Back to Chronicles - Packs 4 through 6

Pack 4:

If I was listing players that I could imagine myself landing an autograph of in this set, Marcus Stroman would certainly not have been one of them. But I won't complain. A couple Mets cards make this even better. The Stroman is /99, while that shiny Rafael Devers is /299.

Pack 5:

This will bring the hit portion of the break to an end, with my final autograph. It is a Cracked Ice parallel from Contenders. The highlight for me here is the low-numbered Joey Votto for my CanCon collection. It's a pink parallel. More Ohtani. More Amed Rosario. No complaints with this.

Pack 6:

And the final pack. The Blue Jays only have 4 players throughout the entire release, and I got 3 of them over two packs (#4 is a Delgado auto). I think I had only landed one of the Ohtani cards in my previous two boxes, but I got 5 of them in this one. Collation can be interesting.

But there's another box of this down. Maybe I'll make busting a case of this my New Year's Resolution.

Back to Chronicles - Packs 1 through 3

I can't get enough of this product. Let's bust another box! There's no 1/1 this time, but there's still enough nice stuff in this for a couple posts.

Pack 1:

That's a nice start, with a pair of numbered card and a pair of Mike Trouts. I've busted 3 boxes of this, and this is the second one to contain a numbered Spectra card of Verlander. The neon blue version is /99, joining a neon pink /75.

Pack 2:

Parse that autograph. I dare you. Nice effort, dude. Really nice effort. On the other hand, there's also a couple Ohtani cards in this. That "The best player in the world" quote is attributed on the back to Logan Morrison, a nice little quirk to a base set that does have sort of a newspaper theme to it. This is a rare Chronicles pack that didn't have any numbered cards in it.

Pack 3:

The auto might not have been any good, from a penmanship perspective, but at least the one-per-box relic featured a really nice patch. I didn't notice it until I turned the card over, but the Donruss (and Optic) inserts do function as Updates to those sets. The similarities to Rookie Anthology continue!

And there's three packs! Three more tomorrow, and two more autographs! Until then...

Weekend Pack Sampler

Two new-ish products, one from the LCS, and one from Wally World.

I've had the basketball for longer, so I'll start with that.

The base cards are exactly what you'd expect at this point in the calendar with a familiar design by this point.

The same thing holds true for the Rated Rookie portion of the set. The same design you've been seeing in baseball and football releases also appears here. But it does lead to a slight problem.

The team colours are used on the back, but the numbering scheme uses black text. It isn't too bad here.

Here on the other hand, I'm reminded that I'm old. The number scans better than it reads in hand.

Your inserts. I grabbed the Raptors in a case break with this product and despite being a full case, I didn't land that Court Kings card of Lowry there, but did in this single pack. Collation! If it wasn't for the Lowry, my fave in this group would be the Oscar Robertson. For the logo, naturally.

A couple Press Proof parallels. One numbered, one not.

It's a pack of Donruss. You can't expect anything too amazing out of it, but the Lowry and Robertson were nice inserts.

Baseball leads the way with this card of Marte. I do like how the artist captured the light reflecting off the sunglasses.

There is not one person alive that can pull off that style of mustache and not look like the type of guy who uses a shoe camera on an escalator. Cozens is no exception.

The Heritage versions are 1:3 packs.

Now this was unexpected. Not only a hit from the pack (autos are 1:49), but a Blue Jays auto! That's a perfectly aimed pack for a Walmart located in Ontario. I'll give it a good home.

I guess these are the two canvas parallels the pack touted.

The final 3 cards. While I do like the painted set, I wish they'd mixed things up a bit and done some of the paintings in a style other than headshots.

But there you go. I can't complain when I land a new insert and a new hit for my team PCs.

The Miscellaneous Section

My 2/14 binder is divided up by category. I have separate sections for the 4 major team sports, and then there's the everything else miscellaneous section. That's where soccer, wrestling, Hollywood and pretty much everything else ends up. Here are a few new cards for the binder, coming from my COMC to-be-posted box.

MMA is definitely a misc. binder thing. Natasha wasn't a fighter, but a ring card girl. I guess they count when it comes to cards. She's now Natasha Kingsbury (married to fighter Kyle) and is easily in the top-4 of my collection for signature quality, alongside Darius Songaila, Patrick Ramsey, and someone you'll see later on.

The other familiar face in the collection is Danai Gurira. E-packs made the ability to acquire cards featuring her Black Panther character of Okoye super cheap through COMC. I've also got 2 cards of hers from an Avengers e-pack release sitting in my inventory, which will tie her for the overall lead in that portion of the collection with soccer's Edinson Cavani. These join a pair of cards of hers from The Walking Dead.

More e-pack stuff, as there was also an Agent Carter release available. This was higher end, with 1 card per e-pack, but it being either an auto or a sketch card. Seeing these up for about $1.50 indicates Erin Torpey wasn't one of the more desired pulls, but I'll gladly take these for that price and add her two cards to the collection.

Hollywood brings another new autograph to my collection, and the other contender for great penmanship. He would have been in his early 80s when he signed this card, and has better handwriting than most of the far younger people in the binder. Pretend you're Grandpa Simpson and watch him in an episode of MAAAAAAATLOCK! He's the used-car lot owner without the word 'Honest' in his name.

Some sort of guessing game set gets me my first card of Hugh Downs. He's someone with a pretty extensive run in journalism, as well as a game show host. Youtube has this episode of him hosting Concentration back in the 60s. And there's a very familiar contestant to baseball fans - Ralph Branca.

I assume there's more 20/20 stuff out there, but I prefer game shows to that. They're the only genre of programming where talking back to the TV isn't considered nuts. Hugh's still alive as well, turning 97 this past 2/14.

And another media figure ends this, with an autograph from, of all things, a Scooby Doo set. Pat's wiki includes the section "Alcoholism and voice-mail episode". There's no way that phrase can be spun in a positive light.

But there you have it!

Triple, before they triple

I might as well enjoy picking up the Blue Jays for cheap in group breaks this year, since I'll just presume when Vlad Jr cards start showing up in every Topps release, the cost of getting that spot will probably triple. Until then, they're nice and cheap, and I'll try to get some nice cards for that team PC.

Incredibly, I didn't get any base cards from this case of Triple Threads, just a pair of hits. The Home Cooking window text refers to Stroman's home ERA of 2.63, which was fourth in franchise history. I really like the colour contrast of the swatches, especially with one of them being from their patriotic red jerseys.

Only blue on this swatch, but it matches the ink! This is my first auto of Justin Smoak (I think?) in the collection, and the consistent blue on this card is really nice. Ink. Swatch. Photo.

And there you have it.

2018 Card of the Year

I might as well get this out of the way now, since I don't envision myself pulling a card that will surpass this. This was a tough call, as I really liked the 'Day with the Cup' card of Chandler Stephenson taking it to Humboldt, Saskatchewan. But, this is nice as well:

I love cards that have stories behind them, and while this looks just like your typical rookie card, there's a great tale with this one. Scott Foster was the emergency goaltender that had to play 14 minutes of action when both goaltenders in front of him were injured before and during the game. He stopped all of the shots sent his way, and Chicago held on to win the game. While his NHL ice time is probably over, the attention this got definitely makes him a Marquee Rookie.

And this card wasn't just the retro parallel. It was a blank back parallel. These aren't numbered, but fall at about 2 or 3 per hobby case, which probably puts the print run at around 15-20.

And there you have it!

Compare and Contrast

I was going to spread my Black Friday/Cyber Monday boxes out over the month, but figured that given my post of ugliness on the weekend, I felt it would be fair to post a similar card, also from Panini.

Back to the 12-13 season for this, and the knowledge that at least if there's an expired redemption in this, it will still turn into a card.

There's 7 cards in this, 2 are Dominion, and the other Prime. But that will all be the same in the end compared to a typical Prime hockey release. 2 base cards, 5 hits.

The Dominion base is typical of what you get from similar Panini releases. Silver and a white background.

And your Dominion hit. Just a fraction of prime in there, with a slight bit of stitching visible over the lower corner, and a hint of green below the frame. He played one game for the Wild, and that's it for his NHL experience. He was one of several one-gamers in the 12-13 rookie class.

A current Senator was the base card in the Prime pack.

I guess this is technically a base card as well based on the numbering scheme. Much like Genoway, Foucault was also a one-gamer, but that's still enough for a card.

While I doubt these are from the 2010 Winter Classic, at least one of the photos is.

Even if there's an autograph to go along with it, a manufactured nameplate card shouldn't look better than an actual one. Brown's a rarity for players in the 12-13 rookie class as he's still in the league, now with Minnesota.

Now this is what a nameplate card should look like. No need to use the "ugly" tag on this one. And unless this can turn into a card I really, really want for the PC, what a sure keeper! The 2/8 would hint that this is the first 'E' in Bergeron, and with the multiples of that letter in the name, it technically isn't a 1/1.

Ugliness Contained Within - aka Court Kings Box Break

I wasn't really planning on entering Baseball Every Night's Ugly Sweater contest. This is despite having a label 'ugly' on my posts where at least one of the card posted contains a garish design, hideous attire, or Otis Nixon.

But then I busted this box.

Despite the 'Kings' label attached, it isn't one of the backgrounds that earns the 'ugly' label.

I'll play it straight for now, as the ugly card is likely what, on paper, would be considered the best card in the box. So, I'll build to that. Instead, I'll start with the box topper. The Rookie Royalty portion of the box-topper set flashes back to rookie seasons of players, and the sorta Memphis/Vancouver Grizzlies hybrid look sported by the team at the time.

Here are the regular base cards for the veterans. Not bad on the whole, as Olynyk could fit into either my Celtics/CanCon collection, and the Pacers colours really work with the background.

Two rookie cards, which are also considered base cards. The Beasley is the most common design among this, with the Baldwin being the second most common design.

Insert time! It has been Memphis intensive so far in this box, with this being their third appearance. This base insert is still numbered, being out of /175.

It is pun time for the second insert! Panini liked it so much, they brought it back for another go around with this year's Hoops release, incorporating it with an Indiana Jones theme.

I'm going to do the hits in terms of reverse order of numbering, so I'm starting off with this /200 card. And it is a Raptors hit! The Raptors had two first-round draft picks in the 2016 draft, and I bought them a lot in group breaks chasing their cards. I landed a lot of Pascal Siakam, but no Poeltl, and ended up COMCing his rookie auto. Now he's been traded, and I just had to wait for this box break to get his card.

There is 1 fewer of this card than the Poeltl, with this being out of /199. Sketches and Swatches, despite the sticker-graph, was one of my favourite looks from the Court Kings releases.

And now, the ugly.

How can you screw up a card numbered 1/6?

Oh like that? The nameplate cards are definitely one of the chase cards in the set, so let's cut as narrowly as possible around the letter, so as not to let any of the jersey that can be used in another relic card go to waste. Then, stick it on a piece of black cardboard to really emphasize that, and make the relic window huge so as to make the cardboard take up almost as much space as the jersey window itself! Perfect!

Sheesh.

That's how you mess up a 1/6 card that is technically a 1/1.

2018 Adventures in Repacks - Part 37.3 - Unfamiliar Fleas

This repack fest ends with another flea market repack. This one was a little bit different than the usual. $2 for a 25 card repack in a team bag. No hit guaranteed, but it is still reasonably enough pricing-wise.

Here's the first visible card. A Heritage insert is a nice way to start.

Despite no hits being guaranteed, there's a pair of numbered cards to start off with the Shields being numbered /61. McAvoy is still doing the minor league thing up to this season. Mets content and a mini as well. I've already got my $2 in terms of being an interesting repack.

More Mets content! And more inserts as well. Despite the lack of the logo, the Billy Williams might be favourite in this grouping. Even moreso than the Dickey, which I probably have about a half-dozen of.

3 groupings, all with a Mets card. That's PC efficiency! The 2011 Ginter of Matt Cain was the visible card on the other side of the team bag.

I'm kinda upset that I stopped this at just 1 of these. That'll learn me. Open the repack before leaving, not after, and if it is worth it, go back and clean them out.