TCDB Trade Week: Hawkking

Joseph and I traded for the first time recently, an even 9 for 9 swap.  I sent him a page worth of Blackhawk cards, and he sent me a page of player collection needs, including a healthy dose of Keith Tkachuk.

I started off with the horizontal cards from the mid 90's.  I like them both, but the 3 Star Selection which could easily pose as an insert, but is actually a base card from the 96-97 Collector's Choice set.  I also like the dual photo in the 97-98 SPx card on the top, one in his Kachina style Coyotes jersey, the other featuring his All Star Jersey which was in San Jose.

More Jets/Coyotes base cards which include the tough to pull die-cut SP insert card from the 94-95 SP set.  After all these came in, the Tkachuk count has grown to 163 cards, not bad for a secondary collection.  Still lots on the want list though!!

It's always odd to see Tkachuk in the later years of his career without an "A" or "C" on his jersey, although it appears that there's one on the white jersey on the Upper Deck Ice card from 05-06 on the right.  Tough to tell though...

To finish off the page, a card each for the Potvin and Sakic collections.  I do like the 95-96 Topps card that features Potvin on the left, although if I could change one thing, the size of the team name would be a bit smaller top to bottom.  It looks a little too stretched to me.  The script for "Felix Potvin" is something that I have always liked and I wouldn't change it at all. 

Thank you for the cards Joseph, they are appreciated!!  Look forward to the next trade.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

TCDB Trade Week: Clay

This trade, my first one with TCDB ID Clay (my apologies, I didn't write your name down...) netted me a page worth of football cards.   I traded away a handful of Steelers cards and gained 8 cards towards my 2018 Panini Prestige FB set

A few stars showed up, along with a trio of Rookie cards that depict players that I don't know much about.  I still kind of regret starting this set, but I blame it on myself for not researching more before taking the plunge.  I found a few of these on Sportlots recently for cheap, so there is light at the end of the tunnel with just 32 cards left on the want list. 

Filling out the page is a T.Y. Hilton card from the same year but a different brand.  It's from the Panini Playoff set, and I decided to take a quick look at the parallel sets to see what colors they were.

I was wrong, they're actually named by situations, 1st down, 2nd down, 3rd down, 4th down, Goal Line, Kick Off, Red Zone and Touchdown.  The "downs" are serial #'d starting at 99 and work their way down to 10.  The Touchdown's are 1 of 1s.  Goal Line, Kick Off and Red Zone aren't numbered, and have just the moniker stamped on the card to differentiate.   Not very inspiring for me.

None the less, the cards plug a few holes and the trade was completed in both directions in less than a week, so I certainly cannot complain.

Thank you for the cards Clay, they are appreciated!

Enjoy the hobby, Robert

TCDB Trade Week: The Bucs Stop Here

This is the 3rd of 3 consecutive trade posts featuring fellow bloggers on the TCDB website.  This trade features Nate from the The Bucs Stop Here blog and it netted me some goodies across a few different interests.

Let's start with a pair of Andrew McCutchen cards, the GQ on the left is another of the "I thought I already had this one in the collection" cards.  I bought a lot of cards off the racks between 2011-15, and the GQ card is one I'd seen many times before.  May have traded it off many years ago, not sure to be honest, but I'm glad to have it in my hands now.

The black bordered 2014 Heritage card on the right hand side is a beautiful card, the border goes great with the road black jersey he's wearing. 

This pair of cards featuring players in blue jerseys added to a couple of different collections.

I especially love the Ichiro Topps Chrome card featuring the '84 design.  If I were to own a Mariner's jersey, it would be the teal colored one that Ichiro is wearing on this card.

Blake Snell knocked off one more from the '85 insert set from this year's flagship, with the series 1 portion now at 58/100 in hand.

A serial numbered card out of 50 featuring Felipe Rivero/Vazquez formerly of the Pirates.  We won't go where this fellow has been over the past couple of years....

Last up is a couple more cards for the serial #'d/99 collection, both featuring Pirates (of course)!  Adam Frazier's Chronicles card is a purple parallel, and the Polanco card on the bottom is one of those Topps Tek cards, which I didn't notice until now is a RC for Gregory.   The collection is still growing, although slowly and is currently at 74 cards. 

Nate, thank you for the trade, the cards are appreciated!! 

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

TCDB Trade Week: CrazieJoe

This is the 5th TCDB trade between Joseph and myself and each time hasn't disappointed me.  Joseph runs the CrazieJoe's Card Corner blog, which features cards of varying sorts, even wrestling! 
This time I sent him a bunch of early year Blue Jays cards for his collection, and in return I received 7 cards towards various want lists.

This is a pair of cards from the 2009-10 OPC set, immediately I put them both into the "where are they now? category.

Of course, Atlanta lost its hockey team for the 2nd time to Winnipeg several years ago.  Maybe if they had brought the Flames back to Atlanta it might have worked, but the Thrashers never really caught on.

I certainly remember Christian Ehrhoff in the NHL about a decade ago, but I wondered what had happened to him when I saw his card.  Off to hockey reference for a look.

Christian played 2 years in Vancouver right after leaving San Jose, and had his most productive seasons in the league.  He scored 14 goals in each of his 2 seasons with the Canucks and garnered Norris Trophy votes for the best defenseman in both years.

After having those 2 solid seasons, he was traded twice in 2 days, both times for 4th rd picks in the 2012 draft, which kind of baffles me.  Christian would play 3 years in Buffalo, then finish off his career in the 14-15 season playing for both LA and Chicago.  789 games over 12 seasons, 74 goals.  A solid NHL career if you ask me.  I just couldn't remember him leaving the game...

This will go into the Ichiro binder, but to be honest these Triple Play cards will always leave something to be desired in my books. 

I was going to grouse on how the Upper Deck First Edition cards were just another rehash of their base sets in the late 2000's, but then I remembered that Topps does the same thing with Opening Day and their designs.   Moving on...

Finishing up with a trio of Keith Tkachuk cards.  I especially like the one on the right that features him in the classic Kachina style Coyotes jersey (I own one myself).  I've really expanded the want list for Tkachuk cards on the TCDB site and this is the first of 2 trades that I'll show this week that has helped this collection along. 

Thank you very much Joseph for another great trade!!  Look forward to the next one.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

TCDB Trade Week: Kep75 (Diamond Jesters)

Next up on trade week is a familiar blogger to a few of you, Matt from the Diamond Jesters blog.  (read those repack haikus, they're great) My last Want List Wednesday post featured the '85 Topps inserts from this years flagship set, and Matt jumped on the opportunity to send a couple my way in order to bolster his Red Sox collection.

This was a quick and easy trade, and I snagged a little bonus out of this one as well.

Another benefit of beefing up the PC want lists, this 2020 Ichiro die cut insert is now part of the collection.   I'd pulled a couple of these in series 1 packs, can't say if I recall them being diecut.  It was SOOOOO long ago....

The reason for the trade to begin with, a couple of big names from the insert set.  Still a ways to go to finish this off, but there's no hurry as this is more of a fun little side build compared to all the other sets I'm chasing.

Matt was also very gracious and snuck in a little green....

Very cool add to the envelope, a '19 GQ Jake Cave Green parallel, knocking one more card off that want list.  I don't normally binder up the insert sets, but this set is making me rethink that "policy".  Maybe that's a project for the Labor Day weekend, start bindering this and show off some of the pages, as I do love the look of them.

This is the first of 3 straight blogger/TCDB trades on the blog, and I must say thank you for the trade Matt, the cards are appreciated!!  Looking forward to our next.

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

TCDB Trade Week: mcg324

Time to get some cards off the desk!!  I have 5 or 6 trades that are sitting on my desk that I've been too lazy to get posted on the blog, so it's time for my 2nd trade week on the blog. 

The last time I did this, I had a reason for doing it.  I was heading out on vacation for a week and didn't want the blog to go cold.  A post a day for 7 days did the trick. 

I have a mixed bag of stuff to show off this week, nothing more than a page worth of cards in any of the deals.  First off is new trade partner Michel (TCDB ID: mcg324) which involved a swap of hockey cards in each direction.

Let's start off with the "I had this card once" chronicles featuring Joe Sakic's card from the 1996-97 Bicycle NHL Hockey Aces card deck.  I know I had a deck of these cards somewhere a long time ago but I'll be damned if I remember what happened to it.  No matter, the Ace of Diamonds is back in my collection again, not to be disappearing anytime soon.

I won't mince any words here.  I LOVE this card.  Love it, love it, love it.  The look on Potvin's face, and the "set up" of his equipment.  I can't say that I remember the Cat having those style of pads, but I think they look incredible, and even though this card features him as a Bruin, this is instantly one of my favorite Felix Potvin cards. 

The remaining 7 cards all feature Mats Sundin, starting with the horizontal Upper Deck Ice card from the mid 90's

I still remember how popular these cards were at McDonald's in Canada back in the 90's.  They were hard to find indeed.

I can still remember how a lot of people in Toronto howled when the Leafs traded Wendel Clark to get Sundin.  Outside of the Calgary trade to get Doug Gilmour, it's probably the biggest Leaf trade that I can remember during my lifetime. 

He only went on to be one of the top 5 Leafs of all time in my opinion.  That #13 looks great in the rafters, it's only a shame that he doesn't have a Stanley Cup ring to go with it.

Have had some luck with trades recently by beefing up the PC want lists, and this trade is certainly part of that.  Thank you for the cards Michel, they are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

If there were one basketball player that I would collect it would be....

Image copied from the TCDB website

Wilt Chamberlain.  Larger than life.  The back of his rookie card lists his height at 7' 1 1/16".  I got a real kick out of that specific measurement.

I'm not a fan of basketball now, but I did follow it during the Celtics-Lakers rivalry in the 80's. I remember watching in the 70's also when Buffalo had the Braves.

There's a lot of people that say Michael Jordan is the best player ever.   I have no problem with people making that statement, because Michael dominated his era.  6 titles.  A 6 year run where he averaged 33.3 points per game.  I see a 69 point game in 1990 against the Cavaliers. 

For me, Wilt stands head and shoulders above everyone who has ever played the game.  100 point game against the Knicks in 1962.  Wilt's first 6 seasons in the league he averaged 40.4 points a game.  The only player in NBA history to average over 50 points per game in a season.  The first player to record a 20/20/20 game (Russell Westbrook is the only player to do it since). 

I could go on and on about numbers, but when you have a nickname like "The Record Book" (Thanks to basketball reference for that bit of info), that says it all.

I recently came across one of his cards on twitter that Joe from Cheap Cards was selling and I had to have it.

I thought Panini did a good job with this card, it's almost as if Wilt is saying "that's my ball, you can't have it" on the card.  A photo featuring a Lakers-Celtics matchup also works well for me.

I thought about going for a rainbow of this particular card from 19-20, but there's 40 versions if you count the Prizms, and even though I enjoy a good color spectrum (colour for my Canadian friends), that's a little overkill for me.

I was a little bit surprised to find out that Wilt only has 1808 cards listed on the TCDB (yes, I used only) site.  But I guess when you played in the vintage era instead of the modern card collecting it would put a bit of a damper on the number of cards one has. 

Maybe one day I'll put together a small collection for Wilt. 

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert