7 out of 10, but the order is all shot now

I had every good intention to finish the 10 sets that I started the year wanting to complete in order.  I did well for the first handful, then a great deal came along for a Mike Schmidt RC that I couldn't pass up and '73 Topps was done, and the order got messed up.  Now, the set I was going to finish 9th, is done.

Behold, the insane finish of the 1978 Topps set over the past 2-3 weeks.

Just 7 of these 43 cards were purchases from my COMC order.  The others came from some very generous trade partners on TCDB, the last being from Jeff (TCDB ID: jmiller4) who sent a very generous package my way after I had sent him a partial proposal for 10 of the cards I needed.  Jeff told me to wait a few days and then sent back a proposal for a great package, including the last of the '78 set, plus a lot of cards from my player collections.

3 sets on the first 10 remaining.  Yes, there is a plan in place for another 10 sets to get finished, that will be posted when I finish these three...

• 1976 Topps.  Thurman Munson left.  Trying to work out a trade on TCDB for it as I write this.
• 2013-14 OPC hockey.  10 SPs to go.  May try and finish these today.
• 1974 Topps.  40 to go.  

I'm getting close to finishing these off and it's a great feeling right now.  This is what I've wanted to do for a long time, now that it's being accomplished I do sit and wonder a bit why I didn't do this years ago.

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Post #1961 means a card from 1961.  In this case, I found a 1961-62 Parkhurst hockey card in my closet, and thought it would be worth showing off.

Interesting to look at the card back and see that Wayne played just 3 games with the Canadiens in the previous season.  Those would be the only games he would play for Habs, as he was traded to the Bruins where he would be a regular for 2 of the 4 seasons he was with the B's. 

Wayne was claimed by the Minnesota North Stars in the expansion draft, and would break out with them in 67-68, scoring 35 goals.  The next season is when he would start bouncing around, being traded to Detroit.  Played there for 2 years, then traded to St. Louis.  In November 1971, he would be traded twice in 2 days, first to the Rangers as part of a 6 player deal, then the next day he was off to the west coast as part of a deal with the Canucks.  

That would be his last season in the NHL, as he would be part of the migration to the new WHA, where he would end up back in Minnesota with the Fighting Saints for 4 years before they folded.  Wayne finished up the 75-76 in Cleveland with the Crusaders, before playing his final season of pro hockey in Alberta.   His 76-77 season was split between Calgary and Edmonton.  

I remember buying this card for a couple of bucks a few years ago at a card show, and never thought much of it other than it was a card from the 61-62 Parkhurst set, in really nice shape for cheap.

Little did I know that Wayne had a pretty good hockey pedigree, scoring 300 goals in 2 pro leagues over a 900 game career.

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Remembering the good old days like it was 6 years ago

I like to poke fun at myself, and the less extensive blogging numbers I've posted over the past few years.  A fair bit has gone on in my life, I've moved twice (once long distance) and kind of settled into semi-retirement life in a warmer climate.  I call it semi-retirement despite the fact that I'm still working full time, my vacations are more stay at home now, as I'm located somewhere that makes me feel like I'm on a vacation all the time.

Back to blogging, the reason I bring it up today is tonight's post is the 20th this month, and it's the first time I've hit 20 posts for 2 months consecutive since 2014.  I guess you could say I'm truly enjoying collecting, and writing about it again.  I believe that the main reason is my shift from chasing packs, which I was still doing a couple of months ago, to focusing on finishing sets and trading.  Spending $20 on ebay instead of packs is more enjoyable now, since I'm getting cards that truly fit into what I'm trying to accomplish with my collection.

I bought just 5 cards for $19 from my usual ebay haunt, The Battersbox, and I'm starting off with another number off of the 1959 Topps want list.  Seeing this card proves to me that Tony Kubek never really aged; I watched him for many years do the color commentating on Blue Jays telecasts in Canada, and he looked the same in the 80's as he did on this photo in '59.

Now, just have to find Thurman Munson and the '76 set is complete.  Tom Terrific was $2.75.

I have had very good luck finding decent copies of star player cards at reasonable prices lately.  Killebrew's '72 Topps card cost me just $3.25 and I'm quite happy with it.

For less than $3, I got this 73-74 OPC Alex Delvecchio card.   I was even more thrilled when I had it in hand, because the condition is super!!  It's even more so important on this card because it's #1 in the set, and especially 70's hockey I find it's tough to find really nice condition on the first and last cards of the set.

By the way, Delvecchio played the previous season with the Wings as a 41/42 year old, and still managed almost a point a game (71 pts in 77 games).

Sometimes cards just find you.  I was looking for one more hockey card to add to the order, and happened upon this 85-86 Gretzky league leader card.  $3.25 for a LL card for the Great One is really cheap, so there was no hesitation adding this to the cart.  $19 for the 5 cards, and free shipping and I have my "blaster" in hand.

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Post #1960 features Ray Boone's card from the '60 Topps set.  I always thought that Ray was a catcher, obviously confusing him with his son Bob whom I grew up watching in the 70's and 80's.  1960 was Ray's final year in MLB, splitting his time with the Braves and the Red Sox.

Not a bad card, a bit lopped off the bottom left corner, but no doubt I bought it for cheap a few years ago.  It'll do if I ever decide to chase the '60T set...

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Let's Face it, there's a race to the finish line

In my extreme haste to get last night's post onto the blogosphere, I forgot to title it.  I've done that once or twice before, but usually catch the mistake before I actually hit publish.  Not yesterday, so my clumsiness was out there for the whole world to see for about 24 hours.

I'd love it if blogger actually gave you an error message, sort of like sending an email with no subject line.  Something like, hey dumbass you forgot the title, are you sure you want to publish this mess?  

Ok, fun over.  Kind of continuing last nights theme and making a quick post about another of my 10 sets that is closing in on completion, 2013-14 O-pee-Chee hockey.

The final 2 base cards on the bottom row came today via a small Sportlots order, and the other 6 above have arrived in the past couple of weeks.  This set is down to just 10 to go, nothing major price wise, but a pair of RCs will cost about $4-$5 apiece.  I'll probably wait a week or 2 and then go hunting and see if I can finish the set in one shot.

Not only is this set close to being done, 1978 Topps baseball is just about done and 1976 Topps is down to just a single card.   It is a race to the finish line.

As you can see I capitalized "Face" in the post title to celebrate another '59 Topps card coming in the house, that of Roy Face from the Pirates.  I decided to include a card from 1959 because this is my 1959th post on the blog. I'm going to try and post one card from a set that matches my post # until I hit 2000, which at the rate I'm posting should come in mid to late August.  

2000 posts means cake in this house.  I can't wait....

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

The post with no name

At the beginning of 2020, the 10th set on my completion list was 1974 Topps.  I was a bit worried whether I actually would finish the set, as I was still 92 cards away and really hadn't bothered with it over the previous few months.

The last 14 days have put those fears to rest.

In these 5 scans, I'm able to remove 39 cards from my want list.   If you look closely, I have Felix Millan in there twice, and surprisingly in both scans he's in the upper right corner.  Through trades and 8 cards from my COMC order, I'm down to just 40 cards to go for this set.  Yes, there's still names like Ryan (x2), Bench, Aaron(x3) and Rose for starters, but there's no major rookie cards left and still some commons on the list.

Shooting for this to be done by the end of August, or halfway through the 2020 baseball season.

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

This may be the easiest Father's Day post you read

First off, to all those who are fathers and reading this, Happy Father's Day.  Spent 30 minutes on video chat with my dad today, it was good seeing him for sure.

Now, 2 quick "milestones" in my collecting world:

Tommy Williams gets me to the 50% completion mark in my 71-72 OPC set build.  I enjoy this set each time I get another card in!!   Likely a year or 2 before this is finished.  No hurry.

The latest 7 from the '76 Topps set via COMC.   I'm now down to 3 on the want list.

Ron Guidry RC:  On its way to me via a TCDB trade
Tom Seaver:   Bought on ebay yesterday, should have by midweek

So that means that the final card to finish up my '76 Topps set is....

# 650--Thurman Munson

Hopefully have him in by the 4th of July if I can find a decent copy for cheap.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!  Be safe and have fun.

Robert

Serial Saturday #40: More 99's and a bit of hockey (finally)

I've had more luck adding football and baseball to the serial #'d out of 99 collection.  Even basketball up until today had more than double the amount of cards than hockey.  My latest order from COMC has remedied this, as well as one deal from Canada that added a Maple Leaf player to the set!

I imagine the 2017 UD Maple Leafs Centennial release was very popular in southern Ontario, but I've seen very little of it down here in the swamp.  This Mike Walton exclusives parallel was a very nice add via a trade on the TCDB.

If this wasn't part of the '99 set, this Craig Anderson likely would have been part of my goalie mask frankenset, as he's sporting a design that mirrors the old school Ottawa Senator's jersey he's wearing.  I love when goalies go the extra mile with their masks and create special occasion designs.

Another UD release I haven't seen much of here, this 17-18 UD Overtime red parallel featuring the Sabres Jason Pominville was an easy pickup at around $1 on COMC.

I imagine if I'm patient, I can add quite a few cards from the Panini Certified sets of the early 10's to this collection.  Teddy Purcell was very cheap, under $1 and is a mirror blue parallel from 2011-12.

This card looks much better in hand, the red parallel of Latavius Murray from the 2016 Donruss Optic set.  The white script of Murray's name is just as hard to read in person as it is on the scan, but held at the right angle the red really has a nice shine to it and looks real nice.  70 cents is all this cost me, like they were giving it away.

Last up is a future Hall of Famer, Antonio Gates of the Chargers. This is from the 2013 Topps Triple Threads set, and was a penny cheaper than the Murray card above it.   From memory, a good portion of the football that I have in this collection is from Panini, so seeing something from Topps is a nice change.

Hopefully in the next week I'll have a list of unique serial #'s out of 99 that I need to fill out the 1-99 challenge that I've decided to pursue.

It still amazes me that I have 65 cards for this little challenge of mine already.  Almost makes me think that 100 by the end of 2020 is a distinct possibility.

Stay safe and enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Lay-Z

I took last night off of the blog, just to relax and not think about cards.  Today, I have a bunch of scans that I don't even want to take the time to go into detail about.  So, what I'm going to do is post scans and then write something in between sports related, and hopefully somewhat entertaining.  Instead of Jay-Z, I'm going to be Lay-Z.

First up, I've watched the Premier League both on Wednesday and today.  Enjoyed the matches that I've been able to sit and watch so far.  Smart marketing as well, using the empty seats to put tarps over for advertising revenue.  Gotta make use of that space somehow, right Premier League?

I also like the Black Lives Matter monikers on the jersey this weekend, and the players and officials in solidarity kneeling at the beginning of matches in support of the movement.  It is time everyone listened, because Roger Goodell said it correctly "we made a mistake in not listening the last time".  If you do protest in your community, please do it safely.

Found out this afternoon that COVID-19 has shut down the Tampa Bay Lightning training complex, and that a couple of players have tested positive.   I wonder if Toronto, who was being strongly considered to be the eastern hub for the NHL postseason, might be off the radar because of this.  It's going to be interesting to see how things progress over the next few days.

Also, I have heard that the NFL is probably not going to run the Hall of Fame game at the beginning of August.   I was under the impression that they were going to drop a game or 2 off the preseason schedule, or am I mistaken.  While I like the HOF game at the beginning of August, this might be the year that the NFL rethinks the HOF ceremony and puts it closer to the start of the season, maybe at the end of August.

NBA players are going to be wearing rings that can detect the symptoms/beginnings of COVID-19 2-3 days in advance.  Is this for real?  Or did I just dream that.  I've also read that some players are balking at coming to Orlando to finish the season.  With all that's going on in Tampa and Clearwater now, I can't say that I blame them...

Folks, I truly love baseball.  Have loved it since April of 1977, when my 4th grade teacher wheeled a TV into the classroom and turned on the first Blue Jays game ever.

This craziness that's going on right now between the owners and players really needs to end, because there's a lot of people that are just tired of it.  Play 70 games in 85 days, start the season July 4th (if possible) and have fun with the expanded playoffs and full DH in both leagues.  No agreement soon means no baseball this summer, and we all know how well that went over in 1981 and 1995!

I'm a sports junkie just like most of you out there.  I've enjoyed what I've been able to watch so far from the European Soccer leagues, and I even enjoyed the photos I saw of the New Zealand rugby match that had fans in attendance (rabid ones at that).

We have to face facts though, COVID-19 isn't going away anytime soon, and people need to respect one another.  I know it's easy to say, but I actually had to have a good friend of mine bring that word "respect" up in a conversation to have the point really hit home.

Enjoy each other's company, but respect their safety.  It's the right thing to do.

Enjoy your weekend, stay safe and have fun with the hobby!!

Robert

RAK 'em up

Roughly a week ago I received a bubble mailer and looked at the name, it was somewhat familiar but I couldn't quite place him.

Knew Mike from Quakertown from somewhere, but just couldn't put my finger on from where.  Didn't think it was TCDB, didn't have anything on order from ebay or Sportlots, so I was left scratching my head until I opened it.

Mike had sent me an envelope before, and I know him from twitter as @ugxtall88.  This envelope was pretty good, as he has paid attention to my likes and sets I'm working on!  Check out the great envelope of random goodness...

A trio of '72 Topps needs!  I'm slowly pecking away at the '72 set, but it's almost to the point now where in the next year or 2 it could become a serious attempt at completion.  Especially love the Don Money photo with the pitcher throwing BP in the background.

Hockey was a big focus in the envelope, and much like the 85-86 OPC set I'm slowly chipping away at, the 82-83 set is another that's starting to take some shape.  Still a very long way to go as I'm not even 1/6th of the way in, but seeing these cards come in always elicits a smile, especially cards of coaches that played in the NHL, namely Marc Crawford on the left.  Marc played parts of 6 seasons in the NHL, but is much more noted for his 1169 games behind the bench, and being the head coach of the 95-96 Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.

These two cards I scanned together to show the ends of the spectrum you get in this envelope.  The Conn Smythe Trophy on the left is from the 72-73 OPC set, something I will start to work on eventually but hasn't been really on the radar at all.   On the right is the card I tweeted to let Mike know I received the envelope, a 92-93 Joe Sakic Pro Set Puck card.  Something that's been on my want list for a very long time, and if I had a top 10 wanted card list for my player collections, this would have been on it.

These 4 photos I also wanted to scan together, as they may not look like much, but they meant a lot to me to get.  The top 3 are Topps team checklists from the 70's, when my Maple Leafs fandom started.  The middle card is the 77-78 team list, and I love how the put on the inset a photo of Mike Palmateer inside a Maple Leaf instead of just a plain old circle or box.

At the bottom is a Panini sticker from 89-90 of Maple Leaf Gardens, the locale where I watched many a game from the South Red seats over the years.   Affectionately known to Torontonians as the "Carlton St. Cashbox", I fully blame it for the ache in my knees as I got older due to the cramped seating.  Will never trade memories of watching games in there though!!

Maple Leafs and goalies, another great combination here.  Mike certainly has paid attention.  Seeing the Grant Fuhr Pinnacle Mask card in the upper left reminded me that I should be trying to get that subset for my collection, as there was some great mask art in there.

Last up?   Another copy of one of my favorite Jim Thome cards, a duplicate yes but if I ever decide to put together the '08 A&G set someday, it won't be a need.

Mike, thank you for the Random Act of Kindness envelope, it truly was appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

6 out of 10 and another one scan post

I've kind of spoiled myself over the past 3 or 4 days, as each post that I've written has only consisted of one scan.   I don't think I've been lazy, it's just how it's worked out.  Today's post is no exception, as I have another finished set to announce, the 2012-13 OPC hockey set.

This set came down to 2 cards, SPs naturally...

It was a bit maddening, disappointing, aggravating, and probably a few other words that I shouldn't put in print to have to pay $4.25 combined to get these 2 cards into my collection.  That's the madness of the OPC short prints in the modern day run of sets.  A lot of cards are overpriced, such as the two above, but the love I have for these sets usually wins out and I bite the bullet.

I had hoped to be a 6 sets done a couple of months ago, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, that kind of slowed things down a bit.  After a few weeks of not being too sure where things were headed, I stepped up my card purchases and finished up my COMC order.

I have 4 sets left to go on the original 10 that I posted on New Years Day, and combined  I need 118 cards.  

We're getting close folks...we're getting close.

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

5 out of 10, the Wizard is in

My COMC order finally arrived on Saturday, and the first card I'll show from the latest order finishes off my 1979 Topps set.

It isn't the greatest looking Ozzie Smith RC you'll see out there, it's a bit off center, the edges are a little rough and the top right corner isn't the greatest, but for just under $11 it does the trick for me.

Best of all, I'm halfway to finishing my 2020 goal of completing 10 sets.

Halfway doesn't last for very long, as I'll show off the last 2 cards for the 6th set tomorrow, and I'm just 3 cards shy of finishing 1976 Topps as well.

I'm already formulating plans for the next 10 sets I want to finish up, so hopefully before the summer ends I'll have that plan in place as well.

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!!

Robert

Signed, sealed and delivered

I usually don't spend a great deal of money on jersey or autograph cards of the players I collect, as I tend to try and build the collection through cheap base and parallel cards.

More of a quantity over quality type thing you might say.  But a few weeks ago when Dave from the Wax Stain Rookie blog posted this card on twitter, I thought it was something that I had to have.  For just under $25 US shipped, I now have a Felix Potvin autograph card in my collection.

This card is from the '18-19 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection, and it's a great dual photo card.  The scan washes out his name and position on the bottom, trust me it looks really good in hand.

It is a great graph as well, and the photo up top features him in the full set up, not just a head shot or upper body shot, which I prefer.  

If I had to be nitpicky, the signature is lost a little because it was signed in blue ink on top of his blue pads, but that's a very minor thing for me.

Dave, thank you for the opportunity to purchase this card, it's a great addition to my Felix Potvin PC!!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

Serial Saturday #39: the long forgotten Hockey version of SNI

Thanks to one of the most generous bloggers around, Dennis, I received a big fat bubble mailer full of cards this morning (OK it came yesterday, I just didn't get around to getting the mail til today), with some very nice additions and subtractions to want lists.

Dennis may be the only person out there who hasn't forgotten about my 1200 card version of the Serial Numbered Insanity set, hockey style.  He sent me 5 cards, 1 number which I already had for the set, so here's a scan of the other 4...

I know Elliptical Man will agree that the best card in this post is easily Steve Shield's homage to the great Gerry Cheevers mask from the 70's.  Shields' card is the middle decade of 3 that's represented in this post; his card is from the 2003-04 OPC set, blue parallel #'d 490/500.

On the left is a pair of Leaf Certified cards, which are always good for serial #'d set builders such as myself.  While Mikkel Boedker, a first rd pick in 2008 by the Coyotes has had a decent career (700+ games in 12 seasons), Gabriel Dumont hasn't been so lucky, just appearing in 90 games over parts of 7 seasons in the league.

Now, these 4 were just a small sampling of what was in the envelope, as there's a lot more player collection help, Maple Leafs collection help, goalie masks aplenty (including a bunch of Marty Turco's which I'm hoping were duplicates!) and a handful of Jays as well.  It's going to take a little time to break it down for posting purposes....

Oh, and if you don't follow me on Twitter, Dennis also sent me a sweet printing plate...

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

Singled out

This is probably the last of the eBay purchases that I'll make for a couple of  weeks, as I'm working on paying off a bit more debt and making some more trades on the TCDB.  But these 3 cards were too good to pass up, especially with the 5% eBay bucks promotion.

Now just one short of the halfway point, the 71-72 O-pee-Chee set is bolstered with the Phil Esposito all star card, which for $7 in EX condition I thought was a steal.  This set still isn't a big priority, but when I'm able to find cards cheaply, I'll have no problem adding them to the collection.

The other two cards I bought last week knocked the '59 Topps want list below the 90 card mark.

I really wondered why I was able to get a Stan Musial card for just under $8, then I noticed upon closer inspection that there's a crease in the lower left corner.  It's still a great looking card to me, and I believe it's the first Stan Musial card that I own.

Last up is the All Star card of Luis Aparicio.  I wasn't going to let him be the last card of this set like he was for my '64 Topps set.  It's a bit off center, and a small ding in the bottom left corner, but still a steal at $16 for a high number star card.

I've had a bit of an itch lately to start picking up more cards to start chipping away at the '59 set, but there's still quite the hill to climb with 89 cards to go.  A couple of Mantles, a Gibson, a Koufax and a few others will certainly take time to find, a la the Mike Schmidt rookie I wrote about the other.

2 years apart for each might not be a good thing though....

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

It's not 1000 Tinos, but 800+ isn't too bad

I was fortunate enough to complete a trade recently that netted me 14 more Joe Sakic cards, bringing me over the 800 card mark.  That trade came to me last week, courtesy of Rob (TCDB ID: frump) and is the largest inbound group of cards for one of my player collections in quite a long time.

Yes, the 800 mark is not quite to the standard of AJ's Tino Martinez collection, which is 9 cards short of a thousand when I last saw on twitter, but I'm happy none the less.

On the left is a sticker from the 94-95 Panini set, quite larger than what stickers normally are.  It has eluded me for quite some time, as I've not seen it much on trade lists, and when I do find it on ebay it's at a time when I was usually working on something else.

Even after nearly 25 years of chasing Joe Sakic cards, on and off, I'm still finding quite a few base cards to enhance the collection, such as the SP Authentic on the left, and the SPXcitement in the center.  The card on the right is a Canadian issue from McDonald's; I had wondered at first when UD had used French on their cards at all, but then looking at the back it made sense.

The Sudden Death insert from 1996-97 Score is a card that I'd never seen before, let alone heard of.  It chronicles on the back that Sakic had a goal and 2 assists the previous season vs. Daren Puppa, but the two seasons before saw Sakic just held to one assist.  I will say one thing, everything has been quite colorful so far...

Another instance where I see a card come in a trade and think "didn't I have this already?"  The Fantastic Finishers card I've seen many times with several other players, but looking in the Sakic binders, sure enough it wasn't there.  More base cards on the right hand side from 2002-03 (Top Shelf) and 2003-04 (Rookie Update).

My Joe Sakic collection is one that will always be treasured, as he was the first player that I ever started a collection for.   Unlike all the other players that I'm collecting, I doubt I'll tire of acquiring new cards for this collection.

Who knows, maybe one day I'll be able to start counting down to 1000....

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert