2019 Adventures in Repacks - Part 16.4 - My Own Private Packening

Let's bring another repack adventure to a close.

Parkhurst leads the post this time with some mid 00's entries. I did not remember Mark Recchi spending time with the Hurricanes until seeing this time. A quick look-up showed why. He spent 20 games there, in 05-06.

Some mask binder goodness here with Legace's salute to Al the Octopus.

While you do have a chance at a Crosby rookie in this, the size of the set makes for long odds. But at least this is still a relevant player in the 18-19 season.

06-07 Parkhurst was a lot of fun, with a checklist of entirely retired players, meaning you got quite a few players that rarely, if ever, appeared on modern cardboard.

No autos in these packs, but there were a couple of the numbered base cards. Classic Nords blue!

Power Play was pretty bland. It looks like they had two options for highlighting a player with their new team. Pose in a jersey, or just slap the new logo on an older photo.

Off to the MVP, and mask perfection. If you are named Jason, how can you not go for that motif on a hockey mask?

Sens content!

Your collation fun came in the MVP packs. Rookie cards fell every other pack in these, and both of them ended up being cards of the same netminder who only had NHL experience as a backup.

A nice stretchy card from 06 flagship.

Goaltenders tend to get interesting cards in the main releases.

There was some Sens content there as well, as career Senator Chris Phillips dekes Kitchener Rangers alum Derek Roy right onto his backside.

How do you wrap up a series of posts highlighting the contents from 50+ packs? How about an insert with one of my favourite motifs in card design - a background with the cityscape?

There you have it! Thanks again, Dennis, for forwarding all these along to me. It was a blast to tear into a bunch of packs. Lots of keepers. Lots of trade package content. What more could I ask for?

Next up, getting caught up with trade packages!

2019 Adventures in Repacks - Part 16.3 - My Own Private Packening

Back to the packs! Up today, the O-Pee-Chee, Ultra, and the Victory.

There was only one OPC pack in the whole thing, so I'll lead this post with that. It isn't an action photo, but this feels almost like the type of casual picture you'd see on a Collector's Choice card from the 90s. Nice!

My second Wolverines alum card means this is the second return to sender card in the bunch.

One of the big cards for me came from the Victory 2006 pack. A new Gaborik insert for the 2/14 collection! WOO-HOO!

As for the other Victory pack, at least I landed a Sens card.

Sometimes, with the 2006 Ultra, the name's positioning on the card seemed to work just right with way the player is positioned on the card. Although it does look like Nikolai may have forgotten to put on the lower half of his equipment, and the design has to cover up little Nikolai.

1 gold parallel per pack equals these three golds.

Ultra Action? Whatever you say, Fleer.

This redemption, similar to those found in Artifacts, could have turned into a Marc Staal rookie card. I'm about 9 years too late to redeem it, though.

2007-08 Ultra landed me the final 'return to sender' card of the break.

In terms of collation, one pack contained both the base card of Niittymaki and the gold parallel. His gangster themed mask remains a fave of mine, so I won't complain.

Still, it doesn't come close to the three Joe Thornton cards I landed, none of which were the base version. Collation, once again!

And here's the rest of the gold. Because why not?

What's left? Some Power Play, some Parkhurst, some MVP and some flagship. An interesting variety to end it.

Happy Victoria Day!

Another year - another Victoria card for the long weekend.

2019 Adventures in Repacks - Part 16.2 - My Own Private Packening

The 90s portion of this break comes to an end with some 1997 Leaf, Donruss and Pinnacle.

I'll start with the Leaf, since the first card out of that was a new card for the Alfie collection.

The design for this set isn't too bad, although the foil script of the bottom can sometimes be hard to read if it contrasts against darker portions of the photo. Who is Brian George...oh...that's Brian Savage.

There was very little Sens content the rest of the way through the packs, but fortunately Leaf came through with some more new ones.

Leaf ends with some cards bound for the mask binder.

Off to Donruss, and leading with a rookie card of Pascal Rheaume. If the last name seems familiar, you're right. He's the brother of Manon.

Delivering a cross-check? That's a perfect photo card for Darren McCarty.

It doesn't matter which set you pull it from, whether it is Pro Set or The Cup, but Gretzky is always a nice get.

Wolverines alum? That's a 'return to sender' card.

Only 3 packs from Donruss, but two of them contained a Press Proof parallel. They aren't serial numbered, but they're supposedly limited to 2000 each. Back when that meant something.

Finally, Pinnacle. I've definitely shown this beauty off previously here. It remains a classic card from the late 90s.

If I would focus only on the players and not the background, I'd be convinced these two photos were taken on the same play. Collation being as it was in these packs, these two cards were right next to each other when I busted the pack.

Also collated right beside each other, a pair of HOF Kitchener Rangers alum. A very appropriate photo for MacInnis as well, with him delivering a blast of a slapshot.

While this is a Juneau card, this could also have been an interesting card for Leetch as he slides to block a shot/pass.

This was obviously early in the Dallas Stars career of Belfour, since he didn't have the eagle paint job yet.

While that Belfour isn't a mask binder card, there were plenty more candidates among the rest of the cards.

And there you have it! Halfway there! When MOPP continues, I'll be visiting the mid 2000s.

2019 Adventures in Repacks - Part 16.1 - My Own Private Packening

It has been almost a month (4/23), since I've done a repack post. Time to remedy that. Dennis, @ Too Many Verlanders/Manninghams, knows of my love for repacks. So, the most recent mailer included the contents of one of those 50 pack repacks. The hockey version, naturally. So, I was able to bust a bunch of packs, and throw the wrappers around like Scrooge McDuck.

These were the packs contained within:


1990 Bowman * 5
1991 Score * 5
1991 Pro Set Series 1 * 6
1996 Mint * 3
1997 Pinnacle * 5
1997 Donruss * 3
1997 Leaf * 4
2005 Parkhurst * 2
2006 OPC
2006 UD Series 1
2006 Ultra * 3
2006 Power Play * 2
2006 Parkhurst * 4
2006 Victory
2007 UD Series 1 * 3
2007 Ultra * 6
2007 MVP * 3
2007 Victory

That's 58, enough more than 50 that it is noticeable. I'll break this up into 4 posts, and I'll start with the first 4 in the list.

1990 Bowman is the patron saint set of repacks. It is rare to find a repack that doesn't include at least one card from this set. So, I should show at least one. Here's a player I'd never heard of before, but at least it includes a nice look at the Stanley Cup finals patch.

Each of these packs included a Hat Trick insert, along with the obligatory stick of gum. You're less likely to find the inserts in repack, so I'll highlight all of them. Because why not? As for the gum, I was scheduled for a root canal the next day. So that's why I didn't try it. That's the ticket. A root canal.

Pro Set 1991 was another candidate for the dullest sets in history. With a couple exceptions, such as this, all the photos were taken at ice level with the camera seemingly parallel to the ice surface. Throw in a lack of colour, especially compared to the previous year, and you've got a snoozer.

Too much red for this? OK, so there might be a little too much, but it does work here with a nice photo, as Yzerman contrasts with the white boards. This would actually work really nice with a horizontal layout.

Such as here. This sprawling save would look far less impressive on a modern card with the far larger pads.

Throw in a drawn card of the retiring Guy LaFleur, and 1991 Score easily wins the junk wax battle.

And since I really can't showcase just these cards, I'll fast forward a few years to 1996 with Mint. Each pack includes 3 items:

A base card.

A card with a hole in it. Alfie!

And a coin that can be matched up with its respective holed card.

There you have it! 1997 goodies tomorrow!