Zellers is closing, so I'll Bust Blasters - Part 3

Since I've already had a pair of requests, I'll point out that unless I state otherwise, all the cards that I pull from this are available for trade. It's primarily base cards with inserts and parallels. The only ones I'm definitely keeping are goalies, guys for my birthday binder and Masterpieces. The latter of which we have yet to see in this break. Until now.

Seeing a pack of these in the box was a pleasant surprise. It's a set I've kinda considered building the base set of, since it is probably the only one I could see myself working on without getting POd at the lockout. It is a tough decision which is my favorite from it. It's nice to see Manon as part of the set, but it is really hard to vote against the Lanny McDonald. That's one of the most iconic examples of playoff facial hair.

Upper Deck 05-06. I'm thinking this a preview of the photography we will see in the 13-14 sets, where they're forced to go deeper into archives for shots. The LeCavalier and Comrie ones are still nice. The latter is my favourite out of them, as everything really looks good with the sheet of ice as the background.

Nothing much to see in this pack. I guess Drury is the biggest star in this lackluster pack.

A couple nice inserts in this pack of 08-09 Upper Decks. The binder-bound Carey Price is my favourite, but I also really like the windup photograph on the Brind'Amour.

One more to go from the first box, and it features probably the closest think to a "hit" out of the bust sesson.

Zellers is closing, so I'll Bust Blasters - Part 2

4 down. 28 to go. I'll start with the biggest dud of the bunch.

Circular cards. With a diameter too great for any of my binders, or any boxes. I'll throw them in a drawer, and maybe send them out with a random hockey card trade, knowing that they'll be loose in the envelope and get damaged on the way. Or I'll keep them and stare at them when I need a WTF moment in my life.

I found several Artifacts packs in the two blasters. No hits in any of them (or in the entire boxes), but they're nice enough cards to have. Manny's destined for the mask binder, and I like the alternate jersey on the Sundin enough to make it my pick of this pack. That's not easy for a Sens fan to admit.

The last of the three Ultra packs in this blaster. It might be the only Tom Preissing card where he's pictured (although not listed) as a Senator. Still, it's hard to pick against Crosby as the best card of the 5.

My favourite of these pack of the 4 that I'm posting today. A great picture of Curtis' mask for the binder, and a nice shiny Malkin insert card.

Zellers is closing, so I'll Bust Blasters - Part 1

 The local Zellers is closing, and I decided to finally take a trip into one to see if they still had any cards. They had a grand total of two blaster boxes left. They were repacks of unopened packs, with supposedly 16 packs worth $40.00. I thought there's be 15 Pro Set packs, and maybe one high end pack. I decided to risk one, since with the discount it worked out to about a dollar a pack pre-tax. I took a look inside, realized it was mainly mid late 00's stuff, and figured I'd have fun busting it. So I went back to pick the other one up, and busted my way through them. So, there's gonna be a lot of hockey cards posted over the next week.

I'll post all the cards with little rhyme or reason to them. First up is some 07-08 Fleer Ultra. The Sedin card is a really nice parallel, but I think my favourite is the Gaborik, since it fits into the hockey portion of my birthday binder.

Nothing much to see in this pack. I guess my favourite Latendresse rookie, since he's now a Senator. If any Isles fans still exist and read this, really sorry to remind you of the Yashin trade.

Ugh. Way too much silver and black in these cards. While Luongo's card will be a nice addition to the goalie mask binder, I like the Winter Classic insert a little bit more. Sadly, the write-up on the back says nothing about Richards' performance in the game. It just has a short paragraph about him. Sigh.

More Ultra! From 08-09 this time. It is a little tough to pick my favourite out of this pack. I'm leaning towards the Shanahan card, but the Ovechkin is a really nice horizontal card, and it is also nice to see a another pretty good player in a parallel. I can't complain when the worst card in the pack is a Leaf.

The 08-09 Ultra are probably my favourite of these four, with the other Ultras close behind.

Break goodies and trade w/ Cardboard Conundrum

This is kind of a two goodies in one post, which makes sense since they arrived together today. Firstly, there was the group break. Seeing what the boxes were, I went against my fave team and picked my second favourite team instead. Doing so saw me miss out on a Spezza jersey/stick relic. Instead, the enforcers box yielded this beautiful autograph.

AWESOME! A legendary big, bad Bruin! Taz! Part of the infamous crowd brawl at MSG! Heck, he lead the rush! What a killer auto! That's more than worth missing out on a Spezza. I've got lots of those. This one is an only child. The rest were base cards. Nothing much to see there, but the Tuukka Rask will end up in the mask binder.

Speaking of the mask binder, two more beautiful cards will be entering there:

I've always liked Conklin's masks. While it isn't his octopus one from his days in Detroit, this one's still nice. Plus while I have his later mask, I didn't have this earlier entry. Nice to add it, and my first Edmonton relic.

I guess this is technically and insert and not a hit. But Mike Smith has my absolute favourite current mask with the vicious Wile E. Coyote chowing down on tasty Road Runner.

Finally, a card of one of my guilty pleasure players of the 90s, Rob Blake. With the bonus feature of a slight hint of a two-colour piece on the Cam Barker.

Thanks for the trade, and the break!

80's Fashion

Unfortunately for Mr. Candiotti, this card was from 1994. He is clad in a jacket looks like something a jobber on the 80's Saturday wrestling shows would wear before they're introduced.

Nice try, Tom. But you're no Charlie Fulton.

Daily Dimwit Group Break - November

These arrived today. Plus, my COMC goodies have yet to show up, so you're stuck with this. 5 boxes of 2006 UD Artifacts. I picked the Mets. I got randomed the Brewers (just like this month). The cards truly fell my way in this break. Out of the 20 hits from the boxes, I ended up with 4 of them and complete base sets for both of my teams.

Beautiful. This beauty popped out of the first pack of the break. I guess the pinstripe could have been a smidgen closer to the middle, if I must pick a nit about it. The Brandon Sutter I picked up yesterday was the largest swatch I had in my possession for just over 24 hours. And the Mets hits just kept on coming in the 5th box.

A card of a guy who, come April, will join my binder of players who have played for both the Mets and Jays. Boy, my dream team of players who fit that category has just gotten a lot stronger over the past month or so. I've really got to put together a small binder of those sometime soon.

And why not a third Mets relic as well? Wow.

And here's the Mets team set. Beltran's is pretty blah, but the rest of the cards are all quite nice.

Off to my random team. The hits kept coming with them too, as the third box.

This is not a mind-blowing hit. But it is a former Met, and a guy who is still active in the bigs. A nice surprise out of my second team.

And here's the Brewers team set. I ended up with 3 Prince Fielders, and was willing to pass along one or two of them randomed to a hitless breaker. Sadly, the packages were already done, so I guess I'll just have to put one of them up cheaply on listia.

Thanks for another great group break!

Expo Goodies - Part 24

Time to wrap up the goodies from a baseball dime box. For now. I went to the local show this morning, with a goal of expanding on two of my personal binders. I have one for goalie masks and for players that I share a birthday with. I did add a few relics that fit into the latter category, but I then noticed a rarity for this small show. 2 baseball dime boxes. That put quite the dent in both my time, and, since I didn't bring a lot of cash with me (MORON!), my funds. But I did get some nice insert cards, and some interesting early 80s cards out of the deal, so it is still a win for me.  So, at some point I'll get to those, once I get through some of my budget hockey pack and blaster busts over the next while.

In the meantime, let's look at the last of the Expo dime boxes.

I have a lot of 1990 Oleruds. Probably most of them. But not a single one of these until I sacrificed a dime to get this one.

How about a tasty Joe Carter from a Dempster's bread set?

Or an equally yummy Cecil Fielder from Jimmy Dean?

I grabbed this one because it reminded me of the backs of the 1993 Leaf cards. The fact it is a hometown reference as opposed to the playing city made it a little more interesting to me. It took me a second or two of looking at it to realize that it wasn't a guy from the Mariners with the Space Needle in his background.

How about a cheesy pun to continue this post?

And my month plus worth of Expo posts should have probably wrapped up with a Montreal Expos related post, but I'll instead do so with a couple of Mets.

And, unless I open the Blue Jays fire safety card team bags, that's the end of the box.

Expo Goodies - Part 23

My goodness. I can almost see the back of the box as these cards move from there into various binders. One more day of this. Then I can get back to busting El Cheapo repacks or a single card a day.

But, in the meantime:

Opening up with one of the oddballs I picked up, and among a handful of Gary Carters I grabbed that day. Strangely, I pulled this out of an Expos box. Perforated edges, and the logo of a defunct local electronics store on the card. Smaller than a typical card as well, but bigger than your typical mini. Everything about it screams that it is completely bargain basement, but I couldn't resist.

That wasn't even the only oddball Gary Carter I grabbed. This one here was another one, and it was by far the worst conditioned Carter I grabbed that day. Still, it is the classic blue uniform of the Expos and a unique enough card. Creases? Horrible corners? Who cares?

Finally, something a little more mainstream.

Definitely more mainstream than the first, but it bizarrely lists Gary as a second baseman on the back of the card.

I did grab a good number of Diamond Kings at the show, and they've been posted already. These two might have been my favourite portraits of the bunch that don't count Mets or Jays.

I'd hinted at this one before. A 12-in-1 Sportflics card saluting the 1985 World Series Champions. My only complaint is that they list the players on the back, but they don't correspond in any way to the placing on the card. While I don't need to have Dan Quisenberry or George Brett pointed out to me, Dane Iorg and Darryl Motley are other stories.

12 players kinda makes this 4-in-1 Brewers card pale in comparison.

Expo Goodies - Part 22

Time for a decidedly Quebec feel to the dime box hunting. Non Gary Carter Expos and O-Pee-Chee/Leaf cards! I'll start with cards from the latter category. 

A rookie card from Hall of Pretty Good type player. I never realized how important OPC cards were until I started going to Montreal on a regular basis to cheer on the visiting Mets. Despite having not seen the cards in years, I still knew the French terms for the postions, meaning I didn't need to look to the English translations to find out what AC was the abbreviation for. (AC = Arret Court = Shortstop). So, I speak enough French to perform the announcements at a baseball game, and to get slapped by the female populace of Laval.

And some more French Baines, this time in 86 Diamond King form.

And more French on the back with this Brett Butler.

How about a rookie card of Will Clark? I always liked the OPC backs in comparison to the Topps versions. A lot brighter for the 80s sets. 

"Liste de controle" sounds far more official than "Team checklist" for this card. 

My last card of the show with some French on it, part of trio of 1986 Andres Gallarragas I grabbed.

Interesting to see a middle name on the front of the card.

And for no reason other than I thought it looked interesting, a Donruss Archives...Heritage...Originals of Jose Vidro. 

Expo Goodies - Part 21

I can see the back of the box! I think I might get to the last of these by the weekend!

Let's start off with an insert(?) set I'm ashamed I never knew about until pulling this card from a dime bin that day. As a fan of photography on the cards, it was inexcusable.

Yeah. How did I not know about this set? I completely ignored a set where are all the cards are great pictures taken by a legendary photographer. At least I now have an inexpensive goal set for 2013.

Much like some of the other 70s cards I pulled from the bin, it was creased. But that's a small negative attached to picking up a card from Cito's playing days.

A pair of rookie cards for a beloved Blue Jay. A member of the Level of Excellence! A man who made 4 different stops in the city, including one of the World Series teams. One of the players that made stops on both of my favourite teams. Again. A dime each. Why would I turn this down?

A shiny of Trevor Hoffman in an unfamiliar jersey. I didn't even know it was numbered until I took it home. Definitely a nice addition to the library for a dime.

Finally, a pair of 1982 Expos. The Spaceman! I don't think I had any of his cards before, so this was an easy pick up. And why not pair him with his pronunciation namesake, the late Charlie Lea? They both have nice autographs for the design as well.