The Best Thing About Discount Stickers

 

They can partially cover up problematic cover players. If the sticker hides the name, it can be anybody wearing a powder blue uniform and dark blue helmet!

First card out was a Met...New York card. That didn't really set the tone for the pack, as it was their sole appearance.

In fact, they'd get squashed by Toronto 5-1 in terms of appearances in the pack.

That even outnumbered the # of cards where the picture an unexciting one of them standing with all team logos mysteriously facing away from the camera.

But there were still some interesting photos in the pack, such as a turning two photo from Wrigley that also brings a nice cameo appearance trying to break up a double play. At least something different slipped through on a generally pretty bland release.

Naturally, there are exclusive parallels for every possible type of pack Panini puts out. These here are the holo red versions.

These Independence Day parallels aren't exclusives though, and go nicely with any team that has blue as part of its colours, even if they really don't fit with the concept of 'Kings'.

And then there's this guy - again. It's a Vector parallel, and was probably a good pull at the time. Now I can't in good conscience even give his stuff away. 

No sticker can hide this one.

But there you have it!

2/14 Baseball

 I'm back to the 2/14 binders today.

While I generally don't do reruns with this, I figured an update for one of the members of the collection made it worth showing this a second. Karson Ligon will get a chance to join Gabriel Moreno and Tyler Clippard as Blue Jays in the collection as a ninth round pick in the recent draft. That's probably low enough to keep him out of Bowman, but I can still have hope that he'll show up in something.

Now the actual newness. This card was inspired by a repack where the included hit was the Yusmeiro Petit version of this Beam Team card. When I looked to see what other players were featured in the set,  I saw that 2/14er Callix Crabbe was one of the featured players, and that his auto wasn't too expensive. So, here's his version.

When I showed off a bunch of Gabriel Moreno content about a month back, I whiffed on including this one. Here it is now.

Continuing the Goodwin Champions/UD unlicensed content - here's Brooks Lee making the move into double digits with these entries. 

Even my first auto of his! Inexpensive autos at COMC are a nice benefit of the e-packs when you aren't chasing after megastars. The same held true for the more recent e-pack multi-sport releases, which featured 2/14er Caroline Marks, whose auto is sitting in my inventory.

Minor league base cards are the best base cards. 

There's my second buyback card in the collection, and of course they count as a separate entry from the original. This one is the first I have with that particular stamp on it, as the other one being a Rediscover Topps entry of Scott Scudder. The '75 is an OPC entry, and that joins the regular Topps card and the mini to complete that rainbow.

I still have one more new player to show off, but I'll do that whenever I make my next 2/14 post with all the other new faces.

There you have it!

2025 Adventures in Repacks - Part 22 - Just Some Hockey

 Just 2 Dollarama repacks today.

The contents of #1 will include some protection for my next mailer.

A very solid start with the 5-card pack providing a couple of big names with Nash and Neely. 

The goalie pack gives me a rare chance to say something nice about the 21-22 flagship release - it allows for one to sorta see both sides of the goalie mask on some of them.

But no such chance here with this entry. 

The sleeves here also help with shipments when I send a box of cards vs. a bubbler. They work as padding in the ends of the box.

The misc 5 card pack wasn't anywhere near as interesting this time around. 

It's 21-22. I doubt I'll ever be interested enough to go back to scan things again if I messed up the orientation. 

Timmy's card! There's the winner from this pair of repacks. It was nice to see something outside of flagship show up in the 2020s pack. Twice!

There you have it!

Series 2!

 And a pack from Walmart.

This one, to be exact, which will probably be my only pack break of this, unless they show up in repacks.

Not tat much variety in the first grouping, but we do get some City Connect and some home run trots in there. It seems Smith's is a walk off against the Giants, and it is always nice to trace a card photo to a specific game. 

Breaking up the vertical orientation with the second grouping. That Falter uses that format nicely, but there's very little else noteworthy in this scan.

Things are a little more interesting in this one. Kutter Crawford offers up a salute to Jay Baller's '88 entry. He might not be a Met any longer, but there's my first and only Mets content in there. I love how they extend the photo outside to show the stretch to make the catch. Taylor Walls' entry is a holofoil parallel, which seems to underrate the loudness of it.

When I busted my S1 pack, I landed both the base and the retro of Andrew McCutchen in that pack. At least here the two Kumar Rocker are from different games. Mateo's flying headgear makes for my favourite photo in the pack, and I'm getting a Blue Jays finale.

I'm probably one-and-done with this, so there you have it!

5 Years of Mischief

 

My little girl turns 5 today! Time to show off the new additions to the 7/12 slider box.

It isn't quite Ozzie Smith, but this might be the most interesting photo in this small collection. 

My only pack-pulled 7/12 baby was this DaRon Bland, which I got from a value pack of Prestige. I didn't even know he was a 7/12er until looking it up in advance of Mischief's big day.

I may have pack-pulled this one as well, but had to get a second after learning Wells would count towards the collection. Like I needed an excuse to add some '24 Heritage.

If you thought the only minor league content in the collection would be that Joe Hamilton, then guess again. Savour the barber shop pole greatness of the 67's!

More CHL content, this time with an incredible team name. They dropped the Screaming part of the name several seasons back, and as a result became far less incredible.

Chronicles! YES!

Fact on the back! Another YES!

I'll end with the only new hit in the collection. And I get both the auto and the swatch as well.

I'm actually amazed at my ability to keep this collection a reasonable size. It is still perfectly contained within the same slidr box I've been using for the past few years.

And there you have it!

Late night edit:

I didn't realize I had one more 7/12er lurking around until I checked baseball reference. 

A New MST3K Auto

 

Sure, Marv Fleming may have picked up 4 Super Bowl titles over his career, including the first one in Green Bay "PACKERS! Packers won the Super Bowl!" but that isn't the reason he's in the collection.

He also had an appearance in the movie 'Superdome', which was riffed during the KTMA season. If a bit part is enough to qualify Mickey Lolich for the collection, then why wouldn't this?

Shirley Eaton is the only other KTMA auto I have, and The Million Eyes of Sumuru was reriffed during the Gizmoplex year.

There you have it!

2/14 Hockey

 My most recent comc shipment was pretty hockey intensive, and here is most of the contents that fall under that heading. There is still a new face to show off with one of those posts.

I know that Bernie might or might not be a 2-14 guy, since there are two different dates listed depending on the source. Still, it is the only OPC manufactured trophy card in the collection. Will Lane Hutson have one in the future? I guess I'll have to keep my eyes on the checklists. 

Speaking of Lane Hutson, here's a GDM entry of his. I'm not sure how to handle cards that were available before 2/14 for purchase, but not available in a physical form until afterwards when it comes to the annual countdown I do. I'll just hope I get a better card of his between now and 2/14/2026 to remove any internal debate.

I've complained before about Pillar's ghastly signature, but with this patch entry, there's nothing to worry about. Even if the colours don't match the photo. As the shouldn't - that's a Kelowna Rockets swatch.

These blue parallels were e-pack exclusive, and since these didn't drop on e-pack until after the previously mentioned deadline, this one will count towards the collection. You will see these parallels again when I start showing off some new faces in a future post.

That is probably the most interesting font choice for the numbering in this collection.

The one-and-dones to start this post wraps up with the double possibilities of Ryan Macinnis, someone who qualifies for both the 2/14 binders and the Kitchener Rangers alumni binders. As I usually do, I point out that Ryan is the son of Hall of Famer Al MacInnis.

Now, the sole double acquisition. Prospectus Momentous might be the goofiest name for an insert set in a long-time. Just groanworthy. It is a little hard to tell from the scan, but the CHL card is a clear cut acetate parallel. They are rare in the release, but still fairly inexpensive to acquire thanks to e-packs.

Continuing to increase the volume, here's the Mrazek content. I'm wondering if he'll get any cards out of his 5-game return to the Red Wings this past season. He's since been moved to the Ducks in return for Kitchener Rangers alum John Gibson. That's the second time I've been able to mention that other PC in this post.

Looks like I will finally be able to easily acquire NHL cards of Ehlers on a team other than the Jets. Finally some variety to his portion of the collection outside of his Halifax Mooseheads stuff. 

In a tie with Ehlers for top spot was Sean Hill, but I will end it with his cards since I rarely get a chance to wrap things up with his entries. I especially like the Blues entry, since I don't have too many of those in the collection in comparison to some other teams.

And there you have it!

2025 Adventures in Repacks - Part 21 - Too Long

 It has been too long since I picked up one of those 2 pack hanger repacks. So lets remedy it with this pickup, which had these packs within:

How very chrome!

It was kinda nice to bust some Chrome Update, since I'd never had the chance to open any of that before. Getting a Blue Jays insert of Vladdy Jr makes it even better. 

And the other pack - nothing but base cards. Nothing too interesting photographically speaking either. But that was to be expected. At least Scherzer brings some star power and Howard brings the veteran presence.

I landed a shiny Blue Jays card from one of the two packs. That's enough to give a solid thumbs in the middle to the repack.

There you have it!