2021 Score Box Break - Pack 4

 

Pack 4 opens with Packers QB content. Not quite to the level of what was pulled from the first pack, but a continuing nonetheless. 

The photo battle in this pack shows that you can have an incredible photo where you mostly show the back of the player. It looks like this from a 62 yard TD run that Taylor had during the game. Cool moment to be preserved on cardboard as well. 

Runner up is a photo that combines snowy weather and a defensive player with the ball.

Someone's fortune it when it came to the draft sees a player land with his favourite team and that being by choice for the most interesting fun fact of the pack.

My first Trevor Lawrence card highlights the inserts, but that JS-S celebration card, contrasting with the Cowboys wall in the background. 

Parallel #1. This /50 wouldn't be the lowest numbered card in the break for long.

Since Auto #2 would land in the red zone. The breaks I watched generally followed a 3 rookies and 1 vet format with the autos, so this has become a somewhat odd box already. Austin's middle name is Manuel, which explains the M in the middle of his initials only auto. While this was the lowest numbered auto of the box, it was also likely the least interesting one for me as well. Probably COMC bound.

But there you have it! 

2021 Score Box Break - Pack 3

Let's keep going.

First out this time is a Canadian in the NFL - the pride of Abbotsford, BC. 

Chase's incredibly good taste in basketball franchises also gives him the nod for my favourite fun fact in this pack.

If this name looks familiar, you might be a Texas Rangers fan. He's the son of former Rangers player, and current broadcaster Steve Buechele. Shane was undrafted, but signed with Kansas City. 

Two kicker cards in the same pack! Mason Crosby's is a bonus as it also brings the frozen tundra of Lambeau in the picture as well.

If kickers were not the theme of this pack, then maybe it was interceptions.

My first numbered card in the box came in this pack. You've got a nice photo of catching over the defender, and the colour of the parallel goes with the team colours. That's always a nice bonus.

And the inserts. At least the Fantasy Stars insert added a new Bills card to my team collection. The Sewell is also noteworthy as you rarely see OL guys among the insert sets that are made to highlight people going into the more high-profile positions. 

There you have it!

2021 Score Box Break - Pack 2

 It might be all downhill from here, but I have 3 autos, some parallels, some inserts and great photos to look forward to. 

Big Ben leads the way this time as the first card out.

Here's two of my favourite themes for football call photos - a defensive player with the ball, and the player not touching the ground. This is Jeff Heath's first base card you could pull from a pack since 2013 National Treasures. He has had inserts and an Instant card, but that's it. Jefferson was all over last year's releases for his rookie year.

Tommy Tremble is right up there with Guy Whimper in terms of having an unintimidating name.

If the moment before the catch was the theme for photos in the first pack, here it was missed tackles. 

With his name, it is a good thing Peyton became a QB. Unlike his namesake, Ramsey wasn't drafted first overall. Or at all. Looks like he has been invited to the Bengals camp.

The parallel. He went to the Jags in the 4th round. 

And the inserts. TJ Watt has an interesting celebration style. Very Ministry of Silly Walks. Breakthrough gives another card to solidify it as my favourite insert design in the set, and there's the last Justin Fields appearance for this box. 

Voila! Pack 2. As expected, not even close to the first pack, but if it did reach that level, I probably would have been out buying lotto tickets and not posting scans of the cards. 

There you have it.

2021 Score Box Break - First Pack Mojo!

 

The box showed up yesterday - let's see what is in this. Like last year, I'll go through this one pack at a time.

First card out - is a 'traded card'. Stafford remained grouped alongside the Lions teammates in the set, as does the return to the Lions in Jared Goff. Looking at the checklist, they seem to be the only updated players in the set.

As can be expected from Score, there's some great photography in the set. Here's the weather card of the pack, if not the set.

Kicker card!

While the photography for the draft pick portion of the set is pretty bland and generic, there is a gem or two in there. Darrisaw looks pretty intimidating here, and it should work out for him based on draft position - a first rounder to the Vikings.

If there was a theme to the photos, at least for this pack, it would be players looking the ball into their hands. You get the contrasting Brown full-speed photo alongside Butler just seeming to have it land right into his hands.

With the return of Fun Facts for this season, I gotta highlight my favourite in each pack. Here's Jessie Bates' superpower fantasy. This is also the first card where his name has been upgraded to the third.

Of course, the set has parallels. The silver on the Scorecard parallels work perfectly with a Raiders card.

Here's some inserts. The Breakthrough really gives the vibe a definite Topps Fire vibe, or perhaps the graffiti inserts in Certified basketball. As with every year, I could completely do without any of the Fantasy themed inserts. And if it weren't for inserts, I wouldn't have any Justin Fields content to show off.

But I did promise first pack mojo in this, and I am delivering.

My reaction to seeing this card backwards in the pack was "No Way!".

WOW!

I joke about how my Packers love is based on the MST3K episode, but here's an auto of a guy who got a riff all his own in this. "Brett Favre at home!". But even without that, this is a really nice autograph of a Hall of Famer. If it can't be a Bills auto, it might as well be an auto of a Packer. Although this isn't a numbered version, this has to be among the more short-printed ones in the set. The only problem with getting such a great card in the first pack is that it can't be anything but downhill from here. 

But when I commit to posting a whole box, I guess I have to work my way through it. At least there will be some interesting photos. And some shiny parallels. And a few more autographs. 

There you have it!

2021 Adventures in Repacks Part 19: Surprising Football

 

While I await the arrival of my 2021 Score football box, here's a Surprise Bag from my 'repacks to be posted' box. This is the last of these I have around until I either order some more, or head off to the 7-11 or Dollarama.

Here's the content. Obviously, this was assembled before the big toploader shortage.

Clockwise from the top left lands on the 2010s pack for this one, and it isn't too bad, although I am basing this on a new Bills card for that team collection. That's enough to offset two cars from the same team from the same release. And there's also some guy named Cotton as well.

As expected, nothing but the 80s in the 70s/80s pack, but at least we can go back to 1983 for the Eric "not that one" Harris. And to make the card even better, there are CFL stats on the back of his card. Anything with a helmet becomes my favourite design here, and the colour match gives it to the Jackson. 

See! CFL stats!

The 12 card pack lands me my second Bills card of the repack.

And some WLAF action makes it pretty good even with the junk wax overload. Even though it isn't pronounced that way, Joique Bell makes me think of this gag from the Santa Claus MST3K episode

I could have brought out a PACKERS! WOO! reference earlier, but sometimes you gotta spread the love across different experiments. 

Finally, your Superstars. No complaints about any of these three names being considered as superstars. Eli Manning still has two more Super Bowl rings than most people. 

There you have it! Now, to watch the mailbox!

Bills! Bills! Bills!

 Another "get caught up on group breaks" post. This time with the Bills. I've been holding on to some of these for more than 3 months, and some for less than one week. Might as well get on with this!

I actually posted this one way back in February, as part of my annual 2/14 post, where I named this my favourite 2/14 card from the past calendar year. Hitting my collecting window so perfectly can do that, with this being my first card of the Bills rookie kicker. I guess I should be amazed that a kicker warranted a card, period

I'm fairly sure that I've got more Jake Fromm signatures in my possession than Jake's agent does. I guess if Josh Allen and Mitch Trubisky both break their legs, I'm set!

There were a lot of base cards/parallels/inserts in this I'm not going to show, simply to keep this post a reasonable length. So, despite a base set worth of Bills out of Optic, I'm only showing this shiny silver parallel of Josh Allen.

But there's going to be an exception to the don't-show-all-the-base rule. That's Chronicles. With all the sets in this making it an interesting break even if the cards don't fall your way, I'm going to at least show off all the representation within.

Much of the insert sets are devoted to rookies. So, if you didn't get enough Jake Fromm with that auto, here's some more of him. If you're going clockwise from the top left, you get Panini, Clearly Donruss, Luminescence Update, Score Update and Gridiron Kings.

 There's parallels, naturally. There's the red parallel of Gridiron Kings, and in a set that appears for the first time, both in this post and in Chronicles, Clear Vision in blue.

As I was saying - more Fromm signatures than his agent.

Let's throw in a few swatches for good measure!

The Bills had three players that were drafted into higher-profile offensive positions. So, that means you have plenty of cards available in this. 

Here's another new set. Not just to this post, or even just Chronicles. Prizm Black is new to Panini period. If you can release secondary sets of other releases such as Donruss Optic or Hoops Premium Stock, why not do it with Prizm and make Prizm Black?  Gabriel Davis appears here in both the base and silver parallel.

One more autograph for good measure! Davis was probably their top rookie last year, so any auto of his is welcome, even if his signature is pretty blah.

Putting last season behind us, here's some 2021 Score!  Nice photo choices (I love the Diggs), a colourful design, and even some legend content. That's two new base Jim Kelly cards for my Bills team collection in this, and given that there's multiple boxes in a break, also 2 new ones for my 2/14 collection alongside the Chronicles. 

Although not in Bills colours yet, here's some draft picks this year. Given that they mainly drafted DL and OL guys, with the only marquee position being the 6th round pick of Stevenson, they should be pretty inexpensive in group breaks this year. But at least they drafted a dude named Basham. 

The biggest highlight of the reverse of the cards - Fun Facts return for another year. I've got a box of these on order, so I'll have some more of these to show off in the upcoming week or so.

Start with an autograph, end with an autograph. Greg Rousseau was their first rounder this season, so it is nice to get an autograph of their biggest name out of the way early.  Even if they are not going to have some big names with big on-card autographs, I still like to get at least one of each in the collection, as long as they're available. I doubt there will be more names available later outside of the three draft picks I posted, but Panini surprised me with the Bass appearance. I'm optimistic, even if I might have to wait until January.

But there you have it!