Having a Blaster

With Heritage dropping today, it does seem like the ideal time to bust what will likely be my last sampling of Series 1, and this blaster of it. With mailers starting to show up, I probably should clear out some of the 'to be posted' stuff.

First base card? A Yankee. Perfect.

The only parallel? Ditto!

But at least I landed one Jays card. One tiny, measly little Jays card. One blaster and some hobby packs has landed me 1 card of a Toronto Blue Jay. Such is the luck

But at least I landed 4 new Mets cards.

Best photo of the pack easily goes to Eric Hosmer channeling his inner Hulkster.

Mets love continued with the inserts, and Tom Seaver making an appearance among the 'Salute' cards.

Some 83s.

And the manufactured patch card. At least one of the Cubbies fans I regularly trade with will find this in their mailbox at some point.

And there you have it. I guess I'd call this an average blaster. Nothing major, but nothing blah either.

One Card Only: Bronze Medal Mojo

And a sweet patch for my Kitchener Rangers alumni binder. Obviously the lower half of one of the shoulder '1's, added to the card upside down for some reason.

Perhaps Acme produced this card?

COMC Fresh Raptors

Another day, another bunch of cards from my COMC to-be-posted box.

This insert from Grand Reserve was the card I was most excited to welcome into my collection. It might not be obvious from the front of the card, but when you flip it over...

It's more obvious on the back of the card. Demar is rocking the Toronto Huskies throwback uniforms. Surprisingly, given Panini's tendency to add alternate uniform photos in their sets, this seems to be the only appearance of the Huskies look.

One throwback uniform deserves another.

Just a cheap card I saw that I liked the look of.

And yes, this is a Raptors card. For an undrafted player last season, he's been a very pleasant surprise. He actually does not appear to, after a season and a half, received a non-autoed card where he's pictured as a Raptor. A dual card Wichita State card with Ron Baker is the only card period he has without a sticker auto attached. This actually makes his autos priced more than you'd expect for an undrafted back-up.

And there you have some new Raptors.

2018 Adventures in Repacks - Part 9.2 - Spring Training Repack!

And the other side!

2012 Bowman Chrome - Jon Niese - A visible Mets card makes it a certainty that I'll buy that repack.

1992 UD - Tim Wallach - Expos content!
2000 Bowman - JJ Davis
1988 Topps - Mariners Leaders

1987 Topps Update - Dave Schmidt - Update mojo!

1981 Topps - Bill Robinson - Someone's sleepy! Or baked.
1988 Topps - Dave Schmidt
1994 Donruss - Greg Hibbard
1991 Topps - Vicente Palacios
1988 Topps - Willie Randolph
1988 Topps - Mike LaCoss
1987 Topps - Pete Ladd
1991 Topps - Chuck Finley
1988 Topps - Dave Stewart

2008 Goudey - Wladimir Balentien - If I come across a set that I really don't see much of in repacks, I'm very likely to scan it.
2010 Bowman - David Holmberg

2000 Ionix - Matt Williams - This is likely even rarer than the Goudey in repackland.
1988 Topps - Greg Minton
1987 Topps - Tommy Lasorda
1991 Score - Steve Olin
1987 Topps - Carmelo Martinez

1989 Score - Nolan Ryan - Gotta scan a Nolan!
1988 Fleer - Dave Conception
1989 Topps - Lou Whitaker

1989 Fleer - Randy Myers - Mets content!
2007 UD - Jeremy Affeldt
2009 UD - Akinori Iwamura

2009 Bowman - Fernando Martinez - More Mets conent!
1989 Topps - John Wathan
1987 Topps - Jorge Orta

1987 Topps - Dave Dravecky - A 2/14 binder dupe, but still a 2/14 card to highlight.
1990 Topps - Joe Magrane
1988 Topps - Cory Snyder
1990 Score - Chris Sabo
1988 Donruss - Melido Perez

1989 Fleer - Mookie Wilson - The final Mets card, and it is a Mookie!
1992 UD - Eric Davis
1986 Topps - Bruce Bochy
1989 Topps - Larry Parrish

2012 Finest - Ryan Zimmerman - And your final card - again not a set you really see in these repacks.

And there you go! Bring on games that count!

2018 Adventures in Repacks - Part 9.1 - Spring Training Repack!

Spring-training games start today for the Mets and Jays. So, I'll prepare for that with a 80 for $3 repack.

2012 Topps - Travis Wood - Off and running.
1996 Choice - Curt Schilling
1988 Topps - Sam Horn
1990 Topps - Mike Heath

1993 Leaf - Eric Anthony - Must show the back of '93 Leaf!
1989 Topps - Willie McGee
1988 Topps - Larry Bowa
1988 Topps - Frank DiPino
1992 Classic Draft - Yuri Sanchez
1987 Topps - Mike Aldrete

1991 Topps - Steve Frey - Expos content!
1993 Donruss - Jose Offerman
2008 UD - Kyle Kendrick

1993 Classic Best - Don Sparks - It was a choice between this and the Sanchez for my favourite somewhat-oddball of this side. I opted for this since there was a team listed.

2004 Greats - Willie Stargell - Pops! Yellow uniform! Yes!
2008 Topps - Alfonso Soriano
1991 Score - Steve Olin
1987 Topps - Terry Forster
1988 Topps - Ron Guidry

1983 Topps - Steve Braun - With 1983 seeing love in this year's flagship release, let's look at an original!
1988 Fleer - Bill Pecota
1989 Topps - Jose DeLeon

1989 Fleer - Terry Puhl - Cancon!
1988 Donruss - Ken Oberkfell
2006 Topps - Dave Roberts

2007 UD - Aaron Miles - Turning two!
1990 Topps - Eric Plunk
1988 Topps - Dave Conception
1990 Score - Barry Larkin
1988 Topps - Rich Yett
1990 Score - Teddy Higuera

1991 Score - Jeromy Burnitz - Mets content!
1989 Topps - Scott Lusader
1986 Topps - Andy Hawkins
1992 UD - Eric Davis
1989 Fleer - Tom Filer
1992 UD - Joe Girardi
1993 Donruss - Jim Abbott

2011 Ginter - Kelly Johnson - And the last visible card is a Ginter base card.

And that's the first half. A couple interesting cards with the Braun and Miles, but the easy winner here is the Stargell. Great photo with a great design as well. Still pretty blah on the whole, though. I grabbed this pack because there was a Mets card visible on the other side. That will hopefully turn out better.

2018 Adventures in Repacks - Part 8 - Thursday Surprises

Thursday Surprises doesn't roll of the tongue like it would if I were posting these on Sunday, but any day is a good day for repacks.

Today's double Surprise Bag break starts off with these.

Nothing of note in the Pro Set pack, but since I should scan something, here's a donut-eating fat pig.

The 70s/80s pack was what was expected. 2 89s and and older card. 2/14 baby Svoboda did start this up, but it was a dupe.

The Rookie pack actually contained two rookies, featuring the two New York teams. The more interesting cards for me are the non-rookies, with a great low-angle photo for Tavares, and a Rangers alum with Scott Stevens. Amazingly, that PC card wasn't a dupe.

A couple keepers, but that was pretty bland. Will the second one improve this?

At least this one will have more volume.

Nothing much of note in the older of the Score packs, but since I should scan at least one card, at least there was a decent rookie card in the pack.

It's a Matt Donovan hot break!

While the 90s pack was, as expected, a junk wax fest, I do note that 5 of the 6 cards feature teams that aren't around in their then-pictured form. So at least there's that.

The 2000s pack saves this one. A forgotten Bruin in the Winnie the Pooh specials, and an OHL mask card makes this a keeper. Even the Hemsky is a base card from the lost 2004-05 season, so each of the three cards is at least interesting in a way.

Pretty blah foray into repack land today, but at least I got a few keepers out of the deal.

Check Out My Sens-Ational Cards!

I'll continue through my latest COMC mailing with my latest additions to my Senators binder(s).

Game-Dated Moments is to Upper Deck and the NHL as Topps Now is to hockey, with several differences.

A) They're available for about a week
B) You have to buy at least one actual e-pack to go with it (although the cheapest e-pack still makes it cheaper than Now)
C) Print-run isn't released
D) You can have the card shipped directly to COMC

Other than that, the same!

Since I can't imagine the dreadful Sens picking up a second card in this set, I'll have to be happy with just this.

And here's the reverse of these.

But there was more than just that one Sens card entering the binders. Here's a pair of Erik Karlssons. Both cheap thanks to epack stuff flooding COMC.

Compendium stuff is a bit pricier than some of the e-pack cards, but they're still reasonable enough to add these two. Phil Varone makes his collection debut on what (along w/ parallels) will likely be his only Senators card.

Buddy Robinson's only Ottawa card has him with 2/14 baby Ryan Johnston on his, and after paying way too much for the quad card from Showcase, I wasn't going to do it twice. So, a Binghamton Sens card will suffice.

And Alfie is always a great way to end a post!

There you have it!