Group Breakin' For Black Friday - Topps

Topps comprised the smaller portion of the collection, but I still have a handful of cards to show off.

First up was hit random of Archives post-season. While a Matt Williams isn't the best possible result, at least it is attached to an interesting photo featuring a somewhat rare pose for baseball cards, and a nice look at the Candlestick outfield/fences.

The randomizer landed on Houston for me in a Bowman Tek break. That meant I was chasing Forrest Whitley. Two base cards came my way, one the regular one, one parallel.

And I got an auto of his as well. Wow. That is atrocious penmanship. Having it larger than they typically are doesn't make it any better. I dare you to try to parse a name out of that.

But there you go! I'll slip back into the Field Access box for a bit, since I really should try to finish up December Stacks of Wax in December.

Group Breakin' For Black Friday - Panini

Time for some group break stuff from over the US Thanksgiving holidays. I was in some breaks of Panini products and Topps products. I got more content from the former, and since I'm feeling somewhat verbose today, I'll show off these now.

4 different sports spread over 6 cards and 3 packs, including a pair of relics. I'm always happy to add one of those Santa hat relics each year. This year's entry is a little bit fluffier in hand than it appears in the scan. That's a sentence I never thought I'd type. Ever.

I'll be starting off with some stuff from this year's Certified Cuts release, where the randomizer landed on the 49ers for me. It is really hard to see, but this silver parallel is numbered to 99. The design for the Legends part of the set is really strong, and I really like how the featured player is in colour, while the background is in black and white.

Your standard event worn relic-card. They might be a little early to be proclaim him a future legend.

The auto/relics in this are interesting, as they really keep to the 'Cuts' in the name with the autograph looking like it was cut from a cheque - a common look for cut signatures.

Here's another one. These are actually the base cards, while the Williams is a red parallel /99.

Off to basketball, where I landed Milwaukee in the random of Grand Reserve.

A nice metallic insert starts this off. I actually landed two of these, so I can keep one and throw the other into my "COMC-bound" container.

This would be the big card from the Panini breaks. Maker is a really promising talent in the Bucks organization. He went 10th overall in 2016, but might have gone even higher had there not been questions about his age. An on-card autograph and some nice patches highlight this card. With the diamond background, wouldn't this be a great design for a baseball release?

There you go! The far-less-numerous Topps goodies tomorrow!

2/14 binder newness - Part 2

The second part of this recap will begin with some good luck on my part. This autographed buyback was grouped in with the base cards from this set, and for some reason, priced accordingly. An autograph numbered out of 4 of someone that could fit into 2 PCs for $1.54. How could I not snap this up?

Along with the Jim Kelly cards posted yesterday, the late John Marzano was the other big addition to the collection with 4 each. My big favourite here is the Topps TV one in the lower corner. That's my first Topps TV card in any of my collections. He's the second baseball player to reach the 30 card mark, trailing Derek Norris' 34.

Some nice 70s vintage up next. An Expo and a mini!

2 separate OHL cards in the same post sees Norm Milley make an appearance sporting my favourite OHL jersey with the Sudbury Wolves.

The e-packs make an appearance as well, with this rainbow colour wheel parallel that is an e-pack exclusive, and therefore ridiculously cheap through COMC.

Finally, the Ms come to an end with my second card, and second autograph of Alexandra Mueller.

More e-pack card, and these two go perfectly together alphabetically, and when it comes to team collection as well. Compendium sported a large checklist, and it was great for finding cards of players that would be ignored from physical releases.

The green parallel is the last of the e-pack cards in this post.

Ron Waller's 1956 release is the oldest football card in the collection. I've skipped over his 1957 card, in jumped right to 1958 with this one.

It ends with more Senators content, with the only zed name in the collection. Ilya stands at 17 cards total, a tie with another Sens alum in Sean Hill.

I'll start recapping some Black Friday group breaks tomorrow.

2/14 binder newness - Part 1

As mail starts rolling into Chez Buckstorecards, maybe it is time that I get caught up on them. Trade packages, group break packages and a COMC package. I probably should put the case break to the side for a bit, and start doing some work on recapping those. I'll start with the COMC stuff, which was mainly filled with set builders that I won't bore you with, some 2/14 stuff and a whole bunch of miscellany really doesn't group together in any manner more than 3 or 4 cards each. Fortunately, the 2/14 additions was well into the 30s, so I can bump off a lot of the box with a pair of alphabetical posts.

There's a shift at the top of my 'miscellany' category with the addition of these two parallels. Cavani, shown here on both his parallel Paris Saint-Germain card and his parallel of a parallel Uruguay card, takes over the top spot from Ayako Hamada with 6 cards to her 5.

A pair of 1984 Update cards bumps my Cocanowers up to 13.

Numbers-wise, Jeff Dellenbach is the oddest member of the collection. He played in the most NFL games of any member of the collection, and was active during the junk wax era. But, since he was an offensive lineman, he only gets a handful of cards. This Super Bowl issue highlights his victory as a Green Bay Packer over his former team in New England. It is his 5th entry in the binder. Considering this was the Super Bowl that inspired all those riffs in Giant Spider invasion, I probably should link to that. I should, but it would be way too easy.

MVP being available in e-pack form gives plenty of inexpensive options for adding cards from that UD release to the binder. Here's a pair of Ehlers cards, 1 from this year, one from last year.

Here's two more parallels, alongside another parallel - the gold rush parallel from 2012 Score. Gaborik remains the king of the binder in terms of numbers with 166 cards.

The other miscellaneous card for today is my second card of Walking Dead's Danai Gurira. I still haven't watched an episode of that show.

The late Brad Halsey also gets a pair of cards, and also moves to 13 cards in the baseball portion.

A cheap base card from a higher-end set becomes my 53rd Alshon Jeffrey card.

As a Bills fan, Jim Kelly should be the king of the football portion of my 2/14 collection. These 4 cards strengthen his lead to 9 cards over Steve McNair. My fave here is the Fleer card, which not only features 2/14 prominently on the front of the card but is from a somewhat oddball 1995 Shell FACT release.

That's only half of my 2/14 cards from COMC. M through Z are up tomorrow!

Stacks of Wax December 2017 - Part 13 - Field Access Case Box 8

With this, I hit the 2/3 mark in the case.

Pack 1:

A good pack for numbered parallels, as it started off with a parallel /99 of what looks to be a post Super-Bowl photo.

And then a regular ol' base parallel /50. Actually, it is numbered 25/50, so maybe this is a coveted ebay 1/2.

The auto is of a future Buffalo Bill. One with horrid penmanship.

Pack 2:

A set with strong photography, and Victor Cruz isn't doing the salsa on his card? Booo!

The auto is my second Henry Anderson of the case. At least it is interesting since this set seems to provide his only NFL autos.

Pack 3:

Another interesting All-Access photo, with the stadium towering above Randall Cobb being at least a co-star in this photo.

And the auto. He's still on the team. That's all that matters.

Pack 4:

This was a dupe, but a dupe that will be on its way to the 2/14 binder. This is the 25th card of Clowney in the collection.

I didn't imagine I'd be pulling a John Riggins card, but there you go.

And the auto is my 3rd, and final auto of Ka'Deem Carey in this break. Yegads.

This wasn't the best box of the break. I'll just leave it at that.

Stacks of Wax December 2017 - Part 13 - Field Access Case Box 7

Pack 1:

Bills content opens this one as well. Looks like from a game under the lights as well.

I guess there were a lot of Ka'Deem Carey stickers around Topps HQ. This is his second appearance.

Pack 2:

Just like in hockey, I really like photos of the player when their feet are not touching the ground.

I can't imagine why Topps opted for this photo.

Not a bad autograph here of a high draft pick. It might be the first auto in my collection of a player born in Ghana. /50 too!

Pack 3:

A Connor Show hot pack!

Really using that All-Access literally here, with this amazing suit from Super Bowl weekend.

The auto may look like hieroglyphics, but he gets an exception to the rule under the long-name corollary to my penmanship criticism.

Pack 4:

The always-popular photo of JJ Watt saluting makes an appearance here on another gold parallel.

And the auto is of guy who likes to throw flags as much as officials.

2 autos of defensive players still in the league, and 2 of offensive players now out of the league. That's an interesting mix.