Remembering the good old days like it was 6 years ago

I like to poke fun at myself, and the less extensive blogging numbers I've posted over the past few years.  A fair bit has gone on in my life, I've moved twice (once long distance) and kind of settled into semi-retirement life in a warmer climate.  I call it semi-retirement despite the fact that I'm still working full time, my vacations are more stay at home now, as I'm located somewhere that makes me feel like I'm on a vacation all the time.

Back to blogging, the reason I bring it up today is tonight's post is the 20th this month, and it's the first time I've hit 20 posts for 2 months consecutive since 2014.  I guess you could say I'm truly enjoying collecting, and writing about it again.  I believe that the main reason is my shift from chasing packs, which I was still doing a couple of months ago, to focusing on finishing sets and trading.  Spending $20 on ebay instead of packs is more enjoyable now, since I'm getting cards that truly fit into what I'm trying to accomplish with my collection.

I bought just 5 cards for $19 from my usual ebay haunt, The Battersbox, and I'm starting off with another number off of the 1959 Topps want list.  Seeing this card proves to me that Tony Kubek never really aged; I watched him for many years do the color commentating on Blue Jays telecasts in Canada, and he looked the same in the 80's as he did on this photo in '59.

Now, just have to find Thurman Munson and the '76 set is complete.  Tom Terrific was $2.75.

I have had very good luck finding decent copies of star player cards at reasonable prices lately.  Killebrew's '72 Topps card cost me just $3.25 and I'm quite happy with it.

For less than $3, I got this 73-74 OPC Alex Delvecchio card.   I was even more thrilled when I had it in hand, because the condition is super!!  It's even more so important on this card because it's #1 in the set, and especially 70's hockey I find it's tough to find really nice condition on the first and last cards of the set.

By the way, Delvecchio played the previous season with the Wings as a 41/42 year old, and still managed almost a point a game (71 pts in 77 games).

Sometimes cards just find you.  I was looking for one more hockey card to add to the order, and happened upon this 85-86 Gretzky league leader card.  $3.25 for a LL card for the Great One is really cheap, so there was no hesitation adding this to the cart.  $19 for the 5 cards, and free shipping and I have my "blaster" in hand.

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Post #1960 features Ray Boone's card from the '60 Topps set.  I always thought that Ray was a catcher, obviously confusing him with his son Bob whom I grew up watching in the 70's and 80's.  1960 was Ray's final year in MLB, splitting his time with the Braves and the Red Sox.

Not a bad card, a bit lopped off the bottom left corner, but no doubt I bought it for cheap a few years ago.  It'll do if I ever decide to chase the '60T set...

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Let's Face it, there's a race to the finish line

In my extreme haste to get last night's post onto the blogosphere, I forgot to title it.  I've done that once or twice before, but usually catch the mistake before I actually hit publish.  Not yesterday, so my clumsiness was out there for the whole world to see for about 24 hours.

I'd love it if blogger actually gave you an error message, sort of like sending an email with no subject line.  Something like, hey dumbass you forgot the title, are you sure you want to publish this mess?  

Ok, fun over.  Kind of continuing last nights theme and making a quick post about another of my 10 sets that is closing in on completion, 2013-14 O-pee-Chee hockey.

The final 2 base cards on the bottom row came today via a small Sportlots order, and the other 6 above have arrived in the past couple of weeks.  This set is down to just 10 to go, nothing major price wise, but a pair of RCs will cost about $4-$5 apiece.  I'll probably wait a week or 2 and then go hunting and see if I can finish the set in one shot.

Not only is this set close to being done, 1978 Topps baseball is just about done and 1976 Topps is down to just a single card.   It is a race to the finish line.

As you can see I capitalized "Face" in the post title to celebrate another '59 Topps card coming in the house, that of Roy Face from the Pirates.  I decided to include a card from 1959 because this is my 1959th post on the blog. I'm going to try and post one card from a set that matches my post # until I hit 2000, which at the rate I'm posting should come in mid to late August.  

2000 posts means cake in this house.  I can't wait....

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

The post with no name

At the beginning of 2020, the 10th set on my completion list was 1974 Topps.  I was a bit worried whether I actually would finish the set, as I was still 92 cards away and really hadn't bothered with it over the previous few months.

The last 14 days have put those fears to rest.

In these 5 scans, I'm able to remove 39 cards from my want list.   If you look closely, I have Felix Millan in there twice, and surprisingly in both scans he's in the upper right corner.  Through trades and 8 cards from my COMC order, I'm down to just 40 cards to go for this set.  Yes, there's still names like Ryan (x2), Bench, Aaron(x3) and Rose for starters, but there's no major rookie cards left and still some commons on the list.

Shooting for this to be done by the end of August, or halfway through the 2020 baseball season.

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

This may be the easiest Father's Day post you read

First off, to all those who are fathers and reading this, Happy Father's Day.  Spent 30 minutes on video chat with my dad today, it was good seeing him for sure.

Now, 2 quick "milestones" in my collecting world:

Tommy Williams gets me to the 50% completion mark in my 71-72 OPC set build.  I enjoy this set each time I get another card in!!   Likely a year or 2 before this is finished.  No hurry.

The latest 7 from the '76 Topps set via COMC.   I'm now down to 3 on the want list.

Ron Guidry RC:  On its way to me via a TCDB trade
Tom Seaver:   Bought on ebay yesterday, should have by midweek

So that means that the final card to finish up my '76 Topps set is....

# 650--Thurman Munson

Hopefully have him in by the 4th of July if I can find a decent copy for cheap.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!  Be safe and have fun.

Robert

Serial Saturday #40: More 99's and a bit of hockey (finally)

I've had more luck adding football and baseball to the serial #'d out of 99 collection.  Even basketball up until today had more than double the amount of cards than hockey.  My latest order from COMC has remedied this, as well as one deal from Canada that added a Maple Leaf player to the set!

I imagine the 2017 UD Maple Leafs Centennial release was very popular in southern Ontario, but I've seen very little of it down here in the swamp.  This Mike Walton exclusives parallel was a very nice add via a trade on the TCDB.

If this wasn't part of the '99 set, this Craig Anderson likely would have been part of my goalie mask frankenset, as he's sporting a design that mirrors the old school Ottawa Senator's jersey he's wearing.  I love when goalies go the extra mile with their masks and create special occasion designs.

Another UD release I haven't seen much of here, this 17-18 UD Overtime red parallel featuring the Sabres Jason Pominville was an easy pickup at around $1 on COMC.

I imagine if I'm patient, I can add quite a few cards from the Panini Certified sets of the early 10's to this collection.  Teddy Purcell was very cheap, under $1 and is a mirror blue parallel from 2011-12.

This card looks much better in hand, the red parallel of Latavius Murray from the 2016 Donruss Optic set.  The white script of Murray's name is just as hard to read in person as it is on the scan, but held at the right angle the red really has a nice shine to it and looks real nice.  70 cents is all this cost me, like they were giving it away.

Last up is a future Hall of Famer, Antonio Gates of the Chargers. This is from the 2013 Topps Triple Threads set, and was a penny cheaper than the Murray card above it.   From memory, a good portion of the football that I have in this collection is from Panini, so seeing something from Topps is a nice change.

Hopefully in the next week I'll have a list of unique serial #'s out of 99 that I need to fill out the 1-99 challenge that I've decided to pursue.

It still amazes me that I have 65 cards for this little challenge of mine already.  Almost makes me think that 100 by the end of 2020 is a distinct possibility.

Stay safe and enjoy the hobby!!

Robert