You can always depend on the kindness of bloggers

No "Total Blaster" today...I opened one...but somebody already opened it before I got it, and stole the relic. I have contacted the major dealer I got it from, and will update with the final outcome, for now Total Blaster 16 will be skipped.

On a much happier note, I got three packages in the mail today. The first was a trade from the Trading Card Database, which got me a new NBA player and might have even completed a set for me, I have not even taken the time to check before getting this post made.

Next was a Christmas card from The Collector, a thank you for my being his Secret Santa. Two cards from 1992-93 Fleer, a favorite set of mine, which you will see in the second photo. It's always a good day to get one of them, and here I got an insert and one of the Drake's promos, a set I've been working on for more than 20 years!

The biggest package came from Dennis of Too Many Verlanders/Too Many Manninghams. Dennis put up a post where he posted a ton of stuff and said if you want any, to claim it. I have never traded with Dennis before, in fact I don't know if I had ever even commented on one of his posts, but I saw this big stack of SI for Kids cards, and I had to jump on them. Even though these are marketed towards kids, I find I appreciate them more the older I get. When I was younger, when these cards were new, if it wasn't NBA or NASCAR, I didn't care. It was wasted space to me. Now, I appreciate getting to see and learn about the other sports. and one thing SI for Kids does that nobody else does is include other sports besides the Big 5. There are entire sports that are represented solely by SI for Kids cards in my collection. And, even though some of these are duplicates, they are still in original panel form- I used to separate mine when I was a kid, but it led to a lot of damaged cards. Way too many. I'm glad to get a full panel now to sort of replace them, even though my collection total won't actually change.
Not only is this going to a fill a lot of holes in my collection, it's going to add a bunch of new names as well. Most of the people from outside the big 5 and even some of the non-NBA and NASCAR people from them will be new too. There are even some of the oversized Legends cards that they did in 1995-96, which are not as easily found as the standard sized cards, although I'm not sure if they count as rare.

Look at them all! The table can't even hold them all! It'll take me a few days to get these processed into my collection, but it's going to be fun!

He also had this group of oversized cards, which I had to claim. Again, as I've gotten older, I have appreciated oversized and other sized cards much more. When I was younger if it was not standard size, it didn't count...I'm not even sure if the oversized cards I got when they were new are counted in my collection. Someday when I finish scanning everything and sort them back by set, I will recount and figure it out, but that's years away.
The cards from Chris at The Collector are shown on the right. They are standard size.
Dennis also included a pack of 2008 Topps baseball, which I will open up shortly, but I forgot to include it in the photo and I'm in too much pain to go take another. The Mourning may be a dupe here but the rest are all new. It may be new as well, I'd have to check my collection listing on the Trading Card Database, but I am trying to get this posted while I am still awake, which won't be much longer, haha.
The Sharpshooters insert that got glare from my camera flash is Hersey Hawkins. 

Dennis, thank you so much for all these cards! Sometime into next year I will bolster your Michigan alumni basketball collection, don't think I will have enough time to get them together by the end of this year, but I will send along a thank you bundle!
And thank you Chris for knocking two more cards off my wantlist for one of my all-time favorite sets!