The 12 R.A. Boxes of Christmas - On the 7th Day...

The first half of the case hasn't been the best. Thankfully, that changes as I hit the second half.

And what better way to start this case's redemption than with a 2/14 hit? Mrazek was all over releases in 13-14, but since he was a holdover rookie, his appearances had greatly dwindled by the time RA came out. Fortunately, he still made at least one appearance in the deep checklist with the Rookie Selection base card.

The Score base. Andersen is easily the best of the players to be duping up on here.

Now I've got the gold parallel of Bernier sporting the alternate jersey as well.

Even the Hot Rookies card is of a player who is still in the league. After being with the Penguins through last season, he was traded to Chicago in a deal that moved Dominik Kahun to Pittsburgh.

There were only a couple Prizm cards in this, but it does make it the third straight box with a Magnus Hellberg insert.

Lack of Prizm tends to mean more Select. The Dubnyk is a rare card featuring three teams represented - Oilers mask, Preds jersey and listed with the Habs.

Sadly, my first /10 gold parallel is of a player who has since passed away, and that's always depressing when it is of someone who is active at the time. You get a nice look at this Tuskegee Airmen themed mask, though.

The Select auto is a really good one as well, More player-wise than penmanship-wise, though. I landed the base version of this in a previous break, this one is the Prizm version /99.

Here's a nice yellow patch, and I'm 4-4 for landing autos or relics in this box of players who are still active.

And my last card of the year is a redemption. But this does make me 5-5 for active players, and it, like the Mrazek I opened with, is a PC hit, as John Gibson will join the Rangers alum binder when it arrives. There is a live version of it at COMC, so I'm optimistic it will arrive eventually.

And there you have it!

The 12 R.A. Boxes of Christmas - On the 6th Day...

Box #6 starts off with a somewhat odd Rookie Selection. I find it odd in the sense that not too many auto/relics use a photo from a face-off. And if that photo isn't from a face-off, I seriously want to know what happened to get that pose and that facial expression. Either way, I like the unexpected photographic greatness.

Your Score cards. Fairly typical of them, but the Traded cards are pretty nice in terms of photos. Check out the whip on Seguin's stick!

I think I've pulled at least one Joonas Rask auto every time I've done a case of this.

Your Prizm base cards. I've got no complaints landing an extra Lindholm.

The shiny card is of a player who got into one game for the Preds, but 3 for the Rangers, before heading to the KHL. This means back-to-back posts with a standalone appearance for Hellberg.

Here's another appearance from the Leafs alternates with the Select cards.

Select provided some shininess as well.

I got another one of those Titanium 'draft position' cards. Brian was undrafted, so I guess he defaulted to the highest possible numbering of /100. He's still in the league, though. But to say bounced around would be an understatement. He's in the Hurricanes system, and that's his 6th stop so far.

While it isn't back-to-back like Hellberg, here's the second auto/relic of Tomas Jurco, and his minimalist signature.

It really seems to be a habit of ending these posts with a card out of Luxury Suite. It just has been like that so far. For this post, it was an easy decision, with that bright piece of Jonathan Toews' stick showing up on the card.

There you have it! I'll close the year with the 7th box tomorrow. It won't end with a Luxury Suite card, since there wasn't one in the box.

The 12 R.A. Boxes of Christmas - On the 5th Day...

The 5th box starts off with the first actual gold parallel pull of the case. This is a set that's so old at this point that Teemu has not only retired, but been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The Rookie Selection base card is a one game-and-done player. I'm glad Panini opted to use a photo where he looks mentally stable.

Not much of note in the Score portion, but there are a couple respectable rookies in the middle row.

The Score Hot Rookies auto.

Prizms. The Barkov easily becomes the best base rookie in the box.

The shiny card is a pretty good one as well.

As for the select, at least I've got a new Melchiori for my Rangers alum collection.

There's just a basic white swatch on the Titanium card.

A basic white swatch adorns the Luxury Suite card as well. But at least there's an autograph to go with it. And he's still in the league, playing for the Predators. So this isn't too bad of a hit to end this. But still, this is definitely a below-average box.

There you have it!

The 12 R.A. Boxes of Christmas - On the 4th Day...

Off and running with Tomas Jurco and his derp face. This dupes up on Jurco from my last solo box of the product.

There's my second MacKinnon Score base card of the case.

Gold Reto Berra.

And that matches perfectly with this autograph. He's rocking his 'I just got traded' mask. After stints in with the Panthers and Ducks, he's been playing in Switzerland the past couple seasons.

Speaking of the Ducks, there's a pretty good Ducks rookie card among the Prizm.

Your Select base cards. With apologies to the Glendening collector on my mailing list, I actually needed this card for my "I swear. I'm not building the update set" set, so I'm holding onto this.

Select brings the shininess of the box with this Justin Fontaine rookie card.

These Titanium cards that are numbered to the draft position (Max of 100, and Stollery was undrafted) aren't considered the true rookies of the set as those are for the cards numbered to the jersey number.

There were two Titanium cards in this box, with this one being back-to-back appearances of Nikita Zadorov's sticker-auto in the case. I'm not sure what the '2' is supposed to be on the auto, as it appears on all of his autos, even ones that include a jersey number. That's a Z at the front, right, so that can't be a Z.

I'm trying way too hard to parse modern signatures.

Given the circumstances of his departure from the Senators, this isn't the best card for me to wrap up this box with, but it does have to end somewhere.

And there you have it!

The 12 R.A. Boxes of Christmas - On the 3rd Day...

Moving towards the quarter pole.

First up, here's the base card. It is nice to get a card of a player who is still in the league as of now from this. Vatanen is now in New Jersey, having being sent there as part of the Adam Henrique trade.

There's a couple nice rookie cards in the Score mix, with Monahan and Kucherov.

And here's the Score autograph of the box. Ouellet signed with the Habs during the 2018 off-season, but has spent much more time with their AHL affiliate in Laval.

Monahan also makes an appearance in Prizm form for a second rookie card.

Autograph #3 of the box is of current Avs blueliner Nikita Zadorov.

All three 'update' portion of this box have contained a Flames rookie. We are taking a step down though from Monahan. Breen played 9 games with the Flames in 13-14, and since that season he's been with the Bruins affiliate in Providence.

Shininess!

Titanium provides the standard one-colour rookie swatch.

Start with an auto/relic of Sami Vatanen, end with the same, This one does bring a two-colour swatch and lower numbering to the table, though.

After a disappointing box #2, getting some autos of players who are still relevant is an improvement. The case continues on Day #4.

The 12 R.A. Boxes of Christmas - On the 2nd Day...

The Boxing Day box!

Here's the base card/Rookie Selection in the box. He's still playing over here, in the Red Wings system. And while the yeti motif is pretty much overused, that's a bad-ass looking one he's sporting on his lid.

The Score Update portion.

No Score parallels in this one, so just the autograph here. I've pulled one of these for myself and one for Dennis @ Too Many Verlanders, so I guess this one is off to COMC, along with all the dupes from this.

Prizm's base cards. A couple of rookies that are still relevant is always nice from this portion.

As for the autograph, Jeff's spent the past season and a half in Germany with the Straubing Tigers.

But my shiny rookie is still playing in the NHL, now with the Leafs.

There's the second Michigan Wolverines hit in the box, and I'm seriously surprised that I hadn't already pulled this one and sent it in a package to Ann Arbor (although there is an auto'ed version there). That will be fixed next mailer.

And this was the big hit in the box, I guess. He did have a bounce around NHL career, but has spent the past several seasons in Switzerland.

I like the Pickard that I opened with, but this was a pretty tough box on the whole. Nowhere to go from here but up!