Christmas Loot over at the Coot

Christmas brought some cardboard goodness to the Vealtones that I'm just getting to posting now. I usually just ask the family for random packs, tell them anything baseball works for me. My mother-in-law stressed, though, worrying she'd get me something I already had. The concept of opening packs for opening packs' sake is foreign to a non-collector, I guess. Anyway, she and other gift-givers picked up a few packs for me. I'll show you the highlights.

This was my first pack of 2011 Opening Day, and I have to say it was pretty great. The Stadium Lights inserts look awesome. And I guess I pulled a mascot, which are short-printed or inserts or something? The David Wright card came from some earlier UD packs.

My mother-in-law must have known I'm a Cabrera collector, because the packs she snagged yielded some nice pseudo-rookies. My biggest hit from the holiday packs was this Andrew Oliver auto from 2008 Timeline. It's no Strasburg, but he's a Tiger.

The wife picked me up a blaster of Update. Here are the shinies. Some pretty great ones, especially the Avila. The Cano is nice, too.

I also pulled a not-so-short-print Feller. He looks a little pissed off in this shot. Don't mess with Feller.

Here's my manu-patch. Not a terrible pull with Frank Robinson. Now I need a Reds or Robinson fan to offer me a trade for it. All in all, a pretty nice blaster.

This came out of a grab bag my little sister picked up for me at a LCS in Texas, where she works. This was the guaranteed hit. The rest of it was filled with Peavey and Eric Munson cards. I'm guessing these grab bags were made up with once promising players who flopped. Still, it was fun to go through. If anyone needs the Alexei jersey, let me know.

And from myself to me were five packs of 1994 Bowman. I'd never busted any Bowman packs from this year, so when I found these at an LCS in a city on my way to my parents' house, I picked up all five packs. They sold for a buck a piece, and that seemed like a deal, when I was imagining all those Posada rookies I'd pull. No Posadas, but this was a great looking set. You'll notice I included two LoDucas and Hendersons. All but one of the packs had duplicates right next to each other. At least I got good doubles.

I picked up some other gifts for myself at this shop, but they'll get their own post later.

Here's the highlight of my Christmas this year:

Boom! 1955 Bowman Al Kaline. Kaline's only vintage Bowman card, and a card right at the top of my wish list. My little sister picked this up for me, because she's so awesome. Whose sibling would waste hours scouring eBay to find this card? I'm a lucky bro. And this card is just awesome. It's in great shape, and it is everything I could ever want out of a vintage card.

Here's the back:

I like Kaline's mini-memoir here. He sounds so young, especially the last sentence: "My childhood hero, incidentally, was Ted Williams, and I think he's the greatest hitter I've ever seen." This just rings of Beaver Cleaver or Opie--all-American childhood innocence. This card makes me feel that way. I think Al Kaline is just the swellest!

Pretty awesome Christmas.