Short and sweet post. 1986 Topps football is done, thanks to Reggie White card #275.
Working on many other sets. Will post when I can. As you saw because of work the last 2 months was non-existent as far as posting. No promises made as to when the next ones may come.
Robert
The order wasn't big, just 55 cards (4 of which have been shown in a previous post), but waiting over 3 months to get them was a bit tortuous. But finally receiving them has shown me one thing that I've known for a while but is more evident now...
I've got way too much going on. Nobody's fault but my own.
Let's see what we have now in the house...
All 20 cards here from the 2012 and 2019 Allen & Ginter sets are short prints. Both sets are nearing completion; 2019 needs just 5 more SPs, and 2012 has a list of 46 with a dozen SPs. More sets that are nearing completion to come here in this post.
Nice cheap pickup on the Saquon Barkley RC here, just $2.50. The Prestige set is down to 12 cards, and I'm hoping to get that done soon. The '86 Topps set has come together quite nicely and quickly, with the set only needing 3 cards to complete. Two of them are RCs featuring great players Steve Young and Reggie White.
The hockey contingent above are all sets on The next 10 list. Top scan is the 02-03 Vintage Set which has nothing but SP stars and checklists left to go. 22 cards might cost me a bit.
2018-19 OPC is next. 14 to go. Short printed rookie cards (9), 4 season highlight cards and the Pittsburgh Penguin team checklist is all that's left. A few of the RC's are overpriced. Might have to bite the bullet and get it done.
2013-14 Panini Prizm has 27 to go. A few bigger name RC's are on the list, finishing this set will be a bit pricey but it is doable. It's time to focus on these 3 in the coming weeks and get them out of the way.
Poor Dave Balon. Might that be the ugliest card ever, photoshop wise? 74 cards left in this set, it's been fun picking up reasonably priced commons/semistars recently, but it's time to put this aside and focus on a lot of other sets that are closer to completion finished.
I keep saying that, but it's too tempting to keep grabbing cards from other pursuits.
Enjoy the hobby!
Robert
So this past Sunday I hit a show that was in Port St. Lucie, FL, which is about 90 minutes north of where I live. I've been to the PSL area several times in the past, as the wife and I have some good friends who live there. I was looking forward to try and get to this show for a few months, but things didn't work out until this weekend.
It's located in the Baron Real Estate facility, which has a room that doubles as the St. Lucie Mets convention center. It is a real nice room, my guess is there was 40 tables there which was perfect as there wasn't any crowding.
I decided to write about the 2nd table I hit as the first table took up the most time and provided me the most cards, which I will save for later this week.
My buddy Chris and I were almost ready to head out when I spotted a table that had a box of 50 cent cards. I became a bit curious and spotted this card almost right away as I began to flip....
I originally thought these were '82s, but that set has the pennant logo on the bottom of the card, so this was my mistake. I wound up only needing 3 of the 9 cards pictured here (Stabler, DeBerg and 49ers team leaders) so it wasn't a total loss, but I wound up spending $5 at the table because I didn't want to spend just 50 cents.
This was a really good show though and I've asked the wife if we could combine it with visits to our friend up in Port St. Lucie in the future. Here's hoping!
Enjoy the hobby
Robert
I've been digging away at a lot of different want lists lately. '59 Topps, the run of Allen & Ginter sets and so on. I have even made a nice start on the '79 and '81 Topps football sets, knocking out almost 25% of each in the past few months.
But '86 Topps football has largely gone to the wayside, largely because the set is almost done. Some of the cards are in COMC purgatory, which is fine as it appears that the site is making strides in getting caught up with shipments.
The big piece that I've been looking to purchase as cheaply as possible is the Jerry Rice rookie card. I kind of relegated myself to paying at least $75 or more as that's all I've seen on eBay for the past few months. Then this copy showed up:
You can see instantly in the corners that a lot of the green has "disappeared" for the lack of a better word. But I took a long look at the card, decided that this set was being collected because I loved the look of it and not for the investment and pulled the trigger on the purchase.
The big reason why? It was only $25.
I'd been looking somewhat actively for the past 2+ months for this card. Then this one drops in my lap. Credit to the seller for being what I say is spot on with the price considering the condition.
Patience has paid off for me many times. I'm hoping that it continues as I work towards finishing some other sets.
Enjoy the hobby!!
Robert
I've watched enough TV during my lifetime to have heard a few times about the 405 highway in California. Doing a quick Google search found me an old article from a few years back showing that the 405 was the busiest Interstate in any US City. If you click on the link you'll see photo evidence of why that's the case.
Lately I've been quite busy on the TCDB website and passed the 400 transaction milestone; with a couple trades that I received this weekend I'm now sitting at 405.
Both of these were on the small side, I traded away a few early 80's baseball cards to get 2 cards closer to each of the 86 and 79 Topps football sets.
The '86 set has moved along really quickly as I'm down to just 31 cards (10 RCs including Rice and Young) to finish the set. Had no idea when I started the set in 2020 that I'd breeze through the set as quickly as I have.
The '79 Topps FB set is already taking shape as I'm just a card shy of 100. This set is much bigger than the '86, 528 cards compared to 396. It's already fun seeing a lot of the older players such as Gene Upshaw though.
The card that stands out for me on this 2nd trade scan is the Larry Fitzgerald. It is the base card from the 2009 Topps set. I know that the baseball design is not similar, but I think this design could be a good one for Topps to use/reuse in a future baseball set.
Slowly but surely the Prizm hockey set, one of my Next 10, is being whittled away. I have a few of them in my current Sportlots box and the want list is down into the 30's.
The John Olerud PC has grown quite a bit during my lack of posting so far in 2021. This Leaf card from the '97 set brings the total to 262. The Olerud collection is climbing up my list of PC's with help a lot of my recent trades, including one where I received 15 Olerud cards!
I Still have the goal of hitting 500 TCDB trades by the end of 2021; if I have more months like April (16 so far), I could make it there....
Enjoy the hobby!
Robert
I was fortunate to get a shout out from Steve on Twitter (@cardboardjones) last Wednesday when I posted my Wednesday want list that featured '86 Topps football. Steve mentioned that he had a few to send my way and asked me what my TCDB ID was (rmitchell6700 in case you didn't know). A few hours later I had a trade offer in my inbox which was quickly accepted.
Exciting times here, as my want list has shrunk by 15 and just 42 cards remain. No slouches in this group of 15 cards...
Bears team card, a pair of record breakers, the decimation of the Patriots in SB 20 (sorry to the Patriot fans out there who may have watched/remember that massacre), the Fridge, McMahon and Marshall are all great cards. Not that Lester Hayes was any slouch ('86 was his last season) and LeRoy Irvin also was a pretty good corner (35 career INTs) round out the first scan.
Now if I'm Sean Landeta, do I want a do over for my rookie card? I mean that pose just gives punters a bad look, don't you think?
Again, more great names on this scan. Jones and White off of that great Cowboys defense, Mark Bavaro was part of the Giants Super Bowl team when they beat Denver in SB XXI 39-20. The 49ers team card features their RB Roger Craig. I even remember John Spagnola as the regular TE for the Eagles for a few seasons. Great bunch of cards in this trade.
I've been on a bit of a roll over the past few weeks and have made my way closer to the 400 trade plateau on TCDB. This trade with Steve was #390, there's a handful on their way and 3 more in the proposal stage.
400 is just a matter of time now...
Thank you for the trade Steve, the cards are appreciated!!
Enjoy the hobby!!
Robert
It really wasn't that long ago I announced my intentions to start putting together the '86 Topps football set. I didn't think originally that it would take me a long time to put it together, what with the only real big $$ card in the set being the Jerry Rice rookie. But I certainly didn't think that I would be on the verge of completing the set this quickly.
The want list is down to 57 cards after receiving 4 more today from fellow blogger Chris who sent me a quick trade offer last week and the PWE arrived quickly at the house today.
This was the original group of 5 cards offered up in the trade, the key pair being the Bruce Smith and Al Toon RC's. All 4 footballers I do remember from the 80's, which is another reason I've enjoyed collecting this set. A lot of recognizable names makes it more fun, especially when you start taking trips down memory lane.
What was very cool is Chris added these 4 cards along with the others to fill up the PWE a bit more. The Goligoski is from the 16-17 OPC set, something I've barely started on so far with just 27 cards in hand. I'll never sneer at any Maple Leafs base cards from current sets as I slowly build that collection as well.
I have another TCDB trade en route which will knock off a quarter of what I have left on the list, meaning my want list will be in the 40's. A lot of trades with both bloggers and TCDB members have really made this set easy to put together, much easier than I originally thought it would be.
The want list really never did stand a chance...
Enjoy the hobby!!
Robert
The amount of writing has diminished greatly on this blog in 2021. I think a large part of it was that I didn't have my office space available; it was being used as a bedroom for a friend who was in the process of buying a house. They moved in to their house this week, so things are starting to get back to normal.
It has been quite some time since I posted a Want List post on the blog; I figured that the '86 Topps Football set would be a good one to write about since I've been really fortunate to obtain almost 85% of the set in just a few short months.
I recently picked up this Donnie Shell in a trade with long time trade partner Josh (Royals and Randoms Blog) and when I updated the set on TCDB, I noticed that the want list is down to just 61 cards to go.
Here's the list:
1,2,8,9,10,11 (Payton All Pro),12,18,19,20,21,24,25,34,44,45 (Marino), 67,74,90,101,112 (Elway),
132,133,144,152,154,155,157,160,161 (Rice RC),168,171,176,181,187,188,189,191,
225,226,244,272,275,282,283,284,285,287,297,298,307,310,345,356,363,371,374 (Young RC),
389 (Bruce Smith RC),390,391,394
The list isn't too formidable, there's a few names that will cost a bit of money but the list should be easy enough to finish by the end of the year.
The older football sets have become a bit of a fascination for me and I've started picking up random cards here and there from the '79 and '81 sets to see if I can pique my interest in trying to put them together.
Enjoy the hobby!!
Robert
OK, this purchase result I felt was so funny that I had to share it with everyone this morning instead of waiting till later on today or the weekend.
First off, I'm going to say that the shipping time on this 5 card order was phenomenal. Ordered from CA on Friday the 19th, arrived at my house in Florida yesterday. Have to give props when it's due.
Now the cards. This was a 5 card eBay order from one of the larger card sellers on the site. I'm not going to mention the name, but it's on the west coast as I've already said.
2 for 5 is how they did. Apparently the order filler on Friday has an issue with parallels.
First off, the positives
This was going to be a "Sunday 15" post that featured these 2 cards, but like I said, I couldn't wait to post this.
The Yastrzemski '72 Topps and the Esiason RC from '86 Topps were right on the money. Both cards in really nice shape and they cost me $4.50 apiece. This part was well done.
Now, this is where the games begin. Let's start with a couple of cards from 18-19 OPC hockey.
I've mentioned quite a few times about the Next 10 set project. 18-19 OPC is one of the sets and I decided to start knocking off some of the cards. Card 555 is Hellebuyck on the right and #557 is the Sedin twins on the left. Both needed for my BASE set.
For those who don't know, these are the retro parallels. Not even close to what the base cards look like.
What's even better? I finally put up the retro set on the TCDB website as a want last week. Luckily for the seller, this ends up as just a minor fail, as I'll just end up using these to fill my retro set, which hopefully will be completed by 2030.
Now, for the true fail....
The primary reason I started this order was to finish off my 2019 Gypsy Queen Green set. Ken Giles of the Blue Jays, card #281, is the final card I need to complete the set. Notice I said need and not needed.
Forget the Topps logo, where in the world do you see any GREEN on this card?
I even checked the packing slip that they sent in the envelope. It even says 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Green #281 Ken Giles.
How is this not a total fail? One, I only spent 99 cents on the card, so I'll just hunt around for it on Sportlots to finish the set.
Feedback wise, I'd love to hear how you'd do it in the comments, but I'm going to give:
I've taken a liking to starting sets from scratch. No packs, just finding something out there that strikes my fancy and I end up getting started on the set. I've got a couple in particular that I've been getting quite a few cards lately into the house, so I thought I'd show them off.
I found the first of these on a blogger's "free card Friday" giveaway and I was hooked. I thought the set may have been 1988 instead of 1986, but that didn't sway me. I learned afterwards that there are a couple of big RC's in the set (Rice and Young) but that didn't bother me like it does for older sets.
I've also been fortunate to have a couple of fellow bloggers send me a bunch that were just taking up space in their boxes, so I'm already up to 135 cards or just over a third of the set. I love the design, the team cards really stand out with the yellow borders which kind of surprises me because the green "field" design with the yard markers is really what attracted me to the set.
Showing off these cards as they come in will be something that I'll enjoy doing.
I started blogging in the summer of 2011, at that time I was busy catching up with everyone else and collecting baseball for the most part.
Probably missed out on 2-3 years worth of hockey products, including the set you see above, 2010-11 OPC. I couldn't even tell you if I saw any packs in the stores at that time. Until maybe last year, I didn't have a card from this set and now I'm playing catch up.
I really do like this set design, the big thing for me is the backs which are grey and have decent sized card numbers which are easy for me to read. The majority of these I've received in the past few trades I've completed, largely because I finally put up my want list for this set on TCDB.
I'm just 65 cards in out of the 600 card base set, but this is another set that I'm really going to enjoy because it will largely be from scratch, much like the '86 Topps Football.
I might start more sets this way going forward....
Enjoy the hobby!!
Robert
I saw a post on the TCDB forums a few weeks back letting people know that they were going to run a Secret Santa on the site this year. I figured I'd give it a try, you never know what can happen right?
I believe the original post mentioned something along the lines of a $10-$15 range for gifts, which I thought was perfect. During my posting hiatus my Secret Santa package arrived from Andy (TCDB ID: BigDog13) and was I surprised!
I have enjoyed finding these Chasing 3K inserts featuring Ichiro since I stared collecting him, and these 8 get me nearly to the finish line of the insert set. I believe I'm down to about a handful to go (I didn't bother checking), I'll be sure to show them off when I obtain them all.
Eleven cards from the '86 Topps football set found their way here, including most of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers team set, resplendent in their old school creamsicle colored uniforms.
Andy hit quite a few of my player collections, including 4 cards featuring John Olerud during his Mets days. I'm guessing that Andy may be a Mets fan, or collect the Mets because there's a couple of cards for sets in the next scan as well...
Not only did Andy drop in a 2010-11 OPC card (which I received a few of lately), along came an '06 David Wright A&G card and a '68 Tug McGraw!
As I mentioned to Andy in my thank you message, he ticked every box off you could hit for me.
Vintage Check
A&G Check
Player Collections Check
Set building Check
Quality and quantity. Santa has been good to me this year. Thank you Andy!
Enjoy the hobby,
Robert
It's been a couple of weeks since I posted anything on the blog. Card related items while still in my mind, have been pushed to the back burner as the insanity that is this Christmas year of 2020 is at the forefront of my life.
Speaking of two weeks, we're just two weeks away from Christmas Eve and I've been very lucky to receive a couple of envelopes out of the blue from fellow bloggers. Spoiled rotten I am.
While not actively collecting Blue Jays from modern sets, I would never sneer at a couple that were sent my way from Kenny, who has been good to me over the years.
Not on purpose, I've obtained a few Vlad Guerrero Jr. cards to start a mini collection. I think the total is up to 8 now, likely to never grow from purchases but I hope to maybe trade for some down the road if I ever decide to turn VGJR into another collection.
Thank you Kenny!
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| Poor cropping for sure |
While Kenny's cards came in the standard PWE, this trio of cards came in an actual Christmas card from Chris The Collector. No household names here, save maybe Russ Grimm from the famed "Hogs" offensive line from the 80's, but these 3 cards filled some want list spaces.
The 84-85 set is starting to come along nicely, I'm just over 2/3 complete again. The '86 Topps FB set is also moving kind of quickly, having only started this recently I'm about 1/3 done with the set. I've already bindered the hockey and can't wait to see what the FB set will look like in pages.
Thank you Chris!
I actually just sent out a couple of Xmas envelopes today, finally, as my back has been in spasms for the past 3 days. It knocks me out every so often and it seems to get worse as I get older. Ugh.
Enjoy the hobby!
Robert
I mentioned on the blog a few weeks back that I had started out to collect the '86 Topps football set. I liked the design and outside of the Jerry Rice RC, there didn't appear to be anything there that would break the bank.
Long time fellow blogger Kerry reached out via email and said he had a bunch of the '86s from a Goodwill purchase he had made and wanted to know if I was interested. You better believe I was. After a delayed response on my part saying that I had some A&G inserts that he needed to send his way, we agreed to an exchange.
This page of 9 is just part of the block of 47 cards from the '86 T FB set that I was expecting. Kerry had something else in mind....
While I was out of town the last week of October, a friend of mine was staying at our house and told me that there was a box that came priority mail for me. After scratching my head, I asked for a picture of the box so I could figure out who sent it.
It was Kerry. This was big.
Not only was there 47 Football cards, but there was about 150 A&G cards from various years early on in the set's existence.
26 more cards off of the '08 A&G want list, a set that has come together very quickly. I'm already down to just 30 cards to complete the set, including the Clayton Kershaw RC. This isn't even on the Next 10 list, but it may be finished before 1 or 2 that are on there.
The '09 A&G list is quickly becoming one of my favorite sets of the entire run. I love the colorful backgrounds (green, red and blue mostly) and the box around the players name are features that I really like. Laziness gets the better of me, as I really didn't feel like scanning all 116 cards from this set (just under 1/3!) to show off.
2010 A&G is somewhat similar to the '09 as far as the colorful backgrounds, but they took the box off of the subject's name, which for me decreased the appeal just a little. 35 cards came off this want list due to Kerry's generosity.
What I'm really looking forward to is finishing all the A&G sets and comparing the players featured along with the "alternate" subject matter. When I say alternate, I mean the non baseball players that are featured, along with cards like the Electron in the '09 set that afford an opportunity to learn.
Kerry, great stuff here, thank you very much for the generous package. It really is appreciated!!
Enjoy the hobby
Robert
I returned today from a much needed vacation in South Carolina to a mountain of mail. Not complaining of course, but there's a lot of stuff to go through. Because of this, I decided to do another trade week on the blog, also because I've been really slacking on the writing for the last month and trade weeks usually get me going for a few days.
One of my favorite TCDB ID's belongs to Ford, a 2nd time trade partner. His ID is quite simple, it's his name, fordwaters. It reminds me of someone who should either be on the radio, or writing/performing country music.
Never the less, I managed to add 8 cards to my 1986 Topps football set with this trade. There's still quite a long way to go, but its still nice to add some cards to the set kind of quickly...
I divided the post of 8 cards into 3 scans. On the first scan, I remember 2 of the 3 players pictured, Schroeder and Fred Marion. I couldn't remember Robert Jackson of the Bengals, but he'd been playing for a handful of seasons with the club by the time the '86 set rolled around, so apparently I wasn't paying enough attention to the AFC Central at that time.
Now these 3 Hall of Famers were a welcome addition on the trade front, as I'm usually getting commons to start sets and wind up finishing the sets with purchases of rookies or high end stars. Let's mark off LT, Payton and Allen shall we?
Bills and Oilers together instantly remind me of the great comeback by the Bills in the playoffs, down 35-3 only to win the game in overtime 41-38. Moon passed for 4 TD's in the first half, while Andre Reed scored 3 consecutive TD's to turn what was a 35-17 deficit into a 38-35 lead for the Bills. The rest as they say, is history.
Big thanks for Ford for the cards, he actually was on his way out of town when I sent him the trade offer and still got them out in the mail the next day.
Enjoy the hobby!
Robert
