2/14 Hockey

 3 straight hockey posts. Just because!

I now have 15 more cards than Matt Campanale has NHL games. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying to acquire more, even though I have more than double the nearest TCDB user. I just have to be reasonable. That means - NO!

It looks like French versions aren't a thing this year in flagship. Boo.

There's always room for e-pack Ehlers! The middle card is /299.

The only non-COMC items were these stickers, which I acquired quite the while ago, but had yet to add into my binders, or even post about until now. That's Walt Poddubny on the Rangers sticker. Dave Lowry's entry shows that Panini didn't really care how dull their hockey stickers were for the 87-88 season. And a willingness to continue that dullness through their other sports entries into 1988.

But there you have it!

Pack Sampler - 2023-24 Series 1

 Let's see some non-Senators stuff!

Such as what's contained in these packs!

Evan Bouchard was my first pack-pulled hockey card of the season. He was also lurking on the second card, in an interesting piece of collation.

There looks to be a lot of alternate jersey photos getting their moment to shine in the release.

The YG cards, despite being a base card, are grouped with, and considered as an insert in the packs. They appear in every other pack, so even with fewer packs per hobby box, the overall count of them per box remains the same.

Here's some insert sets that had been seen in the previous post.

And a couple that didn't show up. The Stamkos is a Star Zone insert, which reminds me of some of the tie-dye parallels seen in Panini's shinier releases.

Portraits. F'n Portraits. At least the insert set is a little smaller this year, which almost makes up for the sheer drug-induced insanity they are this season. And the wardrobe is different for each player. Drugs is the only explanation. 

But there you have it!

S1 Sens

 Series One from Upper Deck dropped a little over a week ago. I've picked a couple packs, and got the Senators in a group break. Here's the results of the latter, with the former up tomorrow.

Here's the base content. Face-off photos rule, and it is almost enough to make me forget about Pinto's suspension (and not zoom into see the ad on the side of his helmet). Oh the ironing!

Here's the Young Guns. I didn't land a Leevi Merilainen, but a card of a goalie currently in the AHL shouldn't be too costly when it shows up on epack. 

Parallels! Here's one of the clear cut parallels. These fell at a rate of 1 in every 4 boxes. 

Parallel #2. These are new this year and are 'Outburst' parallels. They're listed at 1:30 packs (2.5 boxes), but seemed to be a little closer to 1 in every hobby box. Maybe that's for Young Guns. Either way, this is probably the best player I could get one of in the set.

The hobby format really overloads the inserts. There are 3 of them (or 2 and a YG) per pack. My favourite that I landed a card of might be these 200*85s. They might look pretty generic, but...

as seen on this gold parallel (1 every third box, with a 100 card set), there's a nice little feature across the set.

Home jersey on the front photo - road jersey on the back photo. It is nice to see a return to different photos on both sides of the card.

Here's a returning insert series - Honor Roll.

And it provides my only numbered card of the break in this silver rainbow parallel /250!

More inserts! That's actually my first DeBrincat card where he's pictured with and listed with the Sens. So there's that. I didn't get any Portraits in this, but I did in my packs - and they're...out there this year.

There you have it!

When You Order Tim Raines From Wish

 

At least the pennant design is nice.

Might as well show the back as well.

For Tip-Off: A Raptors Megapost

Sure, the season really tipped off last night. But, aside from seeing Jamal Murray pick up his ring, the real interest I have starts tonight with the Raptors starting their season. And here's a bunch of cards from varied sources to celebrate.

The hologram opener comes as part of the latest TMV incoming mail. Bonus: You can't see it from the scan, but the background of the hologram is from a game against the Grizzlies.

Here's the rest of the Raptors content from the mailer. That VanVleet is acetate, appropriate for that insert set name. I've opted to call that Delgado/Carter dual card a Raptors one. Why? I'm not sure. The Hoops Premium cards on the bottom are Red Cracked Ice and Green Pulsar respectively.

I don't just fill sportlots orders to the next shipping level with 2/14 guys. Sometimes, I use Raptors. Love that Bosh photo.

Here's some COMC picks. The island on the Stoudamire reminds me of some of the Magnitude designs seen in Chronicles. I'm probably the only person that liked those purple/black jerseys like Siakam is sporting. More people would probably wonder why they're used on a set saluting 75 years worth of the NBA.

Here's someone that was sort of on my wantlist for a bit. I had his Instant card on there, since there were more of those out there than his NT relics. But when this showed up on COMC, I had to overpay for it. At least it is supposedly game-worn. And when you want a card of every Raptor who got a card with the team, you're willing to do a stupid thing or two.

Group break stuff!

I'm sure I've been sitting on these for almost two months waiting to show them off at the right time, but here's the base team set from Mosaic. As always with these Chrome-ish cards, they show off every speck of dust and grime on my scanner bed. 

But that also means lots of shiny parallels! Here's the basic silver.

The Mosaics.

And the blues, of which these are /199.

But nothing beats a colour-match parallel. This unnumbered card wins the day in this break. 

I'm not sure why I avoided Prizm this year. It wasn't cost - the Raptors weren't too expensive this year. I finally pulled the trigger this year on a break of a few Fast Break boxes. I might not have come close to a complete set, only halfway there, but that's expected from only 3 boxes.

If I'm only get one silver and one fast break parallel, it might as well be of Vince Carter.

This break worked out pretty nicely for a lower-priced spot. Here's a /150 fast break parallel.

Another colour match! This one is /100.

No better way to end this than another Koloko autograph. It is my 3rd of his, joining a pair of Recon cards. For a second rounder, he's been perfectly fine, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he can produce with the rookie jitters behind him.

Bring on the season!

There you have it!

2/14s from Michigan

 Back to the ol' TMV mailer again, and all the 2/14 babies contained within.

I'm legit surprised I didn't have this card already in the collection. From 2019, it was the first mainstream card, and he wouldn't see a Bowman card until 2020. Am I still bitter about the Varsho trade? Yup, and not just for it preventing another large overlap between it and my Jays collection.

He might be the latest example of a flash-in-the-pan in MLB, but at least Yermin's blazing start to the 2021 season made for a lot of cards available to the collection. 29 so far! 

From 999 copies, to 250 copies, to just 1, the baseball portion wraps up with a printing plate of the recently retired Tyler Clippard. He made a bunch of stops over his career, which makes for a nice obscure pick when I'm trying to add 2/14 guys to an immaculate grid.

Current record for the most 2/14 guys on a grid - a tie with 4, including this one on Sunday.

That number on Sanchez is nice, but he isn't the most obscure guy I've ever put on. (With Cleveland and 'only played for one team').

Off to the gridiron.

This, and my recent sportlots order, had a lot of junk wax era stuff of Jim Kelly in it, so I'm somewhat surprised to compare the cards in each and find that the UD card in the upper corner was the only dupe between the two. I'm surprised I didn't have that one sooner in either collection, since it also hits the sweet spot of infield dirt in the photo, and traces to the no-punt game against the 49ers. 

Drew Bledsoe wins the volume battle with 7 new cards for the 2/14 collection. After the McNairfest in the previous post, he's still solidly in third place among gridiron guys in the collection, with 180, 40+ behind Steve.

Numbered card! 

Relics! While I like the Alshon on the card, I might love the oddness of a red Giants relic even more. But that's only for that card - a Jim Kelly hit will always rule the day!

And there you have it!

The McNairs out There

 The 2/14 king of recent incoming mailers was Steve McNair. Actually, that was not true until my sportlots order arrived. I may have gone a little bit overboard, as I bumped my collection of his cards to 223. Jim Kelly remains in the lead with 260.

This was the only COMC McNair card in the mailers. Human Highlight Film? Don't tell Dominique! 

There were a couple more in the TMV mailer - this pair of cards that go back to the Oilers days. 

And the only hit you'll see in this post. That is a rather odd shape for a swatch window. 

It was the sportlots portion that I went a little bit crazy with. I may have cleared out this seller's entire collection of McNairs. They really did him dirty with that photo on the Pinnacle card. Showing the ball on the ground might me good for a defensive player - not for the QB.

Starting Line-up! Garish SPX! And a Ravens era card! All over the place with these, and its what I want when I do get a small stack of cards of a specific player.

Compare and contrast the newness of Chrome cards with old-school Turkey Red card. McNair is one of the perfect choices to have scrambling photos included on their base cards. The one in the lower right corner is the only dupe I picked up in error. But there's a nice pic as a consolation prize.

When I saw the Bills logo in the background, I was hoping that it was a 2/14 QB clash with Jim Kelly providing the opposition. But it was the season finale, and with the Bills already in the playoffs, he had the game off, and Todd Collins and Alex Van Pelt were thrown to the wolves. Still, there's some weather fun there.

There you have it!