Light It Up

As the set continues to grow on my, 2024 Topps gets a little more complete with the 2026 Lot today as I get closer to half done (312 of 700 now).

I definitely have more of series 2 covered than series one, so the bulk here being from series one helps. I do like the leader cards, though put together as a single subset would be ideal, still, great cards and design Topps has used for a while, and it works - even if it means, as a team collector, a way for non-Jays to get into the Jays binder when you have a leader from the team.

Speaking of leader cards, Snell as anything but a Dodger looks off to me since the World Series against the Jays. Not really fair since it's been such a short time relative to his career, but I can't help it.

Nice to see a rookie card or two in the bunch - whether prior owners just missed or not, definitely where this lot, at times, seems to have been a bit picked over.

Early Working

Before 2026 Lot cards today, a quick trip recap from the weekend. We went to my mom's in Scarborough to celebrate family birthdays (myself, my wife, my kids and my brother all have our birthdays in August or early September), in doing so I got one card related gift, the WWE blaster below, but came home with the rest here as well...

On the way home, we hit one of the few remaining Toyr R Us stores, and their cards were "on sale" and priced down. In relative terms, some of the pricing meant the cards were in line with what they should be, but the AEW blasters were $25 CDN, and the hangers were $5 each. I probably should have bought more of the hangers, but I didn't want to be too greedy or spendy all in one go. Happy with what I came away with though, and will be able to add the hangers to the unopened pack collection while having a few to open. Too bad they used a permanent market to scratch through the UPC codes on the back as I'd prefer the packs unmarked, but I'll live with the small defacing.

When it comes to set collecting, I am a smorgasbord of sets. Some do all flagship sets, or all of a certain brand, but I just have a random lot of sets I add to as I find ones I like or ones that I get a good start on. 2021-22 Upper Deck flagship started because I had some and thought it was alright, coupled with some of the still to be opened blasted boxes etc that should help grow my set completion.

That's why the cards from the lot today are so helpful, and everything here are continued keepers as the base set grows.

Ilya had about 3 seasons in Toronto before a couple years in Vancouver and then onto Chicago. Probably, as seems to be the case with many, a better move for the player, and leaves Toronto with someone having a better post-T.O. career than when they were here.

Still, a Leaf for me.

As for the rest of the keepers...

Mostly second series, which is fine as I do have boxes from, I think all three releases - first, second and "extended".

I may not like Montreal, but Price does have some really good looking cards. Sure, the back here isn't as exciting, but it does have full stats!

Maybe it's because of getting older, but Lax Vegas still feels like a very new team....so let's not talk about how long it has not been around because that definitely makes me feel older. Still, nice additions to the set...I think we are still only about 1/3 of the way overall though, but that's fine - the boxes which I expect to open next year, will help!

Absolute Challenge

The 2026 Lot today is all about Absolute football and an absolute challenge at times, to see the parallels of a set.

Here are the base cards of the retail version that we have today...

Lastly though...

Okay, so the first card isn't an insert or parallel, though it may look like it. The rookie subset at the end of the base set is done with the darker background, which is fine, but looks much more like an insert.

The last two cards aare black parallels which are simply a different colour (black versus silver). I didn't notice until putting the cards away, but luckily caught and corrected.

Can see why these were maybe missed by others to be included in the lot, and just emphasizes the ease at which minor difference can be missed when looking at parallels.

A Lapatch Trade and More

It may be a small PWE trade, but we hit some nice goodies in exchange for some minor leaguer cards. This trade with TCDB member Lalatch, a fellow Canadian, brought a handful of cards...

They never scan too nicely, but that first blur is a 1996-97 Pinnacle 3D McDonald's hockey card. May be hard to tell, but it's Jagr - and brings me one card closer to completing the set.

If you like serial numbered cards, well, that's where Eddie comes in handy as he is numbered on the back to only 375 copies.

Auston and Morgan are nice additions too, but the Welcome To... Toronto team insert card from 2022-23 Upper Deck is a nice one and done Leafs team set.

A second trade to share below, a small PWE with TCDB member jkrasner92.

Delgado is serial numbered to a sparse 9,799 copies. Well, back in the 90s, that wasnt too shabby. A couple Thunder cards which I don't see a lot, with the Escobar being a "rant" parallel which is the first I have in my collection.

We then end with a junior79 TCDB trade bringing more hockey my way...

We sent some unwanted cards away and got some dupes from 1993-94 Upper Deck, a nice Andreychuk Stadium Club and a one and done 1984-95 Fleer insert from the Headliner set in Gilmour.

I'd say that is a nice trio of trades.

Magic Catch Up

 Every now and then, I do a look up to see if some of the old sets from Magic have any new inventory on 401games in order to fill some of the holes in older sets. I did that recently with some of the core sets (think revised, 4th, 5th editions, or Magic 2011, for example)

It's nice to be able to just bounce between my TCDB card listing and the website to be able to check what I have and what I am missing. Couple that with a general line of spending less than $1 a card, and the process has helped me narrow down the missing list for a number of sets (as far as artifact card collecting goes), to just a couple higher value cards.

You will see from the scans here, the symbols which are gold or orange colours are the rare and mythic cards, which are harder to pull, but are not necessarily very valuable - see my dollar or less rule.

Makes sense on the older sets, why I would be missing them, as they wouldn't necessarily be easily available at this point due to rarity, even if not an overly used card for game play.

I still enjoy a good big baddie like Scuttling Doom Engine - six for a 6/6, though that seems small compared to a number of the bigger baddies from more recent years.

As you can see, I picked up some of the tokens as well. Since tokens don't have a casting cost, I consider grey ones or ones that specify artifact as being part of what I am including and collecting.

I did pick up some lands as well, and it's the lands that really give me my only "completions" from the cards today as each of the ones below are a one-and-done for lands producing colourless mana in the related sets.

One of these days, I will just go through my minders and cards and make up some artifact decks. Might be interesting to have a couple battle it out.

Next time I get an hour of down time and $20 to blow, I will continue to do this as I didn't even get through all the core sets in just picking these up.

Slide In Some Basketball

We get to focus mostly on some Optic basketball from the 2026 lot today. May not be anything I can collect, but a good show and share as it does help find so.e trades by showing on the blog.

Yes - sometimes the Chrome like cards seem to just want to slide around on the scanner. Nice to get some Raptor representation.

I usually go to a Raptor game each year - just one - as our office has season tickets and I try to make one. Same is trus with baseball and the Jays. Both are fun experiences, as long as you are fine with the price of food - that one always bugs me. I get the reasoning for it, but hate spending $20 for two slices of pizza.

It's not a bad set, but I would take the regular Donruss version over the Chrome Optics set. The finish just takes away from the photography too much in my opinion. At least the backs are Chrome-less.

Unexpected Addition

 Hockey from the 2026 Lot with, not a lot of cards, but a few different things which is very cool.

1992-93 O Pee Chee Premier insert with Oates, but happily, a set that I have completed so I will be passing that one along.

With my slow work on the 1989-90 O Pee Chee set, wasn't sure there would be a need for Alain or Mike, but both were cards I needed. As were both Kellogg's Limited Edition Collector's Set cards as well. Definitely don't need more 7th Inning Sketch cards for trading, so just the couple is fine enough to me.

Nicely heavily O Pee Chee today, and there are some cards here from the 1992-93 O Pee Chee set - another slow build, and also one of the 25th Anniversary Insert cards (Cheevers) which I actually needed as well.

The best surprise of the bunch though is the last scan. card three from the 1991-92 O Pee Chee set, is the back of a sealed three card promotional pack that is simply sealed in clear wrap. Took some digging to find out that this is how the promotional packs were sent out, so not sure how this ended up in this lot, but happy to keep it. The cards in are a bit warped from the tight packaging, but for what it is, still cool to have....even if it might be worth a buck or less. Still, a neat enough find, definitely a highlight for me from this lot.

Very cool pulls from the lot!