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. 

Black History Month Hockey Spotlight

 Time to look at how my collections of the spotlighted Black NHLers have grown since last year at this time! I knew exactly how many I had of each person for the first time and now I will truly know how my collection has grown for these players, something I have not thought to track for anyone else. 

First up is P.K. Subban, who last year at this time I had 47 cards of, with 39 scanned.

I am still at 47 cards of him but I'm to 41 cards scanned. That's not really much of an update. I knew with him being retired he would stop getting new cards but there's still a whole bunch of old ones I don't have yet. 

2021-22 MVP Blue

Jarome Iginla also stayed put at 44 cards. Last year I was at 26 cards scanned and I'm now up to 29, so that's a good improvement. 

2001-02 Victory

The next player I highlighted was Ryan Reaves, who had 11 cards. He now has 13, so finally an addition! I have 12 of his 13 cards in my collection scanned, which is a very high percentage for anyone with more than 10 cards. 

2023-24 O-Pee-Chee

Anthony Duclair has been on a few different teams since I wrote my profile of him and now plays for the Islanders, although with Optimum being jerks and pulling MSG Network I can't see any of the three local teams. He also had a two card addition, bringing him to 21. Of those, I have 18 scanned.

2023-24 O-Pee-Chee

K'Andre Miller of the Rangers, my favorite team, had 5 cards in my collection at this time last year, and currently has 6, with my most recent addition coming on the first day of this month when I got his Metal Universe base card at my local card show. (Go back three posts to see a photo of it)

I mentioned in last year's post that I had gotten a Topps Now card of him but hadn't scanned it yet. I now have. I have only 4 of his 6 cards scanned so it's possible the other one besides the one I just got is also Topps Now now that I think about it. 

I only wrote one new player bio last year and that was Quinton Byfield of the Kings. At the point last year I had 11 cards of him with 8 scanned. I am now up to 14 cards of him, and all 14 are scanned! Wow, 100%, which I didn't even realize until I just pulled up his folder to check! I'm not going to post all my new additions just in case I don't get any more new cards for next year, if it wasn't obvious I haven't been adding new cards at the rate I once did. 

2021-22 SPx Finite Rookies Gold

I picked this card up at the National, and it's a lot cooler in hand than it is in a scan. The large logo, the Kings logo, his number, the SN and parts of the borders are gold foil. His picture and his name are clear plastic sandwiched between the front and back halves of the card. 

I only have one more profile written and ready to post- if there's anyone you want to see all I have scans of, let me know in the comments and I will whip up a post. 

Valentine's Day

 That is all.