Mailbag

 The first of several incoming envelopes gets recapped today, with a trio of PWEs from Kerry from Cards on Card being the opener.

Even though this isn't a licensed card, that's definitely a Raptors jersey on the card. Even if it was a more non-descript jersey, I'd still call it a Raptors card. Any opportunity to add some Vince Carter to the binder must be taken.

Here's a couple more obvious Raptors cards. Looks like it is Pascal's team now!

This isn't a Heritage, but a '52 Redux. I've bought a grand total of zero Heritage this year, so even some faux-Heritage is welcome. 

There was a really nice mix of Jays stuff in the rest of the envelopes. The Best rookie of Halladay is the book value winner, but some new Delgado stuff is nice, and that Orlando Hudson which features a pretty nice view of the stadium in Oakland towering in the background is really unique, and might be my favourite of that content solely based on the photo.

Stickers!

The Mets portion brought my first actual '21 Heritage into the collection. Still, Heroes might win this battle as well with the Nolan Ryan and photo perfectly framed by the design.

There was an auto as well! Who could forget Jed's 9 games with the Mets? I'm not sure what is the record for the fewest games with a team and getting an on-card auto of them (not counting rookies and prospects), but this has to be a contender. And the concept of this being in my collection...

is f'n amazing! Obscurity rules! 

Thanks for the goodies, Kerry! 

2021 Adventures in Repacks Part 36 - Inflation

 

It happens to everything - it might as well hit repacks next. Price goes up - volume goes down. But are the cards any more interesting? Like I would be able to resist the urge to sample at least one.

As usual, I just grab the top pack. If I was looking for 'more interesting', maybe I should not grab the pack with MVP on the top.

At least the 1990 Bowman content was an insert. The Carter Ashton card comes from a promotional release (the precursor to Overtime), and there was a linesman card. I guess that definitely counts as interesting.

Two 1990 Bowman inserts! Lucky me! Fortunately, that Bill Durnan base card from Between the Pipes is a pretty great pull. He only played 7 seasons in the NHL, but earned the Vezina in 6 of them, and is a Hall of Famer. 

And a pretty generic base card on the back.

The Durnan and the Ashton kept this from being a complete blah of a repack.

Fortunately, the Surprise Bags remain the same price.

A great start here with the HOF pack, and the HOFer being a new card for my Kitchener Rangers alum collection. It is probably still too early to call it, but I wouldn't be too surprised if Nathan makes this a 2 for 4 repack in the distant future.

All 80s with two 1989s seems to be the normal for one of those 70/80s packs, but at least the outlier does feature my fave Blues jersey design.

Much as I liked getting a new Scott Stevens for my Rangers alumni collection, that wasn't my fave portion of the repack. That nod goes to the Swedish Collector's Choice pack. While I do like adding the oddness of these Euro-jerseys to my collection (Malmo Redhawks!), one of these cards is a special pull.

Marko Jantunen is a 2/14 baby! He's probably near the top of the list of people who I would never imagine pack-pulling a card of. But here he is - my third card of his. He never got any NHL cards, in spite of that cup of coffee with the Flames, so all I can add is Swedish themed cards. His 3rd appearance is easily the best card for me in this post.

And the 6-card misc pack ends it. A reasonable mix of older stuff and recent stuff. The Bruce Driver is a mess of a photo with the foreground player distracting from the actual player, but then you look carefully, and realize they're both sporting #23 (Greg Paslawski) to make things far more interesting in the photo. 

2 new PC cards? The Surprise Bag easily wins this battle of repacks!

How Did I Not Already Have This?

 

I super-collect Bruce Smith, my fave Buffalo Bills alum, and when going through my Bills PC to add the cards to my tcdb collection, realized I didn't have his RC.

Fixed that oversight promptly!

The Pillars of my 2/14 Collection

 Once again, the 2/14 collection gets a new face.

And it is on its way into the hockey portion thereof, with a 2019 CHL card of Josh Pillar of the Kamloops Blazers. Josh was a 4th round pick of the Minnesota Wild in this past NHL draft, and he'll hope to join Marian Gaborik and Eric Nystrom among the list of Wild alums in the collection. Born in 2002, he matches Mac Guscette and Cameron Tolnai as the youngest members of the collection, although a golf-friendly fourth will be joining them shortly. 

And why not combine his first card with a printing plate from the same set? 

There you have it!

2021 Adventures in Repacks Part 35 - My Repack Has Fleas

Back to the flea market! And one of the repacks I get there. They're a brick worth of cards, mostly recent ones from mid-range sets, with a hit in the middle. All for $5!

I don't really go through the small stack of bricks, I just grab whichever one was on top. On top here was an insert set from a Canadian Tire exclusive release. Not quite a '93 Leaf vibe, but I guess the scenery is suitable for a Canada-themed insert.

And your first bunch. That Toews is a parallel out of 2018 ice. Steve Mason may only have played a partial season with the Rangers, but he still counts towards that alum binder. 

A little more Platinum here. The Getzlaf was a SP from the most recent OPC release. We then get some Leafs centennial cards. Even if it is a Leafs card, I won't complain about an Auston Mathews appearance. The Kirby Dach might be one of my favourite base card photos from the flagship release this year.

Here's the insert portion of the repack, with a pair of the always dull portraits cards from this year, and a Shooting Stars from 19-20. The left-wingers portion of the Shooting Stars set must not have been availale on e-packs, since there aren't hundreds of them at COMC. Gretzky appearance!

And your hit. At least it is game event dated.

Pretty Artifacts intensive as we move on. The 2013 design, as seen on the Wheeler et al., with its old book cover look, has aged quite nicely. 

While any of the Trilogy (and Fleer Showcase) releases that overused the gold backgrounds, really has not. 

There's some really good star power to start this one off with Ovie and Auston. I haven't bought much (any) Parkhurst this year, so I won't complain about adding any of these. I will complain  thatthe font used for the player name is smaller than the one used with the set name. At least with the Griess,  there's a full bleed photo to go with the tiny font and not a large frame.

More of the Parkhurst (but there's a new Landeskog for the Rangers alum collection), and then we get some Ice to end the portion of the hidden cards, highlighted by that Kopitar sporting the silver alternates. 

Start with a Subban - end with a Subban! Perfect repack Synchronicity! 

There you have it!

Colours

This is just one of those cards you see when going through relic cards at COMC that doesn't really hit a PC at all, but you just can't resist picking up a 4-colour swatch for $1.50. That's all. 

A Suitable Pose

 

If you want to look like a serial killer on your baseball card, that is.

She'll Send Them Cheesy Movies!

The worst she can find!

While it might not be one of the official MST3K autographs from the RRParks releases, this still counts as part of my MST3K auto collection, and is my first autograph from one of the Mads. Does Kinga count as a mad? She's probably the sanest Forrester, but continuing on her father's concept probably does make her mad enough to count. This joins my Joel, Jim and Bill autos from the official releases.

Let's throw in an auto of one of the stars of two of those cheesy movies Kinga sent to Jonah and the bots. While this is a James Bond auto, probably a little cheaper than expected courtesy of epacks, she can be seen in a pair of Season 11 episodes, At the Earth's Core and Starcrash. She joins Brigid Brannagh and Joe Don Baker in that small collection. I've got a Richard Kiel on the way.

There you have it!

2021 Adventures in Repacks Part 34.5 - Cubism

2002 Contenders - Peter Warrick - The second of the posts recapping this repack that start with a Contenders card.

2012 Momentum - Darren Sproles - The base cards from this set are somewhat thicker. 

2008 UD Heroes - J Leman

2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites - Otis Sistrunk - This is only the second one of these in this, but these have quickly become my favourite set. 

2002 Bowman - Travis Taylor

2007 Classics -  Willis McGahee - Bills content? It is a 'traded' card, but I'll still count it. 

2006 Topps - Steven Jackson

2006 Topps - Anquan Boldin

2003 Fleer Snapshot - Tim Brown - Another set I'd never heard of before pulling this card.

2004 Topps - Olandis Gary

2000 SPA - Joey Galloway

2019 Prizm - Adam Humphries

1989 Pro Set - Kyle Clifford

1991 UD - Steve DeBerg - Were these hats ever a good (not hideous) idea?

1990 Pro Set - Carnell Lake

2011 Quantum Leaf - Rod Woodson - Never name your set with a pun.

2002 UD - Frank Wycheck

2011 U. of Texas - Cotton Speyrer/Darrell Royal

2011 U. of Texas - Bobby Dillon

2011 U. of Texas - Brian Jones

2017 Panini - NaVorro Bowman

2019 Contenders Draft - Calvin Ridley

2014 Press Pass - Marion Grice

2019 Prestige - Derrius Grice

1998 Metal Universe - Warren Sapp - Another incredible card from '98 Universe, with the pirate ship in the background.

2017 Prizm - Doug Martin

2017 Panini - Paul Posluszny

2018 Donruss - Mario Addison

2003 SPX - Peerless Price - As with the Torry Holt card from earlier, here's another font that makes 2021 Topps' look massive.

2017 Donruss - Jack Doyle

2017 Donruss - Kevin King

2000 Tradition Glossy - Marvin Harrison - Parallel fun!

2003 SPA - Jake Plummer

2006 Topps - Antonio Gates - A lot of these Pro Bowl photos make it look like the player is there against their will.

2001 Elite - Terrell Davis

2000 Topps - Terrell Davis - I like when collation of these puts the same player back-to-back.

2000 SPA - Mike Alstott

2002 Heads Update - Edgerrin James - Heads Update? Again, no puns for your set name!

2002 MVP - Sam Gash

1995 UD - Ray Zellars

2002 Score - Phillip Buchanon

2002 Heritage - Chad Pennington - One last Heritage!

1991 Jogo CFL - Richard Nurse - Some very talented genes here, as he fathered NHL's Darnell and WNBA's Kia.

2011 Elite - Johnny Knox

1990 Fleer - Blair Bush

1990 Score - Don Beebe - One last Bill.

1991 Ultra - Anthony Dilweg

2013 Topps - Sam Bradford - Only 2013 of these?

1991 Pacific - Kevin Mack

1989 Pro Set - Mike Cofer - I loves me some kicker cards.

1998 Coll. Choice Preview - Jeff George

1995 Pinnacle - John Friesz

1989 Score - JT Smith

1990 Fleer - Willie Broughton

2016 Classics - Allen Hurns - Fin.