Basketball Coming Back

Before getting to my post today, an important (and helpful) nudge! So, my son is trying to start up a YouTube channel and I figure that the least I can do is ask for a little help from those out in reader land as he tries to learn what it means to have a channel, get subscribers and try to make a go of "making it" online. His channel is about videogames (go figure for a 16 year old boy - I know), and he is doing some playthrough videos and trying to find his niche.

Realistically as a parent, happy to see him reach for what he wants to do - and politely push the important of a backup plan so if he doesn't end up making millions online, he has a good base behind him to find another successful path for himself.

That said, appreciate any attention / subscribing you can give to his channel as it means a lot. His goal is to try and get to the point of being able to monetize the channel (I believe it's 1,000 subscribers), and to go from there. I think he has a way to go to find himself a market and niche, but as a parent again, it's the learning he is doing in the process of finding out what works, what doesn't, how to make videos, what to post, that all is a great experience for him - whether it is a fruitful venture in the end, or not.

The link to his page and to subscribe is here.

Now, we that shared, we sit less than a month away from the start of the next NBA season, and with that, and a look at some basketball cards from the 2026 Lot, we can talk about the two signings in Toronto that will impact the team most.

To be honest, the better of the two signings is the Lowry signing allowing him to retire as a Raptor. Though it was not quite half his playing career, I'd wager the best times of his career were here in Toronto, and he became beloved by the city. Even when he departed, it wasn't really with heavy heart and hatred - the move was one that was understood by most the fanbase, though it wasn't something people wanted to necessarily see.

Glad he has the chance to retire a Raptor, and I think his lore and what it means to be associated with the team and the city going forward will impact Canada and basketball player growth like what Vince Carter did for the city.

Kawhi Leonard coming back to Toronto again - I have reservations about. Don't get me wrong, I think Kawhi is a solid player, but I don't know that what was given up for him now, 8 years or so after the last trade bringing him here, will be worth it. I am sure that, if he can take Toronto to another title, all will be forgotten and it won't matter the team traded away all those draft picks for him, but it definitely feels like mortgaging the future for a chance "now".

Though I have reservations, I'll take a wait and see approach, but it is a bit surprising to me that it cost more, I think, to get him now, than it did years ago.

Tackling The Elite

Football cards coming from the 2026 Lot today, and we get Elite highlighting it, so let's take a look. 

Still not a big fan of the WildCard Matte set cards - too plain, too white, too underwhelming. The 2023 Panini Donruss Elite, now these look pretty solid in hand. Still would rather an action background instead of the straight shiny, but the cards do have a better high end feel.

Rodgers, Prescott, solid cards, solid names...

Frustrating backs with no stats to be seen. I never thought it would be too much to ask to have stats on a sports card, but.....PLEASE! Hard to look at cards and see the highs and lows of a career at a point in time without some stats to add context and colour to the discussion.

Not a bad bunch of cards really, and they should be good to help the when I get to project trade away or whatever I call trying to slim down my traders in 2027. I still have a few months to change my mid, but I think that will be the goal for 2027 - maybe not buying a new lot, but instead, trading away as much as I can in a single year. Sure, I'll add some stuff from the trades, but the driver really being, how many cards can I make disappear. For context - my cards for trade are about 50k, and realistically a stretch goal for moving in a yar would be 10,000. Accordingly to TCDB, the most I did in a year was about 6k, and it would likely take a couple local/big trades to get there, but that would be - elite!

Another Magic Update

I did another "go through all the 401games singles and see if I can backfill cards for under a buck each" exercise again, and there were a good bunch...again....

A great start though as the Mishra's Factory is the fourth land I would collect from that specific Duel Deck set - Elspeth vs. Tezzseret and the Temple of the False Gods is the standalone land for my collection from the Elspeth vs. Kiora Duel Deck.

Sharpener Pitchfork is the last of three artifacts for another "set" completion for me - no more in the pick ups, but knocking off three like that, nice!

Newer sets get me a bit frustrated with how the base set can now include a base card, full art, or extended art, or other such different forms of the same card. I'd rather they be treated as inserts, but it's not for me to say unfortunately. The good is, sometimes these can still then be picked up cheap like The Mana Rig here.

I wonder how many Mind Stones I have, seem to be picking up a lot of versions recently.

How can you not love the artwork on many of the cards. I mean, that Suspicious Bookcase is just fantastic.

Another Mind Stone....just saying...

Another small annoyance at times - when the base set includes multiple versions of the same card, just for different artwork, and it's not a basic land. I get basic lands being done this way, as they always have been, since you need to have so many in your deck, and the variety of look is nice, but for other cards - pick an artwork and stick to one, or if you really have to, go the way of a short print variation, but not giving a card another printing slot like they did with this Temple of the False Gods.

Zoetic Cavern is like a poor Mishra's Factory.

Apparently The Moment couldn't stick around for the scan, or at least the extended art version.

Last pick  ups are from 2001, and show that even back then, some cards did get the different art / double slot inclusion on the base set, like Phyrexian War Beast. I remember having a dozen of the cards back on it's first printing and it's because of the exact issue - showing up in both slots regularly. To think, there was a time a 3/4 for 3 was a solid card and you just tried to work around the downside.

Halfway

 So, before I started going through the 2026 Lot, I had the Jays for the 2024 Topps flagship set. Today, I am now over the halfway point on the set itself. This is why I love picking up these random lots, fun to go through, and you never know where your going to get help on your collecting.

Today, we do get to start with a few Jays dupes which are great for the set build...

I loved the idea of Cavan being a Jay, and he was given the time he needed to make it or not, and unfortunately, he just couldn't get his bat where it needed to be. I understand the move and he continues to work at keeping in the bigs with 2026 being in the minors for the Astros organization.

Varsho has been solid in center field, but I do wish he'd be a bit better at the plate average wise.

There were a few dupes which are now on my trade list, but here is a snapshot at all the keepers for today...

Nice to get Acuna, Verlander, Freeman, and solid start cards. I gather we will be light on the rookie cards as seems to be the case in the lot, but I can live with that. With your friendly neighbourhoor trading partners on TCDB, I have been able to do a decent job knocking out rookie card needs on the 2020 and 2021 sets, so 2024 should eventually be no different.

Oh, and team cards, those are always awesome - whether an insert set or part of the base set - I am all for having them included.

Collecting Dupes

 As I continue my start on initiating more trades, I ran into TCDB member junior79 who needed some basketball, and I much rather have duplicate Leaf cards than basketball cards so we ended up with a nice little trade. Only the fist card, the Al Secord, is new for my collection, but that isn't a problem.

I also always love that Foligno card - just such a weird shot.

I don't officially have a goal of the number of Leaf and Jays cards I want to collect - I can't say it's a 1 million Leaf or Jays goal, or anything like that, but the more the merrier is fine by me.

I was able to find a couple sets at least I don't have a ton of duplicates on Leafs for.

1992-93 Ultra is a good example. I am not sure why I don't have 5 or 6 of each of these already, but only a couple of each so, what's wrong with adding a few more. Heck, I am still not done a single full base Leaf team set yet.

1993-94 Upper Deck I definitely have completed for the team set, but dupes, not many. It's a good looking Upper Deck set - one of my favourites from the 90s for sure.

Appreciate the trade junior79, as always. Many thanks!

Bringing Back Memories

Today's trade is brought to you by fellow Ontarian and TCDB member Galtview, and we start with all the rest of the Jays I need for completing the team set...

1988 Panini Stickers was the BIG thing I collected as a kid. I think I had three albums which were complete or close to it, and so many duplicates that I gave them away to anyone I could at school. Looking back, it was probably because they were relatively cheap at the time and something that my mom was fine spending the little needed on them, picking up packs while checking out from grocery shopping each week. We didn't have much financially growing up, and I don't think about it at the time, but looking back, it was something she did not have to do for me, but I did enjoy it a lot and it was one of the core memories I have as a kid, getting and opening the packs at my grandma's house (my mom went shopping with her every week and we spent the day at grandma's house).

A lot of familiar faces on the stickers, on a design that is entrenched in my mind, and now I have the team complete again.

The rest are 2005 year cards and first is some more Topps Total cards. Mid -2000s Jays are not high on my list as it was a down time for me of watching and following because I was finishing University and working on, well, starting full time work and getting my professional designation, so like collecting kind of bowed out of life for a bit, so did some of the sports following.

Now, getting the chance to trade and get cards into the collection from that time frame, including these 2005 Upper Deck First Pitch cards - very cool and appreciated. I definitely would have had a lot more Halladay cards in my collection if I had kept up collecting through the 2000s....but better late than never!

Some More Drafting

Another day of 2026 Lots pulls and we get some solid basketball of the Panini variety today, starting with some 2021 Draft Picks.

Almost all of the cards from this set here came up previously in the lot. A bit surprising, but doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing as we do have some good names in the bunch. From Isiah to Zion - a solid and varying bunch.

My preference though would be more of an NBA level set instead of the Draft Picks variety, and we get that with some 2021-22 and 2022-23 sets. I wouldn't have minded a little more of the 2021-22 set as I like the design a bit more than the follow up year, but that's small complaints as these look like the first 2022-23 Prizm set cards I pulled and variety is good for trading purposes.

Iverson still getting love in card form - interesting. I guess it must have been all of that practice....