2022 Adventures in Repacks - Part 13 - Saturday Surprise

 

Much like with the hangers posted last week, it has been too long since I've busted one of these.

I didn't do a 'contents' scan this time, so I'll list them instead. One pack pf 1998 Collector's Choice, and 3-card repacks with the 1000-pt, Canadian Team and 2010s.

The Swedish stuff can be interesting, since I'm not really expecting to get anybody I've heard of and am more interested in the uniqueness of busting the pack, and the international uniforms. But hey, there's an early Sedin in there, elevating this pack.

I'm promised a single 1000pt player among the three, and that's Vincent Damphousse in this group. Taylor Hall seems to have returned to his expected levels, so he might get there eventually too. 

My Canadian team was the Jets, and we get both eras of hockey in Winnipeg saluted here. I guess Janney's card is technically a Coyotes one, but it does to a good job, at least for this pack, of highlighting that there are two different runs for hockey in Winnipeg.

And finally, the 2010s portion. Food issue and a helmetless in-game photo. At least that's an interesting way to end the repack, enhanced by the fact I've never opened a Tim's pack. Ever. That seems sacrilegious to admit how few times this Canadian has walked into a Tim Horton's. 

But there you have it!  

880 vs. 2

 

Keith Hernandez played 880 games for the Mets 

Jordan Yamamoto has played in 2 (so far). 

I now have the same number of autographs of both players.

Bills! Bills! Bills!

Today, one more in a never ending series of postings of Bills items that have that title.

Do you remember Olandis' time with Buffalo? He joined the Bills during the 2003 off-season, but was traded to Detroit at the end of the 2003 pre-season, so he never played for Buffalo in the regular season. A zero-year Bill (tm. Nick @ Dime Boxes) relic card.

I loved a card commemorating Taron Johnson's 101 yard Pick 6 in the playoffs so much that I sent out the Batsignal to get the Panini Instant card of it. Why not add a sticker as well?

More great playoff memories of the Bills, with a couple cards featuring images of the comeback against the Oilers. Andre Reed gets one of his TDs displayed on a base card, with Don Beebe getting featured on the card saluting the game itself.

It doesn't scan well at all, but the relic on this card comes from one of the orange Pro Bowl pylons. If I wanted a solo hit of Lorenzo Alexander, I didn't have too many options at COMC outside of this.

If the pylon relic isn't offbeat enough for you, how about a card featuring a photo shoot worn Christmas sweater? Not that the sweater is shown in the photo or anything...

I am so disappointed that Carlos does not seem to have signed 'Boogie' on any of this autographs.

Yet.

And if he does, I'll be sure to add them. 

There you have it!

Vacation Time!

 I'm finally travelling again! 2 years ago, my parents planned to take a trip to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Holland. But 2020 was 2020, so that got delayed a year, then another year. They considered themselves too old to be insured for the trip this year, so I'm going instead. That means I'm auto-posting for the next two weeks or so.

So, this posting of a card of Mark Rutte, Holland's Prime Minister is very appropriate for today. Did I acquire this card in advance of trip just for this purpose? Maybe. But more important for me is that Rutte is a 2/14 baby! So it was really just an inevitability that I'd acquire a card of his. Maybe I can find some cheesy souvenir of his as well while over there. Perhaps I should take this with me, on the 1 in a million chance that I get an IP auto opportunity.

While I do have several politicians in the collection, maybe a more obscure sport. Maybe one making a first appearance in the collection. How about a billiards card? 

And only 1 million copies of this card! He even had a cameo in the Color of Money! I wonder if he's still among the living. Let's see what the ol' internet says...

Oh fuck. I really should google these folks that I hadn't heard of BEFORE getting their cards. From the Ohio Sex Offender Registry:

The word 'gross' is in there. And it only gets more horrid from there. If you want his address badly enough, you can find it. I don't want a TTM auto. But yeah, fuck this scumstain. He easily passes Derek Norris (domestic violence) as the worst person in the collection. 

I swear that I was only wondering if he was still alive.

Fuck. This post went really dark really quickly. 

Googling "Brett Swain cricket" turns up nothing loathsome on the first page. At least my first cricket card is more pleasant than with billiards.

There's a haircut on a Pro Set racing card worthy of a Pro Set hockey card. And nothing on the google first page either. 

Just what I want before I go away. A card of a nonce. 

Mailbag: The remainder from Ann Arbor

 I may be calling this 'the remainder' but if you think that downplays the amazingness of the stuff in here, you'd be mistaken.

It doesn't matter if the player is a bench warmer, or a star. When they are the final card to finish a set, it is a great card. D'Andre Swift comes closer to the latter of the two options, and the photo is amazing as well, giving me flashbacks to the famous Billy Sims kick, at least  with the angle used on this picture. Either way, this set can be put to bad.

The basketball portion of this was pretty small, but it did add a couple new entries into the Raptors PC. It is likely not evident from the scan, but the letters in  Fast Trck  have a fabric feel to them. So, they're basically not a relic card, but it gives the illusion of being one.

No illusion here. That's definitely a relic card, and with his then-recent trade to Toronto, the logo makes sure that it  is obviously a Raptors card. I'd expect a little more of a card numbered to /10, but at least there is a pinstripe, 

Switching to baseball with some 1995 Fleer. I guess this one isn't as hideous as it could be.

Brett Lawrie is one of those players that could land in two of my PCs - being an obvious Blue Jay addition, and a less obvious (from the front, at least) addition to my Canadians in MLB collection. With that pedigree, how is this my first hit of his in either collection? You'd think I would at least have a relic somewhere.

Speaking of relics, here's some of them. While I do like that new Carlos Delgado for his PC, I also like the flashback to when you could also find relic cards, as opposed to just autographs, in Archives. 

This insert acts as the set-up...

to his main event. This one made its way unto my not-so-reasonable want list as soon as I had space on it. It hits a few things I love - an on-card autograph from Archives, and the design of that Archives being appropriate for the photo used. The font looks right for a photo from that era of Jays uniforms.  PC perfection.

A short break from team hits for some Canadiana, before it is on to the Mets.

Let's start with an auto. It isn't one that makes a lot of appearances on Mets hits, although he did make an appearance a couple years back in Archives. Rey Ordonez may not have been amazing with his bat, but he was a regular on the highlight reels anyhow thanks to his defensive play. And from the days when Mets highlights were a little harder to come by in Ontario, any Mets highlights were good Mets highlights.

While I do like adding Piazza content to the ol' PC, I love cards with, shall I say, inspired designs even more. So, I give that Amed Rosario holiday-themed relic my preference here. Even with the bat on the photo perfectly lining up with the sliver from one of his bats.

More collection perfection to end this. This is another card that could make its way into several collections. Like Lawrie, he's a Canadian who is playing for one of my favourite teams, but he's also a local guy, meaning he joins Jamal Murray and Ryan Braun (not the Brewers guy, the Royals guy) as one of a handful of non-hockey guys from the area to get my hometown onto the back of a card. Now I just have to wait a few years to see if he'll play in the majors to find more of these.

Thanks for all these goodies, Dennis! 

Mailbag: 2/14s from Ann Arbor

 

Off to the mailbag today, and yet another in a series of amazing packages that arrive from Michigan every so often. I'm breaking this one down into two posts. Today, I'm showing off the 2/14 stuff. Next post, all the other stuff!

There was only one baseball card in this portion, but it is an upgrade from the usual 'none', since the two b-ball sports are the sparsest in the collection. Even if this didn't have an autograph to go alongside this, I would still be chasing this down just for one of the more unique photos in the collection.

The only hockey 2/14ers is a new plate of Nikolaj Ehlers. UD changed how they release plates in their flagship sets recently, moving from having one of each in the actual sets, to uniting all 4 in booklet format. Which makes acquiring them harder, but they're more special with all of them together. Decisions. Decisions. Fortunately, insert sets, like this Canvas, remain separate.

Back to the gridiron after the lead-in card (a 2002 Bowman's Best red /200), here's 5 more numbered, and shiny cards of Drew Bledsoe. Clockwise from the upper left, there's a 1999 Elite Insert /2500, an Xfractor from 2006 Finest, before returning to Elite from 2001 Primary Colors /975, and Career Best gold /500, and regular /1000.

I had to double check those for the print runs, but nothing else will need checking in this post. Nothing but plates!

Jadeveon Clowney leads the way from 2019 Score.

While I'm not sure whether I like the booklet form used by UD for flagship plates, I definitely like the use of the regular card back design on the back, complete with the 1 of 1. While it isn't a problem here, I guess cataloguing which colour plate it is might be a problem with some images. 

These two plates (2013 Score, 2015 Finest) give me 129 cards of Alshon Jeffery in the ol' collection. 

David Garrard will probably be the next player to move into the triple-digits in the collection, with his count currently at 95, bumped up by these two plates. Interestingly, I've got 3 plates with this image of Garrard, but none come from the same set. The top one is from Chrome, the bottom is out of Kickoff, and there's a third one out of Topps' flagship release. I assume that one came from a mailer from Dennis as well. 

There you have it! 

Always Room for Chronicles

 

Another retail two-fer!

I'll start with baseball, and it is Gerrit Cole leading the way. Since I filed this away without scanning the back, the Did You Know is "Gerrit's brother-in-law is San Francisco SS Brandon Crawford". 

Here's the remainder of the 'paper' portion of this. Hobby packs only contain 1 card from these sets, with more of the foil. It is nice to add a few of these to fatten up some of the other sets that are a part of this set. That Braxton Garrett entry seems to be following me around.

The super-thick  America's Pastime card. All ready to rip up a 9-pocket page.

And its contrasting acetate card, also one-per-pack. These particular colour scheme scans horribly, so I have to point out that this is a Taylor Walls card.

The foil cards. Mets content! And you have an example of what should always happen on cards with multiple images on the front - more than one uniform.

Finally, the pink parallel. The filter used on the photo makes me hope Overdrive is one-and-done.

Off to the basketball!

Prestige is the opener here. Its only appearance in baseball was for autographs. 

Paper base. While I'm already doubling up with Killian Hayes, there is more than one player here that will make future appearances. I thought that Pokusevski was a dupe, thanks to his memorable derpy face in the picture, but it was a green parallel I'd already picked up out from a second retail pack. 

Here's the Score portion of the hanger packs. 2 cards - can't complain about getting the top 2 draft picks in the year's release.

Unlike with Cole, at least I remembered to scan the backs for the factoids this time. Edwards' house pet situation is the easy winner of this two.

Just like with the Scores, bronze parallels are exclusive to hanger packs. The repeat players continue, but I can't complain about a Curry.

More repeat players with the foil. If only second-year, on-the-Raptors cards of Precious were as easy for me to acquire.

And, of course, I triple up on the Killian Hayes for the pack finale.

Nice cards, not-so-nice collation.

There you have it!