Time For The Club

 Continuing through the Pastime repack of unopened packs of baseball cards, we next have Series 2 of 1992 Stadium Club. I am collecting this set slowly, so there was hope of picking up some keepers. I don't care what printing variation - there are two versions of each card in the base set, differing based on the letter code in the copyright line on the back.

Surprisingly, no luck in the first bunch, though not a Jay, but at least there was an Expo I can easily re-home.

Not until the last card do I find something to keep - and I am not including the advertising insert, I am referring to Ryne. The Members Choice subset has flashier foiling which looks nice, and Ryne is a personal fave, so excellent card all around.

Before leaving this pack though, and since I mentioned variations, the ad insert has 2 variations as well. One has the line above "LIMITED EDITION..." which is highlighted, also highlighted, and this version where there isn't the additional highlight. I have extras of both if anyone is that particular about their sets!

A Repack of Packs

 On one of my orders from Pastime Sports (www.pastimesports.ca), I picked u0p a repack of packs for $6.99. You didn't know what packs you were going to get, but you were going to get 5 packs, so I figured it would all be "junk" era stuff.

I will say that of the five packs, I did need the 1992 O Pee Chee and 1991 Studio packs for my unopened pack collection, so it was worth the pick up. These bring me up to a total of 257 unopened baseball card packs. There are 173 different sets covered, as some have different series, or even different packs for sets which is why the difference.

That leaves us with three packs to rip...so let's start with one today, 1001 O Pee Chee Premier, a set I have completed both as a base set and an additional team set, so just looking for extra Jays content, or for anything cool from the set.

Barry Bonds would have been a good pull at the time and Andre Dawson is a personal favourite as well.

We get a Pat Tabler who - given the 132 card size of the set, you know is in there for Jays content because I'm not sure he would be qualified otherwise to be in such a small set where each team should have three or four guys represented (while Toronto and Montreal actually have 15 and 12 respectively).

A good enough start for this one, it may well be worth the price...though I probably could have bought the packs individually from them for about a huck cheaper.

A Dollarama 15

An update first to my wrestling show issue (being reseated and taken well away from the seats that were purchased to be on the superstar entranceway). I didn't hear back from WWE on my first three emails, all from my personal email address, so tried sending again from my work email as I know at times my home email service provider emails can have issue being received as Cogeco at times get blocked. I get a response same day from WWE as soon as I did that apologizing and noting none of my other emails had been received. The end resolution is that I was told I would get 2 complimentary tickets to the next Raw or Smackdown show I would like to go to. Since I won't be travelling to do so, it'll be in a year likely, when I expect WWE is next through the area, and hopefully it will be for a Raw or Smackdown so I can get the comp tickets. Is it a fair resolution? I think it is as fair as I can expect it to be. I doubt it will be for tickets exactly where we were trying to get this time, but only time will tell that part, but at least they are trying to make things as right as possible. When the time comes, I'll post about exactly what the comp tickets end up being, but I'd gather they would be middling seats - still not the experience we missed, but getting to go to 2 shows instead of a single one is a benefit to offset it I guess.

As for cards today, a quick opening with one of the old 15 card packs from Dollarama. These have since been moved to only 12 cards for the same price, but I still have a couple more of these left.

I picked up this one because I figured I would either need the Bruins card or be able to pass it along to Jeff for his collection, but let's see what else we have and if we do well on this repack.

No Leaf content in the first 9 cards, but I do need a couple cards for the set build between Esa, Ron and Derek Roy, so that's a bit above what I usually get to keep out of these repacks.

Well, that's a great end - two Leaf cards and I did end up needing the Carlo card. Not a fan of getting one, let alone two 1990-91 Bowman cards, but can't win them all, and it's a small complaint for a really good little repack.

Not too bad at all - 4th best opening I've had this year with the surprisingly good turn out for Leafs and set helpers.

The Other Half

Before the cards, a quick share of sadness with the Jays situation. I mean, the season has definitely not gone the way I would have hoped, and with the recent trades and dismantling of things outside of the core handful of players (so far), I am not sure what to expect in the next couple years. Not going to be much to cheer for the rest of this year, and the tooling may be something that pays off in a couple years (or more). Time will tell, but it feels a bit like after the good Batista/Efwin years again which isn't a great feeling.

As for the cards...will this half be better than yesterday? Probably not...but let's see!

Well, definitely a good start with another artifact keeper as well as a land keeper. When I bought these, the Throne of Eldraine set was well into the 2020 set commons being shoved into these in droves.

Eldrazi cards fit with my collecting, so another pick up, and I feel like there has been a lot of green pulled between yesterday and today.

Well, another Eyekite isn't needed, but here it is.

Boo to the basic lands - not use to seeing three in a single repack. Definitely the lesser half today but as solid a repack as can be expected.

On the lower half of the list, which is to be expected as most of the cards go right to trade fodder, but not a bad bunch of cards overall.

Looking For Magic

I still have a few of these packs which I got directly from Presstine, but which use to be in Dollarama store up to a few years ago.

If lucky, you get a dime value rare, a hand full of uncommon and no lands on each side. Let's split this up and take a look at half today.

That Barbed Sextant is actually a great pick up as it is new to my collection. Well, I have the card from other releases, but this one is from the Coldsnap constructed decks that could be bought back in 2006.

Well - definitely don't need any Eyekites as I already had 10+ for trade, but another here regardless. Might just pull some of the Magic cards for padding in trades.

A second artifact pick up is nice too.

Definitely a good half with another nice pick up with the Mana Geode.

Definitely didn't need another Prinal Clay, but still two more keepers here.

Another couple keepers and I can live with getting a basic land. I gather this will end up being the better half of the two, but we can see tomorrow if that is the case.

Thank You Deer!

Back to back days of sharing trades - this one with thirstydeer, a TCDB member who lives in Milton, Ontario, which is only about half an hour away. If we do a bigger trade, I could see trying to meet in person to get it done, but this one we kept by mail. 

The single baseball card was the last of the 4 Blue Jays cards in the 1993 Post Canadian Limited series. These wonderful little pop up cards were in Post cereals back in the day. One I definitely remember popping out of my cereal boxes as a kid and ones I liked even then.

Getting into the hockey cards, I am getting more and more into trades with base cards which are of the not so base sets. Whether more "premium" sets in the 90s or Pacific sets which I don't recall seeing at all as a kid, or even Fleer Greats of the Game, these were not "in the wild" back as a kid collecting, and something that I wouildn't have seen because, as a kid, I wasn't going to card shops that sold sports card singles or had much outside of flagship products.

As a kid going to 401games in the 1990s, when it was actually located at 401 Yonge Street, it was still really a convenience store that happened to sell a lot of gaming cards like Pokemon and Magic - it wasn't near what it grew into today of being a sports card, gaming and board game location, etc.

I still have a few cards left in most of these team sets to work on, and no surprise it is becoming more and more clear these will usually come down to rookie cards, whether of any value or not.

The Luca Score card isn't a dupe but rather a pick up of the regular and glossy versions of the card.

Upshall sticks out as being not a Leaf, but it's an error card as it is Jason Garrison pictured on the front.

We end with a single Tim Hortons Legends base set helper moving the base completion up to 92 of 100. Maybe I should focus on finishing that set this summer...I really need a bit more focus on completion to close out some sets.

Trade With Junior79

 Today, a quick trade share with TCDB member Junior79 who get me over the half way mark on an oversized team set.

1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay cards are as wide as regular cards, but a bit taller in height so of course don't fit the standard sleeving or page products. Will have to ponder how to store the team set once I get there, but for mow, they slip around in 4-pocket pages.

My fave of the bunch today is Potvin who ranks among my favorite Leafs. A good looking card, and a decent use of the extra space in framing the pictures.

An appreciated trade for a few cards that were a bit bigger than usual.