21-22 Chronicles Basketball Hanger Pack Break

 

I know I probably should show off some of the baseball stuff out of the very recent Chronicles release, and trust me, I have a lot of those to show off...

whether from group breaks or box breaks, but this has been waiting to be shown off for longer, so that's  what I'm doing today.

First card out of the pack - one of the cover boys!

But of the 6 cover boys on the package, there's really only one that I am chasing, and that's Scottie Barnes. He made 3 appearances in this pack, with only the Threads card being a dupe from a group break. And pack that adds multiple cards to the Raptors PC is a good one.

Evan Mobley  was the only other cover boy to make an appearance in the pack. 

But that just means some more cards for a future Portland-bound mailer.

Or one bound for Ann Arbor.

The pack promised 4 Score cards, and here they are! 

And since they chose to use last year's design as opposed to this year's, we get the 'Fun Facts' on the back. Trae Young really didn't compete on Smackdown, he was just used to heel it up at a show in Madison Square Garden. And it is always fun when a guest star goes for the boos. 

And here's the promised green parallels. They're always better when the parallel colour extends through the whole design of the card, as opposed to just some foil. Elements > Luminance. 

Silver parallels were not promised in the pack, but there was still one to bring some shiny Prizmness to the pack.

And here's a few more designs in the pack that I just didn't show off in the post. Although mainly, this is just my excuse to show a card of a guy named 'Bones'.

There you have it!

2022 Adventures in Repacks - Part 37 - Another Hanger With a Hit

 

Let's do one of these today! Looks like a happy opening card.

There's some star power there with Machado as the first of the non-visible cards. And that's followed up by a Blue Jay, even if Stieb was off the team by the time this hit packs. Logan Moon is the first of what is probably the theme for this particular repack -  Prospect cards of players that didn't reach the majors. That Ricky Guttierez probably is my favourite card in this - with him sporting an obvious St. Patrick's Day cap. 

The hit pops up early. While this qualifies as a prospect card, Thompson did reach the majors for a handful of games with the Blue Jays. And since this does date  from the time when they had an AA affiliate in Knoxville, this 100 percent qualifies as a Jays card.

More prospects. Only Leando made it to AA. I really like the design on the Sasaki, but it would look really nice on a Yankees team set with those pinstripes. 

Of all the base prospects cards so far, Brett Austin made it the furthest, reaching AAA, and being a  bullpen catcher for the Nationals. He's now an assistant coach at NC State. There's some Hall of Fame  mojo in this grouping with the Slaughter,  and a photo that just seems perfect for a set like GQ. Throw in an all-star cap, and at least I can say this was an interesting grouping. 

And the streak of prospects that haven't seen MLB might end with Drew Strotman, as he's progressed all the way up AAA as of this past season. He was just claimed off waivers by the Giants,  so maybe that's  where his eventual big league card will come from.

Some different caps than the usual ones, and a Blue Jays hit are enough to make this a perfectly fine repack experience. There you have it!

2/14 - Black Panther, Debuting Browns, & Basketball

 The baseball and hockey portions of my recent 2/14 arrivals from my 'to be posted' box were numerous enough to require posts of their own. Everything else is just enough for one post of its own. And here it is!

I'm going totally obscure for the football entry, as we go back to the return of the NFL to Cleveland. While Roy Barker wasn't an expansion draft pick, he did end up playing in a dozen games for the team in their first season. He remained pictured with the 49ers on all but this card and its gold parallel, out of a local entry by Giant Eagle Supermarkets. This probably counts as the last card of his career because of that.

Let nobody say I can't be topical for these. Wakanda Forever is hitting theaters, and I can show off a couple new Dania Gurira/Okoye cards. Combining all her appearances in Black Panther sets, and some from The Walking Dead, Danai is the Queen of the miscellaneous portion of the collection, making 13 appearances in the collection, the same as Barker.  As always, cards of her in the role of Okoye count, but not generic cards of the Okoye character. Makes sense?

This might not be the most flattering  photo of Darius Songaila out there. He doesn't have the most flattering expression on his face, and it appears that Renaldo Balkman is going to block his layup. This is also the only cardboard evidence that he was affiliated with the Timberwolves at one point in his career. He never played a game for them, being shipped off to New Orleans before the season. The trade to Minnesota included the draft pick that became Ricky Rubio, in return for Mike Miller and Randy Foye. (Ouch)

At least this card waited until the end of its season to be out-of-date, as it is from the 01-02 season before Rip Hamilton was sent to the Pistons. Since Hamilton was on his way up, and Jerry Stackhouse started to decline after the trade, this was another 'Ouch' trade in retrospect for the Wizards. In comparison to the Dania Gurira leading the way in the miscellaneous portion of the collection with 13 cards, Hamilton leads the basketball portion with this being #90 in that collection. He'll likely be the next member to push into the triple-digit club alongside Jim Kelly, Marian Gaborik and Milan Hejduk.

There you have it!  

Better Set Building Through Retail

 

After these two packs, I have no need to add a wantlist as I knocked my  post-hobby box list in half to less than 20.  But I really don't want to bore you by showing a pile of base cards, but I'll still show some cards off from these.

A defensive player with the ball? That's always worth showing off! Especially considering how few interesting photos are in this year's release.

While I was happy to remove Malik Willis from the wantlist, I'm happier to get another 'guardian caps" photo as well. I also like how the thrown ball seems to come through the border, but not the RC logo. Priorities!

The parallels in these are the 'red' variety, and naturally, they extend through the inserts as well. I guess I'm a magnet this year for pulling red versions of Aidan Hutchinson, which will be Ann Arbor-bound eventually. 

Somebody at Panini must have really loved that 'Protential' pun, because those were the most common insert in these packs. Although I do like the weather on the Garrett Wilson.

The only other rookie-themed set takes you back to 1992. Memories of Pumpy Tudors!

Hobby packs have 'Squad', retail have 'Huddle Up'. It is basically the same thing, although the hobby ones tends to show more defensive photos than the retail. Either way, it might be the only time some of these guys see card appearances, even if it is mostly their backside.

Celebration moves over from hobby to retail. This is probably the most memorable insert set for photos among those I've acquired. The framing on the Justin Herbert is spectacular. The design on the top allows for the ball to appear, yet the horizontal form allows for the dejected defender to also appear in the photo. At least Vonn Bell has other card appearances to show off to his kids.

Much as I liked the photos on the Celebration, the Sack Attack ones come close to being the best of this bunch. There are historic players in this set as well, and as much as I liked getting that Jordan Poyer, I really, really want the Bruce Smith from it. Because it is Bruce Smith and I can't have enough of his cards.

There you have it!

Bills! Bills! Bills!

 Another Sunday, another chance to show off a pile of Bills cards! Everything here comes from group break land!

Here's a couple cards from Elite that I completely forgot about showing off last time. Oops. But here's one new Josh Allen and one new Stefon Diggs on their way to my binders. And it will become obvious that someone at Panini really, really liked that photo on the Diggs. (As they should)

But this is going to be mainly stuff out of Score. It is a solid team set with good bunch of veterans and legends. Although I do question the inclusion of Cole Beasley as part of it, as there was no chance that he was going to be with the team in 2022. Even moreso now, after his twitter escapades of the past few days, which seems to have ended with his account vanishing.

Two out of three ain't bad for the rookie content. Wydermyer is definitely a questionable member of the checklist. He's already on his third team.

These were the only parallels I landed. 

And the only auto I got from the boxes. If I can't say anything nice, I won't say anything.

I can't end this with that auto, so I'll do the inserts instead. I have never enjoyed Fantasy themed inserts, and likely never will. But here's 3 more new Josh Allens for the binders. 

The defensive portion of the Bills gets highlighted on the 'Squad' insert. Micah Hyde may not have warranted a base card in the set, but he is pretty prominent in this one. 

I said you'd  see that Diggs photo again. Although I still believe that an insert named 'Toe The Line" should really show the player making the catch right up against the edge of the field as opposed to Knox, who looks to have plenty of room, or Diggs, who could be anywhere on the field.

But if results in my getting a /6 parallel of the Diggs? 

I hereby retract all my complaints!

There you have it!
 

2/14 Hockey

 Last week, I recapped the 2-14 baseball portion of my to-be-posted box. Today, it is the hockey portion of it, coming from mainly from COMC and sportlots.

The card with the odd celebration out of Dave Lowry had been on my wantlist for awhile. I finally found a seller through sportlots that had it, was on this side of the border, and with reasonable shipping.  And I could throw in a second one!

I'm actually surprised that I didn't already have that UD base card of Eric Nystrom from 2010, but there's finally one in the collection. It may not be as interesting as his 'glove' photo from 15-16, but a face-off circle shot is still pretty uncommon on cards. Speaking of 15-16, that's the year that retro parallel comes from. 

Only one solo addition to the hockey portion this time around, and it is Cameron Tolnai. He's undrafted, and is now playing out his overage season with the 67s. 

For variety, Brandon Sutter wins among his 4 cards. He's got a parallel, with this being the glossy variation. 

Here he is on an insert, and a parallel of that insert out of Parkhurst. He's no longer on a team, so this 21-22 card will probably be among the last he gets while active in the league. The Family in question here was a game where his uncle Darryl was coaching the Calgary opposition.

And the big one is this super thick patch out of SP Game Used from 14-15. It also provides a rare situation where there's also an interesting photo accompanying the hit, as the snow is obviously flying during the Stadium Series game at Soldier Field. 

In terms of volume, Marian Gaborik gets 5 new cards. The Calder card in the upper right was a dupe, in a nod to my somewhat questionable record-keeping skills.

So, that makes Calle Johansson the big winner this time around. I do like that I go both the Canadian and American version of his 1992 Score card put into the binders with the same mailer. That 1989 is, much like that UD Nystrom, one that I thought I had already, but my binders told me otherwise. I had his Topps entry from that year. This puts him at an even 50 cards in the collection.   Milan Hejduk still leads with 253, but Gaborik is close behind with 247.

There you have it!

 

2022 Adventures in Repacks - Part 36 - Surprising Baseball

 

A Surprise Bag of baseball is on tap for today, with entirely repacks as the contents within. As usual, I'm going clockwise from the upper left, with the 12 card pack being the opening one.

As usual, these go all over the place. Manager cards are always interesting in repacks, and we get some Heritage in there, along with a last name in 'Haverbusch' that just seems like one that would be used when you call up The Tube Bar. "Is Lemmy there? Last name is Haverbusch!"

O-Pee-Chee! And Heritage Minors! WOO-HOO! Even it was only the paper version, that Willy Adames would have been a pretty good pull for the time. And now - repack filler. 1990 Score might be to baseball repacks as 1990 Bowman is to hockey ones.

Your Hall of Famers. At least one of the 3 wasn't from the junk wax era, and it is actually a pretty cool looking card of Ty Cobb out of 2003 SP Legendary Cuts. 

Not one of these 3 300+ HR guys had hit 300 by the time their respective cards in this scan hit the packs. Pro Visions are another example of the card that would have been a great pull at the time, but has been relegated to repack content. I do like that although the repack salutes home run prowess, it looks like it is some defensive wizardry that is featured on the Bonds card.

Yes. Those are definitely 5 pitchers. I'd never heard of Wapnick, nor Gakeler before seeing them on these two cards.

And your 2000s pack definitely wins the battle for the most interesting of the ones in this, even with the Bonds and Cobb appearances. Peralta brings on of those photos that could show up on any Panini card, without necessitating the photoshop crew does much work. A bit of Ginter randomness? Sure! Bartolo Colon is another one of those players that it is always fun to pull a card of, no matter what team or set it comes from. Being a Heritage release does bump it up a bit. Bobby Jones is probably the least interesting one in here, but he's still a former Met. And that Mike Lieberthal is likely what was his only pack-pullable card where he wasn't pictured/listed on the Phillies. He wrapped his career with one season in LA.

There you have it!