More Football and Tidbits

First, a thank you to local collector Jeff who I met up with a few days ago and took a bunch of Bruins I had been collecting for him. He had a box of odds and ends for me which was not necessary AT ALL, but thank you. I will probably work through it separately in the next few weeks and when I have the chance, share over a few days here as there is some good stuff for keeping, and some good stuff for trading.

Quick thoughts on the World Cup as I haven't touched on it here, but have been keeping a good eye on it. I am not a fan of the expanded field as I think it waters down some of the competition a little bit. In the end, I don't think it has much impact on the final results - say the final four when we get there, but it leaves for some uneven matches. Sure, there are David and Goliath moments that come out of it, which are cool, but my guess is that FIFA is hoping an expanded field means more money, and as long as the end results really are what they should be - no harm done.

I think Canada at least has a solid shot for getting to the round of 16, but given their potential match ups there, any further would be a shock. It could happen as tight matches and one goal can be the difference in many cases, but realistically, I don't see it happening. That said, getting to the round of 32 was likely the goal going in, and a win there would be icing to begin with - here's to hoping and cheering them on.

Elsewhere - Magic recently released the Marvel Super Heroes set which means I spent about $70 Canadian because we have an expensive Collector Booster, a Jumpstart booster, and three play boosters - I picked up one here, but have the others in order as well.

This has me up to 271 unopened packs and essentially cover all booster pack releases ever done except for a handful (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Antiquities, Arabian Nights, Legends, Portal Three Kingdoms. I haven't collected unopened materials like box toppers, so there is a way I could expand this collection, but I don't want to go there, this is an expensive enough section of my collecting. Just like, I love the sets I am missing, but I am not dropping $1,000 - $30,000 on a pack of cards....unless I win the lottery or something.

Now, into some more football cards from the 2026 lot, and some of the cards being Prizm, seem to have small mark ups. I'd say this seems to happen sometimes, though usually the cards are really good.

Can't complain about seeing some Mahones cards - would have expected they would have been pulled before being put into a lot for sale. I will say, I like the Delect design much better than Prizm.

Eli's another nice name to see.

Another Mahomes with a Brees to boot - solid cards but I would definitely take condition into account when trading. They are good enough to trade and not scrap, but I wouldn't want condition to throw off the recipient unexpectedly.

A Slow Go

Yes, building the 2024 Topps flagship set will be a slow (but fun of course), build. The 2026 lot continues to help with it though.

Kirk, is also a slow go - man us one of the slowest runners in the majors. Is it a problem? We'll, at times it doesn't help, but it's not the only aspect of the game. I like the intangibles he brings and he is solid behind the plate, so as much as we do see jokes about his lacking speed (and it will never be a strength to him, but appreciate his effort to improve it nonetheless), he definitely deserves his spot.

Speaking of spots, these deserve and get a spot in my set build...

More keepers than not - I can get behind that!

Traders for those looking...

Boo to Hernandez for the 2025 trauma he provided...

Nice with almost 70% of the lot being "my" sports. Not sure if I will be seeing another lot purchase like this any time soon. The person I bought from before seems to have disappeared and any lots of over 100 cards seem well overpriced. I will keep looking though...besides, plenty left for this lot still.

Stars Now From Before

 Sets adding cards in currently releases of past stars is nothing new. It adds more cards to a set that people might chase, so I can understand the draw and reasoning. I also don't mind them doing it as it does provide new cards to look for id you PC such a player....

Aaron Rodgers should already be one of those players. I kid - kind of. I think it won't take long for him to appear in sets beyond his playing days, and I expect it to last a while. Maybe not to Brady levels, but probably close. Mahoney will be on that list eventually too, but will be a little while for him yet.

Beckham Jr. is another name for that list too.

Marcus Allen too - though his CFL time out does his NFL time. (Edit - scratch that - I am remember his brother in the CFL).

We end with Steve Young throwing his hat in the ring as well.

Could Have Been Worse

 Let's try another of these Dollarama packs today...

First, let's see what's included...

Red sleeves I can give the kids and....I swear, that pack of lands better not be all basic lands...

Well, with two lands that create colorless mana, I actually will keep those. Thankfully just two basic lands as I wouldn't be impressed if they were all basic penny lands (well, not even a penny).

I see a white theme to this one, which is cute, but does nothing for me. The rare is a 50 cent card, so about what you would expect.

This reminds me of the packs you could by 5-8 years ago - I think it was 10 for $1. Nothing to write hone about.

At least I get one artifact from the bunch though, so overall, $4 for the fun of opening and about $1 worth of cards to keep. Still, a fun go if nothing else as it could have been worse.

2024 Bowman

Another baseball set to add to the list of sets I wouldn't mind completing because of a good start provided by a lot purchase. This one does seem rookie card picked over, but atleast my Jays are here... 

I like the design and nice to get a number of both stars. There are a number of duplicates (roughly 3 of each card were in the stack today), but here is a showing of what I am keeping to start the build on the 100 card set.

The stars like Judge and Ohtani are here in force, just most of the rookies are missing - definitely someone speculating and "dumping" the rest of the base cards.

Freeman and other reminders of last year...boo...

A great start with over half the set, and as long as none of the rookies blow up and become super expensive, I might be able to finish this one!

Pro Set Platinum...

A nice reminder today, that Pro Set Platinum wasn't just for hockey....there was a football set as well... 

No surprise the look, front and back is identical to the hockey version, and like the hockey version, I could get behind the uniqueness of the set for the early 90s as there was nothing similar to it at the time.

Actually, also the first cards from the 2014 Topps set that I have ever had in my possession. It's actually a really nice design - though I might change to not have name foiling on the front.

At least a number of the names are ones I have seen and known from Elway before to Gronk and Kelce here...

Young and Marino as well - very nice. Still not a fan of the draft pick sets, but at least a name I know with the throwback inclusion of stars.

For a second I thought the Ahmad may be a variation because of the nickname, but apparently not, that's just part of his name on the card. Not a bad variety here - and the Select cards are pretty nice too - Burrow and Tua being nice pick ups too.

Not a bad bunch given I don't collect football.

Help For The Future

 The 2026 Lot adds today are Topps base related....

Wouldn't mind seeing more 2013-2017 Topps sets in this lot, just hasn't been too much of these so far. As for 2019, there has been a bit, but happy to get adds for the flagship and Oepning Day sets. 

2024 Topps seems to be in fair numbers in the lot, and here we have a number of Future Star cards which is nice. Sometimes these get pulled like the rookie cards when someone goes through the lots, so good to get them here. My favopurite card of the bunch has to be the shower card though, great shot and use of the vertical card design. Actually, next one is a good use too...

Stroman looked so promising for Toronto, but the bitter split which probably could have been avoided early on, was not a surprise by the time it was done. The card here looks great, and he had some great games for Toronto, a shame it couldn't work out better here.

The rest of the cards today, all for trade...

Other than a single random 2013 Bowman insert (which I just happened to have), we get the bunch of 2019 Topps cards, including the very nice sprawling Springer.