An Incredible Secret Santa Gift

Christmas may be far behind us, but I can still get into the Holiday spirit thanks to the awesome Bob Walk the Plank Secret Santa package I received courtesy of P-Town Tom. The surprises with this package started from the moment it arrived.

While I knew I should be expecting a package from someone in the Secret Santa exchange, I wasn't expecting to find this hulking package on my doorstep(too big for the mailbox). I was thrilled when I opened it too.

Gingerbread!!! Oh yeah! To my slight disappointment, the box didn't actually contain a gingerbread house kit. It did contain a bunch of individually wrapped presents though.

It may be tough to tell from the way I arranged them for the pic, but there were 6 presents within along with a great note(which I didn't scan) that explained how all this cardboard goodness stayed within Matt's $10 limit. I briefly considered turning this into my own little advent calendar, opening one present each night, but that thought went away almost as quickly as it arrived. There was a little bit of everything in here.

First up, a blaster of a set that is about as oddball as it comes. Tom apparently won this as a door prize at a show and thought it would be a great add in to my Santa gift. I'm really appreciative that he did. It was really fun to rip into these packs!

Here are some highlights. I was thrilled to pull the Rivera and Ichiro. Take a look at how young Jayson Werth looks there! The Tino is a parallel. While it's nice to add a new Tino, it kinda hurts to see him in something other than pinstripes. The Torii is an insert and the Rios is from the rookie subset. Sadly, there wasn't a 'hit' in this box but it was definitely fun nonetheless. These kinda remind me of pogs from back in the day. Next up was a random assortments from his collection that didn't fit his PC preferences.

I didn't open much Fire so all of these are new additions for me. It's hard to pick a favorite here. I like the look of the Tanaka and it's always great to add a new DJ. I thought it was especially good timing that the Aaron Boone was in here considering he is the new Yankee skipper for 2018. The Kiermaier may win favorite of this scan though. It's a gold parallel of an insert that showcases his strong suit that has nabbed him a pair of Gold Gloves to date.

Here are some Yankees World Series heroes, old and newer. I particularly love the Jeter Classic Walk-Offs which highlights the night he became Mr. November.

I was lucky to find a few packs and a blaster of Stadium Club before it all disappeared from the shelves of my local Targets and Walmarts. I was not lucky enough to pull a base Jeter from the little I opened. The blue parallel Frazier is pretty awesome too, especially since he hasn't been traded away...yet. The pair of Didi cards represent my first experience with the rebooted a gallery product. I loved the original product and these look nice even if the card stock doesn't mimic the older product. It was pretty cool to see the base and Artist Proof parallel in this package. There was so much more than I scanned here. All in all, these were sent in a 200 count box which was a blast to flip through. As fun as this gift was up to this point, the heavy hitters were still to come!

This 1991 has been on my Cardboard Wishlist since shortly after I started this blog and remembered that I had a copy when I was younger. When I picked up my collection after a few years away, I pared it down a bit in preparation for a move to a smaller space. Shortly after I started this blog, I saw this card on Listia and was reminded how much I liked it when I was younger. I immediately went looking for it. After flipping through several monster boxes, I came to the conclusion that it must have been a casualty of my pre-move purge, along with others from the junk wax era. Once I realized I no longer had a copy, it took up residence on my Cardboard Wishlist. I'm happy to be able to cross it off that list. This gift package wouldn't stop there though.

This UD Vintage Posada comes from a time when there were so many sets available that it was really tough to see all of your team's issues and even more difficult to grab a copy of them all. I didn't know this card existed until I saw it on Dimebox Nick's blog when he was able to cross it off his Dimebox Dozen list. I immediately fell in love. The photo selection is incredible and it's a card of a member of the Core Four! Check off another card from my Cardboard Wishlist! Truth be told, I decided to add these last two cards to my first ever COMC order, but I received them in this package before my order arrived. It certainly didn't diminish my excitement at having received these. However, if there's anyone out there that would like a copy of either, I now have dupes to share. In addition to these wants, my Secret Santa package knocked out a ton of set needs. Three of the sets from my list were completed courtesy of Tom's generosity.

The last dozen needs for my 2015 Chrome set build were included.

Though I only scanned 6 of them, I received a whopping 14 of these to close out my 1993 Hostess set. Last but not least, I was able to finish off another early '90's oddball set.

I once again only scanned 6, but I unwrapped the final 8 of these 1992 Fleer 'The Performer Collection' cards that could be found at participating Citgo locations many moons ago.

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to finish writing this and get it posted, but I have to say one last 'thank you' to both Matt for organizing this Secret Santa operation and to P-Town Tom for sending an incredible gift package! Thanks to all for reading.