A little bit of this and a little bit of that

Slow.   That is the one word that could be used to describe this transaction.  

On my end of course.

A very gracious blog reader Greg sent me an email with a laundry list of cards that were on several of my want lists.  I read the email on my phone while at work with the intention of replying that evening when I got home.

Well, I got home and promptly started a conversation with my wife which means, you guessed it, the email was forgotten.  I looked at it a few days later and did the same thing, forgot about it. 

Finally 2 weeks later, I managed to get around to replying to Greg, apologizing for my lack of attention to the email.   Greg was cordial and offered me the cards none the less, asking for very little from my trade lists ( I actually had to prod him to grab a few more cards just so I didn't feel so guilty).  Now, I've finally gotten around to scanning the cards that I received (portions of) for everyone's viewing pleasure.

A lot of times the little things bring one the greatest joy, and the 6 Blue Jays cards that were inside the box were the big things for me.

These were big for me because I have very little OPC Blue Jays from the mid 80's.  So little in fact that I didn't even hesitate to wonder if I had this half dozen, because I was positive I didn't.   Maybe one day I'll get around to filling in those OPC holes from the Jays first decade.

The rest of the box was pieces and parts of several different sets.   Great fun going through all the cards, starting with a handful of 1976 Topps.

The '76 set has really never been a big priority to complete; having said that these 5 cards bring my in hand count to 525, which is 3 cards short of being 80% finished with this set.  I would say that I'll have this done sometime in 2019 (which is just 2 months away....ugh).

A half dozen '78s also came my way, nothing spectacular save for the fact that I could cross 6 numbers off the want list which is still quite extensive.  This is a set where I'm divided about putting in a box or in a binder.  I think that '77 might be the cut off put for binders & pages for the Topps run here at the Mitchell household.

The '79 group of cards was the largest part of the package, 70 of them to be exact.  There was a bit of star power cards in there such as Seaver (bottom row center), Sutton, Carew and Trammell to name a few.  My favorite of the bunch is the League Leaders card right at the top, featuring Jim Rice and George Foster.  259 combined RBI's on that card (139 for Rice and 120 for Foster), and it also might be the first time that a Blue Jays player was mentioned on a league leader card; Rico Carty combined between Oakland and Toronto had 99 RBI's which tied for 5th in the AL in 1978.

'81 Topps was well represented in the box as 22 cards came my way.  The hats with the position/team on it still make this one of my favorite sets that I'm building.  I'll likely end up showing this one in its entirety on the blog when it's done.   That will not be anytime soon as I'm just short of halfway done with the set.

One of the first sets that prompted me to put the run of 68-86 Topps sets together was the '82 set.  It still surprises me that I don't see a lot of it out there (unless I want to buy 4000 commons on ebay, which I'll pass on thanks...).  I honestly thought that this set would be quickly completed, but it's lagging behind it's early 80's counterparts.

1983 Topps lags further behind '82 as I've only hit the 30% mark for this set.  Speaking of 30, that's how many cards were marked off of this want list, including the Royals double play combo of UL Washington and Frank White.  This is another set that I've had trouble finding decent starter lots on ebay for a decent price. 

Just because hockey needed a little representation in the package, these 2 cards from the 84-85 OPC set found their way here as well.   Still a very long way to go with this one, not to mention finding RC's of Steve Yzerman, Cam Neely and Chris Chelios for a decent price. 

All in all this was a great box of cards to go through, it had a little something for every want list I have in the late 70-s to early 80-s.

Thank you Greg, the cards are really appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert