One Card Only: Faux Canadiana

This may look like a Star Wars autograph of Angus MacInnes aka Gold Leader. However, I think of it as a Strange Brew autograph of Angus MacInnes, aka Jean "Rosey" LaRose.

Now, take off, ya hoser!

2/14 Oddness

Sometimes, when someone doesn't have a lot of cardboard representation, you have to get a little weird when it comes to adding them to the 2.14 collection. So, I dip into something with a Western feel and something called 1938 Exhibit Movie Stars 4-on-1. It the upper right cormer, with the gun and white hat is Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, While this is a Western themed card, I know him far more for his appearance in the Undersea Kingdom serials that were riffed during Season 4 of MST3K. I believe he's the third riffed actor to appear in my collection, behind Lois Maxwell (Agent Double 007) and Edward Platt (The Rebel Set).

Hey! It's the Undersea Kingdom, for you and for me! Where the men are in dresses..

And yup, that's future Baretta/murder defendant Robert Blake as Little Beaver in the upper corner. He didn't start that recurring role until the mid 40s, so I can't really call this a 1939 release.  But here's the newest face, in luxurious black & white, in the collection!

A 2/14 COMC rarity

The rarity is not in terms of having low-numbered parallels, but in terms of hockey having the lowest number of cards from any of the 4 sports in the collection, so much so that I have to fatten the post slightly with a couple cards from the misc. section.

I'm not sure how Gaborik ended up in a late-season release, given that he didn't play in one game last year, and probably won't see much, if any ice time this year. Still, I won't complain about another of his appearances in the binder as he approached the 200 card mark.

Might as well include a hit to help him get there as well. That's a pretty decent stick sliver as well. That puts him at the 196 mark.

Although he has yet to receive a card at the NHL level, Allan McShane approaches double digits in the collection with an OHL autograph, and a Team Canada parallel.

And that's it for the hockey. So let's add a couple miscellaneous cards to round things out.

I have no idea how to even pronounce the character's name, but since he's portrayed by 2/14 baby Anton Lesser, cards of his count for the collection.

And thanks to her appearances in Black Panther and Walking Dead, Danai Gurira becomes to the first member of the misc. collection to reach double digits with her 10th card.

And there you have it!

A Lovely Addition to the 2/14 Collection

It is my second card of Kristen Dalton's (both from a Dead Zone themed set), but my first autograph of the actress. The 2/14 baby uses the provided space nicely to create a great signature, and this might be an example of an autograph that isn't off-sticker, but off-card. But I'll definitely prefer that to bare-minimum squiggles that are out there. And her imdb page indicates that she's keeping busy, so good for her!

There you have it!

One Card Only: You see your Gypsy

I was hoping to have recapped my box of Series 2 of the MST3K release by now, but my box break was short one card for the Kickstarter-promised complete set, so I sent out for a replacement. While I wait for that to show up, here's one of the bonus cards that were included.

Cheating is bad. Richard Basehart is good.

The Miscellaneous Section

My 2/14 binder is divided up by category. I have separate sections for the 4 major team sports, and then there's the everything else miscellaneous section. That's where soccer, wrestling, Hollywood and pretty much everything else ends up. Here are a few new cards for the binder, coming from my COMC to-be-posted box.

MMA is definitely a misc. binder thing. Natasha wasn't a fighter, but a ring card girl. I guess they count when it comes to cards. She's now Natasha Kingsbury (married to fighter Kyle) and is easily in the top-4 of my collection for signature quality, alongside Darius Songaila, Patrick Ramsey, and someone you'll see later on.

The other familiar face in the collection is Danai Gurira. E-packs made the ability to acquire cards featuring her Black Panther character of Okoye super cheap through COMC. I've also got 2 cards of hers from an Avengers e-pack release sitting in my inventory, which will tie her for the overall lead in that portion of the collection with soccer's Edinson Cavani. These join a pair of cards of hers from The Walking Dead.

More e-pack stuff, as there was also an Agent Carter release available. This was higher end, with 1 card per e-pack, but it being either an auto or a sketch card. Seeing these up for about $1.50 indicates Erin Torpey wasn't one of the more desired pulls, but I'll gladly take these for that price and add her two cards to the collection.

Hollywood brings another new autograph to my collection, and the other contender for great penmanship. He would have been in his early 80s when he signed this card, and has better handwriting than most of the far younger people in the binder. Pretend you're Grandpa Simpson and watch him in an episode of MAAAAAAATLOCK! He's the used-car lot owner without the word 'Honest' in his name.

Some sort of guessing game set gets me my first card of Hugh Downs. He's someone with a pretty extensive run in journalism, as well as a game show host. Youtube has this episode of him hosting Concentration back in the 60s. And there's a very familiar contestant to baseball fans - Ralph Branca.

I assume there's more 20/20 stuff out there, but I prefer game shows to that. They're the only genre of programming where talking back to the TV isn't considered nuts. Hugh's still alive as well, turning 97 this past 2/14.

And another media figure ends this, with an autograph from, of all things, a Scooby Doo set. Pat's wiki includes the section "Alcoholism and voice-mail episode". There's no way that phrase can be spun in a positive light.

But there you have it!

2016 Topps Update Jumbo Box Break - Packs 7 and 8

Pack #7:

Remember pack #6, which had 35 of the 45 base cards within being dupes. I can't say anything bad about collation after opening this. This one was entirely dupes. 45 dupes in this pack.

But, when the pack also contains one of these beautiful 'stamp' cards in it as opposed to the standard manufactured relic, it isn't that bad. I really like that this is for an event that took place in 1968 (Hank's 500th home run), and that date also appears on the stamp. A look at ebay shows all the ones there have this Illinois stamp on them, so I commend Topps on their ability to find 375 of this stamp.

And the rest of the inserts. Surprisingly(?), the Clemente does note the sad aftermath of Clemente's 3000th hit.

Pack #8:

In contrast to pack #7, this pack was entirely needed cards. I have no idea how I managed to complete the base set from this box, but I did.

Contenders for the best photo in this pack include this not-quite All-star game photo of Steven Wright.

But, it makes sense, since when you flip the card over, you realize he didn't get to play in the game. So Fenway does seem to be the better setting.

Getting a 'play at the plate' photo as your rookie card? Sweet. Jett Bandy sounds like a name from a create-a-player in a Madden game.

Your winner is this beautiful Brandon Moss card that makes the stadium and its surroundings as much of a star as the player featured. A horizontal variation on the Randal Grichuk Stadium Club card.

Mets content!

Jays content!

And your inserts. So you don't strain your eyes, it is Ian Kennedy on the gold parallel. The Franklin is a really unnecessary subset this time around, but at least I get a card of a post-homer Edwing. Plus, I know at least one blogger who should be interested that Plaza ended up in the First Pitch set.

And there you have it. Final packs up next, and that should land me the autograph in the box.

Familiar 2/14 faces

Back to the COMC "To Be Posted" box, and my latest additions to my 2/14 binder, with people that have made at least one appearance prior to this.

Football stars off this post, with this insert from 2015 Topps Fire. I pulled a John Elway from this insert set in my only pack (along with an Alshon parallel /199). I remarked that if you took away the Fire logo, this would look great as a poster. Changing from Broncos to Bears, and that's still true.

Easily the most juvenile name in my collection. This makes me the only person who would want a Harry Colon.

Like any good Canadian, the largest portion of the collection is devoted to hockey. Only 2 players saw their numbers increase. The base card of Sutter is an acetate base card. The bottom two cards are parallels from last year's MVP. Since Upper Deck did the e-pack thing with MVP this and last year, the cards are amazingly cheap at COMC.

Baseball start with this great photo of the late John Marzano. A nice picture even if most of him is blocked by Bill Mueller. And the fact he doesn't appear to have the ball in his glove to make the tag.

Back-to-back posts with Jaime Cocanower featured. This is from a local set, and as best as I can tell Gardner's is a bakery in Madison, WI.

The only hit for this post is this swatch from Yankees prospect Ian Clarkin. I've got a couple of his autographs in the binder - so it was time to welcome this relic.

There are no players currently active in the NBA with 2/14 birthdays. But, if the retired portion of sets include a Richard Hamilton or Gheorghe Muresan each year, I'll at least have one card to chase each year.

All 5 portions of the binder will get additions in this post, as these two are bound for my misc. folder. John Barrymore is the subject of my oldest card in the collection, and since that was a cigarette card from the 30s, it isn't in the binder but in a top loader. So, this becomes his first card in the binder. Anton Lesser, the actor behind Qyburn, is also a 2/14 baby.

Reading the back makes feel like Lisa Simpson learning about the Yahoo Serious Festival.

Pack Sampler - 2016 Donruss

I'm leaning towards building this set for the 2016 season. Hopefully, some retail options will become available on this side of the border. Until then, I'll try a few hobby packs.

Here's one of the four packs I grabbed.

The first card from this set of the season was this one. I'm not the biggest fan of large borders, but for this set, it really works nicely since it is done up in the team colours. This year's cards are definitely inspired by some early 90s Donruss baseball releases. Since I don't hate 1990 as much as some do, I like it.

The colour extends to the back of the card.

The rest of the base cards from the first pack. These would look interesting in a 500 count box of cards with the changing borders. I really like some of the photo choices in these, especially the Riddick and Newsome.

Each pack would contain two inserts parallels. A pair of Texas cards were in this pack.

The final 100 cards are SPd rookies, and they fall at one per pack. At the rate, it is still within the range of building the set, although some luck would be nice for adding the big names. Fortunately, my first pack brought the #2 draft pick into my set.

Highlights from the rest of the packs.

As shown with the appearance of Ozzie Newsome, the base set includes legends. The borders do change with the uniform, so you do get a suitable border for this Elway.

Best photo among the base was this Dez Bryant. A TD photo but cropped nicely to give the stadium a co-starring role.

My only Bills card.

I did land a pair of numbered cards. Myles Jack's is a gaudy insert, while Henry is a stat line parallel, numbered to his rushing attempts.

Book value wise, this was my best pull from these packs, with this /10 black press proof of Mike Evans. It will very likely join my next COMC submissions.

But the best pull of the packs, or at least the most interesting? Fans of the Game makes its return, and I picked up this one among my packs. It isn't quite up with an oddball Ginter base card, but still pretty cool to get.

And there you have it!

On The Walk of Fame

When it comes to adding cards to the 2/14 collection, any port in a storm will do for some people. Hollywood-themed cards are part of this quite frequently, where autographed cards tend to command a sum far beyond what I want to pay. So, I'm happy with a card or two from a release of their TV show or film. 2-14-94 (that's 1894) baby Jack Benny did have a couple cards from the time he was still alive, but I didn't want to spend $15 to add him.

I guess it is appropriate that I was cheap for a card for Jack Benny.

However, a couple dollars to add a card that was from some sort of 1987 board game is more my speed.

He really should have been #39 in the set.

I'm guessing he's the first person with his footprints immortalized outside Grauman's to make the binder.

New 2/14 Faces!

And for a rarity with me, all these go into the miscellaneous section of the binder.

Every so often, I do a February 14th search at IMDB to see if anybody appears that has been on some show or in some movie with enough of a following to warrant a card set being issued for it. Kristen Dalton is one of those that came up in my latest search, and since I remembered there were cards for "The Dead Zone", I figured I'd take a look. While I didn't want to shell out $50ish for an autographed card or photo, (although her penmanship is quite nice) this would do in the meantime.

His card appeared while going through the COMC challenges, and becomes my first tennis card in the collection. Guillaume Raoux picked up 5 wins on the ATP tour, 1 singles tourney and 4 doubles ones. He was once ranked 35th in the world, and that's far better than I will I rank at anything remotely athletic.

And a soccer card wraps things up. Much like with Dalton, this card doesn't list Bacary Sagna's birth date on it, but various sites list him as a 2/14 baby, and that's enough for me. He is the 7th soccer player in the collection.

Here's the stats for this portion of the collection, in terms of how many different people are in this portion.

Acting 11
Soccer 7
Golf 4
Wrestling 2
Politics 2
Statehood 2
Journalism 1
Tennis 1
Figure Skating 1

So, welcome three new names to the collection! And there are another three currently in my COMC inventory awaiting shipping.