COMC and the 2/14 Misc. Portion

I really have to get caught up on my COMC to-be-posted collection before the next mailer from them arrives. So today and tomorrow will cover the 2/14 content that has been stewing in the box.

Easily the oldest card in this group goes back to 1979 and the James Bond: Moonraker set. Lois Maxwell made one appearance in this set, and while I'm disappointed she wasn't featured in the sticker subset, at least there was this.

Another entry into the binder from the "cheap on COMC because of epacks" methodology.

The 'inventor' portion of the collection is pretty threadbare. I've added cards featuring a Ferris Wheel, since George Ferris was a 2/14 baby. Now, I can add Christopher Sholes to the collection. You are very likely working at his invention right now - the QWERTY keyboard.

Who would have thought that Mayors insert set in 2016 Ginter would pay dividends? But LA Mayor Eric Garcetti is now in the collection. I wonder if he does TTM.

I won't pretend to know the first thing about soccer, or any of the players featured here. But these cards all mark the first appearances of these 4 players in the collection.

And there you have it! Tomorrow, the rest of the new cards with some baseball, hockey and football.

One Card Only: Name Game

Sometimes, there are days you just have to post a card of a guy named Putt Choate.

Especially when it has been in your "to-be-posted" folder since May.

COMC Basketball Randomness

There's never a bad time to hit my COMC-to-be-posted box, so here's some more of those cards as I highlight the basketball content that has been waiting in there for however long it has been.

This card could go in my Raptors collection, my Celtics collection, my Grizzlies collection, or I could separate the cards and add it to all 3. Since I've already got Wright and Williams in those collection, I'm choosing the third of those 4 options, the Grizzlies collection. Amaya was undrafted, but played in 34 gamesin their debut season.

I picked these two up in the same e-pack of Goodwin Champions. Decent enough for having no license.

This guy might be a basketball player. He might also be a janitor that stole Dominique Wilkins' warm ups to pretend to be a player and fool the Topps photographer. Either way, this rivals some 70s hockey cards for overall skeeviness of a photo.

Who says a nice celebration shot can't come from the intros?

Curry has the shortest NBA career in league history. 3.9 seconds. And that's still 3.9 seconds more than anybody reading this has ever come close to.

And a couple autos for the penmanship collection. That classic Warriors jersey Short is wearing is pretty nice too.

There you have it!

Pack Sampler: 2019 Gallery

Because sometimes you just have to pass on the repacks at Wally World and get a fresh new product on the shelves. They obviously passed on thick material for the packaging, as the first card is very visible.

So, we move Willie Mays out of the way to see Pedro Avila.

The back of the cards are pretty much exactly what you'd expect based on previous years of the product.

Here's the remainder of the base cards. I think this year's release features the debut of horizontal base cards. The Artisans distinction on the card isn't a variation, but it does show that this card is a SP. The set is 200, with the final 50 being SP. I think I'll pass on the set build. My fave portrait in the pack among the base is the JD Hammer, because stadium background > generic background. And there's a Joey Votto for my Cancon collection.

There were two wood parallels in the pack, and they'd indicate this pack maybe should have ended up on the shelves far to the southwest of me. But, the Naylor is also a CanCon card. So, maybe not.

And definitely not when it came to the Heritage insert. A drawn card of Vlad Jr, with the always classic 1965 design! I may like this card even better than the Richard Urena auto I pulled from my one pack last year. And despite the fact he's all over every late release this year, it is still a lot of fun to pull any of his cards.

There you have it! If it were not for the SPs, I could see myself going for this set. Alas, 1/4 of the set being such kinda kills the urge.

A Rangers Roundup

After my brief trip to Calgary for some repacks while travelling, what better way to settle back into the home front than with some cards of players who have, or are, spending some time right here in Kitchener?

I'm going totally obscure for the first card. Darren Beals spent a couple of years in the mid/late 80s as the goaltender for the Rangers. From there, it was only a handful of games in the minors. It was still enough for this, his only card beyond junior. Still, it is worth adding to my collection.

Melchiori has only had a handful of NHL cards, even from his rookie season. Thankfully, Compendium's e-packs provide an easy, and if one waits, an inexpensive way, to add cards of players further down the roster into the collection. Julian is in the Devils system this season.

Derek is probably the most well-known of the players in today's post, as we're off to his rookie year and this /950 card. And you get an alternate jersey as well. At least it isn't the slug logo, or the yellow monstrosities.

Speaking of those, I just needed a swatch from those ghastly jerseys in my miscellaneous collection. So, I just scanned COMC for the cheapest grey swatch available. And this was the cheapest.

This is sorta cheating, but these will count if/until these guys get NHL cards. Valade is draft eligible this season. Vukojevic was a third rounder of the Devils, and Vallati, who was traded to Oshawa a couple seasons back, was a Jets draft pick.

And there you have it!

2019 Adventures in Repacks: Part 31.4- Away Game

The other side!

And we're off! I grabbed this because of the visible card from O-Pee-Chee's Canadian Tire release, which was a set I'd never picked up a card of until this repack. I'm duping up already with the George Gardner, but that's a fine card to get two of. I'm assuming that Brandon Sutter is a dupe. We end with one of the better nicknames in hockey - Garry "Toy Tiger" Howatt.

It's a 1990 Bowman Doug Bodger hot repack! As we get into this side's French portion, suddenly I've got a craving for donuts.

Pretty good portion for the PC, with this group book-ended by an obvious and a not so obvious card for the Kitchener Rangers collection. And a Sens card too!

There's some nice cards here with a historical feel, but since Meszaros was a Senators draft pick, and was listed as such here despite being pictured as a member of the Vancouver Giants.

Another dupe with Brunnstrom, but it is nicely offset with a Bernier for the mask binder, and a card with a mascot cameo.

So, that's what repacks look like within the mountain time zone. The next cards will be tied into locations closer to home.

2019 Adventures in Repacks: Part 31.3 - Away Game

I had to buy a second repack while on the road. For 'research'.

And here it is!

It's the throwback cards are really of interest here. While an appearance of The Hammer would normally be an easy winner, there's a Vancouver Blazers card in this group. That automatically wins the group of 8.

It took only 12 cards into this repack for dupes to appear. And they did with the expected 1990 Bowman. Congrats on your 'Star Rookie' card, Ken! Enjoy being mocked as you stumble by a cartoon parrot!

Sure, this might look like the junk wax portion, but the Upper Deck cards are the French versions, as was the Slaney in the previous grouping. That means there's only about 2 million in the print run vs 3 million for the English.

This is another really cool grouping of cards, with several candidates for a favourite. The Shore and the Tretiak are both worthy picks, but I have to go with a celebratory photo. I think that's from the 2004 World Championships in Halifax.

1993 Leaf means you get the back of the card. Although it was a dupe, it is nice to land a Sens card in any repack break, especially as the visible card.

40 more tomorrow!

2019 Adventures in Repacks: Part 31.2 - Away Game

What did the other half hold?

Not too bad of a start, especially with the Geoffrion card. Unfortunately, this is one of the cards that lists his birthday as 2/16. I'm always hesitant to add those to the collection, but enough sources (wiki, hockeydb, the Habs themselves) still list it as 2/14, so I'll stubbornly still add them. There's a dupe from the first side with the Bouwmeester San Antonio Rampage card.

That becomes a theme.

If I didn't mention how much I like getting cards from 72: The Year in Hockey, I'll hint at it again. That's a bonus with it being in Golden Seals colours. I'm duping up again here with the Lidster, but that's expected with 90 Bowman and repacks.

Your junk wax portion, but at least one is a gold parallel. There's a dupe here as well with that Topps Gallant.

Your CHL portion of the break, but one is of a Ranger with Gib Tucker. And the next 5? Perfect dupes, and in the exact same location nonetheless, as in the first half of the repack. I like the Small and the Esposito, but not in the same repack. But at least they aren't dupe Bowman.

Two more dupes start off this with the Luongo and Cujo. That Rangers card is Messier. Joby Messier.

There you have it! If one disregarded the dupes, there were some nice keepers in there. At least enough keepers to make picking up a second of these while on the road worthwhile. I'll start recapping that next post.

2019 Adventures in Repacks: Part 31.1 - Away Game

While the result of the Grey Cup wasn't at all what I was hoping for, it was still nice to see a game when I've got a dog in the fight. In repack news, there was a Dollarama not far from my hotel, so I stopped into see if they had cards for the busting.

They sure did! While these are the same type of repacks I'd get at home, I can at least find out if the card are any better in Calgary Dollaramas.

I opted for this one, since there was a visible card for my Kitchener Rangers alumni collection with that Jeff Skinner. As we go on, that Ratelle is a pretty nice looking card. I love that the arena seems so small with the banner hanging so low behind him. That MVP of Bryzgalov was an insert at the time, so that's somewhat unexpected.

ITG made some really interesting sets from the period when they didn't care about things like licensing. 1972: The Year in Hockey is one of my favourite sets to come across cards of in repacks. There's a pair of patriotic Team Canada cards in the bottom row. The more interesting one to me is Serge Payer, a Kitchener Rangers alum. Although he did reach the NHL for 124 games, his only pro card was a 2000 Private Stock Titanium release from Pacific. He did get an auto with the AHL Binghamton Senators, a card I added to my COMC inventory over Cyber Monday.

I guess it is appropriate that I land at least a couple Flames cards while in Calgary.

The junk wax era stuff seems to get grouped together in this, with this being the thrid run of three or more cards in a row from one of those set. Kevin Brown did reach the NHL, and joined Ken Hodge Sr as the second of two NHLers to be born in Birmingham, England. And for a minor league card, that's a pretty nice photo on the Bertrand. Throw in a nice mask binder card that also gives me a chance to use the 'ladies' tag on a post, and this is a solid group.

Definitely a mixed bag for the final 8, with a mix of junk wax with recent issues. A mask binder card from Luongo, a bilingual card, a drawn card and a legend to end it makes this still interesting.

And there you have it! The other 40 will be up in the next post!

One Card Only: Stats on the Back

At least I think those are his stats.

But at least I now have an acetate card commemorating Jose's time in Tampa.