Hide Your Heart, Girl!

Now, for the 4th box of the package, and the last of the football boxes. I was really looking forward to busting this, as some of the photo choices were really incredible in this. The product promises 4 packs of 10 cards, each with an autograph. All the autos are stickergraphs, but I'm really into this in order to add some great photos into my binders. I will show the 9 non-autos first, then follow that up with the autograph.

Pack #1:

Something I don't say much about card photography is that I like the lighting on one of these. Specifically, the Eric Ebron. The dark background gives the vibe you'd see from watching some wrestling or boxing from MSG from the 80s or earlier. The Winston and Clowney are the blue parallels. That's back-to-back football boxes with Jadeveon Clowney cards in it. My 2/14 collection appreciates that. And if you are going to have long hair in your card photo, it better be flying behind you.

And the hit, which some of you old folks might have gathered was coming by the title of this post.

'cause Eli's coming! I'm slight leaning towards COMCing this card, mainly because I've got a good home in mind for an even better auto to come.

Pack #2:

Back-to-back 2/14 content. Even better, this Alshon is a gold parallel /99. That's a beautiful Tony Dorsett insert as well, with an interesting angle but still with the classic Dallas logo perfectly framed in the middle. While the Brandin Cooks would be an easy choice for the best photo in the pack, there's an unfortunate (for me) problem with that. I'd already added the card into my latest COMC shipment, although that was the blue parallel and this is the base card.

The hit:

That's a bit of a step down from Eli.

Pack #3:

I like when casual photos away from the action make their way into these sets, so I really like the Ekpre-Olomu. Steve Smith lacks the Sr. that has been on most of his cards the past few tears, but he does appear to be holding on to the ball while straddling the sideline in this picture. While there are many entrance photos in this set there can't be too many post-game exit photos. I love that the Elway photo is from the orange uniform era. Gerald Christian is also an interesting card to get, as he was 2015's Mr. Irrelevant. He's now on the Bills.

The hit:

I know a certain super-trading Oregon Ducks alumni collector that was happy to learn I pulled this card. This is a gold parallel of the package cover boy, and is /99. The gold auto parallels are 1:9 packs.

Pack #4:

That Silas Redd was one of the photos I was definitely hoping to pull. Photographically, probably the best of the break. The rest of it was bland, but it offset the greatness of the first photo. Victor Cruz should be doing the salsa on his card.

The hit:

As Andre Williams was to 2014, Mike Davis was to 2015. At least he has nicer penmanship than the Mike Davis that debuted the previous season. I'm not sure who my 2016 stalker will be, as the only rookie hit I've personally pulled was a Leonte Carroo relic. Obviously, that doesn't count my group break Bills goodies. I still have to track down a Shaq Lawson and a Kolby Listenbee to complete the hits of this year's rookie class.

Two great autos and some great photos. What a box!

And my favourite hit still hasn't appeared on the blog. You'll have to wait for my 2016-17 Hoops box post to find out what that was.

Local Show Miscellany

I hit the local show this morning, and despite my promise to myself not to, I left with more cards for other people than I did for myself. Let's take a look.

I guess this was the big pick-up for me today. As I walked in the door, I noticed there was one dealer with a table filled with McFarlane figures, with the table labeled "Any McFarlane - $5". Sounds good for me. And as you read it, this has already been freed from its plastic prison for display,

While that has been freed from its jail, this won't be:

It wasn't until I saw a bin with a bunch of encased cards that I realized my Mets collection was lacking any sort of graded card. Fixed that with this 1970 card. If you can't see the text at the top, there's a bonus here in that this a bilingual OPC card! WOO-HOO!

And the first card of this post that will be going elsewhere, with this being dropped in the direction of a Mavericks fan sometime next week.

No dime bins this time, but I still got a couple cards for my various binders. I couldn't pass on a cheap Alfredsson rookie for his binder. That Don Beaupre with Parliament and the flag is probably bound for my mask collection. While that Michael Jordan silver signature parallel probably isn't technically an oddball, it is hard not to view his baseball releases as something outside the norm. On the bottom, it leads off with an autograph of a recent enforcer, and an Ivy league one at that. Next to it, an odd sight. Juan Samuel didn't have too many cards as a Blue Jay, Getting an autograph on it is a bonus. Sadly for Phillies fans, that was his only certified auto until he showed as a Fan Favorite auto in 2013 Archives. And finally, a new Radek Faksa for my Rangers alumni collection.

Like with the Devin Harris, these cards will be on their way elsewhere. Some next week, some when I've got a little more to fill out the care packages. I've still got a pair of repacks, from the same source as last show that I'll show off sometime next week.

First Flea Market Trip of 2016

Fudge. Pig tails. Steak & Kidney Pie. Blackberries. And cards. All part of my first time at the flea market since Baby 2016 kicked Old Man 2015 to the curb.

While I did grab one of my usual $5 bricks, I did get some singles, so I'll be leaving the repack for a future post. Time to show off some miscellany.

I do not see a lot of basketball cards at the flea market. Ever. And if I do, they are more likely than not early 90s Hoops cards. So it was nice to see something this time. While much of this was the expected players (Kobe, Jordan) this little beauty was lurking in the box. I was not expecting to find anything besides perhaps a Raptor for my PC, so seeing 2/14 baby Richard Hamilton was really nice. Rip moves closer to the half century mark with his 48th card in the collection. He leads the basketball portion easily, with 13 cards more than Muresan.

And one good 2/14 baby card deserves another. Card #21 for the '14 #1 draft pick. And probably the loudest of the bunch.

I did add a couple Bills cards to my collection. This one puzzled me at first. It was obviously Prestige, but the colour scheme didn't fit the Bills portion of the set. The back of this card lists this as being from the "2014 Panini - Buffalo Bills" set. So, Stadium Giveaway? I'd think they'd be better off giving away flimsy card tables that the Bills Mafia can perform wrestling moves through.

At least I know the source for the this Fred Jackson card.

And that's it for me, but I always look for cards for others.

Such as a high-end base card for a Wolverines collection.

And a high end base card for a Mountaineers collector, along with some lower end base cards of a pair of Mountaineers in their college uniforms.

And there you have it.

2016 Adventures in Repacks: Part 3.5 - And The Rest!

I really had no way to group the final 3 packs of this, so they get grouped together here. This group did contain my favourite single pull of the break, which seems like a perfect way to wrap this up.

Black Diamond 1999 starts off this group. There are some strange choices for a small numbered set in this group. But, as I said with the first pack of these, the design is so much better with some colour involved in the base design. The Dafoe is a really nice photo for a set not really known for them.

At least the Victory pack landed me a couple new cards for the mask binder.

Starting off with the Donruss pack was a trio of trade bait cards. There's a new T.J. card for when I send another PWE to the Junior Junkie and a pair of Wolverines alum for my next TMM envelope. Actually, the next to the next one, since I've already got an envelope taped up and ready to go in the meantime and in between time.

And the best card (at least for me) in the break. How about a Rated Rookie card of a Kitchener Rangers alum, and an interesting photo as well? When I looked this up on COMC, there are both white box and non-white box variations of this. This is the former, and seemingly the scarcer of the two. I thought this was meant to be autographed, but there is no indication of that anywhere else on the card.

And there you have another repack posted.

Under $20 at a card show

Another small local card show on the cheap. I'm not including the single pack and few singles of OPC 2015-16 I picked up. Since that's better for a post of its own.

I'm leading with this because not only was this the only hit I picked up, but it was also the only non-hockey card I picked up. It is a small show in Ontario, after all. This one was card #X in a #X for $Y box, so I figured I should at least have one card outside of the hockey additions.

I managed to hit a lot of my PCs.

The mask binders gained 7 new cards, and I became a Tyler Weimann super collector.

6 new cards were welcomed to my 2/14 binders. 3 new Marian Gaboriks.

And 3 new Milan Hejduks. Total # of 2/14 cards is now over the 1080 mark.

Here are the 2 newest Alfredssons for that binder. It is nice to get a triple diamond card from a quarter bin.

And a few general Senators for that collection.

Rounding out the PC additions were these 2 Kitchener Rangers alum.

To wrap up stuff for me, here are some of the cards entering my misc. binder.

Whether it is 1993 Leaf, Metal Universe, or some random insert set, I love cards that use the player's city as part of the design. As usual, these look far better when in hand than scanned.

Horizontal goodies! The Neely is quite thin, and as a consequence thereof, is badly bowed. But that won't keep me from adding it to my small Cam Neely collection. I assume that's the arena behing Nabokov on his card.

And some vertical goodies as well. Fake vintage and real vintage. I love the Tough Times insert. Since I've never pulled one of the red parallels from any repack Victory packs, so I decided a quarter bin was a good a choice as any to grab one. And that Tim Connolly is the shiniest card of the day.

Finally, some cards for others:

Such as a collector of Wolverines alum,

or Whalers collectors.

There you have it. All that's left is one dozen OPC cards for tomorrow's post.

2015 Archives Wantlist and Trade List

Considering how unsuccessful my second box of Archives was for set building purposes, this is as good a time as any to post my list of cards I need for the set, and all my trade bait (including inserts).

Set Needs:

1957 Design:

97

1976 Design:

101 133 178 181

1983 Design:

236 275 296 297

Presidents: George W. Bush

For trade:

1957 Design:

2 3 5 6 8 12 13 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 25 26 27 28 31 33 34 36 40 44 46 50 51 52 55 56 57 58 59 61 63 64 65 66 67 69 71 73 74 75 76 82 86 87 91 93 95 98 99

1976 Design:

102 104 105 106 107 108 109 111 113 117 118 120 124 130 132 135 141 142 143 144 145 148 151 155 158 159 160 161 164 166 167 173 174 175 176 179 180 182 183 184 186 187 190 192 194 196 198 200

1983 Design:

203 205 207 208 210 211 212 215 216 218 219 221 222 223 227 228 231 232 233 237 238 239 242 243 245 247 248 250 253 254 261 262 264 265 266 267 269 270 274 277 278 279 280 281 283 286 290 291 292 293 295 298 300

Inserts:

#1 Draft Pick: Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, Adrian Gonzalez, Madison Bumgarner, Ryan Braun, Mike Trout
All-Star Rookie: Maikel Franco, Joc Pederson, Michael Taylor, Jake Lamb, Matt Barnes
Game Pieces: Paul Goldschmidt, Ryan Braun, Manny Machado
Autographs: Gaylord Perry (will swap for Jays, Mets or Expos auto)
Parallels: Jake Arrieta /199, JD Martinez /199, Jake Lamb ASR /50, Mark McGwire /50

2015 Spring Expo Goodies - Part 9 - Box Break - 2015 Opening Day

Sometimes you just want to bust a cheap box of cards. There's something about getting 36 packs in said box nowadays. It just feels very 80s or early 90s. Even if they are only 7 card packs.

Even with the inserts that fell at a rate of 1 or 2 per pack, I was still able to put together the complete 200 card base set. That's always nice. Since I'm not too crazy about flagship this year, the highlight for me was guessing whether the card was one that was used in S1, or one that will show up in S2. Since I was certain this photo would be more than likely to make some appearances on blogs, I figured it would be a S2 card. Looks like it. This is my favourite photo from that category - a rare snow cone shot from an infielder.

Honourable mention to this flying hair of a McCutchen card. And they could get away with using it on a Panini release as you'd only have to give a couple cents to the kid that's photoshopping out the logos.

But, the inserts are the big draw here. Let's dig into them.

Mascots! And 7 of 'em! It is nice that some of them feature them out of their traditional gear. It looks like Mr. Met is awaiting a Jacob DeGrom start and that the Friar is celebrating some sort of Mexican Day at the park, with Dinger dressed for some more American holiday. But, most appropriate for this set is Paws. Ready for Opening Day.

And the mascot love continues with the Team Spirit card. Looks like my first card of the Phanatic! I did have to google to find out that the other green figure in the background is the Phanatic's mother - Phoebe.

These were the 7 Flashback cards I pulled. You'd think they could could have found better photos for some of these, considering you can't see any of the logo on the Cano, and that the uniform front isn't really visible at all on the Lucroy or Altuve. At least the card backs include information about the uniforms or logo.

Unlike these, which seem only to promote Topps' social media presence. By this time next year, will anybody know why Roosevelt is getting an ice bucket over the head?

Speaking of over the head, that was a theme that continued in the Superstar Celebrations subset.

After pulling a Ryan Braun

And Opening Day's version of Sliding Stars close out the insert portion of this post. While this could turn repetitive fast, at least there's a nice variety of slide stages in these, starting from the preparation on Cain to the aftermath for Reyes.

And finally, the blue parallels. Not numbered, but still nice and shiny.

I can't complain about any box where you pull a complete base set from it, so I'll call this a good box.

Any of the non-mascot/Mets/Jays/Roosevelt inserts seen here can be considered trade bait, at least when I get my GQ wantlist ready, likely sometime during the week once I've shown off the contents from the box tomorrow. Lots of trade bait there as well among the inserts.

2015 Adventures in Repacks: Part 7 - The Classic

Nothing adds to a trip to Dollarama like a 15 cards for a dollar pack.

2014 Upper Deck Damien Brunner - I'm on a slow build of the Series 1. While I'm still about 60 cards out, this one was a need and I figured "why not?". And if it wasn't a need, at least it would be a cool photo.

1990 Bowman - Mike McPhee - The required '90 Bowman.
1992 Score - Felix Potvin

1995 Parkhurst Emerald Ice - Jiri Slegr - Every pack seems to have one of these parallels lately.
1991 Pro Set French - Thomas Steen

1997 Score - Matthias Ohlund - There's a set I don't see much of in repacks.

1993 Pinnacle - Bryan Marchment - The obligatory Whalers card set aside for Shoebox Legends.

1993 Stadium Club - Jiri Slegr - It is a Jiri Slegr hot repack! Check out that Jagresque mullet!

2005 Parkhurst - Luc Robitaile - Another set I don't see a lot of in repacks.

1991 Score - Myles O'Connor - The obligatory Wolverines alumni set aside for TMM.

1992 Premier - Wayne Gretzky - It doesn't matter what set - Gretzky is always a great pull.
1991 Upper Deck - Rick Zombo

2002 Upper Deck - Pasi Nurminen - It took until the 13th card, but I finally got a new mask binder card.
1991 Score - Tony Hrkac

2013 Black Diamond - Devin Setoguchi - And the other visible card.

Definitely got my loonie's worth here!