Not a RANGE of reasons

 

Nope! There was only one reason I added this SSPC card of Jim Tyrone to my collection. I was watching an early 80s episode of The Price is Right on the roku channel, and he was called to Come on Down by Johnny Olsen. He'd win his way up on stage, and play the Range Game, and it was one of the handful of the times it would be played for a car.

You think I'd make that up?

He'd win at the Showcase Showdown, and talk a bit more about his career in the States and Japan while there. But he'd lose the Showcase.

Still, that's as good a reason as any to get one of his cards. 

Brandon Alexander: Penmanship Hall of Famer

 

To have such a long name and to be able to fit it legibly on the sticker and still include the jersey number? That's what I love to see from an auto'ed card! I imagine that it would be even clearer if it was on-card.

There you have it!

Leftovers

 Just a bunch of packs I set to the side after opening, probably from retail or repacks purchased long ago.

These 5 are the packs in question. 4 different years covering more than 20 years of hockey. I'll go through clockwise from the top left, which looks to also be reverse chronological match.

It might not have been the Dallas Stars YG people are looking for from this, but there was one nonetheless. I love how the collation had two photos with some pretty impressive whip on the sticks back-to-back. Still, Gusev's entrance is the most interesting photo in this pack.

Bland base cards in the Donruss packs. Maybe the throwback Bruins jersey is the best, but still pretty dull.

The insert was something pretty nice, though. It's a goalie themed insert set, with the title of the card representing the respective goaltender's native language. Les Gardiens for Quebecois players, and Jonas gets Swedish, naturally. If I hadn't received the entire insert set ages ago in a TMV mailer, I'd chase these.

Oh yes - the "how much border can we get away with?" era of MVP. At least the rookie is a recognizable name.

O-Pee-Chee was pretty much the same this year. There was this foil-y Micromotion parallel, however. That's not enough to lower the effect of seeing the infamous Buffalo Slug.

All the way back to 1999 for my first Sens card of the packs. As well as the obligatory player I had no memory whatsoever of - Mark Lawrence. 

And the obligatory appearance of a player that I had no memory of on that specific team - in this case, Kevin Hatcher's one season with the Rangers.

Nothing too special in any of these, but I guess that's to be expected when I waited however many months/years to show everything off.

There you have it!

Kingmakers

 My recent COMC shipment saw me rise to the top of the TCDB leaderboards for a trio of members of my 2/14 collection. Today, I'm highlighting the cards that took me into the lead.

58 total Scott Scudder cards gives me a two-card cushion lead in his card. The Bowman is the Tiffany variation, explaining why a very common image is debuting in my binder. Even Micro cards count as a full 1 card in the collection. The Stadium Club is also a variant - the first day version. There are 108 different cards of his listed at TCDB, so I still have opportunity to increase the lead.

At 61 cards, the baseball portion of the collection is lead by John Marzano, and I have a three-card lead for his entries. His total is 94 cards overall, many of which are minor variations, so there's less wiggle room here for extending my lead. The Stadium Club cards are the First Day and Members Only versions. The others are all not the standard 2*3 sized cards. Any card is good with the numbers game.

You'd think that 103 wouldn't be enough for the crown over at TCDB for an active player who was a previous top draft pick, but apparently it was. And that's considering I've got a couple plates tbat aren't on the list. But that does leave me with a lot of options to expand the collection. And his presence with Baltimore leaves me with a cheering option as the NFL playoffs continue without Buffalo present.

And unlike with Scudder and Marzano, there's numbered variations out there too. These come from their respective 2017 releases. That's a pretty slick gold /10, which is the lowest numbered non-plate of his I have. 

And there's also autographs - like this out of one of my favourite releases - 2015 Field Access. Now that was how to do a sticker dump after losing a license - with a lot of fun photos!

There you have it!

2/14 Hockey

 Here's the latest stack of 2/14 cards of the hockey variety on their way to that binder.

As usual, if it is hockey from COMC, that means it is a bunch of e-pack stuff. But there always has to be an exception. Here, it is this Premier card, a set not available in that format. This is the Silver Spectrum parallel, and it is just a little shinier in the numbering and foil portion than its regular, numbered to 399 version. I now have 26 more Matt O'Connor cards than NHL games played. 

But he still appeared in one more than I've appeared in.

One of these days, I really should count all the plates in my collection. No matter what the count, here's one from 16-17 flagship.

Despite having the absolute worst signature in the 2.14 collection, I'm staying true to my promise to keep adding his cards to the binders. SP Game Used is an odd set, as these are the base cards in the release, numbered to the player's jersey #.  There are signed parallels of this, similarly numbered. I prefer these.

I'm not that sure what Pitter Patter means in relation to a hockey insert set. Are they all Letterkenny fans who get their own set? 

A semi-recent release of Team Canada gave me the chance to explode the Nolan Lalonde portion of the collection up to 8. He was undrafted, but did end up signing with Columbus. In the OHL, he recently was traded to Saginaw. They're hosting this year's Memorial Cup, so they're stocking up for the run. 

But those 7 cards aren't enough to elevate Nolan to this post's top count as the variety of sets he was available in put Nikolaj Ehlers in the top spot. My only complaint is that the World Junior Grads card should have had him in a Denmark National uniform versus a Winnipeg one. He has no such cards in any release on this side of the Atlantic, and I'd like to get one without having to trust shipping one from Latvia.

But there you have it!

2024 Adventures in Repacks - Part 3: Hanger with a Hit

 Let's go into my to-be-posted box o' repacks, and show one of these off.

These usually start with a card from a flagship set, so at least it is something different.

A very 90s start to it, but there is an interesting card for me in the CHL entry. The Owen Sound Attack would probably make it in my list of favourite CHL logos if I ever decide to make such a list.

Here's the obligatory appearance of a player from the past that I had no memory of with Mark Mowers. It might only have been used during warm-up, but seeing any alternate jersey appearancte is fun on a card. That applies to the Ekholm moreso than the practice jersey Courtnall was sporting.

Here's the hit! It is a nice little addition to my masked hits collection, and an interesting card as well. The uniform might by the Moncton Wildcats, but the mask paint job looks to be from his previous team - the Val D'or Foreurs, and that's definitely the uniform used for the swatch. 

Now that's a snow job for a photo!

Your final card - a die-cut entry is at least something unexpected.

A couple interesting base cards, and hitting a PC for the hit? That's enough for me to give this a solid thumbs in the middle!

There you have it!

Finale

 

The baseball portion of the TMV envelope wraps it up, with some Mets, some Jays and a single Vlad Sr.

Mets stuff. While normally those pair of Wright parallels would win the day, I have to go with the Glavine here. Although since he often makes lists of the best hitting pitchers from the DH era, why not show him swinging away instead of bunting? Yes, I know the sac bunt is a part of hitting, but still, let's see Tom trying to hit it out of the infield.

A couple manu-cards. Just in time for their number retirement!

Here is a bunch of Jays inserts/parallels. I always find cards for Canadian teams with the star-spangled background somewhat off. That Ryu is a perfect chance to point out that I've added a bunch of 2020 Gallery SPs to my set-builder wantlist linked at the side. Hook me up!

And finally, a double relic. The Jays win this rookie of the year relic batter, since bat sliver > jersey swatch. Even with a rotated pinstripe.

There you have it! Just in time for me to almost fill up a new package!

Oskee Wee Wee!

 Today, it is all the Hamilton Tiger-Cats content I picked up either through e-packs, or picked up cheaply on COMC because of epacks.

I'm attacking this stack chronologically, so that means it is a lonely 2018 entry up first. I'm guessing I've had this sitting in my inventory since that year.

Nothing but the hits from 2019, with this relic. It's a nice little add to my collection, but I really wish they only used coloured relics for these. It isn't too bad for Hamilton, but really seems like a missed opportunity for teams like Ottawa, Toronto or Saskatchewan. 

Here's a couple autos to go with it. Sometimes, when these are for traded players, the UD e-pack site fails to notice the new team until much later. I definitely remember thinking I finished a parallel set for the team in 2019, only for Rico Murray to trip me up at the time.

Most years you needed 5 base cards on e-pack to combine to make a physical blue card. In 2020, it took 10. Complete where you can! 

I actually have two of these, but since Masoli went to Oregon for a bit (before transferring under, shall we say not the best of circumstances), I'll throw it into my next Portland-bound mailer.

I'll remember Larry Dean as the player who caught the first pass that Johnny Manziel threw in a regular season CFL game. You'll note that Larry is a linebacker.

2021 saw them switch to using the base set design from hockey instead of a fresh look. Seeing as how they don't use the foil that they tend to overuse with them. At least the front is more legible and you get the team colors as more of a part of the design.

This relic is new!

With a last name like Thomas-Erlington, you can get away with abbreviating your name on your autograph. You don't want to spend your whole day signing stickers, do you?

I didn't care much for the base design in 2022, so I skipped a year and limited myself to a single physical pack. E-packs with combinable cards? Maybe I just like some color I wouldn't find in the set.

Like with hockey, the 2022 CFL release had Exclusives /100.

More autos. Although I do already have a Van Zeyl auto in my collection, this is Shiltz's first appearance. And yes, that's a Tiger-Cats card. His new team is listed on the front. 

Finally, a 2023 entry, and Hamilton's only appearance in the multi-sport Game Dated Moments this year. And he brings the alternate jerseys/helmet with him! 

There you have it!

Retail Catch-Up

 

This is as good a day as any to catch up on some of the retail packs I've had around for the past few months and show off some of the contents. At 80 cards worth, scanning everything seems like busy work.

I'll go in order of release, meaning Diamond Kings leads the way!

Definitely a solid start with the first card out!

So many legends in this, I thought this was actually a 2023 release.

They've borrowed a theme from Court Kings for this one - with there being multiple levels of rookies, and the levels being more SPd at higher levels. Terry is the #1, Smith is #2 and Nootbar is #3.

And here's those two parallels advertised on the packs. In the interesting (for me) collation, the second level rookies provided both the Jays and Mets content in the pack.

Over to basketball:

First card out is a Raptors legend!

You have your choice of how they handle team changes. Posed photo? Or "Now With"? I'll note that I had these all scanned before Brown arrived in Toronto in the Siakam trade. 

For some oddball collation - three straight Sacramento Kings cards, albeit only one of which has a uniform that matches their logo.

Cover boy content among the rookies!

I didn't get one of the advertised Pink Laser parallels (not surprising, it looks like they're /50), but here's a green one.

While I did start the pack with a Raptors legend in another team colours, I did land one of a legend in the team's colours. Bomb Squad might not be the mega-rare Kaboom insert (which I don't think is even in Donruss), but it still is a pretty nice looking addition to the team collection.

Finally a 2023 release!

Best first card out of the three packs. At least when my various PCs are considered. 

In an interesting bit of collation, the next four cards were all from the legends portion of the set. This is the first time Byner has appeared on a base card in ages. I'm not sure if I'd choose Cleveland as the team for him, since he still google auto-completes with 'fumble'. The fan of 'girls who aren't too bright' is another one I didn't expect to see either.

Here's someone making his professional cardboard debut. That's always interesting, at least to me, when that doesn't happen in a football player's rookie season. At least Panini didn't stick the RC logo on it.

I do like that they've done something different this year with the design, moving away from the diagonal bars of years past. The font that makes it seem like this card is of John Metchie JJJ should probably have been reconsidered.

The rookies. Richardson is the big name in this group, even after his injury.

The advertised parallels showing up resumes with this pack. Here are the sunbursts.

Finally, the insert. I realize that Chandler Jones' off-field actions are problematic, but to see that memorable moment preserved on cardboard with Mac Jones' "Yup, that's me. You're probably wondering how" freeze frame is hilarious. The 'For the Record' insert set has both Josh Allen and Gabriel Davis making an appearance from the same play.

And yes, I definitely want both cards.

There you have it!