All right, the holiday season is still a ways off, but I couldn’t wait until December to show you this awesome, oddball item I recently acquired. Sharp-eyed collectors will recognize the Bobby Hull card above as a promo for Action Packed’s ill-fated 1994-95 Hockey Hall of Fame set, which was advertised but never produced.

But what really drew me to this is what the card came with: a holiday card! How about that? A holiday card that included a promo card. But this was the early 1990s, so putting a promo card inside of a Christmas card was just as good as putting a wrinkled $20 bill inside. Of course, looking back I’d rather have the $20. The Hull card can be found easily for around $5.

In 1993, Action Packed sent this to card shop owners. The holiday card measures 5″ x 7″ and included the Hull promo, which can be removed. It is the same Hull promo card that was given out in gold-foil promo packs.

At the bottom, the card greeting card reads “Happy Holidays from everyone at Action Packed.” To the right of the Hull card is two lists of Action Packed employees, noting 13 of them as “Naughty” and the other 13 as “Nice.”

Also notice the small tear in the holiday card, right above the Hull card. I asked the dealer who originally owned this if he tried to remove the Hull card. He informed me that he did not remove the Hull card, and that his holiday card came with the small tear already in it. An Action Packed employees may have torn the greeting card while trying to slide the Hull card in — it was probably one of the naughty employees. ■