2014 Adventures in Repacks: Part 64.2 - 10 Packs of More Football

The second last Grey Cup autopost brings the other 5 packs. Nothing shiny today, but any time you pull an unexpected hit from a repack, it is a good repack.

Why not lead with the oldest stuff in the pack? Score really got very border intensive for a bit. Still are, but this might have been one of the worse examples of it. I really hopes this changes when they get the football monopoly. Or at least bring back the photographic beauty of 2012 Gridiron.

Hey, Minis mean I can fit all 10 cards in the pack on the scanner at once. And other than the EJ Manuel mini rookie, that's about all that is noteworthy about this pack.

As for the Strata. Well, at least Josh Freeman doesn't have too many Vikings cards out there. That's kinda neat.

Prime will probably be the set I miss the most when Topps leaves the football landscape. It's all about the photos in all their crisp clear glory. The Vernon Davis is so clear, you can see the failed attempt at a tackle through jersey grabbing. And there's my second EJ Manuel of the break.

And here was the actual hit I pulled from a repack - the autograph of Vincent Jackson. Not only was I surprised to pull an autograph from the repack product (although they fall at a 1:25 rate in this product), it was the fact I pulled a veteran autograph that surprised me. The autographs in the set were primarily rookies (and towards the lower end of last year's rookie class as well). Veteran content fell at a rate of about 2 or 3 per case. So to get one from a retail repacked product had to be insane odds.

And that John Elway is pretty nice too with the Gypsy Queen look to it.

It was nice to get some packs where I could scan every card in them and still have them al grouped together.

2014 Adventures in Repacks: Part 64.1 - 10 Packs of More Football

Yes. More Grey Cup pre posts written so I have enough to last through until Monday. Up next, a two part post of a 10 pack repack from Target.

Here's the repack with the two visible packs. There's some 2013 Platinum and some 2013 Strata. In addition to those two, the rest of the packs were.

2010 Score
2013 Platinum * 3
2013 Topps Magic
2013 Prizm
2013 Prime
2013 Topps Mini

Sure, they're all from last year except one, but that was a good year for Bills cards and there were no packs of Pro Set or SAGE in the mix. That's always a plus!

And I did pull a hit from one of these packs - and it was definitely unexpected in terms of actually getting a hit, and the subject manner. But, that will show up tomorrow. I wasn't too sure how to split these up, so I eventually just opted to do the shiny ones today and do the rest then.

The visible pack you see in the window was different than the others. It was black, while the others were white. I'm not sure if that means this was a hobby pack instead of retail, or that it was sold at different stores, but it was different. Also, the rookie cards in this were glossier than their veteran counterparts. Both on the front, and the back, which had a more cardboard feel with the veterans. This was the content of the visbile Platinum pack.

The closest thing to a hit in any of the Platinum was this X-Fractor of Gio Bernard, from one of the white packs. I definitely could have pulled a worse one.  And that Tom Brady is the typical, expected Wolverine card set aside for TMM.

These are colourful and scan nicely, I'll give them that.

I thought for a second that they reused a photo between the Davis and the Boldin. When a team only has a couple base cards, is it too much to ask for some variety?

And here are the other shiny cards. At least I got my first Buffalo Bill of the break. But, considering the packs really aren't really that big in terms of cards contained within, I'll be happy with any Bills content. I guess the Allen card counts as a bonus.

Tomorrow, the rest of this repack, and then I'll hopefully be home early enough Monday to catch up on other things.

Free Pack Friday at Mojobreak

More auto-posting.

One of the things that goes on during the Friday breaks at mojobreak.com is Free Pack Friday. It is simple. Show up for the afternoon breaks and watch. On the more hit-based products, you are given the chance to predict the team on an upcoming pack. Guess right, and they'll open up a hobby pack for you, and will send out any hits or low numbered parallels. Easy!

So, this seems like an appropriate time to show off some of the football cards I've got through that over the past year-ish. I'll hit the baseball portion at a later date.

Let's open with one that came up at the perfect time. I had this one on my COMC watchlist, solely for the fact that I like Khaseen's penmanship. A nice auto where are the letters are legible, and it is nicely placed on the sticker. Considering a lot of autographs look like a really bad game of Pictionary, I'll take an auto like this any time.

Speaking of a bad Pictionary auto, anybody want to try and parse this one? But, this is a Christmas card - numbered to 12/25.

Staying with '13 Score, these are Showcase parallels, but that's just another way of saying silver parallel. Anyhow, at least the colour looks really nice with Raiders colours. This actually came from the same free pack as the King.

The rest of the free goodies came from packs of '13 Topps Strata. 4 cards - all rookie hits.

Starting off, a really nice relic from Montee Ball. Every Denver Bronco relic should have at least some orange on it. Here it contrasts nicely with the green on on the Emerald parallel. Even the curve of the patch portion works with the design in the background. A nice aesthetically pleasing hit.

But on the other hand, this one would look far more pleasing with a large white swatch. Or at least being signed in a different colour to highlight the signature. Fortunately, the smoky design on the bottom helps a little bit with contrast.

As much as I liked the Greene, that wasn't my favourite free pack football hit. I'll just call it a tie for first. Both came from same box, as a matter of fact.

First up. Just an EJ Manuel auto for my Bills PC. Despite his struggles, his autos are still going for about $15ish on the low end, so I'm really happy to add this one, and stop then looking for deals on ebay autos listed as E.J. Manual.

And one Bill deserves another. Although Manuel is probably the better card in terms of not having to pay to add it to my collection, but this is nicer since the auto is on card (or on the plastic-ish thing). Marquise's autos that are on card are expanded to include his number, which is a nice addition to a signature that isn't quite on par with Khaseem Greene's.

The best cards are free ones, especially when they hit your PCs.

2014 Adventures in Repacks: Part 63 - 75 Football cards

I'm in auto post mode during Grey Cup weekend, so let's do a bunch of football posts in my absence. I'll start with a 75 card repack.

2008 Topps Chrome - Jeremy Shockey - First of the visible cards - nice and shiny to start. Visible refractors are always a good selling point for me.
2006 Topps - Kurt Warner
2009 Score - Aaron Kelly

2008 UD - Dustin Keller - I'm seeing a lot of this cheesy card in a repack. At least the crash pad is cropped out of this photo.
2008 Score - Fred Taylor
1990 Pro Set - Don Warren
1990 Pro Set - Timm Rosenbach

1991 Bowman - Vinnie Testaverde - Vinny on the front, but it reads Vinnie on the back.
1994 Pinnacle Gold Zone - Tyrone Hughes
1991 All World CFL - Dieter Brock
1993 UD - Troy Vincent
1991 Bowman - Dean Biasucci - Kicker card!

1994 Classic - Carolina Panthers - My favourite non-Bills card in this is a reproduction of the Charlotte Observer that announced the granting of the expansion franchise. I wish they'd cropped the front page a little tighter so you could try to read some more of the articles. I now want the Jaguars one too.
1991 Score - Mike Gann
1991 Topps - Pat Harlow
1992 Score - Joe Bowden
1991 Score - Eric Moten
1994 Classic - Kevin Greene
1991 Score - Lewis Billups
1996 Zenith - Brent Jones
1995 Classic - Chris Hudson

1990 Pro Set - Pete Stoyanovich - Another kicker!
1990 Pro Set - Wilber Marshall
1999 Topps - Ellis Johnson
1990 Pro Set - Michael Cofer

2002 Bowman - Omar Easy - I actually got an Omar Easy card from the COMC challenges when I was looking for NFL birthplaces that don't appear on too many NFL cards. In this case, Jamaica.
1998 Score - OJ McDuffie
1995 Skybox - Mark Bruener
1999 Bowman - Peter Boulware

1996 Action Packed - Jeff Blake - I had no idea that Action Packed cards were available in 1996.
1989 Pro Set - Erik McMillan
1989 Pro Set - John Rade

2008 Score - Gartrell Johnson - The last repack contained 5 Score rookie cards of guys no longer in the NFL. I did better on this one. Johnson and Ringer are no longer active, but the others are still on rosters.
2008 Score - Rey Maualuga
2008 Score - Eugene Monroe
2008 Score - Javon Ringer
2008 Score - Jared Cook
2011 UD U of Texas - Mike Baab

2005 Sweet Spot - Rudi Johnson - Visible card on the back.

2009 Absolute - Tom Brady - And the other front visible card. Trade bait for TMM is always a good pick up.
2010 Score - Matt Cassel
2011 Topps - Jimmy Smith

2010 Score - CJ Spiller - Bills content!
1994 UD SP - Darnay Scott
1994 UD SP - Derrick Thomas
2006 Ultra - Abdul Hodge

1995 Stadium Club - Bruce Smith - And more Bills content!

1994 Pinnacle - Jackie Harris - A definite contender for the best photograph in this repack. Fighting for every last inch with a pair of Cowboys draped all over him.
1993 Stadium Club - Richard Dent
1994 Fleer - Ricky Proehl
1991 Platinum - Andre Rison
1993 Collector's Edge - KC Chiefs Team

1994 Pinnacle - Herschel Walker - And in the same category as the Harris, Walker tries to make every inch count.

1991 Platinum - Merril Hoge - It gets hurt with its tie-in with Pro Set, but these Platinum cards are really nice with their full bleed photos.
1992 Pro Set - Ray Childress
1994 Topps - Randy Baldwin
1992 Score - Dave Waymer

1990 Aciton Packed - Brian Blades - 2 Action Packed in the same repack! WOO-HOO!
2000 Fleer Skybox - Steve Beuerlein
2001 Bowman - Moran Norris

1996 UD - Terry Glenn - Now this might be even cheesier than the Keller. Too bad there wasn't a brick wall or some railroad tracks there so he could really salute every yokel local band ever.
2001 Bowman - Jeff Lewis
2001 Bowman - Corey Alston

2011 Topps Super Bowl - Aaron Rodgers
2011 Topps Super Bowl - James Starks
2012 Leaf - Jacoby Harris
2008 Press Pass - Andre Woodson
2011 Topps - Ricky Williams
2011 Topps - Cedric Benson
2011 Topps - Willis McGahee
2011 Topps - TJ Ward

2011 Topps - Vince Wilfork - In the middle of the wall of 2011 Topps, here's 325 pounds (yeah, right!) of terror heading the way of an unfortunate Jet.
2011 Topps - Jason Snelling
2011 Topps - Brandon Meriweather
2011 Topps - Anquan Boldin
2011 Topps - DeSean Jackson

1974 Topps - Larry Stallings - I could actually see there was a 1974 card in this repack when I picked it up to look at the visible card on the back. I couldn't see who it was, but any nice vintage 70s card would have been a pleasant bonus as well.

2011 Score - Nnamdi Asomugha - And the visible card on the back.

Not too bad for a few bucks.

Finally! An Update post!

I purchased a pair of hanger boxes about a month ago, and still haven't posted anything from those. In the meantime, I've purchased two more of those and a hobby jumbo pack, meaning I've busted 5 Update items with lots of cards contained within. Maybe it is time to finally start showing these off. I'm not going to bother with showing the base, since those have already appeared umpteen times across other blogs. Just the notable inserts and parallels! I may have shown some of these off before, so if you've seen them, enjoy them again!

I can't find anything as to the odds the short prints fall at in the hanger boxes, but I pulled them in two of the four boxes. Both of them from Florida teams. While I can understand why they used a special photo on the Molina for the Molinas, I really don't see it so much with the Jarrod. Throwing a bat aside? OK. That just seems bland instead of SP worthy.

Sometimes trying to incorporate current team colours into new designs works from a "What if the Marlins were around in 1989" perspective. Based on this colour scheme, I'm glad they weren't.

The only Blue Jay insert in any of the packs/boxes was this one of Joey Bats. I suppose if you're only going to get one, Bautista is a good choice. Even though I got this one from a pack days after getting it in a trade.

A set released around the time of the postseason seems like a good place to use the "World Series Heroes" subset. I like that they've actually used the World Series logos from the appropriate year instead of a generic World Series logo.

Here are the golds. Cross referencing with $30 a Week's list, only the Frenchy (1460/2014) will qualify to be sent off to the serial insanity wantlist (probably in the mail next week).

Of the red parallels, the best was likely the Polanco rookie. Other than that, there's the only Mets parallel/insert I got with a DAniel Murphy, and I also got a Julio Teheran one, and that was the only parallel I got more than just one of, since he's also among the golds posted above.

The closest thing to a big money card was this George Springer parallel. Yippee. No hits aside from the short print parallel, but they really weren't expected.

And that's about it. I'm about 70 cards away from finishing the set, so I'll probably hit up just commons or sportlots or something to finish the set sometime soon.

Trade w/ Chavez Ravining

Time to recap another envelope that has shown up north of the border.

If base cards are your thing, this would definitely not have been a trade package for you. These were the only two that you'd consider to be base cards. And one is a short print. I really do like the photo choice for the regular Joey Bats - it hides the lack of licensing perfectly.

But it was with the parallels that things began to shine (pun not intended). Firstly, there's a purple parallel of Canadian James Paxton, followed by a single Met card and my first black mini parallel from last year's GQ set. The Blue Jays are next with Target parallels, then some gold (that Rajai Davis from last year was spectacular, although I wish they'd used his wall climb catch), and some more X-Fractory stuff.

I'm sure if I ever need to kill someone with a baseball card, this will be the one I use.

And more die cut, shiny fun from last year's Chrome. Perhaps not as lethal as the Joey Bats card, but still nice, and least it won't be as time consuming to put this into a penny sleeve. Although I did get that one on the first try, meaning that it is likely some other insane die-cut card I'm confusing that insane die-cut card with.

And last, but not least, an auto of Wilmer Flores. Last year, it seemed every Mets fan except me got their hands on some sort of Jeurys Familia auto except me. This year, it was Wilmer Flores. But, this takes care of that.

Thanks for the goodies, CR!