Varying Variations

Over on TCDB during this year, there have been a few changes to some sets and how they are listed due to small variation difference. I entered these sets back when these variations weren't listed and have been waiting to try and get through a few of them at the same time.

Well, that time is now.

1991-92 Upper Deck Hockey

The variation documented on this set is one with regards to the hologram on the back, something Upper Deck has put on their cards for years. There are however two variations of the hologram - one with the words Upper Deck, and one with the Upper Deck logo.

My purpose for going through the cards today is to separate into the two sets as they are, for variation purposes, different.

Depending on how the numbers fall out, I may or may not care to go after completing one variation set over the other.

One problem I thought I couldn't fix - I have the last two hundred cards in a sealed box and had no idea of which set it is, but luckily it seems the last 200 cards were only printed with the hologram so luckily, crisis averted.

Just going through my Leafs dupes - there were only a couple with the hologram. The problem is, that's the base set I have everything listed under, so took some time to transfer everything else to the right set.

Actually not a huge project for this set as I have maybe half the set and most of it is with the text hologram, still, about an hour of my life in separating it out.

Examples you say....

Just reflective enough, you can see the difference in the holograms.

1987 Donruss Baseball

Oh Donruss, how sneaky you were...small differences between the factory sets and wax pack cards that (I think) started here, but don't quote me on it. I don't really go out looking for the differences, but when they come up, I note them to deal with them (like here).

Apparently 1987 Donruss difference was simply the orientation of the back of the card. Definitely won't matter to me for completion of the set, but I would make note of which ones are factory set cards versus not.

The Upper Deck hockey above seemed more to be about timing and that Upper Deck changed how they did the holograms mid-year whereas the Donruss baseball issue is just how they printed one set versus the other.

I apparently have about 125 cards of the set (not including Jays dupes I keep). Out of all those I have...1 factory card. Would expect there to be not many as I assume most people don't split up factory sets.

So if you flip the card over (left to right, not up and down), the two backs are simply:

 or 
             (factory set)                                               (wax pack)

At least it was easy to mark that one set off now...oh wait....Jays....ah, one there as well. For the team cards, I will definitely treat the two separately, so at least I have a factory set Ernie WHitt that I didn't realize I had.

1988 Donruss Baseball

This is a tricky one. There is a border design difference with the factory set. Do I care? I don't think so. I care to keep the cards tracked properly, but am I going to care how I complete this one for my personal set - I don't think so. For the team collecting, yes, so I delved through the 1988 Donruss I have to see what factory set cards I have, if any, to pull out and list separately.

As it turns out - only 4 factory set cards, all ones that are the only I own, so I can't really show the difference, and as I say - not feeling I need to replace them in the set.

1989 Donruss Baseball

*sigh* - okay, this gets kinda pointless...there are 4 variations of most of the base cards. The difference - whether there is a period behind INC on the back and whether there is one or two asterisks where "Denotes led league" is on the back.

Again, this is one I don't care about as far as the base set is concerned. Heck, I am not even going to go through the base set or the dupes I have to note what they are. That said - for my Jays collection, absolutely necessary!



Pretty clear the small difference, once you know what you are looking for.

1990 Donruss Baseball

The red border. So, the factory set has a different pain splatter red border, than the wax pack cards. Yeah - another case of, small difference which won't impact my care for collecting the set, but will need to document with my Jays cards. Here are a couple examples of the different borders.

I have a couple of each versions - and side by side, the difference can be spotted, but man, talk about a small difference.

I am not even going to go through my set that is boxed and away for this one.

1991 Donruss Baseball

The easy of this set is that, I have a sealed factory set, so I just need to migrate that to the appropriate variation at TCDB. I will worry about the variations only for the Jays, but it does make me wonder - for my error and variation binders, I probably need to make a guideline along the lines of not collecting minor printing variations like the dot behind INC on the back, or the retail versus hobby variations.

So I need to go through my error cards, Jays team set, Diamond King dupe set, etc.

An example of the border difference? Here are a couple cards showing the big difference of a dot.



Wow - well, there's a full post dedicated to OCD!

Box of Blue - Final Day

Last day of the big box of blue.



Like yesterday, a few non-Leaf Leafs. I will say, some of the Heroes and Prospects designs are too bad, though they can use a bunch of space on borders.



Nice to see a needed Gold Score parallel card. I am probably a while off of actually completing the base set, but may be on the horizon in a couple years.



Hey, some Stadium Club! Always nice to see and get.



A nice Parkie parallel of Andreychuk along with some late 90s Gold Reserve.



We end the box with some nice Leaf Artifacts, and one of my favourite inserts from Ultra with a Generations card for the Leafs.

Nothing like a great box of hockey cards to cool off at the end of July.

Box of Blue - Day 5

This has been a fun box t go through. Not sure if I enjoy opening packs better for the surprise factor, or packages like this where, may not be anything as earth shattering, but boy, most everything goes to the collection.

Today's cards start with a few pre-Leafs which are up for trade.



Of the three, Carlo is the only name I recognize.



As for the keepers, we start with a bunch of usual suspects from the early 90s.



Yes, there are dupes through the package. Not too many, and not a problem. Actually, I think the Govedaris card will win for most in the box (think there have been a couple others already).



A couple new sets represented here which is awesome - 1999-00 Signature Series Millennium, 2002-03 First Edition, 2002-03 Parkhurst, and 2006-07 Mini Jersey. As for the designs, a bunch of border on some of them, especially the Mini Jersey set which is bottom left - and which doesn't really scream jersey to me at all.



A nice newer and new to me Van Riemsdyk Black Diamond card.

Another great bunch of cards, and one more day worth to go!

Box of Blue - Day 4

The box that keeps on giving....Leafs...



1988 O Pee Chee is the earliest set in today's bunch, and Ken was a card I needed from the set too. The other big thing to come out of these cards - I noticed that the 1991-92 Upper Deck hockey set is now split on the database (trading card database) based on the hologram I guess that means I will need to go through and make sure my set is correctly split. I will add it to the list along with a number of the late 80s Donruss sets I need to look at for retail versus hobby versions...*sigh*...OCD...



Mid-90s Parkhurst in a bit of abundance.



Here we get into the gap in the collection - about 1998 - 2004 - still missing many cards from base sets for Leafs during this period, but need to get me some more, especially of Mogilny as a Leaf!



We end today with some newer Leafs, including my next couple 2011-12 Score Leaf cards. Not a big fan of the design, but a big fan for adding new sets to the Leaf collection.

Two more days worth of Leafs. Not sure I am going to get any team sets completed, but still more than happy to put a dent in a number of new adds and new sets!

Box of Blue - Day 3

I mentioned it the other day, that some of the cards received were minor league cards, like...


Does give decent trade material, so always a plus.

All the rest, keeper Leafs including...


Another 1990-91 Score Rookie and Traded card - may end up with a team set (I think there are 4 in the set) by time this box is done.



1991-92 Pro Set may have been an overproduced set, but these are adds for me because they are the French version! I am sure it was also overproduced, but I haven't seen as many come up for trades and such so these are nice to knock off. I don't typically collect non-English cards, but will make an exception for the major releases in Canada that include a French version.



Now we get a bit more interesting and a number of new adds as we get into the early 2000s. The middle row were all new adds for the collection. I have seen a bunch of 2008-09 O Pee Chee cards from the Santa Lot, but it didn't cover all of the base Leaf cards, so I still need a few more there.



Love me some Artifacts cards of pretty much every set. Didn't need Nazem, but I'll take a second, no problem. The MVP adds were dupes as well, just as I had received a number of the recently, but again, like the design and happy to take dupes.

Another fun bunch of Leafs, and I am only about half way through the box!

Box of Blue - Day 2

Yesterday, I started sharing from this nice box trade, and continuing today with a bunch of Leafs. I think there are a few Marlies in the mix (which will be trade bait), but none of those today...



A couple highlights from the start include my first 1990-91 Score Rookie and Traded set card with Peter Ing. I like when the Traded sets mimic, but are not exactly like the base set for the year, here being the yellow (could have been a nice colour), to offset the red.

As much as I lover the Gold Topps parallel of Potvin in the bottom left, the stretch in the middle bottom Upper Deck Potvin is a beautiful picture.



First dupe with a second Nikolai, which is perfectly fine with me!

Some pictures are worth 1,000 words - on that note - love the Kenny Jonsson shot - pure emotion on that face.



Nice new sets getting into the collection now with Pacific and 2010-11 Donruss, Really enjoy the goalie pics though on the newer sets with the 2010-2010 Victory and 2013-2014 Score Net Cam insert.



I have been lucky enough to get a number of the base Upper Deck Leafs from the past few years through trades and such in the past year, but the O Pee Chee sets - so extra wonderful to get those.

An awesome bunch of cards here, and a number of days left to share - say 4 more days.

A bit of everything

So the way the box of cards were packaged, penny sleeves were used and cards were doubled up in most sleeves. Was there any rhyme or reason to what cards were together? Absolutely not.

Does make it more fun popping around and getting a bot of everything with the cards each day as I go through them.

Today, the first taste...



As I say, a nice assortment. Here are a couple "first cards" from some sets for me. Larry Murphy here is the first Donruss Elite Leaf card for my collection. Same is true about the Impact SkyBox Kirk Muller.

This is a good sign - a number of new to me Leafs as well as some dupes that are still awesome adds.



Today's newer cards include some 2018-19 Upper Deck MVP base card dupes, as well as a new addition from 2015-16 Upper Deck Portfolio with the horizontal design of Morgan Rielly.

A nice start, but some tomorrow!

Well Worth The Wait

So a good while ago (say start of 2018), I made an offer up to someone on TCDB to do a box for box trade of cards if they were up to it. I do this where I can as it is a great way to move 300-800 cards in one go (cheaper for postage typically given the large number of cards too).

As always with these, I send first and just ask to get back what they feel is fair (I don't care to get the same number of cards back, as I don't mind downsizing to get cards that fit my collection). Honestly, the time doesn't really bother me either, as things happen and it took whatever time it did, and I was in no rush.

Not sure whether I should name names as I don't want the delay to deter others from trading with this user, so I will leave it at that.

There is enough here that I am going to take a few days to go through and share (and catalog on TCDB of course).

First, this is what the trade initially started as - a small three card for three card trade...



Nothing too outrageous, but base Leaf cards that I needed from decent Score base sets.

Here are some of the not-so-Leaf cards that were included with varying degrees of need as far as my collection goes.

We start with some minor league cards which aren't my thing, but should be easy to move given the subject matter...



Can't complain about Connor! I have had a couple of these which came out of some of the repack options you could get at Walmart in Canada over the last cuple years, so that may be where these came from.

Other cards which end up being dupes I won't need to keep...



Can understand why the Sundin's were sent my way. Mats as a Leaf are definite keepers, but pre-Leaf Sundin doesn't cut the Leaf collection, and I already have the couple otherwise.

WHat we end today with, are some nice adds though...

I REALLY like the last few year sets of Tim Horton cards. I should really move to collect them more, but I am trying to stay focused...

The design, the great card stock, the player focus for having a 100 card set (give or take), some decent inserts, just a great overall set. Too bad I don't actually go to Tim Horton's at all, would have made collecting them easier.

Continuation of the box, and the star to the Leafs, tomorrow!

Completing A Set and A Box

Well, with only one more card needed, and 9 packs left, rather than just running through a lot of dupes, I am going to just go through the new cards from those 9 packs today to wrap this box up. That will save me showing a bunch of duplicates that have been shown here anyway in the last week or so, and allow me to focus on the new in wrapping this up.



Here is a second 3D motion picture card - so two out of the three in the box, Not sure why there were two packs missing, as it didn't seem to be the "hits" - not that it mattered too much to me.



These two complete the 6 card insert of the bonus game cards. Yay I guess. At least I feel good about another set complete!



A couple more new paper thin order form cards.



We end with the final base card I still needed. One of the episodes I remember well from the original series because it looked like a hallow icicle.

Adding all the cards from these packs in we get...

34 packs, 299 cards, 567 points.

2019 Box Scores
1)	Top Shelf Repack 1	9.8696
2)	2016 Topps WWE Then Now Forever Blaster 2	8.0000
3)	2015-16 Upper Deck Champs Box	7.7130
4)	2016 Topps Allen & Ginter Blaster	5.1220
5)	2015-16 Upper Deck Portfolio Box	3.6067
6)	2017 Topps Allen & Ginter Blaster	3.3333
7)	2016 Topps WWE Road To Wrestlemania Blaster 1	3.2222
8)	2017 Topps WWE Blaster 1	3.1905
9)	2017 Topps WWE Blaster 2	3.1389
10)	2015 Topps WWE Heritage Blaster 1	3.1296
11)	2017 Topps Update Baseball Blaster	3.1000
12)	2016 Topps WWE Blaster 1	3.0952
13)	2018 Topps WWE Then Now Forever Blaster 1	3.0476
14)	2016 Topps WWE Then Now Forever Blaster 1	3.0317
15)	2016 Topps Series 2 Baseball Blaster	2.9700
16)	2016 Topps WWE Road To Wrestlemania Blaster 2	2.8194
17)	2015 Topps WWE Heritage Blaster 2	2.6923
18)	Championship Collection Box 1	2.5366
19)	2016 Topps WWE Blaster 2	2.2917
20)	1996 SkyBox 30 Years of Star Trek Phase Three	1.8963

Bottom of the pile (not a surprise as there wasn't much outside the base set, and as it isn't anything I otherwise really collect). Still great to finish the set so there is something worth keeping.

Checking in, one of my goals this year was to complete 10 sets of one kind or another, and here we get two more sets knocked off with the base set and the 6 card Game Card Promo insert set - so now we are up to 9 sets this year - only one to go to make that goal.

Tomorrow,we start something that took close to 15 months to finish (makes it sound so much more epic than it is, but still pretty awesome).

Then there was one

Down and down go the number of base card needs as we work through the box. Now down to a single card after today!

First pack keepers...


Have to love those original Star Trek special effects!

Dupes...


23 packs, 206 cards, 447 points.

Second pack...


Now this, THIS, is one of my favourite episodes - the Crossover Universe. Similar was done well in the original series, and in Next Generation as well, (I stand corrected) so by Deep Space Nine, it was old hat. They did a few episodes, and in a nutshell, it was an alternate universe where everyone acted the exact opposite as you were use to in the "normal" universe.

Dupes...


24 packs, 214 cards, 459 points.

Last pack...


Another one of the paper puzzle piece or order form pages, and a nice close up of the original Enterprise.

Dupes...


25 packs, 223 cards, 462 points.

Remembering The Net

Another day, another three packs...



The Soul definitely looks like an elegant bow...yeah - never was a fan of the cartoon.

Dupes...


20 packs, 179 cards, 405 points.





Some nice new cards here with a sweet Picard and another (now up to 4) Star Trek Card Game bonus card.

Dupes...


21 packs, 189 cards, 424 points.

As for the net referred to in the title...



This was from one of the memorable Q related episodes from Star Trek TNG. Not sure if it was the all powerful aspect offsetting the great presence of Jean-Luc, but the chemistry worked so well on screen, and between the characters.

This net cast by Q to capture the enterprise, a simple trick for Q.

The dupes...


22 packs, 197 cards, 434 points.