These cards may have been from the dollar store

But they sure cost a helluva lot more than that to ship!!

OK, maybe not that much more, but the cost of postage to the Great White North is absolutely ridiculous.  I have 3 envelopes that I want to send up to some trade partners, but if I did that, it would cost me almost $20 to do so. 

I think I'm just going to drive them up there and mail them from the other side of the border.  Probably cheaper that way...

But enough of that little rant, I have a few cards to show off that were sent to me courtesy of Doug from the Sportscards from the Dollar Store blog. 

Doug sent a few cards from a variety of my want lists.  A couple of insanity cards that were needed (they get their own post later), a couple of 97-98 Upper Deck Hockey cards from that want list (I had totally forgotten about that set), and 4 cards from the 2012-13 OPC hockey set.

The OPC hockey sets are something that I wish I had kept collecting over the past few years.   I pretty much took a break between the 08-09 set and this years.  I like the size (600 cards), the designs are always easy on the eyes, and while the short prints are plentiful (100 cards), their impact on the wallet isn't as bad as Heritage baseball (for example).

Doug really hit home with the 4 Joe Sakic cards he sent me.  I'll show 2 of them off...

I remember collecting the Black Diamond sets in the mid to late 90's, and really loving the cards.  There was a year or two where the design wasn't overly appealing to me, but all in all Black Diamond has been a winning brand for UD, and it's another set that I wish that I had kept up with over the years. 

This next card I had seen in many an eBay auction, and was going to pull the trigger on it a few times, but I really didn't know much about it.

A little research showed that this is from the 2012-13 In the Game Heroes and Prospects set, card #15.  While it may not be a perfect artistic rendering of Sakic, I do like the fact that they used a picture of him in the Swift Current Broncos sweater, where he played his junior hockey.  Even better is the 4 leaf clover on Joe's right shoulder, commemorating the 4 players that died in a bus accident in Saskatchewan back in 1986.  That little detail made the card even greater in my eyes. 

Doug, thank you for the cards, I really do appreciate them!!  Receiving the Sakic ITG card was as if you were reading my mind.

Thanks for reading, Robert