2022 Adventures in Repacks - Part 41 - No Better Way to End a Year

 

A repack is a perfect way to end a year of posting.

Mets content! And a Deion Sanders rookie card, in either sport, would have been a nice pull back in 1990 as opposed to repack content 30+ years later. 

Not much work to get to the hit. Although I have absolutely no memories of Bud Smith, but he does have a no-hitter to his credit over his short MLB career. And I get a Cardinals hit that I can include whenever I send my next mailer to Portland. 

We're all over the place now with sets, and really, that's what I want to see from a repack. Especially when the only junk wax era card in this portion still provides an interesting photo. Bartolo Colon is always welcome, and there's some minor league fun, even if the base design is more suited to an autographed parallel. Also: Pirates black and yellow! 

Even if it made for some odd looks, the silhouette on 2004 flagship was one of my favourite little features on cards. It is right up there with incorporating the team cap into the design. Diamond King action from the Dick Perez era and the gawdy backgrounds add another fun card to my misc. collection. Even if picking a King coming off the 0-21 starting 1988 Orioles had to be tough.

Start with Heritage! End with Heritage! 

Definitely an enjoyable end to the year! 

The Chronicles Finale

 Unlike with the Stadium Club stuff from the past two posts, I actually remember this. This was another random of 2022 Chronicles baseball, where I got the Colorado/Arizona combo spot.

If it weren't for the Ketel Marte I got in one of my personal boxes, I'd doubt that Arizona got any cards in the whole set without the RC logo on it. 

The same could be said for Colorado. 

But at least I got this one that came with a little bit of blue, and a stamp that says it is /50.

But I'm guessing that this will not include that RC logo. And yes, this is still considered a Colorado card. If Marcus Semien can still have Jays cards in this, I guess Trevor Story can still get cards with the Rockies. This card should end up being /10, and, if this is any indication, it should also have 4 patches to go alongside it. I did get a Cedric Mullins /25 Fireworks in one of my boxes, so these should look pretty nice together.

There you have it!

Maybe I Have a Problem - Part 2

 And now the Mets content I'd completely forgotten about.

Here's the vertical content. I thought that the Strawberry would be the ideal card for there to be an autographed parallel of, and sure enough, they exist in this release. The other legend content here is surprisingly and disappointingly generic. But Megill does provide a rare appearance of the black uniforms on a card. The team was sporting them during their no-hitter, so maybe the photo was from that game.

I picked up that Hernandez from a quarter box not long after release, completely forgetting about this group break pick-up. I definitely could do worse in terms of a card to have more than one of. Suddenly, I have a craving for bubble gum. And an apple.

Surprisingly - no red parallels. But here's a black one of Scherzer.

And here is a 1991 SP parallel of Scherzer. These supposedly fall every 1:233 packs, slightly more common than the Instavision yesterday which were 1:256, or 1 per case. They're special, but there is one huge drawback.

The same backs as the regular cards. Boo. For those hoping to see a picture of Scherzer's rookie card on the reverse - SORRY! 

The Mets couldn't escape this bland insert series. 

I could lose or keep the Triumverates on the whole, but when the parallels end up matching the team colours, such as this orange /50 one, I'll take them!

And I do get an autograph this time. This is my first Canha autograph in the Mets PC, and he's actually made some appearances earlier in sets with ink. Nicely, even though Canha doesn't have a card in the base set, the photo does feel like one that could be used on a base card in this set. For a bonus, this is the black foil parallel, and it comes in with only /25 copies. It may not be the best-looking auto, but he does use the available space perfectly.

There you have it!

Maybe I Have a Problem - Part 1

Some Stadium Club Mets and Blue Jays showed up lately. The only problem is that I completely forgot about buying into their slots in breaks until I got the shipping notification. Yes. I think that qualifies as a problem.

At least I didn't pick up the team slots in subsequent breaks.

So, I guess I have some great photos to show off.

Here's the vertical portion of the set. Toronto doesn't get historical content in these sets very often, and that's going to be even rarer now that Roberto Alomar is banned, and probably not showing up in Topps products. So, I'm going to savour that Joe Carter appearance, especially with such a memorable moment getting the nod for the photo. 

AL pitchers holding a bat, or NL pitchers for that matter, even if it isn't in a game situation, is a pretty rare site for a card. But it the perfect cameo for Jose Berrios' return to Minnesota makes that the best of this horizontal grouping. If it weren't for the memories that the Joe Carter card brings back, it would probably be my favourite of the team set.

The extent of the parallels, autographed or otherwise, were these red ones.

While I can see the inclusion of Manoah in a set like this, is it really necessary to include someone like Bichette, who was wrapping up his 4th season when this dropped. Tatis Jr. Soto and Acuna Jr were also included. 

And while I didn't get one of the autographs out of this, all was still very well as I did get the Instavision card, which is a case hit. And it feels like a special card as well, which is what a rare card should feel like.

I'll get to the Mets stuff next time.

There you have it!

Christmas Mischief!

 

It may have taken until her third Christmas, but I was finally able to get an official Christmas picture of my little girl! So, instead of something card related, I'm showing it off like a proud dog parent! 

2022 Adventures in Repacks - Part 40 - A Walmart Return

 

It has been a long time since I've picked up a repack at Walmart. Their shelves have been mainly filled with retail blasters since early in the pandemic. This has to be my first one of this year, and I might not have even done one last year. 

Here's the four sealed packs. Except for the CHL one, pretty much what I expected to see.

I guess this was one of the bonus tins. This was just put in there loose. The Tampa logo in the lower corner means that this doesn't count as a Sens card. But a hit is still hit, and that has to be a Sens uniform used on it.

I'll show off the packs in chronological order.

At least the Sens cards in the Score pack are more obvious ones. Even if there is another logo/jersey mismatch. I'm going to assume that Steve Mason is a Rangers-alum dupe, but until I've added them into my TCDB account, I won't be certain.

While there is a lot of potential in any 15-16 pack, this pack had only base cards. But it did remind me of how disappointingly bland last years' photo choices were. 

There was an insert here. Unfortunately, it was from the incredibly bland, but persistent Portraits set. 

It is fun to revisit sets like this to see if any of these players have reached the NHL during the years between release and busting the pack. That Jason Robertson really stands out as a pretty nice pull with his first Upper Deck card. Heponiemi and Bouchard are the only other two in this group to have played in at least one NHL game. Lodnia, Sambrook, Helvig and Zablocki were drafted, though.

Exactly what I want from a repack experience - randomness!

There you have it!

2022 Heritage High Numbers Box Break

 

While I showed off one of the cards yesterday, here's the rest of the box.

Sweet box topper! 

As for the base content, it was fine, but there were a lot more dupes that I would expect from a Topps product in recent years. While I figured I'd end up within single digits of the 501-700 base set, I ended up about 30 out. Ouch. One of the cards I didn't get dupes of was this Tony Gonsolin, where he looks ready to wax poetic about how he gets older, and how high school girls stay the same age.

While there were some interesting photos in the regular release, not so much so here. But there were some interesting ones still. Sadly, #627 doesn't salute its 1973 counterpart by having a parking lot photo - just a generic one of Jorge Soler at the plate.

Here's the Mets content. If that Marte looks familiar, it is the same photo that was used in low numbers. Geez. And Katoh as a Met (0 games) looks as odd here as it did with Chronicles. Mark Canha was the only Mets I didn't get a card of.

As for the Jays, I ended up 3 short there. No Chapman, Springer or SP'd Manoah. 

The only numbered card in was this Silver refractor /373.

I'll leave the base behind and switch over to inserts with this photo variation, and hope that the fine folks at Topps didn't call the jersey photoshopping team too quickly when it came to Correa's 2023 cards. (Although a Giants one would be hilarious. But a Mets one might end up equally funny. Who knows?)

Manager card! I'm probably one of a handful of people that is happiest to land one of these over a card of an active player from the Award Winners insert set.

1973 All-Star Game highlights are a very specific subset, but since you practically drown in ASG themed inserts and base cards from contemporary sets (and not just in baseball), a similar insert set, with one, maybe two cards per hobby box seems relaxing in comparison. 

A Nolan Ryan insert set is nice, and I appreciate any inclusion of the Tequila Sunrise unis. No Mets cards in this 10 card set, but that's still understandable with those numbers limiting things.

And here's the hit.

Probably an average box on the whole, but all those dupes were so disappointing.

There you have it!

Cardboard Cameos

 

I'll get to a more complete recap of my box of Heritage High Numbers next post. But until then, here's the pinnacle of the cardboard fans era of card photography.

Guest appearances by Geddy Lee, Ryan Reynolds, and the cast of Kim's Convenience. 

2022 Chronicles Baseball Box Break #2 - Packs 4 through 6

What else does this have?

Pack #4:

Trout. Ohtani. Judge. There's definitely some good veteran star power in this one. Strangely, when I got randomed the Nats during a group break, I did get a /10 parallel of that Adams, but not the base version. Essentials deviating from the usual form in with basketball and using the same photo on the front is kinda disappointing. 

Here's auto #2 for the box. He went a miserable 2-10 this past season. This is where I point out that Corbin Burnes also had pretty horrid early numbers for Milwaukee as well when his autos were all over releases. And I will also point out that his uncle Andy has a far nicer auto.

Pack 5:

Red uniform mojo! If they hadn't used B&W photos for the Titan, I'd go 6 for 7.

Or 7 for 8. Lucky me, not only is this card shiny, but this appears to be peeling on the edges. Next!

Pack 6:

Much like with the Adams, I landed a parallel of that Megill in a group break, in that case, the auto'ed version, but not the base card. Until this box. The Shane Baz was a dupe from a random where I landed the Rays, but not that particular Wander Franco. Both boxes managed to provide be with a Franco that I didn't get in the random. 

My final shiny parallel.

And my final hit brings in some more swatches to go alongside another on-card autograph. I like this a little better than the Crouse since it features more of a known quantity of a player, even if Mullins had somewhat of a step down this past season than from 2021. I'm not certain which specific parallel this is, although seeing it come in with /25 and being from Spectra would probably mean that this one is 'Meta'. There might not be a killer patch, but orange/black is always a nice combination to see on an Orioles card. And it is impossible to trace them to a specific patch that appeared on a uniform 20 years before the player debuted.

And that's two boxes! I still have one more to go (not counting random retail pickups) with a randomizer that landed me a Mountain Time Zone (sometimes) combo pack.

There you have it!