Christmas in March

 It is time to finally wrap up the mailer from Dennis @ Too Many Verlanders with some bonus included wax. There was the contents of a 2024 Holiday blaster in the box as well. Not the box itself, since that would be too bulky - just the contents.

Contents vs. blaster itself was probably because this made it slightly harder to send the latter. In the mailer, it was just included in a top loader. If only I trusted Mischief around a Christmas tree, I could add it to a tree. But I don't trust her.

Now, the pack-by-pack highlights!

Pack 1:

My first card out of the first pack is the Blake Snell, while the Goldschmidt is my first parallel as a silver glitter. Even if the photos are reruns from flagship, I like the completeness of the City Connect uniforms appearing.

Pack 2:

My first Mets cards of the break came back-to-back here. Gimenez will become the latest member of my "Both a Met and Jay" mini collection.

Pack 3:

Strange collation here - the SP Trout Santa Hat variation is followed up with the regular base card.

Pack 4:

Davis Schneider becomes my first Blue Jays card of the box. At least we get some variety in the gear for this SP variation with CJ Abrams sporting his finest in elf attire.

Pack 5:

The way the background is on the Winn, it almost looks like he's throwing the decoration in the background. In general with these, I wasn't too enthusiastic about how the background worked with the horizontal photos. But with the Carroll, it works for some reason. I'm not sure as to why, though.

Pack 6:

It always seems like the hits I pull head elsewhere, and this one will be packed up and on its way to Portland by the time you read this.

Pack 7:

There's the final SP variation, and it was immediately followed up with the regular base card. Collation can be interesting sometimes. Tovar is another one where the horizontal medium just seems to work. Maybe it is just because the player's positioning allows for the entirety of one of the background decorations to be shown.

Pack 8:

It still works with the parallel too. I'm guessing Vlad Jr cards on the Jays will be a thing of the past come 2026 releases.

Pack 9:

If I didn't recognize the photo as already being used in other flagship releases this year, I'd think that Lars Nootbaar's photo was chosen specifically and solely for this release. The socks are too perfect. The DeGrom is a Blue Metallic Glitter parallel, which I think are one per blaster but am not interested enough to check. At least I got one of a well-known player, and the uniform sported goes nicely with the design.

Pack 10:

Athletics green is just a perfect choice to appear in this set. There's my final Met, and the final parallel. 

I'd have to see other boxes of this to judge it, but it felt pretty average.

It may have taken about a month and half-ish to wrap things up, but that's the recent trade envelope from TMV. Thanks for all these, and I wrapped this up just in time to have another return fire sent to Ann Arbor.

There you have it!

A couple MST3K Adjacent cards

 Back to the COMC to-be-posted box, and a couple cards I picked up since they do have MST3K connections.

So, what does the card of a Tampa Bay kick returner have to do with MST3K?

Maybe there's a hint on the back?

Hmmm. College: Arkansas...

Bobby Joe was one of the football players shown during the stock footage of an Arkansas/Tulsa game during episode 1006: Boggy Creek II, shown here slipping through the blocks on an outside run. Finding rosters for the game, their jersey numbers, and if they got screen time made finding who's who a bit of a challenge, but there were a few out there with cards. Edmonds does seem to be the only one who shows up on screen and has NFL cards, though.

Linda Evans' MST3K credentials are much less obscure.

"Why would anybody want to do this with Mitchell, Joel?" - Crow

There you have it!

2025 Adventures in Repacks - Part 7 - Back to the Gridiron

 It has been about a month since I've done one of these. 

Joe Montana as the top card makes it one I'd certainly not hesitate in pulling of the hooks at the 7-11, even if this came through the mail-in repack orders. 

The opening hidden card features Bart Hull, part of the Hull sporting family. There's no word if he thinks some Austrian chap had good ideas like dear ol' dad. In terms of interesting collation, there's 3 Dolphins in this opening 6, and back-to-back punter appearances as well. I can't imagine finding that in anything but a repack. 

The Dolphins content continues! Also, that's a pretty cool Deion card, even if Washington isn't really the first, second or even third football team I picture him with. 

Here's the hit, and it provides two instead of one. Both had middling careers, going from 2010 through 2016. That's fine for a 114th overall pick like Pitta, not so good for the 12th overall pick in Mathews. But considering what happened to the tight end picked in the spot right before Pitta, a middling career is a far better result than that. 

Back to back repacks like this with Steve Broussard making an appearance. While I do like the infield dirt on this one, it can't compete with the Zubaz on that one. That's Anthony Miller on the Pro Line Portraits. Given that the Notre Dame set was released in 1990, I'm guessing that there was a very low percentage of people in that team photo still alive at the time. I wonder how a youngster in South Bend opening that pack would have felt about that.

And your finale. 

Some interesting cards and a double auto. That's enough for me to give it a thumbs up!

There you have it!

Let's See Some S1 (and Archives)

 

Finally, a hanger pack of 2025 cards!

And my first 2025 card of 2025 is this! I'd normally find this pretty interesting, with it providing a nice look at an alternate uniform. And then I got to the 1990 insert.

Yikes. Definitely the same game, definitely the same photographer, extremely likely it is the same at bat, and probably also from the same swing. What laziness. Did they flip a coin decide which photo goes where?

My first Jays card of the year? Someone who got suspended 1 game into his MLB career for PEDs. YAY!

My "If you can't say anything nice" card in the pack - I really like how this one uses the break through the borders design element.

Of course, Stars of MLB returns to provide the blandest name for an insert set this year. I know I dislike the pun names, but at least there's some level of creativity there. 

So, my first 2025 pack didn't put me in the best of moods. How would an Archives pack help?

Here's the pack. I've never really been a "let's look for the best card visible in a retail pack" type. But here, you'd swear I did. Since the first card out is...

2/14er Nolan Schanuel! I'm glad I didn't look at the pack for visible cards, so I could enjoy the surprise of having this card come out. It's my 19th card so far of his. 

The rest of the 1961s. Of course, you're really not expecting anything spectacular in terms of photo choices. Still, the Matos is nice, and would have been even nicer if not so tightly-cropped.

Mets content! WOO-HOO! Modern Fernando cards are a little more depressing after his passing, but they're still so much fun to come across.

The yellow parallels actually appear to be yellow. That's always a good thing.  And the inserts of today salute inserts of the past. I guess that really isn't possible with Heritage for the next many years.

A good pack for legendary Dodgers pitchers.

Different photos on the be back as well! They're all on the left side here, so that's a slight difference from the original. 

But on the whole, at least based on these packs, Archives > Flagship, but hitting a PC card as the opener definitely increased my opinion of the product.

There you have it!

An All-Time Mariner!

 And a 2/14er!

Of course, this legendary Mariner is pictured with Cleveland.

Naturally, the back of the card further emphasized all his time with the Mariners, which became 5 after a run in the long-ago time of 1984. Given all that time, how could they not find a picture of him in the proper uniform for the set?

But at least it makes for some nice binder oddness.

(Some) Baseball via Michigan

 More from the TMV mailer!

Here's the second mini-jersey of the mailer! Carlos Beltran's entry into the genre. The buttons on it are merely decorative a non-functional. Although at that size I don't really think I'd be able to open and close them even if they were. 

Here's the numbered/parallel Mets in the mailer. I had no memories of Lindstrom, seeing as he'd be traded from the Mets before he reached the bigs, but did end up bouncing around 6 teams over 8 years. 

Relic time! Although a piece a wood being defined as a 'thread' seems painful. Although I've seen, and own worse in terms of painful attire.

The switch away from the Mets will be gradual, as the Mike Piazza content was half-and-half. I miss holograms. 

2020 Gallery was definitely late in Roberto Alomar's Topps career. He got banned in April 2021, but still had a few appearances that year. Stadium Club 2021 was probably his last. While he still shows up in Panini sets, I'm kinda indifferent on that beyond "Oh well, there he is". Shoeless Joe is probably the only one on the 'banned' guy who I enjoy seeing in such sets.

Especially with the edited uniforms, this could conceivably be either a Jays or a Mets card based on the player and the swatches. But it is the tiny, sorta cursive text at the bottom that makes it a Toronto card. After a handful of appearances with the Jays, and a return and actual big league time with the Mets, he spent 2024 in Japan.

I would have bet that this card was a 2/14 collection dupe. I would have lost that bet. 

But these were known needs! I'm now 1 card away (see my Top 10 list) from completing the base sets of 2022 Heritage, Heritage High Numbers and Heritage Minor Leagues. WOO-HOO!

And that's it for baseball and the mailer!

Is what I would have said, but there's still one more baseball item to get to.

You thought those repacks were the only wax in these? Since it would be too bulky to send the blaster, it was opened and the contents were sent as both unopened wax and the inserted 'ornament' card. Those will show up in a later post, probably next week to make a perfect Christmas post in March.

There you have it!

Hockey 2/14s

 Off to my COMC to-be-posted box, and today I'll work my way through the hockey portion.

Not long ago, I finally realized that the first NHL All-Star game took place on 2/14, and that said game was commemorated by a Pro Set card. I had the French version, and here's the English version. Events count, so these two cards are now in.

Looking at my current inventory, the 'events' portion is going to get really gory in the next shipment.

I'm heading overseas for this one, and double PC guy (Kitchener Rangers alum) with this Ryan MacInnis sticker. He's representing the Mannheim Eagles here. Not quite the Columbus Blue Jackets, but someone is still paying him to play hockey. He's currently on his third year with the team.

Another overseas card, this time it is Bogdan Kiselevich and the Severstal Cherepovets of the KHL. He'd spend time with the Florida Panthers, but would only get official cards in the e-pack Compendium release. This is my first card of his outside of that release.

I do have non-NHL cards of Norm Milley, but the Rochester Americans will never have a jersey as great as the Sudbury Wolves or a team name as great as the Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams. 

The rule for Boom Boom Geoffrion is that the cards can either not include his birthdate, or have it listed as 2/14. It seems that's the best way to take the conflicting information into consideration when building the binders.

The closest thing to a hit in this post is going to be that numbered Colby Barlow. "Prospectus Monentous"? This is from the third year of that insert set, and I have zero understanding how such a cheesy name wasn't one and done. Or even done before the presses ran.

As is the case seemingly all the time when I get COMC shipments, it is Nikolaj Ehlers that rules the numbers game in these posts. I'll always take advantage of e-pack bargains to add his cards to the collection.  Combining with my previous post, this one added 8 cards to the binders to move him up to 156. The especially loud one this time is a Mandelbrot Fractal, which makes the Orange Slice parallels on the bottom look particularly bland.

There you have it!