Some Minor 2/14 Additions via Sportlots PWE

Here's a sportlots PWE worth (meaning 4 cards) of new cards for the 2/14 collection.

A Mets card is always a good lead for me, even if it is a minor league card. Although none of the players here today did reach the big leagues, Tom did come the closest to getting a big league card, appearing in a Bowman set.

While I do prefer to lead with new faces in the collection, the temptation to use a Mets card was too great this time. Instead, Tracy Smith falls to second place for his debut. 

While some people in my collection did get plenty of Topps/Bowman cards without reaching the big leagues, such as Ian Clarkin, Bruce Crabbe, now with 6 appearances, leads the way among guys who only got minor league cards. He also makes appearances as a manager, one of a handful of guys to make player/coach appearances, alongside people like Bernie Geoffrion and Fred Carter.

I also point out that there are 3 baseball players named Crabbe who have received cards, and two of them are 2/14 guys.

There you have it!

Another Ranger Roundup

 The recent COMC shipment was filled with cards of Kitchener Rangers related cards. Here's most of' em!

No better way to start than with Carson Rehkopf. In what looked to be a rebuilding year on East Avenue, he's leading the league in scoring, as the team is at the top of the OHL as I write this. I couldn't ask for much more.

A small pile of cheap Parkhursts. 

The Fabulous 50s has what you want in an insert set - a nice, clean design, and it is buoyed by the "Whoa! That guy scored 50 or more goals in a season!" moments. Use the checklist to cheat your hinder off if 50+ Goals comes up on a future immaculate grid.

Shiny! Shiny! 

Ryan Murphy provides the only card in this post that wasn't an e-pack card. That wasn't a thing back in 2013, and O-Pee-Chee base sets still aren't on there. Still, here he is on a black parallel /100. 

A pair of Kadris are next. Pizzazz adds a nice bit of colour to this post, even if the card itself isn't really shiny enough for the Pizzazz name,

I know that these banner relics aren't the most popular, but I prefer to think it as an opportunity to add some swatch colour that you might not associate with the team in question. Such as green on this relic from the Lake Tahoe games. 

Meireles' NHL journey has now taken him to the Minnesota Wild system, skating for their AHL team in Iowa. 

20-21 SP Signature Legends came out this year. It was very much like 2012 Panini Signatures or 2006 Parkhurst in that it boosted a deep checklist of veterans, and a lot of them were of guys who hadn't been seen in products in ages. While the prospect of paying hobby box prices an getting one of the autos being a David Shaw probably would put sone off, waiting for them to hit epack and be inexpensive is my kinda deal. Shaw was a part of the '82 Memorial Cup winners, and had a nice long career in the NHL that went into the late 90s. His only certified auto was a Be a Player one back in '94, and it was so nice to finally welcome one without questionable licensing in the collection.

There you have it!

Late, as Usual

Given how I've already started showing off stuff from my latest COMC shipment, maybe I should finally finish off the 2.14 stuff from the my previous shipment I still haven't gotten around to scanning.

As long as UD keeps releasing sets saluting Black Panther, I'll keep adding Okoye/Danai Gurira cards to the collection. And I learned earlier today there were "Behind the Scenes" cards out there, meaning I can add more cards that technically feature her as opposed to her characters. No matter what, she remains in the lead for the misc. portion with 14 cards, more than double Ayako Hamada's 6.

They'll never run out of parallel types - this one is a Lunar Glow Refractor. Random nouns and adjectives can make a new one!

I'm certain I've got some Perfect Game autos from Leaf in my collection. They're a wonderfully inexpensive way to add a card of a prospect to the collection from their early cardboard days. At one point, they were in Bowman. An oddity, I guess.

The finale is the only card of this group to feature somebody with MLB experience. Fortunately for the PC, Yermin's month or so on the top of the rookie rung made it so that later season releases needed his cards. And fun SP parallels like this one. His one-and-done nature also make these nicely inexpensive today.

There you have it!

2023 Adventures in Repacks - Part 33: Hanger and a Hit

 Let's do one of these!

'tis ice to see a big name as the opening, visible card. Even if it is only a base card.

And a pretty big name as the second card as well, coming from a mid-range release. There's the wall of 1990 Score that seems to have replaced the wall of 1990 Bowman in recent product. That's a rather unflattering picture of Nedved on his card. Not quite Pinnacle sweaty blue undershirt unflattering, but not a hockey-card worthy shot.

That was one of only a couple cards on this side of the Atlantic that Blazek got. Those Pro Set Platinums without the name on the front have not aged well as the featured players have become less memorable all these years later. That's Geoff Sanderson (who has amazing genetics) and Mike Krushelnyski shown on the bottom row.

And the hit! There's another awful photo for a card. He looks like he's posing at gunpoint. But that is a nice big swatch at least. Even odder that the photo, Blouin made his first NHL appearance in 1996. He also played in about 90 games between than and 2002, when he finally got his first licensed NHL cards. Given how rookie-centric releases are, that's amazing. 

It may seem that Jose Charbonneau, with his mouth wide open during warm-ups and not really centered, might be the oddest photo choice here.

How about Wade Flaherty getting snowed by his own teammate?

Only appropriate that this ends on a 21-22 base card.

This repack certainly wasn't dull! And interesting is always the best option!

Worst of the Worst

 In an era where autographs are becoming lazier and less legible, this might end up as one of the worst, at least when it comes to 2/14 folk.

The best thing I can say about this is that there is a dot where the 'i' would conceivably be. But given the rest of it, maybe the pen slipped. He was a draft pick of Minnesota, but doesn't appear to have gone that route and is now playing for the University of Saskatchewan. Canadian University sports! Where you have a great chance of seeing a player in your class! 

For the sake of his professors/markers, I hope that all his exams are Scantrons. 

Let's throw in a few numbered cards...

and a relic from the same set to expand his appearances in the collection to 6. 

Although I do admit any misgivings about his signature quality doesn't stem any desire to add more cards of his to that 6.

There you have it! 

Gridiron 2/14s

 This time, it is a bunch of 2/14 additions of the football variety that were either in my latest COMC shipment, from Sportlots or ones from the previous COMC shipment I had yet to show off.

I finally have a photo of JSN in Seahawks colours to show off. This is from one of Panini's sets out of the National, and while the colours are super-nice to have, maybe I should have added a card where he doesn't look like he's surprised to be there.

Jaxon isn't the only player to get his first Seattle card in my collection. Tyreke Smith also had only Ohio State Buckeyes appearances prior to this as well. He didn't get too many cards last year, spending it on IR. But he finally got into a game this year - before getting released and resigned to the practice squad. Still, he's as important a member of my collection as Jim Kelly.

Speaking of...

Here's a bunch of his cards from Sportlots. A nice # of junk wax era "I thought I had that one!" cards.

Here's a few horizontal entries. Given the height of some of the hair in the family portrait shot, I'm surprised that one fit.

I'll stay at the QB position with 5 new David Garrards as well. Even with 108 cards in the collection, it still feels like a low amount given the longevity of his career. That's probably to the QB star power ahead of him in Kelly, McNair and Bledsoe. That's not a bad group to be in 4th in.

I just realized that I've had three OSU alums in this post. But I'm thinking that after the game from this past Saturday, I'm not worried about offending a Wolverine-loving trade partner with this.

Finally some shininess! In the form  of an Orange Disco Prizm parallel. And then I get him actually in Packers colours during a game, even if it is the same photo used on his Select cards. 

A pair of autographs to end this. Sure, Mack Wilson's signature might not look like much. It might not parse very well. But his is many times better in all facets than the one I'm going to show off next post. I mean - at least this looks like it could conceivably be a signature.

There you have it!

Redeemed!

 It is cheaper in the long run to have redemptions sent to my COMC account, especially since Panini started using FedEx and putting the book value of them on the shipment. Free shipping isn't when customs is involved.

So, here's a pair that showed up in my latest mailer from them.

Both are out of Chronicles, and this one was about two years in the making until arrival. The White Sox spot in 2021 was very Yermin Mercedes intensive, I used a group break to add some cards of his to my 2/14 collection, while also getting whatever else to go alongside it. It was a good break for getting on-card autographs from the Origins set for me. As nice as that super-colourful Stiever was, this just looks like such a classy entry. It feels just wrong to jailbreak this from its container.

Speaking of jail...

At least this was a random group break and not an individual purchase.

Next time I'm just selling the redemption and running.

2023 Adventures in Repacks - Part 32: Nothin' But Some Hits

 Back to my repack box, and it is another three hit repack. While these generally provide 2 relics and auto, this one mixed things up with 1 relic and 2 autos.

Only one relic, and its a pretty interesting one. A pro-bowl swatch, and of a player without a lot of cards and a position that gets little hobby love. I'm probably the only person that is happy about such a hit - and it is probably more interesting, at least to me, than either of the autos.

Maybe they decided to not consider this to be an auto since the penmanship is so questionable. But at least I can recognize the Js. Or what are supposed to be a couple Js. Maybe he thought he'd be wearing #77 and signed that.

And autograph #2! It might be only his initials, but at least the initials are identifiable as actual letters, and  the jersey number is identifiable as such as well. Even with the abbreviation, he makes nice use of the sticker space as well. If you're not going to spell out your full name, at least do this.

Nothing major, and the best of the hits may have been the relic, but there you have it!

Say, Could you Introduce me to Shari Belafonte Harper

 The wit and wisdom of Tom Servo

Her appearance in "Being From Another Planet" makes it a perfect card for stateside Turkey Day, and the newest autograph in my "people from MST3Ked movies" collection.

Everything Else

 And now, every other single I grabbed at the show. Or at least the ones left after I packaged some up to get sent out to my usual partners.

This was all that's left in terms of hockey content. I just love this photo because John Lilley looks fucked up out of his gourd on...something. This is definitely a case of "I'm so glad this guy got other cards over his career". 

Quarter box Johnny Bench? Fine by me!

Quarter box random traded cards? Again, fine by me!

Archives was fresh on the shelves a couple weeks back, so let's add some sweet legends content to the ol' binders. That's an impressive sideburns battle between Gibson and Brock. 

Vladdy! He looks like he's going to unload a throw against some poor unfortunate runner that thinks they're going to advance a base on a mere fly to the outfield.

Numbered Willies! It is really hard to tell since the foil scans horribly, but that McCovey is /99.

Finally, a pair of relics to wrap things up. Sure, this is a Brock Osweiler patch, but it is a really nice Brock Osweiler patch.

The grand finale for singles is a card that hits a sweet spot. An oddball item. That's not a jersey swatch from the draft, but the hat he's wearing. Oddities like that can be the best thing about relics, especially when they're not game used.

And that's about it. Except I do have a box of 2023 Chronicles to show off, but I am going to wait a few days to show off that content. Because after 8 straight posts, I think I need a break from that. 

There you have it!