Twelve Team Sets of Christmas

Who needs maids-a-milking or swans-a-swimming?  Forget the turtle doves or calling birds.  I've got baseball cards!

Reader Chad was once again most generous to me this Christmas.  This makes the tenth consecutive Christmas that he has sent me a package of cards.  He always send great goodies and this year was no exception.  

Among the items set were twelve different Cubs team sets.  I thought about showing one per day during the twelve days of Christmas between the 25th and Epiphany on January 6.  But why drag it out.  Let's see all twelve at once.

We start off with the four Cubs in the 1996 Aficionado set.  This was the only year that Pinnacle made the set, so thanks to Chad I have all of this brand.

In 2006, American Family Insurance teamed with Upper Deck to issue a partial Cubs team set using UD's template.

This is Upper Deck Classics, from 2005, not to be confused with Donruss Classics, which was put out between 2001 and 2005.  

Upper Deck's 2001 set Decades celebrated the 1970s in all of its funkadelic glory.

Skybox's Dominion was a one-and-done set in 2000, so I have another brand completely covered.

This set, 2005 ESPN, was a collaboration between UD and ESPN.  The set was put out to celebrate the sports network's 25th anniversary, though in 2005 ESPN was 26 years old.

This is the premier edition of First Pitch.  UD put out this set in 2003 as their answer to Topps' Opening Day.  Like OD, the First Pitch set's cards are foil-less versions of the base set.  Upper Deck continued with the brand through the 2006 season.

Pinnacle's Inside set was noted for being packaged in cans instead of wax packs.  These cards are from the 1997 set.  There was another set issued in 1998 and I'll need to get those to complete this brand.

These cards are the 582 Montgomery parallel set.  The cards come from a complete set with the special stamp that were available only to Montgomery subscribers.

This is an odd one, 1997 New Pinnacle.  Instead of putting out a second series, Pinnacle put out a second brand with the creative name of "New Pinnacle."

This is a two-part parallel set to Score's 1997 set.  The parallel from the first series were called Premium Stock while the cards from series two had the name Hobby Reserve.

We wrap things up the a set called World Series Fever, put out by Sports Illustrated in 1998.  

Twelve team sets, 108 cards, and much gratitude to Chad!