2019 Adventures in Repacks - Part 16.2 - My Own Private Packening

The 90s portion of this break comes to an end with some 1997 Leaf, Donruss and Pinnacle.

I'll start with the Leaf, since the first card out of that was a new card for the Alfie collection.

The design for this set isn't too bad, although the foil script of the bottom can sometimes be hard to read if it contrasts against darker portions of the photo. Who is Brian George...oh...that's Brian Savage.

There was very little Sens content the rest of the way through the packs, but fortunately Leaf came through with some more new ones.

Leaf ends with some cards bound for the mask binder.

Off to Donruss, and leading with a rookie card of Pascal Rheaume. If the last name seems familiar, you're right. He's the brother of Manon.

Delivering a cross-check? That's a perfect photo card for Darren McCarty.

It doesn't matter which set you pull it from, whether it is Pro Set or The Cup, but Gretzky is always a nice get.

Wolverines alum? That's a 'return to sender' card.

Only 3 packs from Donruss, but two of them contained a Press Proof parallel. They aren't serial numbered, but they're supposedly limited to 2000 each. Back when that meant something.

Finally, Pinnacle. I've definitely shown this beauty off previously here. It remains a classic card from the late 90s.

If I would focus only on the players and not the background, I'd be convinced these two photos were taken on the same play. Collation being as it was in these packs, these two cards were right next to each other when I busted the pack.

Also collated right beside each other, a pair of HOF Kitchener Rangers alum. A very appropriate photo for MacInnis as well, with him delivering a blast of a slapshot.

While this is a Juneau card, this could also have been an interesting card for Leetch as he slides to block a shot/pass.

This was obviously early in the Dallas Stars career of Belfour, since he didn't have the eagle paint job yet.

While that Belfour isn't a mask binder card, there were plenty more candidates among the rest of the cards.

And there you have it! Halfway there! When MOPP continues, I'll be visiting the mid 2000s.

2019 Adventures in Repacks - Part 16.1 - My Own Private Packening

It has been almost a month (4/23), since I've done a repack post. Time to remedy that. Dennis, @ Too Many Verlanders/Manninghams, knows of my love for repacks. So, the most recent mailer included the contents of one of those 50 pack repacks. The hockey version, naturally. So, I was able to bust a bunch of packs, and throw the wrappers around like Scrooge McDuck.

These were the packs contained within:


1990 Bowman * 5
1991 Score * 5
1991 Pro Set Series 1 * 6
1996 Mint * 3
1997 Pinnacle * 5
1997 Donruss * 3
1997 Leaf * 4
2005 Parkhurst * 2
2006 OPC
2006 UD Series 1
2006 Ultra * 3
2006 Power Play * 2
2006 Parkhurst * 4
2006 Victory
2007 UD Series 1 * 3
2007 Ultra * 6
2007 MVP * 3
2007 Victory

That's 58, enough more than 50 that it is noticeable. I'll break this up into 4 posts, and I'll start with the first 4 in the list.

1990 Bowman is the patron saint set of repacks. It is rare to find a repack that doesn't include at least one card from this set. So, I should show at least one. Here's a player I'd never heard of before, but at least it includes a nice look at the Stanley Cup finals patch.

Each of these packs included a Hat Trick insert, along with the obligatory stick of gum. You're less likely to find the inserts in repack, so I'll highlight all of them. Because why not? As for the gum, I was scheduled for a root canal the next day. So that's why I didn't try it. That's the ticket. A root canal.

Pro Set 1991 was another candidate for the dullest sets in history. With a couple exceptions, such as this, all the photos were taken at ice level with the camera seemingly parallel to the ice surface. Throw in a lack of colour, especially compared to the previous year, and you've got a snoozer.

Too much red for this? OK, so there might be a little too much, but it does work here with a nice photo, as Yzerman contrasts with the white boards. This would actually work really nice with a horizontal layout.

Such as here. This sprawling save would look far less impressive on a modern card with the far larger pads.

Throw in a drawn card of the retiring Guy LaFleur, and 1991 Score easily wins the junk wax battle.

And since I really can't showcase just these cards, I'll fast forward a few years to 1996 with Mint. Each pack includes 3 items:

A base card.

A card with a hole in it. Alfie!

And a coin that can be matched up with its respective holed card.

There you have it! 1997 goodies tomorrow!

Expo Recap: Post 12 - A Tough Finale

An always fun product will end this Expo recap. 12 cards (actually I got 13), saluting some of the craziest ever to play the game.

I'll start with the base cards, which have various subsets in the base set. Bloody Battles salutes exactly that, highlighting specific fights. While the backs of these generally highlight a specific fight, this one mentions 3 of their encounters. UD actually revisited their encounters this season with an insert in MVP.

More Wendel Clark, this time they highlight a playoff encounter with Marty McSorley.

I'm sure Jim Cummins enjoys having this particular millisecond of his career immortalized on cardboard. But there it is.

Tough Franchise is exactly what the subset advertises. 4 of the players you are likely to associate with the particular team.

Any appearance of The Missing Link deserves highlighting. These two also appear in the Tale of the Tape subset, and they're a worthy pairing to highlight the 326 minutes worth of fun Gaetz caused during the Sharks first season.

You can not feature everybody on the teams when they combine for 67 penalties (not minutes, individual penalties) during a single 20 minute period. But Steve's a great candidate for featuring on the card, having picked up 6 of them.

Time to start the hit parade.

First up are the relics, and we start with a Winnipeg Jets swatch from the only legally deaf NHLer to date. It didn't stop him from spending 1342 minutes in NHL sin bins over almost 600 games.

Dave Manson is a nice candidate for this set as well. This is my second card of his from the Combatants subset, joining one where he's paired with Joey Kocur. And both have two colour, red and black swatches.

And now, the autographs. I'm going to do this in increasing order of NHL PIM.

The checklist does cover quite a range of eras with this set, with Low's career being in the 00's, most of it with St. Louis. He spent a paltry 725 minutes in the penalty box, but did so over 256 games.

John's pictured here with the Nordiques, where he spent 1 season, and accumulated 152 of his 840 minutes of PIM. He can also be found on the Tough Franchises subset in this, albeit with Boston.

Paul didn't get the memo about extra fine sharpies. It is appropriate that the Broad Street Bullies make an appearance in this, even though Paul's career started as their glory days were drawing to a close behind the Habs 4 straight Cups. We are into 4 digits now, as Paul's NHL penalty totals were 1684 minutes, and you can throw in another 121 from his WHA time.

Bob is better remembered, cardboard wise, for his infamously cheesy 1991 UD card from his Sharks days. But he's a Leaf here, where he started his career with 263 PIM in his rookie season, finishing with 1766. He even got some zero-year (TM: Nick at Dime Boxes) when he was drafted by, and listed with, Tampa during the expansion draft, but never played for them.

To end it, here's a top-ten PIM guy. 3149 minutes worth of crazy in just over 1050 games places him 7th all-time in that category. That's 3 minutes more than Tim Hunter. Tim surprisingly wasn't in this set, but he made several appearances in Enforcers II a couple years later. As for Craig, he's busy coaching the St. Louis Blues in their playoff run.

And that's the Expo. Starting tomorrow, I'll finally get to my packening.

Expo Recap: Post 11 - Nothing but the Hockey Hits

And here's the last of the individual cards I purchased.

While these technically aren't hits, these do come with the standard 'Congratulations' spiel on the reverse of the card. So, I'll call this a hit and lead with this very famous Gilles Gratton mask.

You know I loves me some Rookie Anthology, but I don't have a lot of entries from 2011-12 until I added these 2 cards. While Blum is out of the league and playing in the KHL, Sceviour just wrapped up the season with the Panthers.

While this is a Select card, this did originate in Rookie Anthology. So it counts as an RA card for the purposes of this post.

Random relic from the ladies!

It took a bit of time for Jordan Binnington to reach the inspired goal of Cujo level in St. Louis, but he certainly has during this playoff run. 

'Putting on the Foil'? That's a great name for a subset that features tough guys. I'm not sure what this come from. While the name and logo makes it seem like this is a glove relic, it feels way to leathery for that. Maybe a skate?

Here's an autograph of the late Seth Martin, on the third appearance from Between the Pipes in this post. His International Pioneers designation comes from his time with the Trail (BC) Smoke Eaters and their appearances in the World Championships, including a victory, in the early 1960s. 

And let's end with another tough guy. Sure, this might not be the most legible auto, but McCarty is another one of my favourite tough guys on an on-card autograph. There's a great design here for an unlicensed set as well, and perfectly logical. If your goal is to get your name engraved on the Stanley Cup, it is a perfect place to have an autograph located in this release.

That's it. Just one box left and the Expo posts end until November.

Expo Recap: Post 10 - Nothing 'bout the Hockey Hits

Time to wind down the Expo recap with 3 straight hockey posts. Today, you get the cards that weren't enough for a single post. This also wraps up my cards from the 5 for $1 bin, but some others will show up in other blogger's posts.

Let's start with some vintage. We're back to 1973 with this one, and a card from the sad, insane and tragic career of Brian 'Spinner' Spencer. There's several documentaries/podcasts out there that document his life better than I ever could.

Another vintage card, this time from 1971 and a very memorable design featuring a Hall of Famer. This design made a re-appearance in 2014 Topps Archives in an insert set.

Doesn't Lynn Powis look happy to be a member of the Scouts?

Ron Duguay on the worst design ever - the scratch off pucks.

Here's a nice look at the classic Colorado Rockies uniforms, and one of the few post-career cards of Quenneville.

Best St. Louis Blues uniforms in team history!

I probably should have posted this along with the Senators stuff a couple days back, since Beveridge's card lists him as with the original Ottawa Senators.

Food issue greatness! Turk Broda alongside Bill Durnan.

And another one, from the short-lived Kraft Sports division.

Some cards from Panini's 2013 Boxing Day issue.

Here's a trio of random mask binder additions.

And finally, a perfect 9 of Kitchener Rangers alum.

The hits show up tomorrow.