The most important meal of the day

Is breakfast really that important?

I don't think so. Despite its label as The Most Important Meal of the Day, I probably have breakfast around five times a year. And about two of those are the IHOP breakfasts my dad and I often have before card shows.

I love eggs, bacon, and the all the other delicious sunrise dishes, but I usually have them in the evening rather than the morning. Cereal was never quite my bag, although I did munch on sugar-infused products like Fruity Pebbles and Lucky Charms from time to time when I was a kid.

All right, so you've probably guessed by now that this tangent on breakfast is leading to some kind of transition into Kellogg's baseball cards. You may remember that Julie of the fantastic blog "A Cracked Bat" held a little Kellogg's giveaway a while back.

I participated in it because I'd be nuts to pass up a chance at free Kellogg's cards.

From what I remember, Julie offered up a few dozen Kellogg's cards to anyone who wanted them.

I must admit, a small part of me wanted to be the person who said GIVE ME ALL OF THEM!!!!!!! while leaving everyone else in the dust, because these 3-D beauties have that kind of sick  control over me.

But I'm proud to say that I contained my inner demons and limited myself to just two with the '79 Sutter and '81 Kingman issues.

Free Kellogg's cards would've been more than enough from Julie.

But she decided to craft a whole trade package around them.

I have to say that this was probably one of the most well-rounded batches of cardboard I've received during my time as a blogger. I think you'll see why in the scans to come.

The madness started out with a quartet unopened packs, two each from both the 1993 Studio and 1994 O-Pee-Chee releases.

I love opening any and all packs, but, unlike the '88 Topps and '90 Donruss I've busted in the past, these were especially exciting because I found a few cards I actually needed.

The Studio brand is probably best known for its 1991 and '92 releases, but I think '93 is right up there amongst my dark horse favorites as well. The large logos in the backdrop serve the design well, particularly with pinstriped squads like the Yankees and White Sox.

Plus, this is one of the rare instances where I actually enjoy the appearance of facsimile signatures.

Opening the '94 O-Pee-Chees were an even bigger thrill because I barely had any cards from this set prior to Julie's trade package.

As a result, I needed almost all of the twenty-eight cards I pulled from the two packs of the product. They don't exactly match the spirit of the vintage OPCs, but its still a nice design nonetheless. And, hey, they still have the classic "Lanceur" and "Voltigeur" designations on the front.

The only French I know comes from O-Pee-Chee.

In addition to the unopened packs were a few hefty team bags filled with singles from Julie.

Those stacks included, you guessed it, a few more '94 OPCs, hand-picked for various player collections of mine. I'm guessing Julie came into a fair amount of these packs at some point, opened a few herself, and distributed the rest around the blogosphere.

The two packs I busted didn't include Rickey or Mr. Abbott, but Julie took care of them with the singles end of this magnificent trade package.

This scan proves that "mini" is still a relative term.

They come in all shapes and sizes.

If her grand Kellogg's giveaway is any indication, Julie is a big fan of oddballs.

Every trade package I've received from her has been packed with oddities, and this one was no exception. I've at least tried the foods that accompany most oddball cards (Kellogg's, Hostess, 7-11 Slurpees, etc.), but I must admit that I've never sampled Church's Chicken. I hear it's quite tasty, though.

While it's not a food-related card, the Strawberry "Foldouts" insert was especially neat because, as the name suggests...

...it folds out into a bigger card.

I have to keep it folded for binder storage, but I like knowing that this tall, action-image awaits whenever I want to remove it from its nine-pocket page.

The next tier of this trade package came in the form of player collections.

This spiffy Ichiro insert was the first suspect.

John Olerud began his career smack dab in the middle of the overproduction era, which means I've received some of his cards about a dozen times over.

But I'm amazed and a little ashamed to admit that I somehow didn't own his 1990 Fleer Update rookie until Julie picked it out for me.

Same goes for the Pacific Prizm issue, although that's more understandable since only 160 copies exist in the first place.

Julie wasn't done with Johnnie O just yet.

She still had this neat Donruss insert to bestow onto me.

Set needs?

Julie took care of those, too. She whittled my 2013 Panini Hometown Heroes want list to a precious few with this impressive array.

I can't say I can remember the last time Jack McDowell popped up in a modern checklist.

Blame people like Julie for supporting my Golden Age addiction.

I'm especially fond of that Nolan Ryan insert, since he looks about ten years old in that photo.

I know him more as the stern-eyed fireballer from his big league days.

Yeah, that's more like it.

Wait...what? Is that a real Kellogg's Nolan Ryan?

Unbelievably, yes. I can't remember the last time a card caught me more off-guard than this one. I didn't request it from Julie. I had absolutely no idea it was coming. I wish someone could've taped my reaction when it fell out of this trade package. Eyes bulging, hands shaking, the whole deal.

I'd never even seen a Kellogg's Ryan in-person before, much less owned one. It's most definitely one of the better gifts I've ever received as a blogger, because, well, just look at it.

Needless to say, I'm forever indebted to Julie for such an amazing amount of generosity. Heck, with a card like this in my collection, I almost feel like I owe something to Kellogg's, too. Maybe I'll start eating breakfast again.

Two hard-boiled eggs, please.