Unfortunate Hairlines

 

While a photo from the post-game 3-Star announcements is interesting due to its rareness, I'm sure the player in question isn't too crazy about looking like a high school Industrial Arts teacher in the photo.

Johnny Canuck!

 

Nothing much for this post - just a pair of cards featuring the full-time Abbotsford Canucks sweater logo, and occasional Vancouver Canucks one as well.

Also, even if didn't really have the feel of the standalone set, it was nice to see Champ's return, even if only as an insert set in Extended.

2025 Adventures in Repacks - Part 10 - Opening Day Double Play

 This seems like the perfect day to go through two of these. 

Here's the contents of the first one. I point out again that thanks to these repacks, I'll never run out of sleeves.

Not too much variety in terms of years in the 70s/80s pack, but since all the cards were 70s, including a Mets appearance, I'll forgive that. The Lee May and Thad Bosley are pretty cool random additions. Gary Serum sounds like a fake name created through AI.

They couldn't count to 4, resulting in two bonus cards in the 300 HR pack. I guess that meant I endedup with a pair of 300HR guys with Finley and Stanton. Finley squeaked in there with 304 in his career. Lots of those came in a very specific era...hmmmm.....

But it was the 5 card pack that really won this battle. That Ricky Gutierrez is a hidden gem in the 1995 set, and I'm surprised I didn't know about it until I opened this pack. We've also got Wrigley ivy on Jay Bell's card, and a couple minor league cards. The Trappers were obviously better thought of than the Wheelers, since they received the dignity of getting their city name on the card.

More supplies here!

Both of these repacks featured cards that I had no idea existed beforehand, but am really happy to officially add to the binders.  In this case, it is that Davis. I'm not sure about the puzzled expression, but it is probably him wondering if Marge Schott is going to take the cost of the gum out of his salary. That Marmol is pretty nice as well, although not as unique, as we'll see in this very repack.

This 5-pack doesn't even come close to the earlier one. I guess the nice look at the Musial patch is the highlight here.

I told you that Marmol wasn't so special in terms of subject matter. Although the angle chosen there, with all the fans clearly appearing in the background, was a lot more interesting. Is ending on a Blue Jays card a good sign for today? I'll find out in about 8 hours.

Two great cards in the Davis and Gutierrez is enough to get the thumbs up for these two repacks!

There you have it!

Raptors Megapost

 It is time again to show off a bunch of Raptors cardboard to their limited audience. Both COMC content and group break content will fill this post, with a bunch of trade content in a future post.

Among the COMC incoming mail, this was the only true Raptors card. It wasn't even a COMC card - just one I had sent through the mailbox service after picking it up through Panini Points. The Vance Johnson penmanship addition a few days ago also counts. Any Raptors card featuring a member of their 2019 Championship squad is an easy addition. 

The rest of these are a case of "My Binders - My Rules" additions. Such as 8 game Raptor (and now in the Clippers organization) DJ Carton. In cases like this, it is not just a desire to add a less expensive option, but really the desire to add anything at all. The odds of his getting a Raptors auto had to be close to zero.

Now for Ochai Agbaji, he's already received plenty of cards on the team, but will he gets autos at one point? Maybe. But until then, a cleverly positioned Kansas jersey on the card will do just fine.

As for the previous season's #1 draft pick, there are definitely more options out there, even if he doesn't have too many options so far that feature an unedited Raptors jersey. Still, there was a definite decline in penmanship from his Pro Set to Topps autograph move. When in doubt, go for the most legible signature available.

There's sort of a pennant vibe here - enough to make this the only non-auto or non-numbered card in the shipment.

And now, some 24-25 Raptors courtesy of a group break of 24-25 Hoops.

Here's the veteran base,

along with three of their four draftees. Ulrich Chomche wasn't included as a base card, but I've already rectified his lack of inclusion here by adding one of his autos to my COMC inventory. 10 cards total is just perfect for a 300 card base set. 

Are there parallels? Do bears defecate in forested areas?  These are the premium parallels, and just like with the holiday release, these parallels do have full colour backs.

I think these are the Texture parallels. 

These are a little easier to identify, but they are more than merely orange parallels. These are Premium Orange Prizm parallels. Classy! And /199.

That Walter is a perfect segue into the inserts and the final appearance of Ja'Kobe Walter in this post.

With a name like High Voltage, the design should be shiny. And it is.

Start with an autograph - end with one. Will Mogbo turn out to be a second rounder that helps the Raptors to a Championship like opener Norman Powell? Optimism can be a strange theme in fandom. Of the Raptors rookie class this season, both Mogbo and Chomche probably went into 2024 NBA releases with the fewest hits out there, so I'm happy to add this one as my first of the year. 

There you have it!

Kids Come Running for the Rich Taste of Sampo!

 Am I going to keep on adding cards of Sampo Ranta to my collection based solely on the MST3K episode "The Day the Earth Froze"?

Yes! And I'll even include AHL cards with the Colorado Eagles as well. Although there really aren't too many options for that outside of this one.

But there's still plenty of options with the big club available as well. All nicely priced thanks to e-packs.

There you have it!

Everything Else PWE

It looks like I'm ending the PWE onslaught with back-to-back posts.

There wasn't just the PWE from Night Owl, there was also one from Angels in Order. The latter expressed interest in a shiny Mike Trout from Prizm and a couple empty packs, so I sent those off. I got a dupe in return, but a wanted dupe since this one can end up in the Jays collection, with the previous in my CanCon collection. While I had dupes of his appearance in Update, these didn't use a horrid photoshop.

There were a few random basketball cards thrown in to keep Joey company. My favourite of the bunch was this rookie parallel of current Raptor and current car sales app spokesman Immanuel Quickley. 

It might not have the charm of Andrea Bargnani's pasta commercials, but it'll do.

Even a random hit! At least being able to associate this with a particular game/event is a lot more positive for the featured player than the last time I posted such a card.

Back to the Night Owl arrivals. Considering how into building '24 Heritage I was, I'm surprised these are my first minis from the set. I didn't even acquire any of the 2/14 guys, let alone team collections.

Kevin Gausman - in all his Sepia parallel glory. 

I like for these that they appear to have used actual charts for these as opposed to just a random collection of dots, or the same pattern for all the players in the set. I'm easy to please.

I probably should have grouped all the Bills stuff together, so I wouldn't have to wonder which pile of envelopes they were included in. Jim Kelly makes a 2/14 cameo, meaning that this is actually such a perfect photo of an OL guy.

It might not have been the best moment for the Bills this past season, but one of the more entertaining ones was seeing the Bills steamroll the Rodgers-led Jets, and having that followed with Tyrod Taylor coming in as backup and getting a nice ovation from the Mafia faithful. It being pure garbage time in the middle of a complete beatdown made Tyrod leading the Jets to a couple TDs more hilarious. 

I've been promised even more PWEs from the Owl, but that will take care of them for now.

There you have it!

Mets in the Mail, PWE Style

 If you've seen the recent Night Owl post, you'd know I recently received a bunch of PWEs from Night Owl in the past couple weeks. I might as well start working my way through 7(!) of them, hoping there's no more to come that will force an update.

This was the first card that I saw I when I opened the very first envelope. It had to be a sign I was in for some fun cards. Given the awkwardness of everything here, including the fact the bunt obviously wasn't successful, I guess he annoyed someone at Fleer HQ enough for them to choose this photo for Super Joe.

Happy Mookie always makes for a great card.I'v 

Much as I like these dated cards, I'm disappointed that I'll never be able to add a baseball one into my 2/14 collection.

These envelopes were so filled I'm going to have to just pile things up the rest of the way home. Pre-game workout is definitely a theme I don't see much of on cards. Or maybe this is from spring training. Either way - unique. Boy, could I go for some Quaker Chewy Granola Bars right about now - I'm not certain as to why.

That's a nice display of penmanship, even in facsimile form.

Wasn't that Alvarez entry from Finest loud enough for you? Here's Brett Baty to compete in assaulting your eyes!

That McEwing might have been the strangest photo choice of the bunch, but 2002 Fleer also provided one of the better photos here, as Edgardo Alfonzo is sporting New York Cubans throwbacks on his card. The Mets played the Blue Jays on that date, and I also have cards featuring Toronto sporting the Chatham Coloured All-Stars uniforms.  Also, with 7 appearances, 1999 Bowman was the easy volume winner in the first stack of envelopes.

First stack?

Yup. Because another 3 showed up a few days later.

Oddly enough, the first card I saw when I started digging into the envelopes was another bunting photo.

Instead of cards having cartoons on the back, let's just make the whole card the cartoon.

Here's this group's king in terms of blindness inducing cards.

But there were definite contenders for that among some of the Mosaic cards. Also: ARCHIVES! 

Baseball Heroes came out of nowhere to tie 1999 Bowman with 7 cards, moving up from the 1 in the first group. 

But that's only enough for a tie for second place, as 2000 Skybox Dominion made a grand total of 9 appearances between both rounds of PWEs.  Kris Benson's time in the Mets was definitely memorable, although likely more due to his wife's promise if she ever caught him cheating. That was from the Mets' "Any publicity is good publicity" era.

And that's the Mets portion of my most recent PWE onslaught. But there's more PWE stuff to come!

Thanks for all these!

Penmanship Binder Newness

I haven't done a post exclusively saluting legibility in signatures since August. It seems like it is time to go around again with this.

Zach Evans may have only been a sixth round pick, but in terms of legibility, he should have at least been selected in the second round. I'd put him as a first rounder, but the V in his last name is a little off on some of the stickers. Such as this one. But that's a minor quibble, since 8 out of 9 is still far better than many of the draftees today.

Vance Johnson was definitely a mainstay of the junk wax era. I love the 'V' wrapping around the 'J' to connect the two - even if looking at other signatures available show that's just a coincidence with this one. Considering I got this with Panini Rewards points and didn't know my card would have that - BONUS!

I always feel a little disappointed when a player has a nice signature, but they never get a chance to sign it in the majors. Supak was still doing the minor league thing as of last year, though. 

Every letter individually written? An artistic look to both initials? That's one worth picking up! And he did reach the bigs, resulting in a slight deterioration in auto quality. He's now in  the Athletics system, and I admit I had trouble not writing 'Oakland' for that.

There you have it!