A Quick Six Pack

 So, I ordered a few things from 401games a while ago including a WWE blaster box, some lots I will share later, and a catch up on some of the Magic The Gathering Packs I had been missing from recent releases, so just a quick share on those today.

So, all in, just 6 packs and because of the "Collector's" packs - about $70-$80, which honestly, I find a big staggering, but still do it, though it does give me a bit of pause as to whether I should continue with the collector packs because they are $25 to $35 a pop.

What makes me question that even more is when they then release something like Double Masters 2022. The Collector boxes in it are all of 4 packs and the box is about $300 CDN. Yeah, so now I have to wonder if I want to spend $80 for a single pack to keep up with the collection, and I am balking at it. I mean, I have spent that on some of the Magic packs in my collection, but that was, for example, a handful of years ago when I bought a revised pack which is from 1994, for the same $80 (and it's now at least a few hundred dollars - so worth it).

Not sure it's really worth it on a brand new set/pack.

How much would you spend for a single pack of cards, or what is the most you ever spent on a single pack? I've shared mine here before - I have spent, I think at most $120 on a single pack for some of the older Magic packs I bought. The good news is, sealed, they are still worth more now, but if I ever open them, some of these could hold about $5 in card value....part of why I don't open them yet - too scared!

Face To Face Games

 So I was taking a peek around at Toronto card stores to see if there was anyone new. I don't know why I was doing this other than it popped into my head, and figured I'd do some googling, and lo and behold, I came across Face To Face Games, which I had never heard of before. They are located in midtown Toronto, and when I happened to look, their weekly sale was 30% off played Magic singles, so, at those prices they were similarly priced as 401games, but with a bit different selection, I was able to find $20 worth to make shipping of the cards via regular mail, free.

So lets see what we got...

The first two cards are from the 2000 set Beatdown, which was a box set, so not cards I would have come across. They are the only two artifacts in the set, so good and done with them now.

Keeping with the box set theme, the square cornered Jade Monolith is from the 1994 International Edition Collector's set. Not a ton of those sets were made - I think it was about 10,000 sets or something, so getting the cards, and in a good quality given the age, is hard. I have a couple Collector's Set cards, but this is my first International.

The last row of the top and top row below are my favourite as I lived in 3rd Edition, or Revised, and these are all 4th edition which was pretty close in cards and quality - just vastly over printed.

As I am not missing too many lower priced older cards (and was not looking to spend $5 a card), so it kept a minimum of what cards were there, that I picked up. Still, nice to fill holes on some of the 25 year old sets.

My favourite pick up has to be the Hot Tub though. Too bad the website doesn't work anymore, but Unhinged, like any of the Un sets, were so fun to me.

The store is definitely up the alley of collectible card games - they don't appear to do anything in the sports card genre, but if you play collectible card games, may be worth checking them out!

Frequent Trader

 I have a handful of people on TCDB that I have done 5-10 or more trades with, and today is another PWE trade with such a person - althib. A trade which involved some hockey and baseball, and brought back some hockey and baseball.

A few different things in the package including my first 2004 Upper Deck First Pitch Jays cards, a one and done 2003 Ultra Photo Effex card. Hadn't seen those cards before either, so cool to find out about it by getting it in hand.

We also have one of the many 1990 Donruss error cards, and even a Leaf Dyagon Ice card to boot.

If you want to go by scarcity, this might be the winner though as the 2020 Topps Update blue parallel cards were Walmart exclusives. Like the use of the darker blue as it's more in tune with the team colour and makes for a better card, though nothing screams 2020 baseball cards like fuzzy backgrounds and empty-ish seats.

Very nice PWE - would love to get one of these done a day!

Robogoalie Trade

 So another PWE trade to share today, this one with TCDB member robogoalie, but it was a bit unusual.

Robogoalie was looking for some specific Upper Deck hockey hologram variations, and though I was pretty sure I had them right, I sent them over first ahead of time so he could double check before deciding what to send my way. The TCDB community being so awesome, I didn't think twice of doing it. Once done and checked, robogoalie sent the following my way in return...

1997-98 Pinnacle Beehive were big 5 by 7 cards. I have a complete set, and now I have dupes for the Leafs collection of the Leaf cards in the set. The Potvin is another oversized card as well. I don't actively trade for jumbo cards as I know they can be a bit more tricky to package are arrive safely, but these came through perfectly.

A couple base set adds for a couple sets that are getting closer to completion bit by bit.

Pogs are another one I don't really go after actively, but will happily add, but it's these awesome gold parallels which are star of this trade.

A solid dozen of them, which brings me much closer to the team set. Add on some missing link Parkhurst set Leafs, and it just keeps getting better!

We end with some last Leafs which include a Jello card. Remember when Kraft would put hockey cards on packaging? It was awesome! I mean, if you need to do cardboard packaging, why not slap some cards onto it!

Big thank you for the trade as I think it, as most should, benefitted us both well!

Darksnark

 No - not some kind of code word, put a TCDB member who was a new trade partner and was a quick PWE of cards each way, that I get to share with you now.

It's one scan, don't blink or you will miss it...

There are two players that I don't think I have pulled in packs, that are Toronto players, big names, that I have collected essentially, exclusively by trade. Vladdy Jr. for baseball and Auston Matthews for hockey. Newer players, been around a few years, I haven't bought new product really and if I did I may have only got one or two cards of each.

So when I look at the fact I have 49 Matthews cards now - it reflect to me on how much TCDB has added to my ability to collect efficiently and economically. I love it.

As it turns out, there was another Auston card which was supposed to come across, but human error, it didn't and I told Darksnark not to worry about it - not worth the postage hassle, and the trade was fine without, but he said he pulled it, put it aside and next trade, he will send it out with. Very cool, and a good example of 99% of the TCDB membership.

None of these completed any Toronto sets for me, but that's alright. First Metal and Artifacts cards from the respective year/sets, so that's cool.

Hyman is one I wish the Leafs would have kept, but no such luck.

Appreciate the trade and look forward to the next...and I have a couple others to share the next couple days!

A Second One?

 Interestingly, I didn't expect to have a second set to talk about, but apparently Looney Tunes cards were successful enough for Upper Deck that after the 1990 set, they made another set in 1991!

A bit different front design, but still our loveable Looney Tune characters getting into baseball hijinx. A little bit more interaction with real baseball stars, and by interaction, I mean having photos plastered onto these cards to involve them and giving them speaking bubbles, with probably no care or knowledge of this set by any of the players. At least they used Hall of Fame caliber players from the looks of it.

This set wasn't double sided the way the prior year was, instead, the backs put together bigger pictures as you can see from some examples...

I don't have enough cards to show what one would look like, but you get the concept at least. No personal interest in any of these cards, but it is something different, I will give it that!

The Adventures Continue

 I remember watching Looney Tunes as a kid. It was part of the what I grew up on along with Sesame Street and Polka Dot Door (and also a special shout out for anyone who remembers Today's Special).

Somehow or other, I never did hear about this 1990 set, nor see any of it in hand until, well, today.

The cards are double sided, and apparently, if you get a whole set, and put them in the proper ordering in pages, they read like a comic strip, which is pretty darn cool.

Other than my not being able to scan a card right side up, I can see how that would work with the cards above.

Not sure if I should really consider this a baseball card set...but with it happening to be about baseball, can see why. I'll count it as non-baseball though. I don't think I would have cared enough as a kid to collect them - I liked the cartoons, but that's about it.

A bit surprised that this is actually almost 300 cards in all as a set - but then again, the more cards, the more for kids to collect (and buy).

I will say, the cards do picture the exact style of the cartoons, so great representation there.

As a kid, I was a fan of Bugs and Porky Pig, but as I got older, I connected more with Daffy and Yosemite Sam....not sure what that says about me.

Look Up The Word

 Today we continue a begrudging task with regards to 1992-93 Upper Deck hockey cards - study that hologram. I have a complete set of Upper Deck logo only hologram cards, but have for some reason start work on the text and logo hologram version/ Why? Apparently I like suffering.

Today I studied these cards as hard as Peter studied that helmet. I ended up with two more needed cards of the almost 20 here. Most of the rest were not the text version anyway, but the couple others that were, I already had.

Such variation hunting becomes a bit more problematic as you trade and need to walk people through the differences, or take your chances in getting cards that are not the variation you want. People make mistakes, it happens.

Anyone else bother with master sets on any of these hyper-variation rich sets. Donruss baseball late 80s to early 90s, I am looking at you.

It All Nets Out

 Today's cards from the COVID lot...

bring us 120 cards from 1994-95 Upper Deck. Basketball had been a bit lacking in this lot, and that would be OK with me as I don't collect it, but I was a bit surprised.

I don't mind the set, and the design, and it is standard 90s Upper Deck flagship.

Still never a fan of the vertical stats - I don't like having to turn the card to read the stats and writeup. I get the reason, the picture is well placed, and the all important fine text takes up a bunch of the bottom of the card, which again, was par for the course with 1990s Upper Deck.

There may not be any Jordan cards, but that seems to be the only name left out here. In past lots, I wouldn't see a Shaq card at all, but that's not the case here.

Shaq looks so young!

As much as I understands the use of fuzzy basketball background number 238, couldn't they use something a bit different on each such card? Put together like this, it's just nauseating.

Wouldn't be a basketball set without some sort of praise to the USA world team in some subset. In the 90s though, it was such a big deal as it was the dream team when it came to basketball.

A neat bunch, but not my thing - if it's yours...and you need any of these...just let me know, and there are others which are already in my TCDB for trade list.

None Yet

 For better or worse, as it stands right now, there's no 1996-97 hockey set I am building. Now, this isn't because I've already got a few built, but because I just never had any of the cards in great number to want to start, and there hasn't been a set for the year that otherwise wowed me to actively seek it out.

I mention this because we have the flagship set for Upper Deck today to look at, but only two keepers...

The good part of getting two copies of a Leaf card is that I can show the front and back in a single scan.

Schneider wasn't one of my favourite Leafs as his run almost felt like a temporary one as soon as he was brought in as Toronto tried to drive forward in the playoffs - unsuccessfully of course.

I do like the back design which is similar to the basketball release by Upper Deck. Full stats, quick highlights and a picture different from the front. The front - I don't like the way the silvering design is done.

So, for those interested, here are the ones up for trade - just let me know if you want anything...

I get the Team Canada subset inclusion, but like minor cards - does nothing for me.

A Score Sampling

A perfect example today, of why I love buying these assorted sports card lots - I get to see cards from sets I never saw, hadn't cared to know about, and see some stuff that I hadn't, as well as then having a goal of finding those cards a happy home if it isn't with me.

Today we get 1991 Score - of the football variety. 

Only a handful of cards, but enough to make some comments and observations, and do a quick dig on the set.

If you know 1991-92 Score Hockey, the front design looks very similar though a slightly different colour. The design is fine - nothing spectacular, but it works, and the photography is solid which was true of Score products at the time, and the backs again are similar to the hockey release, though the bronze coloured border stands out compared to the white border in hockey.

No big names, though I do know of Rick Gannon, but of the cards in the set - not that any are very valuable, these don't have the big names like Montana, Marino, Smith.

5 new traders I didn't have before today though!

Pinnacle of Success

It has been a little bit since we were dealing with the lot of cards I am working through - the COVID Lot as it were, but time to head back and spend some time seeing what else was in this lot.

I think this set will end up looking pretty complete when all is said and done with going through this lot of cards.

Won't scan all of the keepers, but there are about another 100 and I am already over 50% complete on the base set. The cards are generally in order, with a few cards missing, though not necessarily the big names, so they may be somewhere else in this lot.

I may be mainly a team collector of Leafs and Jays, but I appreciate the good completion of a set, though I do find it hard at times to focus on what sets I actually want to work on.

As I say, you can see that the stars see to be here - Ranford, Roy, Sakic, so time will tell, but given the set, shouldn't be too bad trying to complete as long as I can get most of the way there.

It's also a set that I have most, but not all the Leafs for, so that shouldn't hold me back much either.

Time will tell!

Trade Time

Pretty obvious that today, we get to share a trade - this one with TCDB member CollectorTBNL, who happens to be a fellow Ontarian. 

I believe the nice little Humpty Dumpty potato chip Jays card from 1993 is the last one I need to complete the set - just not sure if I have then all packaged, not, or a mix.

The 1988 larger Hostess cards are my first of those versions and their circular with straight sidedness.

A couple nice hockey card pickups as well as any vintage Leafs are more than wlecome!

Most of the trade saw me get some 1997 Oh Henry Jays cards - my first from the set, and a good portion of them as well.

Love these team sets, and though the colour combo isn't the greatest, still love the additions.

1992 Donruss "dot" variations because that whole Inc versus Inc. thing went for a few years, so need those variations for my Jays!

We end with a bit of an "oh well" as I recently received two copies of most of the 1993 Donruss cards here that I need for the set build. Not a big worry though, happy for the trade fodder to turn them into ones I do need. Amazing how easy that can be with TCDB!

Appreciate the trade, and look forward to hopefully doing another soon!

Artifacts From 401

 As I tend to do now and then, I picked up some artifact cards missing from my collection when I had to go to 401games to get a few Pokémon related gifts for the kids to give friends for upcoming birthday parties.

One expense that has been on the lighter side the last couple years with COVID as there were very few parties attended.

As for the cards, I typically go back to older sets and see if there has been any new inventory of lower priced cards I am missing, and found a fair number.

The white border cards cover 4th, 5th and Sixth or classic edition, with the latter being the ones with the Roman numeral IV in the middle right of the card (last two cards above).

These are all cards I have from other sets they have been printed in, but first copies for these specific sets. 

I was most surprised to be able to pick up the middle row of cards cheap. In the late 90s, early 2000, this was when foil cards first came to be, and they were actually pretty rare so there are usually a fair premium over the base card, though not really for these common cards. I believe originally foil cards were every 70 cards or something like that, so every 6 or so packs, whereas now, you can buy collector efditions which are all foil...not to mention that we now have extended art cards, alternative art cards, etc.

Hard to tell with the scans but most here out are foil versions, and Scars of Mirrodin and Darksteel were heavy on artifact cards, which is why so many here.

I wasn't able to finish off any artifact card sets with these, but definitely moved some closer - though Scars and Darksteel each have well over 50 artifact cards each, so going to be a while before I got those done, especially as some of the cards are more expensive than I would like.