Suitable For Framing

And my 2/14 collection finally has a display item.

Best Binder Page

I was going to recap my second mini box of 2013 Select football today, but decided to do this instead. Why? I knew I wouldn't forget to finish up my blowout break, but I might forget to do this. So, here it is.

I took it literally, and am going to use the first page of my 2.14 binder as the best page, but there are 4 cards which probably would make it if not for various other considerations. My Jim Kelly auto /25 isn't stored in a binder, but inside a magnetic holder. The 1962 Parkhurst of Bernie Geoffrion is just a bit too tall for the binder, while my 1932 Film Fotos of John Barrymore and my 1949 Bowman of Red Garrett are too small to be in the binder.

So, that leaves these as the cards one would see when opening my binder:

And away we go.

Leading off, an auto of Viktor Kozlov. It seems like a strange choice, but Kozlov is one of three people in the collection that match up perfectly with both date and year. Received in trade.

This one is in the front solely for patch quality. How can you not love a card that comes with a hint of jaguar head? That sounded wrong, but some of my previous attempts at sentences were much worse. From COMC.

My Senators love comes through with this card. Ilya only played 11 games for the team, but I don't really care about such frivolous factoids like that when if comes to building this collection. Via trade.

There are three #1 draft picks in my 2/14 collection. Sadly, Jadeveon might be more Courtney Brown than Drew Bledsoe, but there's still plenty of time to fix that. A nice thick patch distracts from the jumbly auto. Via a group break where I was randomed Houston.

The only thing better than one multi-coloured patch is three. Via COMC.

One of my favourite cards in the collection. It is a dual relic, with Gaborik and Hejduk on the front and Hejduk on the back. Both are 2.14 babies, and that is the only connection between the two that I can find. It is like Upper Deck created a card that only I would chase. Ebay card.

A very red card in the lower left. This one adds my love for the artistry of the masks into the 2/14 collection. I'm not a Family Guy viewer, (neither is/was Mrazek, apparently) but I love the fact that the mask is from his days with the Grand Rapids Griffins, and his name is Petr. Group break card from when I bought the Red Wings slot.

I needed a basketball card in the front, and opted for this one for Candice Wiggins. I was going back and forth between this one and the glorious penmanship of Darius Songaila but went for this one so the distaff portion of my would make the front page. From COMC.

To wrap up the four sports in my collection, a nice combination of a card from a higher end set accompanied with an on-card autograph. Another card from COMC.

And there's the page.

Stacks of Wax Part 3: Enforcers!

I friggin' love this set.

Correction. I love the checklist for this set. Plenty of names without certified autographs - guys who will never get any love in a new Upper Deck set getting hits. And who wouldn't want autos of some of the crazier guys ever to play the game? Good crazy, mind you.

Such as these guys appearing on the base. Of the Bruins, only Terry O'Reilly has shown up on any recent cardboard. Despite spending 3.5 seasons in Boston, Jay Miller's only Bruins cards are after retiring. And is Stan Jonathan wearing a brillo pad on his head?

Anaheim does bring some more recent names to the plate, but such is the nature of the franchise. We also have our first deceased player of the break with the late Todd Ewen. Depression is a bastard.

These painted cards might be my favourite of the inserts. The style makes it easier to work around the lack of licensing. the Kordic here is not the late John Kordic, but his brother, Dan.

And yes, the Tale of the Tape cards do include the total PIM of the players among the stats. Why wouldn't they? BTW, Domi beat Ray 3515 to 3207.

Strangely, while I avoided dupes among the hits, all of these were already in my collection, except for the Bruins cards.

On to the hits.

Jay Miller makes his second appearance of the break, showing up as one half of the dual relic. This might be my first silver Kings relic, even if it is only half the swatch. I've already got a Kocur relic from this set, which he shared with Dave Manson. Miller put up over 1700 PIM over his career, and it is a step down from the 2100+ Manson accumulated.

And my second swatch. Bright red. Just like any Detroit Red Wings relic should be. Despite the last name, he definitely qualifies as an enforcer with 1674 minutes in the sin bin.

And the autographs. Gino Odjick was one of my favourite tough guys in the 90s, and I'm really happy to get an auto of his for my collection. I'm also happy to add the McIlhargey, if for no other reason than the photograph. He seriously looks like someone who has dumped at least one body in the Pacific. That and the flying V sweater makes it a sure keeper.

Counting the Penalty Minutes, Laracque (1126), Kyte (1342), McIlhagrey (1102), Odjick (2567) and Odgers (2364) combined for more than 8500 minutes worth of fun.

As I said. I friggin' love this set!

Stacks of Wax Part 3: 2 More Packs of Sterling

Let's move past the halfway point with Sterling and show off 2 more packs.

Base card #3. Cam's been up with the Angels for a couple seasons. He's a second generation player, being the son of Steve Bedrosian. Steve's nickname was Bedrock, so it makes sense that Cam's middle name is Rock.

More stickergraphs here. Strangely, the set includes both on-card autos and stickergraphs of Piscotty. He reached the big leagues this past season, and showed some promise, batting .305 with 7 HR, and added 3 more in the playoffs. Alen still isn't in the bigs, but climbed to AAA this past season. Baez has reached the bigs as well, but is a SO machine there. Unfortunately, he isn't a pitcher.

The lowest numbered card of the break was this base parallel to /25.

And some more sticker autos! Rosario hit the majors last year, and was respectable, batting /267 with 13 HR and 50 RBI. Beede is the top-ranked prospect in the Giants system. La Stella was with the Braves last season, but was traded to the Cubs in the off-season. 

And there's two more packs down. The big hit for me is still to come, though.

Stacks of Wax Part 3: A Select Mini Box!

Appropriate for the US Thanksgiving, some football cards from last season.

The 10 packs are split between 5 mini boxes, although one of the packs in the first box had only 4 cards. So, 49 cards total instead of 50. The box flap opens up at the right, giving a feel of a locker when busting the box.

Your mini box!

Here's the base from the 5 packs. They compromise the first 100 cards in the set, with the final 5 being retired players. As with the Sterling, you might be seeing some of those show up in future trade packages.

And the only parallel from the veteran portion. PACKERS! WOO! PACKERS WON THE SUPER BOWL!

It is Turkey Day, after all.

Only two base rookies among the 5 packs.

But two shiny parallels instead of base rookies. Justin Gilbert is the Prizm variation and the Storm Johnson is the red /99 version. This was the lowest numbered card in this mini box. And it is of a guy named Storm. I guess his parents thought they were naming a future American Gladiators.

The only non-hit insert. If Rivers had won NFL MVP, I could have redeemed this card for a Blue Prizm set. He didn't.

Hit #1:

Yay! Of course, this was just after I turned in some rewards points for some new Raptors cards.

And the other. Upside: He's still active. Downside: He's had just over 100 yards receiving over the past season and a half.

Halfway through. Fortunately for me, the second mini-box was better than the first one.

At this rate, I've got 1 Select Mini Box, 4 Sterling packs and a box of 2011 Enforcers to go, but, I might take a short break tomorrow for a repack.

Stacks of Wax Part 3: 2 Packs of Sterling

This might be the most I've ever spent for a box of cards, but since I was doing it with credit, I figured I might as well splurge. I was debating between this and a box of America's Pastime, but went for this since I was more likely to end up with a 'good' auto or two from this, and I was more likely to find some trade bait for the various team collectors. So, if I regularly trade with you, and you're a team collector, you might see something that will be sent your way in one of these Sterling posts.

6 packs per box, equals 2 packs over 3 posts. Let's go!

The first card in the pack is either a base card, a parallel thereof, or a Bowman is Back insert. My first card was a parallel thereof, with a /199 refractor of Luis Sardinas. I pulled a Sardinas auto (redemption) from a Heritage update set on my last blowout order, so he keeps following me.

Here are the first 3 autos. CJ Edwards made his big league debut around the time of this past season's roster expansion. Peraza also made his debut this past season, making a handful appearances with the Dodgers after a trade. The Ventura is a rookie auto, as opposed to the prospect auto on the other two cards. Going 3 for 3 in the first pack for players that have already appeared in the majors is a good start.

I always enjoy getting cards of those players that have defected from Cuba, so an Alex Guerrero is a nice start to this pack. 

Here's my first on-card auto of the break. Michael Kopech is still in A ball after being drafted in 2014. He also earned himself a 50 game special last season. Alcantara seems to be a career minor leaguer, never going above AA ball since his debut in 2010. Interesting variation on the auto though by adding the final A in his name. The last one is the only redemption I pulled, but I have no complaints about getting a Conforto. I already have one from a previous group break, so the eventual card will likely be COMC bound.

2 packs down. 4 to go. With tomorrow being a football day, I'll probably dig into one of the two mini boxes of Select. Until then!

Stacks of Wax Part 3: Getting crowned

Might as well get the worst of the boxes out of the way.

And this was it.

Here's the box topper. One per case comes autographed. I do like the textured feel and how the border colours match the team logo.

The base cards! I got a Raptors card. That's a plus. Despite the image being used twice on the front, the second image looks nice with the colour changing as it moves from the face to the jersey. The Cats stands our really nicely on the Gordon.

Unnumbered insert. The back describes how Blake (and Chris Paul) made the Clippers move from the "other team" in LA. I guess that's a Renaissance.

Two more inserts, albeit numbered ones. Jrue is /175. Love is /25

This is probably my favourite card of the break. Mainly for how the colours work with the blue on the Warriors jersey. The blue framed (and backgrounded) parallel is /75, and this, along with the DeRozan base is the only sure keeper for me.

And the hits:

A plain white relic. At least I know Cards on Cards will enjoy this once I get enough stuff together for a more significant envelope. I think this is the second card I've set aside for an Oregon mailing.

And the auto. Erik managed to play 21 more games in the NBA than me. At least it is on card, but it deviates from the Court Kings theme.  It is never a good thing when one has to google to find out who their hit was of. 

At least this was bought with COMC credit.

Tomorrow, some of the Sterling packs. Or one of the two Select mini boxes. Either way, there's no place to go but up from this.

Stacks of Wax 3: Dream Warriors

Time once again to turn my COMC into credit from blowout cards and pick up a few boxes. I'm not building any of the sets out now, so I went for a nice group of mid-range and hit-based products.

2014 Bowman Sterling baseball
2014 Select Football
2013 Court Kings Basketball
2011 ITG Enforcers Hockey

Stripes helped with the unpacking, despite being disappointed over yesterday's CFL result.

This should make for a good week's worth of posts.

2015 Adventures in Repacks: Part 46.4: Happiness is a New Repack Type

4 packs left, and no need to go in any randomizer this time around. Ordering these by year seems like the best option.

The first pack, as well as the second, were of products I'd never busted before. I'm really glad that die-cut design is of a tough, charging Buffalo as opposed to the slug logo. Jocelyn Thibault's paint job shows why it was good thing that the logo for Chicago is a profile and not from the front. There's some nightmare fuel for ya!

My 3rd card from the break of 2/14 baby Gaborik, and my only dupe for my 2/14 collection. That said, I really like how the shading on some of the cards matches up almost perfectly with the glass, especially on the Marleau.

And the two packs that were not new to me, or even new to this break, wrap it up. For my Victory card, I get someone who spent a few years in the league and has been in Finland the past few seasons. He does have an interesting variation on the initials only auto though. A couple mask binder cards are always nice, and there's also a really nice photo in the Doan. Normally, I'd be upset at the border hiding the puck, but this time it is still present, shaded just to the side of the 'yotes logo.

Not the strongest finish to the packs, but there are some great photo choices here, especially with the horizontal shots. The Foligno might be the best card ever that features the back of a player who is barely in the picture. The Tanner Glass is similarly spectacular, especially since he is better known for his fists than his scoring touch.

And there's another repack. I wouldn't hesitate to grab another one of these, especially since UD 2015-16 S1 is overpriced even at the retail level this year. I'd likely get more enjoyment from these for half the cost.