Mailbag! Donruss Elite, Mbappe & Vintage Topps

Been on a mean streak of posting lately, so let's keep the momentum going with a few small packages that showed up in the mailbox this week.  As you can see, the weather's been beautiful here in Rhode Island the past couple of days.  Staying in place is a whole lot easier when you can enjoy your yard, have a cold one and grill up some delicious meats in the evenings!

I've still been picking up cards from time to time during shelter in place, and received a few packages the past few days with some nice sub-$10 additions to my collection that I figured I'd group into a single post...

I've been putting some thought lately into which insert sets of the '90s are my absolute favorites that I'd love to complete someday.  One that's on the rarer side, relatively speaking, would be these beautiful 1994-95 Donruss Elite hockey inserts.

These cards have really held up well over time, I think they're stunning in person and while 10,000 copies of each card seems like a lot by modern standards, these were a big deal in the '90s.  They're still highly coveted today, which is why I grabbed Martin Brodeur on a Buy-It-Now best offer for under $10.

The scalloped edges are an obvious nod to the Topps Deckle Edge cards from back in the day.  I think that design choice was a good one for this insert set, and to me these are much more visually striking cards than the Elite inserts from the year prior.

While I had it on my mind I also snagged the Patrick Roy, also a best offer on a Buy-It-Now auction for well under ten bucks.  I think the days where you'll be able to land superstars like these two from this insert set at those prices are numbered, as more and more people who are nostalgic about the '90s get into the hobby and have extra time on their hands.

With these two I'm officially halfway to the ten-card set now, and I do have the Gretzky as well counted among the five I own.  Mario Lemieux is probably my toughest remaining roadblock to completion.  The only raw copy on eBay right now is listed for $69.99, so I guess I'll be waiting a while longer to complete this set!

As I've mentioned once or twice lately, soccer cards in general, and particularly Kylian Mbappe cards, are red hot right now.  Like Jordan-level hot.  I enjoy collecting Mbappe, but there are very few that you can pick up today for anything less than $10-$20.  Paying $20 or more for a modern base card just isn't that appealing to me.

This one is from a 2020 Topps online-only release where they had superstar Lionel Messi design a card set.  I found a seller offering the Mbappe for $4.99 and figured it would be a fun, cheap addition to my small collection of his cards.

As is all too often the case with Topps' online products, it doesn't look like much thought went into the back.  Hard to have much buyer's remorse though with a $5 card of one of the best soccer players on the planet.

Finally, a random cast-off slabbed '52 Topps card of John Pramesa.  While I'm not actively pursuing this set given that a Mickey Mantle alone would cost me more than the car I only recently paid off, I really do enjoy the set.  I grabbed a bunch of commons at an antiques store near me years back for around $5-$6 each, so I've got at least a couple dozen cards from this release at this point.

This John Pramesa was simply the result of me stumbling upon the auction with just minutes left and deciding it was too cheap not to bid on.  My cost for this card in the end was $5.51.  That's a fine looking '52 for less than a McDonald's value meal sets you back.

So, there you have it, just a couple of recent cheap pick-ups for my collection. 

Thanks as always for stopping by!