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....

Adding From Whales

 I have been trying to reach out and initiate more trades on TCDB as 2026 has been a slower trade year. It's been busy, so not a complaint, but I do like to keep the trades going. With FlyingWhales, I brought in some nice Leafs - some new,  some not so much.

The 2015-16, 2017-18, and 2019-20 Upper Deck Leaf cards are dupes, but helped round the trade and I rather have Leafs than cards I don't want. As for the rest, they are all new to me!

I am really loving the new feature at TCDB which allows all new cards listed for teams you specify, to automatically get added to your want list. It's allowed me to start getting "new" cards through trades, a lot sooner than I otherwise would.

Really like the 2025-26 Upper Deck Artifact design - might have to take a look at that set if I can get some packs or cards for cheap sooner or later.

Nice to finish with a couple new for me Tim Hortons Leafs. Heck, I might have these cards in unopened packs....I should get to those some time soon actually.....