Hockey Helpers

The Lot bring hockey, and happily some set helpers...

Yes, the Rasmus Sabres uniform is awful, but we do get four more base cards checked off the 2023-24 Upper Deck offering. Too bad there haven't been any YoungGubs sneaking through.

Close enough, we will include this as a Leaf card. Wouldn't have minded if this 1991-92 subset from Pro Set had been bigger.

The rest here aren't helpers for me but maybe helpers to you...

Of course the Roy is in French...

More old time looking Pro Set and some Topps circa 1981-92 which, in Canada at least, was a lot less seen than the O Pee Chee counterpart 

Nice to see some Timmies cards, though from a base set I do have done.

A great bunch though with some keepers, Jay content and nice variety of cards for trade!

Donruss Basketball

Before the basketball - let's share a TCDB PWE trade with ForrestE who helped to finish off a couple Toronto team sets.

We start with one of the cards driving the trade, the fourth Jays card in the 1986 Donruss All-Star set with Jimmy. Kevin is an error card, with a couple 1991 Bowman cards for the set build including the needed additional Borders pickup.

The 1991 Fleer are actually some dupes and some additional versions of the jumbo or microvariation U.S.A. instead of U.S.A date printings on the back. This was another trade where I only needed a few cards but because more could be sent across to match ForrestE's needs, I just picked up some Toronto duplicate goodness.

The other Jays team base set finish was the 1991 Topps Traded set as the two cards here were the last needed. Also, nice reminder of Studio being a great set in the early 90s, and that Triple Play shouldn't just be remembered for the disastrous sets from the early 2010s.

A single set share from the 2026 Lot today as we get a bunch more 2023-24 Donruss basketball. I don't think we are quite getting to a full base set, but I think we are well over two thirds at this point.

It's a fine enough set, though I think I prefer the football with this design, over the basketball.

You can see some solid names of the games including Raptor Barnes hiding in there.

A biy of wasted white space on the back, but you won't miss the player name!

Anyone looking for a solid started set - let me know.

A Trade And A Half

Sometimes when trading, there are issues with the mail. Here, I ended up only receiving half the trade from TCDB member yrrcwc. Still happy getting half at least and will share it today, but as luck would have it, six weeks after sending yrrcwc received the envelope back with an undeliverable sticker - even though the address was exactly the same as the one I received. So, it has since been popped back in the mail so hopefully I see it in less than six more weeks.

It's almost all wrestling in this trade, so really hope the other part does show, but we get a bunch of Finest and Chronicles cards here.

Hasn't been that long, but Lacey Evans was a quick WWE career, as was Keith Lee - though possible he may be back at some point.

The Chronicles design doesn't lend too badly to wrestling, and some nice pick ups in Big E and Theory.

The backs are decent for the write ups.

I think the Lota card is my favourite for this part of the trade though as the design matches her outfit pretty nicely. At least she isn't floating like Theory and Bianca appear to be!

A solid half trade!

Not to be out done, I did get the entire trade from TCDB member Alfred - though being a single envelope, it would take ripped mail and missing cards for only part of the trade to show up, but thankfully that didn't happen.

With the other cards in the trade keepers, I didn't bother adjusting out the Pro Debut cards since I knew I could pass those along to a certain Mike out the other side of Toronto. As for the rest, always happy adding more Vladdy cards - and with the parallels being nice additions too, a great handful of Jays cards from the last couple years, all of which I didn't have until this trade!

Checklist Some Childhood Memories

Before we get to more 2026 Lot cards, a trade recap with first time trade partner TCDB member BenHurQc who helped me with nearly completing a McDonalds hockey card set.

I am now just a single card shy of completing the 1996-97 Pinnacle McDonald's set, I have a duplicate need for the Timmies set from 2025-26 and...

A sweet full page from the 2026 National Hockey Card Day release with a Gilmour included. There is actually a second full page with a different Leaf card I need to also get, but one out of two is pretty sweet to pick up in a trade, so thank you!

The 2026 Lot gives a jab of the feelies today with some baseball cards that bring on the nostalgia.

These three are keepers with one set builder, one Jays card (yes, a team checklist counts) and one sticker insert I didn't have. What they all have in common is that these were sets I remember collecting when I was first really getting into baseball cards. The late 80s / early 90s, cards were everywhere and being a math nut, stats and the sport....all in cards, was awesome.

I miss one aspect of collecting at that time - the value of the cards. I mean, being overproduced, there were very few cards that you couldn't afford, and if you liked the sport for what it was and the hobby for collecting - you could pretty much find whatever you wanted to collect. How times have changed.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good signature card or relic, or thick serial numbered card, but the prices and costs with the hobby are just insane. I think in large part because it isn't kids collecting anymore, it's the adults who use to collect and now have disposable income to spend on it. I do wonder how many real collectors there are out there, say under the age of 25. I don't think it's anything like it was back in the 80s.

Back when you would purposely take apart cards to make a puzzle. I guess that's not too far fetched since we now have rip cards where you are forced to decide whether to keep a card not knowing what is inside it, or ruin a card to find out.

I mean, who would want to keep something in an original package, never knowing what the contents are inside....did I mention I have about 1,000 unopened different packs across wrestling, baseball, hockey and Magic?

Not sure how many people who collect baseball cards can't recognize those pieces of Willie - whether you like them or not.

A Year Short

First - did anyone enjoy the World Cup final? I only watched part of it, but I didn't find it overly exciting play wish, just more a waiting game to see if Argentina could push it to kicks. The result is what it deserved to be based on play, so I can't argue with the end result, but I think there were many more exciting matches in the tournament. 

Before more cards from the 2026 Lot, a trade share with fellow Canadian JFCaouette, a fellow Canadian, which involved a bit of baseball and a bit of hockey.

From the baseball side, we get a lot of the 1995 Fleer Jays I was missing, but still a couple left. Daulton was a sold prospect, and honestly, the red white and blue Prizm parallel in 2014 looked fantastic. Still one more Jay to get from it.

On the hockey side, I still need a couple more to finish the team base set, but almost there. Nice getting the paid of Leaf True North Heroes form the 2025-26 Timmies set so that insert is done for the team - still need copies in order to work on the "master set" for the binder, but that's nowhere near being a priority yet.

More hockey from the 2026 Lot today, and we cone up one year short - I'm collecting 2023-24, Upper Deck but we have a bunch of 2022-23 Upper Deck today.

Wayne's time in Toronto was all of two seasons, a full one in 2022-23 and 18 games the following year to end his career. I think his off ice contributions as a veteran were probably a bigger help than his on ice work.

An unexpected keeper, though of course I didn't scan the back which shows the error. The headings for stats on the back are for a skater, not a goalie.

The rest up for trade...

The design is actually not much different the next year, though I do like 2023-24 better than this design.

Still On Topps

 All baseball from the 2026 Topps flagship and Chrome, both sets I am trying to slowly build. Let's start with the keepers...

Lots of series two in this lot compared to series one - so just a couple keepers, but more Chrome which is nice. Still sore getting Dodgers that I keep...boo...

At least Chrome is less than half the size as flagship so maybe a little easier to finish.

At least I did get...

Not new, but Blue.

As noted - getting a lot of series two from flagship in this lot, so happy to trade to get more of the set done. See anything you need below, let me know.

Leaf Heavy

If we want Leaf heavy - nothing like starting with a hockey trade. This one is with TCDB member galemann and is another in the line of PWEs I was able to muster through recently.

We start with what, as of now, is the last variation (of the micro kind), 1990-91 Topps Leaf card with a C versus D in the copyright line printing. It makes the base set 21 cards big including these small variations which occurred on a few cards.

No other set completions from the rest, but nice additions nonetheless. Still need a couple more Leaf cards from the Retro Rookie Timmies set, but from the 2025-26 Timmies base set, I have 3 Tavares all from trades....haven't even opened any of the packs I have yet.

A great trade all around so we get some Leaf happiness before even getting to the lot pulls for today.

Well, if I'm going to get hockey cards from the 2026 Lot, getting a page of Leaf cards is as good as it gets!

Amazing little run that covers a bunch of years, and about half of them were new additions to my collection. I like the Tucker SPx card - fantastic in hand, and late 90s Stadium Club I don't see a lot of.

Otherwise - a bunch of traders...

I don't mind the early 90s cards, though they may be a little slower to move in trades.

I may not like the Mask Collection by name since it isnt an all goalie set, but still, great looking card.

Unfortunately, we end with a few cards that will be packing material since they are a biy bent and I am not going to trade such damaged cards...

Some More Football

Not all football is necessarily NFL and we get to start today with a couple nice CFL cards from the 2026 Lot.

Mike "Pinball" Clemons was a fantastic speedster for the Argos and a great personality and ambassador for the city of Toronto. He wasn't the tallest guy at just 5' 6", but he had the speed for the league.

Mike played 8 games in the NFL in 1987 and soon after moved to the CFL. In those 8 games he had 19 returns for about 162 years, nothing too impressive, but when he came to the CFL, he played through the 1989-2000 years, all with the Toronto Argonauts, he had a combined total yards of about 25,000 from running, receiving and punt/kick returns. Over those years, he averaged over 21 yards on a kick return, almost 10 yards on a punt return, over 10 yards per reception, and almost 5 years per rush.

In comparison, Jerry Rice had about 23.5k all purpose years in his NFL career.

ENough about that, there are some other football cards to glance at as well, but we have seen similar before...

Panini's 2023 Donruss offering still isn't a complete set by any means, but we do have more of the set showing up again.

We end with some Score, and I am left wondering if we will happen to see any other CFL cards in this lot!

Three For One

I don't usually do trades for a single card, but traded away a base Ohtani and got three serial numbered cards back in exchange. Truth be told, the Ohtarni base non-rookie card cost me less than a penny in the lot I bought, so although I probably gave more than I got....maybe....I'm happy with the pick up here...

The backs are below so you can see the beautiful serial numbers on these cards from jkrasner92 from TCDB (as usual). We have a 1998 Topps Stars Bronze Roger Clemens, and two different 2000 Topps Tek John Sneed designed cards.

Sneed was drafted by the Jays but never made it all the way up to the minor majors. I really like the design of the tek cards this year, and always like the opportunity to add serial numbered Jays to the collection, whether stars or drafted players that just didn't quite work out - still awesome additions.