2/14 Hockey

More goodies out of the 2/14 portion of my to-be-posted box. I've already recapped baseball content from my latest incoming COMC mailer. Hockey is today, and in an effort to get the rest of the stuff posted before the Expo this weekend everything else appears next post.

It would entirely be a cheap-because-of-epack post, if not for this outlier. A relic of perfect-match (year/date) Viktor Kozlov. I kinda miss the chance at getting a hit out of a lower-end product like MVP or flagship at reasonable odds.

Ah, Josh Pillar. The one with the worst penmanship in the collection. At least I don't have to be worried about a horrid signature ruining this perfectly good Exclusives parallel card.

No team variety in the new Colby Barlow content. But at least 3 of the 4 cards have unique photos. Also: Prospectus Momentous? That's really, really corny. These are all from the 2023 Team Canada release, meaning these were rather cheap due to people looking to recover anything at all from their Bedard chases.

As usual, when I'm getting hockey from the e-pack COMC cheapness, Nikolaj Ehlers leads the way in terms of volume. The Platinums are Matte Pink and Sunset parallels respectively, with the Allure being a red rainbow. The Metal Universe is an e-pack exclusive as a Spectrum, with the MLB being the silver signature version. Speed of the Game, is the only insert, out of 21-22 Credentials. 

There you have it!

2024 Adventures in Repacks - Part 31 - Dollarama Catch-Up

 Today, just a pile of Value Bundles from Dollarama that I've picked up over the past month or two. To be precise, there were 4 in this pile.

Repack #1:

Its contents.

As usual, the 5 card was all over the place. That Quick will be a new addition to the mask binder. I'd be more excited about that reverse retro jersey on Yegor's card - the Devils/Rockies mash-up, but I'd grabbed one from a dime bin at an Expo before.

Not just one HOFer in that portion, but two. Makarov went in a year prior to Selanne. Still, the best card here is the Myers, thanks to the Kelowna Rockets and their Ogopogo jerseys. It's them or the Sudbury Wolves as my fave across the CHL.

Two appearances of 21-22 UD flagship? That makes for a pretty dull 2020s pack.

I'm not going to scan the whole Pro Set pack. But here's one card that features Kelly Hrudey getting a face full of Chris Govedaris' hindquarters.

Repack #2:

That box was the perfect size for the Tre Ford patch/auto I pulled last month.

I'll forgive getting two cards of the same player when the third card is a Sens card with a great photo.

Only one HOFer in this pack, but it is of the finest player to have 2/29 as their birthday. Also, that's actually a pretty solid design for SP Authentic - a nice diversion from the super basic design with next to zero colour in the background.

That's a sweet grouping of 1990s cards. Any Gretzky appearance is great, even if there are probably about a million of those cards out there. That Ellett is a food issue card too, being available in packs at McDonald's at the time. Both horizontal cards also have some nice photos too. I haven't busted too many of these where the most interesting portion of the repack is the 90s one.

Repack #3:

Another box. I assume I'll find a slightly bigger card to use this particular holder as a home at some point.

The 5 card pack became a 6 card one. The Ryan O'Reilly was actually an Update card inserted into 2018 S2 flagship. Back when OPC was an early-season release. 1993 Leaf means the back gets scanned, just like with baseball. Sens content too! 

Here's the 1000pt pack, which also included a bonus card. That bonus might have been the extra 1000pt player, as both Pavelski and Bourque would reach that plateau. 

Not only is it a dull 21-22 entry, but Aho is done dirty by having an unflattering expression on his face. Was this the only bland photo of his sent into UD? 

Despite the extra cards, probably the blandest in this post.

Repack #4:

The first one had 1991 Pro Set, as does this. But this one is the French version.

2020s brings no 21-22 content. I already like this pack. That great photo of Stutzle is also pretty nice. Even if it is a dupe for my Sens content, the photo with no part of his body touching the ice can still make for a nice photo for my miscellaneous collection.

1993 Leaf, and not much else here. That's not going to come close to the 90s pack from repack #2.

T

2010s provides another dupe of a card I know I have elsewhere - Antti Raanta with the Arizona version of his Lucky Luke/Rantanplan mask.

The Pro Set opens strongly with the first two cards both being candidates for my Kitchener Rangers alumni binder. I'll have to actually open my binders to check, and having to do so inspired me to finally get around to adding non-hit content to my tcdb collection. Also: More Gretzky! I'm guessing that photo isn't just from the same game as the Hrudey earlier, but was probably snapped by the same photographer.

That was a lot of fun, for not too big of a price!

There you have it!

The Jays Finale

 

Time to finally wrap up the TMV mailer with a pre-Expo finale, that will probably result in another large mailer heading to Michigan.

Might as well have a big start with these five postcards. I'm not sure how I'd react getting a touristy postcard from someone that had Ed Sprague's photo on the front. My favourites are the Guzman and Hentgen, since that does look to be Veteran's Stadium in the background, meaning they're both 1993 World Series photos.

The really oversized portion ends with these 1989 Topps LJN Baseball talk cards. Am I obsessed enough to find the player for these? Probably not. I do say probably, because some of these featured the voice of Mel Allen. Mel Allen was a 2/14 baby. Does that qualify those cards for my 2/14 collection?

Probably not.

But with me, you never know.

And now, the slightly oversized. Maybe a centimeter or two beyond the usual, but still enough to group together.

Vladdy-mania to start the regular portion. You'd think they'd adjust the font size so it didn't look like a Dominican Repu.

Nothing says early 2020s like a masked mascot on their card. And there's Cavan Biggio, soon to be recipient of a World Series ring based on his 30 game stint with the Dodgers, before moving on to Atlanta. 

2024 wasn't exactly the best year to get Bo Bichette in a Home Run Challenge. Maybe things will be better for him next year if his "wife" stays away from the ballpark. The Joe Carter is some sort of gaudy parallel. Matrix, to be accurate. Also: Sportflics! YEAH! That's Damaso Garcia on that card.

Of all the people to make an appearance in two posts over the past few weeks, I never thought that Robinzon Diaz would be one of them. At least here, he's not getting saluted for being part of one of Pittsburgh's worst trades. Or Toronto's best.

A&G probably should have removed that 1/1 portion of that Perez insert. Still, it was a welcome, albeit brief return to original king of the painted card.

Here's the horizontal finale before moving into the numbered/relics/auto portion of the post.

Just a couple only-numbered cards, but both could go into either my Jays binder, or the respective Delgado/Guerrero Sr binders.

Gabe Gross was not the Jays name of the past I most expected to see on a relic card, but there he was. As always, I love the obscurity thereof.  Delgado and Springer are more familiar faces. 

I remember Dickie Thon getting autographs years back in Panini's Hometown Heroes release. I should try and find one to complete another father-son pairing in my collection. If Scott Campbell had reached the bigs, he would have been the first MLBer born in New Zealand. They're still waiting. James would make MLB, albeit with Oakland. Urena was the only one to actually play for the Blue Jays during the regular season. 

And the best of both worlds. While Kirk hasn't been at his previous All-Star level the past couple years, he's been perfectly fine in his role. 

There you have it!

I Overpaid for This

 

And I don't card one bit.

It's spectacular.

2024 Adventures in Repacks - Part 30 - Back to Baseball

To stay with my alternating pattern, it looks like a baseball one is next.

This one, in particular. We open with a nicely laid-put horizontal photo.

 

And another interesting horizontal photo with Upton. Randa Bear rookie! Don Mattingly was given one of the double-zero positions in 1994's Topps set. So good for him on that! 

Sportflics in a repack? YES! That 1990 Donruss is one of the more red cards ever. I'll give slight props for them trying to create one of those multi-image cards with Surhoff. It just looks like he's melting.

Here's the hit! I had no idea who he was, but he got his start in the Jays system in 2012, debuted in 2019 with Colorado, spent 2023 in Japan, and finally looks to have caught on with the Marlins. Even if the ZOMG$$ types would hate this, I love interesting climbs to a major league roster spot.

That '86 Herr moves in late to tie the Sportflics of Orel for the oldest card in the repack. Random minor league cards in repacks rule! And keeping the flying facemask in the border of the design is a great choice.

Not the best finale, but it being Heritage makes it not among the blandest either.

But there were some nice, interesting cards in the middle. And that's all I ask for!

Baseball 2/14s

 Over to my COMC to-be-posted box, and it is time to start working my way through the 2/14 content in, broken up into 3 parts. There's baseball, hockey, and everything else. I'll stay topical to the World Series and begin with the baseball.

I didn't have any Yankees to show off in the box, so it will be Dodgers content to lead. This is probably my most obscure Len Gabrielson entry in the collection. At least until I add his 1964 Venezuelan parallel into the binder. 

This Sepia parallel makes it Dodgers 2 Yankees 0 for this post. Appropriate.

When I'm 70 deep into the cardboard history of John Marzano, you've got to leave his Red Sox career behind and make some deep dives. A minor league card, and a stadium giveaway version. 

Shiny! Shiny!

There's always room for Stadium Club in the collection, especially of the inked variety.

That is a (partial) background worthy of a 1989 Diamond Kings card. Me like!

And it ends with Brooks Lee, who both made his MLB debut, and his first appearance in my 2/14 collection this year. That's despite his having cards since 2022 Bowman Draft. That Lunar Glow parallel from this year's Bowman might be nice, but it doesn't have the greatness of his representation of the Wichita Wind Surge on his Pro Debut card. If only I'd known about its existence last year, it would have made my Top 10.

But there you have it!