Let's Say Inserts

 Some more hockey from the 2026 Lot today, and keepers....I guess?

I am still slow building the 1990-91 Score Canadian set, so one card from it today, and it's a keeper - sweet. THe bulk of the cards are these...

Another bunch of cards which were made into the 2000-01 Upper Deck Rookie Update release which was bringing together the updates for a number of sets. I think I'm calling these inserts, though they are more like outserts - cards meant to be part of an original release set which are inserts into a different product, so outside the original release. I don't know, just made it up (I think), but I'm going with it.

Keepers until I think otherwise, but the rest of the hockey are up for trade...

That is a nice Trottier card. He's actually someone my daughter knows by name because a year or two ago, he was a guest speaker for her class and talked about playing in the NHL and she really liked hearing about his story and what he does now.

As for the 2000-01 Topps Chrome - just not a set I am looking to collect, so some traders here for people interested, along with dupes of the SPx update cards from 2000-01 as well.

Is It Worth It

I was going to get right to a purchase I made and whether it was worth it, but I'll start with an easy one - is it worth being part of the online community with our hobby? Absolutely! There are a number of great people I have met online and part of what comes out of that is great sources for cards and trades, and I was gracious enough to get a package from https://buckstorecards.blogspot.com/ which was amazing to get. Especially when it was late into April and I was exhausted from work as it was a great pick me up.

Some great baseball cards to start and we hit some greats for the Jays with Donaldson, Bichette, Vladdy....or and Nate and Tellez are there too....

Hockey well represented too as I really love the look and feel of the Synergy cards from this year - the 2019-20 with the red die cast style.

I don't mind the playing card style for an insert set, and the throwback Calle is really cool -does the early 90s Ultra design justice.

A number of Willies in the bunch, and the Canvas is an interesting look with the unfocused picture....must be that he was moving too fast....right?

We also get two one-and-done Leaf insert sets completed which is cool...

2022-23 Upper Deck Rookie Retrospective and 2024-25 Upper Deck Ooh La La - a nice pair, but Woll wins. As for the nicest pair in the package...

I am not one to collect minor league cards at all, but I will make an exception in keeping this one. I am in NO WAY looking to start with minor league cards, but if I am going to make an exception, Vladdy would be it.

Speaking of things I don't really collect but will happily keep...

My first graded Toronto collection card. I have a couple graded cards that came in mystery boxes which are inserts, so sit with that area of my collection, but this is the first Leaf/Jay card. A great end to a fantastic package which I appreciate very much. I wasn't planning on it, but given the content of Sportscards from the Dollar Store, the opening today is quite appropriate!

Took a while to open this but I originally picked it up around November last year at Dollarama...

I shared a couple of the Pokémon ones not long ago, and I am guessing this is just as likely to bomb, but let's see what we get.

At least the 20 sleeves are blue, so I now have 40 which is getting closer to enough for a full desk.

6 uncommon is a decent pack, though they are likely, like all these cards, to be quarter or less in value.

A foil - sure, but a common foil is still a penny card.

10 cards, okay, but guessing they will all be common too.

Nice. About as good as I am going to do here - two artifact cards, including the foil. Neither new to me, but copies I keep for play set purposes.

Wow - another pair of artifact cards. Again, not first copies, but both keepers.

Of course nothing in the largest pack for keeping - go figure.

Now, if I was going to buy each of these cards individually from a store - sure, might be a better deal doing this, but of course, you have no idea what you are getting. So, today's package turned out alright but doubt they would all be as "good" for me as this one and this one was just passable.

I do have a few more...maybe we might even find a rare or mythic cards along the way - even if only a bulk one.

An Anniversary Post

 Sure, the anniversary has nothing to do with cards and I have no tie in today whatsoever other than the fact that my wife is nice enough about this card hobby and though she doesn't partake, knows I enjoy it and supports it from afar. Today marks 21 years together and such reminders of just how much time has really passed and how it seems to just go quicker the older you get. Similarly, we have been in our house then for about 18 years and the kids are 15 and 12....okay, that's enough aging me....

I mean, 1991 and Upper Deck sports cards designs remind me when cards that year were new. I remember excitedly ripping through a box of 1991 Score baseball in my bedroom and putting together much of the set, reading the backs, enjoying the cards....and now that is 35 years ago....

I wonder in 20-25 years, how many kids will be looking at cards in this post in a same view of remembering opening packs and collecting as a kid. I don't think that number is nearly as high as the potential adults who are making, or trying to make, a living out of the cards these days, but hopefully I am wrong. Kids these days don't have the same appreciation for sports cards that I think our generation did. I mean, you can look up stats, photos and all in a few clicks on the web.

Card games like Pokemon have a draw still for kids if they enjoy the game, then it's more than just collecting cards. There have been some attempts over the years by the major sports to try and make the cards into a playable collectible game, but not sure how successful any of them have been. I think wrestling may have had the most success which makes sense since it is a competitive against each other, sport.

Here, we just have appreciation for sports cards, an appreciation we grew up with from a...."simpler" time when the cards had information and pictures, you weren't really getting anywhere else. At least not as easily.

Corrected my mistake in forgetting to put some of the hockey card duplicates as inserts yesterday...but still doing alright overall on this lot I'd say, and plenty more to still come.

Surprise "Inserts"

 Returning to the 2026 Lot today and we get a hello from some sets that we haven't seen before in the lot...

The NHL Picks Lindstrom is nice, but the 2000-01 Upper Deck Black Diamond cards are something I don't see a lot of. What I didn't know until trying to enter them is, that they were not the regular set, but essentially the update cards which were instead "inserts" in the 2000-01 Upper Deck Rookie Update set. I guess I'll treat them as inserts, but that rookie update set wasn't really a separate set but a mash up release of the extending or updating of a few different sets. So, instead of just being traders, I get to keep them for the "insert" collection - an unexpected, but pleasant, surprise. I might have to think about whether I should count them or not, but truth is, as an extension to the real base set, which was released in a different product, it does make them more unusual, which is what an insert usually is...

Sticking with 2000-01, we get Upper Deck Vintage cards. I didn't really like much of the Vintage sets Upper Deck put out around 2000, so I look for my Leafs and keep it at that. I don't know why the set doesn't click with me the way similar products do like Heritage, but it doesn't.

We finish strong with a Leaf pick up - Jeff Farkas - but no luck on me needing the 2008-09 Upper Deck Masterpieces card here of Leetch - I have three cards left on the tiny set, so it was a low chance, but no luck. Guess I shouldn't play the lottery today.

Proof

 I know I have said it before, and I have had a couple people take me up on the offer, and here is a trade with TCDB member althib as further proof - I am more than happy to trade and get back Toronto Maple Leaf or Blue Jays cards I already have. If it means moving cards you need, and adding to my duplicate collection - let's do it!

I'd love to do team trades where it's as easy as just pulling the cards and sending, whether the other person needs or not, it's just the team they collect - another way to go that works.

As you can tell, I got back a bunch of high production era Leaf cards, which is great and fantastic. I took the chance to go through my 1990-91 Bowman Hat Trick insert cards and try to separate the Tiffany from the * and ** normal in pack versions and update my haves and have nots. No surprise that in trades, my numbers were off a bit from people not having the micro variations in right, but that's all good.

1991-92 Parkhurst seemed popular here - maybe the remnants of a box break.

The Pro Set from the same year is an iconic set from how much it was EVERYWHERE. Good news - most of these are French versions which I didn't have a ton of copies of, so - cool!

Pro Set Platinum was a good attempt at something higher end, though it didn't really end up there.

I like that the 1991-92 versions made the O Pee Chee versus Topps easy to tell with the different logos on the front.

Not all of the cards were from the 90s...

We did get a few from the last few years, and even a couple of them were new for me which is nice.

An easy way to get 100+ more Leaf cards into my collection with a simple trade.

With the trade, I figure it's a good time to snap shot where my Leaf collection is at...

According to TCDB, I have over 10,000 Leafs in the collection - though some will be of course in completed sets and such, but it is still a solid number to work with. I guess it makes sense that the top six teams would be original 6 teams as they probably have more cards out there than other teams.

Looking at top players in hockey...

I think the only two non-Leaf names in the top 20 are Wayne Gretzky and Brett Hull. Given my collection of sets and such are heavily weighted to the 90s, that will make sense.

The Top 5 doesnt surprise me - except maybe for how far ahead Sundin is, but if I was to guess, I would have said Sundin, Potvin, Gilmour and Clark would all be in the top 5. These will of course count cards outside of Leaf cards for those that played for other teams for which I have inserts or cards in completed collections, but solid numbers to compared anyway.

I should look at the Jays too - maybe next Jays trade I do.

Stickin' It From Bostn

 A quick Toronto team trade coming in my way in a single PWE trade with TCDB member bostnfn, and I can always appreciate being one and done on team collecting from a set.

Here we have the entire team set from 1982 Topps Stickers. I was only two in 1982, so I don't remember the games played in these photos at all, but a few of the players stuck around with Toronto into the later 80s, so I do remember seeing them play for the team growing up.

Specifically, Lloyd Moseby, Ernie Whitt, David Stieb of course, Damaso Garcia, and Alfredo Griffin. Alfredo I didn't see in this run, but he was back with the team when they were winning the back to back World Series, so that still counts!

Not sure why the red borders, but I can't say I have ever seen the sticker book to which these relate, so maybe the border colour makes sense. 

The photography does bring to light one glaring issue I find more and more when looking at cards from the 80s (and stickers) - the quality these must look like for our kids is the same as when we were kids looking at photos from our parent's time as children in the 60s (or earlier). Amazing how far technology has come, and how the quality that we thought was amazing as kids, seems SO outdated now. I don't even want to know what the difference in picture quality on cameras would be from now to back then.

Okay, I have depressed myself enough for one post - still really love the trade, no matter how old it makes me feel.

I Returns - Again

 Back to the 2026 Lot and back to 1991 Upper Deck Football apparently. Will I get the set completed? probably not - I am not trying to and if trades come up looking for cards, they are gone as quick as I can pull them, but still a nice set, iconic, and worth a look.

One the cards that stands out from this set for me is the Aerial Threats card for Philadelphia. I don't know why exactly - it is a good looking card, and Randall Cunningham was a great player, but one way or another, it's a card I think of when I think of this set.

Heh - Kelso - makes me think of That 70s Show....

Another Bruce Smith - nice!

I am getting enough from the set, some are showing up with dupes, though usually not in the same pull, but it happens!

The keeper percentage is taking a bit of a hit, but I really can't complain. When I am done with this lot, my next to do will be along the lines of a challenge to turn my trade pile into keepers. Will have to finalize those thoughts later, but still a while to go before I am done with this lot.