Chronicling New Raptors

With Panini finally realizing that Terence Davis was a pretty good rookie, I opted to get in a break with the new Chronicles release. It is a rookie heavy product, and Davis made a lot of appearances in it.

But first, here's a base card of Kyle Lowry. I kinda hoped they'd use the more newspaperish design of 2020 NCAA Chronicles, but I guess they hadn't used this design yet in basketball.

Much like with Rookie Anthology, they've included some Update cards in this late season release. Some of that includes guys such as Kawhi pictured with their new teams, and some are of rookies like Kendrick Nunn and Davis that were unexpected early standouts.

Even though there are some numbered cards to come, this update Prizm is probably the biggest $$$MEGApUll$$4 card in the mailer. I'm happy to welcome it to my collection. For all intents and purposes, this is a base card, and it still a $50 CDN card.

Here's the first of the numbered card, featuring Davis rocking this year's City jerseys. I'm not going to look too closely to verify that, though.

One of my favourite designs to appear in the Chronicles release(s) is Elements, with its use of two different photos on the front, instead of the standard reusing of the same photo.

But this is the big card for me in this. I've got an autograph of Terence Davis already, even if that is an Ole Miss one. But Chris Boucher is just wrapping up his second full season with the Raptors, and his only card prior to this was appearances in the team set released after last year's championship win. It is somewhat strange that his first pack-pullable card was an auto, but I'm happy to add him to my collection of championship autos.

This card is from Flux, which doesn't appear to have ever been a set. I can imagine a collector of Ducks alum trying to hunt this version down, with the filter used giving the card a very yellow and green look.

There you have it!

Another Raptors Post

Two posts in just over a week with Raptors content? I've got to recap some group break cards at some point.

Some breaks don't go as well as hoped. But the Raptors didn't have too many cards in Court Kings, so I shouldn't be surprised by the fact I got only this one card.

Then there was Obsidian. A little more high end the Court Kings, but there seemed to be more possibilities here. Unlike with Court Kings, at least I got a base card here. It might also be the first product I want an empty box of, since the cover shows Ja sporting a Grizzlies throwback.

With it being a higher end set, and Terence Davis making only sporadic appearances as the rookie content, you've got to be content with veteran content in these release. Here's my first numbered card in the group, a /99 insert of Lowry.

There's only a hint of it in the design, but this is an Orange Etch parallel of the Pitch Black inserts. The orange is a lot more evident in hand than in scan. This particular parallel is /35.

There's some nice low-numbered cards there, but how do you make a break of a higher-end product even better? Throw in an autograph as well. The Raptors had a pair of autographs in the product - one of Siakam and one of Bosh. While Pascal's stuff is hot right now, I've got plenty of his autographs from his rookie season. This is only my second one of Bosh though, and my first one of his after his time in Toronto ended. He'll probably be the first person inducted to the HOF who spent significant time with the club so I'm very happy with this.

And there you have it!

Raptors Catch-Up

Might as well get back to my COMC to-be-posted box, and showoff some Raptors content.

I'm never going to tire of Championship cards. Throw in the trophy, and they're automatic classics.

Staying with my championship theme, and my desire to get an auto of anybody who has a card and got a ring, here's an auto from one of the coaches. The local product probably got the biggest ovation among the coaching staff during the ring ceremony, aside from Nick Nurse.

Why am I showing the back of a Carlos Rogers card?

Because Skybox put Rodney Rogers on the front! As best I can see, no correction was ever issued. But this still counts as a Raptors addition.

Why scan the back of a CJ Miles card? It is a palindrome 1/1!

The front isn't as spectacular as the back, but this is a neon green die-cut parallel. Which still isn't as good as the 56/65.

This super-hyped Serge Ibaka photo was one of my favourites out of this year's Prizm release. While going for a complete rainbow would be insane, I wouldn't mind a page worth of these.

I also got the red, white & blue parallel of the Ibaka (1/3 of the way there!), so I'm scanning the Norman Powell for variety's sake.

But here's one more Serge for a bonus appearance of the master chef. This Fast Break Orange parallel is numbered to an odd /193.

You want more loud parallels? Here you go! This is an unnumbered Groove parallel.

A jersey number themed set? Sure! I just wish this were card #7 in the set. It is actually #12.

Final card is actually a plate. That's Delon Wright on a rookie patch card out of Flawless, although the plate itself was released with NT. Delon went to Memphis in the Gasol trade, and is now in Dallas.

And that's it! Next up, it will be Observation time.

Catching Up With the Raptors - Part 1

I've spent some time over the past week entering my Raptors collection into TCDB. Almost 1300 cards (including NCAA ones) later, it is done. So, I'll celebrate this weekend by showing off some newness in the collection. Today, 2019-20 goodies! With the cost of even retail being insane this year due to Zion chasing, pretty much all I'm doing is buying the Raptors spot in group breaks. Here's some of the acquisitions.

I missed this when I did the Hoops recap a few months back, but there was a red backed parallel of Pascal Siakam in the mix of that.

If you want to see the front of a Spicy P card, here you are!

Winning the photographic wars of these cards is a super-excited Serge Ibaka. Probably something he ate. I've already thrown a couple parallels of this into my COMC inventory.

I'll stay with Prizm for an insert with a historic feel to it.

/49 was about as low-numbered as my parallels got, with this Press Proof Blue Laser parallel.

Next up in terms of parallels was this /100 Cosmic parallel of Kyle Lowry.

But there was one hit in the whole bunch, and it probably will remain that way until Terence Davis starts making regular appearances, with this Kyle Lowry swatch /75. I'm certain I'm really close to a complete Lowry jersey by now through cards.

And there you have it! COMC stuff tomorrow!

Drugstore Cardboy

With everybody chasing Zion, I'm probably limiting much of my 19-20 basketball acquisitions to getting the Raptors in group breaks. And maybe an occasional retail purchase, like picking up a hanger of Hoops at the Shoppers Drug Mart.

First card out:

John Henson - This was one of 5 traded cards among the first half of the pack.
Stephen Curry
Rodions Kurucs

Aaron Holiday - Rocking the 'City' uniforms.
Robin Lopez
Kyle Kuzma

Jamal Murray - WOO-HOO! My 64th card of Murray.
Kent Bazemore
Draymond Green
Emmanuel Mudiay

Kyle Lowry - Raptors content.
Mo Bamba
Jabari Parker
Mikal Bridges
Karl-Anthony Towns

Andre Roberson - He's played with OKC since 13-14. Why does his card look like he's just been traded there?

Rui Hachimura - The teal explosion parallels are 1 per pack-ish, so while it isn't Zion, this is a pretty good one to get.

De'Andre Hunter - I think there are some different inserts between hobby and retail.

PJ Washington - Well, Zion is somewhere in that smaller photo.

James Harden - The smaller photo looks like a hologram, but isn't.

Brandon Clarke - An auto from a retail hanger? Mind. Blown. Clarke went 21st overall to the Grizz, but any player's auto from a retail pack won't garner any complaints from me. He does get bonus points for being Canadian as well, being from Vancouver.

RJ Barrett - Back to the base cards, with some Cancon.
Isaiah Roby
Alfonzo McKinnie

Brandon Clarke - Contrast the auto with his standard base card.
Coby White

Ja Morant - Another nice 'No Zion, but..." consolation prize.
Darius Bazley
Nassir Little
Rui Hachimura

A parallel of a top rookie, base rookies of Morant and Barrett and an auto? That's probably better than most pack breaks of this stuff.

The Obligatory Raptors Post

As I wrote when acquiring some of the rookie Raptors out of Contenders draft, the one benefit to this season being really about Zion is that teams that aren't the Pelicans can be picked up inexpensively in team select group breaks. And that's what I did with recent breaks of Hoops and Certified.

There was a lot of base cards in this, so I'm really just going to cover inserts and parallels as I go through this. This purple parallel is the most common in the Hoops boxes, and I landed one of the Raptors superstar.

This green was the only numbered base parallel from the Raptors.

The 'City' jerseys get highlighted in that insert, and I really like how the background of the card matches the colours on the jersey.

The big draw for me in Hoops was the 'Road to the Finals' inserts. There's one for every game in the playoffs, with the card listed for the winner. They drop in print run as the playoffs go on, and I got at least one for every round. The usual suspects appear.

This is also part of the RttF insert set. These aren't numbered, but are SPd to about one per case.

Also part of the RttF is this. Like the Kawhi card, these are not numbered, but are listed as being SSP'd. All of these are sweet additions to my collection of cards celebrating last season's victory.

I also bought the Clippers spot in this, hoping to get some Kawhi cards where he's still pictured with Toronto. And sure enough, there were a couple.

But I did land an unexpected bonus for my Canadians-in-the-NBA collection, with this pair of autos from the first rounder.

Are there more Championship themed cards in Certified? Of course!

Here's some of the colourful, albeit unnumbered, parallels as well. Rookie Dewan Hernandez makes his first appearances in Raptors colours, but I'm really hoping that Terence Davis starts showing up in sets sooner rather than later, as he's become the far more interesting rookie on the team in the early going. Still, there's some more Siakam.

And there you have it!