Look what I found!

About a month ago, I came across a 1989 Panini Baseball sticker album that was about 90 percent complete. Shortly thereafter, I came across this:

The only problem was this was only about 25-30 percent done, so I thought up a solution better than adding to my wantlist:

Howzabout a 100 pack box? At 6 stickers per pack, and collation likely being as bad as I remembered, I probably still won't finish the album, but should at least get well into the 90 percent range. I'll start with 7 packs.

Pack 1:

Each pack contained a foil sticker and 5 regular paper ones. The foil is either a team logo, a helmet or a Super Bowl history. If I use the 'first card out will tell me how much I enjoy the set' rule, seeing the old Bucs logo as the first bodes well. The Rice sticker is his Super Bowl MVP one.

Pack 2:

There's the helmet sticker. A variety here in terms of types as well. The Walker is a stat leader sticker, the game photo highlights the first TD in SB 23 and Singletary is an All-Pro. And a Bills one! WOO-HOO!

Pack 3:

One thing I did notice is that the teams seem to bunch together in packs. Hence a pack that is half-Cleveland Browns.

Pack 4:

Shane Conlan with a hockey-esque missing tooth? That's how you make a Bills sticker even better!

Pack 5:

And I get a dupe before I'm even 5 packs in. The one good thing is that the collation is such that the stickers really aren't grouped in a specific order, meaning that just because you get one, you don't get a pack of the exact same ones.

Pack 6:

And there's another dupe. I didn't think Too Tall Jones was still active in 1989.

Pack 7:

And here's the final pack of this portion of the break. While I don't think I'll be showing every sticker in every pack the rest of the way home, rest assured that the sticker of someone named Garin whose last name is not Cecchini will always be highlighted.

Look What I Found!

In a drawer that probably hadn't been opened in about a decade, this was contained within:

Time for a trip down memory lane!

The inside of the cover recaps the '88 season. Only two stickers here, those being the puzzle pieces that formed the trophy.

Highlights from the season on page 2. Lights at Wrigley, 40/40 Canseco, and Browning's perfect game are among them. Doug Jones' record for consecutive saves at 15 shows how things have changed concerning bullpens since this was released. LCS on page 3.

The World Series gets 2 pages. I like that Game 1 shows the celebration with the team as opposed to Gibson's famous trot, just for being something different. The 4 sticker team celebration is the only 4-sticker puzzle in here.

This is what a completed team page looks like. Logo, stadium and team lettering in foil across the top, with the paper stickers starting with "Tomorrow's Headliners", followed by pitchers, catchers, infielders and outfielders. Since the TH portion included the 88 Rookies of the Year among them, these are more second year players as opposed to entirely rookies. There were 3 future Hall of Famers among them - Roberto Alomar, Craig Biggio and Randy Johnson.

All-stars as the centerfold - and positioned nicely so the staples don't ruin it.

Along with the various league leaders on either side, before the AL portion of the album starts.

Closing with award winners. I doubt that supplies have lasted long enough to use the information on the back cover to complete the album, so I've added the needs to my set wantlist at the side. No better time than 28 years later to finish the thing!

Any Port in the 2/14 Storm

While Ryan Johnston made his debut last season with Habs, playing 3 games with the big club, he still hasn't earned a card yet. So, how to I work my way around that problem for my 2/14 collection?

Pick up a cheap autographed photo on ebay! Fine by me. This joins the Milan Hejduk bobblehead as one of two non-cards in the collection. But at least this stores easier.

Local Show Miscellany

I hit the local show this morning, and despite my promise to myself not to, I left with more cards for other people than I did for myself. Let's take a look.

I guess this was the big pick-up for me today. As I walked in the door, I noticed there was one dealer with a table filled with McFarlane figures, with the table labeled "Any McFarlane - $5". Sounds good for me. And as you read it, this has already been freed from its plastic prison for display,

While that has been freed from its jail, this won't be:

It wasn't until I saw a bin with a bunch of encased cards that I realized my Mets collection was lacking any sort of graded card. Fixed that with this 1970 card. If you can't see the text at the top, there's a bonus here in that this a bilingual OPC card! WOO-HOO!

And the first card of this post that will be going elsewhere, with this being dropped in the direction of a Mavericks fan sometime next week.

No dime bins this time, but I still got a couple cards for my various binders. I couldn't pass on a cheap Alfredsson rookie for his binder. That Don Beaupre with Parliament and the flag is probably bound for my mask collection. While that Michael Jordan silver signature parallel probably isn't technically an oddball, it is hard not to view his baseball releases as something outside the norm. On the bottom, it leads off with an autograph of a recent enforcer, and an Ivy league one at that. Next to it, an odd sight. Juan Samuel didn't have too many cards as a Blue Jay, Getting an autograph on it is a bonus. Sadly for Phillies fans, that was his only certified auto until he showed as a Fan Favorite auto in 2013 Archives. And finally, a new Radek Faksa for my Rangers alumni collection.

Like with the Devin Harris, these cards will be on their way elsewhere. Some next week, some when I've got a little more to fill out the care packages. I've still got a pair of repacks, from the same source as last show that I'll show off sometime next week.

Bills! Bills! Bills!

The title can only mean one thing - I've reached into my To Be Posted box, and pulled all the Bills from it.

This is the back of the card.

This is the front of the card. This will be back-to-front in the Bills binder. If you don't know my reasons, you don't know my collecting habits.

Here, we don't have a card. We have a Pro Magnet. I had to choose between adding this one to my collection for about 50 cents worth of COMC credit, or a Jim Kelly or a Bruce Smith for several times that. Despite the fact the latter two are among the guys I heavily PC, I still made the right decision.

But that's not to say my collection didn't add at least one card of Bruuuuuuuuce.

When Kyle Orton retired at the end of last season, I picked this one up simply because I wanted a card of him as a Bill for my collection, but simply thought that the companies wouldn't issue one of him in their 2015 releases due to the retirement. Turns out he has shown up on a team leaders card in Score, and even on a solo card in Topps Inception. Oops.

While I didn't add any Jim Kelly to my 2/14 collection from this go through, I did add one more Bills card to my collection.

As a bonus, this copper parallel is numbered to 99.

And there you have it!

2015 Fall Expo Goodies Part 8: 2-14 Hockey Goodies

You just knew I wouldn't be able to resist additions to this collection.

Let's start with the most expensive card I got.

This Milan Hejduk card came in at $3. It seems rather ordinary. It isn't a rookie, nor is there an autograph or relic attached. It isn't particularly shiny. Not numbered either.

Well, it had something attached to the card:

Not a bobble head, but a Playmaker. This is my first non-card item in the collection. While I didn't plan to go in this direction, at least I can defend it by saying "it came with a card". Although the head bobbles, it is shorter, and noticeably lighter than my actual bobble heads. I'll only count the card as part of the actual collection.

But at least this now means I can pick up a copy of Black Ice by Val James without any worrying about having only one non-card thing in the collection.

Here's some more Milan stuff. With these, he joins Marian Gaborik as the second player to reach the 100 card plateau.

Since I got 4 new Hejduk cards, I had to have Marian maintain his lead with these 4 new cards.

Neither was the big winner though in terms of cards added. Brandon Sutter moves into 3rd place overall with 43 cards after picking up 6 new cards.

 Including his Young Guns card.

A parallel of one of my favourite photos in the collection.

Some O-Pee-Chee regular.

And some retro. Perfect match Victor Kozlov is now in 4th place, with 38 cards and no additions at the Expo.

One 79-80 retro deserves another. So here's Boris Valabik card #7.

The usual guy who had tables of 80s OPC wasn't there. I did have a list of Svobodas and Poddubnies, but only ended up with this one.

And finally, here is another card from that misc. vintage table I mentioned yesterday. This is my 4th card of Charlie Burns, and my oldest card of his.

2 more Expo posts to go!

Tales of a JBF Mega-Box - Chapter 3 (of 6)

Time to continue this 800 ct box worth of hockey with a division-by-division work through. LEading the way, the 8 teams of the Metropolitan division.

And I'll start with Washington, for the simple reason that...

it is a good place to post the second of the two Starting Lineups that were in the package. This is the Jim Carey. It does seem like a good addition to my mask collection, if it were flatter, since the (removable) mask mask that came with it does include a pretty good representation of the eagle/aces mask he wore around this time.

As for the individual cards, way too many to show, but I'll hit the by team highlights.

Leading off with the Capitals. A couple nice highlights here. There's a SP of Langway, a Scott Stevens for my Rangers alum collection, a Black Friday card, and an appearance of the Kolzig Godzilla mask.

Columbus did present a plethora of Rick Nash cards, but we had a couple 'Oh yes, Federov did play for them" reminders. And a three pack of gold/shiny parallels.

More Scott Stevens in the Devils portion. Brian Gionta seemeed towin this battle in terms of volume, but I like the Jeff Friesen for the same reason I like the Blue Jackets of Federov. I'd completely blanked on his stint there.

Wow. While I did remember Roenick's time in Philly, I'd blanked on that jersey style from that mid 00's time period. That's probably a good thing, in retrospect.

Their cross-state rivals had plenty of cards from the usual suspects. Malkin. Crosby. Lemieux. I had no clue what set that middle card was from. COMC research showed it to be from something called " In the Game Be A Player Signature Series Retrospective". While I love the Black Friday card and the great photo on the Malkin, the winner here has to go to the throwback uniform on Guerin.

There were Staal cards among the Penguins, but they were dwarfed in volume by the Staal cards with the Carolina Hurricanes. The big win here are the two new Brandon Sutters for my 2/14 collection, with these being my 21st and 22nd cards of his.

Unfortunately, this Gaborik was a dupe for my 2-14 Collection. But, this Rangers portion of the set does show the insane variety of sets that made at least one appearance in the box. BTW, that's a Kitchener Rangers, not a New York Rangers jersey on the Steven Rice. The local rink board advertising and his sudden ascending to the captaincy are the big giveaways.

The best "Photo on the back" goes to the Rangers.

The Islanders were the sparsest of this division for base cards, but there are some winners here. the fisherman jersey isn't a winner in the traditional sense, just a nice oddity. But the team recovers with a 79-80 Retro parallel, and the best photo of this division with the perfectly timed Ray Ferraro.

But the Islanders recovered nicely, with a pair of hits. Love that Butch Goring auto - one of the better names in the history of hockey. He doesn't have that many autos available, so I'm really glad to add this one to my collections.

8 teams down. 22 more to go!