Early Working

Before 2026 Lot cards today, a quick trip recap from the weekend. We went to my mom's in Scarborough to celebrate family birthdays (myself, my wife, my kids and my brother all have our birthdays in August or early September), in doing so I got one card related gift, the WWE blaster below, but came home with the rest here as well...

On the way home, we hit one of the few remaining Toyr R Us stores, and their cards were "on sale" and priced down. In relative terms, some of the pricing meant the cards were in line with what they should be, but the AEW blasters were $25 CDN, and the hangers were $5 each. I probably should have bought more of the hangers, but I didn't want to be too greedy or spendy all in one go. Happy with what I came away with though, and will be able to add the hangers to the unopened pack collection while having a few to open. Too bad they used a permanent market to scratch through the UPC codes on the back as I'd prefer the packs unmarked, but I'll live with the small defacing.

When it comes to set collecting, I am a smorgasbord of sets. Some do all flagship sets, or all of a certain brand, but I just have a random lot of sets I add to as I find ones I like or ones that I get a good start on. 2021-22 Upper Deck flagship started because I had some and thought it was alright, coupled with some of the still to be opened blasted boxes etc that should help grow my set completion.

That's why the cards from the lot today are so helpful, and everything here are continued keepers as the base set grows.

Ilya had about 3 seasons in Toronto before a couple years in Vancouver and then onto Chicago. Probably, as seems to be the case with many, a better move for the player, and leaves Toronto with someone having a better post-T.O. career than when they were here.

Still, a Leaf for me.

As for the rest of the keepers...

Mostly second series, which is fine as I do have boxes from, I think all three releases - first, second and "extended".

I may not like Montreal, but Price does have some really good looking cards. Sure, the back here isn't as exciting, but it does have full stats!

Maybe it's because of getting older, but Lax Vegas still feels like a very new team....so let's not talk about how long it has not been around because that definitely makes me feel older. Still, nice additions to the set...I think we are still only about 1/3 of the way overall though, but that's fine - the boxes which I expect to open next year, will help!