Wednesday, 31 January 2018

The Good Stuff

I've put this off long enough. It is time to (mostly) finally wrap up the trade package from TMM. There is still one thing left, but I need to get something beforehand.

It is plate time!
Because I can never have too many Keith Wenning autos in my collection, here's another one. I've got 8 cards of him now, despite him having thrown as many passes in the NFL as I have. He's tied with Christian Hackenberg now, who I can also say the same thing about.
Alshon Jeffery on the other hand, has seen quite a bit of NFL action, and will be busy this weekend with the Eagles. 2 of my favourite recent base card designs are featured in these plates with '14 Prestige and '16 Playbook. The only Eagles card in the group is from this year's XR release.
Switching to hockey, here's a couple more plates for my Senators collection. That's Daniel Alfredsson on the Contenders plate, with Spezza on the Titanium.
Finally, a trio of plates for my Kitchener Rangers alumni collection, with these also being my first 1/1s in that collection. Larry Robinson and Al MacInnis come from Leaf releases while John Moore's, like Spezza is from 2011 Titanium.

There's still one more (more accurately, 4) to show off, but I just don't have the proper display yet. But for now, this bubbler is finally finished. Thanks for all these goodies, and I hope my mailer made it stateside safely.

Tuesday, 30 January 2018

The Bills are Contenders

With a playoff appearance this year, the Bills were actually considered contenders this year. They still are awaiting their first playoff TD, but baby steps. Baby steps.

And that makes this year's Contenders actually relevant for the team.
The 3 base cards are exactly who you'd expect. I was kinda hoping Micah Hyde would be able to squeeze in as 1 of the 3, but I guess I'll have to wait until 2018 releases for his Bills cards.
The inserts. Best of all, I got a pair of Jim Kelly cards. 1 of them for my Bills PC, the other for my 2-14 PC.
Auto time! This is a Bills card, as 7th round pick Malachi Dupre was released by the Packers before the season, and caught on with the Bills. He even saw the field late in the regular season. It is an obscure addition, but still welcome in the collection.
Peterman. Sigh. The Jacksonville on the card is his hometown, not the team he was throwing passes towards in the playoffs.

But at least there were playoffs.

Sunday, 28 January 2018

2018 Adventures in Repacks - Part 4 - Sunday Surprises

It has been a bit since I've specifically made a Sunday post for the Dollarama Surprise Bags, and today seems just right for clearing out some more repack content.
And we're starting with this one.
A nice variety in the mask pack, with the even horizontal/vertical mix, and all having some level of mask binder artwork on them.
The 2010s pack seem generic at first, but something is intriguing about the Parise. It has "Signed with Minnesota Wild" on the left side of it. I didn't recall anything of that nature on those cards, and the ones on COMC don't have this designation. Google images also brings up zip as well. So, whether this is a later printing of the card, or just some obsessed Parise fanboy, it is a repack oddball.
And that's odd enough that it means that this throwback photo of Dino on the London Knights isn't my favourite in this repack.
#2! Look like a hit in this one.
Getting the Pro Set out of the way first, there's a linesman card and a Bruce Shoebottom card. That's probably enough to make this an interesting pack.
And the 2000s pack brings a card featuring the distaff side of hockey and a mask binder card. Piper won't be going for the gold in 2018, having retired several years back with a trio of medals to her credit.
In the battle of mask binder candidates between repacks,, this one goes 3 for 4 with the Malarchuk being too distant of a photo to count. But the shiny Hackett makes up for that.
And the hit. It might be a plain white swatch, but it is of a good player and the white swatch at least matches the photo.

And there you go. I promise no oddball Zach Parise cards in my next post.

Saturday, 27 January 2018

2018 Adventures in Repacks - Part 3.2 - More Winter Baseball

2013 Bowman Chrome - Connor Lien - Opening up with a prospect card, and he's still doing the climb through the minors thing, spending 2017 in AA ball.
1989 Fleer - Tom Filer
1990 Fleer - Greg Maddux
1989 Score - Jose Oquendo - Another moment of impact photo for this side of the repack.
1989 Topps - Chili Davis
1988 Topps - Paul Kilgus
1988 Donruss - Junior Ortiz
1987 Topps - Tim Flannery
1988 Topps - Alan Trammel
1987 Topps-  Max Venable - This does not look like a photo of an active baseball player - he looks like a 3rd base coach.
1987 Topps - Eddie Murray
1990 Fleer - Fred McGriff - Jays content!
1988 Topps - Dale Murphy
2006 UD - Dan Uggla - An interesting photo for someone's rookie card with it looking like he's starting a double play.
2006 UD - Andruw Jones - I'm really disappointed there doesn't appear to be any UD cards visible for signing.
1990 Topps - Junior Felix - More Jays content!
2007 UD - Jose Valentin - Mets content! Cool photo as well with a great usage of the horizontal medium.
1991 UD - Dave Johnson
1988 Donruss - Rey Quinones
1989 Topps - Steve Curry
1985 Topps - Kevin Gross
1989 Topps - Tom Lawless
1987 Topps - Dave Anderson
1988 Topps - Pat Perry
2007 UD - Willy Tavares
2008 UD - Skip Schmuaker - What? No squirrel!
2010 Bowman - Anthony Morris
1989 Topps - Mickey Brantley
1987 Topps - Andres Thomas
1996 UD Choice - Darren Hall - Jays content continues! And I don't think I have too many Darren Hall cards.
1989 Topps - Fred McGriff - Back-to-back Jays w/ McGriff #2.
1982 Topps - Rich Hebner - The oldest card on this side and my 3rd '82 of the repack.
1989 Topps - Wade Boggs Record Breaker
1988 Topps - Brook Jacoby
1984 Topps - John Candelaria - A great uniform on the 1984 design!
1987 Topps Traded - Scott Bankhead
1990 Fleer - Brady Anderson
1988 Topps - Kevin Elster - A second Met!
1997 Leaf - Ken Hill
2013 Bowman - James Shields - This ends the second half.

Friday, 26 January 2018

2018 Adventures in Repacks - Part 3.1 - More Winter Baseball

This seems like a perfect time for another Dollarama baseball 80-card hanger. As usual, this will be done in 2 postings of one 40-card side each.
2011 A&G - Luke Scott - Off and running with some Ginter, and that's always a good place to start.
1989 Topps - Gary Thurman
1991 UD - Alex Cole
1991 UD - Geronimo Pena
1994 UD - Mike Devereaux - A rare moment where both the front and back of the card deserves a highlighting, especially since they're probably from the same play.
1989 Topps - Tom Henke - Jays content!
1988 Topps - Gerald Perry
1999 Tradition - Antonio Osuna - Sorta Jays content, as he's Roberto Osuna's uncle.
1987 Topps - Kevin Bass
1987 Topps - Chuck Finley
1989 Topps - Rickey Henderson
1992 Topps - Ray Lankford
1988 Topps - Fernando Valenzuela
2008 Bowman - Matt Holliday - It is rare that an interesting photo appears on a Bowman card, so I'll call that worthy of a highlight.
2007 UD - Gabe Kapler
2008 UD - Ty Wigginton
1990 Fleer - Jim Gott
1989 Topps - Chuck Finley - 2nd Chuck Finley, so I might as well highlight one of them.
1993 Fleer - Lonnie Smith
1988 Topps - Mark Thurmond
1988 Topps - Alan Ashby
1991 Topps - Bud Harrelson - Mets content!
1985 Topps - Jody Davis - Even if all he did was pop the ball out of play, I like 'moment of impact' baseball photos.
1988 Topps - Mark McLemore
2010 Bowman - Matt Heidenreich
2006 UD - Andy Green
2007 Bowman - Matt McBride
1988 Topps - Ken Phelps
1991 UD - Craig Worthington
1982 Topps - Alan Bannister - Anyone for hockey?
1989 Topps - Rafael Palmeiro
1992 Score - Kevin Bass - 2nd Kevin Bass, so I might as well highlight one of them.
1987 Topps - Kent Tekulve - A blue Phillies uniform on the side-arming Tekulve? That's a keeper.
1989 Topps - Rod Nichols
1987 Topps - Frank Viola
1989 Topps - Don Slaught
1987 Topps Traded - Scott Bankhead - Random Traded card.
1988 Topps - Mark Gubicza
1982 Topps - John Curtis - More hockey, as these 1982s were the oldest card on this side of the repackage.
2013 Topps Update - Prince Fielder - And this ends this half. Fielder on the bases is a kinda obscure photographically as well.

Thursday, 25 January 2018

One Card Only: The Bleedin' Splish-Splash Show

No word how many days the Tampa stadium was also a hockey rink.

Wednesday, 24 January 2018

Mucho Mets

Today is as good a time as any to reach into my COMC-to-be-posted box, and post the Mets content within.
Gary Carter? Mr. Met? That's a great way to start off a Mets post. As a bonus, the Let's Go Mets is made from some sort of soft material. Does this count as a manu-patch?
Ollie Perez with his salute to Turk Wendell.
Some more Piazzas. Faux-heritage is nice, but a cardboard salute to his post 9/11 homer is the easy winner in this two-card battle.
The only thing better than a Topps Kids cards is two of them.
And the only hit in the Mets portion of the box was this Joe McEwing auto. While Super Joe wasn't close to superstar status, he was a cult favourite during some rather depressing seasons. And that's just fine for Archives Fan Favourites.

There you have it!