A while back I posted a couple of my favorite early '90s hockey insert sets, including one featuring a couple of Mario Lemieux cards.  Here's another one from that same set that's been sitting in my drafts folder ever since, the 1993-94 Leaf Mario Lemieux Collection:

This 10 card set paid tribute to the Penguins' superstar.  I don't know what the odds were for pulling one of these, but I do know that cards 1 - 5 were inserted in Series 1, cards 6 - 10 in Series 2.  As you can see, the first card is a header/title card.

Here's a look at a back.  Solid design but nothing too memorable or flashy.  The Penguins had won back to back Cups around this time so Lemieux was perhaps the biggest name in the hobby.  It's not a huge surprise that Leaf dedicated an insert set to him.

The cards chronicle Lemieux's career, beginning with his days as a young prospect.

Here he is at the draft with a couple of familiar faces...

Of course there are some cards depicting various pieces of hardware he's won.

This is one of my favorites because it features a great in-game action shot.

More hardware, the Conn Smythe this time.

That looks like Chelios behind Mario in this shot.

Another great photo here, I never tire of cards that show The Stanley Cup in all its glory.

 
A really nice closing card, with Lemieux acknowledging the Pittsburgh faithful.  I always thought this set had a simple, elegant design, and I always admired Mario's amazing career and resilience as an athlete.  These cards aren't very valuable but I'm grateful to have this set in my hockey card collection.

A few weeks back I stopped by the local hobby shop to find a few cards to fill out trade packages. While I was there I raided the dollar boxes and left with 14 cards for myself.  Here's my haul, in no particular order...

I think every sports fan has memories of players who, although they weren't on your team, were so amazing to watch that you couldn't help but be amazed.  For me, Hasek was one of those players.  One of the absolute premier goaltenders during some of my formative hockey years in the mid to late '90s.  I picked this one up because I've nearly completed this SP base set, but had none of these inserts.

This 2001 Topps Archives card is my 225th unique Nolan Ryan card.  Not too bad given that I don't particularly search out his cards all that often, especially lately.  The 1978 Topps card depicted on this one is a card that I had in my childhood collection, and was always a favorite of mine, so I couldn't leave this behind for a buck.

Remember the glory days when inserts were serial numbered to 10,000 copies?  Cheap gimmick, but I'm still glad to own one of the 10,000 out there.

Here's one that will be appearing on my other blog at some point, and on-card autograph of Nelson Emerson from the '95-96 Be a Player set.  This was actually from a 3 for $10 bin but the shop owner was kind enough to let me  have it for a dollar.  Maybe a boring card to some, but I was perhaps more excited about this one than any other in the lot, as Emerson is a player I've been missing from my Whalers autograph collection.

I couldn't leave this Topps/O-Pee-Chee Premier Gold parallel of The Great One behind for the price.  I figured this one was a decent deal, and I think when I checked COMC afterwards they were going for $2-$4 anyway.

I'm not a Fleischmann guy, or a Capitals collector, nor am I chasing this set.  I just couldn't put this one back for some reason.  I think it was the allure of the rookie card, and the fact that Tomas is a decent, 20-goal guy if he plays a full season.  I'll probably end up trading this one at some point.

I'm sure I overpaid for this 2001-02 Topps card, but I was drawn in by the Mario Returns subset.  I wasn't collecting cards at that time, so had no idea these existed.  This wasn't the only Lemieux card I added to my collection that day...

I also grabbed this one from the In The Game Decades 1980s set.  I'm interested in trading for the Ron Francis from this same subset if anyone's got one.

Most of the cards I grabbed were hockey, but I did manage to grab two for my Red Sox collection, including this 2008 Topps Trading Card History insert of Jacoby Ellsbury (who raked in two game-winning RBI in the bottom of the 9th against Cleveland yesterday).

Here's another one that will be appearing on my other blog at some point in time.  Yes, I know the layout of the card is awkward and clearly meant to highlight a swatch or autograph, neither of which you'll find here.  Yes, I know the serial numbering is ridiculously high.  But, it's a Gordie Howe Whalers card I don't have for $1.

I was really happy to stumble across this one.  As I've said before any yellow parallel I find from this set for a couple bucks or less is automatic.  I think I'm into the double digits now.

I'm a total sucker for the Dufex technology, particularly the Pinnacle Rink Collection hockey parallels from the '90s.  Of course I was going to grab this one of probably the best pure sniper I've ever seen play in person.

Here's a Jagr rookie I didn't have, from the 1990-91 Score Rookie/Traded release.  I picked this one up before the Bruins acquired Jagr, so I guess this trip was more than a few weeks ago.  Time certainly flies.

In closing, my absolute best score of the day.  This Boggs Donruss rookie has been high on my Red Sox want list for quite a while.  When I found a mint copy for $5 in the display case I was psyched, but to my amazement the owner charged me just a buck for this one as well!  I really need to get to the hobby shop more often...

Recently I completed my first trade with Bert from Swing and a Pop-Up.  I sent him some Red Sox and some set needs, which can be seen here.  In return Bert sent a bunch of cards back.  Some 1993 Flair and 1982 Topps set needs, and of course a whole slew of Red Sox.  Here are just some of the Red Sox included that I needed for my cataloged collection:






This was one of my favorites for sure.  My first Rickey Henderson Red Sox card.  I'd seen this one elsewhere, I believe on Night Owl Cards, and have wanted my own copy for quite some time.


I've always been a big fan of these types of cards that capture historic moments in time.






































Thanks for the great trade Bert!  This package brings me to over 1,600 Red Sox cards in my scanned and cataloged collection (though I have many more still to process), well on my way to my goal of 2,000 by year's end.  Given that we both collect the Sox I'm sure we'll be trading again sometime down the line.