Another Night Owl PWE onslaught: Everything Baseball

 Part 2 of 2.

There was only one Expos card in the envelopes, and I didn't need the small text at the bottom to know that it was an Al Oliver entry. 

There were Heritage minis in the previous mailers, it is only fitting there was more here. Hagen Danner still didn't get the dignity of his actual photo on the mini either, but at least they finally got it right with his Chrome autographs late in the year. 

Compare and contrast the classic cardboard look and feel of Heritage with the shiny foil of Prism. I'm happy with either adding to my collection.

A sticker seems like the perfect choice to start the Mets portion.

But if you'd rather have an actual card, here's a tasty Hostess entry.

Hey Jeff, your rear's done! I love that riff from the MST3K episode Hellcats. I can't show one of Jeff's cards without thinking of it. Sorry, Jeff. And Rusty Staub appearances always make me think of this quote about his learning French while in Montreal.

I don't think 'knocked me on my ass' will come up in Duolingo.

It might not feature his wonderful wind-up, but casual Hideo still makes for a great card. With Ordonez and Alfonso, this really seems casual poses is the theme of this grouping. 

Thanks for the goodies Night Owl!

Another Night Owl PWE onslaught: Bills, Bills, Bills

 Yet another pile of PWEs from Night Owl means another two posts filled with goodies. The Bills get this post, and baseball gets the second one. Simple!

This beautiful entry starts it off, and I love that an obscure Bills alum gets featured on such a great card. But it is a Stadium Club entry, so that's to be expected. The partly overcast skies of Orchard Park have never looked grander.

The Kelly Konundrum: Do I count this as a Bills card or a 2/14 card? This time, since it is technically not a Bills card due to licensing, it is a 2/14 card. Sometimes, the choice is an easy one.

I remember when Action-Packed was about as high-end as things would get. It is still nice when I come across them.

WOO-HOO! I found some coveted Stripe versions of Wild Card cards. Thurman Thomas provides some star power as well.

Kicker card! Tyree Jackson never played a minute for the Bills, but I do like that he played with the University of Buffalo before his brief pro journey. Peterman. Ugh. Usually when they put a running back legend on a card as a Bill, it is Thurman Thomas that (deservedly) gets the nod. McGahee is an interesting choice instead.  I do appreciate occasional variety.

If they're looking for more random RBs to make appearances in sets, I'd love to see Antowain Smith show up. Of course, people who pull his numbered parallels will be upset, but I'll be more than happy to take advantage of their misery for pennies on the cost.

I'm not sure as to why, but anything pre Pro Set/Score for football just seems like it should be categorized as vintage. Maybe it is just way too many bad 80s Bills teams getting memory holed. That Moulds shows why the team logo is always the best choice if you're going to wipe the background of an image.

Just baseball to go to wrap up another trade.

There you have it!

2025 Adventures in Repacks - Part 12

 With tariffs sending the price of wax sky high on this side of the border, there will probably be more repacks being busted as opposed to boxes for the future.

Such as this one, even if I picked it up last fall as part of a repack restock. Cool starting photo from Heritage!

Chili Davis' crouching entry is the perfect usage of that '89 Fleer design. It looks like he's struggling to fit into the photo window. Mills is from an Update set, and I always find it interesting when boxed set cards show up in these.

2/14 baby John Marzano! It's a dupe, but I have to at least acknowledge random 2/14 appearances. Minor league cards are welcome for their oddness, even if Heathcock did reach the bigs and got a handful of cards out of the deal. This also produces a couple back-to-back appearances. My last baseball repack had a Thad Bosley aappearance, while my last of this specific style had Griffey Sr.

Here's the hit! It's a Met, and a Met that was banned from baseball for PEDs. That definitely makes it a perfect example of Mets fandom.

Yount brings the star power to the post-hit portion of the repack, with Pedro providing a 'moment of impact' photo.

But the back of the card provides an even more interesting photo. Looks like it was dad-bod day at Jack Murphy Stadium as well.

The finale in all its unlicensed glory.

The hit was an on-card Mets auto, and there were a couple interesting cards from the junk wax era with Davis and Guerrero. Throw in a minor league card and a 2/14 guy, and that's what I want from a repack.

There you have it!

Mailbag Wrap-Up

 Although most of the recent Cards on Cards mailer was Raptors, there were a few other goodies contained within.

The content was entirely basketball in the previous post - not so much here, but there were another 3 cards for my Jamal Murray collection. He's due to have company in terms of local content in the NBA next season. Kitchener's own Will Riley is a projected draft pick in the middle of the first round.

Two of the five 2/14 MLBers to appear in games so far this season had cards in Series 1. Nick Pivetta will likely be in Series 2. The other two, a pair of rookies in Brad Lord and Logan VanWey, have me keeping an eyes on the more rookie-laden sets of later in the year. But at least I've got two out of the way, with umpteen parallels still available.

The Celebration insert commemorating Alshon Jeffery's bowling-themed celebration is a contender for the most unique photo in the 2/14 collection. How did I not have this card already in the binder? Maybe it was just an accounting error on my part.

4 Jays. 4 Mets. The Mets bring some variety, but at least I get to experience 3 different seasons of the most generic insert set there is. And a nickname variation. I remember being excited about Cespedes. It taught me to expect something really discouraging after the Soto signing.

By a third, the Jays win the numbers battle, with this /799 parallel. Third place is good enough to get an extra appearance. As it should!

That Josh Allen Celebration might be far blander when compared to Alshon's entry. Still it is a new entry to his PC. Red, white and blue is not only patriotic, but is just perfect for a team-colour match parallel. 

There you have it!

Stinky Shorts

 It only took me 4 years, but I'm finally getting to this. The finale in the RRParks MST3K releases - Series 4.

As the title indicates, most of the cards in this paid tribute to the short films that would open for the movies when their run time wouldn't be long enough for the episode's run time.

In the first few seasons, these were smainly erials. I was pretty happy when these arrived, since it was just a day or two before I did my annual 2/14 countdown, and it gave me a chance to add a new appearance of Crash Corrigan to that collection.

Here's a look at one of the base cards, with the contrasting back. I like that the backs do add more screens from the short. 

As with the previous sets, lots of inserts were included. Here's a rainbow of Mr. B. Natural, who was all over the set. It is probably the most infamous short from the show, so it feels appropriate that there were a lot of appearances of Mr. B.

You'll find Mr. B. in both metallic

and lenticular form.

At least Betty Luster got the dignity of getting a card of her own outside that get-up among the Claudiu sketches. We get the first non-short of this post, with Digger Smolkin out of episode #806 - the Undead. Bela Lugosi is from another bunch of serial shorts - The Phantom Creeps - seen during season 2. I especially love adding Hal Jackson to the collection, since Last Clear Chance, with all its gallows humour, was my favourite short from the show's run.

More sketches, and these can be combined to three puzzle cards of three each of varied themes. Or 1 large 9 card one.

The sketch promo cards spend more time with the movies - meaning I finally have myself a drawing of Jan in the Pan. And Gamera, who is really neat, and filled with turtle meat. But Mr. B and Commando Cody still represent the shorts in this group.

There was also a couple wax packs in the set, which contained a complete set for Commando Cody and Attack of the Giant Leeches.

Here's a sample of one card from each.

The backs of the Cody cards can be combined for a 9 piece puzzle, with the Leeches backs containing more promotional photos/posters for the movie.

Some of the base card photos get the 3D treatment. Finally, Emmett Kelly's classic eating bit and Coily get the 3D treatment they deserve.

And finally, the 1/1s.

My plate was the Cyan back from Once Upon a Honeymoon. "How many times Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie had sex!" - Tom Servo. All the images on the card is why I was so happy that there was a nice effort made for the card backs.

And my sketch card! It's Tor! 

Since he doesn't appear to have been bobbing for rubber cement, I'm guessing this salutes him from Bride of the Monster as opposed to Beast of Yucca Flats. 

Laura Martin provided this sketch, meaning I got 4 out of 5 of these with different artists. 6 of 7 if you count the Manos set. I got a Master from Lin Workman, a Torgo from Jaimie Hitchcock, a Servo by Mai Irving, a Kinga from Amanda Pattison and two separate Crows from by Andy Moore. Variety!

And now, 

Time For Go To Bed!

Some Oddness

 

If wanting a minor-league card of the guy best known for successfully suing Jose Offerman after a bat attack makes my collecting habits strange, so be it.

2025 Adventures in Repacks - Part 11

 Time for one of these:

A Select of Gronk is certainly an interesting starter card.

A parallel almost immediately off the start. Musa Smith's entry is a Blue Factory Set parallel. I really like the design on the Joe Jurevicius entry, with the team logo etched in silver in the back. Pro Set takes us back to time when making the Pro Bowl as an Offensive Lineman got you two base cards in a set. The late David Patten would get a short mention this past season when Josh Allen joined the club of players to get a passing, rushing and receiving TD in the same game.

Patten's feat warranted a back-of-the-card mention as well.

We really need more players with names like Quentin Jammer, even it makes them sound like an indy wrestler in 1991. Ray Lucas was an easy inductee into my penmanship binder. He was probably a charter member.

Brody Eldridge will not make that collection. But at least it is an auto from someone that didn't get too many over his brief career. And there's a throwback uniform for a solid bonus.

It's an interesting photo choice for Childress, with him being in the background of the picture, but still the focus of the action. I just with there were more of the ball visible to see how successful his attempt at deflecting the pass was. Kicker card! The game-winning TD might have been a better choice for that Super Bowl photo, but I can pretend that it was from the game-winning drive.

The finale.

As always, enough interesting and enjoyable cards make for a good repack.