A Bills auto for Sunday

 

I only got a single card out of a group break of Elements, but that's to be expected from a one-pack product. But the content of that single card was also unexpected. I was expecting a rookie auto, but not an auto of a Hall of Fame coach. 

I'm far happier with this, though. 

And not just because someone in their mid 90s has a more legible signature than most guys 1/4 his age.

A Date with the Randomizer

 Today, I'm highlighting some group break cards. These were ones I got into just to get a nice sampler of cards from sets I enjoy, without having to pick up a full box. I'm crossing sports in this, with cards from Luminance football and Chronicles basketball. 

The Randomizer landed on Washington for me in the Luminance, and it did mean I got a card of one of the better names in the 2022 rookie class with Phidarian Mathis. Not so much in terms of value, but just in terms of having a great name. 

Here's some numbered parallels. I only got one base parallel when I was in a pick-your-team with the Bills, so this one wins out in terms of both numbered cards, and that all these are lower numbered than the /249 of Gabriel Davis.

And I also landed one more autograph than I did with the Bills break. It's a pretty nice looking auto for one that is little beyond an initials-only one. This card also has a slight sparkle to the background, one that doesn't really show up in the scan. This is also a photo variation of the autograph, because of course it is. While the numbered cards will likely end up at COMC, I'm going to hold on to this one. 

The Chronicles randomizer landed me the Pacers.

That means an Oregon Ducks collector will get some Chris Duarte at some point in a package sent westward. But not in my next package, since I taped it up and sent it out before these arrived. Because I AM AN IDIOT!

But I will hang on to one, since the write-up here did mention his ties to Montreal. With this and Chris Boucher, they've done very well in prepping players for the NBA that have ties to the city.

Unlike with the Raptors portion of this set, there's also some variety in terms of the players available as well. Because of how odd the set is, both numbered cards at the top are not parallels, but  base cards. 

But the Prizm card here is an actual parallel. Long live the Short Attention Span greatness that is Chronicles!

And I also landed an auto here! While a veteran auto of TJ Warren might not rank on par with an on-card auto of a rookie QB,  at least he does actually appear to be Airborne in the photograph! Even if he wasn't airborne at all last season, having not played at all since late 2020 due to injury.

There you have it!

2/14 Baseball

 Off to ye Olde To-Be-Posted box, and a few new cards for the 2/14 binders!

When a Blue Jays card finally matched up with the 2/14 collection, I couldn't wait to add these Tyler Clippards into it. So, why did I stop with only the base card when there were so many parallels to chase down? I did the same thing with hits Mets cards, but in that case, there was already some Kelly Stinnett content representing them,

Here's another numbered parallel, complete with a badly photoshopped Rockies jersey. He's still working his way through the minors, and has spent the past 2 seasons mostly with their affiliate in Spokane. 

Much like with the parallels of Clippard with Toronto, it took me too long to add this Heritage High Numbers card of Ryan McKenna to the collection. Although Ryan made appearances in more games this season than in his rookie year, he also made fewer plate appearances. So, it isn't too surprising he hasn't made any official appearances this year in Topps' packs. But he was one of three players featured on their team card.

Shiny trophy! Despite that, he was waived by the White Sox this past season, claimed by the Giants, and has since been released. There will always be the greatness of 2021, though! 

One thing I do find interesting about the names in this collection is that when I look through TCDB, there were 3 baseball players who received cards with the last name of Crabbe. 2 of them, Bruce and Callix, were born on 2/14. It is oddness like this that makes the collection fun!

And if you're looking for some lengthy reading, here's the back of his 2015 card!

There you have it!

The Best Cards in Life are Free

 I ordered my Score box through Dave & Adam's, and got to choose a free gift with the pack. I usually just get some recent basketball sticker packs, but there was something a little more interesting this time available.

A Pre-Parkie autograph! I'd pulled a couple of these before as the guaranteed autograph in repacks, getting autos of Sid Abel and Howie Meeker in the process. So, why not add one more on-card autograph of a  Hall of Famer to the ol' collection? And since I always like interesting things about signatures, I love how he split his first name and last name around the stick in the photo.

It's the little things that make a nice autograph even better.

There you have it.

2022 Score Box Break - Part 3 - The Autos

The box promised 4 autographs, and that's what I got. No points here!

There's a deep checklist used for Score, which means there's lots of chances to get autographs of players you don't see many autos of. Devin McCourty certainly counts as a player that doesn't show up frequently. He's also about as close as I will get to eventually finding an autograph of a player who's name at least sounds close to my last name. Fix the spelling and take away a syllable, and you're there! 

Jerry Jeudy was a rookie in 2020 with a lot of autographs available that season. For that reason, this feels like a sticker dump, even coming off a pair of decent seasons. Maybe the Russell Wilson thing will work out to his benefit. And  at least his initials are legible. I'll be thankful for a pair of legible J's when I get to the next one.

That is because this autograph is horrid. A player with as great a name as Charleston Rambo should not have a signature as lazy as that. He was cut by Carolina at the end of training camp, so at least that signature shouldn't be appearing in too many more packs as the season ends. 

Although I do take back everything I said untoward about the James Cook auto I got in a Bills group break. At least I can recognize the letters. 

As I always say when I bust a box, if I can't pull a great card for the ol' PC, I might as well pull one for one of my trading partners. And this card of the #2 overall pick out of Michigan to play in-state will be heading to Ann Arbor in a future mailer. Aidan might be yet another member of the Sketchy Penmanship Class of 2022, but I don't think Dennis will care. And one more letter can be parsed than on  Rambo's.

There you have it! 

2022 Score Box Break - Part 2 - Inserts

Each pack of 40 contained either 4 or 5 inserts. All these insert sets were exclusive to hobby packs, and there are also retail exclusive inserts  as well.  If I find some on the shelves here, I'll probably try a few, if for no other reason than to help knock some off the wantlist.

I landed between 5 and 7 of the cards from the sets I'm showing off today. While the photography was pretty bland in the base set, at least this one does allow for some nice shots. This one does show off how narrow the line can be between a touchdown and being out-of-bounds, even if that isn't too consistent throughout.

Your standard rookie insert. Breece Hall has lived up to being in this insert set so far this season. This isn't as true throughout the set, as it also includes Jalen Wydermyer, who is already on his third team. 

Even it means a new Josh Allen appearance in the collection, I could still do without Fantasy themed inserts. 

While these aren't photographic gems, I love how these give a slight flashback to the 'team photo' cards of the past, and also allow for players that don't make too many appearances on cards, if any, to get their cardboard glory. Such as a lot of the members of the Eagles defense seen in this photo. I just wish they were listed on the back and I didn't have to cross-reference the numbers to find out that this is likely Andre Chachere's (#21) first card appearance.

Here's another returning insert set from last year. It wasn't super interesting then, and isn't this year with a smaller broken-through area for the player.

One final insert, another rookie-themed one. This one will be bound for Portland in a soon-to-go-out mailer.

And this insert set also provided the lowest numbered card of the box, with this card of Washington Commanders' draft pick Sam Howell. Even if Taylor Heinicke ranks over him on the depth chart at this point, I won't complain about landing any rookie QB card. Not only is this a first-card stamped ebay 1/1, it is a jersey number 1/1 since 1+6 = 7 and it's just math! 

Just the autographs left to show off next post!

2022 Score Box Break - Part 1

I probably should have waited to see the cards first before buying this. Then, I certainly would have passed on putting this set together this season. Why?

Why? Because the set this year is just bland. I don't mind the design, but it it is just super boring. The photography the past few season has been enough to warrant going through the break pack-by-pack. Not this year. Here's the first card out. It is crisp, but just boring. At least there weren't cheesy photoshop jobs this time.

The most interesting thing I can say about this is that there was one element that harkened back to some of the earlier Score releases with the border colours changing as the numbering does. Wirfs' border style is used from 1-100, Humphrey's from 101-200, and 201-300 look like Gastineau's.

These were probably the two most interesting photos among the base, both of which were with the legends. Strangely, both of the Oilers cards (Moon was the other) are grouped with the Texans, as opposed to the actual team history with the Titans.

With all the training camp photos, we do get what might be the first appearances of guardian caps on cards. That's interesting, I guess.

And likely the first appearance of a walking boot on a rookie card. Maybe they just should have used a photo from the NCAA for David.

I guess I have to look for collation to make things interesting. I found 2 of the 3 2/14 babies in the set located in a 3 card portion. I did get a Jim Kelly as well, but that will wait until a group break shipment arrives to show off  the Bills content from the set.

And the two bigger QB names so far from this rookie class were collated back-to-back.  I did fairly good for building the set in terms of "Glad I don't need to buy that card" cards, and the only notable rookie I missed was Malik Willis.

Parallels! I  find Vince Young's inclusion on the checklist interesting.

And some of the numbered variety. Walker is a nice get in that low-numbered form, with his performance the past couple weeks. There's one more numbered parallel (they do advertise that there is one-per-pack) but that's of an insert, and I'll be covering those in the next post.

There you have it!

Tip-Off

As with my Senators post last week, while there were games last night, the season doesn't really start until your team has played their first game. The Raptors start tonight, and here's some Raptors to show off.

They're all from a group break of Chronicles. While there is variety in the designs, it isn't as true for the players. It is largely a rookie-based set. So, while that does mean a new card of Toronto's own Dalano Banton...

the real attraction is to land a pile of Scottie Barnes cards with various designs. I  like that we also get 3 different uniform designs in this collection as well. All of these are base cards, including the numbered Timeless Treasures versions. And there's another little niceness to go with them...

All of these have different text on the back. It's the little things. I'm not sure when the press run was in relation to the end of the season, but I would have liked it if there were regular season stats on there as well. 

And I did land one numbered parallel. So, while I didn't get an auto, at least I got something close to a hit.

There you have it!
 

It Might Not be a Pinnacle Bob Hamelin

 

But it still has its charm.

But, if they'd use bilingual text, the charm would certainly increase.

Trade Stack - Quick Turnaround

2 new cards join the trade stack. And these were both from yesterday's repack post.

If you have one of the cards on any of my wantlists, I'll trade the contents of the stack to you, in return for a single card (or sticker) from those lists. I'll throw cards onto the stack at intervals of my choosing (whenever I feel like it).

Next two cards:

2018 Prizm Basketball - Kent Bazemore, Bojan Bogdanovic

They join:

2014 Panini Golden Age - Haystacks Calhoun

Want them?

1. You make a comment on the most recent post of the trade stack staking your claim, and say what you're sending. (That's this one!)

2. You send me an e-mail providing your address.

3. I reply, giving you my address.

4. We each drop a PWE in the mail containing the promised card(s).

5. You're shipping to Canada, so remember that!

There you have it!

2022 Adventures in Repacks - Part 35 - Hoops with a Hit

 

One of these is today's repack.

Here's a better look at the opener.  With a lengthy name like that, he's allowed to get away with initials-only on his autographed cards. 

Here's the first group of cards. That 'rejected' photo isn't a motif you see much of on cards, especially from that angle. That Human Highlight Film is one of the greatest drawn cards ever. I know I've shown it off before, but it is so marvelous, it needs multiple show-offs.

Any repack with a 1981 card is automatically a great one. Even better, it features relocated team mojo with it being a card of the San Diego Clippers. Does the Marcus Smart card count as a Celtics card at this point? Yes. My collection. My rules. 

And the hit isn't just a jersey card or an autographed card, but both. Sweetney was a lottery draft pick, but issues, mainly weight-related limited his career. But a hit is a hit! 

No more 1981s in this one. Boo. 

And your finale.

Perfectly average repack, but it really needed that '81 to get to that 'average' ranking.