Never Too Early For Holiday Magic

 Okay, maybe end of May is too early for the holidays, but if Topps is going to put out this...unique set, and it's going to have Jays in it, I am going to be needing those...

I find the holiday overlay design to be way too much and too distracting. I preferred when it was a bit of snowflake effect outside of the picture itself. The green and red colouring - fine, I can get behind that.

This does mark my 42nd Vlad card - yay. Let's not consider the fact there are over 10,000 different cards for the man already, and 42 is pretty impressive.

These cards came via TCDB trade from RyanFrueh - first time trade partner, and big props to him - thank you!

With the holidays in mind, and the related Magic....

Getting caught up with the unopened pack collection for another set out. I swear, doing this is getting more and more expensive per release. 4 packs, and with the Collector's pack we go in about $60 on each such release, just for these packs.

I also picked up some of the singles form the last few releases...though I may have to wait until lists are up on TCDB to catalog as Magic sets are falling off a bit in getting posted, in part because the checklists are getting more complicated.

Where able, I pick up the regular and foil cards of course. The foul cards are getting a bit better at not also being pringles chips with their curve.

THe set also has a few more tokens that are along the artifact line, so pick up those too of course.

What I didn't share is the 100 pages of Ultra Pro I picked up. These use to be $20, tax included (Canadian remind you), and not are $29.95 plus tax. A good hike, but compared to prices online, still very solid. No idea how shipping across border works if any US friends out there are interested in checking out 401games.ca, but might be an option as long as duties and fees don't kill it.

Not Chess...

 Another day, another TCDB trade and we aren't talkin' chess, but we are talkin' trade with dbishop93.

We start with some 1986 Donruss Jays in the eye crossing design. I don't know about you, but the blue and black lines fronts bothers my eyes if I stare at them too long. Getting those logged in, notice the McGriiff rookie card price seems to be a few bucks, so not sure if I'll see that any time soon.

The 1986 Topps MIGHT just be the last card I need for the set - I think I need to do the count through again to make sure I am not missing anything.

As for the 1989 Donruss, generally error cards and Jays variations - again, just needing to check and make sure they were labelled right in the trade as some don't check the micro variations.

Still amazes me just how many "junk" era cards I don't have...good thing there's an abundance out there that finding them is just a matter of time.

Another solid TCDB trade in the books!

An Awesomo Trade

I thought I'd be back to sharing from the COVID lot, but I still have some more TCDB trades to muddle through. I didn't think I had been this busy, but here were are. Another first time trade partner today, this one being Awesomo1389 who sent a bit of everything baseball in a single PWE...

Kal kits the error binder, Derek hits the Jays collection and some Topps Gold hits the inserts collection. 1993 Topps baseball, I now have 133 Gold parallel cards, which may seem like a lot, but not really when you consider an over 800 card set.

We end with a few cards from newer sets which define in many ways why newer sets don't excite me as much.

Donruss and the non-licensed cards just leave a bit to be desired in design and limitations from not having the license. Topps Archives always bugs me because they can't stick to a single retro design to bring back. I mean, pick one and stick with it. Heck, make a second design a short print parallel or insert or something. Not that hard to do. Small complaint though I guess, as I do like the retro designs otherwise.

Either way, a fab trade and some great adds, so a big thanks as I thought this trade was absolutely awesomo!

A Couple More Trades

 I know, it seems never ending. I will say, I am at about 50 trades on TCDB so far, so on track for 100 again this year, like last, and a few outside of TCDB too. Amazing how busy the trading can be, and there are others who do hundreds a year - I couldn't manage that.

So today, two smaller PWE trades for sharing. First up, a single card received...

This comes from JeffWestlake, and is the second of two Leaf cards in the 2020 Upper Deck National Hockey Card Day set (Lanny McDonald being the other). Always nice to finish off a small Leaf team set, even if it is only a couple cards!

The second trade comes from ShawRacing, a fellow Ontarian who I have had trades with before, including a big box trade late last year. This one's just a PWE trade, but a nice variety.

Have to love the Kraft Dinner cards - wish I kept the ones I had as a kid.

Wrestling is where it's at with this package though as we get a nice variety of cards including some help on a couple sets...

Getting ever so closer to my base set for the great heritage odd to 1990 Topps baseball set! Also, ending with Sami is a great way to go - amazing character and wrestler all around.

TCDB Greatness

 Today, as we continue to work through the backlog that was my April, a couple surprise packages I got which show a couple different greatnesses of the trading card community.

First up, some cards from Billy over at Cardboard History who was kind enough to send some Leafs my way. He hopes some would be new...which is nice, but just getting the cards in the first place was great enough.

The retro Leaf logo card is my fave of the bunch and was a new one for my collection. Logo cards don't get enough love. Kapanen was a new addition too, but all of the cards get love - no worries!

Besides, I especially like newer cards since I don't buy any packs myself when in comes to sports. I have had some packs as gifts, but rarely get something myself, there just isn't the great set out there driving me to complete it. I'd rather work on older sets for that.

Love it Billy, and thank you plenty. Now that April is done and we are almost through May, I should have something soon back out your way.

The second small package was from a trade partner who didn't need to send the cards. There was an issue which I will say was fully on the mail delivery system, and I received a PWE with three cards nicely bent. It happens, and a casualty now and then to save big on postage, I can handle. I let the member know, and lo and behold, without a work a "sorry about that" was sent by dmbramer....

Absolutely wasn't expected or needed, but a thank you for the new array of Chrome Jays. Thank you, and it just shows much of the TCDB community has their heads and hearts in the right spot.

Fav Wrestling Design

 Today, we have a trade that gave me a chance to change football cards into wrestling cards. Didn't have to ask me twice, so I sent off a package to TCDB member JBsSetCollection, and this is what I got back...

Topps using the same design as it did on baseball here, and I get to remember how long ago The Shield was, and Daniel Bryan being on top of the WWE world. Heck, back when Bray was a "rookie"! Also - Eva was never a wrestling prodigy but I do consider her the last holdover of Divas wrestling. She would have been great for mid-00s WWE...but happily those days are long gone.

Not a big fan of the Road to Wrestlemania sets, especially this design because the parallels were simply having the "name" on the card a different colour. For example, one of these cards is a "black" parallel. Good luck!

If you want the answer...it's the last one. The name "Undertaker" is in black and not the silver foil. Talk about weak parallel. Now, if the entire border was reflective of it, I could get behind it.

Last up, my absolute favourite set design for wrestling cards....

Collecting cards back in the 80s - this was THE design. I know I had some Hogan "rookie" cards from that set back in the day, that have long left my possession, but even this heritage re-take is bank on.

I do like the newer cardstock much better than the thinner flimsy 80s, but that's a small point.

Heck, some of the cards would fit right in to the original design set from the 80s. Three sets with a decent boost of base set assistance - greatly appreciated!

Anabwana Trade From Overseaes

 I don't do a lot of trades with European members of TCDB. Partially because the opportunity doesn't come up that often, which may be due to part two - the cost as it is of course more expensive shipping across the ocean.

I did get an offer from anabwana who is in Finland, and since a bunch was wrestling cards, I couldn't say no.

2003 Merlin Raw vs. Smackdown stickers. Didn't have any of these before, and atteast now I have, well, some!

Pretty basic action shots, and you need to know who is who as there are no names provided, but that works for me.

We move into some 2004 Topps cards which cover a good variety of talent, from the now cringy Eugene....okay, was cringy even then...to nice stars like Edge and Christian. You can see that some of the cards are foil from the darker scan.

You can also tell that the focus of the women's division at the time was a bit more look focused from the pictures on the cards. No offense to Miss Jackie or Dawn Marie - it was just a different time in women's wrestling. Glad there has been such change though.

Nice enough action shots - like the RVD off the top, good photo there, and the Big Show chokeslam too actually.

Going back to the women's wrestling comment though...

Torrie was alright, but I always liked Stacy. Was glad to see her get into the Hall of Fame this year, definitely deserved, and loved that she started as a fan first.

There were some hockey cards and a single baseball card. The hockey here included some set help like Victory and Mini Jerset set below too.

What I didn't look closely at was that the Victory Leafs below are Swedish Finnish versions. Wouldn't go out of my way to collect, but pretty cool to have them, so that was an unexpected neat part of the trade.

Definitely up for the odd trade across the pond if anyone else out there is interested, but prefer making it a bigger trade and paying the bit more as it works out to less per card.

Big kudos on this trade though, thank you!

PAHSports Trade

 Another day, another TCDB PWE trade, and this one with the noted member PAHSports. This is a first time trade partner, and all went off without any issues at all, great communication and great cards. What cards?

Well, since you asked...

Usual suspects including another Grand Slammer border variation, and a single set helper with Jose continuing to narrow what I need for the 1986 Topps Traded set.

I always worry about trading for Topps Big cards because the size makes them stick out that little bit more, and I worry corners might get dingers - though not enough of a worry to ask someone to take much precaution, they are still PWE cards, and this one came through just fine.

As it turns out, I now have a quick replacement for my slightly bent Vladdy Topps Now card since I happened to be trading for it twice at about the same time. This one is in perfect condition.

I also really like the homage 1987 Topps design as with the newer cards it's a better card stock, and feels a bit crisper than the original.

We end with a few Leaf cards, and that's another solid trade in the books. Believe it or not, I still have a couple more to go before I get back to the COVID lot!

Rare, But Not Never

 For the first time in a long time, I had a bit of a casualty when it comes to receiving cards by PWE. Happily did a trade with TCDB member Dmbramer, and through no fault of their own, a few of the cards came with obvious mail bending damage.

Now, being Jays cards, I will still keep them - I tried bending them back a bit, but not perfect - but will leave them still on my "wants" list so I can get better copies.

If interested, as you can't necessarily tell from the scans, it's the top row of cards...

Other than that sad outcome, really happy with the cards otherwise as I am always good to get a few more 1982 Topps additions for the slow set build, and the bottom row of Jays cards is great too - especially the Cavan - really like the design.

Anyway, I think I have had maybe 2 mail casualties over the course of 7 years of trading - what's your mail damage score like, and do you avoid PWEs, or just figure it's a potential cost on saving a lot of money doing PWEs for trading?

Closer on Timmies...

 Okay, so I am a little out of order. I think, because this was hand delivered, it was already factored into my earlier comment about my Timmies set getting down to about 10 base card needs in order to finish it off.

This is in large part to THIS trade as well, which came from TCDB member Sean_bren who dropped by for a quick trade and brought this following help...

Yup, one oldie but goodie, and a bunch of Timmies. I will still need another Matthews for my Leaf collection, but one down at least now, so that's fantastic.

Getting these into the binder now, the set is starting to look really nice - though it will start to slow on additions as most the rest are inserts, and beyond the red, they get a bit more to trade for, which is fine, but needing to then find enough to get someone's interest piqued for the trade.

A problem for another time though, as today....big thanks to Sean_bren!

Happy Anniversary!

Okay, that title has absolutely nothing to do with cards at all. Today the wife and I celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary (dang - time really started to fly once we had the kiddos). I nicely doubled up as I got her tickets for the Hamilton play in Toronto at Christmas, the date for which just happened to be today. Nice to be able to kill two birds with one stone as the saying goes.

With that said,  today's post will be a short PWE share so we can get ready for the day. A PWE coming from a province over, Quebec, and TCDB member nordiques24. I am taking a wild guess just from the name, that they are a fan of the old Nordiques team.

Now it's probably my mess up, or could have been a wrong labelling in TCDB, but I didn't notice until getting the Finest card, that it's a Nordiques team card, not Toronto. Now, I'm not sure if when I added cards in TCDB, it was labelled wrong, or I made the mistake, but either way, I know I don't check super close on the what I am getting when offered trades, so didn't catch it, and now it can go to the trader pile instead.

No big deal, and that is on me.

Otherwise, we get a couple nice parallels, but Potvin is the winner in the bunch to me.

Anyway, short and sweet as I say, and hope you all have a great one!

Gettin' 'Er Done With A Codhead

 Today's trade is with fellow Canadian, Canadian Codhead on TCDB. There were a bunch of football cards desired, and though a few wants, not tons for me in return....except I love to take my Toronto dupes, so changing football cards to Jays and Leafs was a great swap to me!

A bunch of newer Jays cards from some of the Bowman sets. I may have these, or some of these scrounging around in my next lot to go through, if I ever finish the COVID lot. That one is all baseball and a lot of recent stuff, so different from my mixed boxes and may be a quicker go through, but should help with some set work.

As for these...new Jays...yay!

It was mostly the hockey which ended up as dupes that evened the trade out - not that it needed to be evened, as I don't mind coming up "short" on trades if I am getting cards I want.

The Belfour is another great one with the showing of the jersey - not as good as the other Belfour card we saw not long ago, but another great one.

Centennial Leafs are great in any number, and the couple Timmies additions are fabulous so a great trade all around with much gratitude from me!

Golden Score

As I have been doing, another trade share today, this one with Jaysredlegs on TCDB who wanted one of the 90s Ultra Pro baseball promo cards of Mike Piazza, and in exchange sent me a nice group of Gold parallel Score Blue Jays. 

These deisgns are fine, and the gold rush foiling I always found a bit dark, but I did like that they made the player stand out and didn't "gold" them on the card.

We have enough 1994 and 1995 cards here to get me closer to half way on the Jays team set for both years, which is nice. Should point out the Pat Borders card because he is a guy that I would never have thought I would own 42% of his cards - 114 of 273 according to TCDB. If you consider only his Toronto cards, I'd be over the half way mark.

Gonzalez definitely ended up with a better career in the majors than Small, but I'll take you both for the collection!

Appreciate the trade Jaysredlegs!

Let's Talk 10

 Today, a quick PWE from fellow Canadian and someone I had done a handful of trades with on TCDB - JeffWestlake. Today, a couple of 10s...

The obvious 10 is - 2010 Topps cards. These are actually my first cards from that base set. Not sure why or how they haven't come by my way as of yet, but here we are. I like the design here better than how Topps used it for the baseball set that year. Colour coordinated by show of course, the cards look sharp.

The less obvious 10, is that the AJ card at the end brings my needs for 2020 Road To Wrestlemania set down to 10. I think I have a few cards coming from the set soon...so hopefully that will be a short lived 10, and I can narrow it further.

Always love getting wrestling cards I don't have, so anyone out there who needs anything, any sport, from my traders at TCDB - happy to take some wrestling cards off your hands!

Consolation Prize

 I usually do not spend more than a dollar on any single card. I made an exception a few weeks ago when I bought the cards below. 401games was having their 1 millionth order contest - buy that day online, get entered to win one of a number of gift cards. So, I had little time, and a need to spend $50 - so I went a bit bigger than I usually do, but with a bit of purpose.

When I started, I grabbed the land card because I thought I might do my usual grab of many little things, but I changed that approach quickly.

The Disk card was the last artifact I needed for my Anthologies artifact set. While the same is true of the last couple Nemesis cards, including the almost $20 Tangle Wire.

The Blacker Lotus was most expensive at over $30 - and it may not be a Black Lotus - the Holy Grail of Magic cards - but it's a card I have always really liked, and is as close as I will get to the Black Lotus. Besides, it's just as pretty a card, if not prettier, just not as iconic.

Unfortunately, I didn't win one of the gift cards, but I do get to keep these which I may not have splurged on otherwise!

Thanks Kyle!

 Today, the first of a number of trade sharing days as I try to clean by busy season backlog. Today, a trade with TCDB member Gregory_kyle who sent along a bunch of mostly hockey cards, so let's get into it!

The usual hockey for me is Leafs, and that includes checklists which contain the team as a whole, but not the only cards to get.

I am still working on the 2022-23 Tim Hortons set, so a base card here or there will be welcome additions.

Also, believe it or not, the early 90s Upper Deck cards help me to finish some of the hologram variation team sets too...just like 30 years after the things came out!

We get a random error card with a Canadien flare, otherwise, more Leafs...

A single baseball card, and then what may be my newest favourite, or close to favourite photo on a hockey card ebver....

It's Eddie the Eagle, and an angle and shot I can't say I have seen well before, and it's just...wow....love it!

We end with a bunch of Parkie Tall Boys. The size makes these a little less likeable as the unusual always make conformity in organizing a pain, but they are very pretty cards!

Very much appreciate the trade and all the additions! More trades to share tomorrow!