Murray Mania!

 Staying with the COMC mailer, here's a bunch more cards featuring local NBAer Jamal Murray.

This was the only hit in the package, one of Panini's Rookie Remembrance inserts. These usually translate to "we still had a couple jerseys around from the opening photoshoot". I do have one that actually appears to be game-worn in my COMC inventory now, which would be my first when it comes to his relics.

There's something like 40 different parallels from Prizm this year, so it fits that I'd have some of them in my shipment. There's the Purple Wave, Red Ice, Red, White & Blue and Silver parallels. I still don't have the regular base card from this, though.

You don't get a really good look at the Nuggets' "Mile High City" jerseys with those Prizm cards, so here's a few more appearances thereof. 

Perhaps a subset named 'Express Lane' shouldn't have such a busy design.

Shininess!

More shininess!

Shininess with teammates!

While some of his hits are costly from high range sets are costly, his base cards tend to go for a couple bucks from them. It is probably the only way I can add his cards from National Treasures, Dominion, Impeccable et al to the collection. And I'm just fine with that.

And there you have it!

Jamal Murray is Impeccable

Along with my earlier Daniel Alfredsson post, I noted that I was in the lead with over 400 cards of his at TCDB. I also noted that the only collection I've completely entered there were his, my 2/14s, and my Jamal Murray. I only have 66 cards of his in comparison, but I'm also in the lead there when i comes to collecting the local product.

And here's two more!

You know a set is high end when the base cards are /99. But we do have a really nice design here using multiple photos, and it is really nice that they do not use the same jersey on both the photos. The way the photos are positioned almost makes it look like he's passing the ball to himself.

And one high-end base cards deserves another. 

There you have it!

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.

Much Ado About Murray

It is definitely a basketball weekend here on the blog, with today being devoted to the non-2/14, non-Raptor that I PC, local product Jamal Murray.

No matter how garish the backgrounds get, I'll still be a fan of Court Kings. They do have the slight problem here of how to work a yellow logo into a design, but they mix it nicely with the blue to avoid a complete 1991 Fleer vibe.

Here's a far more reserved design on one of those leather rookies from 16-17 Threads. The card is supposed to have a leather feel to it. It doesn't really feel that way, but it is still a nice card.

Any chance to include a card from Chronicles must be taken, with the bonus of the photo featuring an alternate uniform.

There was a whole bunch of shininess in the most recent COMC shipment,

along with some more subdued cards, before we get to the main cards of this post.

Here's the lowest numbered card among the Murrays.

And the only hit of the group. This is my 4th relic card of his, and my overall total is now at 63 of his cards, which still gives me the tradingcarddb lead. All probably increase that lead after Cyber Monday at COMC.

Redeemed!

Just one more pre-written post before I start the Expo recap. This one isn't the traditional redemption post, but instead covers a pair of cards I picked up with a growing pile of Panini points I had, and still have.

I really didn't know which order to go for these two cards, so I just went alphabetically. I was very surprised and happy to see an on-card autograph of Jamal Murray as one of the available cards. It is a gimmicky card, done in a die-cut jersey format, but it is my first on-card auto of the local kid. I'll have a bunch more Murrays, albeit without autos, when I return to my COMC to-be-posted box.

And here's the other one! As I have said in the past, I cheered for the Celtics prior to the Raptors coming into existence, and still cheer for them when their success won't have a negative effect on the Raptors. There were 5 autos I have wanted for my Celtics collection: Bird, McHale, Parish, Russell, and Paul Pierce. This finally completes my fivesome.

WOO-HOO!

I'm glad I held on to my points in enough to get these two cards, and I've still got enough for a second spree.

Murray Mania

Mostly from my COMC-to-be-posted box, here's some of my latest acquisitions of local NBA product Jamal Murray.

I might be the only collector around that really enjoys these towel relics. One benefit from these is that the material allows for it to attract random pieces of fluff on the card that turns these into a multi-colour relic.

Here's some base cards from various sets. The Aficionado design has aged remarkably well, and I really wouldn't mind seeing it return, even if it was part of a Chronicles release.

Parallels in Panini releases generally mean shininess and that's what you get here. The winter parallel on the bottom is the odd man out in this grouping of loudness.

I'll end it with some numbered cards.

Murray Mania

I'll spend Monday with the COMC to-be-posted box and some of the latest additions to my Jamal Murray PC.

Let's start with something garish. But, you kind of expect that from any set that is part of the Kings family.

This card from his rookie season is shiny, but at least the shininess is in team colours for this.

Stars in the background mean that this card out of Revolution is an Astro parallel. As the logo indicates, this is another card from the rookie season.

This post will jump around a lot in terms of release dates, but I'm really just going through this first part in the order they're uploaded. Even though there are only three years covered in his basketball career. This is from this year's release of Optic, and isn't just a blue parallel, but a blue velocity parallel.

Finally! Something subdued as the unnumbered cards end.

Off to the second year, and a dazzle parallel out of threads. The shiny portion of the card definitely has a twinkling marquee feel to it.

This numbered parallel comes from the 2017 release from the National Convention. There's a really nice use of team colours on the borders.

Here's a hit! Despite this card being part of the pre-game materials subset, and despite the photo obviously being a pre-game photo, the description of the back of the card describes it as game used. Sure thing.

I'll end with a base card. A very high-end base card, but a base card nonetheless. While I'm generally not a fan of the bland white and foil that permeates sets like National Treasures/The Cup/etc, at least there's some team colour added to the design.

There you have it!

Expo Recap: Post 5 - The Basketball

I'm switching sports, but here are some more cards from one of the other other sports from the Expo.

When you're presented with facial hair of that quality, you pretty much have to lead with it.

What little Raptors stuff there was at the show was also horrendously overpriced compared to what I can find on other secondary markets. But I did find this hiding among the hockey in the $1 for 5 bin I've posted earlier. The card is also a magnet, so I can use the fridge as storage as opposed to the Raptors binder.

It was 2-and-done for the Raptors content.

Which means these three Grizzlies cards cards gave them the nod in terms of volume for the show. These feature the two usual suspects that end up on current releases - Abdur-Rahim and Reeves.

It might not be Heritage or Archives, but this 1958 variation (from 2008) still deserves to be showcased.

And, as it should be, the cartoons on the back as well.

Now, let's move on to the big stuff. In the recent retail-only Status release, the Status base (as opposed to the regular base), were numbered to the player's jersey number. That means there are only 26 more of these out there after this joined my collection of local product Jamal Murray.

And there was more than just facial hair that made me lead with the Hawkins. It was also for the opportunity to create a perfect sandwich of his cards. Not only is this a HOF signature, it is pretty legible for an on-card autograph limited to a cramped space near the bottom of the card. Throw in a nickname (since this subset was called 'monikers') and you've got a beauty of a HOFer.

Back to boxes tomorrow, and something I've been saying a lot lately - one of the best boxes I've ever opened.