Monday 31 August 2020

2020 Adventures in Repacks: Part 32.1 - Cubism

 


Time for another repack cube directly from the source. While in the past I'd break these down into 4 stacks worth of cards, I'm doing them as five this time since it seems perfect for a series of posts I'm starting on a Monday.

2012 Prestige - Mo Williams - Here's the starter and first visible card.
2001 Maximum - Michael Olowokandi

2018 Prizm - Jalen Brunson - Jalen was 2018's "Rookie, Right Team, Wrong Player" representative. A perfectly fine player, but not Luka.
1989 Hoops - Rick Mahorn
1993 UD - Popeye Jones - Popeye is now officially one of my "Fun player to pull a card of, no matter what release" players.
1992 Ultra - Tony Bennett
1994 Stadium Club - Tony Smith
1994 Choice - Tom Gugliotta
1990 Fleer - Alvin Robertson
2012 Hoops - Lionel Hollins
1996 Skybox - Walter McCarty
1990 Fleer - Rik Smits
1993 UD - Corey Williams
1994 Ultra - Michael Williams
1992 Topps - Gary Grant
1991 Fleer - Tree Rollins

2009 Press Pass Fusion Gold /50 - James Worthy - This will be the lowest numbered card in the cube. Nice that it is of a HOFer too.
1991 Skybox - Tony Brown

1999 Focus - Doug Christie
2009 Panini - Jarrett Jack - Back to back Raptors, and both were needs!
1993 Fleer - Scott Skiles
1998 Hoops - Michael Finley
1992 Ultra - Don McLean
1994 Choice - Vinny Del Negro
1993 UD - Bill Laimbeer - At his derpy photographic best!
1992 UD - Doug Overton
1993 Fleer - Jerome Kersey

2016 Complete Silver - Arron Afflalo - Another parallel, albeit unnumbered this time. 
2013 Prestige - Phil Pressey
2016 Prizm - Jose Calderon
2013 Pinnacle - Timofey Mozgov
1992 Stad. Club - Gerald Glass
1993 Topps - Mark Aguirre
1990 Skybox - Bill Wennington
2018 Hoops - Anthony Davis
1990 Fleer - Charles Shackleford
1991 Fleer - Xavier McDaniel
1992 Topps - Fat Lever
1993 Hoops - Fred Carter - How did I not already have this 2/14 card?  I had the 5th anniversary parallel, but not this. But I now have my 5th Fred Carter card.
1996 Hoops - Bob Hill
1995 Hoops - Muggsy Bogues - Bogues has been a part of that "always a fun pull" club for awhile.
1997 Fleer - Rex Chapman
1991 Fleer - John Paxson
2018 Hoops - Al Horford
1989 Hoops - Dan Majerle
1991 Hoops - Kevin Edwards
2009 Topps - Matt Harpring
2000 Heritage - Kendall Gill - Heritage really can't go back 49 years like baseball, so here's a '71 flashback.
2000 Legacy - Sean Elliott - Just a nice design for a base card.
2002 Topps - Tim Thomas
2006 UD - Earl Boykins
1999 Ultimate Victory - Antoine Walker
2003 Bazooka - Jerry Stackhouse
1993 Classic - Derek Chandler
1991 Skybox - Lionel Simmons
1991 Skybox - John Starks
1997 Finest - Brevin Knight - Do I dare to peel?
1993 Stad. Club - Shawn Bradley - Coming off the draft, this would have been a notable card at release.
1992 Skybox - Marlon Maxey
1990 Fleer - Glen Rice - 1 group down. 4 to go!






Sunday 30 August 2020

Still Can't Quit Ya!

 The only thing better than one box of RA is two of 'em!


A Rookie Selection that's still in the league! He has returned to Dallas after a short stint in Pittsburgh, both times being exchanged for a 4th rounder. The same fourth rounder. Yeah, that's a strange f'ing trade.


Here's a gold parallel that I actually needed. Not that I'm trying to build this parallel set. Nope. Not me!


It wouldn't be a break of RA without an appearance of the Score Signatures Colten Teubert card.

A fairly standard grouping of Prizm cards, but both rookies were needs for my "I swear! I'm not building the Update set set!"

Here's your Prizm autograph. Looks like Daniel didn't get the "ultra fine" memo. This version of the Prizms is the Prizm parallel to the regular autograph, and is /25.

Not really the most interesting pair of Select cards.

But there's some shininess here. He didn't get many cards over his 7-game NHL career, so this will probably be the brightest of the group.

I guess when I've busted as much as I have, I shouldn't be surprised when even the /99 inserts start turning into dupes.

Another dupe among the hits, but this one can be nicely shifted to the Rangers collection from the Master Collection. Or vice-versa. I doubt I could tell you where the first card is until I hit the binders.

I wrote yesterday that I got a big PC card from this, and here it is. If you remember when I landed the Kucherov, it is the jersey # versions are considered the true rookies, and generally fall one per case. So not only do I land one of a relevant player, but one of a Kitchener Rangers alum. I'd probably recover most of the cost of the boxes with this, but PC cards are nice, especially when you can pack pull a nice one!

Last pack mojo is real!


Saturday 29 August 2020

Oh, Rookie Anthology, I Can't Quit You

I may have put together the base set of this, but that doesn't mean I still can't bust a box of this now and then, right?

I won't break this box down by packs, but I'll just hit the highlights from the non-Score base cards. As I often did when I did case breaks, I'd either lead with the Rookie Selection, or a base /100 parallel. I got one of those in this box, so here it is!

I guess I technically did not get a base Rookie Selection in this, as instead I got this prime parallel. Unfortunately, it is a dupe from my overall collection. Despite Hartzell's career being limited to backup duty in the NHL, this is still a hit for the mask collection.

While I won't show the Score base cards, I'll show the parallels and autos. It is of a guy still in the league (Flyers), so that's always a bonus.

Even though they're all dupes, all of these Prizm cards will eventually find themselves a happy home. 

Shininess! And this wasn't a dupe!

Pretty bland pair of Select cards, no matter how much fun it is to say Nino's name.
Josh Leivo does seem to be a frequent appearer in this set, but since he's a Kitchener Rangers alum, even it was only a half-season, I don't care since his cards can also make their way to that collection along with my mega-RA collection. This shiny beauty is /99.

And if you want your Select /99 autos to have a relic with them, here you are! 

Let's wrap things up with some swatches, unaccompanied by ink. Here's a nice thick seam from Valeri Nichushkin.

But if variety in swatches is your thing, here's some! L-R, there's a patch, a fight strap, a seam and a jersey piece. While I would normally be putting this aside to send to Ann Arbor, I may just hold onto this as it is the only one of these Complete Rookies that I pack-pulled from this. Even /25, that seems odd for as much as I've busted. I did add a Sens one recently, but it is always nicer to open them yourself.

There you have it! And since I can't just bust one box, box #2 (of 2) is next I actually hit a really nice PC card in that post.

Friday 28 August 2020

2020 Adventures in Repacks: Part 31 - Fleas!

 It has been way, way too long since I had the opportunity to head to the St. Jacob's Flea Market for the necessities. Corn on the cob. Blackberry jam. Pork tails. And cards! I grabbed my usual $5 brick while there as well. These are a brick of about 55-ish recent cards, with a hit in the middle. This time, there were also football and baseball to go along with the hockey. While I did get one of the latter, I also got a baseball one.

I'm going to list the contents by year and product.

2012 Bowman Chrome - Shawn Marcum, Ian Kinsler - Not the most exciting way to start with this trip back to 2012, so I'll opt for this one over the Marcum because of the 'turning two' factor.

2016 Topps Holiday - Brandon Belt, Starling Marte, Jeremy Hellickson, Cole Hamels - I'll always enjoy card where the photo syncs nicely with the borders 

2017 Topps - Christian Yelich, Royals Team, Ken Griffey Jr - All-Time All-Stars - Gotta scan a Griffey card!

2017 Topps Chrome - Bruce Maxwell - And here's the hit. Bruce was the first MLBer to kneel during the anthem, and might also have been the first to point a gun at the head of someone delivering food to his home. He's now in the Mets system. Because of course.

2019 Topps - Robinson Cano, Matt Davidson, Albert Pujols, Robert Gsellman, Wilmer Difo, Matt Chapman, Josh Bell, Kolby Allard, Kohl Stewart, Christian Yelich, Cesar Hernandez, JD Martinez, Mookie Betts, Brad Boxberger, Kyle Schwarber, Jacob Nix, Joe Musgrove, Ray Black, Corbin Burnes - 2019 really brought the volume for this, with a bunch of base cards. I didn't bust too much of flagship last year (or this), so I like the Mets contnet, a throwback, a player taking the air, and some nice horizontal cards. I like Boxberger stretching beyond the border.
2019 Heritage High - Justus Sheffield, Francisco Liriano, Skye Bolt - Might as well highlight the guy here who probably hears "Very funny. What is your real name." daily.
2019 Platinum - Javier Baez, Derrick Rodriguez - I busted no platinum at all last year, so I'm just gonna highlight both the shiny cards.

2020 Big League - Clayton Kershaw, Jack Flaherty, Curtis Granderson, Ryan McMahon, Yusei Kikushi, Max Fried - I'm highlighting the back of the card this time, because I don't think I have any cards that mention the Marvin Miller award. A nice farewell card for Cranderson.
2020 Topps - Yandy Diaz, Brett Gardner, James Marvel, Lou Trivino, Danny Duffy, Sam Tuivailala, Rowan Wick, Michael Taylor, Victor Robles, Elvis Andrus, Tony Wolters, Avisail Garcia, Jose Trevino, Tom Murphy, Stephen Strasburg, Willi Castro, Kevin Gausman, Spencer Turnbull, Aaron Judge, Brock Burke, Chris Shaw, Brewers Team, Brian Goodwin
2020 Topps Inserts - Decades - Felix Hernandez, Turkey Red - Chipper Jones

Lots of 2020 too, but the photos weren't as interesting here. So, you get the inserts and another throwback uniform.

And here's some Prizm to end this. The Stanton is a 'white wave' parallel, with Merrifield being a red, white and blue. Joe Palumbo was one of the visible cards, so I'm scanning that as well to make up for the fact I didn't scan the other,  which was the '17 Royals team card.

There you have it! I'll cover the hockey at some point in the near future.

Thursday 27 August 2020

COMC and the 2/14 binder

Back to back posts with nothing but 2/14 content contained within!


As with the PWE barrage from yesterday, there was only one basketball card in the mix. But this does add another relic into the hits portion of the collection. I still want a mask relic.

Here's a first for my collection - my first Operation Desert Shield card! As for the other one...

The bi-lingual greatness of O-Pee-Chee!

The big winner here for baseball was Scott Scudder, who has jumped to 51 total cards with these 4. The 1990 Topps is also an OPC version, bringing twice the French-ness into this group. The UD card is the gold hologram parallel as well. 


My first autograph of Ryan McKenna, a Sky Blue parallel, and a Bowman Heritage Chrome card help push him into the double digits. He was placed on the 40 man roster in the previous off-season, but is still in the minors, such as they are this season.

I have three Garrett Fugate cards in my collection - all autographs. He does have base cards in this Sage release. 
 
Settle down, Beavis.

Start with a hit from a player with red, white and black uniforms. Let's end with the same. Chronology did have a really deep checklist of random retired players and I was pleased to see Sean Hill on the list. I grabbed the 'canes spot in a couple group breaks. While that did allow me to get some Whalers content to send to Shane @ Shoebox Legends, I didn't land a Sean Hill until getting it from COMC.

And there you have it!