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.

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.

Heritage Minors all the way from Minnesota

Saw that Brian over at Highly Subjective & Completely Arbitrary opened some packs of the new Heritage Minors at his LCS the other week. I asked him if he could pick me up a few packs and he said we'd work something out.

When I got home from work today there was a stuffed bubble mailer sitting on the counter. Inside was a note and 2 packs wrapped in cards and a note saying he had packed some Braves in as well in case the packs were duds. They definitely weren't let's see what's in pack number one.

3 Lefthanders I've heard of were all inside, Giolito will probably take Fister's spot in the rotation on the broken down no good disappointing managerless Nats.

Only 2 autos to a box and one got shipped all the way to Tampa. Sclafani was a 14th round draft pick in 2012 and has hit .318/.399/.388 over 2 seasons in AAA.

Love these inserts, the other inserts in the set look great as well. I've seen complete sets going for around $30 on the bay. I'm considering taking the plunge..

Here's pack #2.. I think I know somebody that could use that Taillon

The hits keep coming in this pack with this orange bordered card #'d/25

Help me out here guys is this a gum stain variation or just look like one?

This card didn't come from either of the packs it was one of many awesome Braves Brian sent over in the package in addition to the packs. I'll give those there own seperate post as there's some really good cards in there. Thanks for reading and thanks for the cards Brian.