RAK 'em up

Roughly a week ago I received a bubble mailer and looked at the name, it was somewhat familiar but I couldn't quite place him.

Knew Mike from Quakertown from somewhere, but just couldn't put my finger on from where.  Didn't think it was TCDB, didn't have anything on order from ebay or Sportlots, so I was left scratching my head until I opened it.

Mike had sent me an envelope before, and I know him from twitter as @ugxtall88.  This envelope was pretty good, as he has paid attention to my likes and sets I'm working on!  Check out the great envelope of random goodness...

A trio of '72 Topps needs!  I'm slowly pecking away at the '72 set, but it's almost to the point now where in the next year or 2 it could become a serious attempt at completion.  Especially love the Don Money photo with the pitcher throwing BP in the background.

Hockey was a big focus in the envelope, and much like the 85-86 OPC set I'm slowly chipping away at, the 82-83 set is another that's starting to take some shape.  Still a very long way to go as I'm not even 1/6th of the way in, but seeing these cards come in always elicits a smile, especially cards of coaches that played in the NHL, namely Marc Crawford on the left.  Marc played parts of 6 seasons in the NHL, but is much more noted for his 1169 games behind the bench, and being the head coach of the 95-96 Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.

These two cards I scanned together to show the ends of the spectrum you get in this envelope.  The Conn Smythe Trophy on the left is from the 72-73 OPC set, something I will start to work on eventually but hasn't been really on the radar at all.   On the right is the card I tweeted to let Mike know I received the envelope, a 92-93 Joe Sakic Pro Set Puck card.  Something that's been on my want list for a very long time, and if I had a top 10 wanted card list for my player collections, this would have been on it.

These 4 photos I also wanted to scan together, as they may not look like much, but they meant a lot to me to get.  The top 3 are Topps team checklists from the 70's, when my Maple Leafs fandom started.  The middle card is the 77-78 team list, and I love how the put on the inset a photo of Mike Palmateer inside a Maple Leaf instead of just a plain old circle or box.

At the bottom is a Panini sticker from 89-90 of Maple Leaf Gardens, the locale where I watched many a game from the South Red seats over the years.   Affectionately known to Torontonians as the "Carlton St. Cashbox", I fully blame it for the ache in my knees as I got older due to the cramped seating.  Will never trade memories of watching games in there though!!

Maple Leafs and goalies, another great combination here.  Mike certainly has paid attention.  Seeing the Grant Fuhr Pinnacle Mask card in the upper left reminded me that I should be trying to get that subset for my collection, as there was some great mask art in there.

Last up?   Another copy of one of my favorite Jim Thome cards, a duplicate yes but if I ever decide to put together the '08 A&G set someday, it won't be a need.

Mike, thank you for the Random Act of Kindness envelope, it truly was appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

A bit of Sakic RAK

The card community on Twitter is a very strong one, and once in a while it reminds me that it's a generous one as well.

I received a message from Mike a couple weeks back (@ugxtall88 is his twitter handle) saying that he had some Joe Sakic cards I may need for the PC.   Didn't want to be too greedy, but said that his 2nd scan of 5 cards were ones that I needed, and I asked him what was he looking for in return.

All he asked for was my address so he could send them to me.   Nice!!

1996-97 Donruss Canadian Ice O Canada die cut insert, #'d out of 2000!  I've wanted this card for a long time, but thought it overpriced on a lot of sites, even though it's serial #'d.   I decided to look today on COMC, and it's a lot cheaper than I remember it being, so maybe prices are starting to come down a bit on these.

1995-96 Donruss Elite Die Cut insert, another cart I've been hunting for a while but hadn't found any copies cheap enough to warrant grabbing.   I already have the base card that matches this, so the only card I need from this set is the Uncut Die Cut (oxymoron??) that's going for around $20.

1995-96 Select Certified Gold Team card.  Another card I've been wanting for a long time but too unwilling to pull the trigger on.  Now it's here to stay.

1997-98 Select Certified Cornerstone.  This card I don't ever recall seeing while hunting for Sakic cards, so this was a very nice add to the collection.   I didn't even have it on my TCDB want list so I'm sure I've probably passed by it many times but never really took notice.

2002-03 Pacific Atomic is a set I've always liked and I now just need the red and blue parallels for the rainbow for this set.  This card is a lot more sturdy than I remember that set being, so I'm wondering if it's a parallel that I'm not aware of.

Closing in on the 800 card plateau, just 6 more to hit the mark.  I probably have jersey cards lying around somewhere that I haven't bothered to put on the TCDB site, maybe that's a project I should get around to doing sometime this week.

Thank you for the Sakic's Mike!!  They are really appreciated!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

Sportscards from the Great White North

This is the first of two posts featuring random acts of kindness from fellow collectors.  This package came totally out of the blue from fellow blogger Doug from the Sportscards from the Dollar Store blog, and as he always does, hits every spot on the checklist.

Random Toronto stuff, including the great hair of Lourdes Gurriel Jr., the 8 Stanley Cups of Red Kelly, the multiple 100 RBI seasons from Joe Carter and the last Leaf to score 50 goals in a season, Dave Andreychuk.

A very nice start on the 2006-07 Parkhurst Leaf team set, featuring 6 of the base cards and 1 of the serial #'d Captains card, featuring Toronto's first 50 goal scorer Rick Vaive.  Rick still has the record of 54 goals in a season as a Leaf, which has lasted nearly 40 years now.

I've added the remainder of the Parkhurst Maple Leaf team set to my want list on TCDB, which is another project I'll have to get around to working on some day.

You know, I took a look at these 4 cards and thought, "I guess these are just some random cards from my player PC's".   Nope.   Needed all 4, although with my Mitch Marner collection still only less than 2 pages in length that's not hard to do.  But the Sakic and the Fitzgeralds were needed, and those collections are much larger so these are great to have.

But check this last card out....

This scanned absolutely fantastic!!  I was enamored with it in hand as well, of course.   It's the 2019 Panini Legacy violet parallel, #'d 1 out of 10.  Just wow!!!  The most limited card of my Fitzgerald collection, which is now up to 353.

Doug never ceases to amaze.   Thank you very much Doug, the cards are really appreciated!!!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

I really Doug this PWE

A few days ago a PWE with no return address showed up in my mailbox.   I wasn't expecting anything at all from north of the border, but when I saw the postmarked city, I knew that this envelope was going to be great.

Doug from Sportscards from the Dollar Store sends me great stuff every once in a while, and this envelope was no exception.

All but one of the cards in the envelope featured Maple Leafs from various years and sets.  Love the top row, all Artifacts from this year, which is good because this is the first year in a long time that I hadn't bought any Artifacts blasters or packs.  Middle row features a pair of Glenn Anderson cards from his brief tenure as a Leaf, and a 09-10 OPC short print featuring Doug Gilmour.  Need it!
Bottom row features a couple from this year's UD series 1, neither of which I own, and a high number 09-10 OPC rookie of Viktor Stalberg.  I knew that Stalberg had bounced around the NHL the past few years, but I had no idea where he is now.   Stalberg is in the KHL with Avangard Omsk, teammates with a player he was traded for by the Leafs, Kris Versteeg.

More OPC goodness from the 09-10 set up top; 4 out of the 5 I needed for the set build (Jason Blake goes into the Leaf portion of the pile).  I don't recall if I have any of the Maple Leafs Centennial cards, but I'd seen them on blogs and on Twitter and really liked the look of them.  Now I have Bill Berg and Freddie Modin from that set.   I believe I already have Mitch Marner's card from this year's OPC, so he'll go into the Leaf pile.   Mikhail Grabovsky is a retro from the 09-10 OPC set as well.  Retro's are something I'll never turn down....

Two cards that I could never find down here in S. Florida finish off the post.  The William Nylander card is from the 17-18 Upper Deck MJ Holdings set (video on You Tube here), while the Joe Sakic card was part of the 2015 National Hockey Card Day in Canada.   Both of them are great additions to my collection. 

Thank you as always Doug, the cards are really appreciated (especially those that I'd never see here)!

Thanks for reading!

Robert