Long Lost Canadian Counterparts

Obsessive compulsive disorder can be a pain in the butt.  In regards to collecting... my biggest struggle with it happens to be confronting procrastination.  I totally enjoy sorting and organizing... but sometimes it can be overwhelming to see stacks and stacks of cards staring back at me.  I'll just walk into my office, see them, turn around, and find something else to distract me.

Last week, I took advantage of some extra free time and broke down all of those stacks.  My reward?  I found some long lost purchases.

Today's post focuses on an eBay purchase that was inspired by Stuart over at S.R.'75 Cards.  Last June, he wrote about his new blog banner which included the famous pinch runner card from the 1975 Topps set.  That post sent me on a mission to track down Herb Washington's 1975 O-Pee-Chee card.  Well I found one and the seller had a bunch of other affordable O-Pee-Chee baseball cards from the 70's.  In an effort to save a few bucks with combined shipping, I loaded up my shopping cart.

After going back and forth on which cards were top priority, I narrowed my cart down to ten cards that set me back $25.72 (tax & shipping included).  Two of them were showcased over the weekend, but here's a look at the other eight in reverse chronological order...

1978 O-Pee-Chee #110

Reggie's 1978 Topps card is one of my favorite cards from the 70's.  It features a perfectly cropped action shot of Mr. October and was one of the key cards in the purchase.

1977 O-Pee-Chee #255

Steve Garvey has a lot of great looking Topps cards from the 70's, but this is the only flagship base card that features a well-cropped action shot with all limbs and equipment intact.

If you're a fan of the 1975 Topps baseball card design, then you'll probably enjoy the next four cards...

1975 O-Pee-Chee #561

This card looks great on the front, but that back is marked up:

I'm not sure if I knew about this damage or not.  Based on the price, I'm guessing I did.

1975 O-Pee-Chee #625

This is another classic card from the 70's.  Off-centered or not... there was no way I was pulling this out of the shopping cart.

1975 O-Pee-Chee #463

1975 O-Pee-Chee #465

Not sure if I'll end up chasing down the complete World Series subset, but either way... I'm halfway there.

1973 O-Pee-Chee #500

Gotta admit... outside of a few words written in French on the back, this A's team card looks a lot like it's American counterpart.  I'm not sure even sure if this card is printed on the usual brighter card stock.

1972 O-Pee-Chee

Not a Pirates fan, but I've always liked the Topps version of this card.  Now I have the Canadian version to go with it.

1971 O-Pee-Chee #210

If you needed a good reason to start collecting O-Pee-Chee baseball cards... the 1971 card backs could be that reason.  Seriously.  It's glorious.  Just stare into the eyes of Carew's floating head.

The best part about these vintage cards from Canada is that they're affordable.  These eight cards (plus the damaged Herb Washington and Billy Martin cards) were less than the average price of a Topps baseball blaster.

Well that's it for today.  I found a few more cards hidden in stacks that have been scanned, so you might see them pop up in future posts from time to time.

Until then...

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

Overtime!

Hockey posts don't receive a lot of views, but I wanted to document the fact that I watched the 4 Nations Face-Off Championship Game last Thursday and it was awesome!  It was a back and forth game that was entertaining the entire time.  Unfortunately, I haven't opened up any hockey packs in quite some time.  But back in the 90's... there were years when it dominated my hobby budget.

Here are two cards from that era that represent the tournament in one way or another:

1995-96 Finest Gold Refractor #123

This is a card from my original collection.  Not sure if I pulled this card from a pack or not, but I did open up a fair share of this product.  Anyways... Keith Tkachuk is the father of Brady and Matthew who both played on Team USA in the tournament.

The other guy is arguably the most recognizable hockey player on the planet:

1996-97 Donruss Canadian Ice National Pride #1

Gretzky was the honorary team captain for Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off Championship Game.

This die-cut acetate card is shaped like a maple leaf and is from one of my favorite hockey insert sets.

Congratulations Team Canada!  Heck of a game.

Not My Local Card Shop

This weekend my brother and I went up to Roseville to spend some time with our oldest brother who recently retired there.  As luck would have it... there's a card shop two miles away.  So while we were out and about, they dropped me off so I could check it out.

I only had ten minutes there while the rest of the family hit up the post office, so I quickly checked out their display cases and pack selection.  They had some really nice singles, but there weren't any great deals to be had.  However in an effort to support them, I grabbed a jumbo pack of 2025 Topps Series 1:

Forty cards for twenty-five bucks.  Yeah this was an out-of-character purchase, but at least I have some of the new stuff to show off on the blog:

Not much to say about the base set.  It's not my favorite flagship design... but it's not my least favorite either.  I pulled a pair of Sacramento Athletics and the Padres team card for my PC's:

2025 Topps #39

In addition to the thirty-seven base cards, I pulled three parallel/inserts:

2025 Topps Rainbow Foilboard #101

2025 Topps 1990 Baseball #T90-47

2025 Topps 2024 Greatest Hits #GH-8

Nothing too special about the parallel and two inserts I pulled.  Topps continues to utilize past designs and uninspiring inserts that flood today's dollar bins.  At least these three cards found homes specific pages of my binders.

In hindsight, I would have been much better off purchasing a blaster from Target, but like I said... I wanted to support the shop.

Right after I ripped open the pack and put away the singles, I opened a PWE from Tom over at The Angels, In Order.  He sent me this Masahiro Tanaka for my collection:

2018 Triple Threads Emerald #22 (#'d 107/259)

Thank you Tom!  I've got a pair of Archives autographs for your set build that I'll toss in the mail sometime this week.

As for the rest of you...

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Stained & Sensational

Quick post with some stained, yet sensational sports cards.

Card #1:  Marked Martin

1971 O-Pee-Chee #208

Picked up a lot of ten 70's O-Pee-Chee baseball cards last summer and two arrived stained.  Billy was one of them.  I have a couple of his autographs and neither resemble the red ballpoint scribbled across his face.  That's okay... because this card back is sensational:

Card #2:  Painted Pinch Runner

1975 O-Pee-Chee #407

Not sure how I didn't spot this stain in the original eBay listing, but it's all good.  It's an iconic card from the 70's and sensational:

Card #3:  Tainted Tony

1985 Topps #660

The final card for today is this Gwynn from Johnny's Trading Spot.  Nothing out of the normal on the front, but flip it over and you'll see that it's stained and sensational:

I love wax and gum stained cardboard featuring stars... but this one is extra special, because it's a Tony Gwynn card.

Thank you John!  Absolutely love this card and promise to provide it with a loving and nurturing home.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

You're the Inspiration!

This post will be loaded with scans, but it's not a scan dump.  It's the contents from John's (@ Johnny's Trading Spot) latest care package.

Let's start off with two heavy hitters which were prizes from his December giveaways:

1975 Topps #620

Gary Carter was one of the best catchers from my youth, but this is my first time owning this card. This is a huge addition to my 70's binder.

By the way... does anyone else think Gary Carter kinda looks like Ryan Reynolds?

The other prize was one of Shohei Ohtani's first MLB cards:

2017 Topps Now #OS-80

Back in 2017... a lot of fans had high expectations for this guy.  However... I doubt the majority of those people thought he was going to be this good.  It's not often a guy wins three MVP Awards in a stretch of four seasons.

And it's not very often someone sends me an Ohtani card of this caliber.  But there was more... a lot more.

In addition to these two cards, he sent me a bunch of other cards.  Let's start with some 2024 Topps 582 Montgomery Club Oakland Athletics:

2024 Topps 582 Montgomery Club #688

It's sad to think that I won't be seeing Oakland on the front of trading cards anymore (or at least not on a regular basis). 

He sent me more than half of the team set:

In honor of these guys being the last team in Oakland... I'll probably try and pick up the missing cards.

Here are a few other Oakland Athletics in the care package:

My favorite card in this bunch is the 2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary card of Rickey Henderson.  But I've gotta admit that I was really impressed at how those two RayWave Refractors scans turned out.

When it comes to my collection of team mascots, John is the largest contributor.  He's probably sent me over fifty over the years.  Here are three more:

2001 Choice Omaha Golden Spikes #26

1993 Classic Best West Palm Beach Expos #30

1990 Star Miami Miracle #30

If you want to know my fascination with mascots... just feast your eyes on Jericho.  What a fantastic card.

He also sends me hundreds of Japanese baseball player cards every year.  This my sound like an exaggeration, but it's not.  This care package contained at least fifty.  Here are some of the bigger names:

He also tossed in a pair of NPB inserts:

2021 Topps Chrome NPB 1986 Topps Baseball #86-TY

2021 Topps Chrome NPB Stadium Sluggers #SL-23

Not familiar with either of these guys, but it looks like both had some solid years at the plate in the NPB.

I'll wrap up the sports card portion of this post with these three oversized Olympic cards:

1992 Collect-A-Card Olympic Games Oversize Posters #TSC-5

1992 Collect-A-Card Olympic Games Oversize Posters #TSC-11

1992 Collect-A-Card Olympic Games Oversize Posters #TSC-9

John actually sent me seven out of the twelve cards in this set.  You're gonna start reading this a lot... but I'm considering building this set.  

The second half of his flat rate box was filled with non-sport goodies... that I absolutely love.

Let's start with some 2024 Topps Chrome Star Wars:

He gave me a nice starter set of these... which inspired me to pick up a pair of blasters.  If I make a bigger dent, maybe I'll attempt to build the set.

John also sent me a ton of 2024 Topps Allen & Ginter inserts:

I'm also tempted to build the Best in Show and Sister, Sister insert sets.  It'll depend on if I can find any singles sitting in quarter bins at shows.

The last part of the box was filled with 2010 Wacky Packages Series 7 cards:

There were so many... I thought there was a complete set.  It was a few cards short, but fifty cards is close enough to completion for me to seek out the final five:

Speaking of set building, John also included this Acuna Stars of MLB insert:

2022 Topps Stars of MLB #SMLB-2

I'm wondering if he thought I was building this set.  I'm not... but I do need the Acuna for my 2024 Topps Stars of MLB set build.

Thank you so much for the prize/care package John!  It was a lot of fun sitting down and sorting all of this stuff.  It's not often that one package can inspire so many set builds.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!