Misery loves Mets

 I knew I'd have to show off all the Mets content in the most recent COMC mailer at some point. Why not now, following yet another loss?

There isn't too much in here - in fact there will be only 5 cards total in this post. But they all deserve to be displayed. This was one of only two true base cards here. It looks random, but this provides one of the better looks at a pair of shoulder patches. The first being the very obvious one for the 40th anniversary of Shea Stadium, and the second being the Tug McGraw memorial patch. 

Show 'em your Tug McGraw, Frank! 

That patch in the Benson photo would have been an even better lead in to this card featuring Shea Stadium if they'd used a photo from the earlier days of the stadium as opposed to the later days of it. I probably could find out exactly what year this is from, but I'll just lament that vintage would have been so much nicer.

Here's the other base card. There's proof you can have an interesting photo on the base of a higher-end card. I'm looking disapprovingly in the direction of...pretty much any company that produces cards.

Negro League Throwbacks! Yeah! Even better for my PC, this looks like it was from a game against Toronto, so it pairs nicely with a similar Jose Cruz Jr card that I landed ages ago from a repack. 

Considering I busted so little (if any?) 2022 Update, it isn't surprising this my first Ottavino Mets card. Surprising was that the numbered green parallel was the cheapest at COMC at the time. (Still is as I type this)

Local content to end the post! Ziegler was a second rounder in 2021, and his time in the minors hasn't been the best. 0-6 with a 4.44 ERA in 2022, and injured all of this year. Because why should anything about this team make me optimistic? 

But there you have it! 

Every Dawg - Part 2

 And now, the stuff in the post that wasn't football related.

It's mainly baseball in this portion, but there were a few hockey cards here. This is a 'police' type card from the mid 80's of Richard Adolfi, and you can kinda read some of the letters in the facsimile signature. Also - COOPERALLS! 

Senators miscellany. The Sidorkiewicz in the middle salutes his Polish heritage. 

Look Polish everybody! 

Here's a scanner bed worth of Blue Jays. The Topps Kids card is pretty nice, and they're always welcome, even if Gruber made a bit of an arse of himself a few years back. The Wanted is a pretty nice insert set, and considering I've only seen a handful of Big League packs/blasters in the wild, it isn't too surprising I missed it.

Here's a bunch more of those 'included in the magazine' cards. Only the Borders/Key were still connected.

And here's some minor league stuff to end this. Brett Cecil would go on to the Blue Jays, and Aumont is a nice little card for my CanCon collection. But Matt Whitney?

Ah! 2/14/88. He's a 2/14 guy. Or maybe not, since his other cards list his birthdate as 2/13. So, does this count? I do have other people in the collection whose listed birthday varies from card-to-card. But only the cards where it is listed as 2/14 (or not listed at all). Using that guide, I'm adding it to the binder, but not adding it to the official total. Can I explain that decision? 

Not really.

But there you have it!

Every Dawg Has Its Mailer

 

A mailer showed up recently from Angus @ Dawg Day Cards. It was significant enough to make it worth splitting into two posts - one for the football for this one and all the rest in another. 

If not for the 2/14 content in the mailer, the football content would have been entirely of the Buffalo Bills variety. Of course stickers count towards that collection, and holograms count as well. That Pinnacle of Bledsoe provides one of the more unique photos in the football portion of the collection.

There were a pile of these sample sheets in there. These count as well towards the 2/14 collection, even if only Jim Kelly is the only one there. But that's an extremely solid bunch of players - only Anderson isn't a HOFer. 

Bills! Bills! Bills! I was surprised I didn't have that Chronicles card of Josh Allen already.

I was also surprised that all these Ultra cards were new to my binders as well, but maybe they were already lurking around in an old box somewhere. Mark Kelso hits that sweet spot in terms of being a photo of a defensive player with the ball.  That Flutie in the top corner is an insert /3000.

Parallels! While I've landed several parallels so far of Khalil Shakir, that's my loudest one. Those Josh Allen parallels are a surprise - his cards still get the slight hometown team premium locally. Sills is the second numbered card here. And I will continue to express my appreciation for having the nickname 'Boogie' included on his cards.

The Bills portion of the mailer ends with an auto. Williams may have preferred recreational substances to football, but a team auto is still a team auto.

And now, I have to throw some Browns content into my next COMC mailer so I can hit back. Which will probably be in August, depending on my desire to hit 'Ship'.

Random Hanger Pack

 I hadn't seen one of these before at Wally World:

What's contained within?

First card out! That is definitely a choice when it comes to backgrounds. So unique. I love it! I want all of the Bills from this portion of the set. All of 'em! Send them to me. Because my pack was bereft of them.

The wiped backgrounds doesn't mean that an interesting photo won't slip in as well. This scramble looks so unique, seeing it with an actual background might ruin it.

I'm guessing this was one of his first cards in a 49ers uniform. So at least this set provided that. 

Here's those 5 rookies the package promised.

And the red parallels that weren't advertised on the packs.

Yup. You got inserts too. This is a pretty generic one.

Of course, the inserts have parallels. There's several in fact. Of the unnumbered ones available at COMC, these blue ones seem to be the least common at the site (behind silver and red), so there is that at least. 

The final insert is an interesting one that salutes the best player of a particular year's draft. 1996 didn't have too much competition for Lewis - Marvin Harrison comes closest. The background font randomly scattered about gives a yearbook feel to it - which a subset named 'Class President' should. I just wish they'd used a photo from 1996 - that memorial patch would place it in 2012. 

There you have it!

2023 Adventures in Repacks - Part 19: Meh

I've busted one of these before. Let's try another! They promise 4 rookies (I've gotten 5 both times), 4 stars and a hit.

This was a pretty bland grouping of rookies, but the empty court being green screened in behind Hollins is kinda interesting. Unless he was just being a bit of a douche and doing a random dunk during a mid-game moment with no other players around. The Dorsey can be sent off to Oregon in a future mailer, and Roby provides some shininess.

Are these stars? You have a former MVP and a former top rookie. DeRozan's Raptors time will always make his cards interesting to me, and Jrue is a really good defender. So yes, they are/were all stars. 

And the hit. The 'Meh' I used in the title pretty much sums it up. It's a plain white swatch, but at least that does pop nicely with the background. It is listed as game used as opposed to event used, so that's another slight elevation.

It was a repack. It existed and I busted it. Meh.

Blue Jays Miscellany

 Because posting Jays content is less depressing than posting Mets content.

This Total card had been on my wantlist for a bit. The price of one finally dropped on COMC to a level where I'd pull the trigger on it. Why was it there? The background is the reason - it shows the photo originates from one of the preseason games the Jays would play in Montreal at the Stade. There's a charm to seeing things again on a card that wouldn't appear outside of the legends portion of releases.

Fusion! Chronicles before Chronicles! Fagan would never reach the majors.

Random minor league card! And I suddenly have the craving for some Gatorade or Labatt's Blue. If I'm forced to choose, probably the former - I'm typing this portion of this post up at 7:30 in the morning. 

Topps liked this amazing photo so much, they re-used it for their 2021 Chrome Platinum release as well. 

I probably should have saved this patriotic entry for Canada Day, but would rather fill out this post. A national (or even state) flag seems like an odd choice for a "hometown" parallel, but in an attempt to reason it out just made me rationalize it as there being licensing issues for town flags/seals, or players from towns so small that they had nothing of that ilk.

I like trying to get cards from each of players multiple stints with their teams. While some like Tony Fernandez have their runs better known, Greg Myers, traded away early in 1992 to bring back a player for his own second stint with the team - Mark Eichhorn isn't.

One final card to bring the loudness before I get to the hits. Tapia was one-and-done in Toronto, but at least he had an inside-the-park grand slam along the way.

What do I miss most about Pro Debut? Oddball relics. While there's no evidence the player pictures (Shane Dawson) was the one that wore the jersey in question, these definitely bring an oddness to the collection. And since these special jerseys tend to be very busy, the chances of a one colour swatch are rather low. 

With these All-Star relics, it is nice to acquire a Jays hit with a colour swatch that one really doesn't see too much for the team. Even if it lacks the variety of the Promo Nights ones.

The best thing about this is that getting this auto wasn't too expensive of a proposition, so I added a second one to send off to an Oregon Ducks collector in a future mailer. And should he continue to get cards in future sets, I'll have a target for my dupes as well!

Hagen Danner is far more interesting prospect. He was drafted as a catcher, but has since switched over to pitching. He did play both positions prior to being drafted, and has since moved up to AAA this season. Looks like that paid off, even if the chances of being a two-way player are pretty much nil at this point. Even if he doesn't reach the show, this is enough to make it a pretty unique card. Now he just needs a pack-pullable card as a pitcher to match this.

There you have it!

The Extent of My 2023 Heritage

With the 1975 deign on tap for next year, I don't really have the desire to build the set this year. Still, why not bust at least something? I haven't busted any S1, so this should scratch my itch for some 2023 baseball content.  

I could have picked up a hanger pack or two, but let's go a little bigger with the hanger box! 

First card out! At least it wasn't a dull posed photo in front of a generic background.

It might not take me all the way back to 1974, but at least I got one throwback uniform card.

And while I don't expect a laughable airbrush job in a 2023 release, I'll settle for a laughable Photoshop job with the tiniest Red Sox cap logo around.

There was good star power in the box - and none of these names are hidden among the short prints. 

How did my PCs do?

The Mets defeated the Jays 2 to .5.

But I was happiest to see this come out. While I love adding 2/14 cards to my collection by picking them from boxes and from COMC/sportlots, there's just something nicer when I add them by pulling them out of packs. While his flagship card has an incredible photo (City Connect unis, horizontal, Green Monster scoreboard in the back), this will likely be my favourite card of his in this release year.

Insert time! The New Age Performers has somewhat of a digital theme this year with its logo and text. As with pretty much every year - they could stick around or go away. Blah.

I guess the ol' "pack with special insert contains fewer cards" came up here. I guess if I'm going to get a base relic, a bat relic with the grainy pattern (for lack of a better term), beats a plain grey swatch. McCutchen has both in this insert set this year. They're 1:37 in these boxes, so YAY?

Either way, see you next year Heritage!

There you have it!