I, too, Love the Smell of Cardboard in the Morning

It's a drizzly Saturday morning, but I have my coffee in my favorite TOOTBLAN mug and a package to open on this raining day!

Today's cards are courtesy of Tim, from I Love the Smell of Cardboard in the Morning. And I do, I do love the smell of cardboard in the morning. Although, I personally don't think chrome cards smell like much. Flagship has a certain smell and I love the old school aroma of junk wax, but that is NOT your signal to send me your junk wax. I repeat: Do NOT send me your junk wax.

Tim is part of the #SuperTraders group and I send him all of my Rays when I can and I'll also slip in a few Yankees from time-to-time. He returned fire with some Cubs!  Woo-Hoo!

If I could sum up the package with a pair of pictures these two (above and below) would be it. There was a great assortment of present day Cubs and Cubs I have player collections of. Inserts, die-cuts, minis, rookies, veterans...  you name, and this package had it!

 It's hard to top cards of ROCK SHOULDERS and the VOGELMONSTER, but what really piqued my interest were new cards to add to my often ignored Ryne Sandberg collection. 

 When I first started collecting I used to know exactly which cards I needed and which I already owned just by looking at a card. Those days are gone. I don't visit the pages of my Sandberg binder as frequently and the number of unique cards is now over 800.  Of the three cards above, the 2010 Topps Tribute card is the only one new to this collection. But, that doesn't mean the other two are any less appreciated!

Here's what my collection is missing in a big way:

In the modern collection world relics, parallels, minis, die-cuts and autographs are all the rage. My Sandberg collection has some of each, but not many. The majority of Ryno's cards were produced before the aforementioned variations changed the hobby.

The Cooperstown calling card was produced in 2001 and Sandberg was elected to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 2005. So, that's pretty neat!

Both of these relic cards contain pinstripes and those are my favorite kind. I also like that the card company paired the jersey swatches with Sandberg wearing the home white uniforms. Too many times I see a jersey card with the pictured player's uniform not matching the actually relic. These two are great looking cards and I'm thinking about incorporating them into a new display I've been tinkering with for my man room.

Tim, this was a fantastic package and it was clearly evident that you went to great lengths to pick out only cards that fit my collection. Thank you for going the extra mile and making my morning!