Williamsburg, VA

Recently I received a small priority mail box from David, in Williamsburg, Virginia, that is almost certainly the most unique package I've received in my eleven years of running this blog.  Inside the box were eight smaller sealed packages labeled "A" through "H," with each containing Wallach cards.  Along with the mystery packages was a very nice note detailing the contents of each.

None of the cards David sent were standard base cards.  They were all of the insert or special release variety.  In his letter, David tried to estimate the print runs of these cards, and what my progress was towards collecting "all" of them.  Where print runs weren't made public, he took the odds on wrappers and worked backwards for his estimates.  Here's what he sent.

Envelope "A" featured a 1994 SP Die-Cut.  I had 18 of these already, but had never bought so much as a single pack of the stuff.  David had, and provided a break down of an estimated print run using the odds on the wrapper.  The die-cuts came one to a pack, but there was an insert called "Holoview Red" that came 1:75 packs with a print run of 700.  If those figures hold, then there are approximately 9,975 copies of this card, of which I now have 19, or about 1 in every 500 in existence.  So I have some work to do.

Envelope "B" had two copies of 1991 Topps Desert Shield Wallach.  The two copies doubled the number in my collection and were the first I've added since their initial post back in 2012.  Back in 1991 David had a neighbor who was an officer at Langley Air Force Base who gave him some of these.  There are thought to be about 7,000 copies of this set printed, which means I have a long ways to go.

Envelope "C" contained 2 copies of 1990 Bowman Tiffany.  The factory sets were serial numbered to 6,000, which was new information to me.  These two additions bring me to 7 copies, or about 0.001% of all of them.  So there's some work to do, and given that these are the first copies I've added since 2013, that work could take awhile.

Envelope "D" was a 1985 Topps Tiffany.  The general consensus on these is that there were 5,000 factory sets printed with serial numbers.  This card brings me to 14 copies.

Envelope "E" was a 1984 Nestle.  David had a wealth of information on this set.  It was promotional mail-in.  For $4.75 and five candy bar wrappers, Nestle would send you one of six uncut sheets, each containing 132 cards.  There were 5,000 sets produced.  This copy brings me to 83 Nestle cards in my collection.

Envelope "F" was a copy of 1991 Topps Tiffany. It's my 4th copy of the card, and per David, there were 4,000 sets produced.

Envelope "G" was six copies of the 1995 Topps Finest Refractor, which brings my total number to 7.  I'm not sure how David ended up with 6 of these, but I'm happy to add them.  A few of them also already had the protective film peeled off, so I'm going to have to update the photo I use in the post for this card.  By David's math, there are 550 copies of this card.

Envelope "H" contained a 1993 Topps Finest Refractor.  This is only me 2nd copy of this card.  I see them pop up on eBay with some regularity, but they always have absurd price tags on them, usually in the $50 plus range, and often double that.  On top of that, they usually sell (eventually).  So that makes this an incredibly generous offering.

Thank you for the cards, and time you put into sending this out David.  It's really above and beyond.

Please check out David's blog "CardBoredom" by clicking the icon below.

Updated Totals:

1984 Nestle: 83

1985 Topps Tiffany: 14

1991 Bowman Tiffany x2: 7

1991 Topps Desert Shield x2: 4

1991 Topps Tiffany: 4

1993 Topps Finest Refractor: 2

1994 SP Die-Cut: 19

1995 Topps Finest Refractor x7: 8