The Second Half

Before the trade share, a quick note on the Jays moves at the trade deadline. First, Hoffman had to go given he lost his closer spot here and needed the move to get his career back on track, possibly. Gausman was sad to see go, but was the right business decision and right result given what the Jays got back. I expect they may have felt his price tag or desire to be in Torobto after his contract was up would be hard to overcome and bring him back. I don't think the moves will provide much help for this year, but hopefully bring improvement for 2027.

A week or so ago, I shared half a trade, thinking the other half was lost in transit. Well, the trade with TCDB member yrrcwc was....redirected. Apparently it arrived back at the starting point with a note it was undeliverable. This made NO sense because it was mailed the same day, same addressing, everything. It happens though at times, and happily not too often, but let's share what was in that delayed half of the trade...

A few baseball error cards for the error collection, along with a couple Jays in Batista and Ryan. We get one more base card set helper circa 2021 Topps, and then some wrestling!

Kurt Angle, obviously from early in his career as he still has hair, and then a bunch of Chrome/Finest to finish the trade envelope.

Between the two designs, I prefer Chrome, but they are both alright. ALways like seeing Mr. Ripley as Buddy didn't get as good a go in WWE as I think he deserved. I have similar feelings about Johnny Gargano, though his NXT time was amazing.

In this bunch of cards, Samoa Joe looks a bit beefy in the picture. It's beefy with muscle, but still beefy. A shame Big E didn't get a longer career given the unfortunate career ending injury as I would have liked to see him hang around the main event and upper-middle card picture for a while longer.

At least this puts the whole trade to rest!

Another trade which at least showed up as a single PWE....well, because it was a single PWE, was my second trade with mzentko. First trade was three years ago, but I remembered the name, and had a second great experience.

The three 1989 Panini Stickers were a generous add on in the trade and were unexpected. Awesome as they bring my Jays needs to a single remaining sticker to complete the team set, very cool.

This trade was really about me knocking off some 2020 and 2021 Topps flagship needs. I still have about 75 cards to go on the 2020 set, but 2021 is down to less than a dozen. If I can get that set done it will be the largest "new" set I have completed in a while.

For those who have followed along, I got most of the 2020 and 2021 sets from a base lot purchases a while ago, but the rookie cards in large part, had been pulled before the lot got to me. Not a big surprise as those are the gambling man's investment, but I've been working on filling the holes, and it's why many of the cards here are rookie cards.

Always up for a nice Jays pick up of course, which is where Vladdy gets tacked on from as well.

These trades also, finally, put me more on track with prior years and my trade numbers. It's been a bit slower this year, purposely, because of wanting to get through the 2026 Lot, but all good as it's nice to vary up how we collect.

Same But Different

 A shorter post today as we hit some more Donruss cards in the 2026 Lot, except it's of the Optic variety so we get the shinier cards.

I will say, it's nice getting some stars scattered in the set - John Elway being a perfect example. It's funny how the quality of the pictures becomes so obvious though.

It's funny, as a kid watching sports in the 90s, you'd see footage of the 70s and it would look horrible....now it's about the same looking back at the 90s now. Just a reminder I'm getting old!

Speaking of past sars - Dan Marino definitely goes into that group.

Not too many cards in the set for sharing today, but I do like this design better with football than with basketball. Maybe the green backs being akin to the colour of the football field is what does it....

Hoop It Up!

 I keep trying to sprinkle in trades as I have been on a bit of a tear, so before the lot today, a trade with TCDB member MapleLumberCards.

The fellow Canadian sent Jays and set helpers, and from the Jays above, the Joe Carter is the second of two Jays for the 2022 Upper Deck Pieces of History pure base set, so that's a nice paid to knock out another team set.

Also some other early 2000s Jays, and more recent with the Fisher RC card which is a nice pick up as well.

I got some help with the missing rookie cards from the 2020 Topps flagship set - think I am at about 80 cards to go on the 700 card beast of a base set, A very solid trade though, as they almost always are with the TCDB community.

Well, still getting new sets represented from the 2026 Lot, this one being a couple of the newer Hoops sets...

I may not be a huge Chrome style fan, but these look really good. As usual, the scan isn't as nice as in hand, but they are a pretty solid design and look.

Even the backs are a great change of pace with there not being a same photo as the front, and instead, up to 5 years of stats, and a decent write up for each player. Maybe shrink the logo down a bit to give a bit bigger font on the write up, but that's a small complaint. Heck, even lucked out with there being a couple rookie cards in the bunch.

Sticking with new for me to see Hoops sets...

No Chrome treatment like the 2019-20 Premium Stock Hoops, but these 2020-21 Hoops offering do have a nice second year Zion as a fantastic little pick up. Part of why I like sharing on the blog and going through these is, I do try and make it just as fun for everyone out there as I'd love to trade these away and I am happy to give a little to get something I actually collect, so feel free to reach out. Even if there isn't something that directly fits my collection, we can probably get something together that will work!

More Panini's Donruss

If you like football, and the brand Donruss as done by Panini, you'll like today! 

A whole bunch of this set to share today - so much, I am not even going to scan it all! 2023 was already three years ago....man time flies. Panini got good use out of the design with both basketball and football using the treatment this yar. As for the cards, plenty of good stars and players, though it is lacking on the rookies as it was definitely picked over before the lot made it to me.

A nice bunch of Bills cards. Won't be for me, but may find there way to someone else relatively easily as Bills fans are as common as Argo fans around Toronto.

Given the almost couple hundred cards, surprising not a lot of duplicates, though a few in the bunch.

To show the stars are still here, we have another Mahomes card. As great as he is, not sure he has more name power than Kelce though, thanks to the Swifties. Not going to have a complete set by any means with this one, but probably 2/3 done on the base cards. I really need to find someone who wants a boost to collecting some decent football base sets.

Birthday Month Pickups

It's August, and my birthday is a couple weeks away, but I did a little spend over at Pastime Sports. I have purchased from them a few times over the years and they are Canadian - located out in British Columbia. I find they are good for random older packs for my unopened pack collection and the odd cheaper older box here or there, and that about covers what I picked up in this order.

This was the one box pick up. 36 packs of 1991 Swell which is a product I like but haven't had many cards of. Given it's a 150 card base set, and this box provides 36 packs with 10 cards each, I am hoping this means I will have a complete set.

The rest - packs for the unopened pack collection...

I have a good run covered with O Pee Chee, so we get a couple more years covered there, and a Parkhurst 90s pack I didn't have.

The rest are baseball related...

The bookmarks are an amazingly unique pick up to go with some early 90s versions of packs from sets I didn't have highly represented.

The wide variety of look to how packs were done back is the 90s is fantastic and why I collect these. I mean, you get the basic foil with no player, highlights for a player, simple, graphics, just all so coll and different.

Stadium Club packs have been all over the place in design - again, very cool, but very different. Studio at least kept their packs pretty similar year to year.

Later 90s packs are a solid pick up, just outside the "junk" years, a little harder to find these so nice to also see a Fun Pack too.

A solid purchase all around and great additions to the unopened pack collection. I do recommend taking a look at least at their site, never know what interesting pick ups you may find!

Chrome Prospercting

The Lot is very good today as we get a bunch of Chrome Prospects from the 2024 Bowman offering - all inserts so one of each is kept with some coming with duplicates which go up for trade, but let's see who we get...

Bonilla was nice enough to show up in Triplicate for the Jays collection which works for me. From what he has been doing in rookie ball, not sure how far he is going to be making it in the minors, but time will tell. I mean last year we had Trey Yesavage fly through the minors, so you never know.

Most surprising to me - I didn't realize we had a card for Homer Bush Junior. I remember Homer Bush - didn't know we had a junior trying to make the bigs!

A decent bunch of keepers for the set, but one that I always think will be a more interesting set to look at 5 years later to see where they ended up.

Contending

Buying mixed sports card lots, sometimes you have to contend with cards you may not want to have and the challenge they pose in trading to something you want. Sometimes the cards are from a Panini Contenders set, and here we have both.

Like it or not, Kelce has become a household name due to the Swift impact. Amazing how much pressure that must put on any relationship.

As much as I have figured out about the card design - I just realized I don't know if the game number has any relevance. It does differ between the cards, so my guess is yes, but I don't know without looking it up....unless someone out there can shed light first.

Definitely going to have to find some football for baseball or hockey (hockey probably much less likely) trades to move these at some point.