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!

No Series 1? No problem!

 Since these were on the shelf at Walmart.

There is some logic to my choosing the Winter version over regular Hoops. I had the Raptors in a group break of the latter, meaning that any Raptors content I get here will not be a dupe.

You almost have to feel for a release whose packaging photo is dated by the time it reaches the shelves.

But let's see what's inside!

Pack 1:

My first card of the year is a 'traded' one. At the rate the tank is on in Washington, I think Malcolm should be "Please just list me with my old team". 

But I can't say too much about tanking - I'm a Raptors fan. Still, here's my first Raptors card of the year. Someone who is already off the team.

The same pack also contained a guy who came to the Raptors as part of the Olynyk trade. I'll probably see cards of him with a Raptors uniform this summer.

It doesn't look too bad here, but the Jazz were really done dirty by the choice fof yellow for the background of the name portion. In hand, it is so illegible you have to turn over the card to see which player it is.

Each pack ends with a trio of inserts/parallels. The Giddey is the Purple Prizms Premium one. Surprisingly for a Panini release, there aren't a dozen parallels for each card. 

The Premiums work extra hard to earn that name with nice full-colour backs with some team colour thrown in. 

Pack 2:

2nd pack, 2nd pick. Perfect!

The Tribute cards this year, at least with the diamond portion  of the background,  give the vibe of the 1990 Hoops subset that featured photos of then-current coaches from their playing days. Maybe with a little Skybox thrown in.

The inserts/parallels. Klay is the purple parallel, while Derrick is the regular Prizm Premiums. 

Pack 3:

First card out of the pack is a Raptors legend!

But if I wanted more direct Raptors content, these count! RJ is the first one that is still on the team as of actually pulling the card.

Another legend from the Tribute portion, which although it hasn't shown so far, it is a mix of current stars, rookies and legends.

The lack of snowfall effects on Marcus Smart's card seems to indicate that it was the only card I pulled that I could also have found in the regular release. Either way, it doubled the shininess count for this pack. 

Pack 4:

Interesting collation here, as the opening card was the base of Chris Paul, with the final card in the pack being the Premium parallel.

And here's the inserts. The Skyview card here is the holo parallel. The photo of Ja'Kobe is perfect, at least for a facial expression, of someone wearing basketball gear in cold weather.

Pack 5:

My favourite photo of the blaster.

Let the Raptors content keep on coming!

This pack definitely provided me with the best card in the box, that being the Jamal Murray parallel. That is my146th card of his and the first pack-pulled one for me in a bit! At least the wonderfully-silly Rookie Sweaters card provided me with two colours on the swatch. 

Pack 6:

Averaging one Raptors card per pack - I like that!

The Spurs go 2 for 3 in the insert/parallel portion. I didn't get pull any Wembayama content last year, so it is nice to at least acquire a second-year one early on.

The final card is one I won't be keeping, and will be on its way to Ann Arbor shortly.

So, there's the blaster. A nice number of PC cards within, and a few fun miscellaneous cards to go with them. The snow theme seems very appropriate over the past week or so, since there has been a lot of it.

Just compare Mischief saying hello to her pal Oslo a few weeks ago to them at their greeting fence earlier this week.

There you have it!