Wednesday 30 June 2021

2021 Adventures in Repacks Part 27.2 - Hanging Around the 7-11

 Here come another 25.

Not a bad player to find a base card of on the other side of the retro. Topical as well!

Some more recent stuff as we go through the first grouping of cards. Retro Ducks! 
That's the wall of Bowman that one expects from a repack. I wouldn't be surprised if the presses are still running and producing cards from this set. But there is one of those game-dated photo cards that UD should never have stopped using for base cards. It would be fun pulling a "Hey! I was there for that!" card from a pack.
We get a poorly-scanning Platinum card to break the Bowman string, before another brief  run from another 1990 set. I'd completely blanked on tough-guy Ronnie Stern's pair of seasons with the Sharks. This Pacific entry was his only cardboard appearance on the Sharks, until a one-off in one of those ITG Enforcers sets. Shea Weber shows up for the second time, this time on an Update insert. And some MVP ends this portion of the repack.

The other half starts next post!
 


Tuesday 29 June 2021

2021 Adventures in Repacks Part 27.1 - Hanging Around the 7-11

 

Another hanger from the corner store. The best thing about these is they're perfectly counted to make things easy to scan everything, instead of just doing individual cards. 

As always with these UD Retro cards - a great concept, but horrible execution with these paper thin issues. The originals weren't like that, why these?

A nice summary of what this, and seemingly all, repacks contain. Recent base from flagship, ITG entries and junk wax era stuff. That's my first card of Gump on the North Stars in my collection. He looks about 60 in this photo, and definitely looks like a hold over from the "Why should I protect my head from pucks?" era. The Ogopogo on the Rockets jersey is another one of my CHL faves, alongside Sudbury's.
Gallagher provides the only respite from junk wax here. But at least there was a HOFer with Kurri, and some Nords blues.

Now that's an ITG-intensive grouping. But there's still some 1990 Bowman to give it that classic repack feel. There's two mask binder cards in all this, with the double duck look Giguere sported being one of my favourites of all-time faves. Sens content too, and I don't really have a lot of Josh Hennessy in that. There's also a great logo that I completely blanked on - the Cleveland Barons time as a Sharks affiliate, where they perfectly combine the team name with the affiliate. A really fun octet!

There you have it!


Sunday 27 June 2021

2021 Adventures in Repacks Part 26 - Some Basketball

 I know I've been recapping a lot of repacks as of late. Blame COMC for being 2 months behind on sending my latest shipment. (At least they refunded the 'rushed' shipping) It should arrive on July 5th, so I'll have some cards I actually picked out myself to show off instead of busted ones. 

20 basketball cards today! A Celtics card on top, even if Kyrie's time with Boston wasn't exactly too memorable in retrospect. 

With Knicks cards from that era, I always find myself scanning the courtsiders to see if the Menendez boys took in any more games while they were in New York. I had never heard of Evers Burns before pulling his card. Playing 22 games can do that. But I do remember Antonio Davis, and he's providing a new Raptors card for that PC. It is always appropriate when someone with the last name Green suits up for Boston. 
A little higher end with a couple base cards here, as Brilliance and Finest appear. That Hastings card does look pretty bland, but there's something nice hiding on the back.
Bubble blowing! It might not be Kurt Bevacqua, or even Joel Otto, but is a little something nice for what would otherwise be a very common card.

With the Atlanta Hawks currently on their best playoff run in ages, there's a flashback to their less-memorable years with that Josh Smith. Not only do I get a Raptors card in this, but their expansion cousins also appear with that Grizzlies card. Canadiana Perfection!
And the other visible card, which really didn't matter since I ordered these directly from the company, is a 2/14 baby. I was certain that I already had this card in my collection - how could I not, it seems fairly common. But I had the autographed parallel of this, but not the actual base card. That's back-to-back repacks with new 2/14 content contained within. This will be my 18th card of Mullens. 

Another really nice repack, with some PC content along with a couple interesting cards. 



Saturday 26 June 2021

2021 Adventures in Repacks Part 25 - A Saturday Surprise

 

Or Sunday, depending on what day you read this. Repack from the 7/11.

Unopened wax, and a hit in this grouping. I'll be starting from the upper left with the superstars.

And here are the Superstars. I don't know if Eberle counts, the Rangers probably wish Trouba counted, and I guess Malkin is probably the most superstarry of this grouping.
Heck. Based on that Carey Price insert in the lower left, I'm thinking this 12 card miscellaneous grouping is a stronger group than the one that was supposedly all superstars. This is from 2013, before epacks made the Shining Stars inserts absurdly cheap on COMC. Even though they are PC dupes, the Alfie and Roy are also nice adds. 

MVP! MVP! MVP! A rookie parallel, and a shiny die-cut stand out here, along with a pair of cards that, like the Trouba, will be bound for Ann Arbor.
They may have gone a little overboard in terms of Heroes & Prospects content in the 2000s pack. But I won't complain when one of the cards is a new 2/14 card with that Tom Pyatt. WOO-HOO! This puts my Pyatt total at 31 cards of his in that portion of the PC. All four of these prospects did reach the NHL at some point, and Voracek is still there.
And here's the hit. I was expecting some sort of basic game jersey insert from flagship, so this was a nice enough upgrade from expectations.

A hit, a 2/14 card, an insert, a parallel, and some trade filler. Pretty successful repack!




Friday 25 June 2021

Series 2

Better late than never when it comes to recapping a hobby box of Series 2. I opted for a regular hobby box as opposed to a jumbo box. It just seemed like a better value on the whole than the jumbo box, even if I didn't get the complete base set out of it (18 short).

Of the 312 base cards I di get, these were some of my favourite photos in the bunch. Cardboard fans, masks, and bunting cards. The Wallach card is amazing in its simplicity. 

The photo variation I landed in the Series 1 box was an incredibly bland photo of Alex Bregman. At least the S2 box gave me something far more interesting with this Cutch dive.

Many of the inserts were continued from S1. But DH debuts is new, highlighting the arrival of the DH in the 2020 National League. It might be little more than an excuse for another insert card of star hitters, but at least it is something new in terms of theme, instead of just a generic LOOKATTHESESTATS card.
Here's the promised hit of the box. At least it wasn't a plain white swatch.

Where the hit didn't exactly come through with a spectacular card, but the parallels did. Here's a /99 vintage stock parallel. And a decent enough player to be landing one of.

And if the /99 parallel isn't rare enough, here's one /10. These clear parallels are even tougher to come across than the low numbering would indicate. They aren't paralleled through the entire set - there's only 100 per series, which would at least limit the available players to a more notable caliber. The bat on the photo has a slight 3d effect in hand, whether that's intentional or not. 

But, as always, either of these parallels are available for trade in return for something in a Met or a Jay.

Speaking of a Met, here's a final one, in the bonus pack. While I didn't get any numbered parallel or autograph in it, at least there was one more Met card. And they're always welcome in a 1986 form.

There you have it!

Thursday 24 June 2021

More Set Building

This will probably be the last of my 2021 Score purchases in box/pack form before I make the pivot to singles to finish off the set. Will there be damage done to the wantlist?
Yup! Here's some veteran content that dropped off the list. While a couple big names are on this list, I really like that Kendall Fuller. Eyes wide as the interception just perfectly floats into his hand, with the intended receiver having the "Oh shit" look on his face.
And some rookie needs as well. For some reason, the Justin Fields base cards continue to avoid me. I only need 3 to finish that portion of the base set, and 2 of the 3 are of him.
What do those promised purple parallels look like? Like this. Of course, that Woodson is already set aside for the latest mailer I'll be sending to Ann Arbor. 
I guess these are retail exclusive to the hanger boxes. I watched a few youtube breaks of these boxes and one of these red dot /460 parallels showed up in each of them. Brett Favre isn't a bad player to be a magnet for in this product, even though this parallel isn't on par with the first one I landed.

The inserts were the same sets that were seen in the previous retail break. That is a very impressive trio when you're thinking of defenders over Bears team history. 
And the inserts brought me not just one, but a pair of new Josh Allen additions to the Bills PC. 

With this post, my want list drops to a super reasonable 30 cards. If you're looking for something to send my way in trade, some of those would be nice!




Tuesday 22 June 2021

2021 Adventures in Repacks Part 24.2 - More 7-11 Repacks!

 

And the second of these. 

I just grab whichever repack is visible on top. The visible card isn't important to me, but a visible Lanny McDonald will make me gravitate towards that one. Even if it is a Leafs card of Lanny, and without the mustache at maximum bushiness.
The first grouping of cards. There was a dude named Sharples in the NHL at one point. That's nice to know. That Lehtinen card nowadays would be some sort of 'rain' parallel, but in 1995, that was the base design for Leaf Limited. 
This might be one of the better repack groupings in terms of my PCs. A Senators card I didn't have. Two Kitchener Rangers alum cards that I didn't have. And a food issue card with the Timmies of Corey Perry.
And the hit is a relic from Champ's! If I'm gonna get a relic of a non-PC player, it might as well come from a set I liked.

The last grouping of cards was pretty blah. The 2-14 card, like with yesterday's, was a dupe. And that it is an incredibly dull, dull entry of a superstar player out of a Stadium Club green. Whaler green keeps it from being a complete wash.
Not even a mascot visible on the other visible card. 

The middle grouping of this was really good. But, the first one had more interesting cards throughout the repack to give it the nod over the first one. Still, since these go for about the cost of a hobby pack of flagship, either would have been a more interesting purchase as far as content goes vs sealed wax.

There you have it!




Monday 21 June 2021

2021 Adventures in Repacks Part 24.1 - More 7-11 Repacks!

 Another trip to the 7-11, and a pair of these repacks.

I just grabbed a pair of these off the top of the hanger area. 20 cards, and the 21st is a hit. Let's see what shows up.


A closer look at the opening card. Overtime packs are bonus packs included with box purchases at some LCS. Not exactly the expected visible card.
The first group is an interesting bunch. There's a 2/14 dupe on the bottom, but that Sens card isn't one. The H&P card is definitely the most interesting one. Firstly, the Sudbury Wolves sport one of my fave uniforms in hockey. And it was the only mainstream release for a player who got 15 minutes of fame when he became an emergency goaltender. 

A gold parallel, a campy Neely and the oldest card in the repack (the O'Connell) join the expected 1990 Bowman.
There's the hit! An on-card auto too! While Yip's most recent action has been overseas, he did spend several years in the NHL. so at least it wasn't a one-and-done. While the signature is basic, the large space is well-used.
The next batch of cards. The 1998 Dynagon is the another surprise set for this repack. Zednik is probably best known for having his neck cut during a game, and I really don't recommend loooking for that video if you are squeamish.
1993 Leaf back!
And the final visible card. Rinkside mascot mojo!

There you have it!