Another 5-9

 Not showing quite all of them, but another 59 cards from 2023 Donruss football on tap from the 2026 Lot today.

Of the 300 pure base cards (it's a 400 card base set, but the last 100 are your rookies, etc), this brings me up to 1/3 done on the set. Sure, not going to keep any, but still need to keep up with whether I get the whole set or not to see what the lot provides. It provides a couple Bills, so I at least know where I can send those off to, though I should really find some football team collectors where I can send more football off to just to move it from my house!

No luck in getting any of the base set variation cards in this bunch. Not that it's a big win since they are just name variations which, to me, isn't a big draw. I much prefer when the photo is a more unusual one as the variation. At least Upper Deck hockey tries to do that with some of the recent years having suit/formal wear, alternative photos for some base cards.

We end with a Commanders card. I still find it interesting on the impacts for name changes to teams - not saying there isn't good reason for some of the changes that have happened, but interesting we don't see more of it. I mean, even for monetary reasons, for example, if a team name isn't working, change it to sell more merchandise. Not saying I'd like to see it, but we see a lot of design changes which are in part to do this, so why not change the name as well. Might be more of a legal hurdle to do I guess, but if more people are going to buy merchandise - surprised we haven't seen it happen...though maybe it's been looked at by some teams and the numbers don't quite support it....would be interesting to know what name changes that haven't happened, have been contemplated for monetary reasons alone.

Inserts Be Inserting

Today, Bowman be Bowman from the 2026 Lot with a big stack of 2024 Bowman prospect inserts.

With the name Bonilla, Emmanuel has some work to do to live up to the name in the majors, but I'd just be happy if he makes it higher than rookie ball where he has been the last couple years, but the stats seem to be against it taking a recrnt look online.

With 150 cards to the insert set, and having nothing outside a couple Jays before today, it means a bunch of additions to the collection today.

I like the design, and the fact the prospects team logo is in the top right on the front while the base cards have it top left, so it's easy to differentiate the two.

I like the Max Clark card - the dust up uniform shows the effort!

Skenes is a nice pickup given his rocketing career.

The were some dupes which I haven't scanned but are listed on my TCDB. I do have one interesting card...

I am guessing this may not be a printing error because of the shape and some of the card writing can be seen, but at the same time, there is no damage or difference to the card surface at all - any thoughts out there? Looks like something was stuck and removed but didn't damage the card, just the ink....weird....but cool.

Another Auston

Enjoy when the 2026 Lot adds to my Leaf collection...

Though I may not be a fan of the 'stache, Auston's done well to endearing himself to Toronto. I still don't consider him on the level of a Sundin or Gilmour for Leafs from my lifetime, but I expect he will get there before his time in Toronto is done.

I am working this set too, so more set help arrived today as well...

Nice Toews!

Enjoy the order in sets which di alphabetical by teams- great for team collecting when the card numbers are just in a row.

Sone cards for trade with a few dupes including Leon.

More Topps Additions

 It's been a good run of baseball cards from the 2026 Lot recently, and we get more with 2024 Topps flagship today.

I still grumble a bit with every Dodger card I come by given the World Series last year, even more so when I need to keep the card for the set.

Stomach post Jays days here with the Yankees. Still a keeper.

A solid days when over half the cards are keepers. As for the traders...

Baseball is getting a bit ahead for second by sport in this lot. I am hoping and expecting the to stick - definitely works given what I collect.

Prestigious

I may not collect football cards, but I can get behind the simplicity of the design of 2023 Prestige.

The set does put some stars of the past sprinkled in (I may prefer a direct subset, but can get behind the inclusion). The set is different enough with the simplicity - Id like it in hockey for sure. A Beckham Jr. sighting is alright.

Warren Moon who seems to be in as many sets, if not more, in recent years than when he was playing. I'm okay with that though.

Maybe not as exciting a day for my collection as the last few days, but a neat little set which I wouldn't mind helping someone with...or if any team collectors need a few cards, that works too.

Update My Wants...And Poisoned

A few shares today - yay - and we might as well start with an amazing offer and help from POISON75, a great reader of the blog who was kind enough to offer some help on my 1992-93 O Pee Chee set build. Not sure I should call it help, or almost a complete obliteration of my needs as I am now down to just a few cards missing, but to show you how awesome he was, here is what came my way...

I love the retro design cards sporadically included in the 396 card base set. Had been missing some, but now I am just down to three cards left and none are retro design cards.

I had been missing some of the big names like Brett Hull, Jagr, some might consider Patrick Roy a "star" as well I guess.

Super Mario is always a great addition too - and with trophy to boot!

I can't say enough about how amazing the community is on here, and the offer to help out was greatly appreciated. I was able to find some cards off of the want list posted on his blog which is here, and sent them across - anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to connect, take it now and big thumbs up for the package and assistance!

Let's share a quick wrestling related trade first. I had come across the fact, while putting a set away that I thought was completed, that I had a silver parallel Bayley in by base set of 2019 Topps WWE RAW. As awesome as that was to find, it meant I needed a proper Bayley base card. Well, a PWE trade with with TCDB member philhigh and we have...

A completed base set, and a few inserts as well to make it a more full envelope going each way. Really nice to have that set actually completed now.

In other me related card news...well, as lots are apt to do - we have another set to add to the slow build list - 2023 Topps Update as we get enough here to chalk up almost half the set. There were some dupes and traders in the bunch, but rather than show those few, I was impressed by the amount of keepers, so will put those together in a few shots instead...

The standard 2023 design gets a final use with the Update set and with 330 base cards to it, here we have about 140 of them knocked off the list.

Taking a look at what was here and what wasn't - I'm not going to say it's just rookie cards missing as there are some here, and some of the missing cards have nothing to do with rookies - so there may still be more to this set in the lot, but time will tell.

Still, a nice bunch of cards to start - andever some Jays...

I guess this is one way to get Mike Trout into the Jays collection - thank you Topps for making these cards if only for that reason. I do wish that, instead of the MLB logo, they split the area on the front and put the photo for each team logo instead, but small complain on a great bunch of cards today.

Story

The 2026 Lot comes with a reminder today - every card has a story. A story of how it was received, how it became part of a collection, how it travelled to get to where it is, a story that one can only guess many times, what the full story is. I am left with such questions on two different cards from the lot today.

This one is easy to identify as "what" it is. In 1994, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers were huge, new, and everywhere. I was 14 at the time, and the timing of when the show was on in the morning, when little else was on, left it prime to be watched. I thought it was fine, but didn't go out of my way to watch it. I did like the green ranger and white ranger storylines, which were so different for a "kids" show.

Why is there only the one sticker? Sure, I am assuming that is the case as there is plenty of cards left in the lot, though I can say, there isn't a large run of stickers that I can spy. How did a single sticker come to be, instead of a full pack? Did someone collect along the way? No idea, but at least I know what it is.

This, I had no clue on. So, I did something I have never done before, downloaded and used Google Lens on my phone to search the web for information on what the heck this is, and - success!

Apparently, this is a card from a game called The Ressistance: Avalon which was published in 2012. Obviously not the English version, but it's a King Arthur themes bluffing style game which has a number of game cards like this. Here we have Percival - and the card's two lines of text are "Percival" and "Knows Merlin" underneath it, which is obviously game related.

An intriguing pick up, but begs questions like - why only one cards? How did it get into a card lot like this? Who is the poor soul who stopped being able to play their game because Percival went missing? Where will Percival go since I will just use him to package some trades?

Well, either way, the stories for these cards will not end with me....