Collecting This 'n' That

The mail, especially letter mail, is slow . Here, there, and everywhere. I will refrain from ranting about it - no one listens anyway. So when letters do show up in the mail box one must revel in the trades or small orders.   First up we have a small TCDB trade with user Franmarine. Four cards for two slow set builds,  Second up, a trade with user ILLRIMESAYA,  2014 Topps Valor is such an attractive set.  Love that 2013 Topps Chrome Die-cut! Some Jays for the binders. Pinnacle Museum parallels just don't photograph well.  This winter I decided that it was time to work on some of the 90's insert sets that I had ignored for all these years. The cards are usually cheap and they bring back many fond memories of those simpler days of collecting. These are from  use it or lose it Loot on Sportlots. I hope everyone had a great mail day as well. Thanks for reading. 

 A couple of 1956 set builds got a nudge towards completion from my friend Phil at Openbinders.  1956 Topps Flags of the World (R714-5) just moved beyond halfway, 41 out of 80, with these two sharp additions. This set is by no means rare so adding a card or two occasionally is quite easy, fun, and affordable. The other 1956 set is going to be a challenge to finish on budget.  Quaker Oats Sports Cars of 1956 (FC31) sits at 30 of the 42. These cool Canadian cards are going to be tough to find raw as I am running out of leads. There are several slabbed specimens out there that I could use but I'm just not excited about the prices since I will likely break them free.  As you can see this cost conscious collector is not going to get all hung up on condition. Vintage Canadian non-sports sets are tough enough.    Sample back courtesy TCDb. ____________________________________________ I love international oddball stuff. I don't remember how I stumbled upon this eBa...

It certainly has been a while since I have been in this space. Too many things keeping me away this winter.  Good stuff has been accumulating on the card table and I have only scratched the surface of the collections I picked up late last year. The plan going forward will be shorter but more frequent posts.  Today's presentation is NOT any of the good stuff, so let's get it out of the way.  New to this town, at least, is a football offering from the folks at MJ Holding Company. It was cheap, but I really should have read the back as they do not mention anything special being inserted into these packs. Here is the inner packaging, This does not bode well.  I will spare you the descriptions, here are the cards, The Bowers was so damaged that it is in the recycle bin. Drew Lock is a "Kickoff" parallel.  Wow, there we have it. It makes me wonder if MJH is now ripping the packs that were in the tins that didn't sell and moving the money cards on eBay and dumping the ...

Happy New Year to all! A quick recap of the holiday season acquisitions is in order.  The news of Non-Sport Update magazine being discontinued by Beckett at first seemed surprising but then the other shoe dropped. Collectors Universe Inc. buying Beckett. All part of their master plan I reckon. The folks at Vintage Non-sports Forum were reminiscing about the magazine and catalog that had been issued in the past and how well put together they were. After some digging I did find the 2006 edition for a decent price as an early present to myself.  The late Roxanne Toser was still the publisher at the time, and with her decades of knowledge, she and Todd Jordan did a great job on this 530 page volume.  The Secret Santa event on the Trading Card Database was a huge hit with over 200 participants this year. My generous Santa, JoesCards, sent 27 nice cards. A good number of ultra-modern Blue Jays, which was great for filling in the voids of the insane amount of parallels out there...

The smaller collection I recently purchased has hit the table and awaits my next move. Backstory - this was a local Facebook purchase from a younger guy (new father) who had been ripping a lot of retail and some hobby boxes. He has a nice framed piece full of recent New York Giants autos and relics. That's all he said he wanted to keep. Everything else was for sale. Something was off though. Where were all the base cards? He tossed them into the recycling, because in his words "they are just pieces of cardboard". I kept my mouth shut - zipped.  Ironically, this collection had some of the obligatory early 90's pieces of cardboard. 1990 and 1991 Upper Deck, Score, and Pro Set hockey and some of the usual baseball suspects as well. I wish he had recycled those instead!! Now I have to re-home these via the donation center. He did try to pawn off two 1991 Fleer baseball factory sets. I left them there.  On to the good stuff. Very preliminary grouping by sport for now.  It...

 I didn't know what to expect from the lone pack of 2025 Topps Disney Wonder that landed in my shopping cart this past Sunday.  Well, I was surprised. These are quite nice! The first thing that struck me was the card stock that these are printed on. They have a high end feel to them. Perhaps a little thicker than your basic entry level cards.  Twenty-five cards per hanger pack yielded 24 base and one insert. That was a little disappointing but it is what it is for retail.  Initially I thought the foil-y cards were parallels, but they are the "high numbers" in the set. I guess these could be considered short prints of sort with 3 per pack, though I am not certain about the breakdown for blasters and hobby boxes. Honestly, I don't feel they add to the set's make-up. I would have preferred the base set to be just plain base cards.  Base card sample and a foil front. My sole insert, The rest of the cards,  I may try a blaster or two if they are still available ...