PWE Chronicles

 I open up the mailbag today and pull out 3 PWEs, one from the Collector, the other two coming from Crazie Joe.

The Collector's envelope had some variety to it. In the sense that there were 4 baseball cards in the flood of football content. 

2/14 content! I was fairly certain that the Clowney and Jeffery would end up as dupes but they were all new. For how I complain about designs where the border is really overpowering to the photo, I do kinda like the design used on the Ramsey and McNair. 

Bills! Bills! Bills! Love that Tasker Score card, based on the super rare position listing of "Wide Receiver - ST". 

And that's it for TC's envelope. And it is a perfect lean-in to the CJ mailers, which were both entirely Bills content.

But there were a couple that will end up in the 2/14 collection. While Jim Kelly is my favourite member of the 2/14 collection, I like adding that Lonnie Johnson entry even more since he's one of the more obscure members of the collection.

1993 Collector's Edge won the volume battle in these envelopes with these 7.5 cards. Yeah, that's a Raiders helmet in the corner on Lofton. Parrella and Patton add some obscurity to the collection. This might be the first appearance in the binder in any form for both of them, pretty uncommon for Bills from this era.

The Finest the Bills had to offer!

Score provided one of my favourite photos in the group with that Cornelius Bennett appearance. The ball popping loose behind the fumbling player gives almost a 3D look to the image. 

But it is a decidedly non-action photo from Action Packed that gets the top spot there. You don't need to have precipitation falling from the sky to make a for a great weather card. Speaking of falling, that's definitely a unique photo choice for another star player from the team. 

Game-dated base cards! 

Here's a sampling of the remainder. Even with these, this still wasn't all of the cards in the envelopes. So many new additions to the collection. With about 50 Bills cards between all 3 mailers, about 90 percent of them were new to me. 

Thanks for all these newbies to my collection, and I hope you liked the recent envelopes sent in your direction.

2024 Adventures in Repacks - Part 13 - The Ol' Hanger and Hit

 Let's dig into one of these!

Here's the opener!

1990 Score is the new 1990 Bowman. 

At least this one is the slightly scarcer Canadian version. That Jason Bonsignore would have been huge at the time. He had a lot of hype when he was starting in the OHL but now often makes lists of draft busts. I picked up the emerald parallel of the Gartner in the past. All I had to do was wait until I grabbed the right repack. Tabaracci's Leaf entry provides mask binder content.

Some nice 1993 Leaf vibes from the hit, even if the etched-ness look doesn't exactly enhance the look of the background.

SPGU .gets some colour to its base card, always welcome in a mid-level set especially when the modern sets are almost entirely white and silver foil.

And modern blandness with 21-22 UD flagship ends it. 

There was a short run of interesting cards with the Parkhurst, the Tabaracci and the relic, but outside from that, so incredibly dull. They can't all be winners!

There you have it!

Sportlots, 2/14s and the Quest for 4000

 The climb continues!

This card was actually the reason I grabbed a bunch of sportlots cards for the 2/14 collection. After adding some alternate jerseys and some masks to my Expo acquisitions, I'd completely forgotten Mrazek's base card in Extended. So, I added this, and then combo'd up for a bunch more.

There wasn't that much variety in this. Only Eric Nystrom joined Mrazek in the one-and-done club, shown with the two-and-done Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights. 

Now we're into the volume. Those Total cards of Gaborik are different cards - one is the Gaborik base card - the other is the Minnesota Wild team checklist. I'm not too sure if that's suitable or not for a release like Total.

But Milan Hejduk retained his lead in the collection's numbers game with these 8 new additions. It's now a 3 card lead with 258 total.

To break up the monopoly, let's end with a couple football cards!

There you have it!

Budget Retail Prospecting

 

This might be the first time I've seen the retail version of Elite Extra Edition at Wally World. I might have been lucky when I did, since this was the last one on the shelves. The hobby version was perfectly OK. Let's try this.

Pack 1:

What a start! Firstly, you get a great name like Gino Groover. Then you get an appearance of a 2/14 baby in hit form with Schanuel, and you finish it off with a Met (sorta) in Hernandez. Also, the Noble Meyer is a (retail only?) Status Orange parallel, numbered to /275. I do have an autograph of Schanuel on the way, also out of EE, but I might like this one more for personally pulling it from a pack. That's always more interesting!

Pack 2:

There's another one of the orange status parallels. I also get the promised autograph here in that Nate  Furman. I actually landed one of his autos a couple years back in the 2022 version of this product. He's shown in an un-photoshopped UNC Charlotte jersey there, so I probably like that one a little more, meaning this is likely COMC bound. There's the cover boy! In more ways than one!

Since the image from the front was re-used. This is a retro base card, still part of this year's base set, just retro with the 2002 design, sans stats.

Pack 3:

Not the most variety to end. 3 DPL cards, 2 Panini-friendly catcher photos. Darwin Hernandez does give me one of those box-promised pink parallels. Samuel Lewis makes it so every pack did contain a numbered card, even if it is yet again one of those Prime Numbers card that is not numbered to a prime number - 200. Why not 199? Or 211?

Any break where I  get a 2/14 hit is a good one for me! 

There you have it!

Finally, a Finale

 I thought I had wrapped up the latest box of goodies from Dennis @ Too Many Manninghams over a month back. Alas, no. I had forgotten about the miscellaneous baseball content I'd set aside, as well as some minis. Lets' fix that!

I put the minis aside with the miscellaneous stuff, to make for easier sorting at the time, and then forgot about them when doing team posts. So, here's a Bo from 2021s 206 release, and a black mini parallel from the same year out of Ginter.

And the Mets that fell into the same category as the Jays. That Alonso is a 1972 Candy Lids parallel out of 2021 Heritage. I love the oddness of it all, and the fact it is my first such card, from any set. 

Ok. These CanCon collection entries were definitely ones that were set aside originally for the misc. finale post.

As were all these Vladdys. Bonus - they're all Expos cards. 

But that was it. Just those and the Walkers. Maybe I knew what I was doing and just put those minis aside so I'd have a little more bulk to the mailer. I've already returned fire somewhat with a not too bulky package, but should probably have a lot more cardboard to be sent out sometime during one of the J months.

There you have it!

Expo Post 9: On Ice

 The other box I treated myself to! 

And it came with a few Expo bonus packs:

But I'll start with the box.

12 packs per box, but these were the only two base cards that hit any of my PCs. Better than zero, and I welcome any Stutzle appearances.

The addition of the 'Rookie' label is the only difference between the rookie cards in that 101-150 portion of the base set.

Yes, there are numbered cards in the base set this year as in previous ones. The Eyssimont is a base card, and with his numbering going to /1299, UD didn't gave him as one of the more rated rookies. The Dostal is a green parallel to the base card. There's more of the parallel than the actual base card, this is /599 and the actual card is /499. 

Green parallels were one per pack. I opted to highlight this one based solely on the name Bobby Brink.

These may look more pink, but these are purple parallels.

At least the one orange parallel looks orange.

Sub-Zero inserts remain in the set, although this year they're numbered and extremely purple. Elmer is not a name I expect from someone under the age of 60. 

Ice Crystals make their second straight appearance as inserts. They're just as loud in person, but despite being all over the place in terms of die-cut shape, they're still penny sleeve friendly. And that's the important thing. 

An insert containing another insert! Fortunately, there's a little panel in the back that just cracks open to reveal the card - unlike rip cards that you have to damage to get the goodies out. And quite the goodie!

Sens card! WOO-HOO!

And the promised hit. I guess that would pay for the cost of the box with a low-numbered colour-match card of one of the better rookies in the set. Although as always, if a Wild/Boldy fan wants to trade its way into their own ownership, I'm listening.

As for the bonus packs:

This is the typical make-up of the packs. Stars, rookies and wrestling. I'm there for it. Alas, it doesn't say where in Canada "The Keep" is located.

Sure, the AEW design looks like a last-minute slapped-together project, but it is still nice to see the content included.

Hey! Bonus autograph! At least the number is included, so I can be more certain that the unparseable sticker got attached to the right card. 

Stutzle appearance #2! WOO-HOO! And a John Beecher that can be used in my next mailer to Ann Arbor! Best of the packs!

There you have it!

Expo Post 8: Actual Hockey

 No PC connection here. Just some misc. cards I picked up that interested me.

Let's start with a trip back to 1991 - the time where holograms ruled the card collecting world. 

The obligatory patriotic entry.

You might see it in baseball cards frequently. But you don't see a lot of hockey cards where the featured player is wearing glasses. 

But it is the greatness of a Between the Pipes that provided the oldest photograph among my pick-ups, with one that dates back to the late 1930s.

There is no such thing as a bad card that features the Stanley Cup. 

Not only is this one of a handful of cards that commemorate Jari Kurri's time with the Mighty Ducks, but the card comes from some sort of game set. 

Houston Aeros era Gordie Howe! Although for some reason, the Red Wings logo is on the back of the card. They do the same for his Whalers entry in this tribute set.

Speaking of relocated former WHA teams, here's a pair of Nordiques cards. I did not envision Randy Moller as a player appearing in  a 2010s release, but I appreciate the variety. 

A couple of my favourite photos from Series 2.

Alternate uniforms! My fave is easily the Devils/Rockies mash up. 

And that's it for the singles. But I still have one more Expo thing to show off, a box of 22-23 Ice I picked up, and got some bonus packs along with it. Best of all closing with this, it hints at the Minnesota Wild card I landed that made me smile.

There you have it!