Secret Santa revealed!

I took part in the Secret Santa again this year, and before I get into it- let's all thank Matt Scott of Bob Walk the Plank to putting it all together. It's got to be a lot of work to do, and it's fun for everyone involved...hopefully Matt, too!

Both years now, the name I received was the writer of a blog I was not yet aware of. Last year, Chris of The Collector and this year John of John's Big League Baseball. That's a cool thing about this community, and this Secret Santa, in that we sometimes end up buying stuff for people we don't really know anything about. Last year's person who got me was also totally new to me, Peter of Baseball Every Night. I just realized when getting the link that I must have forgotten to reply- thank you guys who did, especially Peter for sending me the cards.

Who bought for me this year? I've had the package under the family Christmas Tree since it arrived earlier this month. The return address is listed as Secret Santa so I don't know who it is. Let's find out!

It turned out to be Paul of Scribbled Ink, a blog I was again not aware of before getting the Secret Santa from him! That's two years in a row where that has happened...and both hit me with vintage NBA!

Oh, and the vintage NBA was clearly not all! Take a look at this haul!

Here's a closer look, which is crop downs of this big picture:

 Four cards from 1973-74 Topps, including the Walt Bellamy below, ALL of which I needed! And star power too- Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Walt Frazier...all Hall of Famers! Lenny Wilkins is from 1971-72 Topps, which I've completed, but when I sort my cards I need a duplicate to put on top of the stack to prevent my non-dupes from getting damage or dusty, and I didn't have one before, so that's more than welcome...and he is a two-time Hall of Famer, and the winningest coach in NBA history...can't go wrong there! Some shiiny NHL including 2nd level parallel of Sergio Momesso from 1995-96 Stadium Club Player's Club Platinum! Those were about one per box I think. Have not taken the time to get my lists out and check but I think the Parkhurst set is new to my collection.

 Here's the Bellamy mentioned above, and some more great hockey cards, and an MJ. The Huet is really shiny and great and a McDonald's promo. No idea yet what set the Yashin and Gilmour come from. 

 Here we have two etched cards from Pinnacle's Trophy/Rink collection. These are fantastic cards. A series 2 card from 1992-93 Ultra is great, and the Hull is an Ultra insert...Paul probably didn't know it but Ultra is my favorite brand in the history of cards.

 Check out that Metal Stackhouse insert! 1995-96 Metal is another favorite set of mine and I'm 99% sure I needed that card! The Chauncey is a dupe but a much needed upgrade. And check out that Mario Elie....1st Day Issue! That was a one-per-box parallel! The Artifacts set shown here by Backstrom was not previously in my collection, it's the 2009-10 set. Check out that photo on the Bure card, too!

Vintage hockey! The Hawerchuk is from 1982-83, and the Sheppard from 1988-89. A Ranger! (Brian Leetch) Die cut hockey! And an NBA insert from 2002-03 Topps which I'm again pretty sure I needed! And three more cards from the Be A Player set, which is great because I had exactly one from the set previously! Unfortunately the edge of the picture is a little blurry, sorry about that. I wanted to get it posted up on Christmas Eve so I took exactly one photo and ran with it, lol. I'll begin scanning them soon but I couldn't wait for that to post.

Paul, thank you so much! You may not be an NBA or hockey guy, but you certainly can put together a package that made this one very happy!

Merry Christmas everyone! I expect to get cards again tomorrow- I tell my family it's all I want- so I will probably have a Christmas Cards post up tomorrow too. And thanks again Paul!

Vintage and Serial Numbered local additions

I don't like to do a whole lot of "Hey look at my new stuff" posts, but that's pretty much what you are going to get here...because I got to visit a local dealer that I don't see too often and got to raid his bins, naturally targeting two of my favorite things- vintage and serially numbered cards. It's so rare for me to see this dealer, I was not collecting the NHL the last time I saw him. Here are some highlights...

 My first card from the set and of Mahovlich. 1968-69 Topps.

 1974-75 Fleer Cloth Stickers. These are not too common, and all 4 in my collection have come from this dealer. How can you tell this set is from 1974-75 and not 1973-74? The Jazz were an expansion team debuting in 1974-75. The adhesive has attacked the cloth on these unfortunately, every single example I've ever seen. Each team got two stickers, a logo and a logo over a basketball.

 An SLU oddball? Yes! OK, it's not numbered or vintage, but does date from the 1989-90 season. It does have a slight bend, but for under a dollar I'm not going to complain about that.

 Again not numbered, but not a common insert. From 1995-96 Skybox, one of the first sets I got as an NBA collector and it was new, it is only the second card from this insert in my collection.

 UD Exclusives is the longest running parallel in trading card history, debuting in 1998-99 in both the NBA and NHL and continuing to this day in the NHL, and lasted I believe until the end of the UD license for the NBA in 2009-10. This is my first UD Exclusives NHL card, I have about 15 or 20 from the NBA, but I've not actually counted.

 This is SN but hard to see the number, over the word Authentic.

Green foil? SN to 99? $2? YES!

I also added 9 more of the 1973-74 Topps Sticker insert. These were apparently one per pack and although I would not classify them as "easy" to find, they are not as hard to find as most of the other 1970s inserts. In fact, I even ended up with a couple of duplicates because I didn't remember which ones I had or which ones I picked up that day- ended up buying two of the Knicks/Bulls card the same day. It's slated to go to COMC in my next shipment unless somebody wants to trade for it now. (as usual, I'll take anything offered)

I really wish they had put the team logo and team banner on the same card instead of mix-and-matching them. I have no cards in my collection for the Capital Bullets, and this one will be counted as a multi-subject card as are all in this series.

 I didn't realize this was card #1 when I got it- I knew I didn't have it, and the price was right, so I got it. I like to have #1 cards for sets, for some reason.

 

This is actually my first card of Tony Esposito, my third from the set.

 I wasn't sure if I needed this card or not- I thought I did, so I took the chance, and it turned out that I was correct- I did need this card! Not anymore! 

 These cards are super thick, and every base card in the set is SN999, not just the rookies. This is only my second card from the set and of Taurean Green.

My third card from the 2009-10 Topps gold parallel. The last Topps NBA set, the cards are generally out of my price range due to the presence of the Steph Curry rookie card in the set.

 My first card of both player and set. 2005-06 Hot Prospects.

My first card of Jessiman, but not of the set. This is the same set as the Emerald Bouwmeester shown above, 2011-12 Artifacts.

There is one other numbered card I have not scanned yet as it's a mirror foil card and they are best done as a page of all foil together. It's a die cut parallel of Xavier Henry. I'll get it scanned at some point.

Thanks for reading!

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!