LINDEN CARD(s) OF THE WEEK - Quite A Gift...Redux

For the second day in a row I came home to find a bubble mailer in my mailbox.  It's been literally months since that's happened.  I gotta say...I haven't been this excited in hockey cards in a while.

I knew who the envelope was from (as well as the contents inside), but that doesn't make the opening of the seal any less exciting.  Especially when you consider what was inside.

Not one...not two...but three Trevor Linden cards that I didn't know existed - and the cards are all over 15 years old.

Like a kid on Christmas morning.  Let's check out the goods.

1999/00 Be A Player Memorabilia

#194 Toronto Fall Expo Silver  /10

Show cards from the late 90's are near impossible to track.  Companies never really came out with "lists" of what cards were actually distributed and so it's a lot of "hey...did you see this" or "I've got one of those" or "wow...never seen that before".

This card falls into the latter category.

No clue that this card had a Toronto Expo parallel.

The card(s) came from a longtime Linden collector who I've kept in touch with over the years.  Once or twice, here and there we'd chat via e-mail.  Recently, we've gotten to chatting a bit more often and have exchanged some scans of Linden "stuff".  I like stuff.

I recently sent him my master Linden checklist so he was able to cross-reference some stuff and realized I had omitted some items.  Not by accident - I just didn't know the cards were out there.

When I saw the scan of this card my jaw dropped a bit.  It just reinforced to me how much I love collecting Linden cards.  Even finding new information on a card gets me going.  I love it.

So I was even more gobsmacked when I found out the piece of cardboard was coming my way.

Along with a couple other goodies.

1998/99 Pacific Omega

#147 Toronto Spring Expo (show stamped)

You probably can't see it in the scan, but there's an embossed stamp right smack in the middle of this card.  This was a popular thing for the Pacific company to do back at the big expos of years past.

I've got a few from different years and different releases, but not this one.

Love the haircut Trev.  Very sharp for your new team.

1998/99 Pacific Revolution

#88 Montreal Spring Expo (show stamped)

Second verse, same as the first.

Another embossed card that I had no clue existed.  It's just been sitting patiently in someone else's collection until the right time to surface and reveal itself.  Gotta love it.

In addition to these three great cards, there was an oddball item.

Oddball items are fun.

But first, a little backstory.

I have two Trevor Linden slides from the mid-90's.  They come from the NHL and were released to media outlets for their news stories.  Say there was an article about Linden and they wanted a headshot...well, here's one you can use.

Each year, the NHL would send out new sets of photos.

Prior to using slides, they were done up on 8x10 photos (6-10 small headshots per page).  Nowadays everything is digital.  Far less fun.

I had to buy the entire year's worth - big ass binders emblazoned with the NHL logo - in order to secure the Linden slides.  I've sold some of the other slides to recoup some of my money.  I've still got a ton, including Gretzky, Lemieux, Bure, you name it.

So you can probably guess what the additional item was.

Ha ha.  This is awesome.

Not quite from the same releases as the others (typing is different and the physical slide isn't the same) but I'm happy to add to my bustling Linden slide project.

It looks like Trev has black eyes, but that's just the photo.  It's tough to really get a sense of what these are.

There...that's better.

Upon closer look, it appears that the 94/95 photo is the same as the 95/96 offering.  That's not uncommon.

Such a great add to the collection.

So a huge thank you to Ian for his generosity, sharing of information and for just being an enjoyable person to talk to.  I really like being able to discuss the hobby and my interests as well as hear other people's similar passions.  It really motivates me to enjoy this great collecting world for all it's worth.