One Card Only: Just One Bill

But it is an interesting one.

Not only is this an autograph, but it is a kicker autograph. Plus, he held the record for the longest field goal in NFL history with a 63 yarder. And he kicked it without any toes on his kicking foot, and a special shoe.

So, in addition to being a new autograph for my Bills collection, this is just a really cool auto for my collection entirely.

There you have it!

Bills! Bills! Bills!

Off to the mailbag again, and some goodies from group breaks. Since the Bills really didn't have a marquee pick in this year's draft, they are a far more reasonable option in group breaks. So, I can really add to a team collection through some base heavy products. I've already done some Score, so here's some stuff out of newer releases Legacy and Luminance.

Legacy dropped first, so here's the cards from that. No real complaints about this grouping. The Bills are definitely over represented among the rookies though, as the base portion for rookies in this is only 60 cards worth.

Shady earns a chrome parallel in the set.

And defensive standout gets a numbered parallel as he enters his second season in the league.

Ed Oliver should be the rookie standout on the defensive side of the ball this year, going 10th overall to the Bills. This is the second year I've been more interested in how the top defensive pick of the team develops versus the offensive types.

One last parallel, with it almost being a Bills blue parallel. Perhaps closer to the Bledsoe years' uniforms than the Reed.

One Bills card for the Bills collection, and a new Jim Kelly for the 2/14 binders.

Only one hit for the Bills in this, but it is a nice auto/relic of the undrafted QB who won't have to memorize a new area code if he makes the team.

The Luminance base set is a little more compact, but it still adds some cards to the collection. We're getting closer to seeing them in their new uniforms as we see their drafting teams on the cards now.

Numbered parallels? Of course!

I guess it is a Tremaine Edmunds orange parallel hot post, as here's his second one. That's assuming this is an orange parallel and not bronze or something similar. So close to being a 12/25 parallel as a Christmas card (tm Baseball Card Breakdown).

And two more autographs! Have I mentioned that I'm getting giddy for Ed Oliver's debut. Because I am.

There you have it!

Mack Attack

I was planning to show the Bills cards from recent group breaks today, but instead I'm going to show cards from a Cleveland Browns break instead. Much like with the Jags and Tanner Lee last year, I'm picking up the Browns to chase rookie cards and autos of the newest football 2/14 guy - Mack Wilson.

And here's his base card from Legacy. Simple, with the usual early season look of him sporting his college uniform.

And here he is in parallel form, with the yellow parallel.

And finally, my first autograph of the newcomer to the collection. I can't begin to parse it, and he won't qualify for the penmanship binder. But, this is still a nice little hit for the collection, and moves his total to 5 cards, before he's even played a single game.

And for some non 2/14 goodness, here's a card that will nicely fit into my awesome (nick)name collection with Greedy Williams.

And if low-numbered cards of legends are more your thing, here's Ozzie Newsome /25. I really like that this portion of the set actually features two different photos of the player, which seems rare for new(er) releases.

There you have it!

The Unusual Suspects

When I do football updates to my 2/14 collection, there's a familiar group of players that show up. Among former players, Jim Kelly and Steve McNair show up often. Current players certain to appear are Alshon Jeffery and Jadeveon Clowney.

My most recent COMC shipment included none of these guys. In fact, with these additions, only two of the players are even at double digits in the collection.

George Hegamin's portion of the collection doubled with this addition of his second card. I think this is also my first WLAF card in the collection. Either way, the Frankfurt Galaxy jersey definitely makes this far more interesting than his Dallas Cowboys card.

Also doubling up is Mike Raines, hitting 2 cards with this historical entry from a Crimson Tide set. The first card was a jumbo entry from an early 80s CFL release, so it is nice to have a normal-sized one.

Derrick Witherspoon reaches 3 cards with this rather busy entry. The border of the card is textured like a football (appropriately), while the background photo is refractory.

Another player who had their count double was Tim Toone. While I do note I have 3 #1 NFL draft picks in the collection, I do also note that I have a former Mr. Irrelevant in Toone. Both these cards are numbered, with the Absolute being /299, and the Epix being /100.

Willie Ponder was the only player to more than double his count in the binder, jumping from 2 to 5 with this threesome.

With 11 cards after this one for added, Roy Barker was the only one in double digits before this mailer arrived.

And moving into a tie with Roy Barker at 11 cards total in the collection is Larry Seiple. That UK is my only card of him where he's listed as a running back, as all his NFL issues have him as a punter or a tight end.

And there you have it!

Not Exactly Authentic

I haven't picked up much in terms of SP Authentic over the years. Maybe a sample card here or there, or something in a repack, but I really don't have the desire to drown in dummy cards while chasing a couple autos. So, this retail variation is more my speed.

First card out of the 3 packs was this Roberto Luongo.

When compared alongside the design of the regular SPA, the only difference here is the logo on the top.

All 3 of the packs contained a base rookie as well, with them comprising the final 40 cards in the 140 card base set. I guess they're slightly SPd in the overall print run, but still not severe enough to annoy someone trying to set build.

The most common SPA base variations are red, while here they are blue. They do appear less loud than the hubby versions, although I may be judging thatbased on how well this works with the Leafs uniform.

Pack 2's only card of note was another Authentics rookie.

But Pack #3 did land me a Sens card, the only one in the break.

And a very sharp base card of Guy LaFleur in Nordiques colours. Any appearances of the classic Quebec blue is a certain keeper.

A second blue parallel. It doesn't work as nicely with the Preds colours as opposed to the Leafs colours.

The third rookie of the packs. No huge names overall in this grouping, but when the outlay is less than you'd pay for 2 packs of the hobby, you're not going to be as upset with the results. And you'll enjoy cards like the LaFleur more.

There you have it!

In Which I (sorta) Build My Own Repack - Part 3

I'm not going to be showing off all 80 cards in the mailer, but will still show a few more highlights from the mailer. And I still have a whole bunch more 2/14 stuff to show off from my latest COMC mailer as well.

My favourite photo of the remaining cards was this one of Milan Hejduk, just casually waiting on the bench for the next line change. So simple, but it really isn't one that you see a lot of in releases nowadays.

Honourable mention to this very patriotic entry for Tom Pyatt.

One of my least favourite designs along with one of my favourites can be seen among the Calle Johanssons in the mailer. If you didn't look at the foil on the 1994s just right, you couldn't tell which player was on the card. The back wouldn't have it listed either. Ah Vintage, with its simplicity. I guess the closest we'll come to that today is the retro parallels in OPC.

Shiny!

Also shiny!

Not as shiny, but still sorta shiny.

Bernie Geoffrion is probably the most under-represented member of my collection. He's a Hall of Famer, but I only have a dozen of his cards in my collection. The problem is that most of his cards are either expensive vintage, or from recent high-end sets. But, here's a couple I was able to add for under 50 cents each.

French Lesson #1.

French Lesson #2. Surprisingly, I don't have the more common English version of this Lowry in the collection.

And your last card, before I send everything to the binder, is this Viktor Kozlov. This is the closest I'd come to a 'hit' in this repack, getting this super limited edition (to 40K) of one of the perfect matches (year as well as date) in the 2/14 collection.

I should probably do this again, although getting to 80 in basketball would be a challenge unless I wanted a repack that was 90% Rip Hamilton cards. Football and baseball are probably do-able.

But there you have it!

In Which I (sorta) Build My Own Repack - Part 2

Another day, another trip into the 80 cards from sportlots.

The theme to start this post is "If these end up as dupes, they'll still find good homes". If this shiny Eric Nystrom wasn't a need, I'd be including it in a future mailer to Ann Arbor.

And these Boris Valabiks would stay here in Kitchener, in my Kitchener Rangers alum collection. I'm genuinely surprised I didn't already have that card of him out of H&P in either of the two mini-collections.

Some Sens.

And some more. 3 of the 4 of these are parallels, with only the BAP being a base card.

Sean Hill was the big winner in the whole package, in terms of volume, with 13 total cards for the collection. That bumps him up to 30 in total. I do like the variety of teams seen here, with 6 different franchises among all the cards. I really like the Blues one, since there really weren't too many cards of him in St. Louis.

Since there were 9 Sean Hills, I wondered if there were any other 9 cards groups left in the pile. And there were some Petr Svobodas that total 9. The oddest of these balls is the one in the lower right, which looks like a Score base release, but it is from a team set for the Flyers.

And there you have it! I'm more than halfway through this custom repack. More to come!