1980's OPC? Damn straight

The more I've written, and thought, and reached down deep inside of my inner collecting child has allowed me to figure out what I want to collect.  As Queen would say

I want it all.  I want it all.   And I want it now. 

Realistic?  Absolutely not.  Unless I win the Powerball, which is less realistic.

So, I have to rely on trades and sticking with a budget (as best I can) in order to build my collection.  Then sometimes you get a box of cards you totally don't expect, like the one I've been going over for the past couple of days from Trevor.

One of the sets I just recently put on my want lists is 86-87 OPC.  I've always liked this set, it has some really good RC's featuring players such as Patrick Roy, John Vanbiesbrouck and Wendel Clark.  Add in a 2nd year card of Mario Lemieux and other big name cards such as Gretzky and Yzerman and you've got a winner of a set. 

Trevor didn't send me any of those, but he sent me close to 50 commons which will certainly help the cause.

How about some goalies?

Big names?  Nope, but they all feature the 2nd generation of goalie masks, the helmet and cage combo.  Guys would take the protection of the cages and combine them with the style and comfort of the old fiberglass masks and turn them into what is used today. 

What I love about the older cards is the prominence of the 'A' or 'C' on the jerseys.

Although the Taylor C is a little hidden, the other two are quite visible.  These were some great players from the 80's, and the cards do well to show off the leaders of their teams.

Same her, but only this time with the 'A' on the front.  I also love the North Stars and Nordiques logos, a great reminder of some great run and gun hockey that went on in the 80's.  The Rich Preston card has the "Now with Black Hawks" line, which leads me right into the next scan...

All guys that were moved to new teams, but OPC didn't worry about airbrushing them into new uniforms.  I had totally forgotten that Clark Gillies finished up his career with 2 seasons in the old Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo. 

I do know that I would like to put together all of the 1980's OPC sets, there isn't one of them that I don't care for, even the mass overproduced 1989-90 set.  Most of the sets are reasonably priced enough that they can be obtained without destroying my budget. 

Well, I don't really want it all.  But as far as OPC sets from the 1980's go, you could say that the title of this song is quite appropriate.

Besides, I want to show off more mask cards such as this one...

Thanks for reading, Robert

36 years ago seems just like yesterday

I mentioned yesterday about the envelope that Trevor from Supporting the Minnow sent my way last week.  Another part of the goodies inside was a small group of 9 cards from the 1980 Topps set.

What was interesting for me is that 7 of the 9 cards were team checklists.  Back then, they included a team photo on the front.  Something that a lot of us miss, myself included. 

I decided for this post to show 6 of the 7 cards (left the Indians out, sorry Tribe fans), 3 AL teams (at the time) and 3 NL teams.

Let's start with the White Sox, shall we?

Remember the collars!!??  Wow, and the shorts as well (not shown here).  These unis might be just as old school as it gets.  Take a look here at the road uniforms that the White Sox wore during the '77 season in the Blue Jays first game ever.  The solid black doesn't look all that bad really.  Tony LaRussa had just taken over the club towards the end of the '79 season, and would manage them until 1986 when he was fired and Jim Fregosi took over.  LaRussa won one division title in 1983. 

This was a very good Brewers team, which won 95 games in the '79 season, yet still finished 8 games behind the Baltimore Orioles.  Manager George Bamberger would be replaced during the 1980 season by Buck Rodgers, who would lead the team for a couple of seasons before they became known as "Harvey's Wallbangers".  You may recognize some of the names...Molitor, Yount, Lezcano, Cooper, Thomas, Money, Sorensen, Caldwell. 

This easily could have been yesterday as the iconic Yankee uniforms never change.  After winning back to back World Series titles, the Yankees dropped to 4th in the AL East during the '79 season, winning just 89 games.  They would rebound in 1980 winning 103 games and going back to the ALCS, losing in 3 straight to the Royals.  You may recognize a couple of the names; Guidry, Jackson, Randolph, Nettles, Gossage....

I much prefer the 80's Braves uniforms to what they have now.  The scripted 'a' on the hat and 'Braves' on the jerseys looked really good.  '79 was the 2nd season of Bobby Cox's 4 as manager of the Braves  the first time around.  This team only won 66 games, and would only finish above .500 once, which was the '80 season as they went 81-80.  There was some talent on the team, names like Dale Murphy, Bob Horner and Garry Matthews patrolled the middle of the lineup, and ageless Phil Niekro won 21 games that season.

The Expos were on their way to becoming serious contenders in the NL East by the time 1980 rolled around.  Dawson, Carter, LeFlore, Cromartie and Parrish were all solid major leaguers, while the pitching staff featured Steve Rogers and Scott Sanderson as the anchors, along with the 40 year old Woodie Fryman as the closer in the bullpen.  In '81 they would add Raines and Wallach to the lineup and fall one game short of the World Series, losing on a Rick Monday homer in game 5 against the LA Dodgers.

'79 World Champions!  Stargell, Parker, Candelaria, Garner, Madlock, Moreno, the names go on and on of the Familee.  Unfortunately, that would be the last run of success for the Black and Gold at 3 Rivers Stadium until the run of 3 NL East titles in the early 90's.  Manager Chuck Tanner is still 4th all time in managerial wins for the Pirates with 711. 

Seeing all these old style uniforms takes me right back to the late 70's and early 80's, when I was entering my teens and watching as much baseball on TV as I could. 

It really does feel like yesterday for me, even 36 years later...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Supporting the Habit

Fellow hockey collectors are few and far between, and when they leave the blogosphere for a while, well let's just say you have to travel awhile before you find another puck proponent.

So when Trevor from the Supporting the Minnow blog dropped an email on me a few weeks back, I was both surprised and happy to see him back at it.  Trevor mentioned he had a few cards for me, asked for my address and told me to expect something in the mail.

I surely didn't expect what was coming.

My recent updating of my want list was largely to get my ass started, because I had procrastinated forever about getting want lists up for sets that I really wanted to chase.  Trevor saw this as a challenge for him instead...

This post will only contain 5 cards, the briefest of hits from 3 different want lists.

Let's start with a fellow I don't show often on this blog anymore, because he's one of the major players on my PC collection blog, Joe Sakic.

Need 'em both!  Seeing as I'm a long way away from having my entire Joe Sakic collection posted on the PC blog, sending me these two was kind of a shot in the dark.  Thankfully, both were needed.  The Sakic on the right is from the McDonald's release in 2002-03, while the blue bordered beauty on the left is the O-Pee-Chee parallel from 01-02 Topps.  Great stuff.

That might be one of the worst pictures on a hockey card ever, but I still love this card.  It just reminds me of what Bobby Clarke was as a hockey player, tough, hard working and fearless (no helmet).

Trevor also knocked off two more numbers from the SNI Hockey set.  Both of these are 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee black rainbow cards, serial #'d /100.

The face of the Jets franchise for almost a decade, Dale Hawerchuk was the 1st overall pick in the '81 draft from the Cornwall Royals junior team.  183 points in a 72 game season will get you noticed.  He was involved in one of the biggest deals of the early 90's, going to Buffalo for a trio of players that included Phil Housley, and Buffalo's 1st rd draft pick which the Jets used to draft Keith Tkachuk.  This card is serial #73, and not only gets the Jets on the board, but knocks them off the list of teams that need a card that is #'d below 100.

Joey MacDonald bounced around the NHL, playing with 5 different teams over a 8 year career.  He is now currently playing in the German Hockey League with the Schwenninger Wild Wings, located in southwestern Germany.  This card is serial #'d 8/100, and is the 2nd single digit serial numbered card for the Red Wings.

Some great stuff so far, but there's plenty more to come from Trevor's bounty.   Thank you Trevor!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Serial Saturday #7: One more page and seeing a bit of red

Moving right along with the sea of serial numbered cards I've immersed myself in, this post is going to be a combination of both the baseball and hockey sets that I've got going.

Since I'm combining the two on this post, I'm going to stick with just one baseball page again.  Makes things a little easier to type, and to read (for those who do).  So, without further adieu, page 27 is here for your viewing pleasure.

Card 235:  Sam Fuld, 2011 Topps Update gold parallel #235/2011.  Tampa Bay card #9
Card 236:  Shin-Soo Choo, 2013 Topps gold parallel #236/2011.  Cleveland card #10
Card 237:  Wade Miley, 2013 Bowman blue parallel #237/500.  Arizona card #6

Card 238:  Bengie Molina, 2003 Topps Chrome refractor #238/699.  Los Angeles Angels card #12
Card 239:  Rick Ankiel, 2011 Topps gold parallel #239/2011.  Washington card #9
Card 240:  Kurt Suzuki, 2010 Bowman orange parallel #240/250.  Oakland card #12

Card 241:  Jake McGee, 2011 Topps gold parallel #241/2011.  Tampa Bay card #10
Card 242:  Greg Golson, 2009 Topps gold parallel #242/2009.  Texas card #8
Card 243:  Ryan Howard, 2011 Topps Triple Threads green parallel #243/249.  Philadelphia card #10

The only real outlier in terms of older serial numbered cards is the Bengie Molina Topps Chrome from 2003, otherwise all the others were anywhere from 09-13.  The usual suspects were responsible for this page, Night Owl, Max from Starting Nine, Ted from Crinkly Wrappers, and AJ from the Lost Collector.  I was responsible for 5 of the 9 cards (believe it or not), as I picked up 1 from ebay, 1 from a local card show, and 3 others from 2 different NSCC shows.  How about that!

Moving on to the hockey side, I grabbed 3 cards off of the pile that Doug from Sportscards from the Dollar Store sent me to show off today.  You'll see why I'm seeing a bit of red here shortly...

In contrast to last night's rookie showcase, today's cards feature players with a little more footing in the NHL.  Tomas Jurco, the Red Wings 2nd rd pick in the 2011 NHL draft is a regular with the club.  He will be coming back to the Wings shortly after recovering from back surgery which kept him out for 6 months.   This card is from the 14-15 Artifacts set, and covers the Red Wings portion of a card among the 1st 100 serial #'s, being numbered 4/399

Panini makes an appearance on the post with this 13-14 Totally Certified card of Braydon Coburn, then of the Philadelphia Flyers.  Braydon has been in the NHL for quite a while, since becoming the 1st round pick of the Atlanta Thrashers in 2003.  He has 720 NHL games to his credit, and is in his 3rd season in Tampa Bay.  This card is serial #'d 6/100 and just happens to be the 6th card already shown with the winged P as the crest. 

Brian Bellows was a player I despised as a Leafs fan in the 80's and 90's.  Everywhere it seemed he played, he scored big goals against the blue and white.  Over the years, he was a 3x all star, and was part of the 1993 Stanley Cup championship team with the Canadiens.  His son Kieffer Bellows was drafted in the 1st round this past summer by the Islanders with the 19th pick. 

That's a fair bit of red on those 3 cards, but they're great none the less.  Thank you again Doug!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Ice, Ice baby

When I took a look at the contents of the envelope that Doug from the Sportscards from the Dollar Store blog sent me, this is the first post title that came to mind.   A little cheesy?  Sure, but it's Thanksgiving weekend, a time meant for food and fun, so why not.

Being the big hockey fan that he is, when Doug saw the SNI Hockey post a few weeks ago, he took it upon himself to be a major benefactor in how this set looks.

At least that's how I'm seeing it so far.  There has to be close to 50 serial numbered cards inside, not including some Blue Jays and Sakic's to add to those collections as well.

A nice chunk of the cards inside were rookies from the 2014-15 Upper Deck Ice set.  And what normally happens to rookie cards a couple of years after they are released?  The price drops, sometimes dramatically.  So I'm sure that Doug got these at a good price, and with the amount he picked up, probably got a volume discount as well.

Fasten your seat belts, here's the first of what will be many posts that Doug has handed me...

First off, I don't have to worry about feeding the serial #'s to you for these 5 cards, because they are easy to spot on the front of the card.  First card is of Micheal Ferland (yes, it is spelled EA, so this is an error card) of the Flames.  Ferland was a 5th rd pick of the Flames back in 2010, so he's done well making it to the NHL. 

Next up is Joey Hishon, Colorado's 1st round pick in the 2010 draft.  So far, Joey has only played 13 games in the NHL, all of them coming in the 14-15 season.  Joey has decided to take his career to Russia and is playing with the Finnish team Jokerit in the KHL.  So far this season he has 3G and 3A in 27 games.

In what seems to be a recurring them, Patrik Nemeth is another 2010 draft pick, the Stars 2nd rounder from that year.  He's had trouble finding an every day spot on the Stars blue line, just managing 81 games over parts of the last 4 seasons.  Patrik is still looking for his first NHL goal as well....

The 4th 2010 draft pick in a row, Greg McKegg then of the Maple Leafs was drafted in the 3rd round that year.  Greg couldn't really crack the Leafs lineup, only playing 4 games over a couple of seasons before being traded to the Florida Panthers for Zach Hyman.  Greg had earned a spot out of training camp with the Panthers this fall as a 4th liner, but was recently demoted to their farm club after clearing waivers.

Oscar Klefbom is probably the surest bet of all these 5 players to earn a steady NHL gig.  Oscar was drafted in the 1st round by the Oilers in 2011, and has been a regular on their roster over the past 3 seasons.  Unfortunately he missed a good portion of last season due to injury, so hopefully this year will see him get into more games and deliver a boat load of "Klef-bombs" from the blueline.

There's the first 5, and there's plenty more where they came from...

thanks for reading, Robert

The rest of the goodies from the monthly card show

I had semi buried the remainder of the cards I bought last weekend, which means I forgot about posting them separate from the Ripken rookie until now.

At this point, it's more quality than quantity as I focused again more on the vintage portion of my collection.

The long neglected pursuit of the '59 Topps set came to an end as I bought 4 more commons, pushing the total number of cards I have to 326, and the percentage to 56.99.  What I enjoy about this dealer is his cards are always in super condition.  By the time I'm done with this set, I'm sure that I won't be disappointed at all with the condition.

As the '64 set winds it's way to completion, the next set that I seem to be turning to working on is the '69 Topps set.  Not sure why this is when I have a good dent in both the '68 and '62 sets already.  This McCovey/Marichal card set me back $7, a pretty good deal in my eyes considering that it's in great condition.

To round out the purchases for the week, I nabbed these 2 cards from the '71-72 OPC set.

Love the cartoon on the back of this card, ensuring that people know that Denis' last name is pronounced "Doo-Pear-ee."  The french portion of the cartoon mentions that Denis is French Canadian, kind of redundant if you ask me.

Much like the rookie subset in '59 Topps, I've grown fond of the All-Star team cards in this set.  I picked up the Ken Hodge for $4.  I took a quick look in Beckett and found that there a couple of pricier All-Star cards, namely the Orr ($50) and the Hull ($25).  I came in with eyes wide open knowing that this set was going to cost a pretty penny to put together, with the Dryden and Lafleur RCs costing a car payment in NM condition.  Like every other vintage set that I'm going to put together, the hunt for cheaper options will be the main focus.

That's where all the fun is, no?

Thanks for reading, Robert

Serial Saturday #6: A quickie

My dog disappearing today for a few hours was not the way I had planned to spend the Saturday without my better half.  Once the little booger was found (6 doors down the block no less), I was wiped out because I had spent the better part of the afternoon driving and walking the neighborhood.  Not the way I want to get my 10,000 steps in for the day!

So, now it's late and I'm a bit tired, and writing up 3 pages worth of SNI is just not in the cards.  So instead of scrubbing today altogether, I felt that keeping up the run of posts was worth it and I decided to post just one page today.

Something is better than nothing, right?  Let's have a look at page 26, shall we?

Card 226:  Damian Miller, 2003 Topps Chrome refractor #226/699.  Chicago Cubs card #5
Card 227:  Dmitri Young, 2008 Topps Co-Signers blue #227/250.  Washington card #8
Card 228:  Chris George, 1999 Bowmans Best refractor #228/400.  Kansas City card #9

Card 229:  Carl Crawford, 2008 Topps Stadium Club 1st day production #229/599.  Tampa Bay card #8
Card 230:  Kurt Suzuki, 2011 Bowman green parallel #230/500.  Oakland card #11
Card 231:  Andrew Carpenter, 2009 Topps gold #231/2009.  Philadelphia card #9

Card 232:  Vicente Padilla, 2010 Topps gold parallel #232/2009.  Los Angeles Dodgers card #8
Card 233:  Carlos Zambrano, 2010 Topps Heritage chrome #233/1961.  Chicago Cubs card #6
Card 234:  Carlos Lee, 2006 Topps gold parallel #234/2006.  Texas card #7

The best part about this page?  The blogosphere was entirely responsible for the contribution of these cards.    Dennis from the Too Many AL Cy Young runner-up's blog sent me 3 of these, the Night Owl was good for 2, and 4 others contributed one apiece (Royals and Randoms, Starting Nine, Crinkly Wrappers and GCRL).

I'm hoping to get a few more pages posted on Thanksgiving Day, stay tuned to see how that turns out...

Thanks for reading, Robert

7 days in a row, pfft what was I thinking?

There may be one or two of you out there who have read my blog more than once over the years, and if you have you know that I'm not ashamed to poke fun at myself.

If you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at, right?

So taking the night off last night to watch the Leafs put it to the Panthers, I figured I better get back to the posting game this evening.   After posting for 7 straight evenings, I'm starting to get the idea that I'm seriously blogging again...

Another set that I'm going to get a want list up for before too long (hopefully) is 2016 A&G.  Colbey from the Cardboard Collections blog had sent me a few A&G cards from his group break a few weeks back, and the Numbers Game insert hooked me in.  I've been a sucker for numbers all my life (my love of math I guess), and these just piqued my interest.

I bought 4 packs of A&G at the local Target a couple weeks ago, so let's look at the packs quickly and see what we get...

Minis first, just because:

 
I know that there are collectors out there that love these, but they will always be a drawback for me.  I have a helluva time handling them, and they're a pain in the ass to store.

At first, I thought Caleb Cotham's (Black border at the bottom) last name was "Gotham", so I wondered what the Batman reference was going to be.  The Trea Turner is an A&G back if there is someone out there in need of it.

I'm sure that A&G has done Natural Wonders before, right?  I'm not ashamed to say that I think this is a beautiful looking card.

I owe the honorable Night Owl an envelope, so if you need this one Greg, let me know and I'll add it to the small pile of 56's I have for you.  If not, I'm sure that there's another Dodger collector out there who may need it.

I'm sorry if I offend any D'backs fans out there, but I have to say that these unis are a no.

Showing off the back of this card I guess means I've flipped everyone the Bird (yes, that is bad...).  One thing I really never noticed over the years.  What position the players play isn't on the card. 

I never really looked at the back of the Numbers Game inserts until this evening.  The Kershaw that I pulled from a pack is very interesting. 

The "retired by team:  not retired" line is kind of redundant isn't it?  I haven't looked at a checklist for this insert set yet, so I'm wondering if there are retired greats in there.

Live-ball career ERA record of 2.43.  That's what we're calling the modern game now, live-ball?  Maybe I'm just too out of touch with baseball terminology.  In case you were wondering, Kid K has reduced that record career ERA to 2.37. 

The chase is on for 2016 A&G.  Am I late to the part, indeed.  But hey, I was 47 years late starting the 1964 Topps set in 2011, and over 5 years later I'm almost done...

thanks for reading, Robert

Wrote the post, but forgot the title

Trying to keep on the roll of posts I've had going over the past week.  You know, actually contributing a little something to the blogosphere?

I decided to go through the small stack of serial numbered hockey cards I have to see if there were any that I hadn't posted yet.   Sure enough, I was able to find 5 more to show.

It was surprising that Dennis Seidenberg didn't have a NHL contract before the World Cup of Hockey in September.  Some solid play for team Europe got him a job with the Islanders.  This card features him as a rookie with the Flyers, something I barely even remember.  It's serial #'d 693/950, and is already the 5th card for Philly.

If you don't remember Pavel Kolarik, don't feel bad, because neither do I.   His NHL career lasted 23 games over two seasons for Boston in 2000-01 and 2001-02.  After leaving the NHL, he went back home to the Czech Republic and played 10 more seasons until age 40 for HC Slavia Praha.  As you can plainly see, the card is serial #'d 766.

I had thought that Mike Dunham was originally a Nashville draft pick, but a little research reminded me that he was stuck in the goaltending logjam in New Jersey that was Martin Brodeur.  Turns out that Dunham was selected by the Predators in the expansion draft, and was their starting goalie for several seasons.  This 98/99 Black Diamond card is #'d 856/2000.

Another of a large batch of 2002-03 Pacific Quest for the Cup numbered cards if the Dmitri Bykov card above.  Not unlike Kolarik above, Bykov's NHL career didn't last very long, just 71 games in the 02-03 season.  Dmitri would return home to Russia and play for several teams in the Russian Hockey League and the KHL until 2012-13.  Dmitri's card is numbered 918/950.

Last up, even though it's very hard to see is Upper Deck's attempt to serial number every card that they produced in a set, the 98-99 SPx Finite set.  Garth Snow was the backup goalie for a lot of teams during his career, only getting one real shot to be the man, which happened to be during the 98-99 season in Vancouver.  The Snow card is #'d 944/9500.

I believe that I only have a handful of cards left to show before I get my own Hockey Card Expo lot from Canada, courtesy of Doug from the Sportscards from the Dollar Store blog.   Doug seems determined to put a nice dent into the want list for this set.

I'm not complaining....

thanks for reading, Robert

It's all downhill from here

From 1981 to 1985, collecting sports cards of any kind was totally off my radar.  Why you ask?

High school.  Puberty.  Girls.  Yep, like most young men, I had lots of other things on my mind other than cardboard.  Nope, that's not the downhill part.

During that period, I missed out on purchasing rookie cards of some of the greatest names to play baseball in the last 30 years.  Boggs, Gwynn, Sandberg, Henderson, and Raines to name a few.

But this past weekend, I found one name that had eluded me for 3 decades.  For $20, I now have the '82 Topps RC of the Iron Man in hand.

Getting the Cal Ripken RC for the '82 set build that I just started wasn't high on my priority list at the card show last weekend, but when the pile of cards I had to purchase from my vintage dealer was a bit small, I saw this in one of his showcases and added it to the pile.

Finishing this set should be all downhill from here...

thanks for reading, Robert

67,68,69

One final post in the little series of Just Commons posts detailing my last order from them.  I wanted to get the order above the $15 threshold in order to get the free shipping they offer, so I took a look at some of the vintage cards that they had on the site.

The one disadvantage about the site that I discovered with this portion of the purchase is that you can't see the cards you're buying, all you get for the vintage is the "book" description of the condition; VG, EX, NM, etc.

Not that these cards were bad, most of them in fact for my purposes were more than acceptable...

The Corrales and Brown cards from the trio of '67s weren't bad at all, but the Barbieri you can plainly see on the left is miscut.  The top border is all but gone, and you can see the start of another card on the bottom border.  It will count as a placeholder for now until I can upgrade.

I really hadn't bought any 68's in quite a while.  These 2 are about par for the course as far as condition goes for my 68 set.  I had also forgotten when updating my checklist with these 2 cards that I passed the 200 card mark in hand, meaning I'm a little over 1/3 complete. 

The '69 set is another one that doesn't look like much to a lot of collectors, but for me the lack of flash is appealing.  What I really like about the '69 set is the backs...

Ever since I bought the '69 Steve Carlton card at the 2012 National, I've been drawn to the pink backs of this set.  I can't explain why, the back just appeals to me.  The cartoons are great as well, especially this Larry Dierker card showing him hitting a baseball with a golf club.  I'm a long way off from putting this set together, and I'm sure chasing the Reggie Jackson RC will be a challenge for me someday down the road.  I'm sure by the time that rolls around, I'll be on year 15 of this blog, and still enjoying the thrill of the hunt.

All in all, my first foray into the vintage portion of the Just Commons website wasn't too bad, but without seeing the cards first, I'm not sure how often I'll go that route.

Time will tell...

thanks for reading, Robert

A story about a boy and a website

This post is dedicated to a boy who loves his hometown team, the Toronto Blue Jays, a lot.

This boy has a lengthy want list on his blog, endeavoring to try and get as many unique cards of his favorite team in hand. 

One day, that boy was reading some of his favorite baseball card blogs, and was intrigued when one of those writers mentioned a website called Just Commons.

So the boy decided to go on the site and see what he could find. 

There were lots and lots of cards from his childhood, all priced more reasonably than he expected.  So the boy decided to place an order. 

Lo and behold, less than a week later, the boy received not one, but 2 envelopes!!  Sadly, one of the envelopes was for another customer who had made a purchase from the same website.

The boy, worried that the other customer might be disappointed, sent the cards back to the website (at his own expense) and notified them that he received the cards by mistake.

Over a week went by, and the boy didn't hear anything back from the website, so he shrugged it off and figured that the website was run by some multi-national conglomerate that decided to just blow him off.

No matter, the boy placed another order, wanting to reward himself with some more Blue Jays for his collection.

2 days after the 2nd order was placed, the boy received this email from the website.

Hi Robert


I would like to thank you for returning a package we sent you in error. 
We were scratching our heads as we were
contacted by the rightful owner of the order and couldn't figure out where 
his package went. Fortunately we were
able to replace his order and im very thankful that a honest person 
received it and sent it back to us.
I would like to at least reimburse you for your kind deed and am sending 
you a Gift certificate for $3 on your next purchase.
Again thank you very much and glad there are still honest people out there 
going the extra mile .

You should be receiving the code within a few minutes. If you are dont see 
yourself  ordering from us let me know and
ill make other arrangements.
Thanks again.
Mem

Needless to say the boy was very shocked, and impressed, that this email came, and that the owners decided to refund the shipping costs he incurred to return their cards to them.

A couple of days after that, the boy's latest order came (the cards are in this post in case you were wondering), and that brought smile and a small tear to his eyes.

The cards were all in good shape, packaged wonderfully and arrived even faster than his first shipment!!

The boy swore to himself that he would continue to use the website, and recommend it to others for filling out their set needs.   The boy also  believes that the website is probably run by one or two people devoting their time and energy to making boys like himself very happy. 

Needless to say, that gift certificate will be used before very long.

Thank you very much to the folks as Just Commons, the email you sent was appreciated much more than you know.

Thanks for reading, Robert