The Jays Content

Contrasting with the Mets, at least their season has been more disappointing than dreadful.

I'm not triple-checking it, but this might be my first 2026 card. Like with the Mets content, there's only one card in the post featuring someone(s) still with the team, and here it is.

This weekend, the Jays, as part of their 50th season, had a tribute to the 92/93 World Series winners. So, here's a couple of Gold Winner cards from the former season's release. Joe Carter's contribution is well known, but Myers was traded during the 1992 season for Mark Eichhorn. But I guess he probably still got a ring out of it.

Here's the first bed of cards. I guess with the aforementioned tribute going on, it is only suitable to have even more of his appearances here. Jeff Ware, seen on the bottom row, is one of three players to hit for the cycle in Jays history.

I didn't think when putting this together that a Duane Ward card would become so depressing to post as part of it.

A crazy celebration card from Edwin Encarnacion makes this a little happier post as horizontal cards resume.

Manu-cards are up next. I'm not sure if that Game Faces of Delgado counts as such, but it is probably closer to that than just a card with a second photo embedded. The Chapman helmet card is incredibly heavy, especially for a card from flagship. I could probably use it as an impromptu weapon if need be.

It is always fun to end on my beloved Chronicles. So what if Shun didn't quite work out for the Jays and was gone after making his 2020 season the only one in MLB? This is still a /17 First Off the Line Neon Orange parallel. That's probably enough to make it a downer for whomever broke the box chasing these parallels, but a benefit for someone that wanted a low-numbered Jays card for a bargain price! 

There you have it!

2026 Adventures in Repacks - Part 18.2 - Cubism

Back to the cube! For this batch, it is WCW alumni Kevin Greene leading the way, looking to be on his way to one of his 13 sacks against Chris Miller here.

I guess when they were promising the inclusion of Premium cards, they meant it with the appearance of UD Exquisite. It is hard to think of a more high-end football release from that product. The Monk, along with the opening  Greene card shows that there  were some really great photos hiding in the junk wax era of football. 

We've got a guy (nick)named Jet in this grouping. That's kinda interesting, right? Also, defensive player with  the ball! It always seems like the football version of "pitcher batting". The final card here is of the ill-fated Keith McCants. That's a depressing story if you want to read about it. 

3 of the first 4 cards being punters/kickers. That's great! But then we get into the CTE portion of the repack with Johnson and Brown. Oh boy. I was going to end with this one, but this became depressing fast. So here's one more scanner bed worth of content.

Ignoring the fun of 3/4 special teams players from the previous portion, this is a more interesting grouping. A drawn card. A hit (and it is supposedly game-used as opposed to player-worn), and a super interesting Randy Moss finale. I'm hoping Stadium Club starts showing up in Topps football line of products, and great stuff like this is the reason why.

There you have it!

The Miserable Mets

 After a little delay due to cross-border paperwork, a mailer showed up earlier this week with goodies from Dennis @ Too Many Verlanders. At least in terms of the stack size, the Mets won the day. Maybe this will take the sting out from the ghastly year they've had so far. 

I usually end a post with the big volume winner. This time, I'm leading with it. Even not counting the non-Mets content, he wins. Although I do need to open the contained repacks, I don't think that will change the lead.

Neither will removing that Prism dupe from the overall count. My favourite in this grouping is the Invincible entry, and with an insert set name like 'Seismic Force', you expect the shaky font.

Horizontal entries, too! The top card is /7000, flashing back to when that was a big deal.

And let's wrap up the Piazza portion of the Mets content with a small, plain white swatch, but still a swatch nonetheless. 

As I went through the non-hit portion of the Mets content, I'd realize the only card of someone still on the team is that Senga among all the cards. OK, Bobby Bonilla is still on the payroll, but that doesn't really count. Given the season, maybe memories are better than imaging what is still to come.

Lots and lots of parallels this time around, including doubling up on the Electric Diamonds of Preston Wilson, and a straight across Tic-Tac-Toe of 1999 Paramount copper parallels. 

The Ballpark Fun card might not be a parallel, but it does commemorate Santana's no-hitter. Speaking of commemoration, we also get that on the Matz card, getting a nice look at the patch commemorating the 25th anniversary of the 1986 squad.

Starting Lineup? A food entry? This vertical portion of the Mets content couldn't end any better!

But first, some horizontal action!

But first, here's the only numbered card that didn't have a piece of material attached to it. 

Let's see some relics. It is nice to see some colour thanks to the patches in the mix, but I appreciate the  simplicity of a nice pinstripe almost perfectly down the middle like on the D'Arnaud piece.

Finally, some ink. While there's very little difference between Nimmo and Marcus Semien in terms of production, I'd rather they stink with familiar faces as opposed to others. At least we'll recognize the guys grounding into double plays when the game is on mute.

Many more parts of this mailer to go! 

There you have it!

A 49ers Auto

 

The UNC Charlotte 49ers, that is.

Sure, he never played in the NFL, but that logo is enough to make me want to add the card.

There you have it!

6 Years of Mischief

 

My little troublemaker turns 6 today, so as with the past few years, I'm highlighting the newest cards in her 7/12 slider box.

As before, please don't send me cards of people that qualify for the collection.

With the opening photo of Mischief featuring her alongside her beloved outside toy "Ol' Flatty", it is only suitable to show what a soccer ball should look like. This is also now the only soccer card in the collection so far.

What team made the most appearances this time around? It is the Hiroshima Carp. Brad Eldred does have a second appearance in the collection, but this one does allow for the team logo to make a front of the card appearance.

Lots more baseball this time. Only Hammer makes a second appearance in the collection. The Lin is a 'Reptilian Refractor', perfect for a Diamondbacks card. Logan Porter's is a green border parallel, even if the text on the back claims it is a white border one. Sipp is the first of two numbered cards in this, with there being 2014 more out there if I want to complete his run.

The only hit this time. At least I can read the initials. Even if I could mistake the C for L. I guess this is also a zero-year card, as he'd play zero games with the Red Sox in the majors. His only MLB appearances would be with the Cubs.

There's no basketball entries this time - not even a single SG-A entry. But there were a couple hockey ones, including Mischief's first overseas hockey card.

All of the football entries were parallels. Including a refractor-y Bills card that counts as the other numbered one. Also, my first CFL cards are part of this grouping.

Finally, the everything else portion. Benny Parsons is the first person from the auto-racing world in the collection. Given that I've actually heard of him, that's probably enough to qualify him as a legend. Kai Greene is also the first bodybuilder there as well, even if I can't imagine there being too many cards from that sport. George Eastman is not the first inventor in the collection though, thanks to the presence of another George, in that case Washington Carver.

Also, does that final line really qualify as a Highlight? 

I can't end like that, so here's another picture of Mischief, this time having an adorable nose-touching session with one of her pals, Leo.

There you have it!

2026 Adventures in Repacks - Part 18.1 - Cubism

 

I've had this for several years now, I guess I should probably get to it and post the contents. I'm just going in order of the cards in the cube, but I'll be posting the contents occasionally. Which means it should take about a month+ to get through this.

The opener is a parallel, an unnumbered goal line parallel. Since it was the opener in the slider case, to say the condition isn't the best was an understatement.

Yup. I'm scanning everything. It beats typing out every set and every name. Both the first hidden card, and the last one of this first group of cards is a "traded" version. If you see a Jason Pierre-Paul card from after his fireworks incident, you're looking at the hand. How can you not?

I'm confident in my prediction that the worst human being that will appear in this repack in Kellen Winslow Jr. At least I know the address where I can send it for a TTM autograph for at least the next couple years. Luke Willson has been showing up on TV here recently, doing work on CFL broadcasts. Lawyer Tilliman provides a favourite older card feature of mine - infield dirt being visible. Newsome's Archives entry is from a set that would have been annoying to collate.

Since they retained the original numbering scheme for the back design, this looks like card #308. It is actually #62, as shown on the bottom. And even that would move around depending on the back design. Fun!

Horizontal cards finally show up, and they do so with a pretty nice looking photo of Ike Hilliard. Seeing Tomlinson in a jersey other than San Diego's is really off. Pro Set was the Official NFL card set in more ways than one, as shown by the final card in this grouping.

I'm not sure if Torrance Small is throwing the bomb on a trick play, or throwing a souvenir to the crowd, but given that he has passing stats at pro football reference, probably the former. He tried 3 passes as a member of the Eagles, with only one completion (to the opposition). I finally see a Bills card And for Brett Smith, if you  know his cardboard history with Sage, you're expecting to see a shirt appear. And it did...

on the back of that card.

Here's the final grouping of cards for this post, and we get our first hit of the cube. Tajh Boyd would never play a game in the NFL, but at least the Jets spent a 6th rounder on him, and not a 2nd rounder like with a 2/14 binder member several years later.

1 stack down - probably at least 5 or 6 more to go!

There you have it!

Thank you, Kyle

 Kyle Lowry signed a one-day contract today to retire as a Raptor. It was also announced his number would be retired during the season, joining Vince Carter in the rafters.

So, I was wondering what my favourite card of his was that I had. TCDB says I have more than 200 of his cards, of which all but a handful have him with the Raptors.

Nothing beats personally pack-pulling a card of his. There's also the oddball-ness of it with him wearing #3.

This is my highest-end card of his, picked up through Panini Rewards points.

But this photo? 

That makes perfection.

I Amuse Easily

 Therefore I get way too much joy in seeing a "Historic Draft Class" set featuring this guy:

And a glowing write-up on the back that, despite its use of  past tense, doesn't even hint that there was anything but success in his career.

If there was an insert set devoted exclusively to draft busts, I'd totally chase it. It beats going through older sets on COMC/sportlots to find cards of Bills OL slug Mike Williams.

There you have it