The Simpsons

I wasn't allowed to watch The Simpsons when it first came out. My mom thought it was too crude, and she was probably right as I was only 9-10 years old when it first came out. Since she didn't want me to watch it, of course I went out of my way to try and catch it when I could.

To be honest - 9-10 year old me didn't get it, and after catching an episode or two, I didn't bother anymore.

That is, until I was about 13, then I watched it every day. It was in the model of that imperfect family which, at the core of it all, love each other and stick together, so it does have some good morals and message, though it covers it with crude hilarity.

Today, we have a complete set of 1990 Topps The Simpsons - all 88 base cards.

This isn't a set I ever would have gone out of my way to collect or put together, but when it falls in your lap, and is complete, no reason to get rid of it, especially since it is a solid subject matter.

Here is the full set in all it's glory...oh, and the style is so crude in comparison to the show today, it's crazy to see the different in the product. Not saying it was "bad" back then, just a completely different style.

I can appreciate the design incorporating the TV which was symbolic from the opening theme and sequence, but it does take up a lot of real estate. As for the scenes themselves, a wide variety of throw away lines and some that are more iconic from the early years.

The show is so iconic, I am sure everyone out there has at least seen an episode or two - but how closely did you follow or watch the Simpsons, and for how long?

Interesting that they were able to use "suck" for Maggie on the cards, I remember listening to early season commentary on the episodes and they had talked about the need to use something different like "thuck" or similar - I think it was wanted by the network, but don't quote me on it.

May not be an expensive set, but a nice little nostalgia set to stick away.

Predicting The Future

I'll get to the title later - first, this is a nice bunch of everything. We get a few Leaf cards that are all new additions for me.

Not a fan of the Parkhurst mid-90s International set, and wasn't really a fan of Larry Murphy, but both new additions for me.

I may not be a fan of the teal border on the 2003-04 O Pee Chee card, but like adding it to my set - I don't have enough early 00s O Pee Chee. The sets are not my favourite for look, but still gotta catch 'em all!

We get an ever so slight, but just enough miscut. Enough on the back to see it's miscut, but on the front, Ohlund is slightly losing his head.

Inserts? got some of those too with the nice Parkhurt Emerald from 1992-93. Still probably too many going to be missing to take a run at that parallel set, but did get some dupes...

Currently positioning that neither of these sets will show up in big enough numbers to push for collecting the set, and they aren't sets that excite me either, so not going to go out of my way to start collecting them.

We have some McD cards which are always nice to get. I am missing one "regular" card from the 1999-2000 set, but have the retro 15 card insert set completed. Maybe I'll find that last card here somewhere...

Lastly...

Figured I would show some of the backs of the 1997 Score Board Players Club set because, as you can see, they show some projections for the upcoming season.

What do you say we look at how that crystal ball turned out in a coupe cases...

Joe Smith 

                Projected                Actual

Games       82                        79

Rebounds  704                        471

Assists       114                        94

Steals         68                         62

Blocks        97                         51

PPG            17.8                    14.6

Also, Joe was traded middle of that year to Philly.

Dan Cleary

                Projected                Actual (Total)

Games      58                            40

Goals        47                            18

Assists      69                            32

Points       116                           50

PIMs        71                             20

Dan went between two minor league teams and some games in the NHL.

Well, not horrible on th projecting, but not good either. Never can tell how a year is going to go - just look at 2020 for a recent example!

Let's end today with the last envelope (I think...) from reader Ken. Unlike the first two which were Topps Gold related, this one is all Canada...and mostly Jays...

A bunch of fabulous early Blue Jays cards here to add. The 1984 Moffitt is a new one for my collection, and I love the floating ball coming towards the shot. Also like it because it's one of those cards that, the park background shot is so clear and easy to tell where the picture was taken.

A quartet of Jays from 1987 Donruss - always happy to see Willie, and a couple more copies of Garth's smiling face too.

Speaking of Willie and smiles, we end with an Expo card which will probably just pit stop in my home and make his way out to Peterborough and a certain fellow blogger some time this year.

Actually, on that note, for those who I have done a few trades with, I do have some piles aside for people - nothing too fancy - but I am waiting for things to be a bit better - see possible vaccinated - before getting packages off. I'll probably end up doing a good send of 15-20 items in the summer to move some cards I have been meaning too, but just keeping health at number one right now...cards are nice too, but definitely doing the "required trips out only" thing still.

Everyone keep doing your part and here's to hoping the fall of 2021 is able to look a whole lot more normal than the last year or so.

Multi-Pains

I personally don't see the draw of multisport sets. I gather they are done to try and put the best of each sport into a single set, but as a collector, I have no interest in the sports outside of my hobby, so I am stuck collecting a couple cards from a set because I don't care about the other stars and sports involved.

 Here we have a number of cards from the 70 card, 1997 Score Board Players Club set. The design looks a bit better in hand as scanned, the foil makes it a little uglier than it really is.

So in this 70 card set we cover all the major sports, but as a collector myself, there is a single card I'd want - Jose Cruz Jr. card 7 from baseball - that's it.

So, I total up the cards by sport, stick them on the list below, see if any are quick trades and stick the rest away for trade fodder.

At least this is from a single sport set...

Simple enough design on the Panini 1992-93 stickers.

Last up...

You would think it might be some team Canada release, but it's the subset in 1997-98 Upper Deck with Canada star rookie cards. Upper Deck did this for a few years that I am aware of, but since this isn't a year I am looking to collect the base set on, nothing for keeping here either.

Positive Signs

 A bit more going on in the 50 cards today as there is again, what appears to be the end of the Upper Deck International Italia set, and a chunk of hockey cards which may produce much for keeping, but some solid change from what we have seen thus far.

We start with a smattering of 90's hockey.1996-97 and 1997-98 Upper Deck are sets I haven't seen much of in hand, and nothing here that fits my collection.

McDoanlds cards are always great to see, just happens that 2000-2001 year, I have about 75% of the base set, and these are all dupes. We then get into the basketball...

There is one card from the picks today which I will keep, though not from a set I'd ever collect.

This is a tough one because it is a minor league set, which I don't collect, but they do note the team drafting on the back, but it is a PROMO card, which at least is easily visible and noted on the front and back. I'd rather hang onto it for now that get rid of it and later decide it was something Ishould have kept.

Really cool to see these types of promo cards in this lot - just unusual for a "normal" collection. DOes make me wonder where and how these were originally collected.

Today, we get a tack on with a second envelope of cards that showed up from Ken, which, no surprise, includes a good bunch more gold Topps baseball cards from the 90s...

Some great cards including a Topps Cyberstats card which has the same kind of gold look to it with the Segui.

The rest of the envelopes...a design we have now seen a bunch of..

I have really gotten to like the design with the gold on it...kinda makes the regular base cards a little more "meh". A great second envelop though and...there's a third, but I'll save that for another day or two...it is a little different on the contents though.

Growing The Fan Base

 I have to say, I appreciate so far, the variety of cards in this lot. I am getting a bit of a trade off I think compared to the Santa Lot. In the Santa Lot, there were no star cards taken out, it was just as is, but a bit more concentrated on sets. The sets were "mainstream" for the most part, but years I didn't collect, so well worthwhile in that respect.

So far here, there has been a more unique showing of sets - sure gold parallels of 1993 Topps products are mainstream, and 1991 Pro Set football, but the dabbling of promo and sample cards, as well as this European release basketball set - definitely get a feel for there being a more oddity based make up here. Also, while I am nearing 3,000 cards in, I am slightly ahead on "Toronto" keeper cards, and well ahead on parallels, etc. I don't expect normal base card keepers to be as big since I have defined what I am collecting as far as sets go, and unless I come across next sets that have an abundance of cards which scream for me to collect them, the base keepers should come in much lower.

Well, with that overview of where we are at - some more cards from Europe...

Poor Dan, trying to run away from the rest.

Wow - that Shawn Kemp card is amazing. It looks like the man is flying. I know he was a pretty solid dunker, but wow - that's a poster shot if ever there was one - man looks to be 20 feet in the air.

Haven't talked about the playoff highlight subset, but an interesting go with cards related to the different playoff series, and the games of the NBA finals. A neat way to look back and read about the series with the summaries on the back, accompanying the appropriate front photo from the game.

I also appreciate that the World Star subset isn't just about US players as here we highlight Holland, Croatia, Sudan, Nigeria, and Trinidad.

Backs For More

 Let's see how different the 50 today are as these are still all from the International Italian set.

Happily getting variety of cards still. I guess Patrick isn't considered top star to whomever went through these before. I wasn't much if a fan but did at least like Clyde the Glide as I had a friend that talked him up constantly. Actually, same friend also loved Mugsy.

Figure I might as well show some more backs since we have seen the fronts on some of these already. Bol was a tall man, and just the pictures with him stretched out make him seem that much more of a giant compared to those around him.

Speaking of CLyde earlier, love the back photo of him going up to the rim.

Here you can see the backs for a few of the team cards and that they are just historic summary write ups.

We end with another Hakeem. I haven't looked at the checklist in detail, but in a 200 card set, there seem to be a number of players which end up on multiple cards. I guess for stars, a good way to sell the set.