Best Mail Week, Part Two (Plus the Announcement of My Newest Collection type: Translucent Cards!)

As I mentioned two days ago, I have really been having the best mail week ever! I already posted the first round of cards and did my taxes, so I figured now would be a good time to round out the week of cards and show you what I got from Reader Michel. No blog that I know of - just a fellow collector who emailed me offering set help and other cool stuff. And man, what a package it was!

The center of the trade was a bunch of 1989 Topps Traded help, as well as #67 Dave Palmer, one of three cards I needed for the base set. That means I now need only TWO base cards to finish the 1989 Topps base set. So if you have #338 (Adduci) or #640 (McGee), then please let me know! I will definitely reward you for those cards!

Most of what Michel sent me was traded though, so I now have 53 cards (or 40.2%) of the 1989 traded set. Quite a few of the cards were cool, but this Omar Vizquel pre-rookie really stood out to me.
I'm really loving the major league debut factoid, and didn't realize that cards like this existed back in the 80's. That is to say, I know there are draft pick cards, but most every other Topps/Donruss/Fleer card I've seen from the era has at least one year of major league stats. I guess that's what traded sets are for!

Moving on, I'd like to announce a new collection focus of mine, which I was finally swayed into my this sweet Indians trio card: Translucent Cards, aka cards that you can see light through.
I hope to put up a post with all of my Translucent Cards in it soon (maybe Monday). That way I can better demonstrate what I mean, and show off ally my goodies. For now you can just oo and ah at Manny Being Manny and Joey Being Joey.

I actually received a ton of Mannys in this package, as Manny is apparently trying to take back his 2nd place (to McGriff) player collection crown from Sheff. Some of the Mannys were real beauties, especially the two redemption cards here and the middle die cut Upper Deck card. My Manny collection is now 66 cards big, so not too shabby.

Not to be outdone, Sheff made an appearance in this package as well, bringing his card total to 105. I'm a little perplexed on the center Fleer '96 card - it reads "ENCORE" behind Sheff's head, so I wondered if this was a parallel or insert or something, but I haven't seen any info indicating that anywhere. Can anyone enlighten me on this?
Also, mannnn I hope Sheff finds a team soon. Some website (probably mlbtraderumors) went through teams that need outfield help/could potentially use Sheff. They mentioned the Marlins, and I think it would be really cool if he reunited with them at the end of his career. But Sheff wants starter at bats and the Marlins have three decent outfielders, so that reunion probably won't happen. Poor stubborn Sheff.

Of course a package sent to me wouldn't be a package if it didn't include some Great Named players. Michel sent me about 15 different Great Names, all of which I had, but cards of theirs that I didn't have, which is cool. I'll start with my perpetual favorite name: Michael Jackson. I received a bunch of the NFL's Michael and the MLB's Mike in this package, and I especially like the photo of Jackson throwing a football as a Brown. Wide Receivers throwing is sort of like pitchers batting to me - so weird but so cool.

I also picked up a few Randy Readys. I think the middle Fleer card shows how ready Randy truly is - he just looks so eager to get his picture taken with his goofy smile.

Last but not least (namewise), a few B.J.'s. Nothing wrong with that! I love when guys have multiple positions on their card (and in general, I'm a big fan of utility guys like Craig Counsell and Felipe López), and it's especially cool when one of them is catcher. I feel like I had 1,000 B.J. cards when I was younger, but they all vanished when I sold my binders that housed his cards. So sad.

Finally, after many many cards, we come to the (unexpected) center of this package: TWO CRIME DOGS! I had no idea any were coming, and the two that came are two that I've been eyeing for a while, so I was real excited to get them.

The first is this 1996 Collector's Choice Redemption card, and I'm pretty sure this is the redemption set that I won a Griffey card with (which, by the way, is translucent). I someday hope to own the redeemed version of this card, but for now will just enjoy the wacky sparkleburst going on in this one. Also, the camera + sparkle leaves a weird sort of double mustache on Fred's face. It freaks me out a little bit!

I swear that I have seen this 1996 Bowman's Best McGriff in every single ebay lot ever, and it's always tempted me. But to spent $7 for maybe 3 news cards and 40 copies of Fred's 1990 Topps just isn't my thing, so I always regretfully didn't bid. Happily, I now actually have this golden piece of awesome. I like the framing, I like the stats on the back (regretfully not pictured because I forgot to photograph them this morning), and I like the swing. It's just a real damn good card.
So thanks Michel! I hope you like what I sent you nearly as much as I liked all of this stuff!