What awesome lurks in the hearts of repacks?

What lurks there? Perhaps this amazing 1996-97 Donruss Theo Fleury.

I only picked up the repack so I could, seeing as he was on one of the visible cards, cross Filip Novak off my alphabetical Senators wantlist. Who knew that the best card for me would be tucked away in the middle?

$30 a week trade

I recapped the background of this trade this morning. Let's get to some more goodies!

Lots of stuff came that was on my zistle wantlist. This was one of them that is on my list for the photographic aspect. And Ray's still active.

And another Shark from the same set. This one is yet another 2/14 binder certainty. I'm still certain I'm the only person that automatically puts a Viktor Kozlov card into a binder.

WOO-HOO! A complete set! The final card! *looks through the box* What's that gold rush card doing in there? Did I hose things up and mix a parallel in with the main set? Of course I did. Oh well. How hard can it be to find a Miikka Kiprusoff base card at the Expo next week?

Yet another Alfredsson rookie for his binder.

Staying with the Sens, here's another 4 for my alphabetical Sens project. Since the Jays one is down into single digit territory, maybe I should switch this one in.

Or, since it is only 27 cards out, and less team demanding, I could also replace it with my search for a card of each Kitchener Rangers alumni who had an NHL card. Here's 3 of them. I'd already picked up a Rick Chartraw at a show, but he could also make the pages saluting obscure birthplaces for NHLers. While Venezuela is a pretty common appearance on baseball cards, Chartraw is only one of 2 to make the NHL and be born in Venezuela.

Alfredo Griffin is another entry into the Jays alphabetical binder. I'd grabbed a couple from his first run with the team. Sadly, there were only a few cards from his second run with the team. There are a couple from 1994 though, even though his career finished in the on-deck circle during Game 6 of the World Series in 1993.

Hey! My first Heatley relic! It will nicely among my collection of Spezzas, Gonchars, and Neils.

And when you're a Delgado collector, it is worth the wait for any of his relics.

Thanks for all the goodies, Robert! Great things can come to those who wait.

Masked Mondays - Week #15

Way back when, I sent a pile of Blue Jays and Joe Sakic cards in the direction of Robert @ $30 a week habit. A couple weeks back, I remembered, "Hey! I don't think a care package was sent my way in return". I sent a reminder his way, and some return goodies arrived last week. It had lots of Sens towards my goal of acquiring at least one card of every player for whom there was one, and a handful of misc. cards from my zistle wantlist.

I'll get to all those later today or tomorrow. Since there was a threesome of mask cards in there as well, that's perfect for Monday.

Naturally, I'll lead off with a Senator. A while back, I praised Alex Auld's incorporation of the Sens logo into the helmet. It turns out Craig had him beat by over a decade in a basic, but effective paint job of the helmet into his, well, helmet.

Looking at this, I wondered how it would look when combined with the infamous Blues' third jersey that Mike Keenan so loathed that he banned them. Then I decided a good nap would be in order.

And the third mask card was this Kelly Hrudey mask card. It may lack the Hollywood sign of his LA Kings days, but at least it would colour-coordinate better with that powder blue headband.

Sunday Surprise (Boxes)

Since my post from last Sunday didn't feature a Surprise Box from ye Olde Dollarama, here's two this week!

Box 1:

This actually contained 5 items as opposed to the usual 4. First up, a package of 100 penny sleeves. Considering I might be doing a wee bit of PW and Bubble Envelope drops after the Expo, I can use those!

But, I'd much rather show off the cards. So, off to some of the highlights.

Item 2: A five card pack of 2000s cards.

2007 OPC Matt Cullen
2002 Victory Luc Robitaille
2007 UD R.J. Umberger
2000 Pacific Dynagon Patrik Elias
2011 UD Mike Knuble

That Knuble card is just gorgeous.

Item 3: 4 card goalie pack.

2010-11 Betwen The Pipes Frank Pietrangelo
1990 Bowman Mark Fitzpatrick (Of course)
1999 Pacific Kirk McLean
1995 Leaf Philippe DeRouville

I'd never heard of the latter guy. Only 3 NHL games to your credit can do that. Still, I picked up 2 mask binder cards, and that's all I ask for from a goalie pack.

Item 4: 4 card investment pack

1997 Bowman Denis Hamel
1993 Classic Vladimir Krechin
2006 Ultra Michel Ouellet
1997-98 Pacific Invincible Red Mark Messier

Krechin never made the bigs. Hamel bounced between the minors and the NHL for most of his career, spending most of his time in the Senators system. He doesn't have a Sens card, so I'll use this one in my alphabetical Sens collection. Once I've got at least one Senators card of each player, I'll add in ones of players who had cards, but not as a Sen. Michel Ouellet is out of the league at this point as well. The "investment" portion of this pack comes from the Messier, which COMC thinks has a book value of $10.00. Even if it wasn't at that level, I'd still move it into a toploader. It's a real beauty.

Item #5: 5 card Superstar pack.

1995 Donruss Eric Desjardins
1991 Pro Set Steve Thomas
1994 Parkhurst Patrik Carnback
2010 UD Matt Duchene
2011 Score John Tavares (My guaranteed superstar, I assume)

Easily the final item was the dullest of the lot. There's enough keeper stuff in the earlier stuff to make me happy about the first box.

Box 2 had the standard four items.

Item #1: 4 1980s cards.

All 1981 Topps - Lanny McDonald Team Leader, Anders Hedberg Team Leader, Rick LaPointe and Steve Payne.

I've already got 2 of 'em, but I'll never tire of that Lanny card.

Item #2: 4 2010s cards.

2011 Biography of a Season - Ryan Callahan
2012 OPC Erik Karlsson
2011 Score Duncan Keith
2011 UD Dominic Moore

A pair of Norris trophy winners. Nice! And a Senator among them. No complaints here.

Item #3: Pack of 2008 Victory

Mike Cammalleri, Marian Hossa - Game Breaker, Jason Pominville, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Frolov, Cam Ward

A Wolverine for Too Many Manninghams, a marquee player, and a goalie mask card. Good enough for me!

Item #4: Hall of Fame pack

1993 Score Canadian Steve Yzerman (My guaranteed HOFer)
2000 UD Heroes Sergei Gonchar
2006 Fleer Dainius Zubrus
2001 Bowman Brenden Morrow
1999 Pacific Per Svartvadet

Yzerman is always a keeper, and Per will make my misc. hockey binder. The rest will be on my zistle tradelist.

Enough decent stuff in the second not to make it a waste of time, but the first box is the easy winner here.

The Days of Allen & Ginter - Day 6

Wrapping things up with my favourites in the final 50 of the non-SP set.

252 - Callix Crabbe. The third member of the 2/14 club in this set. Coming up with 3 cards that match up with that in a group of 300 cards definitely wins when playing the odds.

273 Jay Bruce. With the rookie card designation attached to Jay Bruce, Johnny Cueto and Joey Votto in this set, the Reds sure had a loaded base around this time period.

276 Oscar Wilde. "Picture of Dorian Gray" is probably my favourite novel. Seeing this card in the set, cribbed from what was the most famous picture of Wilde, is incredibly cool.

#261 - Bob Motley. I had never heard of this Negro League umpire prior to coming across this card. Just the picture on the front and the brief write-up on the back had me looking for more information about Motley. He's got a book out, and it immediately went into my cart over at chapters.ca. The photo used here is the same one that appears on the cover of the book. For making me want to learn more about this person, and also for the great picture, this one is my favourite card in the entire set. Which happens anytime you find yourself saying "Wow!" when you see a card.

The Days of Allen & Ginter - Day 5

Now into the 200s.

#227 - Frederick Douglass. Considering all the non sports cards in the set, I decided to do some googling to see if any of those subjects fit into my 2/14 collecting needs. While the exact date of his birth doesn't always show in his biographies (understandably), there are several that give the date as 2/14. That's good enough for me in this. The searching also revealed another non-athlete of whom there is a card of, and he's replacing the recently acquired Jordan Nolan in my Top 10 list.

#213 - Brendan Harris. I'm really loving all the visible shoulder patches in this set. Even more when it is on an obscure player's jersey.

#215 Aaron Harang. A second appearance of Mr. Redlegs. A shame that this photo was taken at the same time chocolate milk was dribbling down Mr. Harang's chin.

#202 Jeff King, When I just saw the name on the back of the card, before reading the biography, I was wondering why an obscure 90's infielder would have a card in a set in 2008.

#233 Pluto. I love this card for the surreal nature of having a card for a planet (It's still real to me!) in this set.

Only 5 of these 50 get scans? It's Friday evening. I'm busy flipping between Smackdown and the news coverage. I'm just glad the baseball game is a blowout otherwise I probably wouldn't have gotten this posted. I highlight my faves of the last 50 tomorrow, including my favourite card in the set.

A Friday morning repack

$3.00 for 35 cards? Why not grab on a trip through Wally World?

This 2004 UD card was the only one visible in the hanger pack. I wasn't sure if I already had a Frank Catalanotto card in my alphabetical Jays set. I did, but I think I like this moment of impact photo better.

You knew there would be some '87 Topps or '88 Donruss in there. I drew the former. On the upside, I know someone who would want the bespectacled Porter & Davis cards. I have no idea who'd be interested in a card with a close-up of Otis Nixon on it. Here's a man I who could probably buy all the booze he could want and not have to show ID since he was 5 years old.

Gorman Thomas or everybody's high school shop teacher? You make the call!

1 of only 2 cards in the pack that didn't have at least one from the same set. At least it is of a guy most people have heard of.

Unlike this Baseball's Best of Scott Bankhead.

Some more '04 Upper Deck! A pair of Canadians in Koskie & Loewen. Brian Jordan's the card so nice, they gave it too me twice. At least there's a fan of bat barrel cards I'm aware of.

Some misc 91 Upper Deck. Mel Rojas would go on to become probably my least favourite New York Met ever.

To wrap it up, Conlon! I confess I hadn't heard of these guys. But that makes the back of the cards far more fascinating. Especially when there is a long paragraph about their careers. That makes the Bancroft and Moriarty cards my fave from this batch. But they're all binder-worthy.

A nice batch of keepers here!

The Days of Allen & Ginter - Day 4

151-200 as I continue to wind my way through a killer $10 purchase.

#151 - Orlando Cabrera. Based on this picture, I'm already liking this grouping of cards more than the previous one. This card couldn't show the pregame workout more than if there were a batting cage in the background.

#158 - Mary Shelley & 166 Bram Stoker. I was an English Lit major back in my University days. Picking up cards of people who wrote works that I've studied is surreal. The author of my favourite book will actually show up later in this set. The only way I could be even happier is if there were a Christopher Marlowe card in the set as well.

#189 - Rampage Jackson. I'm not an MMA fan at all, but this is a great card. A perfect look of intensity and determination against his opposition.

#197 - Bigfoot. When I was first looking through the box, I was just looking at the back of the cards to make sure everything was there. I seriously thought the mythical creature of the Pacific Northwest.

#193 Edwin Encarnacion. E5! In all seriousness, how can I hate a card that has such a great view of the Mr. Redlegs patch?

#199 - Daric Barton. Speaking of patches, here's another nice shot of one. In this case, the "Holy Toledo" patch in memory of announcer Bill King. Nice.

Another 50 down. 100 more to go. The next one contains the latest member of the 2/14 club.

The Days of Allen & Ginter - Day 3

The 101-150 range might have been the least interesting group for me in the set. But, there were still some  fun cards in this portion of the set.

#102 - Ray Durham. I loved the casual nature of the Manny Ramirez card in the first grouping. I might love this one even more.

#103 - Kerri Strug. Kerri probably wouldn't have made my list of cards had I not picked up a rack pack of A&G just days prior that included the Bela Karolyi short print. It is nice to combine cards of people who you can associate with each other when you search through cards.

#129 Joey Votto. Nice to add this rookie card of the superstar from Etobicoke. It's my first one of these from the Topps family of cards.

At least the 3 landmark cards in the set are together.

Yeah, I got nothing.

The Days of Allen & Ginter - Day 2

Continuing to work my way through the next 50 cards in this great set.

#52 Carlos Delgado. Surprisingly, I don't have this one in my Delgado binder. But I'm not breaking up this set to move this one over there.

54 Takashi Saito. Another honoured member of the 2/14 binder. The first of 3 (as best as I can tell) in this set.  Oh yes. Speaking of the birthday binder, I might be missing out on the probably the most famous candidate for the binder.

Hockey-reference lists him as being born on 2/16, as does IMDB. However, wikipedia, hockeydb, and the Montreal Canadiens website lists him as February 14th, 1931. So, it does look like I'll be hunting down reprints and other inexpensive options for cards for "Boom Boom" Geoffrion. I did discover a second name as well, and I moved one of his cards into #9 on my Top 10 list.

71 Fausto Carmona. That's the expression he gives when you use the name Roberto Hernandez in his presence.

#75/76. Travis Hafner and Jim Thome. The Thome card gets a lot of love. As it should, it is a great card. The Hafner card before it is almost as beautiful and another great use of the horizontal medium. Together, they make a great 1-2 punch for set builder types.

89-93. A 5 card run with players from my two favourite teams. And Dan Jansen.

#100. David Wright. Starting with a Met, ending with a Met. David Wright ends up in one of the Topps positions of honour in this set.