Stacks of Wax - Box 2

Fast-forwarding to last season, and this product:

It had one of the more interesting designs for hits in recent releases, so let's chase one.

But first, here's a base card. Surprisingly, that's a nice looking photo choice for a mid-range product. It is totally made by the missed tackle. Poor Deion Jones, but at least he's got cards of his own.

The only Bills card in the two football boxes I broke was this one. Yay! Even though this is likely a dupe.

But this 2/14 card isn't a dupe! That's Alshon card #69. Nice!

The rest of the inserts and parallels and numbered cards. The Hill and Manning are both technically base cards, but since they're numbered, they go here.

There were 4 hits advertised for the box, and here's two of them. Standard relics.

And a sticker-graph. I don't know why Malik looks like he placed parenthesis around the first letter of his last name, but at least it looks unique.

And these are one of the interesting designed hits I mentioned. Often, cut signatures in releases are taken from a cheque. So, Panini kept that motif going for the auto/relics in this. And Dede is probably in the upper tier in terms of signature legibility among the 2017 rookie class. So, bonus!

And there's box 2. Basketball up next!

Stacks of Wax - Box 1

As this post goes live, I'm on my way to Edmonton for Grey Cup Weekend, and the final CFL city to visit drops off my list until there's an expansion further east. So, everything is now pre-written for the next 4 days, and I have picked up some boxes through Blowout show off.

We're off to 2013 for the first box, some 2013 Absolute.

The packaging for this is strange. There's 4 cello packs in this, but they're inside mini-boxes that look similar to McDonald's pie contenders. Each mini-box/pack holds 5 cards.

There's two regular base cards per pack. They're nice enough, and I like the partial team colours on the border and the team logo in the upper corner.

There's also one Hogg Heaven per pack. These have somewhat of a leather feel to them.

There's (at least) one numbered card per pack. This one in particular is a black parallel.

There was a point where a Vick autograph /10 would be a hell of a pull. It still hasn't come back.

Pack 2's numbed card and hit. Neither of these two guys are still active, a common theme with 2013's rookie class.

I didn't plan to include any more of the unnumbered base cards, but I find it hard to resist the urge to show off Creamsicle jerseys.

And the inserts. The Montgomery is a silver parallel.

Your final inserts. Surprisingly, all four of the hits in this turned out to be autographs. Eventually. I'm looking forward to the Curtis Martin autograph should it come my way at some point, since he has a gorgeous signature, and I'm kinda interested in what specifically a prime shoe relic is.

And that's box 1. More football tomorrow!

Hoops Retail? At a Canadian Wal-Mart?

I seriously don't think I've seen any retail basketball on the shelves since Target left Canada. Of course I had to get the pack.

And here's the list of the cards:

Omari Spellman - First card out is a rookie. He was the last pick of the first round.
Yogi Ferrell
Ian Clark

Trey Lyles - Some CanCon. Not the Canadian Nuggets guy I wanted, but still a mini-collection hit.
Jeff Green
Nicolas Batum
Terence Ross
Bruce Brown
Jevon Carter
Wesley Johnson
Marquese Chris
Rodney Hood

Shaquille O'Neal - The veteran portion isn't short-printed, but it is still a nice card of a very young looking Shaq.
Courtney Lee
Dragan Bender

Lou Williams - The nautical-themed San Diego Clippers throwbacks/alternates.
Al-Farouq Aminu

Teal Explosion - Kyle Lowry - I think these Explosion parallels are one per pack, so I definitely lucked out getting a hit for the team here.

The Pulse - Hassan Whiteside - This card is more Miami Vice than actual Miami Vice cards.

Faces of the Future - Jaren Jackson Jr

Faces of the Future  - Jerome Robinson - One of these is a Holo parallel. I think it is this one, but wouldn't bet any money on it.

Stephen Curry
LaMarcus Aldridge
Lonnie Walker IV
Moritz Wagner

Steven Adams - And the final card I scanned. Such an interesting photo since with the positioning of Adams in relation to the court, it almost looks like a 3D effect has been used.
Eric Gordon
Jayson Tatum
JJ Redick
Kyle Kuzma

And there you go. No major mega-pull here, but I can't complain when the one parallel I do find goes nicely into the Raptors collection.

Self Control

I don't have any.

I said I wouldn't buy much Series 1 UD, yet I walk out of the LCS with a box last week.

Maybe  I was influenced by the promise of a free bonus card of Gritty. That is an acceptable excuse, right?

I mean, I really did need to know Gritty ate Zamboni snow, right?

Alright. Onto the box. Here's the base design this year. Not bad, but I wish they had used full bleed all the way through. While it doesn't really stand out here.

It does look overdone on the horizontal cards.

But they do have what looks to be full stats on the back of the card. Unless there's somebody with 21 NHL seasons worth of experience.

Despite the look being a little more compact, one of my favourite cards in a photographic sense in this was this very dramatic entry card of Marc-Andre Fleury.

There are still some really nice vertical base as well. There's a couple questionable ones as well. Why is Gudbranson sporting goggles? And given Zetterberg's retirement, that's a little bland photo as a finale, especially considering the greatness of their 2012 Lidstrom finale. Still, there are some nice photos there of alternate jerseys from outdoor games and some nice celebration photos. In terms of framing, my favourite is the Byfuglien. A camo alternate jersey, with a medal-clad veteran watching at rinkside. Just perfect.

Young Guns are technically base cards, so I'll include them. Not really a big name in this group of 5...

but this is a pretty great pull, which at least should cover the cost of the box should I decide to unload it. And there's still another nice card to come, so don't leave yet!

Canvas cards also make their annual return, both in regular and Young Guns form. While the latter seem pretty generic, some of the photos on Canvas cards are upgrades from their base version.

Portraits also make their return. Bah. Way too bland unless they go all early 90's Studio on the back of these. They don't, so bah.

Shooting Stars are back also, although they are scarcer than in previous years, at only one per box.

These are new, though. These have a 90s vibe to the design, even if they're just another excuse to make an insert card of young stars.

Another new insert set with a simple but effective design, and a checklist featuring a mix of current and retired players.

Jaromir Jagr gets a subset of his own, with one card for each year of his career. That would be fun to put together, but since they're available in e-pack form, I'd wait until they become super cheap over at COMC.

Game Jerseys remain at their level of recent years, at about 1 every box and a half.

In addition to the Gritty, there was one of the UD black packs from the Expo included as well. While I struck out for autos at the Expo, I did get one here from some leftovers the LCS had. Depressingly, I think Adam Gaudette will likely be in the upper half of this year's rookie class for autograph legibility.

But this was the toughest pull of the break, and my first time pulling one of these. Day With the Cup are usually among the chase cards in the set, and this year they fall at a rate of 1:2000 packs. At 24 packs per box, and 20 boxes per master case, that's 1 per just more than 4 master cases. With the story behind this particular day including a stop in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, this is a really special pull as well,and a certain keeper.

Whew. That's a lot of text and a lot of scans. I think I'll take tomorrow off.

Expo Recap Part 9

100 more cards!

Unlike the reverse alphabetical order used in the first grouping, this one is sorta done by team, if not perfectly numerical order.

While action shots aren't really a staple of OPC releases, check out that flex on the stick in the Hendry photo.

Pavelec is one of the guys who became a major part of their team during the 09-10 season, but weren't really important enough to warrant a card in the first release.

Shannon and Volchenkov were both guys that played for the Sens the previous season, but didn't make the original cut. Jimmy Howard might be the best example in the set of what I described with Pavelec. Despite appearing in sets since 2005-06, Howard was still a rookie this season, and ended up second in Calder trophy voting.

I seriously had no idea that Brad May was still active in 2009.

I'll never cease to be amused by a cameo appearance of those Popeye rink board ads in the background of photos. We now shift to the rookie portion of this set, albeit not with the cream of this year's rookie crop.

That Matt Climie was one of the cards from this set that I had previously, as an addition to the mask binder. Lars Eller is the first (only?) guy so far among the rookies who is still active in the league, playing for Washington and getting his time with The Cup last year.

It was Tyler Myers who won the Calder in 2009-10, against some major names in the rookie class this season. Another big name lurks in the top corner with Dubnyk, who would become a star in Minnesota.

We've got a former Art Ross winner in this group leading the way. Also, Alec Martinez is here, and he's been on a pair of Stanley Cup winners with the Kings.

Another great netminder here with a former Vezina winner and Stanley Cup winner looking as generic as possible on his card. Sanguinetti is one of a handful of players to reach the NHL that were born on 2/29. So there's that.

As we approach the 790s, things really pick up. I think Gustavsson is the only player in this group that still isn't active in the NHL. And I'll take any chance to use the 'Karlsson' tag on a post after his trade to the Sharks.

And some more major names to end this update set.

At $15 for the set, this was pretty good for less than a dime per card.