Mail Still Coming in, Slowly.

Sometimes I just can't help myself. I know I have a backlog of packages on the way, and I know things are moving painfully slow, but I just can stop. This one being an order from Sportlots, I have been looking for the above two cards for a long time, so when I found them, I jumped, no matter how long it was going to take (The seller was Canadian so it only took two weeks). These sneak into the "One of Every Rockies" collection on a weird rule I have, minor league cards don't count, unless the team name is Rockies. 

Mike Farmer the first Rockies replacement player from the 1995 strike to make the majors, and you could say he had a largely forgettable 7 games in the big. I can't say that though, I still remember his second career start, pitching 7 innings of 2 run ball, and set to earn his first career win against Greg Maddux of all people, then watching the Rockies bullpen blow a 5-2 lead in the ninth and ultimately lose it in the 10th. A quality start, no decision is not quite up there with beating Greg Maddux. 

Terry Jones on the other hand, I have no memory of his 12 games with Colorado.

Football Frankenset - May 2020

#3 - 2015 Upper Deck CFL - Weston Dressler

The Saskatchewan Roughriders version of the CFL's bizarre Signature Jersey experiment from 2014 and 2015. Mini wheat sheathes on the helmet, shoulders and numbers make this a weird one that thankfully didn't last very long.

Merging Maildays

Two smaller recent packages one from an online store and on from a trade, starting with the above 1994 Collector's Choice Gold parallel, one of the harder Brad Edwards cards to find. This is actually the second one I have bought, but the first either got lost in the mail or I got ripped off.

Falling in Love w/ Heritage (aka my 1st 2020s)

There are many constants in my collecting and by extension this blog, with one of them being my dislike for Heritage. Sure, I have Heritage in my collection, the large checklist usually makes for a few cards that sneak on my wantlist, but never too many. This year is different, this is the year I have been waiting for since I got back into collection. This blog actually started as a way to document the variations in 1971 Topps. 

Trading with Canadians 2020.2

A tcdb trade from before things got weird, highlight by, yes, a 1990 Pro Set card. For all the Pro Set I opened and traded for, I never have a Ray Bourque "corrected" variation, until now. A much as this set epitomizes "junk wax", it has really grown on me over the years, including all the little errors and quirks in the set.

Trading with Canadians 2020

  The Rockies collection has been largely ignored in favor of the Football Frankenset and the start of the One of Every Bruins project, but this trade scratches the baseball itch before 2020 gets in full swing. Starting with a oddly yellow tinted Vinny Castilla, which is something that I have been on other acetate cards but not very often, along with the Big Cat in a warm-up jacket and a zero-year Rudy Seanez from a non-Topps OPC design.

Picking up Singles

A couple singles from everyone's favorite auction site starting with a very weird pick-up, 2004 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection has 84 cards in the set, and one of them is a goalie who played in 14 career games 30 years previous. Dave Reece did record two shutouts in those games, but he is most famous for his last NHL game in which he gave up 11 goals including 10 points to Darryl Sittler. So 3 nearly 3 decades later, Dave Reece gets his rookie card.

Team Collector Dilemma (Read the Fine Print)

One card mail-day from late night browsing for cheap cards for Canadian sellers on everyone's favorite online auction site lead to this. Joe Colborne never did play a regular season NHL game for the the Bruins, but being a 16th overall pick did get him a few cards. I thought this Manu-Patch auto was slightly better than a sticker auto, but upon receiving and scanning something caught my eye.

So despite a Bruins Jersey, a Bruins hat, and printed Bruins Logo and a Manu-Patch of a Bruins logo, this little added text sneaks in there to as the ultimate frustration for a team collector. What to do now? Try and ignore that cursed little all-caps blurb "TRADE TO MAPLE LEAFS" and call it a Bruins card? That won't happen, it's there. I know it's there. I will whisper to me in the night "I am not a Bruins card". So Joe Colborne, from "needed" to "in-transit" to "have", back to "needed". The team collectors dilemma.

15 from 4 w/ Frankenset Goodness

15 Cards from 4 Sportlots packages starting with 3 for the "One of Every Bruins" project that is not a high priority but seems to be growing, tough guy Colton Orr, short term stop Sergei Gonchar in a Winnie the Pooh uni and Alexei Zhamnov with a short term stop / sunset card.

First Trade (and post) of 2020

A couple things to get out of the way, happy 2020 to everyone and in absence of a big post I just want to thank everyone who reads, trades and sends cards, not everything gets posted here, but everything is appreciated, thanks to all.

One to the cards, starting with my love of re-printed cards, there is something I just don't like about putting old cards into team binders, so when I can add modern cards of old players I am a happy camper. These are both beauties (the Leach I actually have the vintage card) from 2001 Archives.