The Kindness of Strangers April 2017

Do you realize how great this hobby is, and the people in it, when I need to come up with a whole new feature to thank people who send me cards? The kindness of my fellow collectors, simply put, is amazing. I only hope someday I can begin to repay the the kindness I have been on the receiving end of so many, many times.

Granted, strangers may not be the best term to use. Some of the people I've known for years, have been chatting with and reading their writing for years...but I've never met them in person. Close enough for my purposes.

As is usually the case, I didn't scan every card, just some. It would take me way too long to scan everything and still get the post up in a timely fashion, not to mention the excessive amount of scrolling that would require!

First up is Jason German of Jason's Sports Card Blog, who I met through the Trading Card Database. He sent me a "welcome to hockey" package and it arrived on April 1st- no fooling.
The package was mostly Brett Hull...

but there was also one each of Gordie Howe...

and Tom Johnson, who is new to my collection!

While I've already built up a pretty decent collection, mostly all through gifts, the majority of my collection is 1989-current, so players from back in the day are usually new to me, not withstanding guys like Gordie Howe above who are such legends that they still crank out cards for them on a regular basis.

Just a few days later I got a package from Trading Card Database member Dicefoot, which included some of the military history cards from 2007 Topps Baseball...

I did scan all three of those. Also included were two cards from the 2004 National Trading Card Day set,...

I could swear I had the LeBron already but my records did not show that. The Jordan I am sure I didn't have previously.
Those I expected...but there was also a stack of 1996-97 Hoops, which included several I needed (I have more holes in Series 2 than any other 1996-97 set, I think) and one which was a printing error, which I didn't scan right now. In fact, I only scanned one of them.

There were also some 1995-96 Upper Deck cards, all of which turned out to be duplicates, and this Corvette card, which is double sided, and I have absolutely no idea where it came from. Canada, I think, but that's not really too much to go on. (Update: From Canada, indeed, from 1991 Hostess promo)

Finally, two cards that I thought, upon seeing them, were duplicates...

Until I turned them over, and saw that they were indeed from the Tony's Pizza promo set!

I don't remember the last time I added a new Reggie Lewis card to my collection. Just the year after this card was issued he collapsed on court and died due to a heart defect. I think I have all of his mainstream cards, just needing a few promo and oddball issues like this one. I decided to check after writing this, and I do indeed have all the mainstream cards issued of him during his lifetime. Panini has been including him in some sets since 2009-10 which I don't have but cards issued later, after the player's career or in this case life, don't count towards that to me. (not that I wouldn't and don't add them to my collection, but a card issued during a career just carries more collection weight to me than others)

On the 8th of April I got a huge package of cards from Chris, The Collector. It was mostly hockey, but some basketball as well. I got 131 new cards, and 29 new people for my NHL collection from him! The cards he sent me ranged in age from 1974-75 through 2015-16, with a higher percentage of newer cards than most of the gifts I've received. (Every card is great, don't want anyone to think I don't appreciate them all!). At some point I am going to send Chris some modern NBA cards, he's been away from the NBA for a while and doesn't have a lot of new stuff. I'm going to fix that.
Here's just some cards he sent me...

They have hockey on Endor now!

He also included two cool errors. I love error cards and I need to work on posting my error collection. It's almost totally ignored on here.

 This gold parallel of 1994 Classic #103 had the gold applied totally incorrectly. It should have been layed over the white nameplate at the top.

This card from 1996-97 Skybox was caught in the packaging. One of the more common errors but I still love to get them. (second or third most common). It showed better on the back scan, so that's what you get.

On April 15th, I got a package from EP of the new Old Red Sox Cards blog and it was a very, very good one. It was mostly vintage, with a focus on 1973-74 Topps.  One of the cards in particular is of a "Hometown Hero", Rich Rinaldi, who is from Poughkeepsie, NY, literally the next town over. He only got two cards and this is my first of his!

At one point I had considered the 1977-78 set complete, but now that I know better I have broken out the set by gray back and white back. This is a white back card, joining the gray previously in my collection.

There was also some 90s goodness, too...

I love Refractors! They always are great.

At some point I will try and put together a thank you package for him, but it's going to be tough to find some Red Sox cards he needs, especially with my limited local shops, but I will see what I can do. It might take me a while but I will send a thank you back eventually...I can't not!

When I got home from a short two night stay in New Jersey, for my modeling hobby's largest show, I had three packages waiting for me. One that will get it's own post, a package that included a bunch of Stadium Club cards I needed from 1998-99 and 1995-96, including Dirk's rookie,

 And a large, heavy box that had this in it!

  

These were all factory sealed when I first opened the box! What you see, in this poor picture is a box of: 1993 Hi-Tech Indy, 1993 Maxx Williams Racing, 1993 Press Pass, 1990 Maxx Factory Set, 1995 Skybox Indy 500, 1991 Pro Trac's Formula 1 and 1992 Maxx Motorsports Hall of Fame. The Williams set, the IMHOF set, the F-1 set, all were not previously represented in my collection. The two Indy sets had one pack each in my collection before, and the Maxx Factory set (which is the glossy version) had two cards, out of 200, in my collection. The 1993 Press Pass set is the only one that was a duplicate. You can believe I'll be posting more about these in the not too distant future!  

Happy Mother's Day! My mom is a regular reader/commenter on my blogs, posting as Hotrod Mama. I wouldn't be a card collector without her influence and support of my hobby!