Raptors Megapost

Up today, 3 group breaks worth of Raptors, as I take advantage of their bargain basement pricing in 2022-23 releases. With them in the lottery this year, and in the lucky(?) #13 slot, there will likely be a small bump next season.

Last season, Revolution was very good to me, adding a sweet case hit Galactic parallel of Pascal Siakam. Here, not even close, but you can't win 'em all. The only parallel was that Scottie Barnes that opened up this post. I didn't even get a Koloko card to complete the base set. But there will be appearances of their second-rounder in this post.

At least Scottie made a third appearance in Vortex insert form.

I did get a complete base team set out of Optic - including a return of Jakob Poeltl and Otto Porter Jr's first appearance as a Raptor. 

But this one landed me a nice variety of parallels. Here's the most common of the bunch, a holo parallel. 

Here's a nice way to welcome Poeltl cards back to the collection - add a regular card for that binder, and a numbered card for the hit binder. The orange ones are /199.

The lime greens are limited to 149 copies, and it became my first numbered card of Christian Koloko, but there will be more to come in this post.

Finally, Gary Trent Jr's blue parallel checks in with a card limited to 49. The shininess of the card better highlights something not as visible on the standard base card - some unfortunate member of the Orlando Magic wiping out behind Trent. 

There were a couple inserts - both the base and the holo parallel of FVV out of Raining 3s. The one with the bluish tinge on the corner is the holo version. Disappointingly, the card text doesn't mention that VanVleet, in 21-22, became the franchise leader for three-pointers in a season. It would be up to Recon to do that.

Normally, I'll lead with the base cards from a release. But I'm not going to pass up a lead-in like that. 

Now here's the base. Substitute Chris Boucher for Otto Porter Jr, and it is the same make-up as the Optic. I get a strong 1991 Skybox vibe from the background, and that's perfectly fine.

Naturally, there are parallels, both of the unnumbered...

and numbered variety.

These inserts really turn up the rainbow for the background. 

After a rough start with that Revolution break, things ended pretty nicely with Recon. Joining an appearance in Court Kings, here's my second auto this season of Ron Harper Jr. Although I've got a relic of Ron Sr, I really should hunt down an auto of his to keep his son company.

I said there was more Christian Koloko to come, and here he is, with my first auto of his. He did perfectly fine for a second round rookie, and really, that's all you can ask. OK, maybe a signature I can parse, but I'll settle for "that looks like a C and a K".

Here's a swatch for good measure! A plain white swatch actually works here as a contrast to the colourful, shiny background to bring things down a notch.

And there's about 35 new Raptors on their way to my binders. That's enough to count this as a megapost!