2015 Adventures in Repacks: Part 43.1: Still Playing

I picked up yet another one of those 8 card packs, 12 sticker packs and a relic card from Ye Olde Wally Worlde. The contents were pretty much as expected, as one of those packs was 1997-98 Be A Player. Since the last time I busted one of these, I closed with the BAP, I'll lead with this one.

Of the 5 packs I've busted of this, this might have provided the least interesting auto in terms of dollar value, but it was still an interesting one.

To start off, the base cards. There's a couple mask binder shots on the top row. I pulled a Bulin Wall auto from a previous one, so I can now welcome its base cousin into the regular mask binder. The same can be said for the Puppa, although  that auto came in a trade. But those jerseys. Ouch. Despite hte fact he played a couple years in Montreal, seeing Tucker in anything other than a Leafs throws me.

Non auto-ed inserts fall at a rate of about 1 in 4 packs. The packaging simply calls this a chase card. I've never really been a fan of the Dufex stuff, since it can tend to overpower the image. While it isn't as bad in person, it still isn't a keeper for me, and I'll be sending it off to COMC next week.

And here's the auto. This was the only certified autograph from Eric Cairns' 10 years or so in the NHL. He's more known as an enforcer over that time, picking up almost 1200 PIM over that time, which was spent mainly for the New York franchises. His auto is actually somewhat interesting as it is the last letter of his last name that stands out far more than the first letter in it.

So, while not a particularly valuable auto (the Osgood is listed for more on COMC), it is a pretty interesting one, and it is always fun to add a card that was the only auto of a player's career.

Tomorrow, the rest of the repack.

Things You Learn From Card Backs

This is Jimmie Reese. He had a couple memorable cards from the junk wax era, including a great 1991 Bowman issue that listed things that happened in baseball over his career. He was very much a baseball lifer, starting as a batboy in 1917.. This SSPC card is from 1975. After appearing as part of a team manager card the previous year, this was his first solo card.

None of that is any way relevant as to why I have posted this card today.

It is because that due to this card back, I learned that Keith Olbermann had the greatest job ever that a sixteen year old (wiki says he was born 1/59) could ask for.

2015 Adventures in Repacks: Part 42 - Better to Give or to Receive?

Back to the dollar store with a pair of $1 hanger packs. 15 cards each, with two cards visible. I grabbed one because a card visible interested me. I grabbed the other since I knew I could throw it into a trade package. Which one would be the better repack overall, though? Time to go through the cards, comparing the contents to see which one was better.

Visible Card #1:

Red Kelly for me. Jacob Trouba for Dennis @ Too Many Manninhgams. I'll call this one a push, since both cards were the reason I grabbed these repacks.

Visible Card #2:

The reverse of the Kelly pack contained the Vlasic. Glen Murray was on the Trouba. The Vlasic is too generic a photo to gain the advantage up against my pre-Senators favourite team. This one goes to the Trouba.

Parallel:

Deron Quint was with the Trouba. Hedican was with the Kelly. Despite over 450 games in the NHL, I'd never heard of Quint. He's still active as well, playing with the KHL. Hedican had a lot longer career, hitting the 1000 game plateau and a Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes. But, he might be better known as the significant other of figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi. Obscurity factors in, and this one goes to the Trouba as well.

Shiny card:

I didn't even need to get the Trouba pack to find a card I can send to T.M.M. There's a shiny McDonald's card in with the Kelly. Trade material when unexpected is always good.

Remaining non-junk-wax-era cards:

1 each. Petrov with the Trouba. Modin with the Kelly. I'll never vote for a Leafs card if I can avoid it. The Trouba pack returns a 2 point lead.

Notable junk wax cards:

With the Red Kelly:

Sure, they may be millions of the card out there, but the Stanley Cup's appearance can make a great card. I do like expansion team pose cards, so there are 2 decent cards among the rest of them. 1 point for each of them makes this a draw. What will the Trouba pack offer?

A nice mask card and a rookie card in the same image. That's all it takes.

So, better repack mojo from picking up one based on a card for someone else as opposed to myself. Remember that when picking your repacks up on the cheap!

Another T.M.M. Trade Package - The Hockey Goodies

Time to wrap up another trade recap.

And to open, a card that has been on my most wanted top 10 list for a bit. It was either this or the Geoffrion card that would have been my longest tenured member there. Anyhow, any appearance of the Cup on a card image is automatically a great card, and this has a bonus of it being a Kitchener Rangers alum doing the hoisting. This should easily be the best photo in that collection, but I have to go through it again to make that determination for certain.

After the appearance of this classic Habs mask on a nice vintage 1977 glossy card, this turns into a very Ottawa Senators package. It is a nice way to move on, though.

Spezza rookie! This actually might be my only one of his. Zistle seems to think so, but I remain doubtful.

By a thread or three, here's a two-colour swatch from Stephane Da Costa. I've actually got a few autos of his and an auto-relic, but this is my first standalone relic. Variety!

Some autos are up next. Wade Redden was part of one of the worst moves the team made, and that overshadows his time in Ottawa. They opted to keep him and instead let Zdeno Chara walk. Oops. Still, I like adding his cards. I now have two autos of his, both in trades with Dennis. Colin Greening is still with the team, but is now in Binghamton. Still, he has had more time in the bigs than most 7th rounders.

And a slight move away from the Senators content to wrap up the trade with some mask binder relics. I know Lehner can end up in either - I just made an executive decision he's going there. Ray Emery's dual relic could also have ended up in either, but since the Flyers one gets the better photo it is a little easier of a decision. Turek's Eddie mask wraps it up.

2 new 2/14 faces

I really don't have that many qualifications for the 2/14 collection.

A) Did you come into this world on 2/14?
B) Do you appear on a card?

That's it. If both of those questions get a 'Yes', then I'll add cards to my collection. The only exception to this is cards of Michael Jordan wearing #12, since that is for a photo that was snapped on 2/14/90.

This does allow for strangeness though.

While doing the COMC challenges, I came across some cards for cheerleaders. That would definitely qualify for a 'Yes' to part B of the above questions. While not all included birthdates, some did. That sent me going through images on COMC, flipping to the back of the card on each to see if I came across any 2/14 babies.

And after all those, I finally found one!

So, to Amanda, alum of the University of North Florida and the Veteran of the Year on the ROAR for the 2008-2009 season: Welcome to the 2/14 collection!

And since there were chrome versions as well, I'll add one of those as well. There are numbered refractor parallels also, but I couldn't find any of those at COMC or sportlots. Still, I figure these two are obsessive enough. Chasing down more might put me in the "I'll kidnap your cat and return it if you'll pose for a picture" territiory.

And yes, since this was part of a football set, it does count towards the football portion of the binder. On the whole, football leads in terms of overall subjects in the collection, with 49 different people.

And now, to remove the creep factor, let's wrap this up with a normal card of a soccer player that is also making his debut in the collection.

And there you have it.

1400th Post: Reunited and It Feels so Good

And what better way to celebrate 1400 posts than with something for my 2/14 collection? Perhaps something that incorporates both the numbers 1 and 4?

There you go! 4 1/1 printing plates for 1 game NHLer (still one more than yours truly) and honoured member of the 2/14 club, Matt Campanale! The complete set! Although I don't have the actual card that was produced by this plate, it is currently sitting in my COMC inventory, waiting for me to hit the ol' ship button on it.

And here's the back of them, in all their 1/1 glory. These might not make their way into the 2/14 binder, though. I'm going to see if there are any holders available that showcase all 4 printing plates, with the actual card in the middle.

Now that's a rainbow to celebrate!

Just One Pack...of 2003 In the Game Toronto Star

I remember nothing of this set. I don't know if they were distributed with the newspaper, or available at corner stores when you bought the Star, or what. But I do remember they were random packs of it at the flea market last week.

They came in little cello packs with 5 cards. One foil parallel was visible on one side. On the other side was some sort of promo thingy.  Since one card was visible, I went for the one that interested me most of all.

My 105th Marian Gaborik for my 2/14 collection. Despite the foil title, this is really not too much more shiny than your typical chrome base card. Still a nice addition though.

And here's the regular base cards. At least my mask binder gained a Sean Burke.

And I can put my 'post every day' goal to bed early today, in time for the early Bills kickoff.

Just One Pack...of 2015 Topps Valor

I said yesterday you might get a CFL post or an Update post.

Instead, you get a 2015 Topps Valor post. For the simple reason I only feel like scanning 6 cards. In other words, laziness.

Here's my first card of the set. It is a photoshop special, since Maxwell was a Seahawk last season. But, this does seem to be his first solo base card. He did get to appear on a Seahawks Prizm Legion of Boom card, and had another insert in Rookie and Stars, but this is his base card debut. Being a 6th rounder, that's likely why it took until his 5th season.

The background doesn't include the logo, like last year, but the smoky style is retained.

Here's the back. The design pretty much follows the same pattern as the front, with the standard paragraph and stats.

On some cards this year, he's Bud Dupree. On others, it is Alvin Dupree. I'd probably stick with the former. One, to keep the chipmunk jokes to a minimum. Two, it is tougher to turn 'Bud' into a heckling DAR-RYL, DAR-RYL than Alvin.

And now, proof I should accept money from Dennis @ Too Many Manninghams to buy packs.

The one-per-pack Speed parallel? A rookie of Wolverines alumni Devin Funchess.

 The 1:14 Strength parallel?  A rookie of Wolverines alumni Devin Funchess.

I seriously need to find a way to market myself.

And now, back to the base cards with Marshawn Lynch.

And Arian Foster wraps it up.

Not bad, and it is always nice to know you'll be able to find homes for cards upon pulling them.

2015-16 Hoops Box Break - Part 2

And now the inserts, which, as I stated yesterday, were far rarer this year than last. While you could get several cards per pack, these were 1 per pack. Unless you found a parallel, in which case you got zero inserts per pack. Which is good for the set build, as I'm only 35 or so out.

If you didn't think I'd lead with a Raptors insert if I got one, you don't know me. The retired player content among the inserts doesn't seem as extensive as in previous years, so it is nice to get one for my team. Having the flag visible in the background makes this even better.

And to keep on going, here's an insert for my pre-Raptors favourite team. Triple Doubles salutes exactly that from the previous season. Elfrid Payton had two last season, and he has two in this insert set. These do actually have odds listed on the back, and they fall at a rate of 1:24, or one per box.

The road to the finals insert set returns this year. The numbering drops as the rounds progress. I got 3 first round ones /2015 each.

And one from the second round /999. Third round are /499, with the finals /199.

Team Leaders is, naturally, a 30 card insert set.

Action Shots is another rather obviously named insert series. These also have the odds listed on them, and they're at 1:65. So, pretty above average to get this one.

Bird's Eye View returns after not being seen since 13-14 Panini flagship. Other than the promised two autos, this was the only insert set I got more than one of.

Courtside returns for another year. I'm not too crazy about the move away from full-bleed photos in this, but as long as the old camera angle remains the same, I'll take it.

This isn't a second Courtside insert. This is the /25 Green Holo Parallel. Probably my biggest 'hit' in the box.

Here's my first autograph in this. Not too bad of a second year player. He was an all-rookie team member last season, and finished third in rookie of the year balloting. He's more of a defensive player than an offensive one, but this still a nice auto for the collection. Not quite a perfect auto, buy at least he does more than just a two letter initial.

And the second is of someone who is actually having a pretty good preseason so far. He was the 22nd pick in the draft, so I guess he can be seen as exceeding expectations so far.

That's the box. Depending on what is at my LCS, maybe some Update or CFL tomorrow.

2015-16 Hoops Box Break - Part 1

A nice day to bust a box of something. Lots of stuff dropping this week for set building fun. Update. CFL. And this. I thought this would be the product I would be least likely to find at the Expo in about 2 weeks, so this was what I grabbed.

Up first, the base cards.

Perhaps a little smaller photo-wise than previous years, but the layout is familiar. Stuff on the top, with the logo keeping it from being perfectly rectangular. Stuff on the bottom. As shown by this Lebron, there are some really nice photo choices in this year's set.

Unfortunately, the stats on the back are cut down to the past 5 seasons. On the plus size, it does mean that each player earns a paragraph bio.

Players that switched teams get several options to acknowledge their move. Posed shot. Press conference shot. Traded/signed update on the side. Or a photoshop special, since I can't recall Biyombo's performance as a Raptor against Orlando from last season. I'll have to take a look to see how many others got that treatment, since that was the only one that stood out to me as I was collating.

Every rookie card is pretty much the same. A fake action shot against a green screen-ish wall backdrop done in the team colours. Sometimes they look good, such as with Milwaukee. Sometimes, the background overpowers the player, like with Boston.

The updated logos appear in the upper corners of their expected cards. That's a nice little bonus.

Parallels are a lot less frequent in this year's packs. I could count on one per pack, maybe more last year. This time, not so much.

Only one green bordered card. Of course, this Wolverines alum will be set aside for Too Many Manninghams. I knew I couldn't bust a box without getting at least one.

Only 2 gold cards this year. A major name, and a Celtic. I'm happy with these.

The silver parallels are all numbered to /299. My box might have had a pattern with its collation, as these cards were numbers 162, 172 and 181 in the base set. I guess I'll have to look at other box breaks to see if this was just a coincidence.

And this is the last of the parallels, and an ebay 1/1 since it is 99/99. And he's wearing #9 too! What an amazing addition to your #9 collection!

No?

Rats.

But, there's a sampling of the base cards in this. Tomorrow, the inserts.