Mailbag Catch-up

 A while back, I got a contact from Wes, aka JayBarkerFan, a blogger of long ago. He had some Raptors and Bills to send my way, and I provided the address. I had a few Braves/Crimson Tide cards set aside, and sent them out. I'd also pulled the encased Spencer Strider in a repack not long after, so that got thrown in too.

Here's what came my way:

Random CFL additions? Not so random - they're both Waterloo Warriors alumni. Both overlapped with my time at the school, and it was nice to see Smith go to the Tiger-Cats during those years. One of the two Bradleys is a red parallel.

Off to the Bills portion, and this entry that hits a couple nice sweet spots of my collection - shiny and incredibly cheesy. And it is also a Josh Allen, and he's pretty much the only reason I'm optimistic this upcoming season won't be incredibly mediocre. 

These football-textured entries are fun little additions to the insert portion of the collection.

HOFers! BRUUUUUCE!

And the rest of the Bills contingent of the package. More Josh Allen, as he's the only one in the post still with the Bills. I already miss Tre'Davious White.

Raptors time! I may have a lot of great cards of the players, autographs, relics and low-numbered brightness. But this card of the mascot (even if it is a dupe) might be my favourite one. Now that I have a second, maybe I should find out if The Raptor does TTM autos.

A small collection of base, inserts and parallels. At least Barnes is still with the team among this group. That Norman Powell couldn't have gone any better with the mix of jersey and parallel colours.

It stunk to lose these guys during the season, but seeing them walk during free agency without any compensation would have been much worse.

When Kyle Lowry retires, he plans to sign a one-day contract to retire as a Raptor. It's 'when', since he recenrly re-upped with Philly for the upcoming season. I'll guess that signing will also include an announcement of #7 being retired. Vince Carter should be the first to get that treatment, but there's still some bitterness over his departure from the team, so I'll guess Kyle goes first.

Speaking of #7, that's what this is numbered to. This Cyber Monday stamped parallel might not have the shininess you'd expect from a low-numbered card, Still, the lowest numbered Jonas card in my collection, despite being a pure gimmick card.

There you have it!