Welcoming Zeta and A Set In A Post

It finally came....the only time I have ever ordered a Secret Lair drop with Magic The Gathering...

The first, and hopefully only, booster pack drop from Secret Lair, the Zeta release was done with a horrible result for many as crashes and time outs made many miss the order which was a limited quantity on release. It was such a blunder that there is a 24 hour window coming up that they are allowing on demand printing for everyone who wants these packs.

Now, on one hand, I was lucky and I got to order. I picked up two packs with the intention originally of keeping one and selling one. Now that I have them and given how they came, I am keeping one sleeved as arrived, and opening the other in order to put the pack into the collection of booster packs.

Opening the one, this is what is printed on the outside of the envelope, under the flap.

Also, inside were...

Very white and very basic, as the design is supposed to be in trying to mimic the test phase and black and white type test cards for the original releases. The packs were sold for just under #20 USD each, so for two and converted, with taxes etc, it was about $75 CDN, so not cheap.

As for the pack, with the white packaging, I can tell you that the top card is a Dispatch which is a white card - for what it's worth. I am not going to search the pack otherwise since I am not opening it, but a cool little piece of unique Magic!

A solid winner of a day from the 2026 Lot today as we get a full 7 card insert set that I didn't have before.

I only needed these three cards to complete the 2015-16 Upper Deck Tim Hortons Season Highlights insert set, but all sever cards were actually here anyway for a nice little set.

I had about half from back in the day, but even the couple other cards here were great condition while the couple I had from before were a bit worn, so we get a solid quality boost too!

A few other keepers today...

Set help, a couple Toronto cards and a Rask uncorrected error card makes for fine cards to keep.

Not a bad way to do a checklist, by also getting a 1,000 point accomplishment put onto a card as well. Yay Douggie!

An assortment of other cards here now for trade...

We continue the food related trend with some McDonald's hockey cards, though nothing I needed...

The aforementioned other Season Highlight cards that I already had, and another bunch of O Pee Chee Platinum cards. AGain, I don't mind the set, but happy to help others with it instead of trying to build it myself as it just doesn't do enough for me to care to keep it. Would keep Leaf cards of course, but no such luck today.

Shout out to Erin - nice card, even if it isn't one of the Timmies sets I am collecting as it's a World stage set, not NHL, but still a cool design and nice cards. Besides, I appreciate the set being inclusive - took quite a while for the women's game to get footing in such card sets that the men's has had for years.

Bo For Bowman

I just realized it's Friday the 13th! Too bad or I could have made a post about it, but instead I will focus on Bo from Bo, so let's go!

I miss the Bo-Jays.

I mean, getting Bo on a Bowman card is perfectly fair, and I am happy when he struggles with the Mets as I am bitter he left, but I do hope he and Vladdy get to reunite in Toronto again later, if for no other reason than to see how much fun they have on and off the field together. You could see how much they mean to each other - too bad it wasn't enough to keep Bichette here, by I digress.

Being Bowman, more keepers in the prospect inserts...

These definitely pad the insert numbers, but a keep is a keep. As for the remainder, we get the base Bowman from the same year, and a few 1987 O Pee Chee...

I mean those are pretty solid stars on both accounts - Seaver, Yount, Votto Judge....nice!

We even get to see Ohtani. I know it's not like a rookie card or anything, but even getting a star base card is a nice find in a pack, same is true in a lot like this!

Newer Platinum

Hockey cards from the 2026 Lot today, and we get started with a scan of all the keepers today - just 4. 

A set build helper, a Leaf, and two inserts. May not look like it, but with O Pee Chee cards in the 2021-22 year, the Update was done as an insert to the flagship product, so these get to stay. The traders take over the rest of the post though...

The Yashin's a nice little pull from the early 90s, but the O Pee Chee Platinum cards from 2020-21  take up the majority of the cards today, and that's a good thing. There are a couple traders on TCDB that are big O Pee Chee collectors, so I don't expect these will be around too long. As apt to do with them, they are a little curved as you may be able to tell from the scan, but in perfect condition really, just natural curving/bowing.

It's a decent enough set, and if I had wanted to collect it, I may have had about 100 cards from the base set here, but it's not one I really am fond of, and I figure others like it so it makes better trade fodder for myself - let's see if TCDB proves that correct!

The backs of the cards are pretty clean and nice format too. Add a couple more recent cards, and that calls it another solid day from the Lot.

Remembering

I always prefer to keep it a bit subdued for a couple certain occasions. I like the blog to be an escape for people away from news, hassles, angst in the world and just to focus on the fun of the hobby and whatever it means to you. Remembrance Day though, is one of such times that it is always worth taking a few moments to, well, remember. Remember the history of how the world got to where it is - which may have it's own issues, but is vastly for the better because of the sacrifices many made years before.

So with a thanks to all those who did sacrifice and take part in making our world able to be what it is, let me be brief but share a couple trades that came in as noted below, and may you have a good day reflecting on and being thankful for, all that you have.

A trade with TCDB member eltoucan:

The trade finishes my base set of 2025-26 Leafs for the Tim Hortons set.

Second trade share is with TCDB member Nathan-John-Mercer who I have traded with many times.

Was able to get a couple cards I needed like the sticker and the Tavares MVP Ice Battle cards, and some duplicate Leaf cards to get rid of some cards from my traders bin.

Have a good day of remembrance and see you back here tomorrow.

Even More Trades!

 Going to share a few more trades today to try and get caught up a bit on a flurry that have happened.

First up, a trade with TCDB member FredKQSmith which was hockey focused.

The trade included some classic 1990-91 Upper Deck French as I was looking for missing variations on the holograms. These ended up not being ones I needed, but still nice additions.

Won't complain about getting a Tiger Williams card with the mid-2000s In The Game offerings which reflect back on stars of an earlier time. Not my favourite set as far as retro goes, but I still find them alright in redisgn.

The rest of the trade included more of the same - more new to me Leaf cards, and even a Toronto Pats Hap Day. Still counts given the home team, even if not technically a "Leaf", but a "Pat".

Next trade share is from TCDB member tucha who I have traded with a number of times before, and we can start with the baseball...

Still lots of Bowman out there I don't have but this knocks off some of the 2006 Bowman Chrome offerings at least.

Best card of the bunch though is the Melky as he was the final of 10 Jays for the team set out of 2013 Bowman.

The hockey side brings one non-Leaf, which was going to be set aside for someone else, but is actually a set need for my base build...so it stays!

The Ovation set reminds me of McDonald's sets of the time....I think 2006-07 to be specific.

Well, why stop at two trades...let's go one more...

The trade with PDIZZLE included some Bruins that are going to another home, but these are the Leaf keepers for me.

Nylander is the fourth of the 2012-22 SP base Leafs to complete that team set, and Auston beside him is the third of three from the Upper Deck Allure base set of the same year.

The O Pee Chee and Total cards are great, but finishing a team set always brings an extra "yay" with the trade.

Rudy1078 Wrestling Additions Plus

 Whatcha gonna do when you get wrestling cards in a trade? Share with all of you of course!

Yes, a couple non-wrestling cards that cover Toronto needs, but let's talk wrestling.

Bobby Heenan was the best manager of the 80s and early 90s, and then to add on his ability as an announcer - fantastic.

Haku, from all accounts, a man you never wanted to mess with in real life, and it's nice to see him recently in a managerial role.

Paul Roma was a name of the times, midcarder at best. Windham was about the same when it comes to WWF (ie. WWF) at the time, never really took off there and wasn't a great fit.

That all being said, the cards are all great fits to my collection so big thumbs up from me!

Speaking of wrestling, another wrestling card trade to share was a recent one with TCDB member FireproofLowlife.

I never played the game, but given the photos and subject matter, I'll collect these as wrestling cards. The Brock Lesnar is actually a promo card for the set, which is cool. What is not cool is that the sets are so similar and the copyright print so small, I have a hard time differentiating the sets. It's not like Magic sets with symbols so I'm going to have to really go through and separate out the cards to make sure I have the sets right for what I have on TCDB. At least the cards are with me, even if not organized quite correctly.

Trade With thejexican18

 Always happy to have trades to share, and today's is with another TCDB member and involves...mostly Jays.

So, you may be asking why Bernie ended up in the trade. Well, it's an error card that, on the back, notes he is a member of the Maple Leafs. Oops. He won't end up in my Leaf collection, but as it's an error card, into the error binders he will go instead. I try not to sully my Leaf binders with Montreal jerseys if possible.

As for the Bowman infusion otherwise, the bottom two Casey cards are great to be the second of two Jays cards for those respective team sets, yay.

I'd still rather not have the autograph facsimile printing, but it's not the end of the world.