Belated Football

 I guess I should have done this after/alongside my US Thanksgiving post, but now seems like a good a time as any to show off the football additions to the 2/14 collection. And considering I'm doing both footballs here, it is still timely after yesterday's World Cup draw.

I think I'd rather spend that Friday night in jail rather than in that part of the city.

With that out of the way, here's the football content in my most recent COMC shipment:

Getting to actual cards, shiny is always a nice way to start off the cardboard portion of any post, such as this Red Refractor.

Fleer Tradition could often be counted on for a nice retro-like design. I do wish the player cartoon in the lower corner changed according to the position of the player. 

This could have been used alongside the Tracy McGrady card I showed in a recent recap, because this card is designed to be open. Fortunately, this one was a lot easier to open, in the sense that you did not need to rip anything to show off the full images. 

And now, you get more Pat Patriot than you expected!

Of course, there's going to be a Jim Kelly appearance.

And a card where Jim is in the background still counts as well.

Over to the pitch, and a couple of Frenchmen!

Myziane Maolida makes his collection debut with a pair of cards. That's your standard refractor on the right, but the brighter of the two is  a GoldRayWave version. Which is all one word, and I'm just too tired to even consider adding that word to my dictionary. It's enough of a bother to add  'ou' spellings.

Top Shelf Terrors is a set name that could work just as nicely in hockey as in soccer. While this isn't Jeremy's first card in the collection, it is the first one where Topps started getting his birthday correct on the cards. While there was no birthdate on this insert...

it is present here.

And that can act as a perfect intro to an autograph! Hits are pretty sparse in the soccer portion of the collection. This is only my third autograph, joining Diego Fagundez and Dillon Powers in a clean sweep for MLS autos. At least the 'D' stranglehold ends.

But there you have it!

2025 Adventures in Repacks - Part 35 - Back to the Hangers

 

I still have several of these around. Time to finally get caught up and do one of them. Nice enough horizontal opener.

Boddicker and Hayes have some real Panini friendly photos, leading in to an actual Panini entry. That's about all I found noteworthy about the opening group.

Ditch the baseball attire and replace it with a hockey jersey, and Brian Drahman could easily pass for a third-line winger. That's a downright Jagr-esque mullet. Can a haircut save a repack? Yes, it most certainly can.

Here's the hit! Sure, Dawson may have only made 9 more plate appearances in the majors than I have, but this is my first auto that includes a sliding glove.

Cooperstown finale! Hell yeah!

When one of the more notable cards in the repack is a 1991 Bowman, I'm really struggling to find good things to say about it. Sliding gloves and all that. 

But there you have it!

Raptors in the Mail

 Back to the TMV mailer, and today it will be the Raptors content contained within.

I'd added a parallel of this previously into my collection to commemorate the famous bouncing shot by Kawhi. It is a 9 card rainbow for it, and if I could pick one Raptors card to get the complete rainbow of, this might be the one. 

This whole design makes it seem that Tracy is going to appearing singing Michigan J. Frog standards.

Alas, no. Sure, I have to damage the card to actually see the image inside, but if I have no plans to re-sell it, there's nothing wrong with doing so. 

Back-to-back posts with Vince Carter appearances! Appreciate the subtlety of the card on the left, because things are about to get really bright.

 Because there were a lot of shiny parallels in the mailer! Thankfully, the two appearances of Blue Hoops parallels of VanVleet and Walter help preserve my eyes. My favourites are probably the Boucher content, since he left the team this past off-season, the final member of the Championship team to depart. Honourable mention to Gasol in the dino throwbacks.

Bruno may have been more "two years away from being two years away" than "the Brazilian Kevin Durant", fine in

Next up, the guy who had all the little paisans in Toronto wanting their nonna to cook up Primo Pasta for Sunday dinner. While he was perfectly fine in Toronto, he really didn't live up to the hype one would associate with a first overall pick. But, this wasn't the strongest draft class. I'll just be thankful they didn't pick Adam Morrison instead.

Plus, an iconic Raptor did show up in that draft, just 23 picks later via Memphis. And Houston. And several seasons later. But Kyle Lowry was probably the definitive Raptor over much of his time with the team, even if with others taking the spotlight. If he doesn't end up with his #7 in the rafters next to Vince Carter's #15, I'd be amazed. Whatever his legacy with the team dictates, here he is on a plate out of Flawless.

So, I'm now halfway through the mailer. Mets, Bills and miscellaneous stuff still to go. Will I get through it before 2026? Probably not. I know my procrastinating tendencies.

But for now, there you have it!

Second Fiddle

I picked this up the same time I got the blaster of 2025 Topps. With a pair of Cooper Flagg inserts, and that Anunoby parallel lurking within that, it was easy to ignore this. But it is now time to get around to it.

First card out. If you've seen a Donruss issue from the past year, you know exactly what you're getti Although if the video on the big screen behind Deni had created some sort of recursion with the video used, this could have been an all-time great picture.

Nothing too interesting as I progress through the base cards. 

Here's some Blue Velocity parallels. While there is a notable name here with LaMelo Ball, the big winner is Marcus Smart rocking the Vancouver Grizzlies throwbacks. If only they'd also changed the team logo to match it. 

Purple parallels too, although despite one rookie's claim to be Rated, they're not nearly as interesting as Marcus.

The Insets! The Winner Stays includes nothing on the back about that particular run to that team's championship, which really is a downer from an insert set saluting victors. At least the more interesting of the two, Kareem, is a shiny holo parallel.

The final base cards! Raptors content! I have no complaints when their only appearance is from the Legends portion of it. Meaning that they've had legends play for them. And backboard cam too!

While there were a few interesting cards for me (Smart, Carter, Abdul-Jabbar) it still feels like a below average break.

But there you have it!

Thankful for a 2/14er Fact

 I didn't do much of anything card-wise for Canadian Thanksgiving, but there was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up for today.

It comes from the leader for games played among football in the collection. And my 9th card of his, the last of his mainstream releases. 

I actually didn't know that, but sure enough:

Yup, there he is!

So this was an educational card for me as well. I just wish I had a new MST3K-related to card to show off for Turkey Day.

And there you have it!

E-Packing 2/14s

 While it is mainly for hockey additions, I was able to exploit Goodwin Champions releases to add some content to the other portions of my collection.

Such as my first autograph of Olympian Caroline Marks! This is the third autograph of someone who has a gold medal in their possession, joining Kara Lawson and Milan Hejduk. That company also means she's the first one with an individual medal. On-card auto as well! Although C Mark S is an odd layout for the auto, at least what is there is legible.

Here's 4 more of her, and that pushes her into a tie for second place among the miscellaneous portion of the collection with a whopping 6 cards, trailing Danai Gurira's 20. At least the lenticular one proves UD had access to other photos. 

This Clear Cut Moreno addition was actually part of my previous shipment. I'm guessing it got stuck to something else in the box and I completely forgot to post it. Oops! But acetate greatness really needs to be shown off.

Basketball content could also be found in Goodwin Champions. Despite having not yet finished his time in the NCAA, Ian Jackson is now at 4 cards in the collection. And I just took advantage of a Black Friday deal at COMC to add an auto of his. If he end up in a Topps/Bowman release, he may accomplish the rarity of having cards from 3 of the big companies even before playing in the NBA.

Lane Hutson is easily the biggest name that has debuted in the collection over the past year. He's all over 24-25 e-pack stuff, and here's a couple I picked at the time, although I did need COMC to acquire the time he got his other Rookie of the Month nod in March.

These I picked up cheaply on COMC because of e-pack dumping. The Ooh La La is a speckle parallel, and I didn't even add the regular one until earlier this week. Procrastination!

As is seemingly always the case, it is Nikolaj Ehlers winning the volume battle. 

I was hoping that Urban Podrekar would get drafted into the NHL, just so I could add more cards of the best name in the collection. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. I'll probably chase down any cards of the Euro leagues, though.

True the name, it does look like the best is yet to come for Colby Barlow. He's a first round pick, he's got to get at least a shot at  the NHL, right? 

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I guess I could note that the 2021 Sens #1 pick has not only not played in a single NHL but also still hasn't landed a single card in any set. Ouch.

Start with an auto that is on the upper end of modern legibility- end with Kirk Van Houten's drawing of dignity. Sounds about right.

I still have a couple more posts worth of 2/14 stuff in my COMC to-be-posted box to show off. Maybe I'll get to it before the next one comes in.

But there you have it!

There's Always Room for Chronicles

 

Especially discounted Chronicles.

First card out is the base design. It might not be the most exciting design you could pull, but it does seem more appropriate when this is the first you see.

Exactly what you'd expect - a mix of legends and players yet to make their MLB debut. I do like collation oddness by getting back-to-back cards of St Louis managers. I'm not sure as to why, but Luminance this year made for a really classy looking design for legends. 

Naturally, I do have to show off the "Did You Know?" facts on the back.

Mets content! That Lou Brock is another real nice part of the Luminance portion of the set. Also, with 4 Cardinals and 3 Cubs entries, this particular pack should have been available for purchase in a very different locale. The XR entry of Bobby Witt is slightly thicker than the regular cards. But since the shinier entry does scan nicer than the others, so I won't complain.

But there you have it!