New Names. New Faces.

 A whole bunch of new names make their way into the 2/14 binders!

I love adding CFL cards to my collection, and I love adding vintage cards to my collection. So, I'll lead with one that hits both those sweet spots. All the way from 1961 comes this beauty. Interestingly, Charles had a twin brother who also played in the CFL. Sadly, there were no cards featuring him, which would have made a really interesting addition to the collection.

Here's the second CFL card, coming from 2003, and a sparsely-attended game in Hamilton. The Tiger-Cats, for much of that decade, were dreadful, so it isn't surprising that Wayne Shaw and his Alouettes (Hey, both Montreal cards!) were not a draw.

Does a tiny picture on a coach card qualify to add a Red Hickey appearance in the set? When it is the only option, it sure does!

I know practically nothing about the other football, so all I know is these players were good enough to receive cards. And if you have more than one inexpensive card, I might as well pick up both of 'em!

A sleazy 70s 'stache! Yes, please!

Does a playing card from a set of country music stars count for the collection? When it is the only option, it sure does! Sadly, Bailey passed away this past August.

Stefanie Gilbreath becomes on the handful of members of the ladies portion of the collection. While she never reached the WNBA and an opportunity for more cards, it looks like she's doing pretty well for herself. And given the sparsity of the basketball content in the binder, I'm always happy to add a new face there.

A Wild West showman is definitely one of the more obscure careers for the collection, but it still counts! The vintage card is from 1949, with the vintage look card is from 2009 Topps Mayo, which felt like an attempt to bring the A&G look to football. 

While Pawnee Bill, born in 1860, is one of the older members of the collection, here's one of the youngest (born 2002). Hunter was a third round pick of Tampa, and made appearances in 2020 Bowman draft and Panini Elite, among others.

And since an autograph of a 3rd round pitcher drafted by Tampa doesn't carry that intimidating a price tag,  I might as well throw one of these into the shipment as well!

There you have it!

The Good Thing About Having A Lot of COMC Credit

 

It takes away much of the guilt of spending way, way too much on a single card. But I do like his autograph, especially since he added both the umlaut and his number to his signature, which is pretty legible on the sliding scale of modern penmanship. The design isn't bad for a sticker autograph, either.

And at least one of the two 2020-21 Senators rookie autos is off my wantlist. 

LARIATOOO!

 If I can't show off an autographed card of Stan Hansen,

I might as well post one of his son. It is a shame he never reached the majors, as his performance during bench-clearing brawls would have been something else.

2021 Adventures in Repacks Part 40 - Generic 20 card Hanger

 Exactly what it says in the title. 

One of these, to be more specific.

You've seen the leading card (was it really all the way back in 2017 that he was drafted?), so what's behind it?

Thomas might be the best personification of short-term stops over a career. 8 teams, with 6 of them being partial seasons. That Jerome Kersey is from one of the early incarnations of Topps Archives from 1992. Instead of using designs from miscellaneous years, they just adapted the baseball design to the player's rookie year. And there's also a guy named Bubba!

I'm not sure how many players in NBA history have had a first name that started with Q, since the pictured Quinn Cook isn't on this list of 10, but the odds of landing 2 cards of them within 3 cards of a repack has to have pretty long odds. 

Lots of repeated sets in the final grouping, with only the Lavine and Curry representing previously unseen releases. But there is a second Archives card in the mix, so I'm not complaining. And this also makes it two more base cards bound for Ann Arbor at some point. 

A nice backboard photo to end this. 

You know it is a solid repack when the junk wax era stuff produces the most interesting cards in the group.

The Hamburglar Cometh!

This might be a sticker, but it does give a very nice salute to Andrew Hammond's post-game burger celebration. A cool Senators photo on something sized properly to fit in a 9-pocket page is perfect for the ol' collection.

I swear I'm going to be rambling about the Sens' run to the playoffs in 2014 when I'm in a nursing home. 

But if cards is why you clicked through to this post, here's a couple more from the "cheap because of epacks" category.

There you have it!

Hanging Around

 

There was still one of these on the shelf at Walmart. Last year, I busted one of these last-on-the-shelf and found a /99 RPA. What shows up in this one?  Spoiler: No hits here.

No complaint about the first card out. 

The content is exactly what one expects from Diamond Kings. A mix of legends, current players, and rookies. A colourized version of that Cronin photo made an appearance in last year's DK release, but it looks so much nicer in B&W. I think that Gehrig is a new one for DK, thoguh. 

Jays content! Even though I already had one from a group break. I like that they used brown for the borders on San Diego. Mathewson is another re-used photo.

Parallels! Quite the effort on the Artist's Proof to make it stand out. 

Inserts! The actual Diamond Kings inserts are underwhelming this year. They just seem as generic as possible. No sign of the expected garishness. It is so suitable and so great that there is a literal 'art' insert set in this.

And the final grouping of cards. That Stan Musial was on the box art last year, as well as his base card. As for that Alexander, that's been on his base card during the three previous releases. I know players from 100+ years ago don't have that many photos, but there has to be at least one more out there that can have any logo photoshopped out. Right?

There you have it!

Redeemed!

 More mailbag in this post, with this one covering cards that showed up from the companies themselves.

2005 was the first season that Upper Deck released Artifacts, and that release got a salute in this year's release with 10 of the rookies being available as redemptions. Unlike with the main set, the redemptions from this insert set weren't limited to those that made their debut after the season start, really giving it a Top 10 feel. It also provided my first serial numbered card of  Tim Stützle.

And the redemptions in this set also provided my first  relic of his. It is always best when the swatches feature two different team colours.

Here's the more traditional base redemptions. Miller's probably the big name in this group so far, but Oettinger has started to see some action this past season as well. Lorentz is a local kid, and that's always a nice addition to the collection. Broberg hasn't seen the NHL ice yet, but since he was in the bubble(s) last season, he still counts for a card. He was a first rounder in 2019.

Meanwhile, my only emerald parallel redemption was a depressing one of the late Columbus goalie.

So that Stutzle relic wasn't alone in the mailer, there was this patch to to alongside it. 

As well as a couple more Tribute cards to accompany that one. See what I said about this insert set really having an elite feel to it? Alexis, Tim, and Kirill were in the 1-2-3 slots in that numbering scheme, so maybe this was more the luck of my pulls versus the checklist.

A redemption post is also the perfect spot to show off a rather quick redemption out of Panini as well. This showed up less than two months after entering it into Panini's site, with some nice blue ink to match the team colours. I was chasing Penei Sewell content for a future Cards on Cards mailer, but this will nicely suffice as a consolation prize.

There you have it!

 

A Rangers Roundup

 Another COMC shipment, another package loaded with Kitchener Rangers alum. I made that the theme of this shipment, with much of the content going into that mini-collection. Much of it was acquired through e-packs through trading some of my e-pack content, or just cheaply on COMC because it was originally on epack.

This was probably the most expensive of any of the acquisitions. 0 Celsius is just another way of saying that this card has an Ice feel to it, with this image of the HOFer being printed on a thick acetate card. 

1 game in the NHL, but that was still enough to get a card for McEneny. This foily /100 issue was cheaper than his Compendium cards, so it was an easy choice as to which to pick up.

This Canvas entry could double as a mask binder entry, with Mason sporting a mask featuring his Jets team zombie-fied.

More Orange! Ingham made his NHL debut with the Kings this year, and has started receiving cards in Extended already.

Here's another direct entry to the binder. He was drafted by the Lightning, but has yet to reach the NHL. It looks like he'll be in the KHL for 21-22.

Radek Faksa gets a nice variation, with a shiny rookie card, a french variant, and relic. His photo from this year's release is one of my faves in the collection, featuring a shot from an outdoor game. 

An all-rookie bunch here for Kole Sherwood. I'm probably the only hockey collector that is upset that Credentials seems to be one-and-done.

This numbered Landeskog is the only one in this post that didn't have an epack origin. 

But there was a nice grouping of epack cards to offset that. 

Jeff Skinner ties Landeskog with 6 cards total in the collection. I accidentally picked up 2 of the SPGU cards shown in the upper middle, but I'm fortunate to have a Sabres target for dupes for that team. The Platinum is the /399 violet pixels parallel.

Despite 6 this time around from a pair of players, the volume winner this time around was Nazem Kadri. There's the third relic in this post, as well as the third Version Francaise in this post. 2019-20 OPC Update makes a pair of appearances here, with the black being a /100 parallel. 

I really need to start spreadsheeting all these.  

Joker? You were supposed to take those out of the deck!

 

Take these out? OK, I've still got 52 more.

I'm not sure who should appear on the 'Rules for Draw and Stud Poker' card.