Tip-Off

 Games may have officially started last night, but the season doesn't really start until your favourite team has hit the court in the regular season for the first time. That's tonight, and here are some Raptors to welcome the season.

I like completeness, and I was doubtful that Will Barton's 16 games in Toronto would earn him a card as the team. So, I added a collegiate card of his to the binder. But then Panini needed to dump some stickers, so he showed up in Elite as a Raptor. Fortunately, adding this to the collection was not an expensive proposition.

Speaking of collegiate cards, here's two featuring rookies that may, or may not, be debuting tonight. Walter was their first rounder, while Shead went in the second. A perfectly acceptable start to a collection that will likely add some actual Raptors cards as the season release season progresses.

A not so random VanVleet closes off the COMC portion of this post.

Not-so-random because I picked this up since the back salutes his record performance for an undrafted player.

Now, some group break cards from a part case of Phoenix. Phoenix did make a previous appearance as part of Chronicles, but this is its solo debut in basketball. Since it was a part case, I didn't get a complete team set, but it did result in Ochai Agbaji joining the binders. He actually had a pre-Raptors connection with Gradey Dick. They both weren't just Kansas alum, but Gradey got his dorm room when he left KU.

Here's the parallels. The McGrady is an unnumbered silver, with Poeltl coming in at /175 for his pink version.

"Court of the Kings"? Real creative there Panini. 

Naturally, inserts have parallels as well. This purple is /75.

But if that isn't low numbered enough. 

And you'd like a little more to the card than just that...

Here you go! We've got a yellow parallel /25 of Chris Bosh, the first person to have spent enough time with the Raptors that you think of him as a member of the team to end up in the HOF. While Vince Carter will have his jersey raised to the rafters in a few weeks, I'm surprised that Bosh's enshrinement wasn't also followed up with a #4 retirement. 

There you have it!