Mailbag!

Today, the mailbag comes from Baseball Card Breakdown, who, due to group break random luck on my part, I've been passing along some Tatis Jr autographs this year.

There were a few Bills cards for that collection, all three of which were nice and shiny. The Chrome cards are not numbered, but the Evans is /299.

And there's a quick switch over to the baseball portion of the envelope. I've busted no Ginter this year, and have avoided group breaks as well due to the Jays being costly due to Vlad Jr. So this might be my first Ginter 2019 card period.

And your other Jays card from the envelope. Izturis is more well-known for his time with the Dodgers, but he got his start with a handful of games in Toronto. He was also one of the few players whose first career home run was an inside-the-park shot, doing so in a game against the Expos.

Numbered Mets!

Non-numbered Mets!

I didn't have any certified-via-encasing cards in the ol' collection, so this is my first.

Gsellman was all over 2017 releases, so I'm not surprised there was one of his cards in the package. His intense pitching face looks more derpy than intense, though.

A little bit of a swatch to go with an autograph here of Steven Matz.

One more autograph to end this run. The base autographs in 2017 Five Star scan horribly, but look much better in hand. Thankfully, I don't think Topps has tried the idea of a thin blue pen on a metallic background since.

And there you have it! I'll definitely be on the lookout for some O-Pee-Chee Padres at the Expo in two weeks time!

Season-Starting Sens

As one season draws to a close, it is time for another to begin. As the NHL kicks off today, it is time to clear the Sens content out of my 'to be posted' box, and I'll do so, knocking off some Sens  from both the COMC portion of the collection and a recent group break.

This might not count as a hockey card to some, but it does to me. If nothing else, it does act as a perfect front-of-the-binder card for the collection.

Now, for some actual hockey. Kelly Guard may not have been one of the more memorable goaltenders in team history, but he does have one of the most appropriate back-of-the-jersey names.

Mike Sillinger only spent 13 games with the Sens, but that was still enough to merit a Topps base card back in 2001.

My quest for at least one card of anybody who got one from a major release was helped by the e-packs. While Chris Tierney has received cards in some of the early releases, the Compendium issue looks to be the only cardboard evidence of Magnus' season in Ottawa.

Off to group-break land, and the goodies from a case-break of the new Artifacts release. With 100 cards in the basic base set, the Sens ended up with the standard 3.

The rookie portion of the set is robust for Ottawa, also with 3 numbered cards. Erik came to the Sens as part of the Mark Stone trade, and has made the team out of training camp. And the recent history of Swedish defenders in Ottawa have worked out well.

As usual, the set has parallels. Here's a ruby parallel of Vitaly Abramov, who will start the season in Belleville. He arrived in Ottawa as part of the Matt Duchene trade.

And here's an Emerald parallel.

And this will turn into a Sens card at some point. As of now, the only player on the roster without a card at the NHL level is Scott Sabourin. It looks this will be the card of a 4th line enforcer, at least initially.

Arifacts means there are a lot of relic cards in the release, and let's start going through those. The rookie swatches are the highest numbered of the bunch. I'm actually surprised that the newcomers' jerseys are in the colours are their current team.

No surprise, though, that Bobby Ryan's swatches are team colours.

One Sens player swatch deserves another.

While autographs aren't the big draw in Artifacts, they remain available. And I landed one. And it had the requisite swatches to go alongside it. I always enjoy getting some of the gold/bronze portion of the Sens helmet on my swatches, and this is another example of one.

And there you have it!

Mucho Mets - A&G

Off to the mailbag again, and the Mets content from a recent case break of Allen & Ginter. Maybe this will take the sting away from last night's mess of a game.

While it did land me an extra card, I'm not too crazy about these Home Run Challenge cards being in Ginter. They really throw off the theme of the set when you pull one.

Regular base.

SP base. The SP don't really seem as SP as one sees in something like Heritage, as I got 3 each of these in the case, while getting between 4 and 6 of the regular base.

There's a hot box in each case with all the cards being glossy parallels. That brought a few more Mets into the binder.

Minis! The bottom 3 were all Ginter back parallels, to go alongside the two black border parallels. The only dupe in the whole grouping was a second regular back of Todd Frazier.

This was the Mets only entry in the internationally-patriotic World Talent series. I just wish they'd centered the globe on this over Cuba for a little more accuracy.

There were also a couple of inserts from the Fantasy Gold Mine series. I don't need Fantasy themed cards in football, and I'm equally uninterested in them in baseball sets as well. So, I end with Cespedes. No hits out of Ginter, but when I get to Optic next time, that will be remedied.

There you have it!

2018 Adventures in Repacks - Part 10.1 - Another Spring Training Repack!

This weekend, it is back to the Dollarama and another 80 card hanger. I'm really not in the mood to type up everything I got, so I'll scan everything instead. That's convenient, since 40 cards per side splits nicely into five scans of eight each.

The visible card on the first side was some Ginter, which leads into some late 80s releases. But, there's an Expo and a Blue Jays card lurking in there, so no complaints about junk wax stuff. Vance Law wasn't a dupe as well! Bonus!

Some more recent stuff in the next batch. A managerial card and the only horizontal card I pulled in the whole repack highlights this one.

If I wanted to start super collecting 1985 Topps Kevin Gross cards, this repack would have been the perfect place to start.

I've been seeing that Henderson and that Lankford quite a lot in repacks lately. At least here those constants are offset by a pair of Upper Deck cards from the 00's,

This half of the repacks ends as it starts. A retro-ish design. A Jays card. An Expos card.

Not the most spectacular grouping of 40 cards, but there were still a couple keepers in this portion. That's really all I ask for.

Just one Pack Each...of A&G and Optic

Unfortunately for Ginter, the release of it couldn't have come at a worse time. It came right in the middle of two releases I was and am really excited about - 2015-16 Champ's and 2016 CFL. But, that doesn't mean I can't at least sample a pack or two.

I was actually planning on getting two Ginter packs, but then I saw Donruss Optic's pack...

Hey! That's a Met on the packaging! Or at least a New York Baseball Club guy.

And for one pack, getting an auto is a pretty good score. I've already got an auto of Edwards in my collection, so one of them will be supertraded away in the future. The Burns is also a holo variation, so that's a hit and a parallel in the same pack.

There is one problem with the Diamond King cards, though.

The space bar for the guy who wrote up the backs of the cards only worked periodically.

Off to Ginter!

A little more colourful than previous years, but still nice. A very A's and Rays two pack break.

But that's only 6 cards. The pack did read 8. That means 2 for 2 with packs with hits!

And it is definitely a very Ginter hit. Ernie Johnson is a basketball/baseball broadcaster on TNT/TBS. I don't get either of those channels, so I seriously thought for a bit that the TNT was an abbreviation for "The New Testament", which would have been odd.

But it looks like my ability to pull hits from random packs at the LCS still holds true! I am willing to rent out my services to anybody wanting me to grab packs for them at their LCS. Just pay for my first-class airfare and hotel and I'll be there.

2016 Adventures in Repacks: Part 9.2 - Flagship Free Topps

6 packs left, all different. So, in order to make tomorrow's post an awkward combination of 91 Donruss and 04 Upper Deck, let's wrap up the Topps portion of it.

Opening up with a pack of Opening Day, and it probably is my favourite of the packs in this portion of the repack. Shiny card and a mascot in the same pack?! Yes!

I busted so much of this stuff to build the set, it is fun to take a look at these for the first time in a bit. And notice things in the process, such as the colourful scoreboard ads on the Jimmy Rollins,

I'm hoping that Josh Donaldson's catch from last year into the Tampa stands makes its way into Glove Stories 2016. For a set where the base photos can be really basic sometimes, the ball coming right at the camera on the Walker is pretty nice.

And Ginter to wrap things up. And if you ask why I have the Fields of Yore card scanned in a proper horizontal manner, but not the Balfour, I have an answer for you.

I'm an idiot.

How's that for an answer.

One more post to wrap this long-ago purchased and buster repack up tomorrow.

1000th Post Repack!

Like my 1000th post would be anything but a repack. I was leaning towards an appropriate Sunday football repack, but I think I will save those for my Grey Cup autoposting. So, here is yet another 100 card Fairfield repack from Target. And, since this is my 100th post, I'm posting all the card within.

Here is the first of the 4 visible cards, coming from the Cards Your Mom Threw Out subset. Although this would have been a card my grandmother would have thrown out, and even then, only if my mom was really into Harmon Killebrew.

Not too bad for the first nine, as I pick up a pair of Expos, and a card for my Cancon collection. And any appearance of 1993 Upper Deck is a nice surprise.

The Score of Mike Marshall is kinda interesting. His position is listed as DH, but they opted for a photo with him in the field. More 1993 Upper Deck! And that Jose Cardenal has been lurking on my wantlist for a bit. There's nothing better than knocking something off the list via a repack! Joe Oliver is numbered #220. At my current pace, I should reach it over at my 94 Choice blog sometime in 2016.

More rookie cards should feature the player riding a video game motorcycle. Or at least one more, so Trey Beamon isn't the only one.

This is a pretty bland grouping, but the Terry Crowley stands out for one reason. The Earl Weaver tape.

" We saw that Terry Crowley could sit on his f****g ass for eight innings and enjoy watching the baseball game just like any other fan, and has the ability to get up there and break one open in the f****g ninth."

But this group of 9 is more interesting. A former Expo leads the way with Ellis Valentine. Gypsy Queen is a rarity within repacks, and the faux retro of someone who is still active, and will likely never retire with LaTroy Hawkins. I've got a few of them, butthat Bill Hall is also a neat photo.

And the rest of this side before the other visible card. Archives and A&G. More repack rarities, at least for me.

Very little interest in this visbile card.

But I am definitely interested in grabbing a repack with a visible Diamond King. Even if it is a Yankees card.

It is always nice to pull a card from the 70s in one of these. Takes the sting off the dupes that came next. This is the second 100 card repack that I've pulled one of these Flair cards in. They're nice, and it is nicer that this one is of Terry Pendleton. Mainly because the last one I pulled had Chad Curtis as the Flair card. My exact thought upon this pull was "at least it wasn't Chad Curtis".

So, of course, the next card was Chad Curtis. I doubt the Team USA cards really count as oddballs, but, since I really don't have many of them, I'll consider them to be so. And hey, there's a Blue Jays card! My second of this repack.

Carlos Hernandez didn't have the longest MLB career, but with this card, and his '93 UD, Donruss and Leaf and this, he does have a great cardboard catalog.

Random minor league card! And I love that Amos Otis plays the position of Series Starter. I'm not sure why he and not the other starters got that designation.

 And I move to the end of this repack by running into the expected wall of 2011 Topps. But at least one featured Padres throwback brown.

More 2011 Topps, but at least it wrapped up with an interesting Conlon card. Not only does it list Red Faber as a spitballer, the photo makes it look like he's preparing one of them right at the time.

And the final card. I'm sure I've already got this Vlad, but it is a nice way to end it.

So, there's 1000 posts wrapped up with an appropriate repack.

And now, I have to grab a Brandon Banks auto via COMC.