2018-19 O-Pee-Chee Box Break #2

What awaits me in the second box?

Up first, nine base cards. Why these nine? These were the only non-SP'd base cards from this box that were not dupes from the first box. Now that is ghastly collation. But at least the team collectors on my trade list will appreciate it.

At least the SPs weren't dupes. I really like this card since you can see the banner behind Blackwood and trace the card to a specific game, namely the 2017 Kraft Hockeyville pre-season game in O'Leary, Prince Edward Island. Blackwood didn't see the ice in the game, as the Devils crushed the Senators 8-1.

The Silver parallels. The big one for me is the John Hayden, being the 3rd new 2/14 card from these boxes.

A pretty good player for the 1-per-box gold parallel.

It took this box for me to land my first regular Senators retro card.

I didn't land the regular rookie card of one of the more hyped players going into the season, but I did get his retro parallel. I like the design of the black portion where the player's name is, since it kinda gives a vibe of gum being in the pack.

For those that just had to see what the Season Highlights cards look like in retro for, you get your wish!

The black parallels.

Your minis.

And your playing cards. Carey Price might be the product's cover boy, but he still only makes King status in the deck.

But here's an Ace for you! Aces are slightly SPd when it comes to the other playing cards. On the whole, they're 1:120 packs, while the 2-K group are 1:5.

Another rare pull? These retro award winners are one-per-case, if they're at the same rate as previous years. Because of the nature of this set, you're pretty much guaranteed a big name for the card as well.

After only pulling one manufactured patch in previous seasons, I get two this year. While these aren't as rare as the Mario from yesterday, they're still about one every four boxes.

So, despite all the base dupes, there was still a lot of good stuff in this box. I guess I'll have to get my hands on some retail to work on the base set. Repacks up next!

2018-19 O-Pee-Chee Box Break #1

Just a teaser yesterday - let's finish this box!

Obviously, I'm not showing all the base cards in the box. But I'll still show off a few. Such as the OPC-debut card for Chris Wagner.

And here's a couple Senators cards, with the bonus being that both are honoured members of the 2/14 club. I'll be on the look out for dupes (and I didn't have to look hard) for the set build, as these are for #175 and #18 Gaborik and Pyatt respectively.

SPs are in 2/3 of the packs, so I still got the 16 per box like last year. Easily my favourite this time around is this Scott Foster. The one-game-wonder emergency goalie got a card in this year's release. It looks just like any other rookie card in the set, which really makes it more special than just some random insert.

Other SPs include League Leaders, Highlights and Team Checklists. I like the simplicity of the fronts of the checklists - just perfect for a team collector.

Shiny parallels are gone, replaced with simple silver-bordered ones. I really prefer this to the rainbows, which should really be exclusive to Platinum. The Taylor Hall was actually in yesterday's single pack, but I was just too lazy to scan it.

The gold parallels are box hits. They've got a glossier look in-hand, but really don't approach rainbow level in the slightest.

Retro base parallels. There's the 4 colour schemes used throughout.

HA slightly different design for the SP'd rookies portion of the set. I love the large, classic OPC logo on the front of the team checklists.

Black parallels numbered to /100 seem to fall at a rate of 3 per box. Which means there should be 30 something of the golds. There's a pretty nice one here for my Rangers alum PC with that Jeff Skinner.

Playing cards also return this year.

As do the minis! They're far more Ginter-y than they were last season.

And the big boy:

I had never pulled a patch from an OPC pack until this one. That makes this pretty nice. But, this is also a short printed patch. By SP I mean really SP. This patch, along with a Patrick Roy from this subset, drops at a rate of 1 every 18950 packs. That's about 1 every 800 boxes. BOOM! That should pay for this trip to the LCS. I took a look at ebay this morning, and the only one there was listed at $300 US.

And there's still more to come tomorrow, with some more rare pulls! À demain!

2017 Adventures in Repacks - Part 21.1 - But it (Still) Isn't Spring!

Time to revisit one of those 10 pack "Spring Fever" repacks. 10 packs and a bonus Beckett card. These were the packs.

1994 Fleer Ultra
2008 Upper Deck X
2011 Topps S2 * 2
2013 Triple Play
2013 Prizm
2014 Topps S1
2014 Golden Age
2015 Opening Day * 2

I'm going to open w/ the Ultra and the '11 S2, since they're the only ones that need more than one scanning to highlight the entire pack(s).

Here's the Ultra. 17 cards worth of 1994 Ultra:

I was kinda worried that these would stick together. That wasn't the problem for the cards, but the dinged corners were. Still, I get a card of a guy named Pennyfeather and a guy named Duff, so I'm still happy. That On-Base Leader of Andres is pretty loud, but it might be the best card of the repack box when all is said and done. There don't appear to be too many on the secondary market, surprising for anything for this era.

A couple notables in the first 2011 S2 pack. You've got shiny Ichiro. But you've also got a pretty interesting play at the plate card. In fact, since the player appears to sliding and there is no tag being applied, I'd guess this PatP photo took place during a bases loaded situation after the force out and with the ball being relayed on to first.

And the second pack brings the Mets content. I've got several of them, but still really like that Beltran photo. A couple throwbackish inserts with the Thomas and the Rizzuto . Frank is actually the somewhat rarer original back version.

And there you have it. 7 packs tomorrow. Or fewer.

4 for the price of 2

This has happened before. There's a couple of autos I'd like in my PC, but they're part of a lot. So, I grab them, and send the others to my COMC account. Although I did have a home planned for one of the leftovers, it was a dupe for my intended target.

All of the cards were Champ's minis. That's another plus, since that means they'll also all be on-card. This was my first of the wants, adding an auto of former Kitchener Ranger Walt Tkaczuk. He spent his entire NHL career as a member of the New York Rangers, meaning that, except for a few games in the minors, he played his career with teams named 'Rangers' (There's no affiliation between the Kitchener and New York squads). Out of the 1076 games listed at hockeydb, only 8 were played wearing a uniform other than a Rangers one.

Second up, howzabout an on-card autograph of a Hall of Famer? The more affordable half of the Hull and Oates duo.

I had planned to ship that Bobby Ryan off to Greg @ P,TSiA, but I searched beforehand and found out that it would be a dupe for that collection. So, it joined the Mike Iggulden in my COMC mailer. I had never heard of him before, but he played 1 game for the Sharks and 11 for the Islanders, thus explaining the uniform not matching the team name on the card.

And there you go...

2015 Spring Expo Goodies - Part 10 - Box Break - 2015 Gypsy Queen

And now, the second box that I grabbed at the show.

Starting off, here's the content from the mini box with 10 mini parallels. Starting with a Trout, ending with a Puig, and throwing in a Bautista, a Wheeler and a Vlad makes for a really good mini box.

Not enough minis for you? Here's all the rest of them. The Hunter is a SP mini, which should come at a rate of 1 per box. The basics of baseball are also 1 per box, and the silver minis are two per box and are numbered to /199. Peralta and Ortiz are OK when it comes to 2 per box parallels...

But I am more in love with these two bronze framed parallels of Aaron and Mays. That Aaron with the feather on the sleeve is the only base card that might come close to the Satchel Paige that I found in my first hanger box for being my favourite base card in the set. It is a re-used photo, but it does appear that there have been several years between usage, and it had yet to receive the GQ treatment.

Coming one per box, and already having got the David Wright from a case break, this was the Pillars of the Community card I wanted. And got.

There were several of the Glove Stories inserts in the box. I opted for this one with the photo choice that makes the catch secondary to the reaction to it.

But, that's secondary to The Queen's Throwbacks inserts. Unfortunately, two of these are re-used photos from the Flashbacks subset in Opening Day - the Rizzo and the Springer. Looking at the rest of the subsets, the Machado and Castro  also appear to be reruns.

On to the hits. Not the most spectacular relics. Gary Brown debuted late last year for the Giants, seeing 7 plate appearances. At least that's enough to get him a WS Ring. But he's on his third team so far this calendar year, now in the Angels system. At least it is a slightly uncommon baseball relic colour. At least Victor Martinez is still in the bigs.

But the autographs were pretty good with a pair of promising rookies. I really like getting the Finnegan, since he's one of the interesting "only player to" types. In his case, the only player to play in both the college and MLB World Series in the same year. Franco's also a pretty good prospect. So at least that's a nice recovery from a some bland relics.

And there's the box. I'll probably do a slow build of the set, knocking off SPs as the opportunity allows.

And with this, the Expo wraps up, minus a 1960 that will be an insomnia post at some point.