2026 Adventures in Repacks - Part 18.9 - Cubism

 I promised myself I'd finish this cube before the season kicked off. And I have!

It is nice to finally start one of these with an OL card.

Wow! Just the card that every football fan wants to pull - the card of a team CEO. That Richard Dent would seem to be a part of a Junkyard Dog Defense portion of the 2004 All-Time Fan Favorites set. I guess it technically is, but Dent was the only Bears card in the set. As for Lewis Billups, he's another contender for the biggest dirtbag in the cube. The longest segment of his wiki entry is the "Legal Problems" section. Lots of domestic violence, and culminating when he died in a car crash where he was the driver (going over 100mph) and also killed his passenger.

That's the final Curtis Martin card in the cube. While 11 appearances of the same player doesn't seem like too much, when it is 250ish cards from the 1980s through the early 2010s, it does seem a lot for one player, especially when all the cards come from the same team. Not a Patriot or NCAA Panthers card among them. Also - Punter card!

3 straight 1991 Pro Set cards makes for some interesting collation.  Because Malachi Dupre would end up with the Bills, and since he didn't get any cards where he'd be pictured with the team, I'm totally calling this card for the Bills binder.

Moving towards the finale. Lawrence Taylor lands in my non-existent RSO PC.

Ending with an insert, with the Steelers breaking out a weight room themed celebration against the Rams.

And there you have it! Several years after acquiring it, I finally show it off. With the interesting collation (lots of Curtis Martin and 1988 Dolphins) I'm surprised it took so long for me to start working my way through it. I do have a hockey one acquired about a year ago, so that will probably end up here in 2029 at that rate. But as long as I got some interesting cards out of it, and some filler for future outgoing mails, I'm happy with this break.

There you have it!

Minor 2/14 Additions

 I'm returning to the 2/14 content of my most recent COMC shipment today, and breaking up the baseball content by showing minor league cards in today's post. I also have a Team USA and a Perfect Game card, but since they're not minor league cards, I'll show them off when I get to the rest of the baseball.

Here's Vicente Garcia. The design on this is all sorts of hideous, but it does act like a reverse of the jersey, so there does seem to be some sort of reasoning behind it.

Also, I was convinced this team played in Salem, Oregon. At least there I could believe there was a logic behind naming the team 'Avalanche'. Nope. They played in Salem, Virginia. A state famous for such natural disasters.

Syracuse has a Baseball Hall of Fame, and this card comes from a Syracuse Skychiefs set that salutes its members. This is where I point out that the 2/14er on the card, Red Barrett, does hold the record for throwing the fewest pitches over a complete 9-inning game. That record of 58 is one of those "never be broken" ones.

Other than obscure printing variations and buybacks, I've pretty much run out of major league options to add John Marzano cards to the collection. So, here's a pair of minor league ones. He's currently at 74, with a couple more sitting in my COMC inventory. 

Callix Crabbe's numbers also jump by 2 with this pair. The star-spangled Ogden Raptors card was the first of his baseball career.

Ending with these four players making their collection debut. I get to mention Salem, Oregon for the second time in this post, and legitimately this time, as that is the Salem referenced on the baseball card, and with an appropriate team name for the location too. 

And there you have it!

2026 Adventures in Repacks - Part 20 - Comfort Food

 With my posting the contents of the 250+card cube over the past two months or so, as well as the Repacks in the Mail, it has been too long since I posted some Dollarama hockey repacks.

So here's three of 'em! One of each. The first two were bought over the past week or so, the final one has been in hand for several months.

Grabbing this particular repack was an easy decision with a mid-level base card of a Kitchener Rangers card as the opener. Anything else was a bonus, and there is some envelope filler for a future mailer to Ann Arbor. Even if inserts aren't expected from this, the regrettable, never-ending Portraits insert doesn't really feel like a bonus.

The Value Bundle's contents.

Starting with the HOFer pack. Just wait a few months, and it won't be just a single HOFer contained within.

Since Mike Van Ryn was a former coach in Kitchener, I could totally add cards of his to that collection. But, it is a dupe, so it will instead be part of the next envelope addressed to Ann Arbor. That's Bobby Holik on the final card, for those don't want to wreck their eyes trying to interpret the foil text.

An insert from this year's Extended shows up within a couple months of the product's release date? Wow. That's so unexpected I won't even complain that Brady's descent into persona non grata with the Sens kinda wrecks the greatness of acquiring such a recent Sens card in a repack. 

Finally, the Stadium Club pack. The best thing about these is you can play the game of "Who has the oldest, and newest rookie card shown on the back?". This game is complicated by the fact they don't use O-Pee-Chee as an option, only Topps entries.

It didn't matter with the oldest. Don Beaupre's 1981 card predates Grant Fuhr's OPC rookie by one season, and his Topps one by several more.

But it does with Tim Sweeney, who did have earlier OPC cards, but gets the always-interesting self-referential rookie card.

That was a super interesting repack. Will one containing entirely inserts/parallels surpass it?

Johnny Gaudreau cards feel so different after his passing. 

Shininess! It would be better if this were from a season later where it would be a Utah Mammoth card vs a Utah Hockey Club one.

BO-RING!

Interesting to end this on a pair of Calgary Flames cards from the Canvas inserts. Rene Bourque's trip to McMahon stadium before a Heritage Game easily beats the more generic card that completes a Tkachuk brother 1-2 within the repacks.

But it isn't enough to give this the nod over the middle Value Pack.

There you have it!

They Come Runnin' Just as Fast as They Can

 'cause every girl is crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man!

2026 Adventures in Repacks - Part 18.8 - Cubism

Back to the Pressticube mines.

A solid starter this time with a card that gives at least gives a vibe of the Diamond Kings that it borrowed its name from. Just a hideous background is needed now.

In a bit of repack-ness, there were back-to-back cards of the same team that didn't exist anymore. Also, Sam Wyche shows up to remind you that you don't live in Cleveland, but in Cincinnati. 

Bills content! Even better, it is an offensive line card, followed up by another offensive lineman as well. Those two 1988 Topps cards on the bottom are the last of  the Miami Dolphins that show up in this repack. I came only two cards, Dan Marino and Paul Lankford, from completing the team base set in this repack. More collation oddness.

There's the final numbered card of the repack with that gold Steelers card at the top. We also see one of the more infamous draft busts of recent years in Aguayo. When you draft a kicker that high, you have to imagine they thought he'd at least last more than one season with the team. 

There you have it!

Turning Up the Tempo

Although I don't have any true Toronto Tempo cards yet, I do have a few of players who have or had affiliation with the team.

I'm leading with Nyara Sabally, since she's the only one I had a card of prior to the team starting up. She's an Oregon alum, so it wasn't in my hands long.

All these players were picked in the expansion draft, but would never play a regular season game with the team. Still, I have people like Dontonio Wingfield and BJ Tyler in my Raptors binder, who also played zero games for the team.

It was almost expected that Kia Nurse, from nearby Hamilton, would sign with the first Canadian team. She's part of the multi-sport talented Nurse clan. Father Richard played in the CFL, brother Darnell is in the NHL, cousin Sarah plays in the PWHL, and her uncle is Donovan McNabb. 

It is so appropriate that their first ever draft pick is wearing #1 in her card photo. She's been perfectly fine, and despite her being the first pick of an expansion team, she hasn't been called upon to carry the team. 

Finally, the Million Dollar Backcourt! The Tempo were hovering around the .500 mark for the first part of the season. Then Sykes got hurt, and they ended up with a 12-game losing string, that knocked them down and out of playoff contention. At least it did increase their draft lottery odds. Mabrey has easily been the team's star this year, in fact she was their first All-Star. Marina had a 53 point game earlier this year, which tied the WNBA record for a single game. It was also 1 behind Fred VanVleet's record for most points in a game in Toronto basketball history. 

And she did with 8 fewer minutes in the game that the Raptors. Which for those that like WHIP-esque stats, is even more impressive.

Until I get actual Tempo cards, there you have it!

2/14 Hockey

 Back to my most recent COMC incoming shipment, and the pile, approximately 100 worth, of 2/14 content contained within.

There were a few debuts in this. In fact, all of the upcoming posts from this shipment will have a newer face. This gets the bonus greatness of being my first appearance of Norway's national team in the collection. 

The CHL sees a new representative come with at least one of the cards from each of the leagues, but only one of which, the Paolucci, comes from a widely available set. The Leavins entry gives the most local issue feel of the local issues, so it is probably my favourite of this bunch. There's still some more CHL cards, but of someone who has appeared before.

Matt O'Connor has played in one NHL game. I have 29 cards of his. That doesn't count ones that I have in both my Sens and my 2/14 collection. 

At least I have fewer Milan Hejduk cards than he has NHL games. I'm only about 800 or so short.

The one-and-done portion ends with this appearance of Ryan MacInnis. This was obviously a sticker dump out of one of their Mississauga Expo giveaway packs, since Ryan MacInnis played only one NHL game with the Sabres, although he had part seasons with the Blue Jackets. This  moves his numbers into double digits, and at TCDB, I'm 8 cards up on the nearest collectors.

Back to the CHL with these McShane entries. He was a 4th round pick of the Habs, but has played his entire post-OHL years across the Atlantic. Someone still pays him to play hockey, so good for him!

Moving outside of his rookie season, Lane Hutson's cards have become much more reasonable additions to the binders. He's now in the double-digits with these 4 additions from his sophomore season.

Eric Nystrom is up next with these 5 cards. The top right one is a retro parallel, with the lower left being a wrapper redemption red parallel. I'm not to sure why the red fades to white at the very edge of the border. To make the corners appear better? 

Brandon Sutter has 5 cards as well, but there are more obscure entries here, with 3 sets I've never posted before in any post on the blog. The opening two are from local Subway releases, with the final one in the top row being a Topps Now sticker. I've posted Topps Now cards. I've posted Topps stickers, but never the best of both worlds. This one salutes his first hat trick, a feat that 5 Sutters previously accomplished.  Given that the lower two are quite inexpensive thanks to e-pack, I'm somewhat surprised I didn't have copies of them already.

But it is Nikolaj Ehlers that is the big winner this time with 6 new cards. Nothing too special here, but I do land an alternate jersey in the lower row. 

And there you have it!

How To Get Thrown At

 

If a batter tried this Eddie Gaedel method to get a walk, I'd probably help him along with a beanball.

Mike get a lot of walks(sic). No shit, sherlock.

While I'd probably add that card anyhow just for the oddness of it all, Mike Krizmanich is also a 2/14 baby, providing another reason to add the card.

There you have it!

2026 Adventures in Repacks - Part 18.7 - Cubism

 Just a short one today, since I want to end this cube with 3 average posts, instead of 2 longer ones.

It is about time I got to start with one of these with a Curtis Martin single.

I remember really liking that Roquan Smith card when I pulled it from a pack in 2019. It's still really good. They'd do a smoky entry for him the next year as well, and would have autograph parallels in with it. For some reason, having a card photo tailor-made for one wasn't part of this release. And at least Branden Albert would get cards with his face visible as well.

Early on in this cube, I remarked that Kellen Winslow Jr would be the worst person to appear. I correct myself - Tommy Kane is worse. At least KWJ never killed anyone. I do swear that those two vertical Tic Tac Dough lines of cards from the same set just ended up like that, with the three Falcons '88s being especially impressive. 

Bills cards in both groups as well! Williams was a dupe - Johnson wasn't.

But there you have it!