From Germany - Some Cards

 Just to keep playing catch up a bit, and because I love being able to focus on the assistance of others from trades, I have a few more days of sharing (it's caring!) to do.

Today, yet another first time trade partner from TCDB with AlexGer82 who offered a straight hockey for hockey trade.

As you can see, the bulk of the nice PWE trade is from 2000-01 Pacific. Clark and Sundin win from the bunch, and love cards with Clark on his return trip to Toronto (and was glad he got the welcome back).

As great as the cards are, the amazing part is, for an international trade to Germany, the shipping was extremely quick. We each received the cards from the other within 12 days - not bad Canada to Germany!

May not have finished any team sets, but definitely happy with the great start on the Pacific set - thank you for reaching out AlexGer82!

To Joseph From Goseph

Another trade to share today as I continue to play catchup. This one from TCDB member Goseph, a first time trade partner, and provider of Leaf cards a plenty!

Mid 90s Bowman - definitely in need of help in my collection, and here we have a bunch of the Leaf cards in one go. Really like the blue border if I had to pick between the two.

Much better than the turquoise O Pee Chee from 2003-04. Not to be missed is a newer card with the Parkhurst Tavares from the 2019-20 Parkhurst Parkies insert set.

These are the big winners for the day as I really am loving the Parkhurst retro/throwback sets from the mid 90s which call back to the yesteryears with 1956-57 and 1966-67 years highlighted. I think there is some of these cards in the COVID lot, so really hope I can get a good start on the sets themselves, not just my Leaf team collection.

Definitely a great trade, and well packaged. Recommended trader, and hope I can do another with Goseph again in the near future!

In Ontario

 Hello again, and welcome to me sharing another trade with another first time trade partner on TCDB, with brady101, who happens to be located in Ottawa, which is just over the east end of the province, and actually where our family was on vacation just about a month and a half ago.

Yes, the High Liners card of the Toronto Arenas is really cool, especially for a card out of the early 90s, and the couple set adds are great, but Mironov wins for important card of the trade as he finishes off my Leaf team set for 1993-94 Upper Deck. Yup, still had needed a card from the simple base set, but there you go!

I guess it's my priorities that I find finishing the team set more exciting than getting these. I get it - Young Guns are probably the top line of hockey rookie cards and are sought over by many, and as such, generally high priced. I love to have them simply as part of my Leaf collecting, but don't go out of my way to get them. Was a nice enough offer from brady101 to send them my way, and I thank you for them, and the rest of the cards too!

Trades Catch Up

So, I have had a bunch of trades come through over the past week or so, and I really need to take a few days to just share some of those before going on with anything else. I don't mind such things waiting a few days or even a week, but I try not to have them last too long before sharing. I really appreciate the trades, and want to give everyone fair credit and judos, and thanks, for what came my way, so it's only fair I try and do so in a timely fashion.

Today, a trade with brooks1856, a first time trade partner on TCDB - which seems to be going through a decent amount of growth as far as members go the past couple months. Seem to have a lot of new people showing up and adding to the site, which is always great.

This trade saw me give up a few basketball cards for...

Yes - I still need plenty of Jays cards from the late 80s and early 90s. I mean, when I didn't know until recently that the 1992 Fleer set has a U.S.A. versus U.S.A (no last period) variation when looking at the "PRINTED IN" wording on the back, it just opened a whole other team set of Jays cards I needed, that I didn't know about a month ago!

99% of the time, I don't care - like with set collecting, but for Jays collecting, I'd like to have both versions of each card. Yes - I may need some help....but with people who spend the time to log their cards correctly at TCDB, that help is ever so close!

Heavy on the Alomar today. I think some player collectors of his likely have moved away considering actions after his playing career, but as a Jay - good or bad - I will collect. Hard to deny his amazing playing career though.

Big thank you for the trade, and hope we can do another in the near future!

1995-96 Leaf Limited

 Today, we have some cards from a set I have never seen in the wild. 1995-96 Leaf Limited is a very shiny and colourful set - screams high end for the mid-90s doesn't it?

A scratchy effect background which does make the cards stand out. I like the team colour matching effect, but good luck trying to read the faux signature along the side (vertical - why?),

Definitely not my type of set, I mean, the front are just over the top distracting in a not so good 90s type of way.

The backs are slightly better, but again, limited stats and no write up really hurt the overall card for me. At least the two pictures on the back are different from each other - though the head shot is from the front photo.

Did anyone ever collect this when it first came out? Just no overall appeal to me, and no Leafs today either. Still 1,000 times better than yesterday, but still no big success for my collection.

Short and Bitter

 Not so sweet today with the pulls from the COVID lot. I mean....

Not only is it 7th Inning Sketch garbage (to me), but in spades! I mean, anyone looking for a few Ken Ruddick cards probably will have the last name Ruddick.

Absolutely zero NHL games played between all of the players above, though Larry Mavety did have some WHA/WHL experience in the 70s at least.

I'm just going to leave today with this bitter bunch....thank you....next!

The Not So Normal Path

 Another recent 401games purchase to share. They were selling 50 cards that you don't normally find in packs, for about $12. A bit pricey for what it is, but given the unusual cards, I figure why not, and it should provide some unusual trade bait, so I picked one up, and let's see what it included.

Well, out of 50 cards, just 4 artifact cards for keeping, but the last is a pretty good one as it's the one artifact prerelease card for Avacyn Restored. The top row artifacts, all being foil, were just not very regular to find, so I get where they are going with it - may not be usual pack cards, but you MIGHT get them.

Well, as you can see -some of the cards are from different language sets. I guess it's fair to say they are not regular pack cards since I would have considered it English only, but wasn't really expecting the non-English cards.

The cards with a date on it are prereleast cards, the foils are low odds for coming up in packs, though these are all cheap ones - not a surprise there.

Another way to tell some of the unusual cards would be the writing at the bottom of the cards. For example, the Mardu Shadowspear, in the bottom left corner, you have the card number, set but also the wording Game Day. Some also say prerelease, or may be from FNM set, which means the Friday Night Magic competitions as entry or prize cards.

Getting into newer sets, it's not just foil, but you also get full art cards or alternative art cards, or call them whatever you like "art" cards. I guess it's a way to make more "rare" or "chase" cards.

Though a foil Island doesn't do it for me in this kind of repack purchase - no basic lands please!

The foil definitely doesn't scan well sometimes, so you can see it on many of the cards.

Overall, an interesting repack of cards. Would I do it again? Probably not. I mean, it's interesting, and definitely cards I wouldn't see every day, but for the keepers - just not worth it, would be better off to spend the money on artifact cards I do want, but really neat to go through once, and share here.

The Shine

 So, a while ago, I picked up some stuff at 401games, which included some common/uncommon foil cards on the random - 100 for under $10. I did it for fun and hopes of getting a few artifacts for myself. I figure, at 10 cents a card, I could always trade some away for things I do want, and it's a fun go through.

Not a surprise to see gold border cards - figure these don't get a ton of play, but there is one artifact keeper here so far.

Although I did play a couple decks which were multicoloured, but I never had a deck which utilized gold border cards. I started these with the older cards, which didn't go back too far, but since foil cards in the early 2000s were rare and thus more expensive, not a surprise there.

The level up concept on Hada Spy Patrol was a unique one.

A second artifact keeper here, but now all the way into 2020 - so you can see these cards are heavily weighted to the newer sets - where foil cards are plentiful, and many are cheap.

Modern Horizons was a really good set, very strong, but still had a bunch of cheap cards so we get plenty of those foil cards here too. Flourishing Strike is a classic green card - cheap damage to creatures which is useful if you are playing a creature deck and trying to take out defenses, but isn't always the quickest of decks.

Nice - a couple more artifact keepers here - though neither would be ones I think I would ever play in a deck.

So - would I spend about $10 on this again? Probably not. I mean, it's fun to get a variety of cards I wouldn't otherwise get, but given my specific collecting, I could have spent the money better on just artifact cards that fit my collection. Still, a fun little jaunt.

Assorted Hockey

 Some days, there just isn't a theme to the cards from the lot. I mean, I try, and sometimes there are parts of sets, or player "bunches", but today - it's just hockey.

These are the five keepers for me - a couple set additions, including a never wanted, even if kept, Roy. At least this is offset by the happiness of three Leaf additions, all of the goalie variety. I liked Bester, really liked Fuhr, and loved Potvin as a Leaf.

A good run of goalies and stars with Lindros, Fleury...and these continue below...

A couple Gretzky cards don't hurt either.

Unique for the bunch is the Rane Carnegie card as it is actually slightly oversized from the standard. Enough that it stands out and won't fit normal binder pages. I mean, if you are going to go big, just go 5' " by 7" or something!

I think I'll get to a couple non-COVID lot items the next couple days for a change in pace.

All Day Long

There are some sets that just look so nice, you could sit there and look at them all day long. Everyone probably has a few sets that fit this for their own personal taste, and today we touch on one of mine - 2006-07 McDonald's hockey card set. 

The cracked ice design with similar texture, the blueness to play off the Maple Leaf team colours, the simple design and stats (will always want full, but just isn't done on this set), the bilingual goodness for a Canadian touch, and I am sold on it.

I still do not have the full base set, but these two cards help that process. I have 34 of the 50 card base set done, and copies of the Leafs I need, so getting there on it.

Such a pretty set though, I will happily look at duplicates from the set like this. Not a large bunch of cards, but enough to make for happy viewing!

Fill A Gap

 Today from the COVID lot - I found them!

When going through the 2012-13 O Pee Chee cards, there was a couple sections where cards were missing in action. One was the rookie subset, which I expect is actually not here as they were likely pulled.

The second, a run between around card 130-180 in the base set, all of which are here today for your viewing pleasure. Getting this run now puts my base set completion on this one to over 83% from basically zero beforehand.

The run includes a couple more Leaf cards including Optimus Reim, but a look at the run of base cards below shows not much pulled from the base save probably a few PC guys for whoever got first run through the set.

Definitely stars left here with Hall....and more below too.

My guess is I won't see more than one or two other base cards from this set but being less than 100 left on the 600 card set is a great start to me. I'll have to take a look at the rookie class more closely, and the related prices, to see if I go with a 550 card pure base set, or work on the 50 card rookie subset as well.