A Year Short

First - did anyone enjoy the World Cup final? I only watched part of it, but I didn't find it overly exciting play wish, just more a waiting game to see if Argentina could push it to kicks. The result is what it deserved to be based on play, so I can't argue with the end result, but I think there were many more exciting matches in the tournament. 

Before more cards from the 2026 Lot, a trade share with fellow Canadian JFCaouette, a fellow Canadian, which involved a bit of baseball and a bit of hockey.

From the baseball side, we get a lot of the 1995 Fleer Jays I was missing, but still a couple left. Daulton was a sold prospect, and honestly, the red white and blue Prizm parallel in 2014 looked fantastic. Still one more Jay to get from it.

On the hockey side, I still need a couple more to finish the team base set, but almost there. Nice getting the paid of Leaf True North Heroes form the 2025-26 Timmies set so that insert is done for the team - still need copies in order to work on the "master set" for the binder, but that's nowhere near being a priority yet.

More hockey from the 2026 Lot today, and we cone up one year short - I'm collecting 2023-24, Upper Deck but we have a bunch of 2022-23 Upper Deck today.

Wayne's time in Toronto was all of two seasons, a full one in 2022-23 and 18 games the following year to end his career. I think his off ice contributions as a veteran were probably a bigger help than his on ice work.

An unexpected keeper, though of course I didn't scan the back which shows the error. The headings for stats on the back are for a skater, not a goalie.

The rest up for trade...

The design is actually not much different the next year, though I do like 2023-24 better than this design.

Still On Topps

 All baseball from the 2026 Topps flagship and Chrome, both sets I am trying to slowly build. Let's start with the keepers...

Lots of series two in this lot compared to series one - so just a couple keepers, but more Chrome which is nice. Still sore getting Dodgers that I keep...boo...

At least Chrome is less than half the size as flagship so maybe a little easier to finish.

At least I did get...

Not new, but Blue.

As noted - getting a lot of series two from flagship in this lot, so happy to trade to get more of the set done. See anything you need below, let me know.

Leaf Heavy

If we want Leaf heavy - nothing like starting with a hockey trade. This one is with TCDB member galemann and is another in the line of PWEs I was able to muster through recently.

We start with what, as of now, is the last variation (of the micro kind), 1990-91 Topps Leaf card with a C versus D in the copyright line printing. It makes the base set 21 cards big including these small variations which occurred on a few cards.

No other set completions from the rest, but nice additions nonetheless. Still need a couple more Leaf cards from the Retro Rookie Timmies set, but from the 2025-26 Timmies base set, I have 3 Tavares all from trades....haven't even opened any of the packs I have yet.

A great trade all around so we get some Leaf happiness before even getting to the lot pulls for today.

Well, if I'm going to get hockey cards from the 2026 Lot, getting a page of Leaf cards is as good as it gets!

Amazing little run that covers a bunch of years, and about half of them were new additions to my collection. I like the Tucker SPx card - fantastic in hand, and late 90s Stadium Club I don't see a lot of.

Otherwise - a bunch of traders...

I don't mind the early 90s cards, though they may be a little slower to move in trades.

I may not like the Mask Collection by name since it isnt an all goalie set, but still, great looking card.

Unfortunately, we end with a few cards that will be packing material since they are a biy bent and I am not going to trade such damaged cards...

Some More Football

Not all football is necessarily NFL and we get to start today with a couple nice CFL cards from the 2026 Lot.

Mike "Pinball" Clemons was a fantastic speedster for the Argos and a great personality and ambassador for the city of Toronto. He wasn't the tallest guy at just 5' 6", but he had the speed for the league.

Mike played 8 games in the NFL in 1987 and soon after moved to the CFL. In those 8 games he had 19 returns for about 162 years, nothing too impressive, but when he came to the CFL, he played through the 1989-2000 years, all with the Toronto Argonauts, he had a combined total yards of about 25,000 from running, receiving and punt/kick returns. Over those years, he averaged over 21 yards on a kick return, almost 10 yards on a punt return, over 10 yards per reception, and almost 5 years per rush.

In comparison, Jerry Rice had about 23.5k all purpose years in his NFL career.

ENough about that, there are some other football cards to glance at as well, but we have seen similar before...

Panini's 2023 Donruss offering still isn't a complete set by any means, but we do have more of the set showing up again.

We end with some Score, and I am left wondering if we will happen to see any other CFL cards in this lot!

Three For One

I don't usually do trades for a single card, but traded away a base Ohtani and got three serial numbered cards back in exchange. Truth be told, the Ohtarni base non-rookie card cost me less than a penny in the lot I bought, so although I probably gave more than I got....maybe....I'm happy with the pick up here...

The backs are below so you can see the beautiful serial numbers on these cards from jkrasner92 from TCDB (as usual). We have a 1998 Topps Stars Bronze Roger Clemens, and two different 2000 Topps Tek John Sneed designed cards.

Sneed was drafted by the Jays but never made it all the way up to the minor majors. I really like the design of the tek cards this year, and always like the opportunity to add serial numbered Jays to the collection, whether stars or drafted players that just didn't quite work out - still awesome additions.

Rest of the Champions

We have seen some of the 2023 Goodwin Champions cards from the lot before, but here was another (and maybe last) chunk of about 130-140 cards and the goal was to see if we ended up with a complete 100 card pure base set. I won't keep with suspense, it fell short. 10 cards short actually.

The first card in the set is Michael Jordan, and I didn't see that card at all, so I knew I would have the complete set. My guess, given the number missing is that whoever these came from, did get the set but got rid of their duplicates.

This set has it's place, and I can understand the cross sport appeal, but it's not for me. I don't really want to collect cards from all sports, and this would start to be a reason why to do such a thing.

No Jays or Leaf cards in the bunch, and nothing to really draw my interest, though the design itself is fine and solid.

I appreciate the draw in getting some out of the way recognition for track athletes for example.

Interesting that some stars get multiple cards, though if you are going to do it - Jordan and Woods would be two names for example, that would for sure make sense.

May not be a set for me, but maybe a set for you? Let me know!

Hockey's Turn

First, a trade, which is mostly hockey - but not all - and the trade is with TCDB member refmichel.

The lone baseball card actually ends up being a nice unopened pack addition with Roberto Alomar representing 1995 Upper Deck Post Canada here. It's the first such card to cross my path, and making it an addition to the collection - yay!

The rest of the Leaf cards here are duplicates, but pad the nice Leaf numbers.

Eddie is a McD set addition, and the SP and more recent cards are new to my collection, but overall, a very nice trade and any time I get a surprise unopened pack for the trade, definitely a pleasant surprise.

Different sport, but same kind of pick ups - hockey has a better go though, since it's a sport I actually collect, so we end up with two set helpers to start...

One of the better MVP designs in my opinion.

A couple Leafs which may not be new, but add to the team collection nonetheless...

I have the team set completed, the set as a whole completed, so these are absolutely extras, but that's fine with me, they still have a good home here.

As usual though, plenty of trade fodder we like to share in the hopes I can find a home for anyone out there interested...

Some early 90s fare which reminds me of some of the Dollarama hockey card offerings.

1991-92 Topps may look almost identical to 1991-92 O Pee Chee, but I don't see very much of it at all in comparison, and then 1991-92 Stadium Club is a decent set, just one I haven't looked to complete.

Skipping ahead a decade plus, we have a few odd cards, which are Oiler heavy.

We end with a couple Pens, but still, a great variety today, very nice.