight's post there is plenty of evidence that Nick is the man when it comes to oddballs.  Perhaps the best example in this package was this fantastic Jim Rice Hostess.  What's not to love here; awesome simplistic design, great photo, and originally part of a snack package!

Minor league insert.  Sadly, the Pawtucket Red Sox are winding down after decades in the state of Rhode Island, preparing for an upcoming move to Worcester, MA.  A bittersweet addition to my collection here.  Nick also included an entire Pawtucket Red Sox team set from the late '80s, but as I already had a copy of that one I sent it along to Chris at The Collector as part of the Well-Traveled Envelope challenge.

I've got a ton of Nomar cards, but I never tire of adding new ones.  The man held the distinction of being my favorite active baseball player for a number of years, and since he was in his prime during the late '90s to early 2000s he's got a metric ton of cardboard out there to be acquired.

It's not easy to tell in this scan, but this Uehara is a Rainbow Foil parallel.

Remember these Wal-Mart exclusive Black parallels?  A great one here, commemorating Dustin Pedroia's 2008 AL MVP Award.  Very cool.

In the post on the first part of this trade package I (gently) panned the Player's Weekend Nickname insert from 2019 Topps Big League.  This Blast Off insert from the same set, however, is just awesome.  I haven't quite figured out why yet, but I'm a fan of these for sure.  Really happy to have received this one, for whatever reason I think it's one of the under-rated stars of this bubble mailer.

If you've stopped by here with any regularity at all over the years, then you know I am a huge fan of Topps' various buyback cards.  In order to keep things from really getting out of hand, I try to stick to just Red Sox and star players I collect when it comes to their Bowman buyback counterparts.  That's exactly what Nick delivered here!

Wade Boggs '83 insert from the 2018 flagship set.  Kind of odd/jarring seeing a different Boggs on this design, given his iconic rookie card.

Sticking with the Boggs theme for a moment, and reinforcing what I said about oddballs at the outset of the post, how about a Rite-Aid Team MVPs card?  Love it!

Pacific Paramount Pedro pitching.  Alliteration is fun.

I have no clue at all what this card is.  Obviously unlicensed, and from 1990, I know that much.  Anyone?

I was actually quite surprised to find that I didn't already have this Collisions at the Plate insert of Carlton Fisk.  One of those where I could have sworn I owned a copy, but very glad I double checked before tossing it in the pile of trade bait to be mailed out.

It took me a second to realize that this JBJ is actually a hot box parallel.  You can tell by the darker shading behind Bradley.

Here's his standard 2018 A & G card for comparison.

I love the Classic releases from the late '80s and early '90s, some of my absolute favorite oddball sets from that era.  I think that's a Fenway Park 75th Anniversary patch that The Rocket is sporting here.

I know this is an MLB Showdown card, and that it's from around the turn of the century.  I can't lie though, after about 10 minutes of researching on The Trading Card Database, COMC, eBay, and the internet in general, I gave up on identifying exactly what this card is.  Like the Clemens above, I could use an assist with this one if anyone has a lead.

Jim Rice and the Quaker Oats guy on the same trading card.  Without a doubt this one would make a top-5 list of cards included in this package.  Simply awesome!

Another PawSox card, and I like this design even more than the first (this is a CMC AAA All-Stars card, for the record).

[insert comment from above regarding Nomar Garciaparra, and the prevalence of his cardboard]

This 2004 Leaf Certified Materials card is a Blue Mirror parallel.  It's serial-numbered on the reverse, though I don't recall to what.  50 maybe.  Either way, cool obscure parallel card.

We round out the modern cards from the package with this classy-looking 'Tek insert from 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History.  To me, that set is hit and miss.  Plenty of gorgeous cards like this one, some that I don't enjoy quite so much.  I do applaud Upper Deck for trying something quite different with this set at the very least.

I said that last card rounded out the modern cards from this package, but that certainly wasn't everything.  I was one of the lucky folks that Nick decided to bestow some cards upon from a recent haul of 1970 O-Pee-Chee!

These are absolutely fantastic!  Easily among the greatest cards I've received in trade this year.

Russ Gibson's got a few surface wrinkles, but just enough to give it some good character.

It just so happens that the images on the cards Nick sent from this set are all really nice.  This Dick Schofield batting cage shot might be the best among the bunch though.

Lee Stange takes offense to that last critique.

I'm not sure if he checked my collection on The Trading Card Database, or whether it was just random chance, but despite me having a few '70 OPC Red Sox prior to this, each and every one Nick sent was new to me!

Well, that wraps up another thoughtful and much-appreciated surprise package from Nick.  Thanks so much bud, I'll certainly be hitting you back soon!  To everyone else, thanks as always for stopping by!

5 comments:

Chris said...

Lots of great cards here! Love the '70 Schofield, Pedroia Wal-Mart, and Varitek POH in particular. And thanks again for the Pawtucket team set; I did mention on my blog last week. Looks like the Well-Traveled Envelope has arrived at its next destination, too!

Nick said...

Glad you enjoyed everything and happy you found a good home for that Pawtucket team set! Always a pleasure putting a package together for you, my friend!

Also, that Ramon Martinez is from 2000 MLB Showdown Pennant Run (hence the pennant logo in the bottom-right). For most of its life, MLB Showdown put out three sets a year: base Flagship, Trading Deadline, and Pennant Run. Pennant Run usually came out near the end of the year or early offseason, if I remember correctly.

Fuji said...

I love those Classic sets from the late 80's and early 90's too. I've thought about tracking them all down and throwing them into binders. Maybe when I retire and buy a larger place.

The Shlabotnik Report said...

You know it's going to be fun when it's a package from Nick!

I remembered doing research on Classic, and I initially thought it was for my database (and it was), but I also got a post out of it... and the funny thing was that I went down the Classic Rabbit Hole because of a 1988 Classic Cal Ripken I got from you! What comes around goes around.

Anyway, That Clemens card is from the 1988 Classic "Red" Travel Edition, and you can read all about these cards here:
https://shlabotnikreport.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/a-classic-case-of-confusion/

gregory said...

I wonder if the image on that Gypsy Queen Carlton Fisk card comes from the same play at the plate that you see on his 1977 Topps card, but just a moment later.

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