Still Can't Quit Ya!

 The only thing better than one box of RA is two of 'em!

A Rookie Selection that's still in the league! He has returned to Dallas after a short stint in Pittsburgh, both times being exchanged for a 4th rounder. The same fourth rounder. Yeah, that's a strange f'ing trade.

Here's a gold parallel that I actually needed. Not that I'm trying to build this parallel set. Nope. Not me!

It wouldn't be a break of RA without an appearance of the Score Signatures Colten Teubert card.

A fairly standard grouping of Prizm cards, but both rookies were needs for my "I swear! I'm not building the Update set set!"

Here's your Prizm autograph. Looks like Daniel didn't get the "ultra fine" memo. This version of the Prizms is the Prizm parallel to the regular autograph, and is /25.

Not really the most interesting pair of Select cards.

But there's some shininess here. He didn't get many cards over his 7-game NHL career, so this will probably be the brightest of the group.

I guess when I've busted as much as I have, I shouldn't be surprised when even the /99 inserts start turning into dupes.

Another dupe among the hits, but this one can be nicely shifted to the Rangers collection from the Master Collection. Or vice-versa. I doubt I could tell you where the first card is until I hit the binders.

I wrote yesterday that I got a big PC card from this, and here it is. If you remember when I landed the Kucherov, it is the jersey # versions are considered the true rookies, and generally fall one per case. So not only do I land one of a relevant player, but one of a Kitchener Rangers alum. I'd probably recover most of the cost of the boxes with this, but PC cards are nice, especially when you can pack pull a nice one!

Last pack mojo is real!

Oh, Rookie Anthology, I Can't Quit You

I may have put together the base set of this, but that doesn't mean I still can't bust a box of this now and then, right?

I won't break this box down by packs, but I'll just hit the highlights from the non-Score base cards. As I often did when I did case breaks, I'd either lead with the Rookie Selection, or a base /100 parallel. I got one of those in this box, so here it is!

I guess I technically did not get a base Rookie Selection in this, as instead I got this prime parallel. Unfortunately, it is a dupe from my overall collection. Despite Hartzell's career being limited to backup duty in the NHL, this is still a hit for the mask collection.

While I won't show the Score base cards, I'll show the parallels and autos. It is of a guy still in the league (Flyers), so that's always a bonus.

Even though they're all dupes, all of these Prizm cards will eventually find themselves a happy home. 

Shininess! And this wasn't a dupe!

Pretty bland pair of Select cards, no matter how much fun it is to say Nino's name.

Josh Leivo does seem to be a frequent appearer in this set, but since he's a Kitchener Rangers alum, even it was only a half-season, I don't care since his cards can also make their way to that collection along with my mega-RA collection. This shiny beauty is /99.

And if you want your Select /99 autos to have a relic with them, here you are! 

Let's wrap things up with some swatches, unaccompanied by ink. Here's a nice thick seam from Valeri Nichushkin.

But if variety in swatches is your thing, here's some! L-R, there's a patch, a fight strap, a seam and a jersey piece. While I would normally be putting this aside to send to Ann Arbor, I may just hold onto this as it is the only one of these Complete Rookies that I pack-pulled from this. Even /25, that seems odd for as much as I've busted. I did add a Sens one recently, but it is always nicer to open them yourself.

There you have it! And since I can't just bust one box, box #2 (of 2) is next I actually hit a really nice PC card in that post.

2020 Adventures in Repacks: Part 31 - Fleas!

 It has been way, way too long since I had the opportunity to head to the St. Jacob's Flea Market for the necessities. Corn on the cob. Blackberry jam. Pork tails. And cards! I grabbed my usual $5 brick while there as well. These are a brick of about 55-ish recent cards, with a hit in the middle. This time, there were also football and baseball to go along with the hockey. While I did get one of the latter, I also got a baseball one.

I'm going to list the contents by year and product.

2012 Bowman Chrome - Shawn Marcum, Ian Kinsler - Not the most exciting way to start with this trip back to 2012, so I'll opt for this one over the Marcum because of the 'turning two' factor.

2016 Topps Holiday - Brandon Belt, Starling Marte, Jeremy Hellickson, Cole Hamels - I'll always enjoy card where the photo syncs nicely with the borders 

2017 Topps - Christian Yelich, Royals Team, Ken Griffey Jr - All-Time All-Stars - Gotta scan a Griffey card!

2017 Topps Chrome - Bruce Maxwell - And here's the hit. Bruce was the first MLBer to kneel during the anthem, and might also have been the first to point a gun at the head of someone delivering food to his home. He's now in the Mets system. Because of course.

2019 Topps - Robinson Cano, Matt Davidson, Albert Pujols, Robert Gsellman, Wilmer Difo, Matt Chapman, Josh Bell, Kolby Allard, Kohl Stewart, Christian Yelich, Cesar Hernandez, JD Martinez, Mookie Betts, Brad Boxberger, Kyle Schwarber, Jacob Nix, Joe Musgrove, Ray Black, Corbin Burnes - 2019 really brought the volume for this, with a bunch of base cards. I didn't bust too much of flagship last year (or this), so I like the Mets contnet, a throwback, a player taking the air, and some nice horizontal cards. I like Boxberger stretching beyond the border.

2019 Heritage High - Justus Sheffield, Francisco Liriano, Skye Bolt - Might as well highlight the guy here who probably hears "Very funny. What is your real name." daily.

2019 Platinum - Javier Baez, Derrick Rodriguez - I busted no platinum at all last year, so I'm just gonna highlight both the shiny cards.

2020 Big League - Clayton Kershaw, Jack Flaherty, Curtis Granderson, Ryan McMahon, Yusei Kikushi, Max Fried - I'm highlighting the back of the card this time, because I don't think I have any cards that mention the Marvin Miller award. A nice farewell card for Cranderson.

2020 Topps - Yandy Diaz, Brett Gardner, James Marvel, Lou Trivino, Danny Duffy, Sam Tuivailala, Rowan Wick, Michael Taylor, Victor Robles, Elvis Andrus, Tony Wolters, Avisail Garcia, Jose Trevino, Tom Murphy, Stephen Strasburg, Willi Castro, Kevin Gausman, Spencer Turnbull, Aaron Judge, Brock Burke, Chris Shaw, Brewers Team, Brian Goodwin

2020 Topps Inserts - Decades - Felix Hernandez, Turkey Red - Chipper Jones

Lots of 2020 too, but the photos weren't as interesting here. So, you get the inserts and another throwback uniform.

And here's some Prizm to end this. The Stanton is a 'white wave' parallel, with Merrifield being a red, white and blue. Joe Palumbo was one of the visible cards, so I'm scanning that as well to make up for the fact I didn't scan the other,  which was the '17 Royals team card.

There you have it! I'll cover the hockey at some point in the near future.

COMC and the 2/14 binder

Back to back posts with nothing but 2/14 content contained within!

As with the PWE barrage from yesterday, there was only one basketball card in the mix. But this does add another relic into the hits portion of the collection. I still want a mask relic.

Here's a first for my collection - my first Operation Desert Shield card! As for the other one...

The bi-lingual greatness of O-Pee-Chee!

The big winner here for baseball was Scott Scudder, who has jumped to 51 total cards with these 4. The 1990 Topps is also an OPC version, bringing twice the French-ness into this group. The UD card is the gold hologram parallel as well. 

My first autograph of Ryan McKenna, a Sky Blue parallel, and a Bowman Heritage Chrome card help push him into the double digits. He was placed on the 40 man roster in the previous off-season, but is still in the minors, such as they are this season.

I have three Garrett Fugate cards in my collection - all autographs. He does have base cards in this Sage release. 
 

Settle down, Beavis.

Start with a hit from a player with red, white and black uniforms. Let's end with the same. Chronology did have a really deep checklist of random retired players and I was pleased to see Sean Hill on the list. I grabbed the 'canes spot in a couple group breaks. While that did allow me to get some Whalers content to send to Shane @ Shoebox Legends, I didn't land a Sean Hill until getting it from COMC.

And there you have it!

One Card Only: A Real Icebreaker

 I've got a quick return to my most-recent COMC box and an auto I'd been planning to add for a bit.

With his recent induction into the Hall of Fame, more autographs from the breaker of hockey's colour barrier have hit the secondary market. So, I naturally went for one of his first autographs ever on the market, going all the way back to 1997-98 Beehive. This entire set consists of 5*7 cards, so this really feels more like an autographed photo than a card. Thankfully, COMC shipped this in an appropriately-sized top loader, so it got here in good condition. And I've now got an O'Ree auto!

There you have it!

Hitting The Ice

 

This will be the last of the LCS anniversary busts from earlier in the month.

There's 3 regular base cards per pack. I'm just highlighting the Bergeron as the first one out.

Each pack also contained a green base parallel. With only 50 cards in the unnumbered base set, they are not exactly the rarest, but you can't go wrong with a McDavid.

The Ice Permieres are technically base cards, with the numbering being higher depending on how much is expected out of the specific rookie. Batherson is a Level 2, with Suomela and Hicketts being Level 4. That's back-to-back post with /999 cards of Hicketts. That Batherson is a pretty nice addition to the Sens binder as well. 

SubZero inserts return. The rookies portion of this gets the serial # treatment this season.

No relic in this, instead I got this Exquisite rookie card. Yay?

And the auto. While it isn't the biggest name, the Rinkside Signings always have a nice design with the on-acetate signature. So at least there's that.

Not the best box for the book value, but still a couple nice cards with the Dadonov and Batherson to take the regret partially away.

There you have it!

Another Raptors Post

 Any excuse to return to my recent COMC mailer, and a small bunch of Raptors cards.

Opening up, here's a card from their first season. John Salley seems way too pleased to be a member of an expansion team.

I pulled a card from this set out of one of my recent repack adventures. I figured I liked it enough to add a Raptors card out of it to my collection. 

Court Kings is always a "when in doubt, add one to the shipment" decision. 

McCaw might not be a Raptor here, but I did want one of his autographs for my Ring Recipients collection. He probably won't get one in Toronto colours, so this will have to do unless Panini does a sticker dump.

A one-colour swatch, but it is Chris h, so it is a nice little addition to the binder, since he will be the first HOFer in team history that you think of for their time in Toronto.

And here's the big winner in terms of volume - OG Anunoby. He's yet another late draft pick that has developed nicely for the team. Ujiri truly is a wizard.

And there you have it!