Stadium Club Box Break #3

Time for this to draw to a close.

And of course, the issues with the previous box continue into this one. Since why not?

But there were still a lot of memorable base cards in the box. It really looks like the Red Sox won the team battle for photo quality in the set. The Williams is the only one so far that contends with the Ichiro for my favourite photo in it. The Lin also looks just as spectacular with the full photo. After no Jays cards in the last box, at least I landed one here.

Red parallels.

Black parallels, with two of my favourite photos making appearances in parallel form.

And my only black & white/orange parallel of the breaks. These fall 1:48 packs, so that's just right.

Chrome.

Rainbow chrome.

I didn't plan to scan any of the inserts after the first box, but this was my only appearance of an Ohtani in of the boxes. It is one of about 45 cards still needed for the base set. I'll probably get up the wantlist sometime next week.

With a last name like Maples, why isn't this guy in the Jays system? This was my only vertical autograph.

Cubs box! How to make this card even better? Add some ink to it! The shading is almost perfect here as well, starting just above the wall.

And there you have a bunch of great photography, inserts, and autos. The best thing about it is that most of the mis-cut cards were dupes, and if you're gonna pull a bunch of dupes, let them be like that.

Up next, Canada Day Raptors.

Stadium Club Box Break #2

I always say I can figure out how much I'll like a set based on the first card I see from a pack/box. It is a good thing I didn't start with this box, because...

I'd usually blame this on my lax cropping skills. This one is all on Topps. In fact, the top 2 (sometimes 3) cards in all the packs were miscut. I contacted Topps, but since I have to send back both the cards, and the wrappers, the cost would be more than they're worth. So, a certain fan of miscut cards will be a happy camper.

Even with that problem, there were still lots of greatness among the base cards. My fave in this group is easily the Godley, which joins the 1996 Upper Deck basketball's Wesley Person in terms of great photographs featuring a swimming pool. Both guys who played in Phoenix at the time too.

No Jays content, but here are some Mets.

4 of the 6 red parallels. The other two were the Cespedes and King Felix cards shown earlier.

The two black parallels. That Broxton is gorgeous in parallel form as well.

The chrome card.

The gold chrome card. Wait. At 1 in 256 packs, at 16 packs per box at 16 boxes per case, that's a case hit! Awesome!

You know how the box said that packs with a special insert only contain 7 cards. There aren't relics in this set, so this here is the special insert. At 1:321 packs, these are even tougher pulls than the gold parallel. So, despite the miscut base cards, at least this redeemed itself with a couple cards that should put a dent in the box price.

Jack Flaherty has been all over the early releases, so I wasn't too surprised to land one. I do like how the autograph space shades at the bottom so the grass portion of the original background pops.

And the second auto also has some nice shading done to contrast the photo. This time, it is the stadium itself that is mostly hidden with the sky serving as the backdrop the photo. Unlike Flaherty, Lin has just started making his appearance in the autograph portions of releases.

And there you have it! More mis-cut fun tomorrow!

One Card Only: Nobody Doesn't Like...

Tanner Lee!

I guess I could have scanned the next box of Stad. Club, but I'm really not up to it today. So, here's a new card of new 2/14 binder member Tanner Lee. Shiny! This is from Panini's Father's Day special packs.

Stadium Club Box Break #1

With Heritage/GQ being rather blah this year, and with Archives being a later release, I figured that this year was my best choice to build a mid-range set was Stadium Club. Let's dig in!

My first Stadium Club card is this Tommy Pham. The photo is pretty generic, but things will obviously improve.

And the backs are typical of Stadium Club the past few seasons. The colours of the seats in the foreground change to match the team colour.

Jays content in Box #1. The horizontal Donaldson wins this team battle.

Mets content. You'll be seeing a couple of these photos later on.

Only two black & white photos among the base cards (as opposed to the parallels). It's hard to put a Jackie Robinson photo in second place among the two, but Hank Aaron looking super young as a member of the Milwaukee Braves will do it.

With a name like Stadium Club, you should expect some cards where the Stadium itself is the star. And boy do you get that.

Just some more great miscellaneous photos to end the base portion. The Ichiro sunset might be my favourite card so far.

Red foil parallels are 1:3 packs, so getting 7 from 16 packs was a little bit of a above average moment. Them being all horizontal as well was sorta interesting in terms of collation.

And both black foil parallels (1:8) were vertical.

There's one chrome parallel per box (1:16), so I lucked out in this one with that being a Mets card.

Rainbow foil are a little tougher - they're 1:145 packs. This is the only dupe so far that's made a quick move to my COMC pile.

Insert sampler.

Ending with the autos. Sean's having a pretty good sophomore campaign so far. Nice, but...

it really isn't as great as pulling a card for the PC. When I had some Panini points to play with, I was going back and forth between getting a Gooden or a Strawberry, eventually opting for the latter. I guess I made the right choice in retrospect, although both do have autos in the product and I still have to bust some boxes. Bonus - this is a black parallel and thus numbered /25.

The other boxes have some stiff competition with this opener!

2018 Adventures in Repacks - Part 24 - Dollarama Randomness

Any day is great for repacks. Why not this Tuesday?

A whole bunch of hockey today.

The first of the two hanger packs wasn't that interesting - especially since I got a pair of 1990 Bowmans and O-Pee-Chees. But it does get saved by a rookie card from 2003 of a player that's still around. Daley picked up a couple Stanley Cup rings in Pittsburgh and moved on to Detroit this past year. It is junk wax, but I really like that Messier as well.

Lots more variety in the second group. A couple of cards in the middle with an old school feel to them highlight this one with the Sloan and the Smith. There's OHL cards, a future Senator and an alternate uniform to join them.

I've busted a lot of 2012 Score, especially from recent repacks. That's my first Dallas Stars gold card.

Was there $5 worth of value in the Premium pack? Likely not. But that Marleau is nice and shiny, and someone I know would like that Pacioretty, so it is still a plus for me.

And your 2010s cards. 2012 may have been a pretty blah year for cards, due to the lack of rookies and the resulting reduction in releases, but there were still a few gems lurking in all of that.

And there you have it! Hopefully, my Stadium Club busting can get under way tomorrow!

Luminance

The Group Break mailbag wraps up with the second post, and a new product from Panini - Luminance.

I grabbed a second team in this break, since there was a new 2/14 player to chase. Tanner Lee was a 6th round pick of the Jaguars, and this was his first appearance in NFL products. I like the full bleed fronts - I just wish the shading were a little lighter.

The backs of these cards. My only beef here is the small text.

As usual, parallels abound. I've been a Ronnie Harrison magnet so far this year, but that's a nice benefit to Wes, since he's a Crimson Tide alum tailer-made for that collection. Even better for that, this is a nice red parallel and numbered /10.

Unnumbered, these are the Luminance Gold parallels. Even though they really don't scan gold.

There are 4 packs per box in Luminance - 1 with a relic, the others with autographs. Here's another Ronnie Harrison on its way stateside.

Autograph #2, with Taven Bryan being a first round pick for the Jags. /75, this one is a blue parallel.

And here's my Jags chase card. While I can't imagine he'll get too much field time this season, an autograph is a nice way to make his debut in the 2/14 collection. This gold parallel is /99.

Bills! Bills! Bills! Here's their base representatives, with a four pack of rookies. I don't care much about his performance yet, but I'll have fun getting cards of someone who goes by the name Ray-Ray.

Blue parallel.

Sapphire parallel. These should look really nice with Carolina Panthers cards.

And your insert sets. If they'd used the look of the Dynamic cards for an all-horizontal base set, this would be a gorgeous look for the set.

Ray-Ray!

And our latest quarterback of the future! With a top-10 pick, I have to hope he pans out. I figure either he's going to contend for rookie-of-the-year, or rival Nathan Peterman for INTs thrown in a half. Part of being a Bills fan is that there's never really a happy medium. But he does have a nice-looking auto - at least to start off the season. This Platinum blue parallel is /25.

There you have it! Back to repack-land next time.