Capture the Flagg: Round 2

 The first playing of the game netted me a pair of inserts of the top draft pick and chase player (at least early on) in this set.

What will this one contain?

The first 1/3 were base dupes from the blaster. Boo.

But once the new stuff started appearing, this beauty showed up. Now this  is an action shot, featuring an in-game between-the-leg dunk. And given that it is an alternate jersey, it shouldn't be too hard to find the actual footage of it.

And it wasn't. Even with more than one example of Toppin performing that dunk out there. And even cards of others.

Raptors content! To say the team has missed Barrett over the past couple weeks has been an understatement. 

Grizzlies throwback!

Legends content! At least this is better than the ridiculous 'team checklists' in the set. In both my breaks of the product, I've landed a Seattle Supersonics card, which is odd for a team that hasn't existed in years. This one, with Detlef rocking a 70's throwback design, is the easy winner of the two.

Here's the rookies, and I also can celebrate a second break where I find Cooper Flagg. And when I compared it to the 80-81 throwbacks, they did change the write-up on the back between those and the regular base card, which didn't happen on the ones I pulled one of each from in the blaster. 

The inserts. Nothing new here.

But one thing I did notice is that they used a different image on the back than the front. I didn't really look at the back of the cards the first time other than for sorting them, but it is nice that this feature, for lack of a better term, moved over from baseball.

And there you have it!

I Want it NOW!

I'm back to the 2/14 collection today, and some new names in the collection.

And there's no better way to add a new name to the collection than through a Topps Now Call-Up addition. I got this from the same ebay seller that I got the Tyler Bass game-winning field goal card from last year. It's so nice to find a seller that recognizes the ease and cost-effectiveness of a PWE. Anyhow, Mitch Farris was part of the September roster expansion, and joined Nolan Schanuel, who came into  the world one year after Mitch did, on the Angels. He debuted with Bobby Witt Jr as his first out, so that looks good for his future.

That's worthy of a card back, too! The print run isn't listed, but only 563 more needed to get them all!

It was a good year for 2/14 pitchers making their debut in the bigs, with two more of them. Here were the other two, who debuted early enough to qualify for cards in Update. It was a little easier to hunt down inexpensive entries that way in terms of shipping. When it comes down to the more interesting of the two, I have to vote for VanWey, for the nice uniform photo and those incredible socks. Fashion choices will likely influence things when it comes to my annual "from the last release year" countdown in a couple months.

Since it was Sportlots, I could add a couple more cards cheaply without an increase in shipping cost. So, it was a pair of Jeff Grahams that I chose. While still base cards, Flair and Zenith are a small step up the base card scale. 

And look at that great throwback uniform on the back!

Would You Like to Take a Survey?

It has nothing to do with beans or George Wendt films. If you get that reference, you're amazing. And probably old.

For the actual tie-in with the title, several months back, I took some "Which fictional character are you most like" quiz. And I matched up with...

I figured "Why not" for his auto? It wasn't too costly, and I guess in terms of modern penmanship, he's in the upper percentile, so I can also defend it as worthy of there. 

FWIW: Kelso from the 70's Show was at the bottom of the list for guys, with Jenny from Forrest Gump at the absolute bottom. Ghostbusters' Egon Spengler was also in my Top 10. That's about all I remember from the overall list.

But there you have it!

Belated Football

 I guess I should have done this after/alongside my US Thanksgiving post, but now seems like a good a time as any to show off the football additions to the 2/14 collection. And considering I'm doing both footballs here, it is still timely after yesterday's World Cup draw.

I think I'd rather spend that Friday night in jail rather than in that part of the city.

With that out of the way, here's the football content in my most recent COMC shipment:

Getting to actual cards, shiny is always a nice way to start off the cardboard portion of any post, such as this Red Refractor.

Fleer Tradition could often be counted on for a nice retro-like design. I do wish the player cartoon in the lower corner changed according to the position of the player. 

This could have been used alongside the Tracy McGrady card I showed in a recent recap, because this card is designed to be open. Fortunately, this one was a lot easier to open, in the sense that you did not need to rip anything to show off the full images. 

And now, you get more Pat Patriot than you expected!

Of course, there's going to be a Jim Kelly appearance.

And a card where Jim is in the background still counts as well.

Over to the pitch, and a couple of Frenchmen!

Myziane Maolida makes his collection debut with a pair of cards. That's your standard refractor on the right, but the brighter of the two is  a GoldRayWave version. Which is all one word, and I'm just too tired to even consider adding that word to my dictionary. It's enough of a bother to add  'ou' spellings.

Top Shelf Terrors is a set name that could work just as nicely in hockey as in soccer. While this isn't Jeremy's first card in the collection, it is the first one where Topps started getting his birthday correct on the cards. While there was no birthdate on this insert...

it is present here.

And that can act as a perfect intro to an autograph! Hits are pretty sparse in the soccer portion of the collection. This is only my third autograph, joining Diego Fagundez and Dillon Powers in a clean sweep for MLS autos. At least the 'D' stranglehold ends.

But there you have it!

2025 Adventures in Repacks - Part 35 - Back to the Hangers

 

I still have several of these around. Time to finally get caught up and do one of them. Nice enough horizontal opener.

Boddicker and Hayes have some real Panini friendly photos, leading in to an actual Panini entry. That's about all I found noteworthy about the opening group.

Ditch the baseball attire and replace it with a hockey jersey, and Brian Drahman could easily pass for a third-line winger. That's a downright Jagr-esque mullet. Can a haircut save a repack? Yes, it most certainly can.

Here's the hit! Sure, Dawson may have only made 9 more plate appearances in the majors than I have, but this is my first auto that includes a sliding glove.

Cooperstown finale! Hell yeah!

When one of the more notable cards in the repack is a 1991 Bowman, I'm really struggling to find good things to say about it. Sliding gloves and all that. 

But there you have it!

Raptors in the Mail

 Back to the TMV mailer, and today it will be the Raptors content contained within.

I'd added a parallel of this previously into my collection to commemorate the famous bouncing shot by Kawhi. It is a 9 card rainbow for it, and if I could pick one Raptors card to get the complete rainbow of, this might be the one. 

This whole design makes it seem that Tracy is going to appearing singing Michigan J. Frog standards.

Alas, no. Sure, I have to damage the card to actually see the image inside, but if I have no plans to re-sell it, there's nothing wrong with doing so. 

Back-to-back posts with Vince Carter appearances! Appreciate the subtlety of the card on the left, because things are about to get really bright.

 Because there were a lot of shiny parallels in the mailer! Thankfully, the two appearances of Blue Hoops parallels of VanVleet and Walter help preserve my eyes. My favourites are probably the Boucher content, since he left the team this past off-season, the final member of the Championship team to depart. Honourable mention to Gasol in the dino throwbacks.

Bruno may have been more "two years away from being two years away" than "the Brazilian Kevin Durant", fine in

Next up, the guy who had all the little paisans in Toronto wanting their nonna to cook up Primo Pasta for Sunday dinner. While he was perfectly fine in Toronto, he really didn't live up to the hype one would associate with a first overall pick. But, this wasn't the strongest draft class. I'll just be thankful they didn't pick Adam Morrison instead.

Plus, an iconic Raptor did show up in that draft, just 23 picks later via Memphis. And Houston. And several seasons later. But Kyle Lowry was probably the definitive Raptor over much of his time with the team, even if with others taking the spotlight. If he doesn't end up with his #7 in the rafters next to Vince Carter's #15, I'd be amazed. Whatever his legacy with the team dictates, here he is on a plate out of Flawless.

So, I'm now halfway through the mailer. Mets, Bills and miscellaneous stuff still to go. Will I get through it before 2026? Probably not. I know my procrastinating tendencies.

But for now, there you have it!

Second Fiddle

I picked this up the same time I got the blaster of 2025 Topps. With a pair of Cooper Flagg inserts, and that Anunoby parallel lurking within that, it was easy to ignore this. But it is now time to get around to it.

First card out. If you've seen a Donruss issue from the past year, you know exactly what you're getti Although if the video on the big screen behind Deni had created some sort of recursion with the video used, this could have been an all-time great picture.

Nothing too interesting as I progress through the base cards. 

Here's some Blue Velocity parallels. While there is a notable name here with LaMelo Ball, the big winner is Marcus Smart rocking the Vancouver Grizzlies throwbacks. If only they'd also changed the team logo to match it. 

Purple parallels too, although despite one rookie's claim to be Rated, they're not nearly as interesting as Marcus.

The Insets! The Winner Stays includes nothing on the back about that particular run to that team's championship, which really is a downer from an insert set saluting victors. At least the more interesting of the two, Kareem, is a shiny holo parallel.

The final base cards! Raptors content! I have no complaints when their only appearance is from the Legends portion of it. Meaning that they've had legends play for them. And backboard cam too!

While there were a few interesting cards for me (Smart, Carter, Abdul-Jabbar) it still feels like a below average break.

But there you have it!

Thankful for a 2/14er Fact

 I didn't do much of anything card-wise for Canadian Thanksgiving, but there was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up for today.

It comes from the leader for games played among football in the collection. And my 9th card of his, the last of his mainstream releases. 

I actually didn't know that, but sure enough:

Yup, there he is!

So this was an educational card for me as well. I just wish I had a new MST3K-related to card to show off for Turkey Day.

And there you have it!