My Trip to the Toronto Expo via Doug

Douglas from Sportscards From the Dollarstore went to the Toronto Sports Card Expo and had his eye out for others on the "cardsphere" luckily he included me.  Here's what got sent my way.

I actually believe Doug pulled this one from a  2015 Artifacts box he opened, it's really nice and my first hit of Palat. 

This one is an awesome 2-tone swatch commemorating the Lightning's 2004 Stanley Cup win that St. Louis single handledly saved in game six by scoring the OT winner to send the series back to Tampa for game 7.

This one is probably my favorite card of the bunch as it's my first autograph of my all time favorite Bolt. Vinny is lingering in Philly now but i'll always remember watching him from the moment I moved to Tampa and fell in love with hockey as weird as that sounds.

Not usually a fan of sticker autos but this one incorporating a band-aid is absolutely awesome of former bruiser Enrico Ciccone.

Here's a shiny refractor of former D-man Filip Kuba, always was a fan of his during his short stint in Tampa.

Another 2015 Artifacts, which is a beautiful set and a die cut of Ben Bishop.

Another old favorite, Richards just got dropped to the Red Wings fourth line. St. Louis is retired, Lecavalier is barely hanging on... it feels like 11 years since we won the cup.

Speaking of St. Louis here's a nice mix of base cards I didn't have of his, the silver signature MVP being my favorite of the bunch.

Douglas didn't just send hockey cards though. That DK is my first mini of the set and will head right to the FF5 binder, hopefully he doesn't get traded by the time I get it in there.

Tyrell Jenkins came over in the Heyward trade, was the Braves organizations top minor league pitcher last year and looks to make his Major League debut this year. 

If you haven't traded with Douglas before it's worth the shipping costs to send some cards over the border to this guy. He covered all four teams I collect and always sends a well balanced package, I had the base Deion from this years GK but this insert is new to me. I just got the last card I was waiting on for you in the mail Douglas so if your reading this expect return fire soon.

Closing this one out with some Gators, they laid an egg on Saturday putting up a whopping 2 points at home against FSU and will likely be embarassed again Saturday in the Georgia Dome against the Crimson Tide. Oh well 10 wins in Coach Mc's first season and a SEC East title is non too shabby, we'll probably secure a decent bowl game due to that and hopefully actually have a QB next year.

Anyways Thanks for all the great cards Doug and thank YOU for reading.

Update Chrome - The Easy Way

I see you blogosphere, I watched with awe as you all opened box after box of the shiny fancy Topps Update Holiday Boxes with the 2 exclusive Chrome Update packs. But I couldn't do it, I even went to Target and had one in my hands but settled for a rack pack of Update instead. I went the 2015 route and went to eBay and for $4 total I got both Braves base cards from the set.

Shelby Miller - he of terrible luck and many trade rumors. The Royals haven't even been Champs for a month and the Braves have traded 2 starters from last years lineup. Shelby and Julio Teheran are apparently being discussed with the Cubs in regards to a young bat hopefully that means Soler or Baez if the right package can be put together. We'll see the Braves new regime sure loves making trades.

Speaking of trades Folty here was just acquired last offseason for Evan Gattis.Hopefully this kid can harness his easy 96mph fastball and be the next deGrom or Synndegard.

Picked up this one /499 for $3 of the Braves 2015 2nd round pick.

Love how American this card is of 2015 1st round pick and high school teammates with Lucas Herbert. Pretty crazy...

Here's a link to the article with a quote from the story.

''
The Braves did indeed pull the trigger on drafting both Herbert and Allard, an effective pitcher-catcher combo and among the more sought-after high school prospects for their positions in this year’s draft. Both players had commitments to UCLA but eagerly await their chance to sign their big league contracts once they graduate.

''

What have I done!? This huge card is awesome if you don't have any of these new fangled giant cards I don't know what to tell you other than that needs to change.

Sorry have to make it Extra Large because it's another huge card, I grabbed these 2 together for $6 both #/99.

My first new hockey cards of the year. hopefully they have some UD S1 at the card show tomorrow. Not a huge fan of the huge borders in this set but hey it's new Lightning cards.

My first 2015 Valor cards, these are pretty good looking like the mysterious tree thing in the background and as always i'm a sucker for filtered/arty cards. 

My first framed rookie from '15 GK

I pulled a pretty awesome framed card in my GK pack but it got shipped off last week. Party on Wayne....

Wonder Water - My first trip to a great LCS

On one of my other posts I showed some packs of Heritage Minors that Brian was nice enough to send me all the way from Minnesota. Dan over at Keys to the Batters Box a fellow Bay Area resident and Chelsea FC fan had mentioned they had packs of it a unknown to me LCS in Clearwater called Wonder Water.

I grabbed a pack of the brand new Gridiron Kings and pulled the above Mariota, one of the 2 hits in the box. Pretty nice card #'d/249, the cards are on the same stock as this years Diamond Kings so i'm a fan as I loved those. 

Pulled a nice trio of recievers out of the pack as well as some trade bait i'm not showing as they're already in envelopes ready to go out.

I didn't have much time but a quick scan thru the 3/$1 box unearthed these gems.

My camera work is impeccable here friends. These were also in the 3/$1 box, love the throwbacks curse the NFL and thier stupid 1 helmet all year rule...

This actually came from ebay and was waiting in my mailbox when I got home that day so all in all a good day for cards.