Friday, April 30, 2021

Put A Pin In It

 It is April 30th, so put a pin in this one and stick it away for another year - this is the end of my busy season...thank goodness! In Canada, there are no personal tax extensions really whereas these seem to be plentiful in the US, so although our deadline normally is a bit later (April 30th in Canada versus April 15th - or mid-May this year in the US), our deadline is a hard deadline.

Except last year.

COVID had our personal tax season essentially last until the end of September.

I hope to never have that happen again because it made sure there was pretty much no "down time" until the following year, which made this past busy season, just drag.

So let's squeeze out one last post before the best day of the year - May 1st - the furthest possible time from the next busy season.

We start with another pin of sorts...

At first I just thought the card was damaged as there was a heavy dent in the front just under the "lea" in League. As it turns out, this card came with a pin which I will assume in this case was a Phillies pin. It was likely how the card and pin were packaged that created this dent, so I will consider it not to be "damage" but just part of how it was packaged. Interestingly, this is one of 28 cards, or so says the back, so one would assume this Imprinted Products Corporation is like the others, discussing the team to which the relate pin you get, relates.

A unique card nonetheless.

The keepers...


Here we have, I believe, the first attempt at an update set by Donruss which was done as a stand alone boxed set, so looks like this one was taken a part a bit. Given it was only a 56 card set, I'll take this as a challenge to put it together...saying that without looking to see if there is some super expensive card in here I'll have to buy...


The design is really unchanged from the 1985 set, but you do get the nice big Highlights baseball logo.


Continuing on, we get a few more needs from other base set collections with some Parkhurst hockey out of 1992-93 and mid-90s Collector's Choice baseball.


Finally, some 1992-93 Upper Deck to finish...

As for the "not for me" cards...


Okay, not a big fan of non-sports cards, but like The Simpsons, if I get a full set of this Batman series, darn right I'll keep it - it's Batman! With 154 cards, may be an outside chance of happening - versus the 88 card Simpson set. Batman though was a much better movie that The Simpsons Movie....





Thursday, April 29, 2021

Re-writing History

Sometimes, cards just get it wrong. Having cards printed, it'll happen - can't catch everything before getting the cards printed and distributed. That said, this is the first time I have seen a trade noted that didn't happen.


As it notes on the 1988-89 O Pee Chee card of Steve Smith, he was traded to Buffalo on 10-3-88, except apparently, that didn't actually happen.

The error wasn't corrected, and wasn't an issue in the smaller Topps set for that year because Steve didn't make the cut in the smaller set.

As for keepers/...some nice variety...




All sets that have shown up before, but this does bring the 1997 Upper Deck Series 1 completion up to 185 of 240 - not too shabby.

Also a little work on Parkhurst from 1992-93. Never been a huge fan of the international subset - too overwhelming a design with the background flag, but just a minor complaint.

Dupes...




Not going to complain seeing 80s hockey cards. Now, 6k into the lot, I will say that the "junk" years has been fairly minimum which is amazing, and mid 90's is great, but the odd mid-80s or earlier card is pretty cool too.

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Yay A Griffey!

 I have been joking recently off all the Griffey insert cards from 1997 Upper Deck that I have been getting with the meet the stars game cards that I have been getting but...



Right there in the midst of the additions for this set, I have an actual base card Griffey. Actually a very dark scanning Defensive Gems subset card. Not gonna lie, happy to see one either sneak through, or be left while the other copies were taken.

But let's not forget...


To answer the question, I believe at this point that the team would be Atlanta, as I think they were in 4 World Series match ups by 1997.

The Jays had the better winning percentage though at 2-0.

The rest...




Glancing at the next pile - I think we sputter out on the 1997 Upper Deck...but that will be nice for the change in pace nd should leave me around 60-80% on series 1, but will wait to check that percentage tomorrow.

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Diminishing Returns

 Like opening pack after pack in trying to complete a set, the more you buy, the more things turn into dupes with less cads being kept. Same works just as well when going through a lot of cards like thise. First piles of 50 cards, and most all the cards are keepers - a handful of days later, and today, down to 9 additions to the set.


Favourite of the bunch is McGriff as he is one of those Jays I would have loved to see stick around longer with the team, much like Fielder.

Also get a post Toronto Leiter too.


So, a parade of duplicates...





Monday, April 26, 2021

Marty!

 Why do I remember this Marty so well?


No, seriously, I'm not sure why. I absolutely remember him and his brief time in Toronto, well, his brief time in the majors for that matter. Marty came to Toronto in the deal that saw David Cone head to New York.

I think New York got the best of that deal, though I doubt Cone would have stuck around Toronto anyway.

Marty stuck around the Jays for 2 years, appearing in 27 games, with an 11-13 record.

Well, at least I got another Griffey...


Oh, and another baker's dozen of cards for the 1997 Upper Deck series 1 set.


Talk about a couple aces - Maddux and Nomo. I just noticed that the design around the picture actually is different for each pitcher, specifying their specific pitches which is a neat little extra.

We end with the dupes...





Sunday, April 25, 2021

Superman!

Although I wouldn't be surprised if we run into a Superman card in actual fact during this go through of the 20 in 20 lot, it was more so the thought that came to mind when first seeing Tony Phillips below... 


A lot of the mid-air poses and photos really stick when I see them. I don't know if it's because they don't come up that much, r the sheer action, but I like them.

Speaking of liking, Randy Johnson - wasn't sure if I'd see him because I figure he may have been pulled as a PC guy for whoever had these cards before me, but lo and behold, we get his strike force subset card here.



So 24 more keepers here all in, which moves me to just over 140 of the 240 card series 1.

Oh...and a couple more Griffey cards...

Then, about half are dupes...




I guess it goes to show that there is a bunch of series 1 from this set here. If I were to guess, maybe another 200 cards to go through, which hopefully means I can get to over 210 of the 240 cards..then maybe trade to finish?

Gotta have a plan, even if you're Superman!

Saturday, April 24, 2021

Counting Dots

Luckily, not talking about Inc. versus Inc variations, we get an error card with a dot later on, but let's first start with another bunch of 1997 Upper Deck additions. 


I am glad that they make a note on the Alvarez card that it has to do with St. Patrick\s Day, as that at leasy explains the green uniform which looks so out of place.

The spring training shots are pretty interesting too with Hal and Kenny sporting some interesting equipment looks.




Excellent bunch...and the error I was speaking of...


Definitely not an error I would go out of my way to get, but will keep as an error card given the circle by the card number in the top left corner.

Also gave a chance to show the backs on the cards which are pretty solid all around. Stats given plenty of room to be full, nice write ups and highlights, and a different picture on the back than the front.

Let's look at more backs with the dupes...


Yeah - not sure why we get a single card from the World Leagie which goes back to the first cards I pulled out of the lot, but so be it.