Out With A Hit Or Two

 Today we say goodbye to another year as 2024 gives way to 2025 which seemed so far off not too long ago.

Today, the last cards from Jeff who had given me an 800 count box, some unioened sets and a few other odds and sods - today, those odds and sods.

These Pizza Pizza cards are from 2000 as you can see from the coupon expiry date. Though this is going to be hard to keep intact, I am going to try and keep them this way. By the way, I don't remember a slice and drink being $3 since about the year 2000 - go figure.

Not a ton of Leaf cards but there quality of the first two is amazing. The team and Keon are near mint. The rest may be dupes, but happy to get them all.

The Leafs would have been a great way to end the year, but Jeff went one step further.

I love serial numbered and memorabilia cards, and those last two are fantastic. The Roloson event more so as you get four different colours which looks great. I love jersey cards, but the multi colours on one card just looks that much better.

As far as cards go, can't end the year better than that. Last up though, a quick review of tge 2024 top opening I did.

The Big Mac card was the highlight card from the Gallery box, while the MTG Brothers' War box was great for the artifact pulls. Definitely fun times to open along with great trades made for a wonderful 2024 and here's to hope 2025 is just as fun as far as the hobby goes.

The Rest of the Box

 There is a lot of odds and sods for hockey cards in the rest of the box. I won't scan everything here, but hit a general summary of all that's here. If you are interested, all the traders are up on my TCDB profile.

A couple nice oversized cards, a few 80s cards including the 5 Stevie Y cards...but there were a few others of him...

Well, if you are going to pick up a small PC for a player, you could do worse. As a Leaf fan, I never liked when they played the Wings, and Steve was a big reason why. Had to respect his play, just didn't like it against my Leafs!

Some sets here that are not my favorite design - specifically the Pinnacle set...

Some great cards from newer sets, though most are trade bait as my recent year set builds are pretty minimal.

With a bit of foreshadowing, I may end up keeping the Allure card as I have another lot of cards lined up which at a glance, looked to have a bunch of them.

Always love a great variety of cards like this because there are always cards you didn't see before or didn't know existed. Liking Black Diamond sets, love the look of the couple here - though not one of the sets I have been building...and still not yet. Maybe if that other lot has a bunch.

With the year over tomorrow, the last if the cards from Jeff should be a good way to end 2024.

Some Random Hockey Sets

As it says, a number of hockey sets to peek at from the box of random cards bestowed upon me from local collector and great guy Jeff.

First up, some 1998-99 UD Choice. The Collector's Choice sets may have changed names over the years, but the offerings were pretty consistent.

Though I don't like the logo, the design is solid for the card fronts, and fits in well with the 90s.

The base set has a couple subsets. I have never been a huge fan of the international ones - I mean, why not give them their own set, but the GM Choice one is great.

Next up, 1990-91 Score American which I have a complete set of, so these cards will be great fodder to get some Bruins for Jeff...

Many of these have up to 5 copies, so I gather Jeff was collecting them at the time for the star power, which is understandable.

We even have a couple Jagr rookie cards. This is the one I think of when it comes to his rookie card.

I am still building the 2005-06 Upper Deck Victory set so was hoping I could get some missing base cards, and I did just get one at least, still a dozen or two to go.

I did need a few inserts though which came along...see the below three...

As for 2022-23 and 2023-24 flagship Upper Deck sets, I haven't decided whether I am going to try and build either, but at this point I am leaning on not, so get them while they are available if you need them.

Easier "no" for not collecting the SP or Ice sets...though I will keep the inserts.

Great selection of cards and still half a box of cards still to go!

Junior and Food

Nothing to really connect the two different types of hockey cards from the lifted box from Jeff, but so be it. First up - Classic cards... 

I am not a fan of the minor league-esque cards but there are plenty that do collect. As these are draft cards, i do count/collect them, so some keepers in pulling the Toronto related cards for keeps, and the inserts below.

Remember when hand signed and numbered cards were amazingly rare pulls and exciting....now they seem too common for my liking. I love that it was hand numbered though - don't see that much these days.

The rest today....food related...

I will keep any Leafs but have both of these McDonalds sets so most will be for trade.

Okay, not all food I guess as a few others snuck in my scans lol. Those are 1993-94 Score Pinnacle US All-Stars. New for my collection as inserts, so that's neat. The 1999 McDonalds set is another I more recently complete, though I have plenty of Checklists for trade if anyone needs!

Much more hockey to go tomorrow!

Jeff's 800 Count Box

Yes, going to take a few days to go through the cards in this box, and the few loose ones that were with it when Jeff gifted me that bunch of cards not too long ago. I'd like to say I had some grand plan in how to share these, and that there's a theme, but today is the theme of "not the hockey cards".

I wouldn't normally keep minor league sets, but this one did come complete, so I don't mind keeping it then...

Some solid names in the bunch, though I was confused at first as the numbers on the back appeared to be missing cards, but everything on the checklist was accounted for.

That's a neat Rondell card - so young!

Also up was a 1982 Topps Brewers team set apparently. I took out the few I needed for the set build and the rest are up for trade. Below are the keepers for set builds, etc.

There were a few basketball/football cards in the box if anyone has interest in those...

The coolest set cards in the box were a bunch of 1982 O Pee Chee, a bunch of which are below. Would be happy to turn these into Bruins cards for Jeff if anyone is interested.

Last up, the non-keeper 80s baseball cards in the box. There were some star cards from 1987-1992, but I added those to TCDB if anyone wants to check them out there 

The bulk of the box is hockey related, so we can start into those tomorrow. 

I will end with a recap of the card related pick ups from my second Christmas (with my family) on Boxing Day yesterday. Not pictured is a sealed 1991-92 O Pee Chee hockey set my brother got me in trying to get something for me without knowing. The thought was great, but it is a set I do have. All good though and I will find a home for it.

 My mom didn't disappoint as she usually does, she provided a bunch of Timmies packs and the binder for this year's set. I really need to try and finish some of the past year ones, but happy to go through these and start another in the meantime!

Not A Box But An Envelope

Hope everyone had a great day yesterday, as we now move into clean up mode in our house from the frantic happy Christmas of yesterday past. I got a package which, I didn't get the envelope for as it was opened and left for me. At first, I thought it was a trade, but ended up being a pay it forward envelope, and I don't know who it was from - but I am still thankful for it!

Some nice cards here, and some needs as well as a few dupes. The winner is the two 2024 Donruss cards as these were both new for me and were the two Jays cards from the set, so in and out, and all done on that complete team set....

As for the Leaf cards, always happy to get Artifacts Leafs as the designs are almost always wonderful looking. I needed the rest of the Leaf cards as they were all new to me, so a great surprise overall that I was more than happy to receive!

Apologies for not having a name, and hope the blogosphere may be able to help me with it so I can provide a proper thank you.

I should also briefly share my Christmas cardings from yesterday - Santa was good this year and on point - very nice of the big guy. There may be more as we do my family side get together later today, but wanted to share what I had thus far...

These were stocking stuffers which are great as the Mystery Booster 2 release was not a "normal" release but really a convention only one, so getting packs is tougher and would otherwise have to come off of ebay or something like that for probably $25 a booster or so. The newer Phyrexia set are a solid set for artifact cards, so nice there.

By far the best of the more recent sets for artifact card collecting, not only a bog, but a bunch of draft boosters as well should make for some new additions to the collection. As I don't keep the rest, also a chance to pull and maybe sell to say 401games, any decent hits in exchange for other artifact cards.

These ma have been a pick up I did, handed to my wife and said to give them to me for Christmas....maybe....but that works too!

As for the rest, these were the rest of the stocking and are a bunch of packs which should all be new to me and my unopened pack collection, though I will need to triple check to make sure the big guy didn't goof on anything.

The promo packs were all cheap given they were give aways, but nice to pick them up 10+ years later in some cases.

Definitely a solid Christmas - now I really need to just start working through the massive pile of cards to share here...might need to swear off buying cards in 2025 just to catch up.

A Gift Shared on Christmas

 Merry Christmas to all who celebrate and thank you for stopping by. I figure today was the perfect day to share a surprise package I received from TCDB member sandyrusty. It was back in October, but as usual, I am a bit behind on sharing though it works out well in this case.

First up, a bunch of 1982 Topps help.

With all of these additions, the base set is up to 592 of 792.

I know Cal is likely to be the last card in the base I will need, but not too worried as there are still another 199 cards to get before it.

A few missing 80s Jays cards - O Pee Chee ones, with the smaller print runs, always seem to be a bit harder to find at times, but happily, these are the last ones I needed for the 1987 team set, and the Jimmy Key mini was the last of 3 Jays I had needed for that team set also - sweet!

A bunch of dupes from sets I have for 1988 Score and 1989 Donruss because I need copies for the error collection. Same for the rest except the Reggie insert. Reggie actually is the final card from the 10 card insert set of Reggie cards from 1990 Upper Deck that I needed, so that finishes that insert set for me (yay!).

1991 Fleer micro variations for Jays cards aplenty, as well as some needed World Champ O Pee CHee set cards, and then into a bunch of Gold parallel baseball cards for working on my set for the 1993 Topps set. I am at 706 of 825 for the set, so not too far off actually which is cool.

Some set help with Studio and Flair baseball sets as well.

Some great hockey cards too, including the final card I needed for the 1991-92 Pinnacle set - yay!

We end with some Tim Horton set helpers and a Wendel Clark Goodwin Champions card from 2012 to finish up.

A huge thank you to sandyrusty for the amazing surprise, and for the note with the package that he would send me a transaction in TCDB so adding the cards was a since (amazing and nice touch).

Great guy and great cards - thank you, and everyone else that gas made the hobby so enjoyable this year as well as years gone by.