PWE Chronicles: The Raptors

 

Time to work through the Raptors content in a trio of PWEs that arrived from Kerry @ Cards on Cards. It was finally enough for me to work my way through the complete pain-in-the-arse that shipping to the States has turned into. I totally understand why ebay sellers are doing this.

PWEs are the perfect choice for stickers. If I didn't have a few oversized items in the package, I probably would have used it to send all those OPC stickers I sent stateside yesterday morning.  As for these, I hope the idea to match the photo of Barrett wearing the Raptors jersey that matches the Canadian flag was intentional. 

Now to the actual cards. I was certain I already had that Kleiza, but I was probably just mixing it up with one of my other cards featuring the camo jerseys. I barely remembered that Totally Certified made itis return as a standalone product this past season, although it had been seen in Chronicles. Finally, Ed Pinckney was another one that seemed to be a dupe but than I noticed it was an Electric Court parallel. Never mind!

A little bit of shiniess in the second and final batch of Raptors content. Red, White and Blue parallels always seem a little off for Canadian teams in Prizm releases. I would be also pretty amused if the Independence Day parallels in Topps had the Jays cards /67 instead. 

That's it for the Raptors content, but 3 PWEs can contain so much more - like Jamal Murray and some 2/14s! That's next post.

There you have it!

All Elite

 Another hanger pack from Walmart.

And the cards that came from this one.

And here's the first card out. You're getting this for shiny base cards, and you're getting them.

You aren't buying this for interesting photographs, but at least one of them provided a defensive player with the ball.

Bills content! I'd be happy with even a single one, but getting a pair out of my only pack, even a value pack, is a nice way to beat the odds. Will I curse the team to be involved in another dramatic game today by posting these? Given how they've stunk out the joint on their previous trips to play the Jets, probably.

It's nice to see some different names among the legends portion of the set. Sure, you have regulars like Bradshaw and Portis, but Ken Houston and William Andrews are definitely not familiar names in these type of releases. 

No base rookies. No base inserts. But they would show up with the pink parallels. Of course, I'll be keeping neither of these, since both the Stewart and Herbert will be more appreciated elsewhere.

Getting a couple Bills cards, and a some interesting legend names make the pack slightly less dull than the photography would indicate.

There you have it!

Some Sens

 Nothing too fancy today, just a few cheap Sens additions to that team collection.

This season, UD did "Young Guns Renewed", which took the photos and design of previous players' YG cards, and added a hideous background to it. These would make late 80s Diamond King backgrounds look tame. Renewed!

Kevin Mandolese played three games for the Sens, and that's the extent of his career in the NHL, although he did sign with  Montreal a couple games ago. All I remember about him is that he looked like a serial killer on his Team Canada card. 

With only a half-season worth of time as a Sen, a game-used stick of his would be a pretty rare item.

And my only numbered card from this small grouping. I'm just happy they're spelling it Exceptional instead of Xceptional. Which I was surprised to learn wasn't an insert set in SPX. 

But there you have it!

Incredible Baseball Action!

 

Can be found on other cards, but not this one!

Bills! Bills! Bills!

 Let the season commence! Let my hopes go through the roof only to have it end in disappointment. I almost prefer the playoff drought years where they were basically eliminated by December.

Almost.

But here's a bunch of Bills cards to show off from various sources.

First up, here's a team set built through a group break.

There were not just one, but two 2/14 babies among the base set. And neither one was Jim Kelly! While Drew Bledsoe is a frequent inclusion in these types of sets, I'm certainly not used to seeing him with the Bills. With his going on IR to start the season, Tyler Bass will have to wait to see how much he warrants inclusion.

As for the other team legend, this was unexpected, but definitely a pleasant surprise with his appearance. I don't believe Joe Cribbs has been seen in a lower-end base since UD Legends almost 20 years ago.

Here's the rest of the team set. There's my first card saluting Amari Cooper's brief run with the team. While I'm usually looking forward to adding their first round pick to my collection in an early set, I'll gladly wait until later, given some of the accusations against him.

I got a single parallel, but it was a numbered Josh Allen in a team colour match, so all is well there.

And a single insert, also of Josh. So, not too much overall, but as long as I get a team set out of the deal, I'm still happy.

Now, COMC stuff! The theme for this portion is "Team Collection Debuts"

Topps Total and their trio cards were wonderful for adding obscure Bills to my binder, especially ones with few cards other than these. Even if I did already have solo cards of some of these guys, do I really need to add an appearance of a guy named Kiwaukee?

I guess I should have waited until cards from Select to show up to get a card of Taylor Rapp wearing a Guardian Cap in-game, but this does officially add him to my collection.

Like I'm going to have a chance to get any sort of a card from Panini of an undrafted OL guy. 

As for my desire to commemorate Marquez Valdes-Scantling and his part-season in Buffalo, at least I've got an option with him in Bills colours. Mind you, this card was the only option. He had no others, not even parallels of this. Thank you, sticker dumps!

The final debut is by request, and said request was by Joe Andreessen.

See!

He did get a pack-pullable card in Select, but this one is a lot more interesting.

And there you have it!

Forgotten Retail

 

Today, a couple packs I've been waiting too long to get around to posting.

I'll start with the more recent pack - and Bills content is a wonderful way to start the pack. It looks like this photo is from his touchdown during the playoff game against the Steelers, so that's a nice little moment to be preserved on a card.

As for a not-so-nice moment, here's Bailey Zappe looking like he's throwing a ball for the first time.

 But here's another good one - a defensive player getting a TD

But as nice as some of those are, they don't really compare to Wan'Dale Robinson clasping the ball like it is his long lost buddy.

The 'legends' portion of this set is greatly improved when players that you don't expect to see show up i   the set. Jeff Blake? YES! You'll see a couple more surprise appearances when I do a Bills post this weekend.

Rookies! At least that Franklin will be appreciated when I add it to my next Cards on Cards mailer. Which will happen as soon as I figure out how to handle the outgoing tariffs. 

Your blue parallels. I guess the Jake Ferguson colour-match is about as exciting as it gets. After Brock Purdy made a name for himself as a Mr. Irrelevant, all drafted QBs get cards now.

Shininess. 

And that's the pack. It's Donruss, so you look for interesting things wherever they may appear. And there were a couple to make it interesting.

Select! Cards that show off every bit of filth of my scanner.

Inserts that do the same!

But at least that isn't too bad with the silver prizm parallels.

And here's those promised red/yellow parallels. I do like how the bland white uniforms of the Cardinals on that card are offset by the brightness of the card.

But yes, I'm reaching for anything of interest on a dull, dull pack.

Donruss over Select? Yes, at least there were some cards of note in there.

But there you have it!

2025 Adventures in Repacks - Part 30 - Countdown to Football

 

Even if the proper 3-down, rouge-containing version of football has been going for a few months now, the NFL, with many more collecting options, is underway as of Thursday. So, it will be several days of football here, starting with this one. A Hall of Fame opener here!

Normally, I'd be the happiest about a Bills appearance. Not here, thanks to the hilarity of that David Carr/Texans team card. Considering that he was coming off a season where he set the record, one he still holds, for the number of times sacked, the biggest impact he made was with the turf. For another thing you don't see much of on a card, check out the abandoned video camera on the ground behind Shepard. That missed capturing an interesting close-up of what looks like a wide-open TD.

That Aaron Craver is definitely a photographic gem from the junk wax era. Leeland McElroy really didn't qualify for the category of a Dreampick, as he only lasted two seasons in the league. I can get the auto'd versions of this card for $1 at COMC. $1.21 for the cheapest one of these unauto'ed versions. That can't be good.

And the hit is a Bills one - a refractory one too! Wright's NFL career lasted one season below McElroy's totals, so maybe I should have reconsidered anything I said about him. Also as I type this, this refractor is cheaper than the base version, but just by 12 cents.

The last cards before the finale. Art Shell is someone who I'm really surprised doesn't make more appearances in modern releases. He's a Hall of Famer that broke a colour barrier. He just seems like an easy choice to show up.

And your finale, another one with a Hall of Fame induction, and, unlike the others, with a bad history of texting and a worse history of fraud. But it is a random Topps Total appearance to end it, and I can ignore the player to enjoy that.

And there you have it!

2025 Adventures in Repacks - Part 29 - Hockey Catch-Up

 Time to catch up with some of the Dollarama repacks I've had around.

I've got 2 of them, and I'll start with this one with this content. 20-21 Extended will probably be showing up in repacks for many a year.

Now that's a superstar pack - when you have two candidates for the promised superstar in the pack. I'm leaning towards MacKinnon as the one. It does include the word Superstar on the card, after all. That's probably a notch above the All-Star status of Alex's card.

An alternate uniform is about all that is noteworthy about this portion.

It's Extended. You get what you get. I'm guessing it was retail, so I should probably be happy to see an insert here. Matt Murray's a Sens collection dupe, but not a mask binder dupe. It's the Sens' only appearance in this post.

That Pavel Bure entry from Pro Set Platinum would have been an amazing pull at the time. Now, it's repack filler. I really need to add my Rangers alum collection into TCDB, so I can be certain that the cards in question are dupes, like that Bellows.

Star power, recent wax, PC additions. That's a pretty good repack.

What will #2 bring?

A couple of repeats, and a couple new ones for this post. 

I love seeing 23-24 Metal Universe showing up in these lately - if for nothing else than to add some variety in these as a break from flagship.

I'm not surprised that this repack will on occasion contain more than one of the same team. This might be the first time I've seen a player repeated, though. I'm not looking back through every Presstine hockey repack post to see if I'm correct. 

All three are mask binder worthy, even if they could also have been repeated in the 2020s pack.

It was the Pro Set pack that saved this. With names like this in the pack, that's how that happens. That is some incredible star power in one junk wax pack. Hall of Famers present and future. Hall of Very, Very Good types.

And odd occurrences like that are why I love repacks.

There you have it!