Never judge a book by it's cards

 

I've already mentioned more than a few times now that I was the beneficiary of some very generous packages during the month of December, a couple of which I'm still trying to get caught up on.

I've also already said on multiple occasions that they were all equally great, none being better than any other, but if I was going to give an award for "most uniquely packaged", well, that gold star, or MUP award, would most certainly go to my friend, Marc!

This is where we as bloggers usually add a link to the sender's blog, I can't do that though because Marc isn't a blogger (yet), although you can take my word for it when I say that he should be blogging, and hopefully will be at some point. If you happen to be on the Twitter though, you can find him @477marcbruins, who knows, maybe a few of you can help me to convince him to give the blogging a try... or just go follow him because he's a good people to know.

Marc had already asked me if I would be interested in the book shown above (I was), but when he told me that something was on it's way, there was no mention of the book, so I had no idea what might be on it's way. Once I received, and opened, the box that arrived, I obviously saw the book -- which was very nice, because it looks like it'll be a good read -- but upon removing said book from box I knew that something was amiss, because books aren't generally known for their lumpiness... and this was one lumpy book!

From the side here, you can definitely see that something's going on with this book, or rather... something's going on inside this book!

And there you go! It's cards... in top loaders... held securely in place by the pages of the book!

Now if anyone says that they've ever received cards packaged in this manner before, I will call shenanigans, because it takes a very unique personality to think of something like this, and Marc is most certainly in possession of a unique personality - I think I can safely say that this truly was one for the books :)

I'm pretty sure that no one came here to see me wax poetic about how the cards were shipped, so let's see what was hidden in the pages of this book:

1996 Pinnacle Trophy Collection #76

I've mentioned a few times recently that I stopped collecting football cards in either '92 or '93, so I ended up missing out on all of the great products that were put out by Collector's Edge/Pacific/Pinnacle during the rest of the decade - now that I am actively collecting football again, I seem to find myself drawn to these particular brands, especially the inserts and parallels. At this point, I know it's too late to make up for all of the lost time, but when I'm able to get a card like this Herman Moore, it helps take the sting off of that realization.

2003-04 Bazooka Comic Strip #15

Since I wasn't collecting cards at the time, I had no idea that Topps had ever done anything like these comic strips before. Considering how thin they are (like a film negative), I am kind of amazed that they would have ever been inserted into packs, as it would not take much to damage them.


2010 Topps Chrome Refractor #C87

It's kind of weird to look at a card like this and think "wow, this guy right here was personally responsible for the deaths of multiple people". But don't get me wrong, I still like it a quite a bit. As of six months ago I didn't own a single Aaron Hernandez card, and now I own three, this rookie refractor being by far the best of the three.


2013-14 Panini Select #189

I remember reading an article a couple of years ago that was all about Matthew Dellavedova being voted, by the players, as the dirtiest player in the NBA. If memory serves, Steph Curry was quoted quite a bit in this article, giving examples of said dirtiness. My only takeaway from this piece was that modern players are apparently softer than I already previously believed (well, that and Steph is a bit of a whiny b*tch) - he elbowed you in the ribs one time... OMG!!!!!! If that's what makes for dirty player these days, this current generation should thanking their lucky stars that they're playing when they are, because it sure doesn't sound like most of them would've survived a single game from the 1950's through the early 1990's (not that I didn't already suspect that).


1999 Press Pass X's and O's #XO2

Even after twenty years, these are still one of the most innovative inserts to have ever been released.


1995 Pacific Prisms #98

I know that he's been retired for a few years now, but there's a part of me that was under the impression that Kerry was still playing, so much so that I had to go double check - retired in 2011, shoot... that was like a week ago.


1996 Pacific Dynagon Dynagon Duos #DD-9

More Pacific! This is probably my favorite card of the bunch, but it sure was giving me fits trying to get a decent scan or photo, I ended up going the photo route though, still can't see the colors though, maybe if I tilt the camera a bit...

... there we go! I don't know if all of these Dynagon Duos have a blue and green color scheme, but this one sure works well with the Lions colors.


2000 Topps Stars Green #150 serial numbered to /299

I know that I've been away from football cards for awhile now, but since my interest in them returned, I have encountered a number of perplexing things, one of which is that the cards of Jamal Lewis don't seem to be of much interest to very many collectors. Why is this? He was a very reliable back for quite a few years, he was a big part of the Ravens winning a Super Bowl, and he seems to be a fairly decent person in real life... yet his cards can be had for next to nothing? If anybody out there is interested in super collecting someone, Jamal might just be your guy!

Thanks you again for the book, and the cards, Marc! The variety of items that you sent were just that, a variety, and for someone like me, things don't get too much better than opening a package like this.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.