Happy Birthday to me!

This is going to be a long post - just fair warning.

First, before birthday talk - a thank you to Jeff who came across my blog, and working in downtown Toronto, reached out about connecting as he had some Toronto cards to offload which I was happy to take, and I pulled together some Bruins, which is what he collects, we met up and cards were exchanged. Fair warning to Jeff, you sent across so much good stuff, I am going to take my time and get a few posts out of it later - may be a couple weeks - but I do genuinely appreciate the cards and the trade. I will start a Bruins pile just for you for next time we meet!

Birthdays are a good time to talk stock of life and where you are at, and if you are happy with everything going on. As a kid, I can't say I thought too much about specifics, and it's funny on what goals you do remember. Though I am only 39 this year, those goals were always, in my mind, tied to the age of 40.

I think that's because, for some reason, I had in my mind that I want to be in a house and debt/mortgage free by that time. Yeah - shows the accountant in me that, the one goal I really remember as a kid, was wanting to be debt free. Honestly, I only hope some of the next generation really take that into mind as a goal - I see too many people living paycheck to paycheck and beyond their means.

So, with one year to go, let's see where I am with some of the other goals I had in life.

I figured I would be married (check), and always thought two kids (check), but not specifically on where we would be, though thought it would still be in the Toronto area (check - Burlington is just about 45 minutes outside of downtown Toronto). I'd be working as an accountant (check), in a public accounting firm (check), maybe principal or partner (check - became principal in 2017). I wanted to have the mortgage paid off by 40 (probably not going to quite be there - should be paid off before I am 42), and wanted to be well off enough that I could help my siblings and mom as needed (check - though it hasn't been needed too much as the siblings have done well and mom also).

Health wise, all is good for myself and the family which you never think about as a kid as being a "goal", but man, is it important. The biggest issue anyone has is, my son having a peanut allergy, but that's easy to cope with.

Heck, I was getting a bit heavier than I wanted about 6 weeks ago and figured I better get that in check - so I am down about 16lbs in 5-6 weeks and about another 8-10 to go and I will be happy.

So all in, life is going good at 39 and as you can see, collecting wasn't something I necessarily thought I'd be doing at this point. Granted, I went away from it and came back, but glad to have it, as well as what comes with it (this blog, TCDB and the people there), as part of life these days.

So, I could talk about what cards I got today, or otherwise for my birthday, but I put aside something specific to go through today. A couple months ago I got back a "surprise box" from Shaw Racing. We did a box for box trade, with no real detail on what we were sending each other than t would be from want lists or otherwise fit collections.

I debated splitting it up over a few posts because there is a lot here, but in the end thought, why not just use it for my birthday post? So - here we are!



Here we have the last puzzle piece for 1991 Donruss Willie Stargell (with decimal). It's the third full puzzle I have, but that gives me 10 completed sets for the year, which was one of my goals going into this year - yay! Let's see how many more I can knock off this year!

That's just the first card in the box, and already, makes this a successful box.



Believe it or not, for 1989 Topps, I had a number of these ad inserts, so I figured, why not complete the insert set. With these, I am down to just one left.

Speaking of being down to one left...


This completes the 1988 Donruss Bonus MVP insert set for me - yay, and getting another Stan Musial piece has me down to...actually a couple more pieces left for the puzzle.



We have some 1991 Fleer. Though I completed the set, and almost the logo sticker insert set (I need the full Pirate logo), I needed this variation copy for the Jays collection.



I also wanted to pick up extra copies of the above for the error and variation collection.

Keeping with the error theme, these 5 hockey cards fit the same collection. Not really a surprise to see 1990-91 Pro Set cards...




Here is almost all of the 1990-91 Score American set cards I was missing. I am down to just Rob Brind'Amour's regular card as this knocked the rest out, including the big names like Gretzky, Nolan, Lindros, and some All-Star cards. Awesome way to get this one also near done. It did give me a chance to go through and make sure I actually was just the one card short, and pull together the Leafs I hadn't put with the set yet.





Another set that, with a bunch of adds, is now down to just two cards left so those are now in my most wanted listing right now.

A couple of these are Leaf cards which I needed an additional copy for (so one for the Leaf collection and one for the set).



A decent number of Jays for the collection, including some truly Canadian O Pee Chee cards. Especially the hard to look for "not wearing the team uni" Toronto cards of Ken and Alomar.



Wow - these stickers bring back some memories. As a kid I collected a lot of baseball stickers, trying to complete the albums. Especially 1989 and 1990 (I think I started with 1988 and ended with 1991). I know I had all of these at some point in time, but all went away over the years, so glad to get them back again now.




A bunch more Jays needs here including some new to me 1994 O Pee Chee cards. Not a bad design on them - like them, but don't really like the O Pee Chee logo. Speaking of not really liking - I never liked Roger in a Jays uniform (he will always be a Red Sox to me), but I can't say no to getting a new to me card.

So, those are the Jays, but also got a bunch of Leafs...



A couple more 1979-80 O Pee Chee Leafs are a great add, and they are in really nice condition too. Add in the start of a smattering of early 90s card needs which are great as well.





A bunch of O Pee Chee, Score and Topps cards from early to mid 90s, when I started to leave the hobby. A number of nice Felix Potvin cards. Probably one of my favourite Leafs as far as great cards and photos go.



If you are going to do a foil design - follow these Ultra cards as the two tone name ovals work really well to read in hand, and scan excellently.



Speaking of a nice Potvin card - that's an excellent one out of 1995-96 Pinnacle, and as you can see, I am missing a bunch from the set, or at least I was.



Actually, lots of Score out of the same year missing to. Also, another great Potvin with the McD card.




We finish up the Leaf additions into early 00s and some gold bordered base cards for O Pee Chee and Topps in 1998-99.

The last portion of the box....wrestling!



Some of the cards may not be the greatest in condition, but I am not a stickler about that right now - here we have a great start to 1985 O Pee Chee Series 2 (along with a few 1987 cards as well). I really wish I had my cards from when I was a kid because I know I had a couple Hogan rookie cards out of 1985 Topps - though not sure if I will see those again now.



We end with some Attitude Era Superstarz cards, and a few 2001 Fleer cards as well.

I like the idea of the photo fronts for Superstarz - very Stadium Club.

There you have it - the whole box - wow. A big thanks again to Shaw Racing - really appreciate the trade.