Sens-ational additions

Time to show off some Ottawa Senators cards. Some are from COMC, some are from a Too Many Verlanders/Manninghams mailer.

This was an efficient addition to my Sens collection, as it knocked two players off my "every Senator ever" list with one card. Ben Harpur has made an appearance in SP Game Used with a solo card, but this does appear to be Englund's first card appearance. Technically, Sieloff should be a Senator as well, as he came over last summer in the Chiasson trade with Calgary, and was a Senator (in Binghamton, mind you) for long enough after this was issued to call him a Sen. So, 3 birds with one stone?

Ryan Dzingel also made his debut on a Showcase card, but did so in 14-15. He settled into a permanent spot last season (great for a 7th rounder) and got a solo card out of the e-pack of Compendium.

A real nice look at Pascal LeClair, and the excellent colour co-ordination with his pads.

The first of the TMV/M cards can be seen here, with the 1995 Parkhurst Emerald Ice Rookie of Alfredsson. That 2003 UD flagship card is certainly a perfect example of "why didn't I have this card already?"

1/1 awesomeness here with a plate out of 11-12 Panini Prime. I can never get enough plates in my collection. The magenta version is also lurking on COMC, but for $36 I'll keep these family members separate.

Random Spezza!

Lance Pitlcik would be a good candidate for the penmanship binder, if only he didn't put the dot over the C in his name.

And a TMV/M card ends it, with this appearance of Jason Zent. Technically, this is an AHL card as all his Senators cards have him with the PEI Senators, but he did reach the Capital for 25 games, and that's enough for me.

And there you have it!

RIP: Dave Semenko

Fuck cancer.

Redeemed: As advertised!

A double death post yesterday. Time to get more upbeat with a pair of envelopes from Panini. And unlike recent redemption mailings, these had exactly what was promised in them. No more. No less.

First up,

turned into this.

Initials only, and the S looks more like an 8, but I'll over look that since it is a Bills autograph. The sticker actually works pretty nicely with the design, as it fits into a portion on the card with a different look and feel than the rest of the lower portion of the card. Off to the Bills binder with you!

Also, this

became this.

I was hoping the 2012 Tot. Cert redemption would be the HRX of Trent Richardson so I could send it off to JayBarkerFan. But I'll take the rookie/auto/relic of a guy with a great nickname like Muscle Hamster instead.

RIP: Anthony Young

Crap.

If Mets was an adjective, Anthony Young would have been the most Mets pitcher in team history.

One Card Only: Timing

In retrospect, I should have picked up this autograph ages ago, and not finally gotten around to it after he passed away last month. But, since it didn't really cost me too much more that it would have beforehand (likely due to the ebay auction ending at 11:00 in the morning), I'll take it.

2017 Adventures in Repacks - Part 16.3 - But it Isn't Spring!

Let's bring this repack home with the final 3 packs.

At least there's Mets content right from the start in this grouping.

And here's the first pack in this three. 1 and 1/3 Blue Jays content, but several people I barely remember, or never heard of in the first place among the regular base. At least I've got more stuff for future trade packages.

More Jays content in this one, with a Mets card joining them. More familiarity here with the names as well. And a card commemorating a playoff inside-the-park homer? Much better than the first.

But there's only 9 there.

"Packs with a relic card contain 10 cards"

Now that's the Jays content I really like to see. I am stunned this wasn't already pack searched and then some. These fall 1:53 on the retail side. Incredibly, this wasn't my favourite card in the repack. There's still one I liked more than this hit.

But before that, please enjoy some 2006 back-of-card cartoons.

Although nice additions to their collection, it isn't the Jays cards. Edwin Encarnacion's cardboard debut on the Jays would be a contender, but that's not it. Knowing me, you'd think a card of a guy named Barbaro Canizares would be an option. Nope, not even that.

It isn't a Toppstown card.

It is this. How did I not know these propaganda style cards existed? How? And how great was it that my first of these cards I got was of a guy I super collect? Now that's a fun way to end a repack.

I don't know if I'll quit while I'm ahead with these, but will probably grab a second one just to offset the almost constant posting of hockey repacks.

2017 Adventures in Repacks - Part 16.2 - But it Isn't Spring!

And now, the blandest (to me) packs of the repack.

Triple Play is what it is. If I have to pick a favourite card, I guess its this, since nothing else really hit one of my PCs.

I busted way too much of 2014 putting together the base set to be overly enthusiastic about that pack. Here's the insert from it.

At least the plethora of inserts in OD would give me some chance to add some cards to that set, of which I busted a box to complete the base set. Alas,I I'd already picked up the complete retro uniform set on my own. But, at least I landed my first Jays card and first Mets card of this.

But at least these were both new. The blue tint actually works pretty nicely with the scoreboard in the background.

Tomorrow, with a pair of 2006 retail Update packs and a 2009 Update Hobby pack, things should be more interesting.

2017 Adventures in Repacks - Part 16.1 - But it Isn't Spring!

It is always too long between repacks busts, especially when it isn't hockey being busted. In this case, a baseball repack made an appearance on the Walmart shelves, and yet I was cautious. I watched a couple breaks of it on youtube, realized the content wasn't 5 junk wax packs and 5 Triple Play packs (only 1 Triple Play - HAH!) and thought it would be worth the risk.

After all that, here were the contents.

2 2006 Updates & Highlights
1 2007 Upper Deck Series 2
1 2007 Topps Series 2
1 2007 Ultra
1 2009 Updates and Highlights
1 2012 Triple Play
1 2014 Series 1
2 2015 Opening Day

I don't think I've ever busted the 2006 through 2009 stuff, so that'll be a fun portion of the break.

There was also 1 Beckett promotional card of Schwarber & Bryant The promo card will be traded away at some point, but here's the front/back of it.

And now, the first part. The 2007s look nice grouped together like that, so I'll start with the only year that had different packs from it.

Starting with the Topps.

I actually may have busted one of these before, but was likely so bored by the process I don't remember a thing about it. I guess the most interesting card is the guy named Tankersley. Honourable mention to the Okajima, just because it gives the vibe that the background seems to be a generic one also used for high school grad pictures.

Ultra was a little more interesting, if nothing else than full-bleed photos and a the throwback brown on the Padres uni.

And the best of this portion comes, unsuprisingly in the UD S2. Two cards featuring pitchers that don't go overhand jump out here. The after shot of the sidearming Lopez is nice, but the Myers submarine wind-up might end up being the best base card in the whole break. What a great photo. Shame it is wasted on a Yankee. Strange to find an autograph singing photo of Howard as the 3rd best in a pack of 8, but sometimes that's how the cards fall. Also - two base cards of Todd Helton in 3 packs.

Next up, the 2010s stuff.

Too Many 2/14s!

And now the 2/14 portion of the TMV/M mailer.

Football was definitely the theme this time around, as only a couple slipped outside that portion of the binder. Jim Kelly made 1 appearance, but still added his 70th card to the collection.

Next up, David Garrard got 3 cards to reach 37 total.

Steve McNair on the front. Drew Bledsoe on the back. I can't get enough of cards that feature a pair of 2/14 babies. As has been my policy, this results in a 1 card boost to both their totals.

But that addition of one was just a drop in the bucket to the overall additions to both Bledsoe's and McNair's totals. Even these 20 scanned cards aren't the complete additions, as both got about 15 individual cards each. In the whole bunch, I love getting 3 different gold label Bledsoes, and that Soul of the Game die-cut among the McNairs. For those playing the home game with the Gold Label, the one with the ball being released is Class 1, scrambling is Class 2, and just getting the snap is Class 3.The Sculpted card is actually a preview card.

The rest of the way home, it is time for some 1/1 plates for the collection. The final football card is my first Alshon 1/1, coming from 2016 National Treasures.

Yes. These plates of the relic only cards still count. Why wouldn't they? But it does mean that this isn't a football only post.

And a 3rd plate to end it, with this one being a Brandon Sutter and a perfect card to go alongside the Hejduk to keep it company.

Only a whole bunch of none of the above miscellany left for the 4th and final post covering this bubble envelope.

Redeemed! 1 Becomes 2!

Time once again to open up a redemption envelope from a card company - this time from Topps.

The product may have only been on the shelf for a couple weeks, so it was unexpected to see this turn into this:

so quickly. But here's my first George Bell auto. I love the 1984 design this is from, but only wish he'd been wearing the blues in that photo, since that look didn't debut until years later. But that is picking the nit of a really great addition to my Jays collection.

But wait there's more!

A week and a half from entering the code isn't really a delay, but I'll still take a bonus card.

Amazingly, it is a card for my other team collection. What are the odds? (Rhetorical question) This is my second auto of his, joining a '14 GQ. They will both be freed from their plastic prisons and moved into binders sooner rather than later.

To the picker of said bonus card, I thank you!

Bills! Bills! Bills!

Time for the Bills portion of the trade envelope from Dennis @ Too Many Vernlanders/Manninghams.

Very little in terms of base content among this.

The only base card in the whole thing for the Bills was the Marshawn Lynch rookie card. The other two are inserts. I'm really surprised I didn't land that Bruce Smith with all the Donruss from last year I busted.

How about a page worth of numbered cards to start. L-R, U-D, these are /350, /649, 750, /250, /199, /499, /2009, /2002 and /999. My faves here are the Spiller for the logo in the background, the acetate Price, and the Unrivaled of Jackson. The Jackson has a really nice look at the 50th anniversary logo.

Flutie mania on the second grouping of numbered cards, but my fave here is the Johnson, since he actually appears to holding onto the ball on a key reception. A rare photo indeed. These are /999, /99, /100, /2500 * 3 and /750.

The actual hits portion starts off with some appearances of Karlos Williams, who made a rather quick trip from penthouse to outhouse in Orchard Park. Some patches from some veterans and pretty good rookie jersey round out this grouping of former Bills.

The big winner in this mailer was Sammy Watkins, who gets 5 new cards with 6 jersey swatches. And my first autograph of his. If only he could stay healthy.

Technically, this Sammy isn't a Bills card. But, if I can add NCAA hits of people who made stops with other pro teams before becoming Bills short-term (Mike Gillislee, Anthony Dixon) I sure can add my 3rd plate to the binder, joining a McGahee and a David Nelson.

There you have it! 2 more posts to go for this bubbler.