The "Holy %$^&!!" boxes, Pt. 3

I've been a bad blogger.

Normally, I take a great deal of pride in being caught up with my trade posts. I figure it's only fair to the generous souls who send me cardboard to post about their unselfishness in a timely manner.

Lately, though, I've lagged way behind in that department. I still have a boatload of unposted trades to get to during these next couple weeks.

Heck, these self-proclaimed "Holy %^&*!!" boxes arrived on my doorstep about a month ago. Yet, before tonight, I'd only gotten through half of the goodies Mark sent my way.

Now that I'm finally out of school and all, the time has come to get caught up on the hobby I love so much.

But especially the trade posts.

While these boxes netted me a ton of random goodies for my binders, a few were much-needed hits to my many mini-collections.

As you might guess, the above '95 Score Franco is a terrific addition to my "autograph" point of interest.

Plus, as I said in the last one of these posts, Score's 1995 release is one of the more underrated sets you'll ever find.

A few of the cards from these boxes could easily be placed in the "well-loved" realm of things.

Given how awesome this historic Nolan Ryan piece is, though, I can entirely see why a (presumably) young collector back in the day would've handled it with so much vigor.

You just can't go wrong with the "Ryan Express".

I've toyed with the idea of starting an "ageless wonders" collection in recent months.

While I'm not sure that'll ever come to fruition, both Sutton and Moyer would have to be ranked near the top of the class in that category.

Sutton pitched in the bigs until he was 43. Moyer, as was well-publicized, appeared in ten games for the Rockies last year at the age of 49.

It'd certainly be an interesting theme to chase.

There's no doubt about that.

Against all odds, I'm still finding things to love about '87 Topps these days.

Until Mark's boxes arrived on my doorstep, I hadn't realized how great the "Leaders" cards were that year. And, despite all the '87 Topps I've dug through over the years, the Dykstra was one-hundred percent new to me.

I'm not altogether sure where I'd rank this iconic set in the annals of Topps history. It'd probably be a "Top Ten" candidate for me.

At the least.

And, while we're on the topic of '87 Topps...

MMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSS!

Gotta love 'em.

While overshadowed by Topps's efforts that year, Fleer actually put together a decent offering in 1987 as well.

I'm not sure if the rest of the collecting community would agree, but I've always enjoyed the "blue freeze pop" theme.

They make "sunset" cards of guys like Bobby Grich and Ron Cey exponentially cooler.

Bask in the glory of 1991 Fleer!

I don't care what anyone says.

I'll always love this set.

Now, on the contrary, I've always branded 1990 Topps and '90 Donruss as a couple of the absolute worst sets ever produced.

Still, I must admit, these are a couple of pretty neat cards. Both are brand-new additions to my binders.

That's how awesome these boxes were, after all.

They actually prompted me to use the word "neat" in the same breath as 1990 Topps and Donruss.

I'd never thought that was even remotely possible.

As has become painfully obvious to me lately, I have yet to discover many of the masterpieces that are riddled across Upper Deck's earlier checklists.

Take this one, for instance. Much like the '87 Topps Dykstra I mentioned earlier, I'd never seen Sandy Alomar's '92 UD issue before these boxes were bestowed upon me.

In many ways, it's like a poor man's 1991 Topps Carlton Fisk. You've got a "play in the plate" in the making. You've got the on-deck hitter intently directing the runner in the backdrop.

All it's missing is a 300-pound Cecil Fielder barreling down the baseline.

Though this box certainly offered its fair share of gems, I'd have to give "Best Of" honors to Mr. Cesar Cedeno here.

As you might be able to tell, though, this isn't your run-of-the-mill Cedeno card.

No, this particular piece features his long-forgotten tenure in the short-lived Senior League.

I've run into a few of these cards over the years. The sheer strangeness of seeing past stars playing ball during their "Father Time" years has always made them personal favorites in my eyes.

If I ever become a full-blown set builder in the future, I bet it'd be fun to try and track down a couple of these Senior League releases.

For now, though, I'm happy with whatever I can find.