Contest win for me. Free cards for you?

Last week I was fortunate enough to win one of the biggest contests this year, The Cracked Bat Ballot Box. The cards came yesterday in a huge box. My winnings were a lot more than expected. Not only was each week's winner in there, but the "losers" for many weeks as well. I guess they had good lawyers who got the courts to overturn some votes.

Here's a look at the full haul from Jenerous Julie:

Wow! That is a lot of cards! Below is a closer look at what I got. Also, you may remember Julie writing that the winner may choose to part with some of his winnings. Yes - there is quite a bit that I will be passing on to others in giveaway or trade, so keep reading!

First, here are the keepers for me.

A common theme among the cards was '80s boxed sets. Here are three that I needed all or most of the cards. I loved the Sportflics Decade Greats cards so much that I actually voted for them over the vintage cards. I'm very excited to get these. There's also a Sportflics Team Preview set which is great - I love all things '80s Sportflics. Also an '87 Donruss Rookies set. I'll do posts on each set a little later on. The sports erasers are going to be for the kids, though splitting three erasers two ways could get dicey!

I didn't vote for those '61 Fleer cards but I'm sure glad to get them! I also like the incongruity of the Whitehall set with holographic cards of players who would have died well before this technology even came about. I'll have posts on each of these sets as well.

These will go in my football card collection I've been passively accumulating cards for. I don't have any recent cards so this large chunk of 2019 Donruss Optic is very nice to have.

So are these 2020 Panini Contenders, with NFL stars in college jerseys (I guess they have the college license but not the NFL license). Nice to have my first cards of Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley, I guess. The Giants are terrible now but maybe someday these guys will be better? "Fun" fact - the Giants are winless this season against teams that have names.

In 1988 Score had two series of Young Superstars. I have all of Series I (the McGwire package) but none of Series II (the Mattingly package). I've never seen a card of Mattingly bunting!

The Score Series I also kicks off the giveaway/tradeaway portion of the contest winnings. I hate to break up complete sets but I am not going to post offices right now so am only doing PWE trades. So for the Score set above and anything below, if you want me to hold an entire set to trade to you, let me know by tomorrow. Otherwise I will start doing giveaway/tradeaway posts tomorrow.

In this box are the full 1986, 1987 and 1988 Topps mini-league-leaders sets. Why am I highlighting Rick Reuschel, one of the lesser-known stars in these sets? Because his '88 is the only card I still needed in any of these sets. (Though I've thought I've completed it a couple of times already; should probably double check one more time . . .). The rest of the cards will be in a giveway/tradeaway.

I already have the '87 and '91 Topps Traded sets, so these will be part of the giveaway/tradeaway posts, again unless someone wants to claim a full set and wait a while. 

Some more for this category: 1988 Topps Glossy send-ins; 1986 Quaker Chewy Granola, and 2019-20 SP Authentic Hockey. Will break them up unless someone wants to claim a whole set.

I will be breaking up the complete set of '87 Sportflics, the one Sportflics set I've already completed. Why? Because I needed the Cory Snyder variation - I had the error version (top), this one has the correct version.

These wax boxes present a bit of a conundrum. I've already completed the '92 Triple Play and '93 Donruss sets. Should I bust open packs of a set I've already completed to see if there are inserts I need? I think I will unless someone gives me a good reason to keep them as they are or send them packs. 

Hey Gavin - check out Julie's perfect pull-tabs! Jose Canseco was the biggest thing in baseball in '89. I can't imagine there will be any demand for me to open the packs in these. I actually have an unopened wax box of '89 Score already. I even tried to get Al to trade for it last year - no luck. There's a silver lining to the Topps box, though . . . 

The box bottom cards! These were all needs for me, I now have 13 of the 16 cards in that set.

Starting tomorrow, Free Card Friday, I will be doing a week of posts with cards available for free and for trade from Julie's Ballot Box. If you want to claim an entire set for yourself, let me know before tomorrow, otherwise I will start breaking them up. [UPDATE - or partial sets if you want a significant amount of one set.] Otherwise, if you want to claim individual cards, please do wait until they are posted over the course of the next seven days. Thanks and good luck! And thanks especially to Julie for this fun contest!