Happy Valentines Trade

Always nice to share some card love on Valentines' Day, and we do that with a nice trade, this one with TCDB member jamestagli. 

We start with a solid addition for the 1982 Topps set build. A nice reminder that Dennis was not actually a closer when he was early in his career and grew into the role and being one of the most dominant.

We then get heavy into the Jays content, and plenty of Bowman related. Actually get a couple years of Bowman Chrome Prospects insert team sets done for the Jays cards here which is always welcome.

A number of Lane Thomas cards, including the all red Panini being numbered to only 100. Lane never got to play in the majors for the Jays as he was traded to St. Louis before it happened. Lane spent a couple years in St. Louis followed by a few in Washington before making it to Cleveland the last couple years. Lane's best years were 2022 and 2023 with Washington.

Definitely a fun trade to receive, and the coincidence of some red related parallels just suits the day even more.

Getting Smaller

 I don't know if this is going to become more of the norm for me - in some ways I hope not. A small PWE trade which was only a couple cards going each way. I will always try to do for more cards to at least fill then envelope, but if someone has a need, I'll do these small trades to help out. So here, a small trade with TCDB member KrugSwag was done, and these cards came my way...

I don't know how I feel about the Gaming PVP insert set from Upper Deck. It's just - odd. I don't mind the concept of two stars which had big games in the same game, going against each other, but this seems to pander to video game style presentation which I don't think is really needed. Give me a couple shots from the game, each scoring a goal or something, and that would be great.

Second card is another great Marner Leaf card - as much as I am not a big fan of fake autos, it's done fine enough on the Silver Script cards, so I'll take it.

Very nice newer card additions, many thanks, and if this is what I can get in smaller trades - maybe they aren't so bad.

Atleanta Prospects

 Just as it says, the 2026 Lot provides some Atlanta based prospect cards - some insert keepers and dupes for trades, but let's take a look and see how successful they were.....or ideally, continue to be...

Starting with Jonny Venters, he spent a few years in the majors, first with Atlanta, then with the Washington Nationals organization. Most of his career was in the minors, but he did have some appearances in the bigs.

Brandon Hicks had a few years 2010-2014 with some experience in the bigs, Atlanta, Oakland and San Fran, but with a career batting average in the near 300 plate appearances being just over .150 - the infielder didn't last beyond those few years.

Michael Dunn had a longer run in the majors, pitching from 2009 through 2019, with it spread over four different teams, though most with Miami.

Matt Suschak never got to the major leagues, but had a few seasons in the early 2010s sputtering around the minors.

Dave Filak was in the minors for a couple years while Matt Lipka lasted over 10 years in the minors, but neither got to the big leagues.

Jose Peraza had decent success at the highest level a few years with Cincinnati followed by stints in Boston and both NY teams.

A bit of a mixed bag as far as results for prospects go, but I walk away with a few keepers here, and some solid help for a Braves fan!

Sabres, Oilers, Stars and Rangers

 Sometimes when buying lots, there's a bit of random organization t the cards as they come out. Here it seems for the most part to be a couple teams pulled/highlighted from 1991-92 Pro Set Platinum. Platinum was supposed to be a step up in quality and feel a bit more premium, but it was just different - like no stats on the back, but that's okay, I look at it fondly now.

Lots of Sabres, some Oilers and...

Stars (North Stars to be exact) and...

Rangers. I don't mind getting a couple copies of each for trading purposes, but unfortunately, none of these actually helped with my set build. This one is fairly far along - about 87% complete on the 300 card set - but would have been nice to knock off a few. Does mean hope there are more of the set, including those I am missing.

Regardless, the design does allow for the game of "can you recognize the player". Without getting into names, because these are the stars I grew up on, I recognized well more than half myself. Funny because I don't know if I could do that now if you gave me middling players from teams outside Toronto.

Raining Leafs

We can start with some raining Jays as Mike from Not Another Baseball Card Blog send a few early Jays my way.

As it turns out, most of these cards are new to me as I was able to trade over time, much more easily, to get the Topps cards from 1977, but O Pee Chee versions like this have been harder to find. Appreciate the cards as always Mike!

Well, great news for my collection today as we get to add a bunch of Leaf cards. Nothing new unfortunately, but that's okay, the numbers work as we get to see some old friends with 1990-91 Pro Set and all of it's error filled glory!

A binder page of Leaf cards for me today - yay! It's the second series highlighted here, and Todd Gill is probably my favourite Leaf of the bunch. Not sure I noticed how yellowed the Hannan card looks. I think it must be all of them as I am surprised if it were just these two, but I haven't looked too closely before. When I put these away in the collection, I'll see if they all look the same.

As I do have most of the error cards from the set, the set completed otherwise, and of course plenty of Leafs, the rest of the cards today are up for trade, and being the second series for the year, a little lower on star power, though there is still some to be found.

I probably shouldn't be as happy to see this set in lots as I am but I do really like the colour and layout, and with the errors, it makes it more quirky and collectible to me.

2021 Panini Prizm

 The 2026 Lot provides another bunch of shiny cards which happen to be Panini. These ones though, of the football variety. I look at these posts as a fun way to share some cards which are up for trade to anyone out there and interested.

The card design is very much like other Prizm designs for other sports at the time - not a complaint, just statement of fact. I don't mind the front, but they look better in hand as the scans are a bit dark.

I don't mind the smattering of stars from past years like Bledsoe showing up in these sets since it gives me someone I actually recognize compared to many of the current day stars as I just don't follow the NFL like I use to. Actually, a nice Thurman card here as well.

The backs are as expected with the low Panini bar of minimal stats and repeat pictures. Really wish they would do better on these in general.

Bettis - nice and Michael Vick.....no comment.....other than to say, that's 36 football cards up for trade!

Slowly We Close In

 Another 2023-24 Upper Deck Allure bunch of cards from the 2026 Lot, and we do in fact get one card closer to the pure base set completion...

Alex started with Colorado who drafted him, but was traded to Montreal and has played for the Habs the last couple seasons. Not a high profile name, so gives me hope the last few needs are simply ones that haven't shown up in the set yet. A couple that have shown up before, and happy to have them show up again...

Not going to complain about Leaf dupes one bit! Have picked up a few of each now from the lot, very nice, very nice.

The rest of the slightly curvered traders for anyone interested...

Sure, the rookies may have all been taken out from what we have seen so far, but if stars like Auston and McDavid are showing up in numbers, I am not too worried about missing any base cards...just time will hopefully tell - would be nice to finish this set off as a first accomplishment from the lot.