Kin Claus delivers

Last week, I got a surprise package from Kin over at I Feel Like a Collector Again slash Bean's Ballcard Blog.

At first, I thought he might of been my Secret Santa. But nope! He just is a very generous dude who sent out a bunch of holiday packages. What a guy!

The card that popped the most were a few inserts from the '90s. I showed a picture of these on Twitter with a message about how I missed cards from the '90s. It was one of best performing Tweets ever, which isn't say much. But I always enjoy when others appreciate my love for '90s inserts. It's a generational thing.

The Paul O'Neill acetate film strip is extra cool!

Speaking of O'Neill, I was pumped to get this relic. Framed relics always look cool.

There was a whole bunch of Stadium Club from this past year that I needed.

And I didn't realize it until I scanned it, but this Aaron Judge is a SP! Woohoo!

There were some very shiny Tinos too, including a Mystery Finest with Gary Sheffield on the back. Very cool card, and would have been an exciting pull at the time.

One thing I found enjoyable was to flip over the backs of these two cards and check out the nice, clean stats. I don't ever appreciate the stats of guys like Gehrig and DiMaggio enough. They were absolute beasts.

There were a whole bunch more goodies too. Thanks, Kin!

Sometimes, the simplest cards can elude you

It always makes me laugh when I think about simple cards missing from my Tino Martinez collection. I always feel like there aren’t many early 1990s cards I haven’t unearthed, but then all the sudden I’m like, “wait, I don’t have the 1994 Donruss base card?”

This happened recently when all-around nice guy Kin reached out with this 1993 Pacific.

I was sure I had it, but still checked my “have” list. Would you look at that? It wasn’t there. Somehow, in my 20+ years of collecting Tino, and in all the times when I’ve bought 100-card lots for the two I didn’t have, this card wasn’t there.

Kin sent me two copies and apologized because each had a little paper loss. That’s what happens to 25 year old cards. They stick together! It doesn’t matter to me. I’m just happy to add it the 1993 section of my Tino collection.

It’s Tino #23 for 1993 and #846 overall.

Thanks, Kin!