A Milestone

 

What better way to celebrate your 1000th game than a custom jersey for the warm-up?

Other than actually being allowed to wear it during the game.

Also, these 2022 Extended cards will probably be the last of his career as an active player. Which as a finale photo for a player are actually kinda great.

There you have it!

Everything Football (Almost) - Expo Post #6

 The run of Expo posts draws to a close as I kinda, sorta wrap things up with football content.

I love cards with a weather element to the photo. For football, that usually means precipitation. But not always. Of course, this is Stadium Club, so no matter what the sport, the photo is going to be an interesting one.

Because the reverse of this card describes this as coming from the Ice Bowl. -40 is where the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales are equal. So by either measure, that translates to really, really cold.

Another Stadium Club entry. This is proof that another player can take up more of the photo, and it still being an interesting one. 

Even after adding his autograph, I still look for Robert Smith newness for my MST3K collection. While neither this card or the auto counts towards this, they count as bonuses towards all the RRParks MST cards.

HOF Bill content!

And one more. This is from the (fairly) recent Topps Composite release. It was unlicensed, but was loaded with legends, alongside a few 2023 rookie QBs. It covered a bunch of sets, to really give a Chronicles vibe. If I could have found a box at the show for a reasonable deal, I probably would have gone for one. Alas, I'll stick to singles. At least with that, I don't end up with a small stack of Will Levis cards.

That's it for singles. But I also got this:

So, there's a lot more football stuff to go!

I'll start with the first of those 10 packs.

I won't be doing this for the next 9, whenever I get to them, but here's everything this time around.

Bijan Robnson is my first pack-pulled card.

Two cards in, and Njoku provides the first interesting photo. Check out those determined eyes and the straight-ahead focus. If you're going to include legends for every team, having a brief history is how Mark Brunell gets in. Of course, the 2/14 collector in my wants some David Garrard. 

A (Hall of Fame) kicker card and a throwback uniform? More of this, please! Even if that Stenerud photo has been re-used several times recently. Then again, how many vintage photos of a kicker does Panini have access to? They can't have that excuse with the Dickerson.

I love how close Keyshawn's photo is cropped on his card. For a pose like that, it just works.

The base pack finale is all rookies. I prefer the collegiate uniforms, where applicable, to the cheesy photoshopping into new jerseys that plagues Bowman baseball draft releases. 

Each pack also contained 5 inserts/parallels.

The first inserts. A couple flashbacks to some early 90s inserts with reasonable Hot Card and Franchise tributes. But they don't compete with Men of Canton. That is the perfect way to salute Hall of Famers with a double image of them as an active player, and at the ceremony. Easily the insert set I'd most like to try and complete. 

Just a boring Scoreboard parallel in this, but things will pick up with some more colorful and numbered parallels in future packs.

And there you have it!

Everything Baseball - Expo Post #5

 Another post, another sport.

Even if the photo doesn't show his face, you can't go wrong starting the post with a Jackie Robinson. At least you still get his iconic jersey number.

Sometimes, you just see a card that looks super classy and isn't too expensive that you just have to add, even if Carlton Fisk doesn't really hit any PC. 

Yeah, it is a reprint. But, it is a reprint of a guy (nick)named Peanuts. As always, why wouldn't I add something so great?

Usually when I grab Cardinals cards, they're meant for a future mailer to Cards on Cards. I did pick up something that is probably currently in postal strike hell. These are too much fun not to keep. Same for Lowrey.

So far in this post, there have been 3 Cardinals but only 2 Jays. But that first one is an O-Pee-Chee, so that counts for about 10.

Mets content was a little higher, and its all over the place. The Kranepool is very well-loved, but it is an OPC card. Vintage. Buybacks. Chrome. A little of everything.

That Dempster would be a contender for the most oddball card in my Canadians in MLB collection. And if you flashback to the Tyler Black card I posted in my Stadium Club blaster, you'll see that although they are two different photos of the same Gatorade dump.

Some Ginter legends on inserts that don't really fit anywhere else.

Doggy cards! Since they're Ginter cards, I'm calling them baseball for the purposes of this post. How can I pass on some cards of some very good doggos?

I had a hockey pack I'd never before busted in that post. Let's do it here as well with some 1991 Swell! 

And here's the contents of that pack! It's nice to see a few names like Staub, White and Houk that, outside of buybacks, haven't made appearances at all in recent products. Even the usuals, such as Wagner, appear on photos you haven't seen used over and over and cards. 

There you have it!

Everything Basketball - Expo Post #4

 Hoops this time!

Sure, this is a Wilt Chamberlain checklist card out of early Upper Deck. It's a nice drawn entry for the collection, and considering my love for these types, an easy pickup. But the Harlem Globetrotters appearance elevates it even higher.

From one legend to another, here's the Human Highlight Film on an insert from 22-23 Donruss. Highlight Film? How quaint. Still, Human Sizzle Reel sounds really lame. And probably what more than one high school hopeful calls themself when sending video to recruiters.

Some days, you just need a shiny Dayton Flyers card in the ol' collection. 

And sometimes, you just need to get an acetate card of a guy with a name so long they have to reduce the font size on the card. 

When you have a lot of colours on your jersey, getting a colour match parallel is easy!

I thought this might have been a dupe, but decided to take the risk. Turns out I the one I already had was the base one and I already had the silver. Any new Vancouver Grizzlies content is welcome in the collection!

Finally, some Raptors. I went 1/3 for dupes in my football 2/14 additions. Here, I went 3 for 4, as only the Siakam was a dupe. That DeRozan in /299 for the only numbered card. It may not be licensed, but Chrome makes a nice return to the NBA as I pick-up my first card in-hand. I do have some Rip Hamilton stuff at COMC from this set that are technically mine prior to this.

And yes, he's called Rip on the card. YES!

There you have it!

Strike!

 Canada Post is on strike. So I'm taking a break from Expo posts to exhort people not to send me anything until it is resolved.

Ob card: Here's someone who called a lot of strikes over his career.

And since it is a Conlon card, it deserves to have the back scanned and shared as well.

There you have it!

Everything Hockey - Expo Post #3

 

Now, just the hockey stuff I picked up. While I did grab some stuff bound for elsewhere, this was surprisingly small for an Expo haul with some PC additions and some "I like this" additions. 

I'll open with the latter of the two. While a shorter term team like Tampa Bay doesn't have a huge array of jerseys to choose from, I'm surprised they opted for that for their reverse retros. 

It's a Leafs card, but this is far nicer looking alternate/throwback jersey card. At least in terms of the actual jersey. The shininess wasn't needed. 

Misc cool insert!

And just a random cool card of a legend.

I put the final touches on the 1-100 portion of the base set of 17-18 Ice not that long ago. I'm perfectly happy calling that the set, especially with there being decreasing print runs as the 101-200 portion climbs in card number, with the final being the biggest stars and also /99. But the chance to add a few misc cards from the numbered portion into that set? I have to take advantage!

Just some base additions to my Kitchener Rangers alumni collection.

Even if Givani Smith only spent one half season with the team, his cards still qualify for addition. This was another one on my wantlist over at e-pack. Smith's career so far has seen him bouncing around the league, either with trips to the AHL and then with other franchises. He's now with the Sharks after a short stop in Florida.

There's a little more variety than just base among the Sens content. Even the Eaves was an insert, appearing as an Update in that season's Series 2. The Triumphs insert just seems like a very basic moment to salute. A tying goal? The Sens would eventually lose that game 6-3. Did they want to do a Brady Tkachuk insert but that was the only photo they could find? 

A parallel and insert I picked up on the cheap end the PC portion. According to my TCDB listings, I have 4 Leevi Merilainen cards. Only one isn't an Artifacts rookie or parallel. Variety! Also in three, that's my third Erik Brannstrom auto. He came over as part of the Mark Stone trade, and that really didn't pan out, and he's now in Vancouver.

There were sellers there with various packs at $1 each. I rarely go into a Tim Hortons, so I confess to never having busted any of their annual packs. Until now.

The packs seem to always contain two base cards, and an insert/parallel. It looks more purple than red, but that Suzuki is a red parallel. 

There you have it!

Everything 2/14 - Expo Post #2

 I'll be spending the next however many posts working my way through the Expo goodie box. Up first as I go through singles pickups, everything 2/14!

Up first, one-and-done with Gabriel Moreno. They have the "scans like crap" issues that I had with Stadium Club Chromes last post, but these do look a little better than most years.

3 more Nolan Schanuels for the binder. Having a Rookie Debut in 2023 saluted in 2024 is odd, but it still counts as a new card for his collection. Ginter this year will be an acquired taste. It is a shame I didn't realize there were state-themed inserts this year, because I could add two new Arizona/Oregon cards to the misc. binder.

I didn't have easy access to my lists at the show, so I was going by memory as to what I had and didn't have in the collection. For football, I went 1 for 3 - only Jaxon was new. At least the Jim Kelly can go into the Bills PC.

A new face for the collection! Dominic Pilote was born in 2006, but that's still a ways to go to become the youngest member of the collection.

1/3 of the card still counts as new Ehlers content. The top card is from this year's recent Series 1 release, with the bottom one going back to 2016. 

Even with them being somewhat more common with epack, this is still my first Clear
Cut base parallel in the collection. I have others in my Sens collection from group breaks and even a couple personal pulls, but my first 2/14 guy. Future (?) Jets teammate Colby Barlow has options that aren't too costly, so there may be company soon. 

Finally, one that's been on my wantlist for quite a bit over on e-pack, probably since the early days thereof. Which would make it 2016ish? Despite not really being that expensive, I still hesitated in adding it to my COMC inventory at any point. Now, $2 later at the Expo - it is mine!

I'm still not sure why I waited.

But there you have it!