A Costumed 2/14 Addition

I guess this is about as close as I can get to melding 2/14 and 10/31 in a post. I don't think I've ever watched a full episode of any incarnation of Star Trek, so I'll just take the card's word for it that this is Frank Collison, and Gul Dolak was a character on the show. Frank is one of TV's "Hey! It's that guy" types, with a lot of guest star roles to his credit, along with a long run on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. (Again, see my Star Trek viewing habits)

Here's a screen grab of him from a recent Criminal Minds episode, and when I saw this, it was immediately - "Oh yeah! Him!"

And if you're in a more comedic bent, watch him in an episode of Night Court as "Aqualung".

And there you have it - a rare auto for the misc. portion of my 2/14 collection.

Worth the Shot

I jumped into a team select break of Upper Deck's new Artifacts release, grabbing the Canadiens. They've got an interesting item on the checklist I thought was worth the chase: Arena Artifacts. Those are literally artifacts from an arena, containing a piece of either a brick or seat from the Montreal Forum.

They're very much SPd, and I didn't get one. But I still got some nice cards to show off.

These were the three base cards. one of whom is no longer a Hab. But this should be Pacioretty's last card in Montreal colours.

Strangely, I got none of the high numbered base cards for the team, but I did get this high numbered parallel of Larry Robinson. This is a nice addition to the Kitchener Rangers alum collection.

And a numbered card for my mask binder as well.

The Autofacts insert set tends to be sticker-dumpy, but a hit is a hit. And at least he's still with the team he's pictured on.

The big hit for me, though, was sort of unexpected. Shayne Corson hadn't been in many releases of late, despite being somewhat of a mainstay of releases throughout and beyond the 90s. He made appearances in recent Team Canada and Leafs Centennial releases, but this is his first Montreal hit in a bit, Combine it with a nice pair of swatches, including one of bleu, blanc et rouge, and this is a really nice looking card for someone who collected in the time of junk wax.

While I didn't get a piece of the Forum, I have no complaints about the results of this break on the whole.

2013-14 Rookie Anthology Case Break - Box 12 of 12

Fin.

This is a good card for the last box, at least based on the numbering scheme. It took a bit, but the golds balanced out in the end.

My second prime Rookie Selection of the case. Unlike the first one, this wasn't a dupe.

The final Score inserts. That's also back-to-back boxes with Seguin.

A good player to land the gold parallel of.

And the Score autograph. This was a strange case on the whole as probably the best two cards were both from the Score Signatures subset with this and the Jagr. The whole subset could get sticker-dumpy at times, so landing two of the top guys on this portion of the checklist beats the odds on my part.

Prizm base.

Prizm shiny.

Select base.

Prizm shiny.

And a Select hit. I'm not going back to look at everything in this case, but I think the Select autographs were sparser than I'd expect.

An on-card auto to go an all-red Rangers patch moves us into the final hits of the case. I had no idea McIlrath was even active any more, but it turns out that he's still active, and has spent the past few seasons in the AHL with Grand Rapids.

And finally, another Hall of Famer's stick sliver ends the case.

And there you have it. It only took a month and a half, but I'm finally done. Not counting the stuff in this post, here were some of the highlights:

1/1 Prizm - Luke Glendening
Auto/1-colour Relics - Monahan, Trouba, Dumba, Gibson
Auto/Patches - Jenner, Granlund, Jones, Trouba, Hertl
Relics - Esposito, Brodeur, Yzerman
Autos - Smyth, Jagr

More hockey next post.

2013-14 Rookie Anthology Case Break - Box 11 of 12

The home stretch!

It took a bit, but the gold parallels finally picked up as the case wrapped up.

Not a bad Rookie Selection to get. Not only does he get the "still in the league" bonus, but he's on the top line with the Panthers.

Your Score Update cards.

And the gold parallel. It's about time I got the Cody Ceci card from this.

The Score autograph is of someone who was limited to two games with the 'hawks, and is now playing over in Germany. Fortunately for me, the final box will bring a far better Chicago auto from the Score portion.

Prizm base.

And the shiny card.

The select base cards. I'm certain I have more Select (and Prizm) Update cards in my collection than regular base cards from both those sets.

And the shiny card. Of all the rookies in the Select/Prizm portion of the break, only Pateryn remains active on this side of the Atlantic.

Luxury Suite made two appearances in this box, the first providing me with 2nd straight box containing piece of HOFer's stick (and good things come in threes).

Card #2 doesn't provide a stick, but does include an autograph to go with it. To go with the Bjugstad, that's two pretty good ones in this box.

And why not a third? And it is on-card, with a beautiful patch as well. It looks like it is from extreme right portion of the star logo, when compared with the jersey in the photo. Patches are even nicer when you have a photo on the card you can attempt to match it up with.

And that's the 11th box! One more to go!

Pack Sampler

Surprisingly, no Update at this point at the LCS, so that's going to have to wait until next week. You get these instead. Since they were cheaper, I got two packs of Hoops.

And I'll start with these. The photography choices seemed pretty generic last season, so there's a definite improvement this year. The last 20 cards numerically are a "Hoops Tribute" with a mix of legends and current stars, which is where the Barkley is from. At least it isn't 10 cards for Kobe this year, but I'm upset that Fred VanVleet didn't make an appearance. The Satoransky is a silver parallel /1999.

Pack #2. I think I prefer the 'pose with the jersey' photos over the rookie photo shoot ones. Or maybe it is just this pairing, where Huerter seems absolutely terrified.

Artifacts, as usual, contained 3 base cards to go along with a numbered card or a hit. After a very basic design last season, things are a little bit busier this year with the border and the background.

And the numbered card. Not a hit, but that's a classic uniform and its nice to see it on a card in 2018.

I've already busted a blaster of 2018 Archives, so I wasn't too anxious to bust a hobby pack, but I'll do one anyhow. All of the 1981s in this pack were dupes from that blaster. But, that classic 70's Ozzie Smith is always a nice reprint to come across.

And there you have it! Maybe some Update next week along with some Prizm football.

2/14 Hockey

Returning to my COMC 'to be posted' box, and pulling out the hockey portion of this. All I've got left now is a whole bunch of miscellany after this post.

Starting with some 1993 Leaf is an easy decision. This is another instance of "how did I not have this card already?".

For completeness sake, here's the front of it.

Epacks equal cheap options on COMC for their content. Here's Habs draft pick Allan McShane from last year's CHL release. He's back with the Generals at this point.

Matt O'Connor's one game of NHL experience was still enough for a card. I've got 9 more cards of him than he has games, and that's still a lot more than I've played.

Even more e-pack content and parallels here.

The return to cards with an origin in actual physical packs starts with this pair of Eric Nystrom cards. I was originally certain I had that relic card, but that was actually a different card with the 'R' window.

More swatches. Milan start to approach the 200 mark with his 190th card in the collection.

But Gaborik remains in striking range with 177 cards as these move into the collection. The City Lights card is /499, while the Limited is, well, limited to /99.

And there you have it!

2013-14 Rookie Anthology Case Break - Box 10 of 12

Back to the case!

I get a gold base parallel in this one. This was only my second of the case, which seemed a little low on the whole.

The Rookie Selection was a dupe of a previous pull. But I guess on the grading curve of penmanship, Johan is still close enough to the upper half based on a couple of legible letters.

Strange collation in this box, as I got only 6 Score Update base cards. There's usually 8 or 9.

But at least I got a gold parallel in there.

And a nice veteran autograph as the Score hit. There were a lot more Score Signatures hits in the box than the more common Hot Rookies Signatures. And there's another big name still to come.

With all the RA I've busted, how did I not have this Alfredsson already? I had the Prizm parallel, but not the regular base.

There's usually only one Prizm parallel per box, but I got these two. I guess that makes up for the fewer Score Update cards.

Select.

And the shiny one. Matt played two games during the half season in 12-13, and has been in Europe since then.

Much like with the Rookie Selections, these are technically base cards.

Ending on a nice relic of someone that's just a little over two weeks away from this HOF induction. These are usually a jersey swatch on top to go along with the stick piece, but I get two sliver of stick here instead. But I won't complain when they're from a legend.

And there you have it!