Wile E. Coyote never caught this Roadrunner

One of my favorite nicknames ever belonged to Yvan Cournoyer of the Montreal Canadiens.  The "Roadrunner" moniker paid homage to the speed he had on the ice, and as a kid that loved his Saturday morning cartoons, this nickname will always stand out in my mind.

When I saw this card on eBay last week for $3, it was a deal I couldn't pass up.  It still surprises me that you don't see a premium on Canadiens hockey cards the same way you do for older Yankee/Dodger cards in baseball.

Love the 71-72 OPC set, and I've enjoyed building it so far.  I'm 2 cards shy of the halfway point for the set, but with many big name stars and RC's still to go, it feels like it'll be years before this is done.

This eBay purchase had 3 other cards; there's a trio of big names coming up so stay tuned.

2nd year George Brett.  A bit pricey at $13, but it's the best I've seen so far at this price level.  A lot of the cards on COMC are either dinged up pretty bad, or overpriced, so I settled on this copy.  The '76 set is nearing its end, as this card along with...

The Hank Aaron card bring the want list down into the single digits.  Hank was $11, not bad in my opinion and the last card for the set that will cost more than $10.  With the half dozen cards I have coming from COMC, I need just 3 more cards to finish off the '76 Topps set.  Hopefully by the end of June I'll have that post up for everyone to see.

Last up I grabbed this '72 Topps Willie Mays card for $8.  If you look closely, you can clearly see two creases, one on the left hand side by his lower hand, the other on the right hand side about shoulder high.  The corners aren't the greatest also, but the back is clean and in good shape, so overall I'm happy with this for my set.  Still a long way to go to finish '72 Topps, but I'm just happy to knock off another big name card from the list.

Another reason for me to be happy is this month marks the first time in 2 years that I hit the 20 post mark for a calendar month.  Yes, a lot of it is fluff, but just getting posts written can be a challenge for me at times so seeing 20 posts in May with 2 days to go is a good sign.  The goal still is to hit the 2000 post mark by my birthday at the end of October (today's is post 1938) so I'm pretty confident that I can get there.

I've already been promised a cake....

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!!

Robert

Pack Stash Week: 2019-20 Upper Deck Hockey

Well, I took two days off because I was pretty much exhausted on Tuesday after working outside busting up concrete in the front yard.  Wednesday was back to work for me, and by the time I finished catching up and doing a days work, I'd had enough of the computer.

So, today I grabbed a couple of packs of Upper Deck hockey from this year, and I'm going to call it a week as far as the pack ripping goes.  I can honestly say that I'm so psyched about finishing sets that buying singles towards them is much more fun than ripping packs at this time.

Plus, trading has picked up a little bit on the TCDB so there's going to be a lot of action for the foreseeable future on the blog.  So I'm going to cut the pack stash week short.

What interested me about the two packs that I busted is that each had 4 horizontal cards to go with 4 vertical cards. For those of you that were wondering if the name Petry looked familiar, yes Jeff Petry is the son of former Tigers pitcher Dan Petry.  

As always, I love the photography as Upper Deck usually does a great job catching players in some great action shots, or some unique photos such as the Johnny Gaudreau shot of him getting ready to high five his teammates after a goal.

The colors are sharp on a lot of these photos, especially the Tom Wilson card that has a Minnesota Wild player in the background.  Both packs featured one of the UD Canvas inserts, one vertical and one horizontal.

Trying to imagine which of the storm surge celebrations Andrei Svechnikov was part of.  Blake Wheeler is another one of the legion of Bruins players that they let get away over the past decade, and he'll hit career game 1000 next year barring injury or a shortened season (he needs 69 games).

What I like is some of the alternate jerseys that are featured on some of the photos, such as Nick Ritchie in the old school Anaheim Ducks jersey, back from when they were called the Mighty Ducks.  

Nothing in these 2 packs that are going to pay for retirement or fund future purchases, but nothing in here is dull either.  

I've already got enough new stuff in over the past week for a handful of posts, plus I found a pair of my major Rookie Card needs for a good price on ebay last week so I'm looking forward to showing them off next week.

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

Pack Stash Week: 2018 Panini Rookies & Stars

I hope that everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day weekend, it's been quite the soggy one down here in S. Florida as it hasn't stopped raining since Sunday morning.

After writing the first two lines, I realized it had stopped raining long enough for me to get some long needed yard work done.

Priorities.

Now, I decided to go after a jumbo pack today, the 40 card Panini Rookies and Stars set from 2018 is featured here.  There is one green parallel inside, along with a dozen rookie cards with potential star rookie cards of Saquon Barkley and Sam Darnold.

I was somewhat lazy again today, and scanned the cards 4 at a time, but at least I scanned them in the other that they came out of the pack.

Wonder what makes companies think that the Color Rush uniform pictures are a good choice for their photos.  I'd also like to see the Browns start to improve overall this year.  They are one of those teams that I root for as the underdogs; it's been that way since they came back into the league.

Looks like Mariota is going to need a change of scenery as his time in Tennessee appears to be up.  Same with Winston in Tampa.

Every time I see a card of Christian McCaffrey, I think of the joke he told during the "All or Nothing" series on Amazon when the Panthers were featured.   Fifty dollars is fifty dollars (those who watched it will know what I'm talking about).  If you're not watching All or Nothing, take a look.  My wife enjoys watching it as well, and we're almost done with this years installment that featured the Eagles.

There is a lot of money in the contracts of these 4 players.  Will love to see how the black hole translates to Vegas in 2020.  If I ever decided to collect a QB as a PC, it would be Brees.  Love him.

Had no idea Josh Normal is a Bill now.  They are pushing hard to compete in the AFC East now that the perception is the Patriots won't be the same team without Tom Brady.

Starting to get into the insert portion of the pack, the Dorance Armstrong Jr. is a green parallel, and Marvin Jones Jr. was coming off of his best pro season in 2017, just over 1100 yards and 18 yards per catch, which led the NFL.

I always loved the Crusade inserts with the Fleur-de-Lys on them.  Another Drew Brees card in the pack, on the appropriately named Star-Studded insert.  Andrew Luck is another player I have always liked, and I certainly don't blame him for getting out of football while he still has his health.

The last 12 cards are all RC's, and each group of 4 has one name player, starting with the Sam Darnold in this group of 4.  Da'ron Payne is the starting NT for the Skins and has 7 sacks and 9 tackles for loss in his 2 seasons so far.

Christian Kirk will likely be the #3 receiver for the Cardinals this year now that DeAndre Hopkins has moved to the desert.  Taven Bryan started half the games for the Jags in 2019 as a DT.  I'm learning a lot just by looking up these guys while writing this....

Sony Michel is a name everyone knows, averaging just under 1000 yards for his first 2 seasons combined.  Marquis Haynes was a 4th rounder in the 2017 draft for the Panthers, and is currently showing on the depth chart for the Panthers as the backup DE. Jaire Alexander is the starting LCB for the Packers, and has 3 picks in his first 2 seasons.

No big dollar cards, autos or relics, but some fun, and some trade bait.  We'll open some hockey tomorrow just to keep the variety.

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

Pack Stash Week: 2018 Bowman

Well, I figured this week was as good as any to post a few packs from the pack stash on the blog.  I figured I'd take it easy on myself and have some fun at the same time while in the middle of a 5-day mini vacation surrounding the long weekend.

I hunted through the box and decided on this pack....

2018 Bowman baseball.  10 cards, chance of some good rookies including Shohei Ohtani, so let's have a look.

I decided to be a little bit lazy on this break, scanning cards two at a time instead of 1.  Started with what could be a great pitcher vs. batter matchup, Noah Syndergaard and George Springer.  Hit up the baseball reference site and found that they've never faced each other in the regular season.  Thought at least there might be one PA as there is interleague play, but didn't see anything.  Maybe someday...

A lot of empty seats behind both Jonathan Schoop and Freddie Freeman.  I imagine these were taken during spring training.  I do like the look of the cards, the diamond encasing the logo and the oval with the position inside is just the right size for me.

Nomar Mazara is a player I don't know a lot about, so I looked him up, and he averages just under a hit per game during his 4 year career.  He was traded to the White Sox in the offseason for a A-level prospect.  Hunter Renfroe also spent his first 4 years with the same team, in this case the Padres, and was traded in the offseason.  Renfroe is now a Ray, seeing Tommy Pham as the big name going to Southern California.

Unlike the 1st player vs. pitcher scan above, these 2 have a more likely chance of having faced each other.  Advantage: Merrifield.  6 for 11 with a 2B and a solo HR.  Felix is now a Brave, and if healthy I believe will have a bounceback season in the Peach state.  I knew Merrifield was a good ball player, but didn't know he led the AL in hits (206), AB's (681) and triples (10) last year.  I also didn't realize he was so versatile, playing 2B, all 3 OF positions and 1B for the Royals.

Marcus Stroman is the 9th and final....what, wait a minute!!??  Only 9 cards in the pack!  Wasn't tampered with at all, bought it a couple years ago right off the shelf in Target.   Oops, not a good look there Topps, as you can plainly see on the first scan that the pack should have had 10 cards.

No matter, was more about the fun of ripping the pack rather than worrying about what or who was going to be inside.  All the cards were going to be trade bait anyhow.  Not like it's 2020 Bowman which people are selling for tons of money already.

Who said the hobby is struggling anyhow?

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!!

Robert

Serial Saturday #36: Sorry Royals Fans

I almost titled this post "collateral damage" as that was my first thought when starting to write.  But my mind reflected back to a couple of recent trades with Royals fans (Matt and Josh, thank you both for the trades) and figured this would be a good way to show off one of their better players.

I snagged this card for $1.49 for my #'d/99 PC from the same eBay seller that I bought the '73 checklist that I showed off the other day.  The price tag was too good in my opinion to pass up.

I have a bit of difficulty just buying one card from a seller on eBay, and as a result this card is now in the collection.

Can't say for sure, but I think that this might have been still available because the seller spelled Salvador's last name incorrectly on the listing (Perrz).  This is a 2019 Bowman green parallel #'d 6/99 that had combined shipping with the checklist card, and in the end I was a happy collector.

This is #53 in the #'d/99 collection, which is turning out to be a very fun side project for me.  Maybe one day I'll decide to make it a little more interesting and see if I can get each of the serial #'s from 1 to 99 as part of the collection, a la the Serial Numbered Insanity set I did a few years ago.  The more I think about it, the more I like the idea....

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!!

Robert