Felix Potvin card #1 1991-92 Upper Deck #460

• I have long wanted to do a Leaf player as a PC.  The 90's were a pretty good time for the Leafs, and 'The Cat' was a big part of the resurgence from the doldrums of the 1980's.  There are some great cards of Potvin, including a few Mask Collection cards from Pinnacle featuring his cat mask.  
• I'm looking forward to the challenge of putting together a Potvin collection; goalie cards usually carry a premium because they have more of a following.  
• Going through my cards to find Potvin I'd forgotten that he'd played for Los Angeles and Boston.  I remembered that he was traded to the Islanders, and played a bit for Vancouver as well.  The collection right now is small, just 26 cards, but there's lots of time...

- Robert

Brett Lawrie card #17 2012 Allen & Ginter #122

• It's fun to watch the tattoos develop over the 3 years of Ginter between 2012-2014.  Here, his arms are mostly bare.  By 2014, there's no real estate whatsoever on his arms.
• While his teammates fared quite well, the recent 3 game series against his former club wasn't so great for Brett.  1 for 13 with 5 K's.
• Common RC's from the '12 A&G set list in Beckett from 40 cents to a dollar.  COMC has 55 copies listed anywhere from 47 cents to $2.74.  It's actually been interesting to find out what people think prices should be...

- Robert

Jim Thome card #52 1995 Pinnacle #18

• Great photo of Thome in the air making a throw across the diamond.  The photo is so good you can see the cleats on the bottom of his shoes...
• On this date in 2003, Thome hit career home run #338 off of the Los Angeles Dodgers Darren Dreifort.  The Phillies won that game 3-0.
• Did I miss something about this set?  I looked up on COMC to see what this card was selling for.  One copy was $2.25, the other was $21.65?!  Sportlots has a more reasonable range, 18 to 66 cents. 
• I couldn't even find this set listed in Beckett.  Not sure why that is....

- Robert

Andrew McCutchen card #4 2010 Topps National Chicle #28

• You will notice this exact same picture on Andrew's 2010 Topps base card, which will be shown a few cards down the line.
• Surprising stat:  2015 average splits, .255 on the road, .327 at home.  That's a big difference, and even bigger considering PNC Park is more of a pitchers park.
• This card lists for $1.25, and I believe I paid $.18 on Sportlots for it.  That's a helluva bargain.  I need a few more of those for my PC's please...

- Robert

Joe Sakic card #55 1992-93 Score #434

• Franchise?  You better believe it.  The Nordiques traded away another franchise player (Mats Sundin) in the hopes of acquiring some pieces to get their team closer to a championship.  The Nords/Avs became Joe's team after that for sure...
• Save for Joe's final season (which was only 15 games in length), Sakic only had one season in which he didn't have a shooting percentage below 10%.  Joe only scored 22 goals in 96-97, maybe a Stanley Cup hangover as the Avs had won the Cup the previous season.
• Joe's 55th career goal came in a 6-3 win over the Flyers on 3/17/90.  It was only the 12th win of the season for the Nords.

- Robert

Jim Thome card #51 1995 SP Championship Series #146

• Like the borderless full bleed photo. Don't care for the red foil that contains the Indians team name.  It's difficult to see in hand, let alone scanned.
• At first glance, I thought that Thome was out of the box during an at bat.  Then looking again you see that he's already swung and popped up the ball.  
• At 51 cards posted, I'm approximately 1/8th of the way through my Thome collection.  So, not unlike the Sakic PC, there are quite a few posts left to do.  I'm looking forward to it.

- Robert

Joe Sakic card #54 1992-93 Score #240

• I'd say the blue border matches well with the road blues that Sakic is wearing.
• Score still using old photos, Joe is sporting the 'A' on his jersey here.
• 10 years ago today, Joe scored his 7th career playoff overtime winning goal, scoring the winner at 4:36 in the first overtime to beat Dallas 5-4.
• This is probably one of the cheaper Sakic cards, listing only for 40 cents in Beckett.

- Robert

Jim Thome card #50 1995 SP Platinum Power # PP-19

• Jim was one of 4 Indians to appear in this 20 card insert set (Murray, Ramirez and Belle).  The only other teams that had more than one player were the Giants and Dodgers.
• Jim's 50th career game featured his first career triple, part of a 2 for 3 performance in a 6-5 win over the Royals, 7/25/92.
• A quick search on COMC.com showed that there are 13 of these for sale, anywhere from 54 cents to $1.24.  I looked in Beckett and figured Jim as a semistar in this set, which means the card is approximately 75 cents.  Not bad.

- Robert

Andrew McCutchen card #3 2010 Bowman #65

• Great shot of McCutchen hitting, if it really is Andrew.  Can't see his face at all.  I like the Bowman design for 2010, the black borders are always great, and the thin red border inside doesn't take away from the photo as well.
• Would love to see more teams go back to the sleeveless jersey style with the T-shirts underneath.  
• April 22nd, 2015 would be the 2nd straight hitless game for Andrew, dropping his average to .204.  He would finish April with a .194 average, and all of Pittsburgh wondering what's going on.  He would call himself and his team out in a famous interview, and wound up hitting .306 for the rest of the season, finishing with 21 HR and a .292 average.

- Robert

Brett Lawrie card #16 2012 Panini Triple Play # 85

• Come on Panini!!  Where are the tattoos!!
• Sitting here looking at this card and thinking about the complaining that we've done over the years about this set.  Now I look at it as, Panini designed a lower cost set that was different than everyone else's.   It was an effort...
• April 20, 2014, Brett would go 0 for 4 against the Indians in a 6-4 loss.  His average would drop to a low of  .127, a deep hole which over the next two weeks he would climb out of.  More on that next week...

- Robert

Jim Thome card #49 1995 Upper Deck #96

• Anyone else out there have a card of a player sitting on the top step of the dugout for the photo?  Don't know if I've ever seen another card with that same pose.
• Would love to know what the writing on the knob of Jim's bat was.  I can't make it out clearly aside from the #8
• April 20, 1998.  Jim goes 3 for 3 with 2 walks in an 11 inning 6-5 loss to the Red Sox.  That would be the 2nd of a 4 game multi-hit streak for Jim in which he goes 10 for 15 with 5 walks, a homer and 7 RBI's.   Sadly, the Tribe goes 1-3 during those 4 games.  

- Robert

Joe Sakic card #53 1991-92 Pinnacle #381

• Actually found this while rummaging through some boxes of miscellaneous hockey cards.  The realization that I needed the card for the PC and didn't have to pay for it was quite joyous to say the least.
• Love the color photo of Joe juxtaposed in with the black and white photo of Gretzky.  
• Between the 2 of them, they accounted for 4498 points in their NHL careers.  1519 of those were goals.  

- Robert

Jim Thome card #48 1995 SP #147 Silver parallel

• The silver parallel scanned really nice.  The silver came out a lot better than I thought it would.
• 52 Sakic & 48 Thome cards scanned and posted=100 posts down for my 2 main PCs.  I haven't even hit the late 90's early 2000's portion of either collection yet.  That's when we'll see a lot more parallels and inserts for both players.
• Jim's 48th career game came in 1992, a 5-2 win over the Twins.  It was kind of an all or nothing game at the plate for Jim; a solo HR and 2 K's in 3 AB's.  

- Robert

Joe Sakic card #51 1992-93 Parkhurst #147

• I really like the look of the 92-93 Parkhurst cards.  The previous years release was kind of a dull brown, while the marble inspired logo and left hand border enhanced the visual appeal (for me at least).
• The entire Parkhurst 92-93 set lists for $30.  The Sakic card itself lists for 50 cents. 
• Game #51 for Joe was not a good one.  Even though he scored a goal, he went -4 in an 11-3 loss in Los Angeles.  Some guy named Gretzky had 7 points that night...

- Robert

Joe Sakic card #52 1992-93 Parkhurst Emerald Ice #147

• Not much difference than the card from this afternoon, aside from the logo is a dark emerald foil variation.  As far as price, the parallel has a 3x multiplier--thus the Sakic is $1.50.  Pretty cheap for a one per pack parallel...
• The Nordiques would fly home after that 11-3 drubbing to the Kings, and in Joe's 52nd career game they would beat the Jets 4-3.  Joe had a goal and an assist.
• April 18th, 1993, Joe Sakic would play his first career playoff game, a 3-2 win over their provincial rivals, Les Canadiens.

- Robert

Jim Thome card #47 1995 SP #146

• Wonder if Jim left the guy on the right hand side of his head hanging...
• I was always a fan of the SP brand back in the 90's, and the red field on the left hand side I think looks better than the gold.  That's just me.  
• The photo on the back of this card is probably better than the one on the front.  It features Jim in mid air finishing a throw.  It also details that Jim hit a 2 HR game on June 22nd in 1994, then performed the feat again a month later.
• If you're wondering what happened to yesterday's post, the calendar in my head got screwed up.  The 2:00 post today was supposed to happen on Friday.   First hiccup....

- Robert

Jim Thome card #46 1995 Topps #312

• Like the picture, don't like the design of 1995 Topps.  I thought that this design always reminded me of looking at a scrapbook picture.
• Love the determination on his face, the expression bringing out Jim's jawline.  
• April 16/95 was an off day for Jim.  The entire month of April in '95 was a pinch hitting/ month for Jim; he only had 18 at bats for April, starting just 3 games.

- Robert

Brett Lawrie card #15 2012 Panini Black Friday #42

• I believe that this is the first serial numbered card featured on this blog.  The Lawrie is one of 27 Rookie Cards that are part of the 50 card checklist.   This card is serial #'d 431/599.
• For not having any MLB logos, I really don't mind this card.  Just imagine what Panini could do if they had an MLB license...
• April 14th, 2012, Brett went 2 for 3 with a walk in a 6-4 loss to the Orioles.  On that same day, David Ortiz would go 4 for 5 with a homer and 5 RBI's in a 13-5 win over the Rays.

- Robert

Joe Sakic card #50 1992-93 Upper Deck World Junior Grads #WG8

• 3 and a half months in and finally hitting the 50th card for Joe Sakic.  Which means I'm about 10% complete.  So, there's a long way to go.  
• Joe only played in 1 World Junior tournament.  He scored 3 goals and an assist in the 87-88 tournament in Piestany, Czechoslovakia.  For those hockey fans out there, you may remember this tournament as the punch up in Piestany, a bench clearing brawl during the team's final game which got both the Canadian and Russian teams disqualified from the tournament.  
• Card still lists for $5 in Beckett.  Some other great names in this set such as Gretzky, Lemieux and Yzerman.  Couldn't find any copies on COMC for sale, but there were a couple of ebay auctions for $3-4. 

- Robert

Jim Thome card #45 1995 Collectors Choice #268

• What do you think?  Ball or strike?
• I'm guessing that the A's catcher featured is Terry Steinbach.  The only other catcher that Baseball Reference lists for the A's in 1994 is Eric Helfand.  The only card that Helfand had in 1995 is a Mothers Cookies issue.
• 99 cent packs with a design that was unique.   I miss those days...

- Robert

Joe Sakic card #49 1992-93 Pinnacle Team 2000 #21

• Interesting concept from Pinnacle, featuring young players who could be stars in 8 years.  There were a lot of good choices, but some not so good ones such as Dominic Roussel, Patrick Poulin and Kevin Todd.  Forecasting isn't always the precise art everyone thinks it should be, right?
• This card still lists for $2.50 in the Beckett magazine.  It's the most expensive card of the 30 card set...
• I thought that the silver lettering might scan better.   No such luck.

- Robert

Andrew McCutchen card #2 2011 Topps Diamond Duos #DD-24

• At the time, it looked as if the Pirates foundation was going to be built around McCutchen and Alvarez.  What a difference a few years and a few poor throws will make.  Pedro is currently 0 for the season in Baltimore (as of Saturday morning).
• Meanwhile, the #2 spot in the order seems to be agreeing with McCutchen, as he is off to a 5 for 15 start in his first 4 games there.
• Andrew has been in the top 5 for NL MVP voting each of the past 4 years.  Only 2 other NL players have been in the top 5 at least twice in those same 4 years (Paul Goldschmidt, Yadier Molina).  Now that's valuable...

- Robert

Jim Thome card #44 1995 Stadium Club #147

• 4th straight horizontal card for Thome.  Great shot of Jim about to fire his helmet towards the dugout.  
• The only part of the card that I don't care for is the "TSC" logo.  I think that the location is poor (bottom of the card would be better) and the starburst is a little more than necessary for the Stadium Club brand.
• April 9th, 2000 is a day that Jim would probably like to forget.  In a 17-4 win over the Rays, Jim went 0 for 5--with 5 strikeouts.  

- Robert

Joe Sakic card #48 1992-93 Bowman #240

• This is the 3rd card featuring Joe in the 75th anniversary season all star jersey.  I don't think that there's anymore left, so that's a plus.
• Anyone remember how hot these cards were when they were released?  I was fortunate enough to pull this out of a pack.  The foil cards are still quite pricey; the Sakic is the 2nd highest priced card listed ($15) behind Gretzky ($20)
• April 8, 1993 Sakic and the Nordiques lost 6-2 to the Bruins.  No matter, since 10 days later Joe would make his Stanley Cup debut against Montreal.  

- Robert

Brett Lawrie card #14 2012 Bowman Chrome Legends in the Making #LIM-BL

• I actually like how this card scanned.  The area that looks kind of green on the scan is actually blue.  I think that the green makes it look better.  
• I get the idea of the Legends in the Making insert featuring young players.  I like Lawrie, but I don't know if he is going to be a legend in the game.  Players such as Kershaw, Pujols and Harper are more suited for this set in my opinion. 
• Cheapest copy of this card currently on COMC is 43 cents.  Commons are listed for a buck in Beckett.  

- Robert

Jim Thome card #43 1995 Collectors Choice SE #114

• 3rd straight horizontal card featured of Thome.  I'm guessing that the Tiger in the background is Tony Phillips.
• I really like the blue borders.  I remember that the blue really stood out back then because you didn't see colors other than white (except for Pinnacle)
• I guess that the Collectors Choice sets aren't widely traded, since the '95 set isn't listed in Beckett.  A quick check of COMC showed some odd pricing, the cheapest base card is listed for 80 cents, while the silver signature parallel's cheapest card is 34 cents.  Sportlots did one better for me, I have a the silver sig card purchased and on its way to me for a quarter.

- Robert

Joe Sakic card #47 1992-93 Pro Set #150

• Easily the best of the 3 Pro Set releases.  The design is really clean and simple.  The back of the card is really easy to read.  They definitely learned from the mistakes they made the first two years of their existence.
• I thought there might be more cards of Joe during the 92-93 season.  There were only 31 made, and I only need 9 more.
• This card is one of the early Sakic cards that list cheap; Beckett has this card listed at only 40 cents.  Cheapest one on COMC is listed at 64 cents...

- Robert

Jim Thome card #42 1995 Score Gold Rush #229

• The Gold Rush parallel didn't scan too badly.  The scan is actually a lot darker than the card is.  
• The '95 Indians started their season with 7 games on the road, 4 in Texas and 3 in Detroit.  Jim had 3 2 hit games on the trip, and finished with a HR, 6 RBI and 6 walks.  
• How dominant was that mid 90's Cleveland offense?  That road trip, the Tribe scored 11, 9, 5, 7, 11, 14 and 3 runs to start the season.  

 - Robert

Jim Thome card #41 1995 Score #229

• 1st card of 18 I have from the 1995 releases for Thome.  The Trading Card Database website lists a total of 60 base cards and parallels.  Looks like I have some work to do 
• If you haven't noticed yet, I've updated the player pages.  I removed the numbering system I had, as I felt it wasn't necessary.  I've also separated each year to make the pages a little easier to read.  Any feedback is appreciated.
• April 3, 1996 was Jim's 2nd game of the season, he went 1 for 4 vs. the Yankees in a 5-1 loss.  Opening day of the '95 season wasn't until April 27th because of the strike.

- Robert

Joe Sakic card #46 1992-93 Upper Deck McDonalds #McD-26

• This is part of a 28 card set released by McDonald's in Canada during the 92-93 season.  There are other big names in the set as well, such as Oates, Lemieux, Yzerman, Robitaille and Roenick to name a few.
• As a write this, there are 11 of these for sale on COMC.com; the range is from 64 cents to $1.25
• I remember at the time that these cards were released it was difficult to find a McDonald's that had any packs for sale.  Most restaurants sold out of them quickly, which wound up driving up secondary market prices at the time.

- Robert

Jim Thome card #40 1992 Topps Gold winner #768

• Great add to the collection thanks to Charlie from the Lifetime Topps Project blog for this beauty!
• The gold bar at the bottom scanned a lot better than I thought it would.  
• As of now, the Thome collection has grown a lot faster than I imagined.  I started collecting Thome a little more than a year ago, and the PC already has close to 400 cards.  Many of those were on the cheap, and quite a few came from some great trades in the blogosphere.

- Robert

Joe Sakic card #45 1990-91 Score Canadian #8

• Every now and again as the PC collections grow, I'll pick up a card that will cause me to go "back in time".  I'll add the back in time label to those particular posts.  Tomorrow will be the same with a Jim Thome card that I recently received in a trade.
• This card was part of a 50 card Sportlots order I placed--all Joe Sakic cards.  18 cents was all I paid for this.
• I have cleaned up the PC pages as well.   Everything is now grouped by year and in alphabetical order.   Hopefully this makes it easier for those looking at the pages now and in the future.

- Robert

Still happy with how things are going (post #100)---March review

When I first started this blog at the beginning of the year, my main concern was whether I would be able to stay motivated enough to write enough to maintain a one post per day pace.

The power of scheduling posts along with enough spare time on weekend mornings has equaled 100 posts; 97 about the cards and this the 3rd of 3 monthly reviews to date.

The number of followers remained the same, 4.  No worries, because most of the posts have actually been getting more views.  Many posts over the past few weeks have anywhere from 7 to 14 views, which has been very encouraging.  As of this writing, March has seen 445 page views (including one night where I'm pretty sure a bot hit the site), by far the most productive month of the 3.

I introduced my 4th player PC this month, Andrew McCutchen.  I only have a little over 20 of his cards so far, but there's a lot out there that can be picked up for a decent price.  That fact also applies to the original 3 PCs.

A quick count of the base, parallel and insert cards of Sakic (508) and Thome (381) show that those PCs are progressing quite nicely, which means that there will be plenty of posts for quite a while.

I'm going to announce my 5th player PC sometime in April.  I'm waiting a bit in order to go through my Leafs collection to see if I have any more cards of this player, who was one of my favorites during his 8 years as a Leaf in the 90's.   This will be the last player PC that I'll add for a long time, there's just too many vintage sets I have going to keep adding more players.

- Robert