At His Peak

Unfortunately, his peak was early and didn't last long... 

The best of Rob in the NHL was over the 199-2-93, and 1993-94 seasons with Toronto. After this, he ended up with a short sting in Washington and parts of two seasons in St. Louis. Again, I am a bit biased in remembering him decently because these two seasons, Toronto made the playoffs in both years, coming up just short of Stanley Cup Final births both years.

As these were during my childhood (I as 12-13 at the time and watching every Leaf game), I remember almost every player fondly and fairly vividly, incluiding Rob.

Looking back at your childhood - are there any players you remember unequally to their actual impact on the game or their team?

I swear, as much as Sergei Samsonov seemed to show up in everything 2000s I touch, everything 90s seems to be Doug Wilson with the Sharks.

Another solid day of set additions overall, and only a few dupes...

That's What She Said

 This is a big one.

I've said before that I generally end up staying away for 600+ card sets - see O Pee Chee from any year as an example. That said, if I can get more than halfway on a set from a lot like this, I'll take up the challenge.

We continue on then, with seeing just how far I can get with this set of 1993-94 Score Canadian, but let's highlight the Leafs first.

Always up for a Gilmour, and another new one at that. I am a bit surprised that it is only the 119th different Douggie card I have in my collection, but I have to remember, it wasn't his whole career in Toronto, and cards didn't really take off on the parallels and inserts until the Sundin era here really.

Apparently we can't always get the date of birth right for a player, so Crossman goes into the error binder.

As for the rest of the keepers...a plenty bunch here!

As you can see, a solid back design and with the dual language, easy to see with the separated paragraphs for English and French at the bottom. I like the close up and different photo for the back, and the team logo being here instead of taking up front real estate. Full stats always a plus too, as are team colours.

There are still enough missing cards between what is here, not sure if someone else took out their needs for completing a set or what, but it's more than just the odd star or hall of famer.

Never going to complain when I pull 50 cards and only have a single dupe...

Leaf Nation

 The cards today are the current, last bunch of 2005-06 Upper Deck Victory, and luckily include most of the base Leafs.

Excellent to get most of the base Leafs in one shot. I had a few, but obviously will need the dupes for the set completion and team completion goal. Always like pick ups of long term Leafs like Sundin and Domi, but neat to see short term Leafs too like Leetch.

As these cards have generally been in numbered section, we get a good number of cards from a low number of teams, and here those teams include somwe solid San Jose, St. Louis...

and Tampa Bay teams.

The next set we seem to get into? 1993-94 Score - which is the Canadian incarnation as the backs are in both English and French. Here, we also get the Top Prospect section.

Always like a good subset like Season Leaders to end here. 1993-94 Score Canadian wasn't a set I planned on collecting, and at 660 cards, is a bigger task, but for now these are keepers because I think we will see a good 25% or more to start off.

Dupes...

Too bright!

So here's a question - how much should a team jersey stand out?

We see examples across all sports, but let's look at a couple examples from the keepers today from 2005-06 Upper Deck Victory.

The black and purple Kings uniforms are slick and nice, but those yellow and purple's - bright! Do you like these and how much they stand out, or do they become an eyesore? Does it matter if it is "your team" versus being another team in the league. For instance, as a King fan, I'll like it as I stand behind my team in all their bright atrocious choices?

Similarly, I like the Wild's green uniforms, but the red stands out too much to me. Not sure why I see it being harsher than say the Montreal uniforms, but to me it is.

I am not enough of a colour aficionado  to tell you if it is a slightly different red or not, but it seems like it to me.

Nashville's colours here - what I have heard referred to nicely as dirty mustard, or not so nicely as a baby's number two, just too much again for me, but the dark/navy blue is pretty nice.

No other real offenders in the bunch - even the orange for Philly, I can live with. I know we can't have all teams in blue, black, white, as it just wouldn't work well to differentiate - but should there be a limit? Will we be seeing a neon green or glaring pink used as a primary colour for an alt jersey soon? I shouldn't speak too loudly as of course they use the pink for October (for an amazingly worthwhile cause, and I am completely for the use and assisting in bringing attention to a worthwhile cause), is it just time before the draw all the time by using such a bright colour for all occasions happens?

Dupes to end...

I'll end today with another trade - this one with TCDB member AirPete. I've done a few trades with him before, great guy and great cards, and no different here.

Jays heavy in this one, and that's a good thing! Remember when Opening Day had that massive silver logo compared to the relatively speaking, small one in comparison we have today? One good change for Opening Day as a brand at least.

Roger Clemens with a great season in Toronto and I like the card mentioning his 16ks against Boston...heh.

A theme with some of these is variations. John Olerdu is the dark back variation from 1991 Topps.

I will say Alex shouldn't have technically been on my want list as I consider the Ted Williams card a minor league one, but it is a card I need for that set, so all good.

More variations! So these were needs between the Inc versus Inc. and *Denotes versus *Denotes* differences. All in, I still need a handful of variations, but now I am much closer!

Welcome Back

 Today, a bunch more 2005-06 Upper Deck Victory, which are great...

However, let's focus on the backs today, and here are some for example...

Fairly standard back, which is to be expected, and isn't necessarily a bad thing. I will always give full stat points when the entire career stats are shown. It always bothers me when you get the last few years only for a long career - I want to see it all! Good use of team colours, and like the extra photo - except is just the front photo cropped.

The write ups are pretty standard too, which is fine - that's what I would want in this set.

I forget how many good players Dallas had during this time - that's a great 5 right there, and Detroit was solid too.

With two goes, already getting near 50% on the base set which is excellent!

Well, can't all be new, so here are the dupes...

Victory Shall Be Had

 I knew there was a bunch coming, and it looks like enough of a run, so I will start on collecting this set...

This is 2005-06 Upper Deck Victory. Victory is a low end set, and there's nothing wrong with liking it, though I may be in the minority. The cards are focused on the base set, minimum inserts and parallels usually, and a low price point that allow people to collect it like, you know, even kids!

This set is also a very manageable 200 card base set, which is a nice draw to me as I find sets like O Pee Chee that regularly run 600+ cards of being too much to try and put together, especially at the prices of packs and blasters these days.

There are cards numbered 201-300 which are the Victory Update set which was done as an insert on the flagship set I believe.

Before these cards, and the few yesterday, I only had a few Leafs, so I am basically starting from scratch on this one - but at 200 cards, and picking up 20% or so today, I should get a good run in on this one.

The design does well to incorporate team colours, and is very player focused rather than having full action shots, but decent nonetheless.

Also helps when there's a few Leaf pickups in the bunch and minimal dupes...

Very cool, and think there may be more to come!