Mike and I are both building the 09/10 Upper Deck basketball "Masterpiece" set, so I sent him a few of my extras.
Well today, he hit me back with a nice package that included all of these:
I'm not sure what to say... other than a huge "Thank You". The first team bag I opened contained over 20 different Lakers cards (mostly Kobe). I was definitely bummed about yesterday's loss... but this eased the pain.
It included a huge variety of Kobes... everything from a Score Board card from his rookie season to inserts from new products. However... the one that stood out was a 2002/03 Topps "Coast to Coast" insert of The Black Mamba. If you know me... than you know my love of refractors... and this definitely has a refractor look.
He also included a stack of San Diego Padres. My favorite card is easily the 1998 Zenith "Z-Silver" parallel of Derrek Lee. I never bought any of the baseball version, but I loved busting the hockey product.
If you're not familiar with these... think about Rip card concept from Topps Treasury or Topps A&G. You now... the cards that have another card inside of them... so you have to decide whether or not you're willing to tear them open. Well... in 1998 Pinnacle came out with the Zenith "Dare to Tear" idea. They were 5x7 base, insert, and parallel cards that contained one card inside of it.
This Lee silver parallel came from one of those 5x7 cards. Simply awesome!
Mike also sent me a small stack of Oakland Athletics. Included in the stack were these. I love the Lumber Company insert set. It features a great design and one of my favorite A's players from this past decade.
The last team bag contained these two packs of Topps Leaders from 1987 & 1988. I busted a bunch of these back when they were first released and built the 1987 set. Of course, this was one of the things that went when I cleansed my collection ten years ago. Well... there was no way I was keeping these sealed. Here's what I got in the two packs:
The 1987 design is a lot better than the plain white borders of the 1988 set. However... the 1988 pack delivered six players I admired when I was younger. Valenzuela, Gooden, and Scott were all dominating pitchers during the 80's... and Dave Stewart helped the A's win the World Series in 1989. Throw in Whitaker and my favorite shortstop all-time... and you have one helluva pack.
Oh... one more thing... if you're not familiar with the Topps Leaders products... they were smaller than your average card. Here's a side by side look at the Keith Hernandez's 1987 base card and his 1987 Leaders card.
Thanks again Mike. I just noticed that you wrote a note on the back of your business card, saying that these were my contest winnings. I totally forgot about it... and either way... I totally appreciate the cards. Keep up the great blog.
3 comments:
Dang it Fooj! I told ya the blue text on black is almost impossible to read. I like to read.
Gonna be a sweet set when it's done. Gluck.
the sewingmachineguy - damn... i'm getting old. i forgot the blue on black issue. problem fixed... i aim to please kind sir. thanks for supporting the blog!
Yeah, I killed two birds with one stone by sending you some cards for the Masterpieces that you sent me as well as the old contest. I wasn't quite sure where one ended and the other began so I just kept adding stuff to the pile.
I just remembered that I have to send you my list of what I have for Masterpieces. Of course, I'm remembering at work and will completely forget by the time I get home tonight. Maybe I'll remember while the Celtics game is on.
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