First - typing in general. It busy season and spell check, etc be darned, my typing is worse, so forgive me my errors for the next month or so.
It's a blog topic hopping around out there, so here are my two cents regarding my collection and what I am trying to do with it right now.
As far as cards go, I am still collecting in a simple (ish) hierarchy
1) Toronto Blue Jays and Leafs - any - take top priority
2) Baseball and hockey inserts/parallels
3) Baseball and hockey error cards of any kind
4) Cards for sets I am working on
In addition to this, is collecting |Magic The Gathering Artifact cards and baseball/hockey/Magic unopened packs. As far as trading go, I don't really have much activity on these, so it is more what I collect outside of the trading realm and add to the collection.
As far as collection goals on a whole:
1) Reducing my trade cards
I am in the midst this year of trying to reduce the number of trade cards I have for cards I collect above. I am also all for trading basketball and football for any baseball or hockey cards I don't have, let alone cards that fit the list above. I call this my 2018 goal.
2) Reduce the "keep" collection
Right now, if I don't have it, I keep one when it comes to hockey and baseball. I need to look at if I really want to do this. It's great to have goals, but I can't collect every set so in 2019, I think I am going to go through my general hockey and baseball "keep" collection cards and set some sort of limit (say 50%), and any set I am not there on from a completion stand point, push those cards to traders and build on the goals above.
Definitely a 2019 goal.
So - that's it in a nutshell, at least where I am at today. But interests always change and who knows what I will find of interest in a couple months.
Anywho - you know when curiosity gets the better of you? You know when you realize this, and still go through with allowing your curiosity to win out? I can guarantee before we get to this, that is exactly what happen with this one.
I have seen these hockey mystery boxes at Walmart for a while:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-m-_Lg3d1eiXNZ98msAzNxsoLKX9Eq2hQFJ5NjZRVsbcEQj6S0pMaF3p9d_y3Tw50uYuGPqfjCmyxeBZvtBKlUMfkADLp7nCqZHWZTfX-8VXKU1BB4-fZAEkubm_tcndV4BDCzs5rjEE/s400/2.jpg)
I held out on getting one, then looked up a couple videos and saw some more recent packs were included, so I figured, if I can get a couple newer packs for the unopened pack collection, I could justify the buy to myself.
You may be asking - "so why don't you just buy the packs themselves since you can probably do it for cheaper." You and your crazy logic....
So what is supposed to be included is:
- 6 packs
- 1 mystery pack (I don't understand why it isn't just 7 packs since they do not tell you what the other 6 packs are going to be, and they are not consistent based on what I saw before buying)
- 1 bonus item
- 1 auto or relic card
From the videos I saw, the packs were pretty decent with new Parkhurst, newer Artifacts and such products represented in the 6 packs. I am going to guess my luck will not be as fortunate, it never is with these...
So my packs...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKI6eF4arv5-e2gLK_yF7p4NW8rEmH6pv4tLReMkRoZh3rYUQLfFD3oKgEkU0jg9s-H1KBImMupVrB_txfALbK3zoEGGCZHF4ZRs7Lesi7qZi-gBiyhtYwKuTJfVSxEbbdSH9CrUOcUA0/s640/4.jpg)
Happy with the Parkhurst, meh on the rest. I would have liked something newer and more Artifact related as the other packs are roughly dollar-a-pack ones. I will have to double check, but I think the Parkhurst and maybe the MVP will be good and new for my unopened collection.
The bonus pack...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ1LX18NviuOjK_65haO7UdUzPy4o29SHJibif5K_1_Gbry91Vr69nuqRkA-D1Z-Tnb6DkYlf0jhT_oZRThzFHTuAGitokW9ze81Rxmub4t15nNrWdwegAkpJDJXvkfcrCTCeHEp11rmo/s400/5.jpg)
Happy it is a hobby pack, and if I am going to get a duplicate pack as I think I have a hobby version, still okay, as opening this one should be good.
As for the guaranteed relic/auto...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglSPb3GKRGdIiG_BMhwjfa9NXwJCE6mnvAqlrTSY9ncNAccHF01C1SDRmr0u-XN7-HULR81wnWYW7d4A357-w-ualKlcqVujW3s4FzlaKnQ-GwR3fi96KIjGUwg3Dp0jFAmp7Nsc57RUY/s400/30002.jpg)
About what I would expect from these boxes. Again, standard and call it maybe a dollar card. Not an overly long career, but a few seasons in Philly followed by single seasons in Tampa Bay and San Jose before being out of the NHL around 2012.
As for the bonus item - I think the box was feeling a bit bad for me...as I go two...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifqzzd5NEcPv6KXWh2h5ptvQFRTwQKJSmWBHeZjFs5klY0P5ypsn6xcKm4D08qBGOl6n8x7JcJet_aBQ-CeoXCSfMIChH3244mX1oGjTzt7PfjrUFy17-PNKd9e7DCE28Mwa_vcTIIooQ/s640/30001.jpg)
Oversized box toppers. Nice enough in being still wrapped and in package, though I don't need two. Good news though, with trading away as many cards as I am trying to this year, I can easily use one in a box as a topper - just as it was meant to be. There are a couple on COMC with prices around $8 which seems high to me, but makes me feel slightly better.
Well - definitely not worth the $30 paid for the box, but maybe there will be something good in the packs I will be opening. Have to wait until tomorrow to see what was in those, and if they redeemed this purchase.