Thursday, December 31, 2015

Listia - Golden parallels and others

Hello,

As we wind down the end of 2015 and celebrate 2016 (I, having two children under the age of six will hopefully be asleep at midnight, though with the sleeping patterns of children, I place it at 50/50 odds) I thought I would share some recent cards I won on Listia.

I found out about Listia during the summer from a couple mentions on other card blogs, and thought it was worth checking out. Over the six or so months I have been on there, I have yet to spend any money on the site, instead taking surveys and clicking offers etc, and have come up with a couple hundred cards, at least, for my collection. Without thinking of the time I put into the surveys, here are some of the cards from the recent wins...

I already have the Norris Rookie, but like the card and the price was right. As for the Alomar Hostess from 1993, I hadn't seen it before so wanted to pick it up.





 
Couldn't say no to some more gold parallels, especially Leaf ones, as well as a couple other cards that went for cheap.

I hope you and yours have a wonderful New Years Eve and a great star to the new year!

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Everyone enjoys a 6-pack

For some it would be in the form of beer, but I will take mine in the form of a six pack of hockey cards from Listia. I keep an eye out for inserts and parallels in general, and if they go cheep enough, look to grab them. I was able to get the following six Mike Richards cards for 4,040 points which wasn't too shabby.




Okay - only 5 are inserts, but close enough. I generally like the look of the gold medallion cards, simple but effective as a parallel set - though I could imagine how gawdy the entire set together would look! I always thought Richards was a very good player - shame he played for Philadelphia though ;)

Monday, December 28, 2015

One shagadelic card (Bobby Orr)...and some Ausin Powers ones too

Hello, and welcome to the quick preview! Since this quite the lot of cards coming from Santa I will creatively refer to these as the Santa Lot of 2015.

So in getting Santa's gift first into the house, there were time items I took out right away - one because I wanted to get it right into my collection, the other because of the...um...uniqueness.




You can probably guess which is which. The Bobby Orr All-Star card is in acceptable condition given the age, and not one I would spend the money on buying - so this is the best way for me to get it into my collection. Although not really an insert, given it is an All-Star card, I will consider it such for my purposes. As for the Austin Powers cards, there were roughly 175 which I skimmed off of the haul, the ones scanned above just being a sampling.

I'll admin, I took a look at exactly what this Austin Powers game was and an intro video to see what it was about. Having learned and played Magic The Gathering, and currently learning Pokémon to play with my son who is interested in it, I can honestly say - the Austin Powers game made no sense to me and I have no interest to play.

So, if anyone is interested in the Austin Powers cards, they are (unsurprisingly) up for trade.

I am hoping these two items are a sign of the wide range of stuff that the Santa Lot of cards will contain...should be interesting!

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Here we go go go go on an adventure...

Welcome, and for those who get the title - I presume you have young children, or at the very least, young hearts.

Think of the post as a preview and vision of why I am starting this blog. A couple years ago in clearing out storage in our furnace room, I came across my childhood sports cards (80s and 90s) and remembering my enjoyment of my youth wondered why I stopped collecting (then remembered high school, university, starting a career and a family kind of happened). As I started collecting, and looking to trade, I came across www.tradingcarddb.com. As a nerd, having a place to track my collection was amazing - then using it to make trades and finding such a great community if collectors was awesome. I find myself now wanting to be a part and do my part in this community (so I guess I was looking actively to do community service....).

I do some trades and spend some time on Listia, but didn't think it would provide a lot of material for a blog. Then Kijiji and this Christmas happened. Word has it Santa rather than get his elves to make something, was nice enough to fine a lot of approximately 15,000 mostly sports cards for $70CDN - how could anyone say no to that gift?

So as much as I will post about trades and Listia, I figure that over the first year or so, I will document exploration of this haul, but also provide a venue for getting rid of some of the haul as well. As I collect baseball and hockey, I will have no use of the football and basketball and although it was noted as 90% hockey - at rough glance I would say 60% hockey, 10% baseball and 30% other - I'd love to convert what others can use into something else for my collection. Here is the whole collection...



I am sure it will be an interesting haul, and I will get one or two preview posts up before the new year, but otherwise - let the fun begin January 1st....

Can somebody prepare the thinga-ma-jigger?

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

One card post, but it's a goodie!

A posting is always easier if there is more material, which usually means more cards to discuss. In this case, I don't think that is necessary. As I mentioned in a couple posts already, I use Listia to get cards here and there.

I typically collect point by doing surveys, so to me, although there is some time put into the surveys, not a lot of cost to me in collecting points. I spent the most points I ever have recently on a single auction, and did it on a single card which was this:



I wouldn't spend the money on such a card generally, but to put points up to get it - no problem. I guess I don't value my time that much...but it feels cheaper. It is the oldest card I have now, and is in pretty good condition though very off centre obviously.

With that - Merry Christmas and happy holidays - I will be back on boxing day - see you all then!

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Collecting cheap

If I spent the kind of money I am probably able to on the cards I would really like to have, I could run through a lot of money. I'm sure the same is likely true for a lot of you as well.

So part of the challenge I make for myself is trying to collect on as small a budget as possible which includes;
- when trading by mail, trying to stuff envelopes to get as much as possible for the cost of a stamp
- using Listia for free cards
- looking for great deals on bulk cards to get more bang for my buck

Yes, for collecting cards, I am cheap and unashamed. I collect for the fun and enjoyment, making friends and connecting with others who enjoy the hobby, and to have some nifty cards I enjoy and can share with others who enjoy them.

So, keeping that in mind - I have one question for you...how best do you trade cards by PWE (plain white envelope - took me a while to get that acronym...) to send more safely?

For my 2 cents - I can send 14-16 cards in side by side stacks, plastic wrapped to a cardboard support from Canada to the US or within Canada for the price of one stamp. Alternatively I re-use pack wrappers. Any other thoughts or methods, just leave them in the comments.

Lastly, since I should show some cards - this is a card blog after all - here are three quick Listia pick ups I received recently for my Blue Jays and hockey insert/parallel collections...



Interesting comparison between the new, busy Topps design and action shot compared to the Fleer '82 action shot of...listening to your bat...or watching batting practice...or whatever it is that Danny is paying attention too...

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Dollarama-rama

So in Canada we don't have nearly the choice of cards when it comes to dollar stores and the like. Typically you can find one of three items at dollar stores; 15 random hockey cards for $1, PressTine surprise bag/box packages for $2, or sometimes, team specific and set specific packs of 5 cards for $1.25.

I do like these 5 card packs when I don't have any cards from the set as I can usually pick up two or three packs of Toronto cards and get a good start on the team set.  Recently I picked up two packs of 2015-16 O-Pee-Chee Toronto packs and here are a few highlight pictures:



I generally like the simplicity of the O-Pee-Chee cards from the last few years, and I like the extra splash of colour on the backs with the Toronto blue as it adds a nice accent. The packs are also nice because at a glance you can tell from the front and back card whether the packs are different (of the 30 or so packs there, there were only two different sets of five). So, at least it is easy to ensure no repeats. So - 10 cards down, and at a glance appears about 10-15 more to go for the team set!

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

80s O Pee Chee

Just a quick few cards I picked up. I really wanted to pick up the Tremblay card, and the others just went cheap enough. I will hang on to all of them for now, just because I don't have them yet and I am having a hard time trying to let go of cards I don't have doubles of. As much as I know I want to narrow my collection down, you never know when the need to have a 1982-83 O Pee Chee Dave Taylor card will just pop up.




At the very least, I mam trying to narrow down what I pick up on Listia so I don't end up with a lot of items outside of what I am really trying to collect. Hopefully I can stick to it...

Sunday, December 13, 2015

OK...you win...

Rather than holding off until after the holidays to begin - I will just keep going now. You will see starting on boxing day what my original plan for this blog was, and still largely is, but I have enough to discuss before then that I will just keep going....

With it being Sunday (yay for weekends while I still have them - being a Chartered Professional Accountant in Canada with an accounting firm means February through April will include many 6 day, or possibly 7 day work weeks) let's take a look at some recent Listia acquisitions fit the week.

I picked up a couple shiny gold Ultra parallel cards...

 
Also saw an Magic Artifact card going cheap, so picked that up...

 

I always enjoyed Magic and since getting back into it, try and play games here and there when I can. I started back when revised was out in 1994 (I should have thought to just buy boosters and save them 20 years, but hindsight is 20/20). I originally played with green decks build on speed and regeneration, but moved to straight artifacts and a plodding drawn out game.

Side note - most expensive card I have and a staple of my desk is a Mishra's Workshop I get as a gift in 1997. My friends bought it for me for $30 - worth a bit more than that now, I just wish I could invest in stocks as well as that...

OK - a bit side tracked there...but lastly, I picked up the following:

 






 A nice serial numbered rookie card. Although I find it a bit ridiculous how many different parallels and such there are these days. It is still a neat feeling when you know, at most, only 62 other people have the same card you are holding...

That's why I find 1/1s so interesting, yet at the same time infuriating from a collection stand point because I can never have all 1/1s for the teams I collect...oh well...but I can still try...


Saturday, December 12, 2015

The lesser knowns and a perfect wallet card!

This last post related to the package of Jays cards I received from Tigerfan22 through the tradingcarddb.com website will focus on lesser known Jays and unique (to me) cards. Let me just show these short term Jays:




Most of these are Jays I didn't know were Jays, though Zosky and Battle were supposed to be more than they ended up being from what I recall. The Battle card is also the first Cream of the Crop card I'd ever seen, and definitely looks a bit better in person compared to the scan.

Lastly, the snazziest card if the pack has to be the Shawn Green 1994 Studio Gold card. Awesome for the credit card look and feel, but also because the state line is pretty horrible - .091 average - yikes. The look of the card does seem to make it better thought.




I am quite tempted to use this as a wallet card to carry around - just seems so appropriate given it does have the same plastic feel as a credit card. First one of these I had ever seen, very unique design - enough I quite like it.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Into the 90s...

The rest of the cards are a bit mixed that I received from Tigeran22 (my doing, on opening them and getting them a bit out of order) so, there may be a bit more jumping around in time, but either way, we will get through everything.

I miss the 90s. I think everyone has a favourite decade or time of their lives they reminisce about. For me, definitely the 90s. I was 10 in 1990 so the 90s were my childhood. I was in high school the second half of the 90s which was a great time looking back especially with friends that have since drifted away and moved apart.

Baseball in the 90s was innocent (at the time). As a kid, I didn't hear about steroids and "the juice" - other than OJ - was too much of that...

Though hating the bash brothers, enjoying el presidente while disliking the expos were things, it was WAMCO that resonated with me. The great Jays starting line up of:

White

Alomar













Molitor













Carter













Olerud













(later added to with Hendersen) was phenomenal to watch as a child, and be able to cheer as a home team. When I think Jays growing up, this is the line up that comes to mind.

Don't get me wrong, there were always additional important pieces as well:

So a number of nice 90s cards reminding me of the "good old days" in Toronto. Hopefully the push last year won't mean a set back to succeed this year as some good young talent went, especially in getting Price into a Jays uniform temporarily.

Also included was a full team set of 1990 Bowman (I didn't have any beforehand) so that was nice to get and complete as well. I didn't expect to start this blog off with making such a dent in my Jays collection - but I'm not complaining!