Three Downs, but Just 2 Boxes of Upper Deck CFL

My favourite release of the year! 2025 Upper Deck CFL dropped last week. Nice colour coordination with a Blue Bomber on the packaging of a blue box. This year, they retained the make-up from last year. 100 base cards, and the same # of packs with 9 base cards, and 3 inserts parallels.

They've also kept the base design pretty much the same as previous years. Take the hockey, then take away the foil.

I'm not going to complain about the appearance of any Tiger-Cats card in the product, but Taulia was already out of the league in training camp. Surely 4+ months can give you time to replace him?

I'd rather have another kicker show up. These were 3 of the 4 in the set, as I didn't land the Sergio Castillo. No long snappers in the set this year.

Here are some of my favourite photos out of the 89/100 base cards I landed. As nice as seeing Pimpleton in the process of making a reception is pretty nice, I've got to give the nod to TJ Lee, and the defensive player with the ball in this grouping.

The final 20 cards in the base set are "Season Standouts", which highlights individual performances. Some of these players repeat in this subset, some don't. But it did lead to me getting two Bo Levi Mitchell base cards in the same pack.

And here is proof that you can wipe the background from a card image, and still have a great photo. This is why I specified that my favourite photo earlier was my choice in that group of three. This one blows those other three away. Defensive player diving with the ball!

Strangely, Rolan didn't get a true base card in the set, despite being the reigning Most Outstanding Defensive Player in the CFL.

Of course there are parallels, at 1 or 2 per pack, golds are the most common. They have very little to distinguish them from the regular base, just that little gold strip next to the name.

Although the background being changed does make the Season Standouts far more obvious.

Next up are Deluxe parallels. They're more obvious with the numbering on the front, and the UD hologram on the back. Each box provided 6 of these, with one being a dupe.

Finally, the hits. All the hits were autos this year. The first name only auto is pretty different, and the ink that is on that sticker has some fairly legible cursive. This does make for my second straight year pulling a Stavros-graph. Santos-Knox is a former Ti-Cat, so there's that as well.

And the Eastern Division love continued in the second box. Since I didn't get any of the High Gloss entries this year, that Peters auto/relic is the lowest numbered cards of the boxes. The Standouts parallels are the portion of the set that got the auto/relic parallels. Only the base design cards got the autographs. Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund gets the "long name" pass for having a shorter autograph. Finally, another Hamilton autograph to complete the Eastern sweep in terms of hits.

Considering I landed 3 Ti-Cats autographs, and got closer to completing the base set than the year prior, it is a thumbs up for these boxes.

There you have it!

My Newest MST3Ked Auto

 It's Gary Lockwood!

He's got a pair of MST3Ked roles under his belt. He was George in The Magic Sword, and in terms of screen time, was the star of the movie. But, since they had Basil Rathbone and Estelle Winwood available, they were listed as the stars. The movie was one of the better ones featured on the show, and even the MST3K crew admitted it was "actually pretty good". They'd make up for its quality later in season 4, with Manos, Attack of the The Eye Creatures and Monster a Go-Go being forced upon the SOL crew.

Gary was also in 'Kitten With a Whip' in an uncredited role. Not as said kitten, which was Ann Margaret.

But there you have it!

PWE Chronicles: Everything Else

The other stuff in the PWEs gets shown off today.

The 2/14 collection gets 3 new Nolan Schanuels. Unfortunately for me, I had added that Heritage entry to my latest COMC shipment. Oops on me not remembering the generosity and the "Hey! I know someone that PCs that person!" memories of the card community.

My collection of local product Jamal Murray also got a nice little boost as well, with a little bill of shininess thrown in. And I've got another one coming up this year, and Will Riley going later in the draft than Jamal did, his stuff should be a little more affordable.

Stickers too!

And since I have no place else to logically place it other than a one-card post, here's one from the 1995 Fleer-ish Top Class that was in my COMC to-be-posted box. But it does include the hometown, something Panini rarely did, and the whole set did provide my only chance at a Raptors card of Thad Young.

Thanks for all the goodies, Kerry! Watch your mailbox for a goodie box!

There you have it!

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!