Dodgercards box completed

It's been a fun month going through this box and sending out thanks to dodgercards for all the Jays cards - last ones up for today!



Okay Carlos, not exactly a great look for a card photo to have the additional face covering because it's cold. Not a great look indeed...



There are penty of 1997 cards, including more Score Preferred Stock, of which I had none before this box and not I have a good half dozen. The PS logo is a little oversized and detracts from the photos, but since they are no different from the regular score set, it doesn't feel like much is missing.



Some nice Fleer Tradition love. This was a mixture of trying to be heritage and archives before those sets really became a thing. The Phelps and Halladay probably would look a lot nicer with better background work than the couple colour background - maybe something real but with a vintage hue put on it or something.



Oh Upper Deck 40 Man sets, how I never knew about you at the time. Even in getting cards to these sets now in the past couple years, I can't say I am a fan of the designs I have seen. This one, too much border and over done on the 40 Man logo. At least the blue complements, but the name outline doesn't do anything for me.



We end with some 2010 Upper Deck, including a Halladay checklist card and a beautiful SkyDome / Rogers Centre picture.

With that, we have gone through the whole box and my Jays collection is 1,155 Jays stronger - simply amazing.

Tomorrow, we move on to something different - well, something not from the dodgercards box.

Winding down the box

Sure, March is hectic for me work wise, and April is even busier (and beyond this year...sigh....), but it has been a nice way to spend a bit of each day going through some Jays for the collection out of the dodgercards box.

Second last day today, and another spread smattering of blue, so let's take a lookie through.



A but if a surprise to see a couple O Pee Chee cards given these are coming from California, but both are new for me, so I'll more than be happy to add them in.



A smattering of "jubk wax" Jays - but even still, the 1991 Donruss Sojo is one of the three versions that I was missing (with the period on "inc" on the back, so you never know when something you think you may have, ends up not being the case.



Still getting cards from sets that I hadn't seen before like the 1998 Pacific which is pretty darn awesome.



I honestly do not remember Corey Thurman, but apparently he ended up pitching in about 50 games for the Jays, most of which in 2002 and a bit in 2003. Another one of those surprise things you learn about when team collecting - the lesser known players that you forget, or may not have remembered in the first place.



We end with a one card team set out of the 2009 Bowman Prospects insert - always happy to knock a quick team set off like this!

I don't wanna grow up

Not sure if you remember the marketing slogan/song from Toys R Us, but it's still one I remember from my childhood, and honestly, who didn't want to be a Toys R Us kid?

Yeah - those commercial are very dated, as is the song, but man, it was good advertising as it stuck well.

So, speaking of Toys R Us...



Here we have 2 of the 1993 Toys R Us set Jays cards. The best part is, I already have the other two so I can now knock of the 4 card team set from this one. I am not a big fan of the 2-8 card team sets because what I typically do is - 1 card "team sets" go a top loader by themselves while larges ones go in separate small plastic cases of the 10 to 50 card variety depending on the size. This inbetween size I guess end up in thicker top loaders, but not my favourite to do it that way.

Until the team set is complete, it stays in binder form with all the rest, and they are pulled when complete as, when I look at them, I look at the team set and just pull the set from the casing.

Oh well, simple problems, but livable.



The Toys R Us cards are obviously not the only circa 1993 cards today - actually today cards are really only from a few years.



From 1993 we hop to 1997, then 2007.



A lot of 2007, which is great as Upper Deck was sorely under performing in this year of my Jays collection, and I didn't have any Topps Update and Highlights cards until this Frasor.

I will say, I can appreciate Opening Day actually having a different look from the Topps flagship set as I dislike when they moved to being essentially the exact same card but with an opening day logo plastered on the card.

Blue Jays in red

There have been a number of nice inserts throughout the dodgercards box, and that continues with some today which you can probably spot given it is Pacific related...



8 Ruby parallels from 2000 Pacific. I actually now have more parallels than I do of regular base cards from the set which is pretty cool (but I will have to fix in the future). Appreciate the similar design across sports as I do have some of the hockey cards from the same year.

Another really nice card is the Flair here - good card stock, clean design and the background faded photo is really solid and nice being a little bit different than a straight in game action shot.

Then we also have some more Showdown cards from 2003 which hid from me when I was looking for them earlier...



We end with my first 2009 Toops Update and Highlights Jays card. would have thought I'd have one by now, but apparently not. Apparently Kevin Millar is here to fix that!

Another really nice bunch of Jays cards, and as it works out, looks like, with a few days left, the box will end up with over 1,000 Jays added to the collection. I have already sent a package back as a thank you, which I hope goes over well as I only had a couple hundred Dodger cards to send, but was able to put together a bunch of Magic cards (as he does collect them as well), which bumped it up to about 750 cards. Hope you got the package dodgercards and all is well there.

Three more days in the month, three more days of dodgercards Jays to go!

Cruz through some more Jays

Another day full of Jay content, and some usual suspects.



Though it isn't all "usual suspects"...



As usual, as we get into the mid 90s onward, plenty of hole and plenty new. I like the Fleer Tradition Halladay card because, though I should have scanned it, the back walks through his quick rise through the minors including his debut dates at each level - an interesting style for a card which I kind of like.

We get to some Jose Cruz Jr cards. Jose spent about 5 years with Toronto - roughly half his MLB career. Cruz was okay for power, though never hit for a great average, usually around .250, but was regular somewhere in the outfield for the Jays.



Almost all new cards to finish (I did have one other copy of the 2009 Halladay). I appreciate the Wells pose with the glove up, even if it is a simple pose, it works...at least a better "look into my eyes" card than any of those head on Triple Play cards I went through last month.

In the year 2000...

Today's cards from the dodgercards box, we have a bunch of Jays - shocking I know - and the best for last, is circa 2000/ Okay, by best, I mean the ones that help me most.




The bulk of the cards today come from 2 sets - 1988 Topps and 1992 Upper Deck obviously. Nothing "needed" from these, but collection adds nonetheless.



Skybox did some good stuff. That Devon card in the centre is great. The set name being Emotion, yeah, get what they are going for. It doesn't always have to be an action shot to make a great photo as early 90s Studio cards were great and different in just being photoshoot pics.



We end with the most helpful cards from this bunch, personally anyway. I only had one or two cards from 2000 Upper Deck, and we add a bunch more here.

The early 2000 Jays were definitely one of the low points as far as teams and my connecting with them. I just didn't click with many of the players and following the careers beyond team results. Sure it may have been with timing and me starting university and not having the time, but it's just not a Jays period that clicked compared to the obvious World Series years, late 00s, or of course mid-10s Jays.

That said, still great to get and wish Koch's career had turned out better than he did for Toronto, but also for himself.

A checklist short

Today, we spend a bunch of time in 1992...not all of it, but most.






The big add from 1992 is a bunch of Topps flagship cards (go figure). I only needed a few for the team set, and now I am down to a single need - the team checklist card. I can understand why that would't have been one of the cards here as I believe the cards were sorted by team uniform.

Also really like the O Pee Chee cards from the same year as having Gruber posed nice in both a Topps and O Pee Chee version is fantastic.



1998 Collector's Choice was nice for subsets within the base set, as you can see from the different designs here. Also interesting that for 2003 Topps, the change in logo for the Jays which happened between the main release, and the traded set as you can see them here.



2003 Upper Deck and 40-Man wrap up the cards today. These are actually the first Upper Deck flagship set from the year into the Blue Jays collection. Decent enough design, though I'd prefer the name and space pulled right down to the bottom of the card to leave more for the main picture.

Halladay Highlights

So, a week or so left in the month, and each day we continue to go through some more cards from the dodgercards box. For those that haven't gone back to the 1st of the month, this box came about because the TCDB member was looking to downsize his collection and parted with most other teams in team lots to first come first serve. I picked the Jays of course, and there you have it.

I put together a box of my dupe Dodgers as well as some Magic cards as it was something he collects kinda sorta as well, so hopefully those are worthwhile as well.

As for today, let's get started.



Circa sets are something I never knew existed until the last couple years - never hear d of them in the 90s, actually same with the Donruss Signature Series. Then again, I was still very much a kid and not totally focused on the collecting of cards as much as enjoying just what I had. Wasn't aware of sets outside of the flagship sets for each manufacturer really. This Signature card is my first, and a Halladay rookie is a solid add there.



The next bunch add a couple more later Jays days Halladays, and you know what I noticed which would be an interesting exercise. Halladay's weight on his rookie card was 205, and here, it is 225.

It would be interesting to see how accurate the weights are - do card companies check every year? Do they just update when they are told? Do they inquire when it is obvious? I know the team has that information out there, but how often does the team actually up date it.

Would be a couple players which would be interesting to check over the years and brands. Maybe a post for another time.



We end with another Halladay in Icon form as well as some Extra Edition rookies. SO how did those rookies fair?

Shane - didn't make the majors, but all around A, AA, AAA ball, foreign leagues - pretty much everywhere.

Dwight - Made the Jays for about 50 games between 2017 and 2018 before getting about 100 games in with Baltimore in 2019.

Casey - made it to the bogs with Toronto in 2017 before quickly heading to Seattle.

So, mixed success there. This is where I feel a bit meh on these as the Shane card doesn't really belong in the collection because he never made the bigs, even though this is a "Toronto" card. A discussion for a later refining of the collection I guess.

Checking in with Carlos

Today's bunch of cards from the box that keeps on giving, like always, seems to have a bit of everything, but definitely a small Carlos Delgado player collection in the cards today, but first...



A bunch of 1987 Topps, and a bunch of 1989 sets which provide nothing particularly new, but everything particularly blue.

The last card, the glossy send in of Bell is a new addition, and nice, even if a little off on the cut (a bit crooked).



Here we have a few 1998 Bowman cards. I remember Joe Lawrence...wasn't he on Blossom? Probably a different one...



Here we have a bunch of Delgado cards. Did you know that Carlos' first major league action was actually in the 1993 season. It may have only been two games, but I forgot it started that long before. It wasn't until 1996 that he became a regular in the bigs with the Jays, and he did well in Toronto. Overall, he was in Toronto for 12 seasons, including those earlier years. He hit 30 or more home runs in 10 straight season, most with the Jays but even the one season in Florida and starting off his time with the Mets.

Given he was not too far off of 500 home runs, a bit surprised he only lasted one year in Hall of Fame voting and garnered less than 5% of the ballots, so was dropped. Likely due in large part to the era he played in, and I don't believe he was ever linked to steroid use in any way, so a shame the general times probably did him in a bit to that regard.

Overall, may not have been good enough to make the Hall, but probably deserved a better showing on the Hall ballots.

We end with...



Sweet - another new Drabek for me.

Small differences are still differences

Another day in March, another dodgercards pile from the box of Jays he sent my way. Still about a week left for going through these cards, and already 800 Jays - some dupes, some new today, so let's see...



1991 - probably the year most represented in my collection, no matter how you cut it. 1991 Score with the different coloured borders stuck out and I always enjoyed opening packs of it. One of the best cards for the memories is the No Hitter for Stieb - still one of the best sports accomplishments I watched on TV.



1992 Studio is always great, but here, the new cards start when we get into the late 90s.



That's also about the time you really start to take off in seeing all kinds of parallels and small differences in sets.

2002 Topps - a simple stamp, which in many ways became how Opening Day differed from the flagship set. All the way to 2008 Upper Deck where the First Edition set only differed by saying First Edition on the front, and not having the foil.

It does make me wonder what some of the smallest differences between sets or parallels are but that get passed off as "different". Card companies seem willing to do anything to make more cards to collect (and in doing so, make it harder to choose what to try and complete).

That aside - new Jays, no matter how slightly different, are still new Jays.

Jays for non-Jays purposes

Even though the boxes sent by dodgercards were all Jays, and most 97% or so will be solely for the Jays binder, some of the Jays which are dupes will work nicely in set completing goals as well. A Jay, and Jay, has a purpose in my collection.

Okay...these ones, not so much, as they are sets I have already completed, so dupe Jays collection they go...



1989 Topps - I suspect many either picked up a boxed set over the last 30 years, or hand collected it, or never want a card from the set in their house period. That should cover everyone.

Here is a dupe Jay from a set I don't actually plan on completing...



The 1989 Donruss All Star set is a decent one and fits nicely with their flagship design, but just not a set that blows me over for wanting to finish.

These on the other hand, generally needed and help with completing the set...



1991 Topps was one of the sets of my childhood collecting. I had a bunch and before I got back into collecting, had the O Pee Chee and Topps versions co-mingled as a mushed set. I have fixed this, which left me needing much more, but much more to a nice, clean, all Topps version, which is the only way to go. Maybe I'll look at O Pee Chee later for a set of it as well.

Just curious though - anyone out there who would mush the two and call it a set for 1991 baseball? Does that meet complete in your eyes? Cool if it does, just curious.