Stick to Sports!

I've been in a creative mood lately. After working on organizing my sports card collection every day for six months I couldn't wait to get started on something new. It's been a while since I've written anything, and so I hid a little dream journal entry inside a recent post .. just to get those creative juices flowing. I'm also working on another short story. It's just a scene, really. Not even sure how I want to end it yet. But it seems like a good time to take my mind off of sports.

From Dustin Pedroia's bleak prognosis to the attack on David Ortiz and the shitty Stanley Cup playoffs, sports just doesn't spark much joy these days. Even the NBA Finals, while exciting and competitive, were a bit of a downer. I was happy that the Raptors won, but it was no fun watching Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson go down with serious injuries. Plus the last ten seconds took about twenty minutes, delaying Toronto's long-awaited celebration far too long.

But this is a sports blog. Specifically, a sports card blog. And so I'll try to keep the content on-brand. I have been making some trades on TCDB now that I know exactly what I have and where to find it.*

*or so i thought...

This super sized Curtis Joseph insert from 1993-94 PowerPlay was the only set filler I received in a PWE trade with TCDB user BigOinPA. My wife has two boxes of PowerPlay in our closet and this is the only Netminder she needed. She's about a dozen inserts away from the master set. I'm considering a purchase of 6-pocket pages for these since the wax boxes are disintegrating.

The rest of the PWE was for me. I added nine cards to my team PC binders. Don't be fooled by that Darrin Madeley in the bottom right corner, it's a New Haven Senators single. 

I now have 50% of all New Haven Senators cards ever produced! 

Here's the rest of the PWE from BigO. There aren't too many early 90's hockey singles I don't have, but I found a couple. I have far fewer '80s hockey cards. And you know how much I love the 2015-16 O-Pee-Chee retro parallels.

The second trade I made this week comes from LO212257. He's in Louisiana but his cards arrived here in Jersey two days before the ones from BigOinPA..who is in PA. 

This was an NFL-heavy swap; all but three of the 75 cards that changed hands were football - including a few from my early collecting years. The Mrs. doesn't collect anymore, but I grab cards for her when I can - like the Cujo insert and this Jim Everett Rams checklist. I don't like the Vikes but Captain Munnerlyn is a cool-ass name. And the Megatron blizzard card was a must-have.

My Packers PC got a big boost in this trade. 15 of the 37 cards I sent to LO212257 were Packers dupes..and I added 24 new cards of the green and gold. 

I've added every (needed) Packers base card from the 1990s to my wantlist on TCDB. Not that I don't love Packers teams of the 2000s and 2010s - but the bulk of my collection comes from the Favre/Holmgren era, and I figured it was easier to fill in those holes first.

Here's the rest of the trade. I'm counting Javon Walker as a Packers card because he's pictured as such. The Warren Moon team leader card goes into my 1986 Topps football set. Unfortunately it only brings me to par, since I traded a Dan Fouts leader card that I was certain was a dupe - but I couldn't find it, so I had to send the one in my set. Six months of organizing and cataloging..and I eat a set single in my very first trade back.

Oh, and I threw in a pair of Sox just because. Believe it or not, they're my first flagship singles from 2019. I bought one pack of Opening Day. That's it. I'm not spending another dime until the White Plains "East Coast National" card show in August. eBay was offering 13% bucks on any $25+ purchase and I didn't bite. For the next two months, it's all COMC challenges and TCDB trades (or blogger trades if anyone wants to swap?)

I've got a monster trade incoming from Canada, and I'll be working on my short story and Stadium Series while I wait. Hopefully summer will bring better sports news than spring did.

Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!

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