More 90's Awesomness!

The Sunday Sort continues.  This morning hit up the farmer's market, Trader Joe's, and did some laundry while cleaning the kitchen and listening to some card podcasts.  This afternoon I have set aside a few hours to focus on sports cards.  I started by cleaning off most of my desk by putting cards into binders and boxes.  Then I cataloged a couple of recently completed sets and put them away.

The rest of my Sunday afternoon is dedicated to a care package from Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders and hammering out this blog post.  A few weeks ago, I received a padded envelope with three team bags filled with cards for several of my PC's.

Let's start off with a few Hideo Nomo cards that stood out...

1995 Topps Traded & Rookies #124T

I pretty much figured that I owned all of Nomo's pack pulled (non-parallel) rookie cards.  However... I didn't recognize this card.  Topps dropped the ball in 1995 and didn't include him in either of their flagship series.  However they produced three cards of him in their Traded & Rookies set.  I already have his Star Watch subset card in the binder, but I was missing the other two.  Now I just need his All-Star card that has him paired with Randy Johnson.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how much I enjoy collecting cards from the 90's.  These next two cards are perfect examples of why...

1997 Pacific Crown Collection Prism #114

I'll admit that I wasn't really into Pacific products back then.  Their use of gold foil was excessive.  However I liked it when they embedded acetate portrait shots into some of their base sets.  This card is awesome and the concept was a precursor to their Invincible line.

This next insert is interesting and attractive...

1998 Pinnacle Inside Behind the Numbers #19

Back in 1997 and 1998, Pinnacle produced a product that was distributed in cans.  Not packs.  Cans.  I remember opening up a bunch of the football and a handful of the baseball.  However this is the first time I've ever held one of these gorgeous Behind the Numbers inserts.

The card back talks about a couple of notable Dodgers who wore #16 before Nomo.  In 1998 he was traded to the New York Mets where he kept that jersey number.  However when he returned to LA in the early 2000's, Paul Lo Duca was wearing that number, so Nomo switched to #10.

Here are six more 90's Nomos that Dennis included...

He also sent me this game worn jersey card:

2002 UD Authentics Retro Star Rookies Jerseys #SR-HN

Nomo spent one season in Boston... and in his very first game with the franchise he pitched the second no-hitter of his career.

According to Upper Deck, this jersey swatch was worn in an official Red Sox MLB game.  What are the odds that he wore it during the no-hitter?

Next up, let's check out some Rickey Hendersons he included.  The note he included specifically mentioned this "ticket stub":

1991 SilverStar AuthenTicket #NNO

Back in the early 90's, a company called Field of Dreams produced a few different holograms that were each paired with a commemorative ticket stub.  I have received a few of these "ticket stubs" from bloggers over the years... including another one from Dennis, one from John at Johnny's Trading Spot, and one from Angus at Dawg Day Cards.

Here are a couple of Rickeys that I didn't have...

1994 Innovative Confections Disc #1

I've held plenty of MSA discs over the years, but I wasn't familiar with this one.  I tried looking into how these were distributed, but I couldn't find anything outside of the checklist on TCDB.

Here's the other Rickey I have never held in my hands until today...

1993 Metz Baking #NNO

I'm pretty sure that I've seen singles from this set before, but I don't know if I have owned any before today.  And even if I have one sitting in a binder somewhere, this is my first Rickey... and my first Metz Baking unopened pack.

Here are a few other Rickey Hendersons that Dennis sent my way...

The final Rickey suffered a factory flaw:

1991 Stadium Club Members Only #NNO

It's pretty obvious that the foil triangles were printed much lower on the card than it should have been.  What you might not notice is that this card is completely missing the Members Only stamp that's usually printed right under the player's name.  I love oddities and errors like this.

Dennis knew this and included two other cards that fit into this category:

1974 Topps #232

1996 Topps Gallery #32

These aren't foil misprints, but they are poorly miscut cards.  Off-centered cards are pretty common, but miscuts like these aren't.  Recently I have noticed that these are gaining in popularity among collectors on YouTube, so I'm always excited when they arrive in blogger care packages.

I'll wrap things up with the rest of the highlights from TMV's care package:

Zach Charbonnet is a Michigan Wolverine who was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in 2023.  Unfortunately he tore his ACL against the San Francisco 49ers during their playoff run last season.  He's close to returning, but the Hawks officially ruled him out for tonight's game against the Kansas City Chiefs.  They have struggled on offense for most of this season.  Hopefully his return change that.

He also included a fat stack of Japanese baseball players... including a shiny Fujinami, a numbered Satozaki, and a cool Ichiro insert.

Thank you Dennis!  I've been putting together a stack of stuff for you.  Not sure when I'll get around to shipping it out... but until I do... I'll keep adding things to it.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!