Basketball Miscellany

 Just a bunch of basketball cards in the to-be-posted box that I can't really combine with others for a post anyplace but here.

I came across one of his cards in a basketball repack. When I looked for other cards of his, I realized I kinda liked his autograph. Sure, it's little more than the initials and the number, but he nicely combines both into a single creation. I like the uniqueness.

I have no idea why I suddenly decided I needed a Richmond Spiders card in my collection.

But given how basic, yet great, their logo is, I'm glad I did.

Alternate jersey!

Alternate jersey #2! As a bonus, I can also commemorate the 2 1/2 weeks Wallace spent affiliated with the Suns, as he ended up released shortly after being part of the Shaq trade to Cleveland. Zero-year basketball!

And back-to-back posts with Jamal Murray making an appearance. I only had one in the box, therefore nothing to pair it with other than the other basketball content. So, a guy I super PC gets grouped with some very random cards.

But there  you have it!

Mailbag: Cards on Cards

 Opening up a recent bubbler from Kerry @ Cards on Cards for this post.

First up was the only football card in the pack. I love the Valor design from this release with the logo background, but was certain I already had this card. Turns out that was a numbered parallel, so this is a new addition to my collection. 

I've come across a grand total of zero cards from the Zoos Who portion of the Heritage set in the wild. Anywhere. So I welcome this Blue Jay card from this portion to my collection. And this will be added into the misc insert portion of the Heritage collection instead. 

I'll switch from the Jays to the Mets with these cards. I have no clue at all what these are, or where they are from. While there are logos on these, they still look mindblowingly bootleg. But they are amazing additions to the collection, despite Edwin Diaz having a Yankees logo on his card. 

Numbered Mets! 

I have the base version of this already, and now I have the shiny/holo/prizm/whatever parallel of it. That means I have 2 Jordan Yamamoto autos - one card for every game he appeared in as a Met. I kinda enjoy the accomplishment.

Back to 2/14 land with a pair of Nolans! He's all over releases this season, and as one of the more high-profile rookies this season, thanks to his quick trip through the minors, means he's all over releases this season. All the better to fill up the collection - he's currently at 12, with an autograph sitting in my to-be-posted box. 

Basketball was the king of the PWEs, with these 3 new additions to my Jamal Murray collection. He may not have picked up a second championship ring, but maybe he'll earn an Olympic medal later this summer.

But it was the Raptors that easily won the volume contest with this nice collection consisting of shininess, parallels and inserts. A couple trophy appearances are a wonderful way to start, even 5 years removed from the victory. It really is a modern card collecting problem to receive 3 cards with the same image, since now you have to find out what parallel each is. The darker one is a blue parallel, while the only numbered card is a White Diamond. Vince Carter's dino uniform is on a Red Ice parallel. It's a little hard to see, but Siakam is a pink parallel. With RJ Barrett to close, it's nice how quickly the new arrivals were added in the product with their new team.

So, thanks for all these goodies! I've got something packaged up to return fire - just need to get to a post office. 

There you have it!

Another Long Ago Box Break

 But this one, at least based on the image data, only goes to August of last year. 

After this, all that's left is some Elite Extra Edition. But enough of the future, let's look at the past.

Here's the base. As is the usual with this release - gold is the color used for the design, but unlike in previous years, it isn't very overpowering. 

Of course the rookies are numbered and SPd, why wouldn't they be?

And of course, all those base cards have parallels. I guess with two numbered cards appearing, this is a Nikita Okhotiuk hot box. 

The insert battle was easily won by the Generations one. But with 60 cards in the set and their required parallels, that was kinda expected. It did land me my only Sens card of the break, even if Dany Heatley, given the circumstances weren't ideal when he left, is an odd choice for 'Past'.

The only other non-hit insert.

Hit #1. Pyotr was considered the backup to Frederik Andersen when the season started, but when the starter ended up missing several months due to blood clotting, he ended up with the lion's share of the netminding workload. With UD choosing to spotlight the player by making the background black and white, his mask ends up working perfectly with the design. 

And the auto. Another player who is seeing a lot of ice time with the big club, even if, as a defenseman, he's not often seeing the scoresheet. But he was named 2024 Sports Personality of the Year, and that's far more interesting than assisting on a goal.

There you have it!

A 2/14 Hall of Famer

 Whether it is from his time in Washington, or his time in Nashville, I've finally got a definite Hockey Hall of Famer in the collection (since there are differing numbers for Bernie Geoffrion).

 

Given that the fall Expo tends to be around the time of the induction, and often the inductees have signings, I wonder if he'll drop by. 

Because I'm just kooky enough to get this signed. 

And to have it authenticated and encased.

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!