BLWinborn40 Trade

A quick trade for today. I don't usually do trades for only a card or two, but if they help fill a need for my trade partner, I'll go ahead with it. That's what happened here and why I have just two cards coming my way, but a nice two. 

Topps Gallery cards do generally look really really nice and rank high on my sets for designs I like. It's probably the artistic aspect to them that I like, here with Tellez, a good close in with the name and bat - looks like it should be in an art gallery - I know, hence the set name.

Then we have Topps Stickers. I don't mind collecting them, but I haven't had an album in a decade, and haven't looked to actually collect the stickers for one since 1990.

Personally, I prefer the stickers that have the current year stats at least on the sticker instead of in the album, but I get saving space and not bothering.

Appreciate the trade, and hope to do more in the future!

Be Pacific

Hockey cards from the COVID lot today...

Some nice star power here. I actually need the Sundin 1994-95 Score base card for that set build, and the Sundin Euro French Upper Deck card is an insert and, though French, I'll keep it for now.

Nice Jagr card - in triplicate, which goes nicely in the same scan with the Pittsburgh team kissing of the Stanley Cup.

I am not collecting the 2000-01 Pacific set, but am collecting the 1999-00 one, so happy to end up with more than a handful of base set helpers on that one.

Sorry to keep it on the quick side, but things are busy enough work wise, I don't have the benefit of much down time to do more than pull and share cards....after enjoying them for a few minutes myself.

Oops I Did It Again

 Even though I haven't even really opened any of the purchased products from boxing day that I picked up from www.pastimesports.ca, I already places and received a second order, which I placed for two reasons which are....silly....

I literally only need a single card from the 2017 Topps WWE set - #1 The Rock, but as the single card doesn't seem to be in anyone's TCDB collection, and is a few dollars online - I figure, why not try my luck at a booster. These boosters I can't find at a decent price elsewhere, and will be nice for my wrestling fix, and hopefully resolve my Rock problem.

Second, they had a couple Minion baggie figures for less than a dollar each, so I picked up the two remaining...

I also picked up a pack of 1989-90 O Pee CHee hockey cards for the unopened pack collection, and in the two orders, had enough points for a set of dice for free....so....TA DA!

As for the minions - they squeeze and light up, so the material yellow skin is easy to see through. Let's see how they scan...

Funny enough as you don't see the skin, but can see the battery inside which makes them light up when squeezed.

I should get through the rest of the COVID lot in the next month, and I figure by the start of May - the next fun project as I plan to start working through and ranking the various boxes I have purchased and back logged for opening. At a glance, it looks like about 40-50 various blaster, blister, box, repack or similar products across baseball, hockey and wrestling. Fun times ahead!

E-Xcellent

Baseball through the 90s from the COVID lot today... 

1993 Fleer is one of the sets I am working on, but only a couple cards helping here, even though I am well under half way complete. Oh well, can't win them all.

Same with the Flair set - no keepers though I am working on it as well.

Bazooka cards are nice - I don't see many of them. Maybe about as much as Topps Total sets for hockey - I know of them, see them here and there, but not very much.

The E-X sets - they almost always look REALLY nice. I don't see enough to collect any given set, but the cards have a great look and feel - very premium, especially for 90s / early 2000s cards. Does mean they are up for grabs, and would love to get more Jays from the sets.

Not Junk Hockey

 A round of 90s hockey cards which some may call junk, but I prefer overproduced...and that still has a couple pick ups for me, so why complain?

I will say, I have seen more than enough 1990-91 Bowman hockey, and have a complete set, and would be fine not seeing again for a good long while.

Here is why it's important to look at every card in a lot. I mean, I could see missing it going through, but that Stadium Club error card with the missed foil for Adam Graves is great! Is it worth big bucks? Not at all, but the errors are something I really enjoy collecting, and even if just missed foil, glad to spot it here. May not need all the extra Graves 1991-92 Pro Set cards, but an error....absolutely!

When I think early Young Gun cards, this is the design I think. Back then though, I don't remember it being the big deal it is now - it was just a subset in the base set for Upper Deck products. Might be a little harder to get (well - kind of, but again, mass production made any kind of "hard to get" cards, not so hard to get. A couple keepers for me given I am collecting the different hologram variations, but that's it for this one!

Winging It!

 Well, since there have been other team specific pull days from the COVID lot, guess not surprising to get another - this one being all Detroit Red Wings

Just means that I don't get any keepers unless I luck out on set build cards (which is the case with 1990-01 Score Probert). The powerhouse team I grew up watching through the 90s and well into the 00s even, isn't the team they have been the last near decade.

Players like Lidstron, Datsyuk, Draper, Yzerman, Shannahan, Fedorov, Fetisov, Hasek, and others, kept the team in the hunt for The Cup regularly, winning in 1996-97, 1997-98, 2001-02 and 2007-08. With Bowman coaching in the 90s and Babcock through most of the 00s, the teams had strong coaches.

How much of the strong team run had to do with the teams generally early introduction of Russian hockey players, I'm not going to get into or debate, but star players are star players wherever they come from, and Detroit was able to sign a number early and they stays for long parts of their careers, made for some great teams, but great challenges for other solid teams in the league.

My Leaf teams didn't keep the longevity of greatness, but when they had good years, the Red Wings were one of the teams that seemed to be in the way and to which Toronto wasn't able to break through.

Times do change, and the Red Wings are at least looking to get back into the playoffs this year for the first time since 2015-16, then the challenge of getting out of the first round which they haven't done since 2012-13.

Baseball Bunch

 As we get into the last 1,000 cards or so of the COVID lot, we just end up with a lot of random baseball / hcokey cards, so not uch of a theme sometimes, but...baseball!

I have never seen these Legends sticker/cards before which are a multi-sport release as Martina sneaks into this otherwise baseball post. Martina was at the end of her great career when I was watching Tennis as a kid. I remember being 10-13 year sold and watching as much of Wimbledon each year as I possibly could. I did the same with soccer World Cups in the 90s too - man I binged some sport events something good as a kid. Lucky to get to watch half a baseball game these days.

Not a lot of keepers for me in the bunch, but a few different set additions with 1992 Triple Play, Pinnacle, and Studio cards above.

Always nice to get a Cliff Floyd sighting - and I have a perfect place to send him. Same with the couple Expos today.

Escobar - a lone Jays addition today, but just shows there is still so good Toronto cards to pull from the lot. Happy that he's a new one for my collection too. I definitely never saw much Stadium Club in the wild in the 90s, but have done a decent job in trading and getting the Jays from some of the sets at least.

This ad insert kind of blows my mind. In the late 90s, you could join the Collector's C;ub for $25 US and would end up getting a BOX of Upper Deck cards? $25 will get you a baseball blaster these days....darn you price increases and inflation!

The Upper Deck and Ultra designs are very millennium looking, but not for me if anyone is up for a trade!