Still Can't Quit Ya!

 The only thing better than one box of RA is two of 'em!

A Rookie Selection that's still in the league! He has returned to Dallas after a short stint in Pittsburgh, both times being exchanged for a 4th rounder. The same fourth rounder. Yeah, that's a strange f'ing trade.

Here's a gold parallel that I actually needed. Not that I'm trying to build this parallel set. Nope. Not me!

It wouldn't be a break of RA without an appearance of the Score Signatures Colten Teubert card.

A fairly standard grouping of Prizm cards, but both rookies were needs for my "I swear! I'm not building the Update set set!"

Here's your Prizm autograph. Looks like Daniel didn't get the "ultra fine" memo. This version of the Prizms is the Prizm parallel to the regular autograph, and is /25.

Not really the most interesting pair of Select cards.

But there's some shininess here. He didn't get many cards over his 7-game NHL career, so this will probably be the brightest of the group.

I guess when I've busted as much as I have, I shouldn't be surprised when even the /99 inserts start turning into dupes.

Another dupe among the hits, but this one can be nicely shifted to the Rangers collection from the Master Collection. Or vice-versa. I doubt I could tell you where the first card is until I hit the binders.

I wrote yesterday that I got a big PC card from this, and here it is. If you remember when I landed the Kucherov, it is the jersey # versions are considered the true rookies, and generally fall one per case. So not only do I land one of a relevant player, but one of a Kitchener Rangers alum. I'd probably recover most of the cost of the boxes with this, but PC cards are nice, especially when you can pack pull a nice one!

Last pack mojo is real!

Oh, Rookie Anthology, I Can't Quit You

I may have put together the base set of this, but that doesn't mean I still can't bust a box of this now and then, right?

I won't break this box down by packs, but I'll just hit the highlights from the non-Score base cards. As I often did when I did case breaks, I'd either lead with the Rookie Selection, or a base /100 parallel. I got one of those in this box, so here it is!

I guess I technically did not get a base Rookie Selection in this, as instead I got this prime parallel. Unfortunately, it is a dupe from my overall collection. Despite Hartzell's career being limited to backup duty in the NHL, this is still a hit for the mask collection.

While I won't show the Score base cards, I'll show the parallels and autos. It is of a guy still in the league (Flyers), so that's always a bonus.

Even though they're all dupes, all of these Prizm cards will eventually find themselves a happy home. 

Shininess! And this wasn't a dupe!

Pretty bland pair of Select cards, no matter how much fun it is to say Nino's name.

Josh Leivo does seem to be a frequent appearer in this set, but since he's a Kitchener Rangers alum, even it was only a half-season, I don't care since his cards can also make their way to that collection along with my mega-RA collection. This shiny beauty is /99.

And if you want your Select /99 autos to have a relic with them, here you are! 

Let's wrap things up with some swatches, unaccompanied by ink. Here's a nice thick seam from Valeri Nichushkin.

But if variety in swatches is your thing, here's some! L-R, there's a patch, a fight strap, a seam and a jersey piece. While I would normally be putting this aside to send to Ann Arbor, I may just hold onto this as it is the only one of these Complete Rookies that I pack-pulled from this. Even /25, that seems odd for as much as I've busted. I did add a Sens one recently, but it is always nicer to open them yourself.

There you have it! And since I can't just bust one box, box #2 (of 2) is next I actually hit a really nice PC card in that post.

Damage Done

 When I hit ship on my latest COMC cards back in May, I was given an arrival date of late September. It showed up yesterday, giving me a 6-week bonus.

So, It looks like I'll be highlighting these for the next bit. First up, it was the major portion of the shipment, knocking out a bunch of cards from my set build of 2013-14 Rookie Anthology. 

I'd already landed many of the major names from the Rookie Selection portion, namely the McKinnon , Galchenyuk, Rielly and the Forsberg. While I'd pulled several Barkov auto/relics from the other sets, I never got one of these.

If not for the Barkov, this Hertl would have been the big name.

The penmanship skills of the Dual Rookie Class weren't exactly the best, so that really leaves the battle between DeKeyser and Hertl for the nicest autograph in the group.

With apologies to my regular trading partner in Ann Arbor, I'm keeping this Trouba for the set. 

There ended up being 13 total Rookie Selection cards in the shipment. Of the rest, I'm highlighting this because with the somewhat unexpected yellow swatch to make it the most colourful of the bunch. I now have 90 of the 96 cards in hand, 2 outstanding redemptions, 1 never-fulfilled redemption (Up yours, JT Miller) and 3 that will be in hand at some point.

I can always throw in a few bonus RA cards, such as this pair of Kitchener Rangers alums.

And I can also add a card from what might have been the only insert set I didn't pull a card from - Complete Rookies. L-R, theres a jersey relic, a seam, a patch and a fight strap piece.

There you have it! More from this shipment next post as I'll recap another pile of Jamal Murray additions.

Mailbag: One! Two! Three Complete Sets! Ah Ah Ah!

The mailbag finally re-opens after waiting for a trio of mailers to arrive.

Courtesy of a mailer from Dennis @ Too Many Manninghams, here's the final card from 2018 Optic.

From the same mailer, here's the final 8 cards from last year's Score football. That's been replaced on the wantlist with the only 2 cards I didn't get in my hobby box, retail or LCS build from this year's release.

The final set builder damage to my wantlist is this, although I'd already checked this one off when Dennis told me it would be in a future mailer.

In fact, with cards currently in my COMC inventory, I've finally finished the base set of Rookie Anthology.

That's 92 rookie/auto/relics out of 249 in hand/COMC, the Filip Forsberg that was actually /125 in hand, a redemption that never got fulfilled (JT Miller), 1 redemption that may or may not come through (Jonas Brodin), and another one:

that also may or may not come through (even though these did go live at one point). I saw a group break and bought the Blues slot specifically to chase this redemption, and BAM it came through. Whether it does or not, I'm still calling this set as complete as it can be.

Whew. It was worth the wait for this.

Comfort Food

When in doubt, order up and break some 13-14 Rookie Anthology. I probably shouldn't be doing this and concentrate more on the build of the master base set. I'm not going to show off everything, but will hit at least one highlight from each of the 10 packs.

Pack 1:

It is a decent enough start with a sweet patch and an on-card autograph. Alas, with all the stuff I've busted, this particular RPA is a dupe.

Pack 2:

Shininess!

Pack 3:

All but this pack contained a pair of inserts/updates/parallels but this was the exception. That Barkov is a pretty nice card to land from the box, with the golds being mostly at the rate of one-per-box. The Broll is also a need for my Prizm update portion of the set, which I swear that I'm not building. I swear.

Pack 4:

Another Red Wings autograph, another dupe. Both of the autos so far have been guys still in the league, but both have been back and forth between the NHL and the AHL.

Pack 5:

The Derek Roy is a dupe, but I can always add it to my Rangers alum collection. The Staal is a simple one-colour relic, but it is a new card for my Rookie Gear portion of the collection. Again, I swear. I'm not building it.

Pack 6:

A Ducks hit pack! It is back-to-back cards with a Rangers alum highlighting the pack, with one of several John Gibson auto/relics that I've pulled from this product. With a still-outstanding redemption, this is the 5th one.

Pack 7:

Shininess again! And it is a Sens card! WOO-HOO!

Pack 8:

Another dupe hit, but this one is an upgrade. My previous Luxury Suite card of Morrow has a mostly black stick sliver, but this one is much better. While I generally sell my dupes from the boxes on COMC to recover some of the cost of the box, I think I'll keep this one and sell the original.

Pack 9:

For me, this was the big card in the box. I'm trying to build the complete base set for this, which consists of the standard 1-100 base cards, and the 96 card Rookie Selection for this. And this was one of the cards I needed. Panini briefly stopped accepting expired redemptions, but they're doing so again. Even if a redemption is unfulfilled and never was/will be, I do consider the redemption card as the card. I have no idea if this Brodin was ever fulfilled, so in the meantime, this is just fine.

With the content on the way/in my COMC inventory, I now only need the Tarasenko from this. Which was also a redemption.

Pack 10:

Appropriate that I end up with Bobby Ryan/Sens hot box.

And there you have it! Knocking my wantlist down to 1 easily makes this a really good box, considering there were 90+ other options for the Rookie Selection. Throw in some PC hits with the Ryan and the Gibson, and it is even better. Up next, a PWE!

The 12 R.A. Boxes of Christmas - On the 12th Day...

The final box was a strange one.

Pulling a gold wasn't unusual. What was odd was the fact there was no dummy card in the pack. My only complaint about the product was that dummy cards were only used in packs that contained a numbered card, or a Score/Prizm auto. Which meant that if the pack wasn't thicker than a 5-card pack should be, there would only be base cards, or maybe a Prizm or gold parallel in it. 

The Rookie Selection.

And a parallel Rookie Selection as well. I don't recall ever busting a box with two of them. This also puts me the 1/1 Tag parallel away from completing the Jamie Devane relic rainbow.

Staying with oddness - no Score parallel or auto in the box. So it is right to the Prizm content.

Select content.

It isn't until the third auto/relic of the box that I finally get to something nice and shiny with this Elias Lindholm Prizm parallel /99.

This is at least the third time I've pulled one of these. Maybe the fourth. At least it is a two-colour patch.

Last time, the final pack I busted (which was actually from a mystical, magical 13th box), resulted in a 1/1 Martin Jones laundry tag/auto. While this doesn't include an auto, and there are 24 more of these out there, ending on a Crosby dual relic is still pretty nice. This year I've pulled my first relics of Gretzky and Lemieux, so why not throw in a Crosby for good measure? When it comes to this portion of the Luxury Suite inserts, this was also SPd, with the more typical numbering being /99.

And there you have it! Another case in the books! I've got mailings still to get to, and I'll start a journey through my latest COMC shipment tomorrow.