Redeemed!

These arrived two weeks after my autographed redemptions, likely because FedEx was used for those, and standard mail was used for the regular rookie redemptions, but they're here now!

While I had already added his Young Guns and OPC Update card to my Sens collection, the Senators team redemption would technically become my first card of Scott Sabourin in the collection. He really didn't fit the usual rookie description, making his NHL debut after over 300 AHL games. A goal in his debut game pretty much guaranteed he'd be the Sens representative in this.

The Wild Card redemption are generally used for the second best rookie on the team. It really wasn't a surprise when Kirby Dach, the 3rd overall pick, got the nod for Chicago. But it was Kubalik that was named one of the finalists for the Calder Trophy this season, alongside Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar. Sometimes, things work out oddly.

I got this Connor Clifton redemption in the same box where I got the Makar autograph linked above. This finally completes that box.

Hey! An Emerald redemption! I guess the Ducks didn't have any qualifying rookies in the early part of the season, and with Max Jones being in the original set, Boyle was really the only option. That's still better than with the Flames, who had Dillon Dube. He was a Wild Card redemption last season, and didn't even make an appearance in O-Pee-Chee this year.

And the final 2. Emil was the redemption for the Blue Jackets, while Frost was another pretty good name relegated to the Wild Cards in favour of Joel Farabee.

That should end the 2019 Artifacts posts for the season.

Mailbag: Hockey

Back to the mailbag, and the hockey portion!

The trade portion of this is going to be entirely from a TMV mailer. After finally entering my Alfie collection into TCDB, it is nice to know this is my 488th Alfredsson card in the collection. That doesn't include a couple Leaf printing plate 1/1s that aren't in the database. I should probably do the Wright/Delgado/Vlad Sr stuff at some point too.

If Norm MacIver is your leading scorer, your first expansion season was probably miserable.

Here's some more from that not-so-memorable first season.

There was even some wax in the mailer!

The highlight was getting a dupe of this Brian Elliott card for the mask binder, featuring another (in)famous mask wearer. Casey Jones was also on his mask during his time with St. Louis.

And here's an insert for this release, but an update card my OPC set build.

Mailer #2 with hockey cards was from Upper Deck itself. Let's see what is in it!

I'm going through these in the order I entered them in UD's site. I entered this at the very end of April, so not too bad for this. Even if Adam's signature really doesn't seem to be the type that would take too long to produce.

I entered this one in mid-May, and it is probably the biggest of the three that were in this. While Cale Makar did have live autographs in the set, he was also named part of the SP rookie autograph portion of the set. So, I had to wait for this one, which adopts the design of the base rookies in the set.

And although I posted the redemption for this earlier this month, I entered about a month back when I was in the process of busting my Score 2020 box. It's the #1 draft pick, one of two Hughes brothers to make their debuts .this season. And given the questionable penmanship nowadays, he is probably in the upper echelon in terms of penmanship.

Interestingly, I got these three autographs, but still haven't received the regular non-auto rookie redemptions. But I see some on ebay, so they should be here shortly.

Baseball next!

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.

Group Break Miscellany - Part 2

Today, it is the randomness from Columbus and New Jersey.

This one is bound for my Kitchener Rangers alumni collection. He may have only spent part of a season with the club, but he still counts. This card from Limited is /199.

The team has a decent number of rookies in the current season, with several players being all over the releases. Emil Bemstrom is one, found in the perpetually dull Portraits inserts.

But these are a little more interesting. And you can interpret two letters on the signature, so that's something.

And here's another one of their 2019-20 rookies, this time in relic form.

An interesting relic that's been making appearances in SP Game Used over the past few seasons. The Banner Year features a piece of a banner that appeared in the arena during a recent event, in this case the 2019 All-Star game in San Jose. In the past, there have been Stadium Series, Stanley Cup finals, and entry draft banners.

New Jersey is as far to the east as I'll go with this. Shininess to start!

Hey! Here's a nice patch!

Having the Devils in a release with some 2019-20 boxes means you're chasing cards of the #1 draft pick in Jack Hughes. Here's two of them! The glossy is a copper parallel from packs that appear in retail tins of flagship this year.

And here's something that will turn into a Jack Hughes autograph! That means that with the Cale Makar auto, I've got two autographs of the top rookies on their way at some point from Artifacts. That's going to be quite the mailday!

There you have it!

As a Matter of Artifacts

Another box - let's see how unbelievable these advertised hits are!

I'm not going to go pack-by-pack through this, but still feel the need to highlight one of the regular base cards. And this one was the first one out. Without a Sens card, this seems like a logical one to show off.

Here's some more base cards from the numbered 'stars' portion of the set.

This redemption will turn into a Connor Clifton base card at some point.

A pink parallel.

I guess we can start the hits portion of this post with a pair of swatches from Ben Bishop.

I guess this is a sorta parallel. The vertical rookie relics are /499, with these horizontal versions are /199. I like this more colourful card over the two white swatches on the Bishop.

And I guess this is the unbelievable hit in this box. I saw the shield logo on the card and thought it was one of the Wild Card rookie redemptions until I got a better look at the card. This looks like it will turn into a Cale Makar /25 auto when it arrives, so this is definitely a nice pull. Eventually.

And when the Artifacts redemptions start rolling in, at least I'll have some ink to show off as well.

May I See Your Credentials? - Part 1

I've been looking forward to this release since Upper Deck announced it. It brings one of my favourite motifs, the ticket-themed design, back into hockey for the first time since Contenders was a thing. Here are the highlights from the first four packs:

Pack 1:

Here's the base design. While I'm never a fan of eliminating the background, replacing it with a team logo is always a solid plan.

The backs? Exactly what I expected.

The first insert of the box is a rookie science insert. Definite science-y with the design here.

The back write-up is kinda science-y. Some are directly related to the player featured. Some are more generic, and I definitely prefer the former.

Looks like I'll be waiting a bit to see the autograph in the box.

Pack 2:

And here's your ticket motif, dated to the player's debut. These are easily the most Contenders-ish cards in this, and are considered and numbered as part of the base set.

Pack 3:

Another insert.

Since this is tied to a specific game, I wish they'd use the ticket design here as well. There are first, second and third star card, with all of them falling at the same frequency levels.

And two more tickets. And there's my first Sens card from the box. The /999 are the most common of the bunch. You'll see some lower numbered tickets in tomorrow's post.

Pack 4:

My first base parallel of the break. Can't complain about who they player is either.

The other 'rookie science' cards from the remaining packs were more generic than player-specific, so I'll scan this one to wrap up the box.

Even with the caveman-ish photo on the back.

And there you have it! Packs 5 through 8 go tomorrow!

The 12 R.A. Boxes of Christmas - On the 1st Day...

12 Days of Christmas. 12 boxes in a case of 13-14 Panini Rookie Anthology. Coincidence? I think not! That makes a perfect excuse for another case break of my favourite product!

I didn't actually pull this card from the case, but it was in my COMC to-be-posted box, and felt like that a PC card would be a great way to lead into the case.

Here was the first Rookie Selection base card in the box. While three of the second-generation Reinhart brothers reached the NHL, Max played the fewest games in the NHL at 23, and doesn't appear to be playing at this point.

The Score cards. I actually busted these over a month ago, and in between busting and scanning, I did sent about a half dozen of these off to Shane @ Shoebox Legends for his set. So, this portion of these posts may not accurately reflect the contents of their respective box. MacKinnon is always a good one to get a dupe of.

The Hot Rookies auto was one I've pulled before. But he is still active in the league, and seems to have really improved after moving on to the Canucks, and getting a full-time gig out on the west coast.

Prizm base. Not a whole lot of variety here in terms of jersey colours.

The silver Prizm.

The Prizm auto is another dupe for me, and of another player who has moved on from his pictured team and is now with the Canucks. Tanner's a local player who brought the cup to town for his Day with the Cup, and, as I've written in the past, was a former Kitchener Ranger, albeit not as a player but as a stick boy.

Now David Clarkson did play here, and he was part of the Memorial Cup winning team in 2003.

Relic card #1 is nice, and I like how the blue on the jersey in the photo almost seems to join with the actual swatch.

But it doesn't really compare to #2, with a stick piece and a nice seam from one of my PC players.

The final card of the first RA Box of Christmas is a redemption. But it looks like this did go live at some point. So I might even have this in hand at some point.

There you have it! Tomorrow, the box for Boxing Day.