2017 Hockey Randomness

In this case, the hockey randomness comes from a group break consisting of boxes from 2017 releases. It included Series 2, Platinum, Ice, SP Game Used, SPA and Black Diamond. I've only busted two of those, so it would be a nice way to get a chance at some new designs for the collection.

You got 2 teams per spot, and I'll recap them in alphabetical order starting with Colorado. While there wasn't anything major among the cards, I do get my first look at SPA's base design this year while adding a new Landeskog to my Rangers alum collection. I really like the addition of All-Star themed legends cards to the Platinum base set this year, giving collectors a very unique Joe Sakic.

An uneven number of teams meant that the Golden Knights and the Wild were a combination slot in this. The big card here is the Exquisite insert from the Black Diamond box, but there's still a nice grouping of base cards to go alongside it. If only I was a Reilly Smith super collector.

With Josh Ho-Sang being one of the more intriguing rookies at the start of the season, I though the Islanders spot had some potential. While I did land a pair of his cards from Platinum, the big card of the break is sandwiched between them. A John Tavares auto? There's a keeper. I don't really care that it is a sticker, since it does work nicely with the design.

This wraps up with the Toronto spot. A nice variety of cards, and although I'm not a fan of the team, the blue and white contrast on the relic card does look real nice.

There you have it!

Outgoing Mail Alert!

If these ZIP codes look familiar, keep on eye on your mailbox! Even if you've recently received a package, another one is on the way as of either this past Friday, yesterday, or tomorrow.

02766
02919
13601
26505
48105
55406
60586
97202

ObCard:

While I'm sure most people that pulled this Pat Borders auto from their one-card box of Archives Post-Season weren't happy, I was happy to see him on the checklist. That meant I'd get an inexpensive chance at a certified Blue Jays autograph of the 1992 World Series MVP.

PWE Chronicles: Cards on Cards * 4

I was going to do this last week after a PWE showed up. Then 3 more followed and I figured I'd better wait a couple more days to see if anything else arrived. It's been a couple days, so I now feel safe.

Firstly, if you're looking for something seemingly random to include in an envelope heading in my direction, any cards of local NBA product Jamal Murray is a perfect choice.

That's seems a great way to lead in to a bunch of new Raptors card. There's a few new Sets to my collection in this, and I'm happiest to get two of the full-bleed Prestige cards.  That shiny Delon Wright in the middle is a Blue Velocity parallel.

Stickers! And of course that CJ Miles counts as an addition to the Raptors collection. I just wish the logo one used their 1995 logo. If for nothing else than the possibility of a Denver Nuggets sticker with Maxie Miner.

Stickers-to-sticker with the transition to the baseball.

If most Jays fans had their way, he'd be on the team already. Myself, I'll just enjoy the highlights of him smashing the ball around minor league parks, and await 2019.

To keep the Vlad came parallel in the first group company, here's a couple more.

Some ink. Aaron Sanchez has been one of the less-panic-inducing members of the Blue Jays starting rotation this season. And that's about all you need to know about this season so far.

Ending this off, a pair of Mets.

And there's 4 PWEs worth of cards. I know I've sent at least one bubbler off recently, but there should be another on its way to Portland shortly. You already know two of the cards that will be in it, so hopefully the others are a nice surprise.

Redeemed!

Back to the mailbag again, but this time covering mailings from the card companies themselves.

Are Panini Rewards redemptions? Is corn grass? Whether the answer is yes or no, I've got 400 points to play with. What can that get?

He's been an all-star, but his autographs in Panini Rewards land still are pretty reasonable. Shelling out 250 pts for an on-card autograph numbered /20 for Lowry is a pretty easy decision.

While browsing around, I noticed there were some hits available for only 50 points. I didn't expect anything super valuable there, I did wrap things up with 3 cards I was more than happy with.

Although in this card's case, I think Kerry @ Cards on Cards would be happier with this. Especially considering I just had a pile of 4 PWEs show up from Oregon over the past few mail days.

Sure, he never saw the NFL. But if you think I'm passing on an autograph of some guy nicknamed and listed as "Shock" on his card, you don't know my collecting habits.

A Hall of Fame autograph is a great way to wrap up this shopping spree. Even better that it is a throwback Kings uniform that Sarunas is rocking in the photo. I guess I could have got one of him (with similar numbering) in his more familiar Golden State colours, but this one easily had better intangibles.

I expected this within days of entry after pulling this late last year. Instead, it took months.

But it is a nice looking on-card acetate auto/relic of the Cardinals QB turned Bills TE.

And there you have it!

2018 Adventures in Repacks - Part 19.2 - Jays vs. Mets

What did the Mets side have to offer?

2011 Bowman Draft - Joe Tuschak - 3 of the 4 visible cards were from 2011 Draft. Of the 3, only Tuschak never saw the majors.
1989 UD - Larry Parrish
1991 UD - Kevin Appier
1987 Topps - Dave Righetti
1989 Topps - Ruben Sierra
1995 Stad. Club - Mike Greenwell

1994 Coll. Choice - Devon White - Looks like someone at Fenway might be getting themselves an interesting souvenir!
1990 Fleer - Jeff Ballard

1989 Donruss Traded - Jamie Moyer - The second random card this break from a Traded/Update set.
1993 Topps - Rick Sutcliffe

1996 UD - Jay Canizaro - Shiny! Or at least Foil-y.
1990 Fleer - Randy Johnson

2003 Bazooka - Anthony Webster - Both sides also provide a Bazooka card.
2009 Bowman - Jon Kibler
1994 Coll. Choice - Greg McMichael
1989 Topps - Brady Anderson
1992 Stad. Club - Mike Henneman
1993 Topps - Charlie Hayes
1993 Score - Paul Wagne
1993 UD - Bill Kreuger

1989 Topps - Kelly Downs - Best background scenery on a baseball card ever?
2004 Bowman - Lyle Overbay
1997 Topps - Tim Naehring
2008 Opening Day - Ubaldo Jimenez

2004 Topps - Todd Helton - Interesting framing.
1989 UD - Kevin Mitchell
1992 Score - Juan Gonzalez

2004 Inscribed - Alex Sanchez - This side's version of the Casey Stengel from the first half. What is this set doing in a repack?
1989 Topps - Ron Hassey

1987 Topps - Randy St. Claire - Expos content.

1992 UD Minor League - Tyler Green - Another unexpected repack set, even considering the era.
1986 Topps - Bob Boone
1998 UD Starquest - Jim Edmonds
1992 Fleer - Royce Clayton
1993 Topps - Kevin Campbell

1992 Topps Gold - Gary Thurman
1989 Topps - Danny Darwin
1991 Topps - Cris Carpenter

2015 Topps - Jason Grilli - The end.

And there you have it.

2018 Adventures in Repacks - Part 19.1 - Jays vs. Mets

A little competition this time as I recap another 80-card baseball hanger from the Dollarama, and specifically one that was a very easy decision as to which to purchase. One had a visible Blue Jays card and the other bad a visible Mets card. Perfect for a little bit of friendly competition between the two sides. I'll leave it up to the reader to pick the better of the two.

2011 Bowman Draft - Dwight Smith Jr. - The opening Blue Jays card.
1990 UD - Carney Lansford
1987 Topps - Chet Lemon
1992 Donruss - Pedro Guerrero
1994 UD - Steve Avery

1995 Flair - Garrett Anderson - I always like finding random cards from mid-range sets in these.

1987 Topps - Tom Henke - Jays card #2.
1990 UD - Willie Randolph

1990 Fleer - Junior Felix - Jays card #3.
1990 Fleer - Craig Lefferts
1992 Topps - Barry Bonds
1993 Topps - Rob Maurer
1990 Fleer - Greg Smith/Stu Tate
2010 Topps - Red Sox Team
2008 SP Authentic - Curt Schilling

1993 Score - Kent Bottenfield - The Expos make their first appearance.
1989 Topps - Mike Scioscia
1993 Topps - Dave Mlicki

1986 Fleer Update - Mickey Mahler - A completely random Update set card.
1994 Topps - Willie Blair
1992 UD - Bruce Hurst
1993 Bowman - Craig Paquette
1990 UD - Francisco Cabrera
1987 Topps - Russ Morman
1993 Topps - Mike Magnate
1991 Topps - Larry Andersen

2004 Bazooka - Sean Burroughs - Not a set you see all the time in repacks.

2005 Legendary Cuts - Casey Stengel - And definitely not a set you see in repacks. Despite being a Yankees card, this is easily my favourite card in this portion of the pack.
2007 Topps - Doug Davis
1998 Fleer Tradition - Javier Martinez
1987 Topps - Luis Salazar
1993 Topps - Jack McDowell

1993 Donruss - Ed Sprague - Jays card #4.
1993 Fleer - Jose Uribe
1992 Fleer - Steve Decker

1993 Topps - Kevin Mitchell - One of my favourite junk wax era photo choices.
1989 Topps - Danny Heep
1991 Score - Kent Hrbek

1991 Topps - John Franco - Mets content!
1991 Score - Pat Combs
1990 Donruss - Jeff Kunkel

2011 Bowman Draft - Kyle Crick - And that wraps it up.

Next time, the Mets side of the repack.

It was Then or Never

I'd had my eye on getting an autograph of Bruno Sammartino's for a bit, both for his status as a wrestling legend, and for a nice signature as well, but kept putting it off. When news hit that he had passed away, I figured I had better get it now before the prices went up at COMC. I got this for $20, and within the hour the cheapest one there was $60.

I wish the circumstances behind the acquisition weren't what they were, but I've got the card at least.

Snagging a Photographic White Whale

After seeing it while browsing through sold items at COMC, this card became a must-have for having one of the strangest photographic choices I'd ever seen on a card.

I finally dropped the must portion of that, as it is now a have.

This might be the least-flattering photo ever used on a card. Either the person that selected this is completely unfamiliar with hockey, or there's something more patriotic involved.

Stadion is a Czech company that produced multi-sport sets. Josef is Slovakian. Was this photo selected by someone who still harbours some sort of grudge about their neighbours/former countrymen? That seems as likely a reason as any.

Either way, this is still spectacular.

The Not-To-Distant Future is NOW!

Flashing back to the Expo, I pulled the 1/1 Pierre-Luc Dubois at the show. When I sold it on ebay, it more than covered all my outgoing funds for that day, with some left over. Of course, that means 'MORE CARDS'!

No sports this time! MST3K BABY!

The box has cards that can be cut out. 27 of them in fact, with these from the box bottom being a sampling. I left them as is as the box is a perfect way to hold the cards after collation.

One last great thing before I get to the actual cards. The individual packs have a classic wax pack feel to them, opening broadly like anything from the 80s and beforehand. Even better, when you open them, there's a checklist available on the inside of them.

Before opening the packs themselves, there's a metal box topper. It isn't really a box topper in the usual sense as it is the standard 2*3 size.

The majority of the cards consisted of the Invention Exchange set. There are two for each episode, one for the Mads and one for Joel.

Episode 305 gets multiple ones, as there was a back-and-forth exchange with various sound effects.

Second most common were the experiment cards, with one per episode. The front has a screenshot from one of the host segments, with the back having the recap of the episode.

Yes, Dahg Wan! Riff It gives us the movie sign, with this one covering four season 1 experiments. At 36 cards in this set, evenly divided with 9 for the featured episodes (Mad Monster, Women of the Prehistoric Planet, The Corpse Vanishes, Robot Holocaust). Perfect for pages!

If you've bought any of the Shout Factory DVDs, you're familiar with the mini-posters that were with them. Many of the ones from Seasons 1 through 3 are represented in this insert set. The other side of the card is a screen from the DVD menu.

The exception is for Moon Zero Two's, which had a checklist since I'll assume the DVD hadn't quite dropped at printing time. As well as the likely answer to the "Why no Gamera posters?" question.

3D Cards end this portion of the recap. You didn't know you wanted a 3D Torgo card until you saw this, right? This seems to be the only portion of this set that has much content beyond the first 3 seasons. There's also a 3D Trumpy, some more posters and host segments. Glasses are included. A nice thing is that all of these cards fit perfectly in one of those empty Walmart Hockey Power Cubes. I'm tempted to move them over into binders, but that box is so perfect, as it can comfortably hold the cube, as well as the numbered inserts/hits in top loaders.

Sketch cards can also be found throughout the box. I landed 3 of the 9. The others were Pearl, Frank, Dr. Forrester, Gypsy, Bobo and Servo.

The back of the sketch cards. All 3 of mine were numbered 429 out of 500. My lucky number!

And now, the hits.

Neither were hits in the traditional relic/auto sense of the word in sports cards (relics are possible, though), but they were both really nice. Up first, a film cell that is Authentically Artificially Genuine! The best kind!

And how do you make the sketch cards from earlier even better?

1/1 Sketch card! AWESOME! Even better that I'm more a Crow than a Servo to land this one.

What do you think, sirs?

Pimpin' is easy! Real easy! If you think these cards aren't poopie, go get some! Boxes are still available!