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.

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!

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!

Sens-ational Additions

 

After a one day break, I'm back to the COMC box, and covering the Senators content in the mailer. I'm leading with this card since it is the only one in the shipment that wasn't connected to e-packs in some way. Fountain played in 2 games over 2 seasons for the Sens, but he still counts towards the 'every Sen with a card' ever.

I guess Game Dated Moments cards count towards e-pack content. Ottawa's season was so amazing that they earned one card all season in this set. This commemorates Bobby Ryan's return to the team after taking time off for personal issues and picking up a hat trick in his first home game back.

Cheap Series 1 parallels and inserts!

Cheap Parkhurst! 

Cheap Synergy! I think I paid less for the past 3 groupings of cards than I did for the GDM of Ryan.

And let's throw in a cheap relic for good measure. It might be a bland one-colour swatch, but at least it can be traced to a specific event.

And there you have it!

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!

Damage Done

 When I hit ship on my latest COMC cards back in May, I was given an arrival date of late September. It showed up yesterday, giving me a 6-week bonus.

So, It looks like I'll be highlighting these for the next bit. First up, it was the major portion of the shipment, knocking out a bunch of cards from my set build of 2013-14 Rookie Anthology. 

I'd already landed many of the major names from the Rookie Selection portion, namely the McKinnon , Galchenyuk, Rielly and the Forsberg. While I'd pulled several Barkov auto/relics from the other sets, I never got one of these.

If not for the Barkov, this Hertl would have been the big name.

The penmanship skills of the Dual Rookie Class weren't exactly the best, so that really leaves the battle between DeKeyser and Hertl for the nicest autograph in the group.

With apologies to my regular trading partner in Ann Arbor, I'm keeping this Trouba for the set. 

There ended up being 13 total Rookie Selection cards in the shipment. Of the rest, I'm highlighting this because with the somewhat unexpected yellow swatch to make it the most colourful of the bunch. I now have 90 of the 96 cards in hand, 2 outstanding redemptions, 1 never-fulfilled redemption (Up yours, JT Miller) and 3 that will be in hand at some point.

I can always throw in a few bonus RA cards, such as this pair of Kitchener Rangers alums.

And I can also add a card from what might have been the only insert set I didn't pull a card from - Complete Rookies. L-R, theres a jersey relic, a seam, a patch and a fight strap piece.

There you have it! More from this shipment next post as I'll recap another pile of Jamal Murray additions.