The Extent of My 2023 Heritage

With the 1975 deign on tap for next year, I don't really have the desire to build the set this year. Still, why not bust at least something? I haven't busted any S1, so this should scratch my itch for some 2023 baseball content.  

I could have picked up a hanger pack or two, but let's go a little bigger with the hanger box! 

First card out! At least it wasn't a dull posed photo in front of a generic background.

It might not take me all the way back to 1974, but at least I got one throwback uniform card.

And while I don't expect a laughable airbrush job in a 2023 release, I'll settle for a laughable Photoshop job with the tiniest Red Sox cap logo around.

There was good star power in the box - and none of these names are hidden among the short prints. 

How did my PCs do?

The Mets defeated the Jays 2 to .5.

But I was happiest to see this come out. While I love adding 2/14 cards to my collection by picking them from boxes and from COMC/sportlots, there's just something nicer when I add them by pulling them out of packs. While his flagship card has an incredible photo (City Connect unis, horizontal, Green Monster scoreboard in the back), this will likely be my favourite card of his in this release year.

Insert time! The New Age Performers has somewhat of a digital theme this year with its logo and text. As with pretty much every year - they could stick around or go away. Blah.

I guess the ol' "pack with special insert contains fewer cards" came up here. I guess if I'm going to get a base relic, a bat relic with the grainy pattern (for lack of a better term), beats a plain grey swatch. McCutchen has both in this insert set this year. They're 1:37 in these boxes, so YAY?

Either way, see you next year Heritage!

There you have it!

Good Idea - Bad Idea

 

Good Idea: Have an insert set that salutes some of the logos of the past.

Bad Idea: Only use current players on the cards. Oh, those wonderful glory days of Carson Wentz in Baltimore. 

Raptors Megapost

Up today, 3 group breaks worth of Raptors, as I take advantage of their bargain basement pricing in 2022-23 releases. With them in the lottery this year, and in the lucky(?) #13 slot, there will likely be a small bump next season.

Last season, Revolution was very good to me, adding a sweet case hit Galactic parallel of Pascal Siakam. Here, not even close, but you can't win 'em all. The only parallel was that Scottie Barnes that opened up this post. I didn't even get a Koloko card to complete the base set. But there will be appearances of their second-rounder in this post.

At least Scottie made a third appearance in Vortex insert form.

I did get a complete base team set out of Optic - including a return of Jakob Poeltl and Otto Porter Jr's first appearance as a Raptor. 

But this one landed me a nice variety of parallels. Here's the most common of the bunch, a holo parallel. 

Here's a nice way to welcome Poeltl cards back to the collection - add a regular card for that binder, and a numbered card for the hit binder. The orange ones are /199.

The lime greens are limited to 149 copies, and it became my first numbered card of Christian Koloko, but there will be more to come in this post.

Finally, Gary Trent Jr's blue parallel checks in with a card limited to 49. The shininess of the card better highlights something not as visible on the standard base card - some unfortunate member of the Orlando Magic wiping out behind Trent. 

There were a couple inserts - both the base and the holo parallel of FVV out of Raining 3s. The one with the bluish tinge on the corner is the holo version. Disappointingly, the card text doesn't mention that VanVleet, in 21-22, became the franchise leader for three-pointers in a season. It would be up to Recon to do that.

Normally, I'll lead with the base cards from a release. But I'm not going to pass up a lead-in like that. 

Now here's the base. Substitute Chris Boucher for Otto Porter Jr, and it is the same make-up as the Optic. I get a strong 1991 Skybox vibe from the background, and that's perfectly fine.

Naturally, there are parallels, both of the unnumbered...

and numbered variety.

These inserts really turn up the rainbow for the background. 

After a rough start with that Revolution break, things ended pretty nicely with Recon. Joining an appearance in Court Kings, here's my second auto this season of Ron Harper Jr. Although I've got a relic of Ron Sr, I really should hunt down an auto of his to keep his son company.

I said there was more Christian Koloko to come, and here he is, with my first auto of his. He did perfectly fine for a second round rookie, and really, that's all you can ask. OK, maybe a signature I can parse, but I'll settle for "that looks like a C and a K".

Here's a swatch for good measure! A plain white swatch actually works here as a contrast to the colourful, shiny background to bring things down a notch.

And there's about 35 new Raptors on their way to my binders. That's enough to count this as a megapost!

2023 Adventures in Repacks - Part 18: Saturday Surprises

 3 of these from the ol' Dollarama.

Each with 3 items each.

Repack #1:

At least I'll be ready for my next mailers to go out. There is also an extra card non-HOF added to that repack.

The HOFer comes out of Platinum, which forces you to turn the card over to confirm that it is Igor Larionov. This also sets the tone for there being way, way too many 21-22 flagship cards in this, with all the boring photo choices that went alongside it.

7 cards is better than 6, even if nothing in here is very exciting. I guess the Zubov is the most interesting here based on the set being somewhat uncommon in repack-land. But this first one was extremely bland on the whole.

Fewer cards, but maybe something more interesting in #2.

And it is more interesting, although not based on the official subjects of the card. Who's that stalking Olausson from behind the net? Gretzky cameo! SP Authentic base cards get duller and duller as the years go on. They might as well put any illusion of a base set and just put out a one-pack product. The HOFer isn't from an early 90s release either. YAY!

It is a good thing the HOF pack was interesting, because this wasn't.

The randomness of these Swedish packs might make them my favourite content of these. If not these, then the mask binder possibilities bump up the goalie pack.

That Sodertalje uniform that Petersson is sporting on the card is so great. Lightning bolts on a 50s jersey, an era not really known for fancying up a jersey beyond the logo on the front. Of these guys, Knutson and Jonsson did spend some time in the NHL, Knutsen remains the only Norwegian ever to play in the All-Star game, and is also the proud owner of one of the saner expressions on a hockey card.

3 goalie cards, and all are mask binder candidates. Even though I'm fairly certain that Khabibulin is the only one that isn't a dupe. 

Zzzzzz.

The Swedish content makes this pack the big winner of the three overall, with Petersson being the most interesting overall card, edging out another Swede with the Olausson in second thanks to the cameo!

There you have it!

Looking for "L"

 

I just need a the first L (the one where Josh Allen is sporting a red jersey), and since all of these are the base /349 version, it is going to have to be a consistent group and be that as well. I can't have a green parallel in the middle of all these silver cards, can I?

Anyhow, if you see one of the 349 available ones in the wild, hook me up!

Uniformity

 Just a bunch of cards today that I picked up at COMC because the uniforms interested me.

These look so much more like rompers as opposed to basketball uniforms. They look a little less ridiculous with the longer shorts as throwbacks, but sometimes things are better left buried.

So of course I got a second one of these. The creepy 70's stache isn't helping. But at least the theme of the card, families with the NBA ties. The back does cover the Beach Boys family as well.

Vancouver Grizzlies! Brandon Clarke and Ja Morant were all over the 2019 Chronicles release, and you had plenty of options to choose from when it came to seeing them model the throwback uniforms.

If you're looking for Memphis Pros there aren't as many options. Sadly, the least expensive option with the clearest photo out of the 2006 release year was a card of the ill-fated Lorenzen Wright. 

I. Am. Tripping. Balls.

Sometimes, it wasn't the photo but the swatch used on the card. Pirates red? Sure thing! 

The orange Dolphins jerseys may not be fondly-remembered, but this does feature Ronnie Brown, Running Back, in one of his occasional trips to the quarterback spot. He went one for two as a passer in this MNF win against the Jets. Combine an alternate uniform with the Wildcat formation, and that's a sure purchase! And yes, the gold parallel was cheaper than the regular base card.

This colour can only be associated with a throwback uniform. The only way this swatch could have been nicer is if they had used a photo with the uniform being sported. Depressingly, there were available cards with the photo that used the usual colour swatch, and, as shown here, vice-versa. But I'll take oddness wherever I can find it.

There you have it!

Why Not?

 

I didn't have any purple ink autographs before, so why not add this inexpensive one I saw while looking through '21 Luminance cards? He doesn't appear to have made an appearance in a single NFL game, but did end up with a Super Bowl win while on the Rams practice squad.

That's far more than I'll ever win!

Recapping Rangers

The most common theme with the cards remaining in my COMC to-be-posted box were that of Kitchener Rangers alum. So, in order to make it seem like I'm making a dent in it, that's what is time to show off this post.

Much of the stuff in this post is of the "cheap because of epack" variety. Except this. This one was inexpensive because Spaling's career was solid, but not really worthy of a major price hike. And with an on-card autograph and a photo of an alternate uniform, there's a couple nice bonuses here as well. 

While the French variations fall one-per-box with the regular breaks and also with the e-packs, the ability to pass them along over on COMC makes the prices drop and end up among the lowest on the site. I'll have to wait for this year's, though, as Kubalik will finally show up on an in-uniform Detroit card in this week's extended.

Just because it is unlikely that Ryan Murphy sees the NHL again (last year was in the KHL), that doesn't mean that I won't add cards of his that show up.

Why have a portion of your set dedicated to alternate jersey photos, only to not show the jersey in all its glory?

Fortunately, Landeskog rocking the reverse retro jersey did get a nice look on his Canvas card. While he did make a lot of appearances in 22-23, but didn't play a game due to injury. And he will also not be playing in 23-24. So I'm probably taking a year off when it comes to super-collecting his new stuff. There's plenty of room for older stuff, though!

His former teammate got an insert as well in Series 1. 

4 of the 5 new Riley Damiani cards in the collection are of the AHL variety, but with only 7 games to his credit with Dallas, I might be looking at another season's worth of those. 

A patriotic pair is nice way to end this, starting with a player yet to reach the NHL and whose only COMC content consists of 20-21 Team Canada cards, and a card of a Hall of Famer with plenty of available options available. Since his cards consisted entirely of Flyers cards, I took the opportunity to add my first National Team card of his, in all his unhelmeted glory. 

There you have it!

Penmanship Hall of Fame

 

For not only fitting a lengthy name on the sticker, but for doing so with such great cursive, Ga'Quincy McKinstry goes directly to my collection's penmanship binder. He's already projected as a Top 10 pick in the 2024 NFL draft, so when he has to sign several thousand stickers the same day, I'll expect it to deteriorate by then. 

But I'll savour this in the meantime!