Never heard of that before....

Always nice to see a completely new set...

Highlights:

First baseball card I have ever seen from 1998 Circa Thunder. A bit typical of the later 90s - a lot going on and plenty of colour. Other than that, closing in on the complete 1991-92 O Pee Chee insert set of Sharks and Russians - less than 10 to go.

The rest
Keepers:

Glad to see more of the Mini Jersey set from 2007-08 - the true base set is small enough, I hope I do complete this one!

Traders:

Speaking of new sets - the Future Stars In The Game card is nice - except it was heavily creased right across the card so will not be staying in my collection unfortunately.

Through 8720 cards:

Specific Accomplishments:

- Complete 2003-04 SP Authentic Basketball (90 card pure base)

- Complete 2005 Upper Deck Classics (100 card pure base)

- 3 Complete 2007-08 UD McDonald's Hockey Checklist Subsets (6 cards)

- 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Hockey #30 Bobby Orr (All-Star)

- 2004-05 Upper Deck Legends Classics Platinum #64 Marcel Dionne Platinum 06/10

- 2007-08 Topps 1957-58 Variations Basketball  #112 Kevin Durant (Rookie)

- 2009-10 Topps #321 Stephen Curry (Rookie)

	Hockey	Baseball	Basketball	Football	Austin Powers	Other
Toronto	140	16
Inserts / Var Kept	301	40
Error	15	2
Keep	1734	254
Doubles/Sell	1298	178	1412	2615	275	30
Doubles Inserts / Var	94	1	112	203

A change of pace

To all of our neighbours to the south, happy Independence Day!

I always like to see new or newer stuff coming out of the Santa Lot - and I get a couple such items today.

Highlights:

At first I thought the SLAM card was an insert to the main Upper Deck set, but apparently it was it's own set. Decent colour design, but the SLAM at the bottom takes up a bit of real estate on the front.

The rest
Keepers:

A whole slew of adds to O Pee Chee sets - so a good day there - and a couple more reasons why I can understand some people collecting just goalies.

Traders:

I think I could go for the ICON design on a baseball card...it's growing on me bit by bit the more that I see these cards...

Through 8740 cards:

Specific Accomplishments:

- Complete 2003-04 SP Authentic Basketball (90 card pure base)

- Complete 2005 Upper Deck Classics (100 card pure base)

- 3 Complete 2007-08 UD McDonald's Hockey Checklist Subsets (6 cards)

- 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Hockey #30 Bobby Orr (All-Star)

- 2004-05 Upper Deck Legends Classics Platinum #64 Marcel Dionne Platinum 06/10

- 2007-08 Topps 1957-58 Variations Basketball  #112 Kevin Durant (Rookie)

- 2009-10 Topps #321 Stephen Curry (Rookie)

	Hockey	Baseball	Basketball	Football	Austin Powers	Other
Toronto	140	16
Inserts / Var Kept	300	40
Error	15	2
Keep	1743	253
Doubles/Sell	1297	178	1415	2625	275	30
Doubles Inserts / Var	93	1	114	203

Laying down the law and another one bites the dust

In trading by mail, every now and then stuff happens. For the first time, a PWE I sent out was mauled on it's way to the US. Worked out alright, cards all get through, minimal damage, and I've offered to send a few more cards to the recipient (always important to keep good relations with all trade partners, and I feel really bad about it and want to make it right). The trade with randylaw on TCDB helps move along four different sets I am working on...man, I really need to focus...

1986 Topps Traded - now 87.9% Done

Still need 16 cards or so for the set, and obviously needed two Cerutti cards - one for the set and one for the Jays binder.

1989 Topps - now 99.7% Done

Most of these filled spots in the set, but a few were copies for the rror card binder. TYhe blue background for Andres obviously works well for an Expo, but star of the group would be Nolan - not surprised it took this long to get.

1990 Donruss - now 98.7% Done

A few more off the needs list - I swear I had the Yount at some point, but I guess not.

1997-98 Pinnacle - now 98.5% Done

Only three left after Irbe - I have been slow in trying to get these last few cards, but might just get the last few if I can find someone to trade with shortly.

Greatly appreciate the trade randylaw, and hope we can do something more on another trade.

Set completion can take time....a lot of time as the above shows perfect example of....and with the Santa Lot it can be excruciating at times, knowing the set is likely there, but not quite knowing, so not wanting to bother getting the few missing cards because I might actually still have them somewhere.

Highlights:

Here is a perfect example. Another card off the needs for this set, and I am sure the last ones (or most of them) will be here somewhere, it is just a question of when I will see them...

The rest
Keepers:

Here is a set I will undoubtedly not come anywhere close to completing - though I do like the set as I have mentioned before.

Traders:

As for these, great to see a couple more gold medallion parallels continuing the trend (even in basketball), and unfortunate that the 2004 Legends Classics are all dupes, but they are still worthwhile trade bait!

Through 8720 cards:

Specific Accomplishments:

- Complete 2003-04 SP Authentic Basketball (90 card pure base)

- Complete 2005 Upper Deck Classics (100 card pure base)

- 3 Complete 2007-08 UD McDonald's Hockey Checklist Subsets (6 cards)

- 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Hockey #30 Bobby Orr (All-Star)

- 2004-05 Upper Deck Legends Classics Platinum #64 Marcel Dionne Platinum 06/10

- 2007-08 Topps 1957-58 Variations Basketball  #112 Kevin Durant (Rookie)

- 2009-10 Topps #321 Stephen Curry (Rookie)

	Hockey	Baseball	Basketball	Football	Austin Powers	Other
Toronto	140	16
Inserts / Var Kept	300	40
Error	15	2
Keep	1732	253
Doubles/Sell	1296	178	1411	2621	275	30
Doubles Inserts / Var	93	1	114	203

Pack Attack - Dollarama 15 - Bust-ed

So from this pack...


As soon as I opened it and glanced through the cards, I figured this was going to be a bust having spied some minor leaguers, etc. I guess we will have to go through and see if I was right...


Well, at least this is a good start to the pack. A nice 2015-16 Upper Deck entry I didn't have.


One of the Whaler greats - not as good as Ron Francis, but still one of the greats for the team.


With this set completed in English...I still have no interest in the French set so I am not keeping this one...


A completed set that I have, so no need for Barnes from 1991-92 Score Traded...

Another set I already have completed...and at this point I have to say this pack is looking fairly similar in sets to the one I opened not too long ago...

Which continues with another complete set and card I don't need...huh...very red, white and blue in this pack. This is an error card, but still already had an extra for that collection anyway.


Decent colour design and pic, but again a minor league card which is atleast a keeper for me in these...quasi major/minor mixed sets.


Well...make it two...


Would be nice if I could get more of these in the repacks - much better!


The 1990-91 Topps design mirrored O Pee Chee - or vice versa - but I only have a couple dozen Topps cards, so add this to the needs pile.


I believe, just like last time - three cards coming from three sets I have completed and don't need this one.


May not need the card, but a great player from a great team - I enjoyed ate 80s, early 90s Pens.


Minor league....didn't make it to the big time either.


Not one of the ones I needed, but I will say the team cards are nice and I miss them from the newer sets.


Lastly, a grudging keeper from another Heores and Prospects set...

Not as good as the last pack from Dollarama and a bust overall, but not as bad as I thought it would be...

As a bonus today - what was even better - another bag pick up from Value Village. I picked this one up because I saw a few blue border cards that are just too darn cute...and since I was using a coupon, the back was only $2.


These are all the Jays that were in the 150-200 cards. Most of it was 1992 Ultra, but part of the blue that I saw were the 1990 Donruss Best of The AL set. It was only these Jays, but with the blue they look so darn good, glad to get a second set of these.

The rest of the blue came from the 1987 Donruss Highlights set which is a box set, but in the bag, these were all I got. Not complaining, but the NY hat on Catfish just looks so off.

The 1987 Donruss was an example of what else was there, sprinkling of late 80s, early 90s other than the previously mentioned '92 Ultra...


Last items for the collection out of the bag - a few errors and an insert...



A bag well worth the pick up - heck, it gave me a good 50% or so of the Ultra set, the rest was bonus - and good bonus at that!

Happy Canada Day, eh!

Well, what would be more Canadian than hockey on a day like today. Since I still have a number of 1990-91 Pro Set packs to open, let's knock a few of them off today while sitting inside our igloo with our pet beavers while the polar bears and moose roam outside...not to feed into stereo types or anything...



Pack #1:

Brett Hull is definitely the stand out of the keepers from this pack. Also - no, the Puppa All-Star card isn't miscut - I did that when cropping...hehehe...Puppa....

Some dupes...


The only error card keeper in this group is a Brett Hull card:

Definitely Brett's good side. Obviously Hull won the Lady Bing in 1990 which is detailed on the back. The error on the card? It should be the Lady Bing Memorial Trophy - small difference, but a difference nonetheless.

Last but not least...


Pack #2:

Yes - purposely upside down. The question is - if the front is printed in a different direction from the rest - error, variation or neither. After scanning it here, I am leaning towards variation - possibly error, depending on if it was corrected. Likely just a printing error, but I think I am going to move it to error/variants anyway. Cool - I like print errors - especially where backs are half printed, not printed, or the wrong back given the front.

Errors from this pack...

Another excellent pack or errors.

Lastly...the dupes...

Shouldn't be a surprise to start seeing more dupes as we get more and more cards from the set.

Pack #3:

Another good number of adds - especially getting a couple more all-star subset cards. Still don't like the grey accenting on Blues cards.

A bunch of error cards:

John V. generally took some good photos, and this is a fair example of it.

Lastly, the dupes...


Overall, I think the last pack ends up being the best given the number of keepers...though it was short a Leaf.

Enjoy the rest of your Canada Day (or preparing for your July 4th celebrations)!