More Upper Deck CFL - Retail

While I admit to not being surprised that I could find CFL cards at the LCS, seeing a blaster on the shelf of the local Target definitely was a surprise.

8 packs with 6 cards each. The same # of cards per pack as the hobby, but with less of a chance of a hit. But, my 10 hobby packs did give me a good return in terms of hits, so I really wouldn't care if I don't get anything from these in that regards.

And I didn't.

But I did do better in one regards - Star Rookies. Both hobby and retail had them at a 1:4 ratio, but I only pulled a Steve Slaton from those.

But I got two from the blaster. I'm really happy about the C.J. Gable. That was one of the cards I really wanted to get.

O-Pee-Chee inserts were also 1:4, and I also got the expected 2. My enjoyment of these really depends on how close the design comes to the team colours. So, despite Labour Day rivalries, the Argos card is a nicer addition than the Riders one.

Defensive SPs are 1 per pack in this as well, so here are the 8 I ended up with. That Beswick is an absolutely gorgeous shot from the Grey Cup introductions.

And here's a sampling of the base cards. I ended up with 6 dupes overall from this portion. Not too bad, and I'm about 30 now away from the base 100 of the set. I've got another checklist to bring to the Expo.

COMC Challenge Cards Part 61 - Throwbacks

With a huge stack from justcommons having arrived, and with the Expo next week, and with a couple repacks to post, I might as well plow my through the last three or four posts. Maybe I can get through this theme at least before the Expo, with an occasional break for something else.

One of the things I wanted to add into my collection was a creamsicle style relic from the Tampa Bay Bucs. There were some vintage ones with Lee Roy Selmon, but this one that was event-worn was much cheaper. And it calls him Cadillac Williams, so there's also that. I even like the use of a B&W photo for a throwback themed subset.

From a sedate B&W photo on a card to this. Quite the contrast, but I have an excuse. I saw this card with Livan sporting this Senators throwback, and added it to my watch list. Then I went through all the available cards and parallels featuring this photo to get the cheapest. Which was this.

A posting with two baseball cards, and the gaudier of the two isn't the Pacfic issue.  Mind-blowing.

The Manziel Turnaround

I busted one retail hanger box of Topps football, and my one per box relic card was a Johnny Manziel. I didn't really want it, and ebay'd it, and hoped to turn it into something more in line with my collecting tastes. So, how about taking advantage of all the post National Treasures plates out there and add two more to my Senators collection?

Leading this way was this very filthy magenta plate of Jason Spezza. This my first magenta plate, and easily the one that shows the most use of any of them, even the ones that were used on sets that I'm sure had a higher production run than 12-13 Rookie Anthology.

And I've even got a part of the yellow plate on the back.

So, with that hint on yellow, I've got about 1.25 of the 4 plates needed to produce the front image on this card. My plans for world domination through Spezza's 12-13 Rookie Anthology card is about 30 percent fulfilled.

And since I could combine shipping, I picked up a second plate.

Sure, he hasn't seen any action with the big club so far this season, or last season, but it still counts as a Senators 1/1 plate. The black makes the logo pop nicely, that's for certain.

Maybe tomorrow I can finally show off some results from my Update hanger box breakings.

Just in time for Tonight!

Actually, this pile of Raptors arrived yesterday from a group break at mojobreak, but I opted to show them off today, since the season starts off tonight.

Since all base cards are shipped in the breaks, you get lots of them. And I did. 10 boxes worth of Raptors base cards. Collation was varied. I got 9 different Bruno Caboclo baso cards, but only 5 Amir Johnsons. The base photos are all pretty generic, but the Jonas wins it easily, but that is primarily for the fact he's easily pushing past Andrea Bargnani in a way that was very familiar to Raptors fans makes the card. Disappointing that the card of Louis Williams has the team change, but doesn't change the team colour bar on top from blue to red. A quick sample of the 40 or so base cards from the handful of packs I sampled show that wasn't the norm.

Of course, there were lots of parallels as well. Starting with the upper left, there's a gold parallel of Chuck Hayes, followed by a trio of green parallels (I got 2 Williams greens). On the bottom we have the red backs. I've completed the unnumbered ranbow of Chuck Hayes with the red back joining the gold and green parallels. Finally, the only numbered base card parallel was the Kyle Lowry - a nice one to get.

Inserts? I got those as well. A nice mix of interesting photos, great moments, gaudiness and team history. And, since Panini makes the logos match the photo era, the Vince Carters have the purple dino logo on the back. I think I got all the unnumbered base inserts, missing out only on the Courtside card of Demar and the Class Action base of Tracy McGrady.

But who really needs the base insert when you end up with a /25 parallel?

And now, the hits.

There were more Raptors relics that featured players from the past (Hedo Turkoglu, Jose Caldeeron and this Bosh) than current players (only Tyler Hansbrough and Bruno Caboclo). Given that lineup, I think I'm happiest with the Bosh from that line-up.

And an autograph as well. And it is of their #1 draft pick! A nice addition, and one I'm happy to add through this instead of having to try to find it locally. The depressing thing is that on the penmanship curve when it comes to Raptors, Bruno is in the upper half easily for the team with a pretty legible last name on his. He might even be the best current player in that regards.

My goal was to have 500 different Raptors cards by the end of the year. I don't think that's going to happen, as I'm at about 380 now. But, adding Caboclo and Hayes to my collection does put me closer to my goal of getting at least one card of everybody who had at least one mainstream Raptors card released. Currently, it looks like I only need Julyan Stone and Patrick Patterson, and their only cards (so far for Patterson) are autos.

And now, I feel ready for tip-off in two hours.

COMC Challenge Cards Part 61 - Tip-off is tonight

But much like baseball, I really don't consider the season to be underway until my favourite team has played their first official game. So, I'll go through the basketball portion of the latest COMC mailing. Tomorrow, you'll get the Raptor intensive post.

But I can still lead off with a Raptors card. And I will. The dating of the photograph wasn't exclusive to their baseball releases. It was also in their basketball releases (and hockey, and football) at the time. So, we can have a rare appearance of a game that took place in Halifax on the card.

Or a game that took place in Calgary.

This is the joy of the challenges is coming across cards you had no idea existed. In this case, a card that makes 1995 Fleer releases look positively sedate. And it folds out, so it is twice as loud as your standard card.

And of course the back is just as garish. Because why wouldn't it be?

When the Raptors acquired Louis Williams in the trade that sent John Salmons, I decided I would find the cheapest hit of his available. And this was it.

Games played in Canada and a card where Kobe Bryant is pictured as and listed as a member of the Charlotte Hornets. I've got some real odd cards in this post. The card with a small swatch of cloth attached might be the most normal one in this post.

So why not wrap things up with a throwback Memphis Pros jersey? Like the Hakeem, this is one that went on my wantlist when it appeared during the Challenges.

And more basketball tomorrow.

Decisions. Decisions.

Coming across this card made me wonder about something. If I were to send this to Nick @ Dime boxes, which mini collection would it be under?

A) Autograph signing
B) Kids on cards
C) Throwback uniforms

In order to prevent frustration, I might just keep the card for myself.

Just One Pack...of 2014 Topps Valor

A really wanted this for only one thing - to add one of the packs to my 2/14 collection. To my knowledge, none of the 2/14 binder have been featured by themselves on the packs prior to this. I know Jim Kelly was on a box of Skybox football in 1992, but can't remember if he was on the actual packs.

But at least with this, I have my first actual pack of cards in the collection. I don't know if I should count this as part of my Clowney collection or not.

And the first card out is a rookie for the Texans!

But not the one I wanted. Still, these are really nice looking cards.Of a lot of recent sets with the original background removed from the photo and replaced, these might even be my favourites. I'll certainly make an effort to at least hunt down the Buffalo Bills and the 2/14 guys from this set.

No hits among the 6 cards in the pack. The closest being this T.Y. Hilton out of /399.

And the rest! I really love the colours on the Reggie Bush card. While all the parallels make it very doubtful I'd build the set, the PC stuff will definitely be chase cards for me.

COMC Challenge Cards Part 60 - Football and the 2/14 binder

60 parts to this is a lot of free cards for doing mind numbing data entry in my downtime. And I still haven't shown off all the cards I have here, and I still have 66 more in my inventory. So, I'm guessing this post theme will continue into 2015.

9 cards in this post, but this was the only hit in the bunch. Since Jeff was primarily a player during the 90s, I was kinda surprised there was a hit of him available. Turns out there were two options, this one from 2000 and a 2004 release from an Ohio State set. Since I think it would be fun to tell Dennis @ too Many Manninghams at some point that said OSU card was high on my wantlist.

The closest to the a hit among the remaining cards was this parallel of David Garrard /999. For a mid range set, this is a really nice photo for the card with the huge logo in the background.

The Fleer Focus of Courtney Brown is /2999. And that's about it in terms of hits or numbered cards.

This UK mini of Herman Hunter completes the run of his  mainstream cards. The only thing left for him is an oddball, and a pair of Topps stickers that he shared with someone else. And I just had the oddball shipped via sportlots.

John Anderson's career ended just as the junk wax era was starting. Thus meaning he had no releases outside of a few 80s cards. He's also a Michigan alum, so I could see myself passing any extras along to TMM. Strangely, those junk wax era card out of 1989 Score is the only one I don't have from his mainstream foursome.

My usual plan for adding new Jim Kelly cards sees me going through the cheapest cards available, and grabbing the cheapest one. In this case, this was the cheapest one.

And finally, a football Heritage card. The back is kind of interesting when it comes to my collection as well.

Seeing as my collection also includes McNair's fellow 2/14 baby in Drew Bledsoe, it is kinda neat to have him mentioned as part of the trivia on the back. The talking Buffalo Wing is also kinda surreal.

Another 9 cards in the binder. Football leaps past baseball for 2nd overall in terms of per sport content with 215 cards to 210. Overall total is 844.

COMC Challenge Cards Part 59 - Pick 6!

Back to this again, even though I still have several themes worth sitting in my COMC goodie box. Simply grab 6 cards from the box containing cards that came in through the Challenges, and post them!

Starting off, a really fun name. Now, his first name is pronounced Bah-ZEEL, according to this article. That makes it far less of an ethnic mashup than it appears in written form. But it is still a really fun name to say out loud.

Now here's another fun name to say. Jack Brohamer. It sounds like it could be the name for Zack Ryder's finishing move in the WWE. If Zack were actually allowed to win matches with a finishing move, that is.

The facial expression! The shiny blue! Sorry, the shiny Silver Slate Blue Foil. But mainly the facial expression.

Two different cards featuring Manny signing autographs from his Indians. The one on the bottom is from the Christie Brinkley collection, but I admit I like the first one more due to the giant banner in the background. I just wish we could see more of the banner. All I can infer is that it might have something to do with a sandwich.

Hey! That looks like a selfie on the back,long  before anybody even called it that! As a bonus, it looks the visible card presented to Manny for signing is from 1995 Fleer. Whoops! Learn to crop photos better!

And yes, I recognized the Manny card as being an insert from 1995 Fleer without having to head over to search Manny's 1995 cards on COMC.

And closing, here's yet another new card for my Vladdy collection.  Nice full extension on the swing, and it does kind of look like Shea Stadium in behind. So, bonus!

COMC Challenge Cards Part 58: Kitchener Rangers Alum

People stateside like to collect cards featuring the alumni of their alma mater or local university. Since north of the border, University sports are barely a blip on the radar of their students, (and I can't think of too many U. of Waterloo alum that have cards in anything), collecting hockey players who went through your favourite junior hockey team is the substitute.

But, sometimes when guys don't get NHL level cards, getting cards of them in the Rangers' colours is the only alternative. Justin has been in the KHL for the past few seasons, after spending time with the Kings affiliate in Manchester, so maybe I'll have to look overseas for something. He does have a stickergraph on ebay, but I don't want it to the tune of $20 and shipping from Finland.

This is almost impossible to read due to the foil, but here's another one of This Way To The Clubhouse's favourite non-NY Ranger in Gabriel Landeskog.

Mikkel jumped into my alumni collection with a beautiful 3-colour logo patch from Prime via a mojobreak random, and I've been looking to add a rookie of his. This one was cheap, and as a bonus,

the Rangers get a mention on the reverse!

Enough of the base- time for some hits!

The only relic of this bunch was this one, with a stickergraph attached. Even though the Hurricanes are winless this season, he looks to have stuck around with the big club this season.

Here's the second stickergraph of this collection - one of the more recent players to make the jump to NHL card status. I don't think there will be any more until Radek Faksa starts with Dallas, but Akeson made a couple appearances in sets late last year. Like Murphy, he's stuck around with the team to start the season, after only 1 appearance in the previous 2 seasons.

And the only on-card auto of the bunch was this Paul Reinhart. And the best penmanship by far of the three. Paul was a local guy who played for the Rangers before being drafted by the Atlanta Flames. His three sons, Max, Griffin and Sam are or have tasted the NHL, and the latter two being 4th and 2nd overall draft picks. Although since Paul was living out west my then, they cut their CHL teeth with WHL franchises.

Not bad additions, and I don't think any broke the $3.00 mark.