The new kid in town, some PC stuff, and more Blue Jays

I was going to break down the 2nd box of 02-03 Quest for the Cup tonight, but I decided on a quick post instead.  (Yes, in other words, I got lazy).

First off, I wanted to send a shout out to Nathan at the new blog Big 44 cards who sent me a ton of series 2 needs in the mail.   Between those and a trip to the LCS today, I have managed to reduce the want list for that set to 8 cards.  The 2013 Heritage list is also smaller as well, there's only 5 cards left to go.  I will probably make a quick purchase from Sportlots to get rid of those two sets.

Nate, thank you very much for the cards!  They are appreciated.

I also received some series 2 earlier in the week from Bert at Swing And A Pop-Up.  Bert was also kind enough to throw in a trio of gold cards from the '93 Topps set, which are great of course because they feature 3 members of the World Series champion team from '92.

Nothing but stiffs.   Thank you Bert!!

The trip to the LCS also netted me a few cards for the Sakic and Thome PCs.  I'll show off one card of each, both of which are horizontal shots that I really like.

First the Thome, card # 147 from the 1995 Topps Stadium Club set.

It appears that Jim has been thrown out at 2nd base (a guess on my part), and it appears that he's about to throw his helmet in disgust.  Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen a shot like this on a baseball card.

The Thome PC has been neglected for quite a while now.   I'm going to start looking here and there for more cards of his.  I was able to pick up 4 today, all of them base cards, but there's a ton more to go. 

Next up, the Joe Sakic card, # 54 from the 2007-08 Upper Deck set.

I can't say for sure, but it appears that Rollie the goalie is in trouble.   This card is one of the thousands of reasons that I have always loved Upper Deck hockey.  The picture is absolutely fantastic. 

I picked up 5 more Sakic's today, which brings me over the 290 card mark for my long time PC.  This is another guy that I need to start adding more of to my collection.

Definitely a great final (paid) day of my vacation.   Back to reality on Monday.

By the way, reality will probably equal more cards with a break in between to work for eight hours.

Thanks for reading, Robert

2002-03 Quest for the Cup: Box 1

I will say that not only did I enjoy finding these two boxes at a Target store on the cheap, but they were really fun to open .

It also didn't hurt that the collation appears to be really good (or I was really lucky).   Here's the spoils from the first hobby box:

The Chasing the Cup inserts are seeded at 1:5 packs.  With a 24 pack box, it appears that 5 of these is just about right.  The cards look great, I like that the colors match the team color as well.  Even better for me is to see guys in old uniforms, such as Thornton in a Bruins uni, and Heatley in a Thrashers jersey. 

The Calder Contenders insert set is seeded 1:13 packs, so again getting 2 of these was just about right on the money.  I know that 3rd jerseys are/were a big thing in the NHL, but sometimes the design isn't worth the money spent on it.  The Oilers 3rd jersey of the gear with an oil drop in the center may be one of the worst alternates ever.

Now, not only was this my favorite insert set of the 3, but I beat the odds in this box as well.  The Raising the Cup insert was seeded 1:9 packs, and to pull 4 of these in a box of 24 is a good haul.  Not only did I pull 4 of them, but I managed to grab 3 HOFers, and a Peter Forsberg as well. 

I pulled the standard 5 rookie cards, numbered out of 950.  It's kind of funny to see Dennis Seidenberg in a Flyers uniform, I'm sure that the way he's played the past couple of years in the playoffs for the Bruins has made the Flyers braintrust wish they still had him.

 
The entire 150 card set also has a gold parallel, #'d out of 325.  As you can see, I didn't fare too badly with the cards I pulled, especially with the Rick Nash Gold RC.  I had forgotten about Marc Denis, whose career finished about 5 years ago.  Turns out that the 2002-03 season is one that Denis was very busy with.  Marc led NHL goaltenders in GP, minutes, shots, saves and goals allowed.

I like the jersey cards because they are understated.  Nothing flashy, and the swatches happen to be colored, not the standard white pieces we generally see.  10 years later, the Brent Johnson leaves a little something to be desired, but the Modano and the Blake cards are both good additions.   These are seeded 1:9 packs, so I did better than I should have, getting 3 of these in the box.

7, 31, 69, and 98 are the only 4 cards I need to complete the 100 card base set.  No doubles at all.  With my poor luck in putting together sets in modern products, opening a product like this was really fun. 

2 boxes worth of fun.   I'll post the next box in a day or two.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Lump Day

It's not too often that I'm fortunate enough to spend an entire day doing nothing.  That is what I did today though, because I felt I deserved it.  Every day since my vacation started last Saturday, I had driven for at least one hour during the day. 

I finished reading a book, and just spent the entire day doing what you should do when you're on time off. 

I enjoyed myself.  Part of enjoying myself was cracking a hobby box of this:

As you can see, I'm still having trouble with the phone, but the box you see is a 2002-03 Pacific Quest for the Cup Hobby box.  I picked this up at Target (yes, you read that right) when I visited my mom the other day.  Now, why I can't seem to pick up any boxes like this at the big box stores in the US is beyond me, but I was quite happy to plunk down $35 Cdn. in order to bring this home.  (EDIT:  I would end up buying 2 of these)

I'm not going to make an attempt to take any more pictures with my iPhone, and since I'm heading back home tomorrow, I'll be sure to post some pics from an actual scanner. 

I did do quite well on the box break, beating the odds on both the rookie cards I pulled (Ryan Miller and Rick Nash), along with 3 jersey cards. 

You'll get a breakdown on the break tomorrow, these cards do really look nice and I am really looking forward to showing them off.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Serial Insanity cards 911-915

With these 5 cards, the set is now at 61 % complete.  What's even better for me is that I have a lot of cards still to post and write about.  1100 by the end of the year is still somewhat realistic.

Enjoy these next 5...

Card #911:  Jayson Werth

Serial Number:  1372
Team:  Washington Nationals, card # 42 out of 50

I do remember that he was Blue Jays property at one time, however I didn't remember the name of the guy the Jays traded for him (John Bale), or the fact that Bale had a double digit ERA in his brief appearances with the Jays.  Jayson was then traded for another Jason, Frasor that is.  I'd like to think that the Jays did all right with that deal as well, even though Werth became quite the slugger with the Phillies.


Card #912:  Domonic Brown

Serial Number:  102
Team:  Philadelphia Phillies, card # 27 out of 50

Proof positive as to what every day playing time can do for a budding young star.   Over 3 previous seasons, Domonic appeared in 147 games in and hit 12 HR's with 102 hits.  So far in 2013?  108 hits and 26 HR's.   Not too shabby for a 20th rd pick.

Card #913:  Brent Morel

Serial Number:  343
Team:  Chicago White Sox, card # 26 out of 50

I'm guessing that the Sox have moved on from Morel being their future option at 3rd base.  It seems that Conor Gillaspie is for now the steady guy at the hot corner.  Maybe in a few years the Sox could chase down the next guy on the list to play 3rd for them. 


Card #914:  Pedro Alvarez

Serial Number:  1009
Team:  Pittsburgh Pirates, card # 31 out of 50

The scary part about this guy in 2013?  He hasn't gotten hot yet.  Pedro had a good run for a few weeks, but it didn't compare to the 2 weeks he had last July where he carried the team on his back.  The Pirates have him for one more year at $700K, then arbitration hits.  If his 2014 is anything like '12 and '13, the Pirates will be paying through the nose.

Card #915:  Tim Hudson

Serial Number:  322
Team:  Atlanta Braves, card # 33 out of 50

Is 250 wins going to be the new benchmark for pitchers?  Hudson is 45 wins away from that number, and at age 37 he'd have to last probably 3 more seasons to hit that number.   Hard to believe that the game has changed so much that we may have seen the end of the 300 game winner.  The only person that I see that is young enough to have a realistic shot at 300 wins is CC Sabathia (200 wins at age 32).

Thanks for reading, Robert

The card show spoils...this will be quick

It seems that my card show fears came to fruition on Sunday.   I don't remember the last time I only spent 30 minutes at a card show.  I'm sure that part of the short time that I spent there was my fault, because I expected to go in and find a table or two that had modern singles that I could poke through.  When that didn't happen, I let my disappointment get the better of me.

There was a couple of tables that had stuff to look through, but as far as trying to complete some recent sets, that wasn't going to happen.  I did find some high numbered singles from last year's OPC hockey set, reasonably priced at a buck apiece...

It was kind of inadvertent that half of the Legends cards that I bought were Islanders. 

I did wind up having a good conversation with the first dealer that I came across.  Turns out that he's also a Joe Sakic collector, and he relayed his excitement to me of a great In the Game two swatch, 5 color Sakic card 1/1 that he pulled.  I asked if he had any higher end Sakic's for sale, and he said that anything he pulls goes into his collection.  Too bad for me.

The only other table I hit had the Legend's cards you see above, plus a bunch of 2013-14 OPC hobby boxes at $60 apiece.  With the boxes already seeming to dry up, I figured I better grab one while I can.

The only other singles I bought at the show were some basic Sakic's that I needed for the PC, with my favorite one being  a 2006-07 the Cup base card, #'d to 249.

At least I have my monthly card show at the mall back home starting up again at the beginning of September.  It will be nice to be in the comfort of familiar surroundings again.  It will be nice to be able to pick up some singles from sets I'm working on again.

I guess, in this case, I will be able to go home again.

Thanks for reading, Robert