P-Town Shoots 'Em Down!

Got maybe the best package of the year so far this past week.  Not in terms of volume, but just for the sheer destruction it wreaked on my priority want lists.

P-Town Tom of Waiting 'Til Next Year sent return fire from a trade or two we did a while ago.  He had done some shopping for me, and boy, did I get some great stuff!

Properly padded, and complete with painter's tape folded with pull tabs, two big bundles of goodness were readily accessible.  It seems there were complications with SportLots, but it all came out OK in the end.

I can see there are hits to my top 12 list already.  There would be so many knockouts, it was like a Batman fight from the old show....

The first and only card that didn't complete a set - 2006 Fleer Nickaname Greats Don Baylor.  A copy for my player collection of his.  One of the best insert sets ever.  Fleer figured out a bunch of guys with legit nicknames, instead of the suit-and-tie committee originated junk that Topps puts out as nicknames on cards these days.

Nextt up, 1990 SportFlics.  A set I picked up almost complete for very little in Michigan.  Had five cards left to find.

All five are done.  One set down!

I've got a little binder that is nothing but all the inserts and special cards from the first few years of Upper Deck.  The Heroes, SPs, holograms from '89, Silver Sluggers, etc. including these Scouting Reports from 1992.  Had five of those left too.

Not any more!

I had just picked up the better part of this little set from the dime boxes of some dealer at a recent show.  1993 Pinnacle Cooperstown is a neat little 30 card set of (at the time) Hall Of Fame prospects.  I think the majority of them have come true since.  Pinnacle made some really rather elegant cards back in the day.  I like the simple yet strong design of these.  This list was still marked ***NEW*** on my website.

It's gone now!

Another Upper Deck insert set I like is the '93 Clutch Performers, endorsed by Reggie Jackson.  You can see his signature across the title at the bottom.  I always forget the name of these (since it's hard to read) and think about them as "Reggie's Best".

And now they're all reunited!

Upper Deck also had some Stadium Club-ish inserts featuring shots by renowned Sports Illustrated photographer Walter Iooss ("yoas").  Had one remaining.  Mr. "I'm a badass" Will Clark here.

That's a wrap!

Now these weren't even on my top priority list.  Not yet, anyway.  I had a small list of future priority wants to put up when others were eliminated.  So these didn't even make it past that.  These are 2007 Topps Opening Day Puzzle cards that go together to make the image on the back.  Tough part is how to put them in nine pocket sheets in a way that displays the picture.  The whole image is like four cards tall by six or so wide.

Dey Gone!

Now we begin the biggest targets.  These two were #12 out of my top dozen.  The order is rather random, since I don't bother to rearrange all the listings every time I get one.  It's too much work.  So I just put the next ones in the newly vacated spot.  1995 Skybox E-Motions complete!

There goes #12!

I figured this next target would be kinda easy since there are 73 variations - one for each home run he hit that year.  Guess they weren't that common, or have been squirreled away since 2002, because this is the first one I've ever seen in person.

And one's all I need!


Next, there was a pair of inserts I needed to complete one of the most fun sets that Topps has done in a while.  The Lightforce cards are pretty cool looking, which compensates for them really just being star-worship against a wild background.  The Programs are a great original idea.

 

All Bunts are hit!

And finally, one of those cards I figured I might have to buy for a premium considering the subject matter and that I had missed the chance to pick it up before for cheap.  The original Fire insert of none other than Mike Trout from 2014 (before they made whole sets of the stuff.)

My lists are devastated.

Tom, I can't thank you enough!  Let's continue the epic trading!