Grey Cup Sunday

 It is the perfect day to show off all my CFL content that has been waiting, for varied amounts of times, in my COMC to-be-posted box.

I'll go chronologically through this, and my opener goes back to 2004. It seems a pretty random entry to start with, even though it does hit one of my favourite photographic motifs - a defensive player with the ball. But Wayne Shaw is also a 2/14 baby! He's my first Tiger-Cat representative in the collection, although the city of Hamilton does appear previously thanks to Tom Pyatt.

Jumping forward to 2018 with this. Getting an autograph on e-pack is fun, even if it is very likely to find one when busting some CFL. But getting a Ti-Cats hit still feels really special. It is even nicer when it is a team legend like Simoni Lawrence, and one that will very likely include an induction in to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Likely next year.

Since 2022 SAGE probably dropped before the 2022 CFL release, I'll put this here. Not only does Keric Wheatfall qualify for the penmanship binder for a very legible auto, he also deserves a nod here based on this catch from the regular season. And it was Waterloo alum Tre Ford throwing the pass. Perfect!

I've definitely busted more e-pack 2022 CFL stuff as opposed to real, actual packs. I do dislike the design's move over from hockey, but it does look better with the parallels, and it really looks good when the colors match like with the Wilson. We get our first appearance of one of the participants in the game later today with this pair of Elks cards. With Edmonton being ghastly bad for so long, it is nice to see them back as contenders.

Defensive player with the ball? Nice. Defensive player celebrating a Pick 6 with the ball? Even better! That player having an alma mater listed as "Colorado School of Mines"? Perfection! I guess that Hamilton swatch is nice as well.

Ending this with 2025 content. I've busted zero stuff from 2026. I haven't even made my way to the LCS since it dropped. What is wrong with me? As for these cards, I like the nice variety in the parallels. Exclusives /100. Deluxe /250. Gold. Then some relics. I didn't find a relic-only hit when I busted my boxes last year, so it is nice to pull a couple on e-pack for completeness sake.

And there you have it!

My Greatest Rainbow

 I go by the philosophy that if you have enough parallels to fill up an entire 9 pocket page, that's enough for it to be considered as rainbow. I've put ones together so far for David Garrard (2008 Score), Nikolaj Ehlers (2020 Platinum) and Yermin Mercedes (2021 Prizm and Mosaic). While I'm sure all of those folks are fine people, in terms of historical magnitude, they're nowhere close to:

Frederick Douglass. 

For the 4th of July/250th this year, Upper Deck e-pack released a historical set perfectly timed for the celebrations. One member of the base set was Frederick Douglass, and being e-pack, getting 9 of the cards 

Going clockwise from the top left, there's the Pride Plus, the Bottle Rocket /599, the Red Patterned Foilboard, Patterned Foilboard, Pride, Independence /199, Uncle Sam /299, and Glory.  In the middle is the Crystal Clear American Variant. Which is a thick acetate that you have to hold to the light to see through.

Since the base card is only combinable, there really isn't a physical base card for the set. Pride is probably the closest thing to it, going by # of cards available on epack/COMC.

And let's put myself in Douglass double digits for this post with a 2009 American Heritage entry as well. 

There you have it!

A Fine State of Affairs

 Arizona is a fine state. Mainly because it became such on 2/14, qualifying it for my 2/14 collection. And here's a couple new additions to the misc. portion thereof.

Vintage open
s this. All the way back to 1953 for this Topps License Plates entry. It's pretty basic in terms of look, but it still counts.

The back is filled with facts. That's the Capitol in the pic. The population is now more than 10 times what is listed on the back. The flower remains the same, although the speed limit has increased to 65 and even 75 in some places. As for # of vehicles, wiki says it is just over 6 million, with no breakdown for "passenger cars" vs anything else.

Going forward to 1991, where there were card sets for everything, including bird stamps. 

More factoids on the back of this, including the big one for me being "Entered Union:". I also have the Oregon one in my COMC inventory right now, and it does include a 2/14 entrance date as well.

There you have it!

Just one Pack: 2026-27 Upper Deck Series 1

 It is rare that I see recent, standalone packs at Walmart. So, let's try one!

I looked, but didn't find any Stunning Outburst Silver Young Guns Cards.

First card out is always a sign of how much I'll like the set, and it is a Maple Leaf entry. But at least it is an interesting photo. It looks like it was from a ceremony honouring Matthews becoming the all-time goal scoring leader in Leafs history. 

But it isn't even close to being the greatest photo in the pack, especially with this beautiful card as competition.

Here's the rest of the base cards. Super happy Larkin wearing Red Wings colours has aged really poorly this season.

Finally, the inserts/Young Gun card. Does making the UD Portraits cards shiny this year act as an improvement? Nope. Still as boring as ever. 1991 Donruss Studio-style backs might save it, but there's only stats on the back. Maybe getting a Leafs YG will signify something for my S2 purchased. 

So, that's (probably) my only pack of S1. And there you have it!

Isn't it Ironic, Don't you Think?

 

Thank you, Anthony Smith, for your advice of "don't kill other people".

About that...

2/14 on the Gridiron

 Today, a whole bunch of football additions to the 2/14 collection as I wrap up that portion of my COMC mailer, with just the miscellaneous stuff to go. With these, I went over the 4700 plateau.

This is the most normal card of  the one-and-done portion of the mailer is this Steve McNair card. With the white background and all the silver, it looks like a card from a higher end set. 

UD Superstars was an all-sport. Picture Goodwin Champions, just with licensing. 

Hologram content! Pure 90s!

And nothing more 2000s than another endless parallel. This here is a Purple Scope parallel. Mosaic provided the only opportunity for a card of Jadeveon Clowney as a member of the Panthers. 

The final one among the single entries is this autograph of Anthony Hill Jr. He went to the Titans in the second round of the draft, and has already received Photoshop Specials in the early Topps/Bowman releases. If his name were Any Hi, I'd also consider adding him to my penmanship collection. But it isn't so I won't.

Since that Press Proof parallel ended up being a dupe with the first version showing up unexpectedly in a trade envelope. That appearance of the AAF is new to the collection, but in terms of a new Hackenberg and my only appearance of the not even one season league.

Jeff Graham gets a scanner bed full of cards to take the win in terms of numbers. The celebratory Bowman's Best card is nice, but I'll give the nod here to the Action Packed entry. Practice and stretches might not count as Action Packed, but it is definitely the most unique photo here, using the horizontal form nicely. I also hope he caught the past he's settling under on the Impressions card.

Getting in just under the wire for this post (as in these were part of the sportlots envelope literally showed up earlier today) are two new Patrick Ramseys. Ramsey is the #5 QB among 2/14 babies. Considering he was a starter at more than one point in Washington, it shows how loaded the position is.

If Ramsey is 5th, Wright is 6th. 

Justin Miller brings the most solid hit parade of this post, with a relic and two numbered cards. While I would usually go for a two-color Pro Bowl relic as my choice for the best card in here, how can I hate a colour-match parallel?

I'll end in the most immature way possible, with 4 new Harry Colons for my collection. I am still the top collector of Harry Colons at TCDB with these 4 parallels giving me a 4 card cushion. Clockwise from the top left, there's a Members Only, a Special Effects, another Members Only, and a Panthers Inaugural season. That's a lot of Harry! I'm 4 cards away from complete Harry Colon's cardboard run.

That's enough silliness for this post. 

And there you have it!

2026 Adventures in Repacks - Part 22 - The finale of these?

 These were the final one of these I'd seen at Walmart. Will I go out with some interesting pulls?

Bills content? Yup, that at least counts as interesting. To me. I also appreciate them getting a little more of the Rookie Premiere than just getting the rookies to cycle through jerseys to end up as relic cards.

While he's a perfectly fine player, I'm not sure if I'd want to wear the name 'BURDEN' on the back of a jersey. At least he has the option to add III to accompany it. Garrett Wilson is on a purple parallel, the only parallel among the three packs.

 

The final card of these packs? 2/14 baby Jaxon Smith-Njigba! YES! And a insert for a future Ann Arbor-bound mailer. PC content and trade bait! WOO-HOO!

There you have it!

Spooky Season

 Some cards for the season.

There might be some out there that don't even need a mask to create creepy cardboard.

For most, a mask is required. So, there are always hockey masks able to provide the necessary scariness when required, and UD Canvas usually includes a few of these in the insert set every year.

But the law of diminishing returns means the second skull mask in the post makes everything less scary. So, I'll stop the scary with this one.

And so, since superheroes are a popular choice for costume, I'll end this with an appearance of Nikki A.S.H. (Almost a superhero) for this post. This comes from the pandemic times in the company, and back when I still watched this company.

There you have it!

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!