A little bit unexpected

One of the most entertaining blogs out there for me is The Chronicles of Fuji, as Mark is one of the most open and honest writers there is out there.

Mark had sent me an email a couple of weeks back letting me know that he was sending a bunch of 1982 Topps cards my way.  Very much appreciated!  What I didn't know is that on the side, he had a trio of cards for me that brought a smile to my face also.

Instantly, I see the Adam Lind jersey card from '11 A&G and I think "don't I have this already?"  So I look at my Blue Jays hits page, and scrolling down a bit I do find the exact same card there, with the exact same gray swatch! It's been a while since I've looked at the page, so I take a minute to look and I realize that a good portion of my Jays "hit" collection features Adam Lind.  This A&G card becomes the 3rd item that I have a pair of for Adam. 

The Mike McCoy autograph is also a cool item, not only does it bear his signature, but it's serial #'d 2/499.   What better thing to send to a serial #'d junkie than a hit that feeds his addiction.  

One question for Mike if he ever reads this (which I'm sure he probably won't), how sore was your hand after 499 signatures?

This was also a great card, and very topical as Nazem Kadri started the season off right with a pair of assists in Toronto's opening night victory over the Canadiens.   It would be cool if my favorite team met Mark's favorite San Jose Sharks in the Stanley Cup Final this year (I will admit the Sharks have a better chance to get there than Toronto does).  We'll have to wait a few months and see though.

Next up, the '82 Topps bounty that came my way....

Thanks for reading, Robert

Perk Me Up

One of the things I really like about Twitter is how specific you can make it.  Specific meaning you can add certain people who talk about the things you want to see on your timeline.

Start following someone that talks about crap you don't want to read about?  The mute button works fantastic. 

The major reasons that I use twitter are for sports, and for cards.  Simple.  I want fun on my down time, not stuff that's going to depress me or make me angry. 

Last weekend, my good buddy AJ from the Lost Collector turned on the Twitter card world (me especially) to a code that eBay was providing for $5 off of any transaction valued at $5.01 or more.

PERKMEUP was the code.

Immediately I went hunting for Joe Sakic cards.  $5 off of a nice limited parallel would help the Sakic collection.

2001/02 Pacific Atomic gold die-cut parallel.  It's a shame that Beckett doesn't list Pacific in their monthly guide, so I have to use COMC as a rough estimate.   The red parallel version (#'d to 290) of this card on COMC is right at $5.25, so I think I did OK with this purchase as....

the gold parallel is #'d out of 200.  The seller had this up for $5.99 with free shipping, so after the $5 Perk Me Up discount, I got this card for 99 cents.

Can't beat that with a stick....thank you AJ!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Try a Pack #16: 2018-19 O-Pee-Chee

I mentioned on Saturday's post that I got my first look at 18-19 OPC in the lot of cards that Doug had sent me.  Well, I was impressed enough that I had to make a run to Target on Saturday and bought myself a jumbo pack (32 cards) and a blaster (11 X 8 cards). 

I really like what I've seen so far.  I'd only opened the jumbo pack as of writing this post, so I haven't hit all that there is to offer in the set, but I did get a good start on hitting cards to show off.

It is the standard 600 card set, base cards #'d 1-500, cards 501-550 are rookies which are short printed, 551-560 are SP season highlight cards, 561-591 are team checklists, which are numbered in order by division standings.  For example, the first 8 cards are the Atlantic Division, with the order being Tampa Bay, Boston, Toronto, Detroit, Montreal, Ottawa and Buffalo. 

Finally, cards 592-600 are league leader cards, also short printed.

Here's a few for your viewing pleasure.

As I also mentioned on Saturday, I like that they added the All Star bar on the left hand side of the card.  I now have 4 of these, including the Auston Matthews card from the other day.

The base cards are really nice, I like the silver border and the design.  With 500 cards in the set, there's no shortage of cards for team collectors no matter what team you cheer for.

The only detriment for me is that the minis are back.   There's nothing wrong with the card per se, it's just that I don't care for the smaller cards and will probably move them on to someone who will enjoy them more.  As you can see with the Alex DeBrincat cards here, the mini uses the same picture as the base card.

I will always love the team checklist/logo cards.  This goes back to my childhood and the team logo cards that were found in sets back in the 70's.  As you can also see, the cards are printed in both English and French text.  Would be interesting down here in S. Florida if OPC created a Spanish parallel....

Finally, my parallel weakness is exploited with these two retro cards...

Now, these might look plain to the average collector, but I love the magenta background.  Did a little digging and there are other cards that have different color backgrounds (McDavid is dark blue, Kuznetsov is a light blue), but they also all seem to be horizontally oriented.  I believe that I'll be chasing this parallel over time.   I really like the design, and a good chase is always fun. 

There's other cards that are in the packs but not shown here.   Playing cards are back, 52 in total (of course).  Parallels of the minis and retro cards (including a no-name scratch off parallel) and several other inserts which should be interesting pulls/photos.

I'll keep you apprised of my progress on these set builds.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Another TCDB trade, another big chunk comes off a want list

First off, I'm ashamed of myself because I forgot to write this gentleman's name down (I want to say it's Chris, but I don't know for sure).  But I do know that I just received a nice brick of cards from another TCDB trade, this time with user 5marchx.  I sent off 17 cards related to the SF Giants (parallels and such, you know the drill with me) and in return I received a very well package box of cards. 

People are certainly trying to get rid of my want lists in a big hurry; take a look at this big lot of '84 Topps.

By the way, in the first scan's lower right corner, that Bobby Mitchell is not yours truly, or related to yours truly.  Any similarities to people living or dead are purely coincidental.

Onwards for more '84 Topps...

There you have it, 68 cards off of my '84 Topps want list, which is now down below 200 cards.  It still surprises me how fast I've been able to knock cards off of early 80's want lists.  

Oh, and there's a couple of cards from earlier sets as well to show off:

The Dietz from '72 Topps is great.   My trade partner admitted right off that the Garibaldi was off cut, so I'll just use it right now as a place holder until I see one down the road somewhere.

70 for 17 is still a great trade in my books, no matter how you look at it.

To my trade partner whose name I've forgotten, thank you very much for the cards, they are appreciated.   I truly hope I haven't insulted you by forgetting your name...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Inbound and down #48: Sportscards From The Dollar Store

Doug never ceases with his surprises.  Out of the blue one day last week he drops a comment on the blog, warning me that a Leafs package is on the way.

Now, this couldn't have come at a better time, as the NHL regular season is just 4 days away, and the excitement for Leafs fans is higher than any point in my over 40 years of following them.

Some of the cards that I'm about to show represent a portion of the down years that Leaf fans suffered through.

Vincent Damphousse and Daniel Marois in the top row are from the 90-91 Bowman set, which is not bad considering there really isn't much of a design on the front.  Maybe that's the appeal...

That period of time in the late 80's early 90's the team was starting to improve, some high draft picks and good trades helped the team to a couple of great playoff runs in the 92-93 and 93-94 seasons.

Turning the clock back a bit farther on this page is the appearance of the great Johnny Bower, the "China Wall".  I'm still a bit sad over Mr. Bower's passing last Christmas, as he was a great ambassador for the game, and still made a lot of appearances in interviews for the team.  One day I will try and pick up a few cards from his actual playing days to augment my Leafs collection.

A nice mix of cards in this scan, including a Felix Potvin card which will go right into his PC.  The Brendan Leipsic Parkhurst card in the lower right hand corner isn't the only Leaf rookie from that set I received in this envelope.  More on that in a bit.

The Wendel Clark Stadium Club card on the center right may be the only picture you ever see where Wendel doesn't sport a mustache. 

I see Mitch Marner's card on the lower left and think back to the debate on last night's Leafs telecast on whether he's a single digit million dollar man, or a double digit million dollar man.  Mitch's contract expires at the end of this season, and no matter what the price, he's going to be A) expensive and B) a big part of this team going forward.

5 more Mats Sundin cards, I believe I need all of them for the PC.  If not, they'll go right into the Leafs stash.

These 3 cards were my first look at 18-19 OPC (thank you for that Doug), and will probably go toward building the set.   Down the road I'll be building these OPC sets, as there isn't one design that I didn't like (although there are a couple of "lukewarm" ones for sure), and the 600 card sets are always a challenge.

I really like that they added the All-Star designation on this years set as well, something that they should have done a while ago.   I rushed right out today and bought the only jumbo pack and blaster that Target had of this set.  I'll show those cards off in a couple of days.

Finally, the Auston Matthews card above wasn't the only one in the envelope...

Oh baby!!  Auston Matthews Parkhurst RC!  Awesome indeed.  Never thought I'd see one down here, but now I have it in my house courtesy of Doug.  I'm hoping he stays healthy this year and tops 90 points.  The Leafs power play has looked really good so far...

Doug, thank you for the envelope, it really is appreciated.   I've got my eye on a Joe Sakic card you have on your COMC account that I need.  When I can get some more $$ into the account I may make an offer on it.

Thanks for reading, Robert