Are you a parallel?

 I love parallels. I know most of the hobby does not, but I do. What I absolutely hate- and would eliminate from existence if I could - are different cards in the same set having the same number. So-called "image variations" have been around for a few years now and really need to stop. 

I pulled this one from my O-Pee-Chee box. They are referred to as "Glossy Image Variations". I noticed as I was opening the pack that it was different from other cards due to the glossy coating the other cards didn't have, and a quick search on COMC for cards of him from this set revealed this is not his base card, thus confirming my thought that it was indeed an image variation. 

To me, I am counting this as a parallel. If it requires typing in a different set name into my excel chart or the label of the image, then it's a parallel. The Retro, Blue, Red and Orange parallels - which I have not scanned yet - those are my preferred kind of parallel. Something that is clearly different and not something that can easily be confused for a base card if you aren't paying close enough attention. 

That MIGHT be a first

 Last Saturday was National Hockey Card Day and free promo cards is a sure way to get me into my local card shop...except for 2024 when I had the wrong date and went the week after. 

While I was there I picked up a hobby box of this year's O-Pee-Chee. At 600 cards and without the artificial scarcity of the Young Guns rookie cards, I think it's my favorite set of each year. With 156 cards per box there's no way I've ever come close to completing a set, but I still enjoy it, a lot. 

This year's set may be the first time ever, in any of the sports or non-sports I collect, that my first card from the set was a checklist. 

I LOVE checklists. Always have. OPC is the only set in any of the three sports I collect that still does a pure checklist, and I don't remember the last set in Non-Sports that got one. The UD flagship also has checklists but they are on the back only, not both sides like a real checklist should be. I am the only collector I know who once listed a Checklist as their #1 most wanted card, happy to say I was able to trade for it on the old and missed Trader Retreat website back in either 2005 or 06. (1996-97 Topps NBA #111)

I don't know for sure, but I don't remember a checklist ever being my first card out of my first pack ever before. I don't even remember a checklist being the first card coming out of a lot or repack either. That doesn't mean it didn't happen, I just don't remember it happening. I did begin keeping track of the first card I get for each set back in 2014 and I know for sure it hasn't happened since then. Before 2014 is not documented but I think I would remember something like that. 

The first player card was from my team which was cool, even though he was traded between the time this card was made and when I got it. Shown here for an example of what the player card looks like. 

Perhaps best news of all, I figured out a way to type my cards in without hurting my wrist much. Basically if I type only with my right hand and hit the caps lock instead of shift key to capitalize things it's not as bad. It's cumbersome and tiring so it's still not fun, but it's better than hurting my wrist literally every card. 

New People scanned in March 2025

 It was a light month. The year started strong- perhaps too strong, as I scanned over 2000 cards in January...which burned me out. I still did card stuff in March, but I wasn't having fun and actively looked for other things to work on. 

I scanned only 111 cards in March, which is a pretty low number for me. 

There were new people scanned though, 5 in total. Interestingly enough Hershiser, McCoy and Salaam were all on the same scan. 

My new additions were even lower. I only added three cards in March- two of which were the subject of my last post. The other was a post card given to me by a member of my model club. I have not gotten a new card since March 6th, which is the longest I've gone without getting a new card since I started Cardboard History back in 2014, and the second fewest cards I've gotten in a month since I began keeping records of that...back in September 2011! (I didn't add a single new card in January 2012)

I have stuff stashed that I could pull out and add to my collection, but I just don't have the motivation to do so right now. 

It's possible I'm doing too much. Documenting is the most fun for me - more than even having the cards themselves I think - but I have multiple places I type the info into and I just haven't felt like doing that. the fact that typing is making my wrist hurt doesn't help. Just in the 10 minutes it took me to type this it's made my wrist hurt much more. Documenting my cards in my excel files is exponentially more typing than this, which I'm now pretty sure is why I don't want to do it. 

Thanks for reading.

Unexpected mail days are the best mail days!

 With the wrist injury I've been dealing with for 2+ years now I haven't been trading so mail days are pretty few and far between. I wasn't expecting anything beyond the few actual print magazines I am subscribed to. 

So it was quite a surprise when I got a letter from a name I recognized from the card hobby. An even bigger surprise awaited me when I opened it! 

Why, that is my #1 most wanted card!! 

I have been working on this set since it was issued in 1994 and they have been surprisingly difficult to hunt down. When I started keeping my Top 10 most wanted cards list, the last three cards I needed were all in the top 10. I got the other two but Jimbo eluded me. The last time I looked there was not a single copy available on either COMC or eBay! For only a 40 card set completion has been difficult, but now it's completed! 

Thank you so much Kurt!!

Fun fact: the card is a UER. Laura's hair should be brown. 

New People February 2025

 2025 started strong in January, but I gave myself a bit of burnout and didn't do anywhere NEAR the same amount in February, Whereas January saw me scan over 2000 cards, I only scanned 221 in February, and didn't really enjoy doing them...mostly working on them when it was too cold to work on models. It's too cold to spray paint outside now, so I'm doing a lot of prep work. 

Of the 221 cards scanned, 13 of them were new people, and 6 of them were people I got a card of at the card show specifically because I didn't have a card of them...it turns out I didn't have any of Ilya Zubov but I didn't know that until I did the monthly update of what is in my collection. 

On that topic, here are the people I didn't have before this last month.

15 new people. 

It wasn't much but anything that gets accomplished is a good thing. 

Black History Month Spotlight: Devante Smith-Pelly

 It would likely have been a long time before I got to Devante Smith- Pelly. He doesn't have many cards in my collection, and he was pretty instrumental in the Capitals beating the Golden Knights for the Stanley Cup my first full year watching. He never got another contract offer after that which was downright criminal. 

However, he was requested so I am writing this post about him. I have 4 cards of him, and all 4 are scanned!

2012-13 Score. This is my second favorite NHL set ever, after only 1990-91 Pro Set. 

2014-15 Upper Deck

2016-17 O-Pee-Chee. I have very few cards from this set...around 10 if I remember correctly. I wish I had more. 

2016-17 Upper Deck. 

I don't even have a single card of him on the Capitals, the team I most associate him with although he wasn't actually there for very long. 

Black History Month Spotlight: Grant Fuhr

 When you think of the top goalies of the 1980s, Grant Fuhr has to be in the conversation. He was in net for the Oilers dominant run of the mid-to-late 80s before bouncing around to a variety of teams, as goalies tend to do. His accomplishments led him to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and a fairly sizable showing in my collection, 27 cards, 18 of which I have scanned. 

Here they all are, in chronological order:

1982-83 Topps Sticker. You know when the earliest card in the collection is an All-Star card it's a pretty good sign the player will be in the Hall of Fame. This is a mirror foil sticker so didn't scan well. 

1983-84 O-Pee-Chee. I don't have much from the mid-80s. 

1988-89 Topps

1989-90 Topps. My copy is slightly out of register.

1990-91 Score American. The second set I completed for the NHL. I have scanned more of it than 1990-91 Topps which was my first completed set, so his card from that is still awaiting a scan.

1990-91 Upper Deck

1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier. This later season release shows his move to Toronto.

1991-92 Pro Set French. This is from Series 1 and shows him with the Oilers still. 

1991-92 Pro Set Platinum is not a favorite set of mine because each card is missing something- the player's name on the front. This was Pro Set's answer to Stadium Club. 

1992-93 Upper Deck

1993-94 Donruss. This is the only Sabres card I have scanned of him.

1995-96 Donruss Elite is a mirror foil set and scans terribly. 

1995-96 Zenith is also a mirror foil set and scans terribly.

1997-98 Leaf. I believe this was my first card of him in my collection.

1999-00 Aurora Glove Unlimited. This die-cut card is my only insert of him scanned (I have 2) and has a texture that makes it feel like leather. A really neat card.

2004-05 In the Game Franchises. One of my favorite sets, I was able to buy boxes of both American series of the 3 series set, but not the Canadian series.

2012-13 In the Game Heroes and Prospects. I've written about this card before. It's...hilariously awful. It's also my only minor league card of him. 

2013-14 In the Game Between the Pipes. Despite not having the NHL license, this set still showed NHL logos when they appeared on the helmets. I have them sorted into the NHL team albums on the Cardboard History Gallery. 

And that's all I have scanned of him so far. Being retired he doesn't get very many new cards into my collection, but being an all-time great he appeared in many sets that I haven't added to my collection yet, so there's a fairly good chance his collection numbers will go up by this time next year.