Secret Santa 2022 didn't play out at all how I expected it to, first off because the person I sent it to still hasn't gotten it yet, even though I mailed it the first week of December. It went to a country I've never mailed to before so even though I have the receipt I'm not sure how much good it would do.
I didn't get mine before Christmas either, and I usually put up the post on Christmas Eve. If you noticed it was missing, there's a good reason for that! Tt turns out that my Secret Santa was Dan, aka Vrooomed, who just happens to live in the next town over from me. Dan wanted to meet up in person and deliver it, and I was all for that, but my schedule didn't cooperate enough to do it before Christmas, and then I got sick which felt like it lasted forever, and then Dan got sick, so we didn't get to meet up until January 24th! And because of the circumstances of our lives, we ended up meeting at 9 PM in the parking lot of the local McDonald's! We had a nice chat for a half hour, Dan gave me my present and I finally completed a sale from him that I put together on the Database a week before the pandemic hit. Dan has been holding those cards for me since February of 2020! I'll get to them in another post.
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Dan and myself, I am on the left. Note the wrapped box, which is my Secret Santa present
Lots of Rangers cards in here! Most of these are ones I scanned before I took the photos. The Leaf Steel cards are really cool.
Both English and French versions of the 1991-92 Pinnacle Amonte card, and a great photo of Adam Graves with the Stanley Cup from 1994-95 Stadium Club highlight this batch
the Stadium Club Members only of Brian Leetch is the only non-hockey card here- it's a Multi-Sport card.
the white Lady Liberty alternate makes an appearence, and my first Green StarQuest from hockey!
The Line 2 Line card is SN, and those Epix cards are sooooo confusing. There's 4 versions of each, I think. This is my first of any player from this sport. The NASCAR versions are much easier because there is only one version.
After getting this batch of cards I may have to do another post on the Richter Scale!
I really should have planned out the photos a little better when I was taking them. The Christian Dube card is also SN. The more I see Pacific cards the more I'm liking them.
More Richters including a die cut insert and a Silver Script parallel...however my favorite card in the entire package is in this shot and it's one of the very few non-Rangers related, and I think you can guess which one.
the famed Hot Dog card from 1995-96 Pinnacle of Olaf Kolzig! I don't think I've ever mentioned it before, but this was one of my most wanted hockey cards!
In total I got 85 new cards for my collection, and a big boost to my late 90s/early 2000s Rangers, which was an era I had the least from.
By the way, how do you like my new photo backdrop? It's a Rangers blanket I got for Christmas.
So, even though life conspired to keep the Secret Santa exchange from happening for a month, I'm thrilled with the new cards and owe a big thanks to Dan!
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Nice haul! Dan being his generous self.
ReplyDeleteI never noticed before but Olaf is written in mustard on that hot dog!
That just makes the card, I read somewhere...possibly Puck Junk? That it was the idea of the photographer.
DeleteVery cool.
ReplyDeleteI thought so too!
DeleteTwo of the TCDB's best members in a meet-up! You gotta love it!
ReplyDeleteI've actually met 5 Database members in the past!
DeleteA pleasure as always to meet up with you, Billy. So glad you liked the cards. And I figured the novelty of the OLAF hot dog card would be appreciated! I was able to include some extras since I didn't have to lay out any postage. Glad you were happy with them!
ReplyDeleteThank you again Dan, I am definitely happy with them!
DeleteHey Billy, Could you please add us to your blog roll? Many thanks Bruno B. https://sportsworldcards.com
ReplyDeleteDone! Blogger couldn't detect a feed but I put in the address anyway so it will still show up on the list.
DeleteA. It's always fun to read blog posts about collector meetups. Although I doubt I'd be able to line up my schedule with you or Dan even if I lived in your area. 9pm? I'm usually in bed reading blog posts by then.
ReplyDeleteB. I will always be a sucker for 90's hockey... especially the mid 90's stuff.
C. Pinnacle Epix was indeed confusing with the colors and the different levels... but they are very cool inserts.
D. I remember owning the Kolzig back in the day, but it was part of my collection when I sold it back in 2001.
I keep really weird hours- a result of my health problems. Many times I'm up all night and sleep during the day. It's frustrating actually, but I deal with it. This meet up was actually between my breakfast and lunch that day!
DeleteVery cool! The only blogger I've met in person is Nine Pockets, before work in the city. There was another blogger I was supposed to meet on a weeknight in a Dunkin Donuts parking lot, but his car broke down and we never ended up meeting.
ReplyDeleteThat hot dog card is awesome! I have a minor league baseball card of a guy named Pookie Wilson (no relation to Mookie) with POOKIE written in mustard on his hot dog.
Cool, I hadn't seen that one! I am sure I will meet up with both of you at some point, neither are too far away. Broken down cars is something I'm very familiar with, too, unfortunately.
DeleteAwesome that you got to meet in person! Very cool
ReplyDeleteIt's cool that several of us live so close together...it makes this possible, there's like 4 of us in a 20 minute radius.
DeleteBetter late than never! And I haven't heard of the hot dog card and now I want one even though I don't really collect hockey!
ReplyDelete