Sunday, April 30, 2017

The roof...the roof and a quick box showing...

The end of the month is here - and man, am I out of gas.

A somewhar short and sweet post today with three one-off wins from Listia from the past week or so to start...oh and last chance today to enter my quickie contest...see this post http://craziejoescardcorner.blogspot.ca/2017/04/a-bit-of-everything-and-post-500-contest.html for details.

All of these were needs for the Jays collection, so happy to get them, and being early Jays cards too is nice.


Love the simple design and large pic, even if it is all face instead of an action shot. Also my first 1977 Jay. I have mot of 1978, but for whatever reason, had yet to end up with any 77s



Another set poorly under represented - I only had a couple so this is a nice add...



As is this.

With end of April, I also picked up a box...

The second such box I picked up, in hopes the packs would be different than the first. I cannot remember exactly, but this looks almost identical...

One of these...


Two of these...


Four of these...


And the one ÈextraÈ...


So, at least some pack to open here later if nothing else, but not sure I am getting my $25 or so out of this....

Again, sorry for the short post...it will get better in May!


Saturday, April 29, 2017

Another cabz ride

It has been a while since I traded with cabz05 at TCDB. He had disappeared for more than half a year, but was back and active on the site, and fortunate enough to want to football cards I had, so I got some cards for my collection - baseball AND hockey!

What exactly did I get, well let's see....



Let's start with the oldest first....these 1981 Topps stickers. Although I don't think I will ever really go out of my way to collect stickers, I will have no problem getting them in trades like this.



One of these cards is not like the others....Otis Nixon is here because I am passively looking to complete the 1986 Topps Traded set - I have about 20 card needs left for the 132 card set.



A splattering of junk wax Jays that were still needs, including the very young Bowman cards of Timlin and Hentgen.



Yeah - I was out of really collecting even by time these came out which is why I still need them now. Personally, I like the city landscape backing...not that I am going to show them here...man, should have thought of that when I was scanning...



As much as I like early Delgado cards for the smile and youth, how do you not love the Alomar full out dive?



These are the last of the Jays which touch on a couple sets that I have, within the last few months gotten my first cards from - 2002 Fleer Platinum and 2001 MVP.

That wasn't it either, there wee a few Leaf card as well!



I had never seen these Gilette cards before, so a nice few pick ups there. Add in the 94-95 Ultra which scan horribly, and these Leafs are awesome little adds for me.

Definitely a cabz ride I would take again in the future!

Friday, April 28, 2017

A bit of everything and Post 500 contest!

A good day - the last real push day for personal tax returns. The deadline being the 30th, is actually May 1st, but our firm works hard to be done by the end of today so that the weekend is really about processing returns and administratively checking everything off, dotting i's and crossing t's.Really, having to just clean up a little bit of everything.

Today's Santa Lot touches nicely, on a little bit of everything - an excellent day.

Highlights:

First card out of 1999 Skybox Premium baseball that I've seen, and coming out of the Santa Lot. Very nice, and much better on the subtle white cloudy corner border than 2016 Topps base cards did. Doesn't detract from the card at all.

The obligatory Leaf card, and throw in a few 2008-09 O Pee Chee retro parallels make for a great pull out of the cards today.

The rest
Keepers:

Even these have a great variety between 1998-99 Upper Deck, Upper Deck Gold Reserve from the same set, a touch of Pacific, a touch of Be A Player, and some 2008-09 Ultra.

Traders:

Generally haven't had enough of 2007 Topps Heritage to come out with many double, but we get one here. Oh...and hello again Austin Powers cards...not a new one, and frankly at this point, I am only looking for the couple I am missing in order to "complete the set".

Now, to commemorate my 500th post, I have an unopened pack of baseball cards and one of hockey  - I will leave the sets a surprise - nothing overly spectacular, but wanted to do a little something to commemorate post 500, so winner can pick a either and I will send that pack. The contest - quick and easy:

1) For Monday May 1st's Santa Lot 20 - guess the total number when the card numbers are added together (if the number has any letter in it or has no number, the card will count as zero). An example would be the last card here - the Modin 2007 Upper Deck hockey card is card number 277)

2) Put your guess in the comments in this post below before 11:59pm EST Sunday night - so you have the weekend to think about it and get your number in.

3) First person to pick a number gets it, and only one guess per person.

4) If two people are the same amount away (ie. if it is 250 and people guess 249 and 251) the winner is the closest without going over - that will be the tie breaker and I will refer to it as The Price Is Right rule.

I will contact the winner later early next week to get logistics and send out the pack.

Have fun! Also - the timing of this works out really well with the end of my busy season at work - wish I could say I planned it that way, but I didn't.

Through 7700 cards:
Specific Accomplishments:
- Complete 2003-04 SP Authentic Basketball (90 card pure base)
- Complete 2005 Upper Deck Classics (100 card pure base)
- 3 Complete 2007-08 UD McDonald's Hockey Checklist Subsets (6 cards)
- 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Hockey #30 Bobby Orr (All-Star)
- 2004-05 Upper Deck Legends Classics Platinum #64 Marcel Dionne Platinum 06/10
- 2007-08 Topps 1957-58 Variations Basketball  #112 Kevin Durant (Rookie)
Hockey Baseball Basketball Football Austin Powers Other
Toronto 123 14
Inserts / Var Kept 285 30
Error 15 2
Keep 1578 228
Doubles/Sell 1087 151 1282 2230 262 27
Doubles Inserts / Var 90 1 98 197

Thursday, April 27, 2017

A masterpiece-ful return

A nice return to a great set we saw a lot of a while ago.

Highlights:

I love getting the 2008-09 Masterpieces cards, one, because they are great, two because it gives me renewed hope that we may just get this set moved further along. How can you not love that SUtter card?

Add in a new Leaf card in the 2008-09 Victory Steen, and a new 2006-07 McDonalds card, makes for a winning day.

The rest
Keepers:

I will keep this 2005 Donruss Heroes baseball card, but close look on the side, and my guess is the "splitting" of these cards must be a thing because you can definitely see the front and back as two pieces stuck together - not a great way to produce the cards if you can just tell the two pieces.

Traders:

Keeping up with the Masterpieces, the Messier is definitely a worthwhile dupe.

Through 7680 cards:
Specific Accomplishments:
- Complete 2003-04 SP Authentic Basketball (90 card pure base)
- Complete 2005 Upper Deck Classics (100 card pure base)
- 3 Complete 2007-08 UD McDonald's Hockey Checklist Subsets (6 cards)
- 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Hockey #30 Bobby Orr (All-Star)
- 2004-05 Upper Deck Legends Classics Platinum #64 Marcel Dionne Platinum 06/10
- 2007-08 Topps 1957-58 Variations Basketball  #112 Kevin Durant (Rookie)
Hockey Baseball Basketball Football Austin Powers Other
Toronto 122 14        
Inserts / Var Kept 282 30        
Error 15 2        
Keep 1571 227        
Doubles/Sell 1086 150 1277 2230 261 27
Doubles Inserts / Var 90 1 98 197    

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Simply Golden

Continuing a spattering of late 00s O Pee Chee parallels we get a couple more in the highlights from the Santa Lot today. A nice continuation as I continue to try and keep my sanity with a few days left to go this month...

Highlights:

Obviously really happy to get the Sundin card for the Leaf collection - the light blue tint plays so well off the Leaf colours on these anyway.

The rest
Keepers:

Excellent number of new to me cards today. For the simplicity, the Upper Deck cards do well with the full pics.

Traders:

Miss the "traded with" from O Pee Chee cards being different from Topps.

Countdown continues to month end....so....tired...

Through 7660 cards:
Specific Accomplishments:
- Complete 2003-04 SP Authentic Basketball (90 card pure base)
- Complete 2005 Upper Deck Classics (100 card pure base)
- 3 Complete 2007-08 UD McDonald's Hockey Checklist Subsets (6 cards)
- 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Hockey #30 Bobby Orr (All-Star)
- 2004-05 Upper Deck Legends Classics Platinum #64 Marcel Dionne Platinum 06/10
- 2007-08 Topps 1957-58 Variations Basketball  #112 Kevin Durant (Rookie)
Hockey Baseball Basketball Football Austin Powers Other
Toronto 121 14
Inserts / Var Kept 281 30
Error 15 2
Keep 1561 226
Doubles/Sell 1080 150 1277 2229 261 27
Doubles Inserts / Var 90 1 98 197

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Keeping it big league

A while ago I was able to move out most (read "I think all of it, but maybe not) of my minor league hockey cards. Just an area I am not interested in keeping up - had to cut some things out. That said, I might still end up completing the 1991-92 QMJHL 7th Inning Sketch set. Only time will tell, but seems to be a chunk here are there still coming in.

Highlight:

A good solid keep - gold parallel 2008-09 O Pee Chee parallel.

The rest
Traders:

As I alluded to - a whole bunch of QMJHL minor league cards from the early 90s. Off the top of mu head, no one that rings any bells as far as major stars later in the NHL.

As for the 2009 Donruss Threads football - the more of these I get, the more I like the look of the cards - wouldn't be bad completing the set (and finding it a home).

Sorry to keep it short today, but likely going to be the case the next few days until busy season is done. Though just a quick note - I did get a chance to go through my 2007 Topps football - I had mentioned likely missing a 1st edition mark here or there. As it turns out, I just missed one...

I've updated the numbers below accordingly. Would have thought it likely I messed many more, but good that I didn't.

Through 7640 cards:
Specific Accomplishments:
- Complete 2003-04 SP Authentic Basketball (90 card pure base)
- Complete 2005 Upper Deck Classics (100 card pure base)
- 3 Complete 2007-08 UD McDonald's Hockey Checklist Subsets (6 cards)
- 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Hockey #30 Bobby Orr (All-Star)
- 2004-05 Upper Deck Legends Classics Platinum #64 Marcel Dionne Platinum 06/10
- 2007-08 Topps 1957-58 Variations Basketball  #112 Kevin Durant (Rookie)
Hockey Baseball Basketball Football Austin Powers Other
Toronto 120 14
Inserts / Var Kept 280 30
Error 15 2
Keep 1551 226
Doubles/Sell 1078 150 1274 2226 261 27
Doubles Inserts / Var 90 1 98 197

Monday, April 24, 2017

Finally something to keep

Well, Leafs did well in their series, but came up a bit short - not overly surprising, and honestly, they did very well in the series. I think the expectations will take a jump up next year considering how they meshed later this season and into the playoffs. Besides, being a huge Crosby fan (and similarly not a big fan of Ovi), will be happy to see the Pens get rid of the Caps again this year - I hope.

The Santa Lot has been a bit on the sad side with not getting anything for my collection - but that all changed today! Okay, not a big change, just one card to keep. Also, it isn't even good enough to be the highlight today anyway.

Highlight:

Electric Court parallel! I think the electric ice parallel made more sense for hockey, but I can go with this too. A decent overall card design, 2008-09 Upper Deck basketball, but the shiny foil overlay on the logo and letter is nice.

The rest
Keepers:

Yeah, of course the one keeper ends up being a Canadien. I will still take it at this point with the string of not so great luck. Hamrlik was a solid player (was picked number 1 overall in 1992, so he should have been a good player), and at least spent many years outside of Montreal.

Traders:



Almost put the 4 Crawfords in as a lowlight because well, there were four!

I think I like Turkey Red cards. Not 100% love them, but like them for the "being different and nice in a different way" appeal. Don't think I would want a straight write up on the back for all cards - still love all year stats on that part.

Getting more 2005 Upper Deck Classics Baseball won't get old. Nothing spectacular (because they are all dupes), but I think any cards from the set are solid.

Overall, a better day for starting the last week of madness in tax season...here's to hoping it keeps getting better.

Through 7620 cards:
Specific Accomplishments:
- Complete 2003-04 SP Authentic Basketball (90 card pure base)
- Complete 2005 Upper Deck Classics (100 card pure base)
- 3 Complete 2007-08 UD McDonald's Hockey Checklist Subsets (6 cards)
- 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Hockey #30 Bobby Orr (All-Star)
- 2004-05 Upper Deck Legends Classics Platinum #64 Marcel Dionne Platinum 06/10
- 2007-08 Topps 1957-58 Variations Basketball  #112 Kevin Durant (Rookie)
Hockey Baseball Basketball Football Austin Powers Other
Toronto 120 14
Inserts / Var Kept 279 30
Error 15 2
Keep 1551 226
Doubles/Sell 1067 150 1274 2219 261 27
Doubles Inserts / Var 90 1 98 196

Sunday, April 23, 2017

A quick pick....or pack

A quick share as I was able to pick up another addition to the Magic card pack collection with Modern Masters 2017. The Modern Masters sets are a step up in cost given they collect the supposedly best cards from the last few cycles of sets....



The packs run about $15 Canadian - a bit steep for a pack that will just sit as part of a collection, but does make it mean a bit more. Interesting to see if the value of these sets keeps or not. The 2015 set hasn't budged much in value over the couple years, but expect it would take a while to do so. That said, that doesn't matter to me as much as just collecting one pack from each set that had physical booster packs released.

Gotta have goals!

In my other card related news for today, I had a quick second trade with TCDB member CKBeber329. From the quick PWE I received the following...



Cards most have probably see enough of but the Pro Set are the French version which I did not yet have, and the Score are of the Canadian bilingual variety. The last card - the odd duck of the group - was an accidental want list card. New-ish feature on the TCDB is associating teams with junior cards so I ended up accidentally adding some minor league cards which were associated with the Leafs. Oh well, not a big deal and just something to watch for I guess. Regardless, another nice and efficient trade so I was happy!

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Dave is here man....

Just about a week to go, so forgive my short post today. I won a group of Leaf cards off Listia....all Dave!



I thought these were all new to me, but I actually already had the Power Players card, but not a problem to me. I always enjoyed Andreychuk - especially in NHL '94 for the Super Nintendo. I don't think the games at the time had quite the differences and intricacies of the game today, but there were definite differences in how some players played, and I always likes Dave's slapshot when playing Toronto (which was often). Good times...glad I still have my Super Nintendo still hooked up.

On that happy memory - have a great day, I'm off to work (actually probably already been there a few hours....or more...

Friday, April 21, 2017

Apparently I don't have to get anything...part 2!

But there is a highlight!

Yes - a silver lining...a glimmer of hope...

Highlights:


So, although there is nothing I care to keep that we are looking at today, there are some football inserts from 2009 Donruss Threads. Between the two sets, I like the Century Legends. I am a sucker for a quality San Fran QB..or Steve Young (just kidding). I came around on Steve Young before he ended his time in San Fran. I held it against him for trying to replace Montana (which of course was impossible). He ended up with a decent career I guess considering he was a first ballot Hall of Famer.

The century stars are fine and well, and have good star quality players, but from a design standpoint, the horizontal use loses a bit to me on these cards.

The rest
Traders:


Well, since the one error card which we saw from 2004-05 Ultra Basketball - I now look a lot closer at the Ultra cards I am pulling. For example, looking at all of the cards today, I can clearly see the foil stamping missing its mark by varying degrees.
- Even so slightly low on Reggie Miller
- Obviously high on Nene
- Obviously low on Jaric
- A little to the right on Blount
- Slightly right on Diaw as well...and Grant
- A bit high on Johnson

Dangit...now that I noticed it, every time I see one of these cards, and it isn't right on, it's going to irritate me....blast you Fleer and you failed foil stamping ability!

So I am not going to count these slight misses as errors - though I am tempted if they are well off (I have not idea how to quantify "way" in this situation). If it is missed completely - obvious error card, if it is stamped just a tweak off like these, I'd live with it just being lazy quality control I guess...thoughts?

Through 7600 cards:
Specific Accomplishments:
- Complete 2003-04 SP Authentic Basketball (90 card pure base)
- Complete 2005 Upper Deck Classics (100 card pure base)
- 3 Complete 2007-08 UD McDonald's Hockey Checklist Subsets (6 cards)
- 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Hockey #30 Bobby Orr (All-Star)
- 2004-05 Upper Deck Legends Classics Platinum #64 Marcel Dionne Platinum 06/10
- 2007-08 Topps 1957-58 Variations Basketball  #112 Kevin Durant (Rookie)
Hockey Baseball Basketball Football Austin Powers Other
Toronto 120 14        
Inserts / Var Kept 279 30        
Error 15 2        
Keep 1550 226        
Doubles/Sell 1065 146 1268 2213 261 27
Doubles Inserts / Var 90 1 97 196    

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Apparently I don't have to get anything...

Getting closer to the end of April - can almost see the finish line...well into working 12 hour plus days of personal taxes to get everyone filed on time. As much as I absolutely enjoy what I do, but the exhaustion is always something to have to fight through each year. Can't believe this is the 17th busy season I've gone through....and man, that makes me feel old...

So it is nice to be able to have a nice (though short) break and do a post here, and take a look at a few cards. Unfortunately nothing new today from the Santa Lot 20, so since these are all traqders, I figured I'd look at them by way of a review of "where are we now?"

1991 Upper Deck Football

These bring the number of cards I have in the set up to 431. If we remove the last 200 cards which were part of the update set, that marks us at 86% completion on the 500 card set. Doesn't factor in that I have 5-6 copies of a number of cards, but regardless, still can be an accomplishment.

2007 Score Select Football

Not a highly populated set - only 58 cards of the 430 - so 13.5%. Gather there will be more, but likely no where near even 50% complete by time we are done with the Santa Lot.

2007 Topps Football

328 of 440 cards to date so far. A set I think we are going to compete (though maybe give or take a card as I have traded away a few in exchange for cards for my collection....).

2008 Donruss Threads

43 of the first 150 cards in the base set are missing. Cards above this in the "base set" are serial numbered rookie cards and autos, so let's ignore those and just deal with potentially getting the 150 card true base set.

2005 Upper Deck Classics Baseball

No need for more of the first 100 cards as we have completed this set - though still hope for more of the Retro Rookie cards numbered 101-130.

2007 Upper Deck Hockey

So if we cut right down to consider just Series 2 - there are 23 cards of the 200-450 cards outstanding. I think, even if I get these, I wouldn't consider it a complete set, but it would give me reason to go after the series one cards as well.

Nice to check in on the progress of some of these, even if I wasn't able to add much from today's pulls. Hopefully there will be a little something better tomorrow.

Through 7580 cards:
Specific Accomplishments:
- Complete 2003-04 SP Authentic Basketball (90 card pure base)
- Complete 2005 Upper Deck Classics (100 card pure base)
- 3 Complete 2007-08 UD McDonald's Hockey Checklist Subsets (6 cards)
- 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Hockey #30 Bobby Orr (All-Star)
- 2004-05 Upper Deck Legends Classics Platinum #64 Marcel Dionne Platinum 06/10
- 2007-08 Topps 1957-58 Variations Basketball  #112 Kevin Durant (Rookie)
Hockey Baseball Basketball Football Austin Powers Other
Toronto 120 14        
Inserts / Var Kept 279 30        
Error 15 2        
Keep 1550 226        
Doubles/Sell 1065 146 1253 2213 261 27
Doubles Inserts / Var 90 1 97 191