A Long-Ago Box Break

Let's just define this box as being broken 4-ish years ago. 

Here's the box I was holding off on posting for reasons unknown to me. 

Here's a trio of regular base cards. Some good star power with the first two cards, but the oddness of my collecting habits makes the undrafted Christian Wood the most interesting of this small grouping. 

The final card with the base design is a pink parallel /99. In a nice bit of oddness, his shoes go with the loudness of the background.

The hits showed up here. This became a pretty good card over the past couple seasons, especially after the playoffs. Maybe I was just waiting for such a card to reach that status before showing it off.

Here's something that shows how long ago I opened this box. Not only has the redemption been long fulfilled, it has expired, as has Mannion's NBA career seemingly, as he's been playing overseas the past few years.

A couple inserts. Kira Lewis Jr was a Raptor for a minute and a half this past season, arriving as part of the Siakam trade, and leaving in the Kelly Olynyk trade. Donovan Mitchell will always be a favourite of mine for his connection to the Mets, and his 162-0 prediction. You gotta love that confidence.

Finally, a couple rookies. Both of them were Sixers draft picks, although Maledon was traded a few weeks later. Maxey is the second card in the box that has turned into a pretty good one. The two images on the card does give a vibe of the classic Diamond Kings, and that's always a bonus.

I still don't know why I waited so long to post all these cards. But there you have it!

4 Months is Long Enough

 

I scanned this auto of tough guy Dave Manson back in February, at least according to the image title. I guess now is as good a time as any to finally show off the card, and commemorate his part season in Phoenix.

2024 Adventures in Repacks - Part 19 - Nothing But the Hits

 One of the final repacks I still have around from the last big order. 

This was a three hit football repack.

The first card out was probably my favourite of the bunch. It hits my sweet spot of being a very obscure player to even have a hit (he'd spend time in New England, but it looks like only on the Practice Squad), as well as a team that I don't think I have in my collection in any form - South Carolina State. 

Even with this being a numbered patch, and a photo in a throwback jersey, I still like the obscurity factor more. If someone wanted to trade for this, it would be a lot easier for me to agree to a swap for this versus the Love. 

2/3 of the cards were of the NCAA variety. The autograph itself is as close as one can get to an "Initials Only" autograph without being one. But if I had a three initial name on a card, I'd probably be tempted to sign it as such myself. He also signed diagonally on the diagonal, a nice little bonus for the design. Another bonus from this being NCAA vs NFL is that the Maryland logo is so much more interesting than the Raiders one. 

There you have it!

And the Rest!

Time to put another TMV envelope to rest (just as a couple more show up from other sources) with anything that fits into a category I haven't covered yet.

Only one for the Canadians in the NBA collection - with a modern Steve Nash from an insert set that has also provided me with Jamal Murray entries for his PC.

The baseball portion was slightly bigger, with a few new Morneaus, and then a switch over to Expos stuff. Those Vlads could end up in either his or the Expos collection - always a nice problem. 

Most of the cards the fell into the "The Rest" category were Bills content. Lots of shininess here - and a dull foil Flutie where the background scans horribly. The tri-color McCoy might technically be an attempt at a patriotic parallel, but all I note is that it is a perfect team colour parallel for a Bills card. Even the shades are really close.

Peerless Price might be the best name in team history. 

There aren't a lot of Ed Oliver relics out there - most seem to come from draft themed releases. But you can see the item used for the swatch in the photo. It comes from the cap he's wearing after being drafted. Twice the peculiarity!

And another player who doesn't have a lot of swatches out there. While these might be player-worn as opposed to game-worn, it is nice to have an appearance of a player that really gets lost in the shuffle when you're thinking of big names on those early 90s Bills rosters. 

There you have it!

The Retail Remainder

 

Basically, the only 2 retail packs I had left that I hadn't shown off yet.

Here's the Absolute base design. If you're going to remove the photo's background, replacing it with the team logo is my choice for what to replace it with.

Even if it generally looks better if the team colors are darker. I guess you could have gone for black for the Saints, especially since they had no problem with all the purple on that particular Ravens card.

The background for rookies? Boring.

Here are those three promised blue parallels. Even with it just being a slight change to the foil, it does look rather nice with the color-match on the Giants card. Daniel Jones-ness notwithstanding.

Finally, a couple inserts. I really like the concept behind the Introductions one - something to make the Rookie Premiere photoshoot something more than just an opportunity to take generic photos and go through jerseys to be cut up for relic cards. 

Off to the Hoops pack:

My favourite photo in the pack is one enhanced by the design, with Jeremy Sochan busting through the border with his pass.

But there were lots of great photos in the pack, with a nice variety of camera angles enhancing them.

Your inserts. The Teal Explosions are retail exclusives. The purples can be found in both retail and hobby.

And the inserts! Only 2, so when mixed with the pair of parallels, this wouldn't be too annoying of a set to build. I love how they continue the airport motif with Arriving Now, that commitment makes it one of my favourite insert sets of the release year. Dynamos? I'm not too sure about the joy of electrocution. 

But there you have it!

If You are Planning Your Day with the Cup

 

Just be sure to make a very good boy (or girl) a part of the celebration.

2024 Adventures in Repacks - Part 18 - Hockey Repack Battle

 Two repacks! One from Walmart! One from the Dollarama!

The Walmart pack contained a couple packs and a bonus card. So, basically the same as the baseball ones I've posted recently. I'm assuming all of the bonus cards are just from one of those box sets like the LaFreniere ones.

A couple interesting photos, both on the horizontal ones, are the highlights from 22-23 S1 pack. Crouse shows the perfect way to highlight the follow-through on a shot. A shame that Portraits had to rear their head.

21-22 was, as expected, typically boring and filled with bland, generic photo choices. But I did land a Young Guns card. And it is of a player who wasn't just one-and-done for his NHL career. Barron was traded to Winnipeg, and spent the entire past season with the team. It might not be a super valuable card, but given the "Who?" nature of some of the YG, that's a minor trifle.

The Dollarama one's contents!

The MVP pack was, as expected, even blander than the 21-22 flagship. Not even some colour can make it interesting, and having a release date so early that the previous season's stats aren't able to be included on the back makes it even worse.

I'm not sure if the superstar is the current one in Panarin or the historic one in Lafleur, but they're both pretty interesting cards anyhow on their own. It is also nice to see a mid-range set appear, even in base card form, like Ice. 

A non-90s card finding its way into the 90s pack is about the most interesting thing about this grouping.

The 2010s finale. As with the Ice, nice to see something outside the realm of flagship in a recent product, even if it is a lower-end option.

Being cheaper, and containing the Lafleur and Panarin appearances, I have to give the nod to the Dollarama version.

There you have it!

The Jays Portion

Back to the mailer again, and all of the Blue Jays contained within

Minis! That Tony Fernandez was one of only a couple of cards showing up today that isn't either an insert or parallel. Great for the variety!

And here's the absolute stack worth of those aforementioned inserts/parallels. I still remember that I was originally disappointed by that Mark DeRosa, since he wasn't using a CFL ball in that photo. The Argos will still playing out of the Dome at the time. Booo. There's nice memories as well for seeing the Ed-Wing on his Chrome sepia card. 

Before I head off to the true hits of the package in terms of relics and autos, here's a numbered card. I had absolutely no memory of Patterson. It looks like he never made it above AA, but that's far closer than I'd ever get to a MLB field without  getting arrested for trespassing. 

The best Blue Jays relics are blue Blue Jays relics.

But this one has a sticker blocking part of the swatch. But this is one of those verification stickers, so I can find out which game it is from.

And on that date, Bo went 0-5 with a walk and a run scored in a 12 inning loss. Sometimes not having a sticker might be better, and I can imagine a better result.

Adding a stamp with the team logo on it is a choice - a strange one when a new logo means it doesn't match the hat logo the player is sporting. But it does add a little something to a basic bat relic. 

Thomas Pannone had likely pitched his last innings with the Jays when this card was first released. He'd go on to spend some time in Korea, before returning to this side of the Pacific to spend time in Milwaukee, and is now in the Cubs system. I don't care how short your time is with the Jays, or if you even reached the majors. If it says Toronto on the card, it is a Jays card.

Just a small stack of miscellany left to show off!

Pure 70s

 

Sleazy 'stache. Thick sideburns. Tinted shades. A not-exactly-memorable uniform.

But you also get a nice view of the stands at Old Comiskey.

And the likelihood I'll go all in again next year on Heritage increasing.

2024 Adventures in Repacks - Part 17 - Surprising

 

Time to return to my "repacks to be posted" collection, which is getting pretty tiny at this point. Time to restock!

And here's the content. All repacks in the repack.

90s pack was pretty much what I expected. So, I look for interesting stuff, like three 1989 UD Dodgers cards in a row. Or a typically busy 90s entry from Select. Or a stand-alone set making an appearance with Davis. Find interesting items anywhere you can!

The 300hr pack takes me out of the junk wax era. It's Palmeiro that is 300HR guy on the dual card. Will Clark fell just short, with 284. Any Joe Carter appearance is welcome, even if this isn't a Blue Jays card.

12 cards? It is a happy lie as there were actually 14. It being all over the place is the greatness of repacks. There's a Pico de Gallo variation, of which if I wanted this card over on COMC, found that this is much cheaper than the regular base card. Tekulve brings some O-Pee-Chee love into this. As expected when Stadium Club is included, it is going to provide the best photo of the bunch. And there is a hint of a 'V' on the nameplate, so you aren't just taking their word that he's the catcher in the photo. Wrigley ivy is a nice way to end this repacked pack.

For most of you, the Rivera will be the best card in the pack. If not, then it would likely be the Chan Ho Park insert. I'm picking the Petry though? Why a junk wax entry?

O-Pee-Chee appearance #2! And unlike the Tekulve, you need to flip the card to discover the Frenchness contained within. 

Finally, the Superstar pack. Burnes might be the least Superstar-ish among this group, but given he's got a Cy Young to his name, and given that all awards to their name, I'd say everybody here qualifies for the advertising.

There you have it!