A bounty of Blue Jays arrives on my doorstep

Good Friday to you all, hope that you are ready for a great weekend!  I got home last night from work, and headed straight to the dining room table, where the days mail is normally left for me to peruse.  Naturally, I look immediately for the bubble mailers that contain the travails of another collectors' desire to keep my collection growing by leaps and bounds.

This envelope was a lot thicker than the normal envelopes I have been receiving lately.  I open it up and there are three bricks of cards, all from Kerry at the Cards on Cards.  I had sent him a stack of '03 & '04 Topps Heritage that he needed, and in return I got an envelope stuffed with some great cards.


Kerry first hit some of my '11 Heritage want list:

This is still one of my favorite sets from this year, unfortunately for me I've had little luck pulling the short prints.  Of the 62 cards I need to complete the set, 53 of them are short prints, so this is gonna get ugly. 

The Adam Lind card encased in a top loader is a short print, which is good, but I'll also have to find one of those for my Blue Jays collection.















Speaking of Blue Jays, that was the meat of the envelope.  Slightly over 100 of the Blue Birds came into my possession, some great cards from a wide variety of years.  Today, I'm going to discuss 4 of the cards, because if I were to go over all of them, those of you who are insomniacs out there would be no longer.

These 4 cards intrigued me because I remembered buying a few packs back when they first came out. 

These cards are from the '91 and '92 OPC Premier sets that at the time were popular in Canada.  The '91 set was released to capitalize on the hockey release which collectors went nuts for(in Canada anyhow).   The set size mirrored the hockey sets as well, there were 132 cards in the '91 set, while the '92 set contained 198 cards.  As you can see, the cards on the front had solid action photos, along with the players position listed in both English and French.   The backs contained a head shot photo, the team logo, and stats featuring the most recent season along with career stats.  The stats were also limited, as for hitters they only contained batting average, hits, HR and RBI, while pitchers stats were W-L, K's, shutouts and ERA. 

These cards have really fallen off the map as far as the magazine thinks, because neither of them are listed. 

OPC tried to mimic the success of the hockey set by making the checklist heavy in 2 ways:

• Lots of Blue Jays, 13 of them by my count in the '91 set.

• RCs...remember Kirk Dressendorfer anyone?  I'm sure you don't, but he was popular back in the early 90's.  Kirk was one of those up and comers like Todd van Poppel was, and we all know how that turned out.

There are still dozens of cards that I can sit and describe, but those are for another post (s).  Thank you very much for the cards Kerry, they are appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

(words in this post, 542.  Total for the month, 6352)

Size Matters---2007/08 OPC Hockey

Good Thursday to you all, hope that your week is going well.  For most guys, the first two words of this post title bring up other connotations; but in this case, I'm referring to the number of cards in the set, especially in the set I'm going to look at here, 2007/08 O-Pee-Chee hockey.

Released in 6 card packs, this set is the same in size to the 2009 OPC baseball set that I've been putting together, a whopping 600 cards.  Baseball set builders might be saying "600 cards?  that's nothing".  True, but for hockey sets, 600 cards is quite a bit.  The bigger card sets back in the 70's and 80's topped out at 396 cards, so 600 is nothing that seasoned hockey collectors have had to put together.


Boxes of 36 6-card packs are still selling online for $55 each, with the usual chase / relic cards inserted.

Pictured on the left are the standard base cards.  On top is your Marquee Rookies card of Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens, these cards are inserted at a ratio of 1:2, kind of similar to Topps heritage short prints (which this year are inserted 1:3).  Below this is the standard base card, which has a black and gold border.  There are 500 standard base cards, and 100 Marquee Rookies.

The set features some RC's of hockey's great young talent, such as Price, Johnathan Toews,  Bobby Ryan, Patrick Kane, and Nicklas Backstrom.

Some of the inserts include:

• OPC season highlights, inserted 1:14
• Record breakers, inserted 1:40
• Stat Leaders, inserted 1:20
• OPC in action, also inserted 1:20

Below are a couple of more cards that I really like.

The team checklists, such as the San Jose Sharks one featured here, come 1:14 packs.  They have a glossy foil front, and the backs have a clear white card stock, different than the base set which features a gray back.












The Marquee Rookies card featured here is the silver parallel, which are inserted one in every 6 packs.  The scan doesn't do the cards justice, because the background behind Tobias Enstrom here actually has a more bluish shimmer which the scan didn't pick up.















This set will be another nice challenge for me, but that's down the road yet.  In the past I've only bought a blaster box, and a group of 6 packs for $10 at a LCS.  I still have a bunch of other sets yet to complete, and they will be my first priority this weekend (and for the foreseeable future).

Thanks for reading, Robert

(word count for this post:  421.  total for the month, 5810)

Travel day tomorrow...card show checklist

Good Thursday to you all, hope that your week is going well so far.  As many of you have read over the past few weeks, I'm heading to southern Ontario this weekend for the big Card Expo show.  This is my first "major" show in a few years, and the excitement in me is building.  I started thinking about a checklist of items that I should be taking with me, and I always wonder if I'm forgetting something.  I decided to write a quick post to see if anyone out there has any ideas about what I should be bringing with me.

1. Cash.  Of course, without cash, I can't even get in.  I've had that fund set aside for a few weeks now.
2. Want lists.  Naturally part of the reason I'm going is to try and fill some needs, not only for me but potentially for other collectors as well.
3. Supplies.  This is one thing that I ALWAYS forget to bring with me, usually because I'm in a big rush to get there.  Things such as top loaders and small 200-330 count boxes to carry cards in will make a world of difference.
4. Pens.  Another thing I always forget, and I'm usually pretty good about carrying them with me wherever I go.
5. Food.  I plan on staying at the show quite a while on Saturday, so I guess some snacks are in order.  Any ideas here on what to bring?

Any other ideas on what I should be bringing with me?  Your thoughts are always welcome.

Thanks for reading, Robert

(261 words in this post, 5389 total for the month)

Freebie post offered up by Nachos Grande

Good Wednesday morning to you all, I decided to take Chris over at Nachos Grande up on his offer of a post based around his questions regarding autographs.

1.  What is the best autograph you own? 
David DeJesus from Topps Lineage.  Better than my Jays autos that I own because I like the look of the card.

2.  What is the best autograph that you've ever pulled from a pack of cards?  Probably the Gump Worsley auto I pulled recently from a pack of Topps Heritage hockey.
3.  What is the worst autograph you've ever pulled from a pack of cards?  Can't say that pulling a bad auto exists, I mean you've got a signature from someone who took the time to sign the card (or sticker) for you.
4.  Do you try to get autographs through the mail?  If so, what sort of success (or failure) stories do you have?

Never have tried to get an autograph through the mail. 
5.  Who was the subject of your first ever autograph?  Al MacInnis of the Calgary Flames.  It was an in person autograph at a local card show in Toronto, and for me the experience wasn't that overwhelming.
6.  Do you actively collect any autographs (certain players, teams, brands, etc)?  The only autographs I would really collect at all are Jays or Maple Leafs players.
7.  Which is better:  Autographs or Relics?  For me, relics are better than autos. I've never been a big auto collector to begin with, so that's probably why.
8.  What do you think of cut autos?  I could take them or leave them.
9.  What is your favorite autograph design (say in the last 5 years)?  I don't pull many autographs, but the one I pulled from the Topps 60 inserts this year I liked.  The red card background really stood out to me.
10.  If you could get the autograph of any five people (dead or alive) who would you want a signature from (and why)?

•   John Larroquette, he played one of my all time favorite TV characters, Dan Fielding on Night Court.
•   Ronald Reagan, maybe the best president I'll see in my lifetime...
•   Gordie Howe, because you don't get the nickname Mr. Hockey for nothing.
•   All the band members of the band Asia, because I'd like to find out the real reason why they stayed apart for over 20 years.
•   Rickey Henderson, because his batting stance and base stealing ability really changed the game in the early 80's.

As you likely can tell from my answers, I never was a big auto enthusiast...just a personal thing I guess.


Thanks for reading, Robert

(Words in this post, 407:  Total for the month, 5128). 

Contest results

Hello to all, without further adieu, here are the results of the contest:

I had 24 entries, and ran all the names through the randomizer, and here is the list:

Congratulations to Stealing Home and Lost Collector!!  I have sent you both an email, if you could kindly respond back and let me know it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you to all who participated!!  Have a great Wednesday, Robert

Writers rut

Good Tuesday evening to you all, hope that your week is going well so far.  I've seen other bloggers, some very good ones I must say, create terms that are very applicable to both blogging and collecting.  Adding to the vernacular you could say.  Well, being one with too much time to think on cards and blogging, I've come up with my own term to describe what I hit many times when trying to write a post.

"writers rut"--noun:  A condition where a so-called "writer" really has no idea what to write.

Writers rut definitely has applied to me a lot lately for two reasons:

1. Writers block refers to a real writer, which I do not, nor will I ever profess to be.  Writers rut refers to a lower class of writer, which I profess to be.
2. I've spent many an hour staring at a computer like an artist stares at an empty canvas, looking for inspiration.

This evening was one of those times.  I sat in front of my computer screen, with my tunes playing in the background, and nothing.  Nada, zip, zilch, squat.   I took a look at other blogs for inspiration.  Still drew a blank.  Makes me wonder sometimes if I should be writing a blog, especially with my goal of posting on a daily basis (something has to keep me off the streets you know).

Then I started reading posts closer.  What is it that the majority of them have in common?  Personal experience.  Bloggers relating their experiences of card collecting, the sets they like to collect, or the cards that have special meaning to them.  The trades, the pack pulls, the in-person autographs.  The expressions of emotions when that 4 color relic was pulled.  Even more so, the personal triumphs and tragedies that remind us of the human element that permeates our hobby. 

I tend sometimes to try and "keep up with the Jones-es".  Try and collect too much, or collect the "in" set.  Trying too hard to fit in.  Look at all the blogs out there I have to remind myself.  Bloggers posting about stuff they like, not because it's what Tom, Dick or Harry like, it's because they like it.  Damn the masses.  I tend to forget that from time to time.  This is going to be the post I look back on the next time I can't think of something to post about and remember "post about something you like, no matter what the others may think". 

Chances are, somebody else might relate to what I post as well.  If nobody does, I've still done something that I wanted to do. 

I also must remember that this is a 2-way street.  Other bloggers are going to do the same, meaning they'll post stuff that they want to talk about.  I have to remember not to mentally tune them out if it's something that doesn't interest me terribly, because it's what I owe them.  In order to be successful, not just as a blogger but as a person, I have to read and listen to what others are saying on their blogs.  I don't have to agree with what they are saying, just listen to what they're saying. 

If I've struck a chord with a 2nd person out there with this post, then I've accomplished more than I expected.  Because really, I only expect to influence one person....


Myself...


Thank you for reading, Robert

(words in this post, 569:  total for the month, 4721)

Last day for the contest is today!!

I just wanted to thank you all for the great responses to the contest I posted last week.  I count 21 so far (as of Monday 835 EST), and we still have Tuesday to go.  I will give away two prizes since I received 20+ entries, and if I hit 30, I'll give away a third. 

Thanks to all who have entered, and if you missed the contest because you've been away, or under a rock, here's a link to get you there.

Good luck to all!  have a great Tuesday,

Robert

Conflicted Dodger fans trade post

Good Monday to you all, hope that your week is starting out OK.  I spent mine in the hospital having a minor procedure done, so if some of this post becomes a little, shall we say, unreadable, please forgive me in advance.

It was very ironic that I received in the mail today a couple of envelopes a trading goodness from a couple of Dodger fans named Greg.  But wait, I said they were conflicted.   That's right, check out the stuff they sent me, and you'll see why they were conflicted, at least from where I sit. 

First off, we'll start with West Coast Greg, who runs Plaschke, thy sweater is argyle.  This is already the third trade that Greg and I have completed, and I feel that we will complete many more.  Greg is one of the few bloggers that I know that collects both baseball and hockey, so that gives the 2 of us a broader spectrum in which to trade.  This trade focused around this post, where Greg posted a card he had picked up recently and asked right on the blog if I would be interested.  Well sure enough I was, and this began the start of a good trade for the both of us.   I received some great stuff, as I always do from fellow bloggers. 

both a Jay and a Dodger

Shawn Green spent several years in both the Jays and the Dodgers organizations, so it kind of made sense that Greg had some Jays cards featuring the slugger.  I always rued the day that the Jays gave up on Green, he had way too much talent to just let go.  I personally like the card in the upper right, the Studio card that resembles a credit card.  Great stuff here.

Greg is also well aware of my serial insanity blog, and sent me some Dodgers to help the cause.  Some great stuff here, I can almost imagine Greg having trouble sending Dodgers in the wrong direction..lol

The James Loney card in the lower left is by far my favorite card here, the scan doesn't do the blue background justice.  It is also serial numbered 56/299, which fits in perfect.  The card also makes me want a set of Topps Finest, but that's down the road yet, not until I hit the magic number of 15 completed sets.

Finally, the two key components in the trade.  First, on the left is a Dion Phaneuf RC.  Yes, I know he's not in a Maple Leaf uniform on the card, but this kid is the heart and soul of the franchise right now, and was a great choice for captain.  When Greg posted the opportunity for me to have the card, I jumped at the chance. 
On the right is another card I really like, it is a '85 Topps Jimmy Key RC.  I always liked Jimmy because he was an actual pitcher, knew how to locate his fastball and change up, always keeping batters off balance.  I hated seeing him pitch for the Yankees and Orioles, because I knew that it would be a tough night for my Jays.  Great card none the less.

Great stuff here Greg, thank you very much!!

Now, on to part 2 of the trade post, this features east coast Greg, who runs the Night Owl blog (as if you all needed me to tell you that).  Greg and I completed our first trade a couple of months ago, whereby I sent him an Andre Ethier relic card from A&G and some other Dodger cards, and in return he took a "machete" to my 2006 Topps want list (If I remember correctly it was 100 plus cards he sent).  In the meantime, I've sent a couple of envelopes his way, hitting some of his want lists along with sending him some older Dodger cards along with some '72 Topps, a set he is currently trying to complete (if you've got any, I'm sure he'd be glad to know!!)

There was quite the variety in this trade package that Greg sent me, so let's get down to business:

First, there are the requisite Blue Jays...

A nice mix of old and new Blue Jays came my way, including one of my favorites, George Bell. 

















Next up, some 77 Topps cards, 3 Dodgers no less!!  All of them in great condition to boot.  Greg, I hope that these are dupes for you, but nonetheless they will be very welcome into my collection!!

Great looking cards from the 77 set

More Dodgers came my way, these reflected the insanity set portion of the envelope:

Two more to go with the insanity set...

I really appreciate them both, but the Campanella is a great card, I especially love the black and white photo.

Finally we have....





wait for it.....




mmmmmmmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(God I hope he doesn't have that term copyrighted)

Three of the Jays greats

This is one thing that I absolutely love about trading with bloggers.  It's the uniqueness of a lot of stuff I get in return.  Ricky Romero is currently the 2nd best player on the Jays roster right now (only Bautista ahead of him in my opinion). 

The middle picture is a 1983 Topps sticker of Dave Stieb, who arguably had one of the nastiest sliders (and disposition, at times) that a pitcher ever threw.  Dave will, and for a long time always be the best pitcher that the Jays organization has ever had.  Yes, they've had Clemens and Cone and a few others who had longer careers and better stats, but Dave was in Toronto the longest, and shared a lot of good and bad times with the fans, and # 37 is a number that in my opinion should be retired in Toronto. 

Finally, we have Lloyd "Shaker" Moseby, the center fielder in what was arguably the best outfield in baseball in the mid 1980's.  Lloyd never had great stats, but was fast and great defensively, and had a good career that lasted 10 seasons in Toronto, along with a couple of more at the end in Detroit.  The sticker featured here is a 1982 Topps # 246.  Great stuff all around, thank you very much Greg!!!


These cards from fellow bloggers turned what was a miserable day and a half for me into a great afternoon, and a trade post that I had fun writing.

Thank you both gentlemen!!!

Thanks for reading, Robert


(Words in this post: 1,070:  total for the month, 4152)

A blast from the past: 1999-00 UD MVP hockey Silver Script

Good Sunday to you all, I hope that you have been able to find me over the past day or two now that I've changed the blog address.  I've said to myself all along that I would start doing some more hockey posts, so here's another parallel set that I started to put together in the late 90's that I never finished (but you knew that already, didn't you?)

The Upper Deck MVP set from 99-00 was a small set of only 220 cards.  The parallel sets actually had 3 tier's;
First tier was the Super Script, serial numbered to 25, Second tier was the Gold parallel which was serial numbered to 100, and finally the set that I'm working on, the silver script, which was not serial numbered, and inserted at a ratio of 1:2 packs. 

The MVP set was a very cheap price point for cards, I believe back then they were $1.49 a pack.  I'm not sure how much love this set received back then, because in the late 90's there was a lot of competition for your hockey card dollar.  Upper Deck released several sets that year, Pacific was still pumping out sets like Omega, Dynagon and Aurora, Be A Player sets were very popular back then with the one a pack auto cards, and Topps had a handful of sets that year, including Gold Label which was also very well received. 

Here's a scan of a couple of silver signature cards:

Notice the difference in the two cards.  There were a handful of cards, such as Damian Rhodes on the left, where there wasn't an actual signature.  I'm guessing the reason for this was the company didn't get authorization in time to use it.  The Paul Kariya card on the right is a great example of a typical signature on these cards, it doesn't overwhelm the card and is very legible. 

I'm not very far from completing this set, only 31 cards out of the 220 to go.  This will be one of the lists I take with me up to the big show next weekend, hoping to get this one out of the way.  I'll be featuring a few of the different hockey card sets I'll be trying to complete this week, so keep an eye out for those.

Thanks for reading, Robert

(number of words in this post, 385.  total number of words for the month, 3082)

Week 15 begins at the monthly card show

Good Saturday to you all, hope that your weekend is going well so far.  Was able to make it out to the local card show today, and had a lot of good luck finding stuff for my various sets/collections.  So without further adieu, let's get cracking...

First, I grabbed the last card I needed to finish the Lineage set...this brings me up to 7 completed sets so far.

A Prince he is

I also found 5 more cards towards my 2010 Topps set, I think I'm down to less than 20 total to complete it.





















Next, I was able to hit some more of my 77 Topps set needs:

Almost as if Cliff is saying "you better not be calling that a strike"

Not just any Tom, Dick and Harry here.  Tom Seaver, Bruce Sutter and Steve Carlton are among some of the cards I got on the cheap.  Also got a decent Dale Murphy RC, card #1 Batting leaders featuring George Brett and Bill Madlock, and a mean looking Cliff Johnson.  I bought a 100 count lot of commons for $6, about 55 of which I needed for the set, the rest will go into the trade pile.
















I was also able to find a bunch of serial numbered parallels for good prices as well:

I knew I would end up with more GQ

New stuff I hadn't seen before here

As I mentioned in last night's post, I really liked the card that Ryan G had sent me from Gypsy Queen.  I saw these 2 parallels in a $1 box at the show, and decided to grab them both.  I also picked up a lot of star players on the cheap as well, including Fielder, Ortiz, Bagwell, Cabrera, Crawford, and Ramirez.

I was also happy that I was able to catch another low number for the insanity set, as the Speaker GQ card was serial number 6. 

















The Alex Wimmers was from this years Bowman Platinum, the Blue Parallel numbered out of 199.
The Melvin Mora in the center of this scan is from the '06 Opening Day set.  I had never seen a red foil parallel before, so I decided to grab this one for the set as well.  All totaled I believe I came home with another 22 serial numbered cards, most of them for 25-50 cents apiece.























Next, I was happy to add another auto to my Blue Jays collection today; you may have noticed it as the background already...

#1 draft pick for Jays in 2010

Deck had not too bad a season in his first full year of pro ball for the Jays, he pitched in Class A Dunedin for most of the year, and finished the season in AA New Hampshire, with a combined 9-5 record in 21 starts with an ERA of 3.02 and a WHIP of 1.229.  Not too shabby at all. 

I was able to pickup a couple of jersey cards, and some other odds and ends for about $35 today, not too shabby.  A nice warm up show to get ready for Canada's "National" next weekend.

Thanks for reading, Robert

(Words in this post:  518, total for the month, 2622)