Friday 31 July 2020

2020 Adventures in Repacks: Part 28.3 - Surprises From The Source

Wrapping this 3 day repack adventure up with football.
While I do generally post all the content in these, I'm only gonna hit my highlights from the Score pack. All the repacks within the repacks will be shown in their entirety.
And what an amazing photo to start with in the Score pack.
But this one is pretty good too, since you cam just see the glee on Anthony Bell's face as he is set to wrap up the ball carrier.
One last card from the then-NFC East. Dave's going to have a pretty consistent address for the next 14 years or so if you want to try for a TTM autograph, and that's assuming he's allowed to use writing utensils where he is.
The only rookie card in the pack was someone with a far more famous brother.
The 90s pack starts with a nice look at the Packers throwbacks from the 1994 season. Alas, they didn't win the Super Bowl that year, so I can't bring out the Giant Spider Invasion videos.
Shininess, from the abrasive to the subtle. The Brad Daluiso in the middle is a Special Effects parallel.
Here's the remainder of the 90s pack. I never thought I'd ever have the chance to showcase two Dan McGwire cards in one post, but there it is. The horizontal card portion of this was really strong, with a great photo of Ted Johnson trying to break through the line, complete with blood on the leg of his uniform.
Not that bad of a grouping in the 2000s in terms of players, and the cards themselves. One can contrast the more modern Chrome cards with the retro look of the Mayo.
Superstar pack? Yes, these three certainly count.

A very solid repack with big names, interesting photos, and sets you really don't expect to see in repacks. My favourites were probably the Bell, the Daluiso and the Sharpe, a surprising sweep for the early 90s.

There you have it!

Thursday 30 July 2020

2020 Adventures in Repacks: Part 28.2 - Surprises From The Source

Basketball this time.
Here's your contents. Will I get top loader worthy cards? Either way, they could also be useful if I can hit shows and send out other packages again. As before, clockwise from the top left.
That is a sweet Kobe photograph to start this off. It seems so out of control, but it likely isn't. The Amare Stoudamire comes from Hoops Hot Prospects. And a Celtics card from the pre-Raptors years. Not bad at all.
The 90s pack starts with an always welcome appearance of Muggsy Bogues.
Yup. That's an extremely 90s card.
Both a Negele Knight and a Scott Brooks hot pack.

And the rest. Pretty blah on the whole aside from Bogues and Hill.
But the 80s (I highly doubted there'd be 70s content) was really good. Much like with Bogues, any Manute Bol appearance is a nice get. I like the comparable free throw photos on the two free throw photos. The layout on the Perkins card makes it look like he's about to dunk the Mavs logo, and the Williams photo taken from the opposite end of the court from the action is pretty unique.
In comparison, here's the 2010 cards. While I like the ticket motif with the Contenders, as always, these really don't have the personality of the 1989s. Maybe if there was one interesting photo in the bunch.

But there you have it! Unlike the hockey, no hits, but some nice keepers with the 89s and the Bryant.

This short run of surprises with end next post with football.

Wednesday 29 July 2020

2020 Adventures in Repacks: Part 28.1 - Surprises From The Source

There's never a bad time to order a bunch of repacks and have them sent your way. These Surprise bags are different from the Dollarama ones in more than appearance. They have 5 items inside, and there tend to me more items in each.
These were the contents. I'll go through these clockwise from the upper left.
There was an error on the label. I have no idea if this was intentional or not, but I did get this octet of Flames. Surprisingly for repacks, that was the only 1990 Bowman in the repack. The Dawes is a Victory Update insert from 2009 Series 2.
Your rookies from that pack. The Dollarama rookie packs contain 4 cards, but only 1 rookie in each. Here, the easy winner is the Parkhurst of former tough guy Darren Langdon. Check out his minor league penalty totals! Almost 550 minutes in 92-93 between the ECHL and AHL.
y.

The memorabilia card was that of a future Senator, so that's a nice consolation for there being none in the repack as a whole.
That's a nice mix in the Premium pack, with a second hit appearing. I'm not sure that Andersen is a Superstar quite yet, but O'Reilly's cup win got him there. Can't complain about any appearance of Crosby or Gretzky.
A Kitchener Rangers alum starts off the 90's pack.
Brad Dalgarno taking to the air is my favourite photo in the bunch.
5 HOFers also highlight the pack. LaFontaine brings the 90s gaudiness.
And the rest of 'em!
But you do still have an interesting card, with this being one of the first Colorado Avalanche cards. They may not have the logo with this design, but they do have the team colours down.

There you have it! Basketball will be next.

Monday 27 July 2020

Bills! Bills! Bills!

Back to the group break mailers, and a pair that showed up that added some new names to the team PC, even if some of them have yet to don Bills attire.
First up is a bunch of stuff from Chronicles Draft, which brings a bunch of designs into a collegiate product. Davis was a 4th rounder out of UCF, and while he only got one card here, he is a Rookie Premiere guy, so there should be more to come.
I'm doing the base cards, such as they are, in terms of increasing volume. Here's two from Zack Moss, a third rounder, and another rookie premiere guy who will be providing me with player-worn swatches as the year goes on.
We finally get a look at what the base cards really look like. This is definitely the most newspaper-ish for a Chronicles card so far.
Of course, a QB would lead the way in terms of base/insert/parallel/whatever cards. You'd expect nothing less from such an elite white person.
My first numbered card adds a purple parallel to my collection. And yes, all these collegiate cards go right into the Bills binders. Why wouldn't they?
The Silhouettes are always welcome additions to the ol' binder. They might work better with just a plain swatch, and no chance of any portion of a patch hiding behind the player.
And holy sweetness is that a nice patch to end the Chronicles portion of the mail. The research to discover its source wasn't too hard, as it traces to the 2018 Holiday Bowl. Alas, this has to be player worn as Moss didn't appear in the game due to injuries.
Here's some Luminance, which does have some of my favourite base card designs. And we finally see Bills unifoms, and the draft picks are now listed with their new team. That Tremaine Edmunds comes as close as one can to one of my favourite football themes, a defensive player with the ball. So, I have to vote Josh Allen's stretch, along with Jon Feliciano celebrating in the background.
Of course, there's a variety of numbered parallels as well.
The Legends make an appearance as part of the 'Vintage Performers' subset. I like how the filter gives this card a slightly older appearance than the regular base cards.
Yes. The Zack Moss portion of my PC got really good after this mailer. Iffy sig, but at least the 'Z' looks nice, which it should for any player with a capital 'Z' in their name.

There you have it!

Sunday 26 July 2020

2020 Adventures in Repacks: Part 27.2 - Another Hanger

2014 UD - Thomas Hickey - An interesting photo is always a good start, and here's one from an outdoor game.
2015 UD - Barret Jackman
2015 UD - Mike Fisher
1990 Score - Al MacInnis - Rangers alum.
1993 Premier - Dave Tippett
1995 Select - Trevor Linden - Somewhat of a higher end set for the time to find in one of these. Not even peeled yet.
1990 Topps - John Ogrodnick
1990 Pro Set - Murray Craven
1990 Topps - Ron Francis
1990 Topps - Paul MacDermid
1990 Pro Set - Bill Ranford
1990 OPC - Joe Nieuwendyk
1995 Parkhurst - Jason Doig
1991 7IS - Darren McCarty - One of the more familiar faces to come out of these 7IS cards, featuring the future Wings tough guy.
1991 7IS - Mark DeSantis
1991 7IS - Dale Junkin
1990 Score - Tom Fergus
1991 Bowman - Brad Shaw
1994 Score Gold Line - Dominik Hasek - Not only was this parallel unexpected, but having it be a major name and with a beautiful photograph makes it the best card in the repack, even with some PC hits. Nice cameo from Bure as well.
1991 UD - Kevin Hatcher
1990 Bowman - Trevor Linden
\2001 OPC - Jose Theodore - If not for the Hasek, this would be my favourite in-game photo in the repack.
2006 Ultra - Simon Gagne
2007 Be A Player - Paul Ranger
1990 Pro Set - Charlie Huddy
1990 Topps - Steve Larmer
1990 UD - Kirk Muller
1991 Pro Set - Bruce Driver
1992 UD - Anatoli Semenov CL
1990 Bowman - Marc Fortier
1990 Bowman - Steve Kasper
1990 Bowman - Dave McLlwain
1991 Platinum - Garth Butcher
1993 Premier - Patrik Carnback
1993 Leaf - Gary Roberts - Still scanning all of  these backs.
1990 Topps - Ray Bourque
1992 UD - Yanick Dupre
1990 Score - Wendell Young - 3 1990 Scores in this side, 2 of which are Rangers alum. As I often point out when posting his cards, Young is the only player to win championships in the CHL, AHL, IHL and NHL.
2015 UD - John Klingberg
2016 UD - Braden Holtby

2018 UD - Danny DeKeyser - And that's it.

Didn't quite have the volume of interesting cards (to me) that the first did, but this was definitely a quality over quantitiy portion with the McCarty, Linden and Hasek.