Anatomy of the Dime Box Dozen

I was lucky enough to win a contest emceed by Matt of "Bob Walk the Plank" fame a while back.

Winning any kind of contest is an unexpected treat for me, as I usually have rotten luck when it comes to those types of things. It's the reason I almost never play any incarnations of the lottery.

But I was especially excited to emerge victorious from one of Matt's contests, because he's famous around the blogosphere for putting together legendary stacks of cards to send to people. I waited eagerly by my mailbox for the winnings to arrive, and boy was I ever excited when the package showed up.

The spoils started out harmfully enough: Matt knocked off a hefty chunk of insert needs from years past, including this terrific "Glove Stories" GQ insert of Bryce Harper.

More various Topps inserts crossed off the various want lists.

Also included was a stack of a few dozen 2013 Gypsy Queen base cards I needed.

Check that, these are actually from 2014 Gypsy Queen: the designs have really started to blend together in my head over the years.

But all that was small potatoes in comparison to the meat of my contest winnings from Matt, because inside the package, I found a grand total of ten cards from my Dime Box Dozen list.

That is, for the mathematically inclined, 83 percent of my DBDs knocked out in one fell swoop, which shattered the record for the most DBD needs crossed off by a single package. I couldn't believe it. I've scanned each of the ten suspects individually -- beginning with Larry Bowa here -- and have included small blurbs about my motivations for acquiring each of them in order to get to the real anatomy of my Dime Box Dozen list.

The Card: 1985 Donruss #361 Larry Bowa

On the Dime Box Dozen because: This was the final card I needed to complete my sunset collection of Mr. Bowa, plus it features a pretty awesome Wrigley Field shot.

The Card: 1986 Donruss #648 Cesar Cedeno

DBD because: Once again, another example of a Donruss card standing of the way in my completion of a sunset collection. Also, bonus points for chronicling Cedeno's short stint as a Cardinal, though he'd actually close his career with a card-less stint with the '86 Dodgers.

The Card: 1989 Upper Deck #667 Orel Hershiser WS

DBD because: Just a cool highlight-themed card I needed to secure for my growing Bulldog collection.

The Card: 1991 Stadium Club #70 Ozzie Guillen

DBD because: Sometimes even overproduction-era cards somehow slip through the cracks, as this terrific throwback shot of Ozzie had for my entire collecting lifetime.

The Card: 1999 Ultra #35 David Wells

DBD because: An all-around masterpiece featuring a heroic, movie-esque shot of Boomer following his legendary perfect game in the Bronx.

The Card: 2003 Topps Fan Favorites #50 Cal Ripken Jr.

DBD because: This was the DBD need I was most excited to receive from Matt, in no small part because it'd been sitting on my list for around a year. It's the only card I've ever seen that features the Orioles' version of MLB's doomed Turn Ahead the Clock promotion.

The Card: 2004 Topps Total #778 Eric Karros

DBD because: Another long-awaited sunset card featuring Eric Karros's brief and wildly unfamiliar stint with the A's.

The Card: 2013 Topps #134 Jake Arrieta

DBD because: A pre-fame image of the Cubs' current ace and an annoying example of a card I'd accumulated several parallels of without owning the regular ol' base card.

The Card: 2014 Stadium Club #3 Babe Ruth

DBD because: More than any other player I can think of, Babe Ruth suffers from having the same three or four photos recycled over and over again on his baseball cards. This SC single features a refreshing new image of the Babe that I'd never seen before, one that shows his popularity among baseball fans everywhere.

The Card: 2015 Topps Update #US-46 David Price

DBD because: I opened a hobby box and several retail packs of 2015 Update, and this was the only card I needed that somehow eluded all that wax. Thanks to Matt, David Price, the pesky straggler, finally became mine.

If you want to talk about a trade package perfectly customized to fit my collecting needs, look no further than this one. And all I had to do was type my name into a comment box, because card contests are a beautiful thing.

Safe to say that it took my Dime Box Dozen list had to take some time to recover after that vicious attack from Matt.