Monday, February 10, 2025

Visiting 2016

 As easy as that, the cards for today are all of the cards in the BASEball lot from the year 2016. Not a whole bunch, but some definitely keepers which is always good! First up, some set help for the 2016 Topps flagship set.


I like the design much better than the others around this time. Clean, nice look on the front and the design doesn't interfere much with the photos. The Jays were in a decent spot with the team at this time too, so a good timeframe for a fan of the team as well, which doesn't hurt.


Hard to tell why this smattering of cards, but I did well for getting some I needed since I didn't have much of the set beforehand.


Beautiful backs too. Hard to find anything to complain about them, and most of these ones being Future Stars cards, doesn't hurt. The best part, we do get some Jays content...


They may not be new to me, but needed for the set build as I will need the duplicates for sure.

As we are looking at all of the 2016 cards in this lot, we get some Bowman, which also inlcudes some insert keepers...


There is going to be an ongoing theme of Bowman inserts not really being inserts and Chrome cards having to be figured out if they are base cards or inserts, and if inserts, what set they were inserted into. Granted, they are no Panini, but not as straightforward as Topps usually is.

For those interested in case there is something for you - here are the traders...



Not too bad, and a handful of sets which have been good build helpers - I think we get another such set tomorrow!

Sunday, February 9, 2025

Riding The Wave

 Not sure about anyone else, but when I think of the 2018 Topps baseball set - I think of the wave in the front design.


It was definitely a bit quirky at the time, and has grown to just be part of the 2018 design, like the wood panel design of 1987 or - insert your favourite reminder design reference here. Well, we get a lot of series two and a few cards from series one in the BASEball lot today, and the above Jays were all there too.


Also, this really nice team card as well. I am collecting the set so I did well to go from about 10% of the set to close to 54% with all of the cards today. Will need some dupes for the error binder, as there were a few error cards in the mix which will go into the binder unless I actually complete the set before getting duplicates...


Happily, there was a single insert in the mix which snuck in for my delight....


As for the rest of the cards, I won't show all, but a nice reminder of the base design front and back...



The team colour mix in works fantastically, and the stats with write ups are nice. I don't really need the twitter handles, but I guess that will date the cards as time passes. The big question I had as I went through, and given the usually missing rookie cards in other sets was, will we see a Shohei as he would be the big base card get in this set, and he is the final card in it at number 700...

Well, that will pay for a good half, if not more, of the BASEball lot. I will definitely be keeping as I am working on the set, but given the current prices for it, even the basic rookie card is worth a few bucks. These are the pulls I like doing these lots for, lots of fun, and never know what surprises you will find!

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Dibbles

I have the cards from the BASEball lot sorted by set and in years, so I figure I'd knock off some of the small dribbles of cards in the early years since there won't be much to collect or keep there really, and no set build to work through, but spoiler, at least there are a few keepers in the bunch.

First up, the set builders for a set I am actually already collecting - 2014 Topps.


Given the lack of rookie cards in the other sets looked at so far, interesting to see these are all future star labelled base cards, but I am cool with that!


I do really like the clean and simple designs on the back and the overall design of 2014 - even the few years leading up to it. It was in 2015 that I didn't really like the move to the more colourful designs, especially on the backs, though they have grown on me a bit since those were first released, but still not my preferred set designs.


Not going to be upset of the Jays content as two out of three being completely new to my collection will be a big thumbs up.

We also start seeing some of the "it wasn't supposed to include inserts, but these are still technically insert" cards...also known as Bowman stuff.


With some of the Chrome being done as inserts and some of the prospects in insert sets as well, I can completely get why someone sorting through might treat these as base and "miss" them. It's also not like they are big dollar insert cards anyway, but they do fit in my collecting sphere, so all good there.

As for the others which are for trade...


As you can see, the list may end up getting pretty long as some of the smaller represented sets come out, so I may draw a line at some point and group things together - but for now, will keep them all listed.

Friday, February 7, 2025

Archiving

Today, we go through a set, I am NOT collecting from the BASEball lot - 2016 Topps Archives. I like the concept, but dislike the multi-design base set and the total put together of  stars current and past all mixed up in the set. I like the ideal of maybe parallels of a base set design and a subset of legends or hall of famers, but this 310 card set is not for me.

Individually, I can appreciate the designs though.

First 100 cards are in the design of 1953. Topps did a really good job on the throwbacks, not perfect and some of that is purposeful, but the core is there for sure.

The back designs are on point as well. I get the obvious logos being completely different and not in some old style to try and match the cards, but the structure of the designs are solid. I could do without the faux signature as part of the background on the back of the cards, but that's a small complaint.

I definitely did not collect and haven't really picked up any cards from the original 1953 set, and as a Jays collector, I don't have a need - my wallet thanks me for that one.

Next up, is 1979, and those I do have Jays cards from.

Great on the fronts though the colours for the teams are definitely brighter than what was on the original cards. As for the backs...

Solidly on point, though these are done in a much more readable pallet oif colours.

Last up, the final 1/3 of the base set, 1991 Topps which everyone my age collected in droves if you collected at all as it was the peak of the overproduction era.

I get using 65 instead of 40 which was on the original cards since this was 25 years later. I also really like it as, for the uneducated, it's an easy way to spot the difference. There are many others of course but for anyone not in the hobby looking to buy cards as gifts for someone, sets like Archives can be problematic for buying singles.


Great work on the backs, and the faded Topps logo like that from 1991, matches with the 65 year notation. FOr myself, nothing to keep in this bunch, no Jays, no error cards, and though it's a decent base set start, this one isn't for me.


Thursday, February 6, 2025

2018 Topps National Baseball Card Day

Well, this wins as best share from the BASEball lot so far as we get a nice, complete, 30 card set of the free card release from 2018.


I only had one card from the set before this, which is in the Blue Jay collection, so this is a one and done complete set for me.


I like the design for the front and the back is what you would expects, sans stats.



Best of all, we end with a bonus - the Judge giveaway if you spent enough on cards that day back in 2018. Works for a one and done post and as per below, gets the 100% set completion, and note it includes 1 Jay and 1 error card too, though it will be kept together of course.


Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Two Sets Down...

Today, the last of the cards from 2019 Topps Update and my starter on the set. First up though, the Jays cards I get in decent number from cards 200-300.


I guess this kind of counts as a Vladdy card - though of course it's a team card, but hard to have a Toronto team card for the year without Vladdy. As for Biagini, he spent most of his major career with Toronto, but this was the tail end of it before appears with a couple other teams and sputtering out.


That Pillar guy seems familiar to us Jays fans...and Acuna Jr. cards are nice pick ups as he turned out to be a great player.




Forget about the name on a card, Divisional Foes would make for a great insert set or even a full set and having cards like this - feature a couple players on the front and maybe full stats on rivalries on the back. Just a thought.



There you have it though, a second great start to a set I didn't have any of before this BASEball lot.


So far two for two in solid starts for new sets. I know that won't hold as a number have decent amounts of cards, but 20% or less won't be enough to really get me going on a set, unless it's a really amazing set. Still, will be interesting to see what else we end up with...more tomorrow!

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Keeping Steady

Quickly into the second third of the 2019 Topps Update set and happily, we continue along our merry way with about 5 duplicates per card, but remaining at about 2/3 completion.


I don't mind the All-Star Game involvement on the Update sets, but I'd still rather have the team logo on the cards. Maybe a smaller ASG logo like an "RC" logo, but the team logo would be nice.


Galvis did not last long in a Jays uniform as he was only here for part of a season before being off and out of town. He was in Toronto after a season in San Diego, and then was off to Cincinnati.



The ASG cards definitely help with adding star power to the 300 card set - no wonder 1/3 or so is about rookies, a third maybe for ASG and other such cards, and then 1/3 big movers and shakers. I still feel 300 is a bit bloated for an update set, but it is what it is.


Definitely still liking the backs, the colour coding with teams, the full stats or solid write ups.




Stroman in his career to date is a .500 pitcher, though I remember the hopes in Toronto at least, were that he would be an ace, and there were flashes of it, but it didn't last.

Not I can at least commemorate this All-Star appearance when he was a Jay with a few copies of the card, and the ugly uniform - definitely not one of my faves.