2026 Adventures in Repacks - Part 18.1 - Cubism

 

I've had this for several years now, I guess I should probably get to it and post the contents. I'm just going in order of the cards in the cube, but I'll be posting the contents occasionally. Which means it should take about a month+ to get through this.

The opener is a parallel, an unnumbered goal line parallel. Since it was the opener in the slider case, to say the condition isn't the best was an understatement.

Yup. I'm scanning everything. It beats typing out every set and every name. Both the first hidden card, and the last one of this first group of cards is a "traded" version. If you see a Jason Pierre-Paul card from after his fireworks incident, you're looking at the hand. How can you not?

I'm confident in my prediction that the worst human being that will appear in this repack in Kellen Winslow Jr. At least I know the address where I can send it for a TTM autograph for at least the next couple years. Luke Willson has been showing up on TV here recently, doing work on CFL broadcasts. Lawyer Tilliman provides a favourite older card feature of mine - infield dirt being visible. Newsome's Archives entry is from a set that would have been annoying to collate.

Since they retained the original numbering scheme for the back design, this looks like card #308. It is actually #62, as shown on the bottom. And even that would move around depending on the back design. Fun!

Horizontal cards finally show up, and they do so with a pretty nice looking photo of Ike Hilliard. Seeing Tomlinson in a jersey other than San Diego's is really off. Pro Set was the Official NFL card set in more ways than one, as shown by the final card in this grouping.

I'm not sure if Torrance Small is throwing the bomb on a trick play, or throwing a souvenir to the crowd, but given that he has passing stats at pro football reference, probably the former. He tried 3 passes as a member of the Eagles, with only one completion (to the opposition). I finally see a Bills card And for Brett Smith, if you  know his cardboard history with Sage, you're expecting to see a shirt appear. And it did...

on the back of that card.

Here's the final grouping of cards for this post, and we get our first hit of the cube. Tajh Boyd would never play a game in the NFL, but at least the Jets spent a 6th rounder on him, and not a 2nd rounder like with a 2/14 binder member several years later.

1 stack down - probably at least 5 or 6 more to go!

There you have it!

Thank you, Kyle

 Kyle Lowry signed a one-day contract today to retire as a Raptor. It was also announced his number would be retired during the season, joining Vince Carter in the rafters.

So, I was wondering what my favourite card of his was that I had. TCDB says I have more than 200 of his cards, of which all but a handful have him with the Raptors.

Nothing beats personally pack-pulling a card of his. There's also the oddball-ness of it with him wearing #3.

This is my highest-end card of his, picked up through Panini Rewards points.

But this photo? 

That makes perfection.

I Amuse Easily

 Therefore I get way too much joy in seeing a "Historic Draft Class" set featuring this guy:

And a glowing write-up on the back that, despite its use of  past tense, doesn't even hint that there was anything but success in his career.

If there was an insert set devoted exclusively to draft busts, I'd totally chase it. It beats going through older sets on COMC/sportlots to find cards of Bills OL slug Mike Williams.

There you have it

Baseball Miscellany

 If some Blue Jays cards are fine for Canada Day, then I guess the rest of the league can be used for a 4th of July post.

There's a lot to like about this opener. It is a pitcher-at-the-plate card to open, and it is meant to commemorate his pitching skills. In fact, the text at the back in no way references his batting skill. You'd have to look at his individual numbers for the month to see he did have a decent month at the plate, lifting his average from .105 to .289. So he earned it at both parts of the game.

Colour match too!

This might have been one of the most perfect photos used for a Panini card. The original uncropped photo would also have been the perfect choice for a double HOFer card.  But I'll take what I can get with a name that doesn't show up on cards very often. And even without Williams as part of the photo, it is still a really fun image, with Duffy really coming off as a teacher.

While not all Orlando Hernandez cards feature this portion of his wind-up, there really aren't enough that do feature it. That seems wrong. Fortunately, there is at least some cardboard that does highlight it. I'd say the same thing about Tony Batista's batting stance, of which there seem to be comparatively fewer.

Both Jose Iglesias and Jim Thome look like they're about to go collect on a bad debt for the mob. Considering both of their bats are personalized, they better take them with them afterwards. 

There you have it!

A Card for Canada Day

 It might not be a licensed card, but it does seem perfect to show off my latest Blue Jays autograph.

Sure, I probably would have used a photo that saluted the early 90s Jays as opposed to the late 2000s, but it still provides an auto in my collection that I've wanted for some time now. Licensing, schmicensing! Cito hasn't had any licensed autographs aside from 2004 Sweet Spot. 

At least it wasn't the E-Z Fade 2007 release.

But if you really want a couple licensed cards - here you are!

And there you have it!

2026 Adventures in Repacks - Part 17 - Giving me Five

 Five cards from one of these.

At least I know there's some SPA in there.

I get more of a pink vibe from this opener than a red, especially from the hexagons but it is called the latter. It is far more boring like that.

Numbered card! I remember he had a bit of hype as he debuted. While he didn't quite reach superstardom, he's still in the league as of last season. And that's really all you can ask for when you come across a rookie card from several years back.

Sens card!  WOO-HOO! I'd almost added this one to my COMC inventory, too!

I know I don't like the Portraits inserts, and don't think I ever have felt them as anything beyond middling. But this particular design is one of the better ones of a bad lot.

I guess if you're going to do a city-themed insert set for the team, you should probably use the home jerseys for the photo.

A nice selection makes me give this a slight thumbs up!

There you have it!

Contrasting

Earlier this month, I posted a card that commemorated Devin Hester's record setting return for a TD. But here, there's a great moment, but unless you recognized it, there's nothing on the card to inform the holder of it.

It is the winning Statue of Liberty 2-point conversion from the Fiesta Bowl! 

You'd have to recognize the Oklahoma uniform in the front photo, or their team colours in the recycled back photo to make the connection.

But if you do know, it is a really great card, and one of a handful that show a photo from that play.

Although there is this one, that for some reason seems to be checklisted as an Oklahoma card with their opponent an afterthought.

But there you have it!

2026 Adventures in Repacks - Part 16 - Another Stove Touching

 Another one of these.

Even after the previous one wasn't that impressive at all. I'm a sucker.

Pack 1:

Perhaps this repack should have been directed towards Oregon. Each pack contained a Ducks alum. I'll remedy that portion by including all of them in a future mailer directed towards Oregon. Despite only 4/5 base cards per pack, the Jeudy and Tracy were dupes from my first busting of this repack.

Pack 2:

It may look a same pack dupe here, but that Lawrence on the bottom is a purple parallel. Anything to break up the repetitiveness of the veteran base. But at least the backgrounds weren't completely wiped.

Pack 3:

Variety! I also got a Michigan alum for a future Ann Arbor mailer. Both repacks would end up providing a Red Squares parallel. Although this time, and seeing the card was 666/850, I originally thought this parallel was /999, despite it being my second one of these. I do like seeing the #1 draft pick show up, but thanks to my odd habits, it wasn't as nice as seeing a card of a guy named Princely.

But there you have it!

2011-12 Heroes and Prospects Hobby Box Break * 2

 It may have taken me a bit of time to get to this, but let's finally show off the cards from these two boxes. 

I do like that they identified the players on the box. I like that they identified the prospects on the front (Andy Miele is hidden by the wrapping). Only Adam Henrique is still in the NHL of this group.

The set is broken up into segments, and although I did get cards from all of them, I did end up about 30 cards short of the base set.

The Heroes portion opens the set. And we have a box cover appearance! I guess there's no need to include a name on the front if his card appears.

Prospects show up next, and it opens with international players. I'm not sure if ITG had the license to show the Djurgardens jersey  that Zibanejad is sporting on his card, but I appreciate the randomness of it appearing.

The next 90 or so cards are devoted to (then) current CHL players. The Kitchener Rangers punched way above their weight with 3 players making appearances here. I missed out on the Ryan Murphy, but was happy to see their annual Remembrance Day jerseys show up on these cards. It was also used on Ryan's..

While I did get cards of future NHLers in this mix, I do like getting cards of people who had no other pack-pullable appearances outside of these.

When you get to the triple digit portion of the set, the AHL portion starts. Again, the most interesting ones here are of players with few cards outside of what showed up in this set. I think Sweatt is the only one of this four that would get NHL level cards.

How do you get current NHL stars into a product that didn't have the license? Salute their time in the CHL or AHL with the 'Grad" portion of the set.

The base set ends with a 4-card tribute portion dedicated to players who had recently passed away, 3 from the nightmare-ish 2011 off-season. And the Lokomotiv plane crash wasn't even part of this portion.

And there are the base cards. As said, I'm about 30-ish out. I'll probably get a listing up sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, I missed out on the big one - #101 Nathan MacKinnon.

But there are inserts to get to.

There were inserts the saluting both the Calder Cup and Memorial Cup Champions. I lucked out by getting the former, and a pair of new Senators cards. I already had NHL level cards of both these guys, but these are still nice, and do include my favourite background choice outside of the actual one in the original photo - a team logo.

These were part of some draft redemption program. Long-expired, these are just another prospect insert set.

No Ryan Murphy base card? No problem! He makes 1 1/4 appearances among the relics. ITG products would often have a hit or two more beyond what was advertised. But despite its position in my Kitchener Rangers binder, that two-colour piece of a Swedish jersey is my favourite among all the swatches seen here.

And here are the autographs, with one of the boxes containing an extra one. As usual, they made the sticker autograph work with the design

I guess that since they would go on to play for the Senators, I can count both the Pageau and the Phaneuf as Sens autographs. I could. But I won't. Out of the others, Wotherspoon was the only one of those three to get NHL level cards.

I guess I could get a little upset over the collation leaving me a distance from the completed set. But they were still pretty solid boxes.

There you have it!

Uniforms of the Damned

Just a couple regrettable jersey entries today.

Those "Century Red" uniforms were immediately mocked upon their release. While I don't think they were that hideous on their own, they did run contrast to the blues usually sported by the team. Thankfully for the Theo Johnson fans that wanted a card of his as a Giant, he'd have other options. 

And at least the striped socks were cropped out.

These looked better in the short shorts era. For these, the extra white space makes it look the players are wearing an oversized t-shirt and sash.