Happiness

 

My 2/14 collection really didn't have enough content where the player is jumping on the scorer's table to celebrate a championship. Here's my 4th Kara Lawson card to change all that!

Gridiron Goodies from Ann Arbor

 A return package from Dennis @ Too Many Verlanders/Manninghams showed up last week - one so stuffed full of goodness that I'm going to have to break it up into 3 or 4 posts.  So, up first, a whole bunch of needs and wants hit from the football portion of the mailer.

As usual, 2/14 goodness leads the way.  I think I have more Keith Wenning signatures in my collection at this point than his financial advisers.

Drew Bledsoe lead the 2/14 pack this time around, with various cards of various levels of shininess and forgettable Patriots unis. 

Championship! That's just Contenders' fancy way of saying that this is a rookie card /50. The regular veterans in this parallel set are /250, and I just added the Steve McNair version to my COMC inventory to eventually keep this one company in the set.

Speaking of Steve McNair, here he is! The die-cut album-themed card is kinda interesting, but the Absolute SSD card in the top left wins this battle, with the portrait portion of the card appearing in acetate form.

How 'bout a swatch? It goes alongside the XFractor of David Garrard as part of the very solid 2/14 Quarterback Club (and there wasn't any Jim Kelly in the mailer!).

Another swatch here as part of the 4 Jadeveon Clowney cards bound for the binder. I was surprised that I didn't have that dual card with him and Dee Ford, but only had one of the numbered parallels. There's an appropriate shininess to the Thunder/Lighting card that might not translate on the scan.

A set named Phoenix should also be kinda bright, and the one that was part of the new Alshons certainly was. 

To end the 2/14 portion, here we have a printing plate that would combine with its yellow, cyan and black kinfolk to form the image on his 2007 Leaf Limited card. I really should count how many football plates I've got in the collection, because I'll bet most of them came from TMV/M mailers.

My 2021 Score set build dropped to single digits with a pile of cards from that set. All I need is 4 cards, 2 of which are Justin Fields. May the Bears continue to crap the bed to drive to cost of those down even more. As for what I scanned, I just opted for some of my favourite photos from the group.

Nothing but Bills left!

Here they are in numbered (on the back) format. 

Here's some relics. 

The winner in the relic department was Trent Edwards, one of several QBs of the future in the first part of this century. Sure, he may not have had the best run, but I still like him better than JP Losman. Or Peterman.

And his penmanship is really good, and I'm willing to overlook a questionable on-field performance when you have a nice-looking signature. He's joined here by Damar Hamlin, a 6th round pick this past year out of Pitt. Because of a redshirt year, he was a teammate in 2016 of the aforementioned Nathan Peterman. 

Or if both types of hits are your thing - here's both of 'em on a single card!

And there's a nice portion of the bubbler, and I haven't even touched on all the baseball content! 

Recapping Raptors

 I've been posting basketball all week, why not one more post? So today, it is Raptors content from my COMC shipment.

I loves me some Fred VanVleet. And let's start it off with a Kings release with cards that look like they should look - a garish background. 

Or if you want something that's more of a modern thing, garish backgrounds, mixed with shininess. That's a Reactive Orange, Green Prizm and Pink Camo parallel, as you go left to right across this threesome.

Anytime is a good time to add a random JYD card to the binder.

Easiest 'Bumper Stumpers' ever.

Rodney Hood came to the Raptors as part of  the Powell/Trent trade. He moved on to the Bucks in the odd-season. Based on his partial season stint with the team, I can't imagine him getting a card with the team. So, this card of him with Duke will suffice for the collection. 

Freddie Gillespie was undrafted, but had a perfectly fine rookie season for the Raptors last year. However, his training camp/pre-season this year was disappointing, and he was released before the current season started. His only cards have been in Contenders Draft, so this is the perfect one-season card for him. And like with the Hood, since this is a collegiate card, and there aren't any NBA cards of him, this counts as a Raptors card. 

There you have it!

2021 Adventures in Repacks Part 42.5 - Cubism

The grand finale!

1992 Archives - Mark Aguirre - Archives to start! WOO-HOO!

1989 Hoops - Jerry Sloan

1991 Hoops - Will Smith & The Boys - Only scanning both sides of this one because I'm sure some readers have no clue what I meant with that description.

2003 Genuine - Rasheed Wallace - A card with a high-end feel to it. 

2003 Fleer Hot Shots - Vlade Divac

2019 Prizm - Danny Green - A Raptors card - sort of.

2005 UD - Marko Jaric

2019 Donruss - DJ Augustin

2019 Donruss - Torrey Craig

1992 Archives - Dikembe Mutombo - Always a fun pull, but his card is especially great in Archives form.

1993 Topps - Latrell Sprewell

2015 Complete - Josh Smith

2018 Optic Prizm - Vincent Edwards - Shiny!

2019 Prizm - Quinn Cook

2015 Donruss - Nikola Vucevic

2017 Optic - Kawhi Leonard

2013 Pinnacle - Jeremy Lin - Back-to-back cards of future Raptors teammates during the Championship year.

1992 Archives - Luc Longley - Keep the Archives coming!

2005 UD Slam - Gerald Green

2018 Prizm - Damian Lillard

1998 Chrome - Lamond Murray - With all the Prizm, I might as well scan a Chrome for randomness! Sweet rim photo, too.

2015 Hoops - Ed Davis

1991 Fleer - Rodney McCray

2003 Topps - Anthony Peeler

1994 UD - Harvey Grant

2007 SPA - Delonte West

2016 Prizm - Dwight Powell - CanCon!

1996 Premium - Tyus Edney - Another 2/14 guy, and like with the Hamilton in the first post, it is a new one for the collection! WOO-HOO!

1994 Hoops Power - Nick Van Exel

2018 Optic - Aaron Gordon

1992 Archives Gold - John Salley - Archives had the gold parallels as well.

1994 UD Special Edition - Sam Perkins

1993 Topps - Dan Majerle

1990 Fleer - Mark Aguirre

2018 Certified - Tony Parker - Camo alternates! On a traded card, nonetheless.

2016 Optic - Richard Jefferson

2017 Optic Retro - Tracy McGrady - The final Raptors card of this.

2015 Hoops - Tim Hardaway Jr - And the final Ann Arbor bound card. 

1997 Hoops - Reggie Miller

2017 Optic - Andrew Wiggins - Some more CanCon.

2006 Turkey Red - Maurice Ager

2016 Optic - Blake Griffin

2014 Hoops - Ramon Sessions

2019 Optic - Dwight Powell

1992 Archives - Willie Anderson - One last Archives appearance.

2019 Prizm - Jordan Clarkson

2018 Prizm - Dennis Smith Jr

2015 Prizm Silver - Rashad Vaughn - And some final shininess.

Another solid cube o'cards!

2021 Adventures in Repacks Part 42.4 - Cubism

1993 Topps - Larry Nance - Starting off this time, a really nice photo. Darkened arenas make great backgrounds

2013 SPA - Joe Smith - #1 draft pick mojo!

1993 UD - Benoit Benjamin

2002 MVP - Tom Gugliotta

1991 Hoops - Pooh Richardson

1997 Coll. Choice - Derek Harper

2019 Prizm - DeMarcus Cousins

2013 SPA - Keith Smart - I guess being a coach at the time was enough to get Smart a base card. 

2019 Donruss - Justin Jackson

2018 Select - Hassan Whiteside

2000 Hardcourt - Vin Baker - This actually completes the regular 2000 Hardcourt Supersonics base set.

2014 Hoops - Luis Scola

1992 Archives - Mark Jackson - More Archives perfection!

1993 Topps - Calbert Cheaney

2001 Victory - Mitch Richmond

2006 Topps - Darius Washington

2019 Prizm - Joe Ingels

1989 Hoops - Ron Harper

1991 Hoops - Bernard King

2019 Prizm - Otto Porter

1989 Hoops - Jerome Lane - I hope Jerome is the passer in this photo, and not the passee. 

2005 UD - Marquis Daniels

1990 Fleer - Hersey Hawkins

1992 UD McDonalds - Scott Skiles - Food issue!

1992 Archives - Dan Majerle  - I'm still scanning all the Archives. 

2015 Complete - Al-Farouq Aminu

2004 Ultra - Mike Dunleavy

2019 Hoops - Thomas Bryant

2006 Hot Prospects - Sebatian Telfair

2019 Prizm - Lauri Markkanen

2015 UD - David Wesley

2019 Hoops - Markieff Morris

1992 UD McDonalds - Christian Laettner - More food issue fun! 

2015 Complete Silver - Jabari Parker

2003 Tradition - Derek Fisher - A set with older school theme doesn't always have to flashback to the 50's.

1991 Hoops - Maurice Cheeks

2019 Prizm - Kris Dunn

2012 Contenders - Kyle O'Quinn - The first (and last) autograph in this. O'Quinn played 8 seasons in the NBA, and is now overseas.

2005 UD - Morris Peterson - Raptors content!

1991 Hoops - Bernard King

1992 Archives - Kurt Rambis - I guess the baseball cap motif from '81 wouldn't have worked with basketball.

2005 UD - Speedy Claxton - Speedy!

2015 Donrruss - Arron Afflalo

1996 UD - Eric Piatkowski

1993 Ultra - Thurl Bailey

1993 Stad. Club - Chris Mills

2018 Court Kings - Dennis Schroder  

1996 UD - Yinka Dare

2019 Hoops - Kevin Heurter

1992 UD McDonalds - Spud Webb - Much like with Manute Bol, Spud Webb cards are always fun pulls.

2016 Complete - Michael Beasley

2017 Select - Nikola Jokic - Last card, and the reigning MVP brings it to the end with a really solid entry in a solid grouping.