First of the Year

You know what I have yet to do this year, and we are more than two months into? Rip something open from the card stash. With the BASEball lot, I've had plenty to search through and sort, and have fun with, but I do want to open a few products this year from the stash as it will just continue to grow and grow if I don't.

I don't expect this will be a super long list this year, or at least until later this year as I do want to keep working through the BASEball lot, but I do like putting some variety into the mix of cards and stuff I go through on the site.

Similar to last year, I'll log my openings and see what hits and what misses, and what my goodies of the year are, but we can start simple with a reminder of how I score unopened stuffs...

The set was released in 2020, and if memory serves, this is a booster I picked up for $4.43 CDN at Chapters when they still had such products, and at that price it was still a fine buy as they hadn't yet increased the card prices. Side note - that is still the price these boosters go for on 401games, so not a set that went up a lot in price yet, even almost 4-5 years out now (usually there is a slight bump starting if there are enough decent cards in a set).

As I want to do with Magic cards especially, we can also look at this pack and see if it was then worth me opening, once we see what I end up with inside.

There are a few artifact cards I am missing, so that would be fantastic, but let's take a look...

The Makindi Ox is the Showcase version which acts like a base variant, though numbered outside the "regular" base set and which here, has a great photo to it.

Nothing in the uncommons for me or the land/token slots either, but at least there was one keeper artifact card, even if a common...

Would have cost me a whole 35 cents to buy this, or any other card in the pack....except the mythic card which I picked up...

Now, this does nothing for my collection, but it is a $50 card so the pack was well worth opening. It won't score well as a pack because I only have one keeper for my collection, but if I can sell the card for $40 - it does well to get my $5 back and a few bucks to put back into the hobby, so definitely not a waste of a pack!

The Rest of 2019 Bowman Sets

 With the Bowman sets yesterday, a few more from the BASEball lot before we finish with them circa 2019.

This is the sole 2019 Bowman Draft set keeper - a Chrome insert - and as for the subject of the card...must be nice to get the same name twice, but not nice enough to make it to the big leagues yet. A handful of years between foreign leagues and the minors in the Marlins system.

Cards from the actual Bowman Chrome base set release - though not enough to want to start this one...

Same can be said about the Bowman Draft base set - though not showing all the cards here, did end up over 35% done on the base set.

Last cards here are from a release I didn't know existed - though given my lack of following Bowman products, doesn't really surprise me.

Apparently this was a holiday release for Bowman as obvious from the logo here. Never seen cards from the set before, and now have....two....so happy to pass them off as well.

Trade With GoldenEagles555

As it says, today we have a trade recap with a GolderEagles555 TCDB member trade.

The above pick ups are because these are two sets that I have needs for the set and for uncorrected error cards. All the above are going to said error card collection. Happy to get these in trades, but not a high priority on my collecting - just a niche collection as I like seeing people make goof ups....

Doug Jones is the only base set builder card, then we get into the Jays content. The Lopez is a one and done for Jays from the 2022 Panini Chronicles Limited collection, otherwise, we have a bunch of helpers but no other completions.

Speaking of Panini, the George Springer here is a thick boy. Honestly, I don't see the need for thick cards that are just "base" or regular cards. I get it for autos or especially memorabilia or jersey cards where the thickness helps stabilize the card, but for general presentation, this may be hard to fit in a 9 pocket sleeve in a binder.

One other card to share, which I finally was given by my son who realized, he didn't really need it since he doesn't collect, but liked he was given it last year at a game...

One of the Toronto related Trading Card Day promo set cards. There are 10, and this is the one I now have which is cool. I like the design, and with it being a giveaway / promo related set, don't see a lot of them, but definitely a thumbs up on the design. At least I now have one.

More Bowman Show

I knew that Bowman sets would be the "win" for me as far as keepers and collecting because there is so much that really isn't base, but should be considered base cards, so that these would make up some of the BASEball lot. Today, more, but not the rest of the 2019 sets from the lot, and though there are a few traders, going to show all the keepers.

One Jay card today - Nate - who was a great prospect with the Jays, showed up on the MLB roster starting in 2020, but in 2024 moved on and finished the year with the Cubs.

As for the rest, we have a bunch of prospect cards from the different Bowman sets, all of which are considered inserts.

A shame no additional Jays, but definitely a win for me from a collection building standpoint as I expected most of the Bowman cards would just be base for sets I wouldn't want to start collecting.

A fair number of similar prospect cards from the Chrome insert set, and even some Top Prospect inserts from Bowman's Best as well. Sure, may not be big names, but quantity is what we get here, and that's okay too!

I might have to fix up the listing and group those smaller sets at some point or this is going to get quite long.

Trade With bkrementz

 It has been a while since I've gone through with sharing some trades - a bit impacted by that whole mail strike thing here in Canada that lasted the last month of 2024, but also because it pushed me off to do much trade wise going into business season so may slow down for a while still. That's fine though, plenty to do and share still, though I really would like to move a bunch of traders.

As for the trade with the TCDB member, a bit of everything I collect came my way...

A fair dent for a PWE on the 1982 Topps set build, which is always a welcome addition to cards coming my way.

A sprinkling of Jays before a couple hockey set helpers from 2001-02 Victory and then a few Leafs.

I will say, the red parallel Berezin just hits differently and looks so high end and snazzy. First such parallel I have and now really want to pick up the other Leafs with the look.

The best card by importance for me from the bunch is the last as the Tie Domi Total was the last I needed for the 16 card team base set, so an easy pick for most important add.

Another Surprise

Can't believe we are into March already - well into another busy season work wise, but at least it's just two more months.

Into the 2018 Topps Update set today from the BASEball lot. 

A decent number of cards here, but not enough to jump this into being a set I plan on collecting, so nothing to keep unless there's something special or Jays for the collection. Doesn't mean I don't like the design - it's fine enough and obviously the design of choice for the flagship Topps sets that year.

I like some of the dual star cards like the Baltimore one above - wouldn't mind seeing more of those, but the real surprise card in the bunch today is...

hiding in there if you can spot it. There were two different McCutchen base cards in the bunch, one being the short printed one with him being with the Yankees. Surprised to see it goes for up to $10 apparently, not that it really matters, just nice to have the unusual pull for my collection.

Not too shabby to finally get a couple more Jays as it's been a few sets since pulling a couple so I was starting to wonder if more had been pulled before the lot came to me, so a good find there.

Not too bad as a set and a start, just not one I'm planning to chase. Been a while, but have a trade for share to break things up tomorrow.

Getting Tekkie

 A couple more Topps offerings from the BASEball lot today - one I know and one that's new to me.

Apparently a lot of Cubs on offer from Topps Chrome here. A bit unusual but must be a reason, still, quite the bunch. I like the Seager dive in the chrome offering, very cool. Chrome, I know, but High Tek...nope...

If you like differing designs, this is a set for you. Seem to be a base pattern with a couple variations on offer for the cards, and thn you can get into a number of different effects for parallels. I mean, it's not as bad as some offerings out there, but the metallic look definitely goes with the High Tek name for the set.

I'll have to look at whether I should consider the different base designs as "variations" or not, but the effect, like on Ted Williams, are definite parallels. By the way, I can't get over the complete contrast of having Ted Williams, a player of years gone by, on a card that is designed like it's from the far distant future in comparison. Just doesn't work to me. Don't get me wrong, love having the card for sake of Ted being on a parallel I get to keep is a plus, but it's not a card I ever would have said I'd need to see exist.