Get Off My Lawn

 I'm old. One of the two newest gridiron members of the 2/14 collection reminded me of that.

Owen McCown. Does that last name seem familiar?

Josh McCown's kid. There's the back of the card to remind me that I'm old.

Uncle Luke McCown is a member of Mischief's 7/12 slider box.

On the positive, his playing for the University of Texas - San Antonio does allow me to knock that city off my list of cities that have teams, but no representation in the 2/14 collection. It might not be a pro team, but I really don't care when it comes to that list. Vegas is still the main city on the unofficial list for now, and it might be the only one left.

Looking at this one-team city list,  it does complete that, even with Orlando (the Sam Vincent Jordan #12 game card as an event) and Portland (Jeremy Ebobisse of the Timbers on a card with the wrong date on it) being technicalities. 

Will a plain early 90s card make me feel any better? Given that Brad Whigham is older than I am, yes.

Yes it does.

And I'm 32 years too late to have broken the law in acquiring this card.

There you have it!

The Joy of Lots

Sportlots, to be precise. And the joy of deciding to go silly an add a bunch of 20 cent cars of a specific player to add a bunch of their cards to their respective collections. Or a sticker, in the case of the opening Milan Hejduk.

While one sticker might not qualify as going silly, 9 more cards certainly does. Most of the cards here, specifically the bottom two rows, all count as ones that I was surprised that I didn't already have in my 2/14 binder.

Jeff Skinner was another one getting a major bump with 6 new cards, with the Certified and the Card Day ones being the ones I was surprised not to already have. There's some variety as well with the middle column, as the Ice card is from one of the years where the cards were acetate, and the lower one is a sticker insert, and a photo far more interesting than the one used for the base card.

Going by my TCDB account, I have 381 of Daniel Alfredsson's 406 base cards from major releases. These are 5 new ones, and I'd like to get to 20 away from the total by the end of next year. My most  wanted base card of his? Probably the Frozen in Time one.

And if you find yourself just a couple cards short of a shipping threshold, throw in a couple parallels for S&G. Such as yet another 2/14 addition and a completely random Sens card.

There you have it!

Doggy Cards!

 

Just a bunch of doggy cards today. 

And yes, the dog doesn't have to be real to count for the mini collection. Anything dog or dog-related that features a very good boy/girl counts. And even if that Snubbull does look to be a bit of trouble-maker.

I have an Airedale named Mischief. Of course I enjoy being around a trouble-maker of a dog.

Tip-Off Raptors

 Sure, there have been games already. But the season never really starts until your favourite team has played. For the Raptors, that's tonight. And here's their content both to complete the latest Cards on Cards mailer, and from my latest COMC shipment.

This might not be my most valuable card in my team collection. But it is definitely among the greatest. As best as I can tell (an ebay listing), this is from a 2022-23 card game set released in Europe. I shouldn't be too hard on whichever company released this. Siakam and Markkanen are practically identical twins. 

At least Vince Carter gets a nice photo on his, even if the logo doesn't match the era of the pic.

Let's switch to things far more licensed. While there's some players from the championship years here, and I love me some new VanVleet Lowry newness, that Ford Turkey Red gets the nod in this group.

That Brandon Ingram is an awesome opener, as they have chosen from a photo from the post game celebrations. The N in RAPTORS WIN is the big clue, combined with the flag are the major clues. While I do prefer the team logo as the background if they're going to wipe it from the photo, a basketball, or something basketball adjacent, also works.

Opening with Jamal Shead, he got extended this off-season. And deservedly so. Signature Class wins the best design in this group, mainly because they have two images on the front didn't reuse an image in the process. Have my standards fallen that much? The Barnes rookie on the bottom, out of my beloved Chronicles, is a green parallel. Nice!

Stickers! 

And the only hit of this post was provided by the final cards in the trade mailer. The photo choice nicely hides the lack of licensing. Martin was a pleasant surprise last season as a 2nd rounder with both the main club and the 905. I've already got one of his autos, so it is nice to have one of each.

I'd normally wrap this with a "Thanks for the trade" type remark, and while do appreciate the cards, there's still some more to show off from other orders. 

One final sticker, this one from my COMC order. While I do have one Patrick McCaw as a Raptor in my collection, that one was part of the 2019 Champions Box Set. That one is staying in there, so a sticker will be his representation in the team binder. As of last season, he was affiliated with the team, suiting up in the G-League for the 905.

This was a sportlots addition. One of those situations where I was one card away from the maximum number for shipping on a bunch of cards. Why not make the final one a Raptors card? 

CMB appears on a pair of inserts. The Instinct one gives the vibe of something I would have thought was so cool in my youth, especially the claws on a Raptors card. Whether it is as appropriate for a team without a creature motif is left up to you. The Limited Stock Legends gives the vibe of the In Action insert set out of 2024 Bowman. Unlike those, the hook portion of the design isn't die-cut like it was there. 

Finally, a nice look at the Vince Carter-inspired City Edition jersey. 

 

There you have it! Bring on the game!

I'll Allow It

 

While I'm not really a fan of signers abbreviating their name, at least Lorenzo Taliaferro gets away with it because trying to fit that onto a card would be problematic and the portion of it he has signed is large and legible. I enjoy pretty much any autograph that isn't unreadable hieroglyphics. 

There you have it!

2026 Adventures in Repacks - Part 21 - More Comfort Food

 Another three repacks from the Dollarama.

What's in these three?

I opted for this 4-pack because of the visible photo. I'm not used to seeing inserts in these, but that's a nice little bonus that will be part of my next TMV mailer.

Unopened wax in the Value Bundle.

2 appearances of the bland 21-22 design in this isn't good, but a Senators card can offset it. Somehow, it was one I didn't already have in that team collection.

Some more TMV mailbag additions in the team pack.

It is comforting to realize that the photography was bland in pretty much every 21-22 hockey release. 

And no silvering of a parallel will change that.

The 90s pack produced Hall of Famers at a 60 percent success rate!

Except for a Sens card and some trade add-ins, nothing too noteworthy here.

And the finale. Both the font choice and the foil-ness makes this hard to read, but this card is of Arshdeep Bains. With a chirp-worthy name, I sorta of expected him to have well into triple-figure penalty minutes with him silencing dumbasses throughout juniors. Nope. I don't know if I should be disappointed or relieved.

Pavel is merely stepping on the ice. Not jumping. Semantics aside, it being an alternate jersey is enough to make it noteworthy to me. 

I guess I can't escape Parkhurst in another repack. This is a bronze parallel.

Portraits. Yawn.

Everything ends with a Canvas insert. Sure, they're super cheap thanks to e-pack availability, but that is definitely a photo you don't see represented much on hockey cards - with Fowler looking like he's never held a hockey stick before and he's been forced to use one that is 10 feet long. 

The Fowler, the Mintyukov, the Verhaeghe and the Lamb were probably my favourites in all of this, alongside the future outgoing mail. 

And there you have it!

It took a year

 

But I finally have a Carolina Hurricanes card of Nikolaj Ehlers. This comes from this year's MVP release, and is from the blaster-exclusive gold packs. It's a pretty busy design for MVP, and even busier with the gold sig on it, but at least there's still a hint of full-bleed to it. 

And since I completely forgot I had this the last time I did a 2/14 hockey post, here's one more. How do you forfet about a 1/1 plate? I managed to! This is my second plate associated with this card, as I also have the Cyan one from this set. 

And somehow, I have two of the plates, yet don't have the base card of this. 

Because why should anything about my collection make sense?

A Story on Cardboard

 

Just a single card today, but you do really get everything you need from the card. The play. The description of the play in question, and its impact on the game. 

Poor Eric Davis though. Posterized on both front and back.

The Rest of the Baseball

 And the 2/14 baseball portion of my latest COMC mailer wraps up. There's still football and miscellaneous posts left to go.

First up this wonderful slice of brightness out of Leaf Perfect Game. To be even more precise, this as 2022 Leaf Perfect Game National Showcase - Just Minors Gems Autographs - Lime Green /10. I didn't know if should have used this with my post highlighting minor league cards, or with the major league post. It's really neither. Nathanael Coupet has a first name that just dares you to misspell it. Fortunately, he abbreviates his name in the auto and everything is legible, so it is a good card.

He's now with Georgia Tech.

Here's the other one that really didn't fit into the major or minor league category. It is of another player who has gone the NCAA route, playing for Oklahoma State. While the autograph doesn't compare to Coupet's in terms of legibility, at least there's a holey swatch included. 

That's gotta be Kane! He's not coming through hellfire and brimstone, but through the Cubs system, making it to AA in 2026. 

If I wanted a solo card to salute Tyler Clippard's time with Cleveland, there's this Topps Total entry. And nothing else. Any port. Storm. And all that. 

Time to get back to some brightness, and this Chrome Light Blue Sparkle entry sure brings that back to this post.

It is Yermin Mercedes taking the title in terns of volume when it comes to COMC entries. He gives the joy of being a one month wonder and the amount of cards a manufacturer pumps into circulation as a result, with no consideration for future success. I guess the same can be said for the Christian Hackenberg portion of this collection. 

But there's sportlots content too! I finally used this as a chance to add a bunch of base cards I probably should have added into the collection ages ago.

But I did throw in some cards from less mainstream releases as part of this shipment too.

Shiny cards, too! With 45 cards of Clippard, I'm somehow his top collector at TCDB.

Two Topps Total cards in the same post! YES! I also have a card of Mike Gosling in my Blue Jays collection. His final mainstream card has him listed with the team, although he never played a game for them. But here, it is the late Brad Halsey that makes this a 2/14 card. And also a 2 Brad post.

My collection still lacks a Mavis, though.

There you have it!