Cardboard Conundrum Group Break/Trade

Another package rolled into buckstorecards Central. This one brought some goodies from a trade and a group break. I'll start with the latter.

Since my second-favourite team, the Bruins, seem to be more hit oriented than Ottawa, I opted for them. It didn't matter in the long-run, as I also got randomed the Sens as my second team.

Off to the cards, starting with 2007-08 Artifacts.

That's all of 'em! Sometimes, the chips just don't fall your way. How about 09-10 Black Diamond?

Although Ottawa did land a couple cards here, still no Sens jersey. Thomas will be on his way into the mask binder, and the rest will end up in my misc. binders. Actually, the numbers for this break worked out so perfectly with every card finding a home somewhere.

Off to Between The Pipes, which did l;and me my only hit from the break.

At least he's played a few games this season with decent enough numbers.

I also netted some great cards for the mask binder. I think both the Craig Anderson cards look great together, featuring both his Sens history mask, and the one that looks like it was inspired by some drug-addled Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth creation.

There were also some 2010 Score Traded/Rookies in the package. No hit there, but I did net a pair of gold parallels.

And one more drops off my quest for at least one card of every Senator.

That's it for the hockey break. Off to the trade. I sent some set stuff, and relics of Koivu and Letang that way. In return, some baseball.

A bat of a wall-climbing Blue Jay!

A jersey of a Met. If someone told me the Mets and Jays would have 5-2 and 2-5 records after a week, I could have seen it. But certainly not the Mets with the five win part of that equation.

And to wrap it up, a Canadian! With a hint of a pinstripe as well.

Thanks for the trade and the break!

Major news in repack land!

Major news from the land of Dollarama repacks! The hanger portion of the 15 cards for a dollar repack has changed. It went from this:

To this:

I will miss the "Know-It-All Facts", but using the term "Vibrant, Full Action Game Shots" to describe a repack that includes at least 1 1990 Bowman in every one is quite the stretch. The cards are pretty muich the same style, though. Let's take a look, starting with the 2 visible cards on each side of the baggie.

010 Retro Parallel John Mitchell & 2008 Champs Joe Thornton. The two visible cards on each side. A retro parallel and an old-timey-esque Champs card made me decide to grab this one. The handful that they had showed nothing that fit into any of my collections, so it was more or less decided by the retro parallel. Way back when, John Mitchell's mother was a co-worker of mine.

2011 Score Devan Dubnyk. Pretty basic, but still destined for the mask binder.
1990 Score Greg Paslawski.
1992 Parkhurst Darrin Shannon.

2003 Pacific Complete Adam Hall. I don't think I have ever pulled one from the Pacific Complete set before. I always love coming across cards of journeymen type players. He's still active in the Flyers organization, and has played for 7 different NHL teams.
2005 Upper Deck Radek Bonk.
2001 Upper Deck Jeff O'Neill.

1991 Upper Deck Dave Snuggerud. Go home Dave Snuggerud! You are drunk! I've never figured out why I love that meme so much.
1992 Ulta Paul Cavallini.
1990 Bowman John Chabot. Naturally.

1994 Pinnacle Martin Lapointe. Nice, intense face-off picture.
1997 Collector's Choce Aki Berg.
1992 Score Trent Klatt.

1992 Chris Luongo. Much like with the Blue Jays, I'm also working on an alphabetical Senators project. Chris was a need! WOO-HOO!

New package, same old repack fun.

Masked Mondays - Week #13

Card Boarded refers to cards like these as "Goaltending Gallimaufry". Basically, they are cards which feature goaltenders where the equipment doesn't match the uniform, as seen in trade or call-up situations. Sometimes, they even morph into nicknames for the player, as when Johan Hedberg debuted in Pittsburgh after a trade, then call-up from the Manitoba Moose.

For the purposes there, it can be any part of the equipment, including the pads. However, I'm just interested in the masks. Surely, I've got 3 of those for a masked Monday? Yup. I've got at least 3, but these were the first I came across.

First up, Andy Moog. The cityscape backgrounds used by these and their baseball set from this time are among my favourite card backs ever. Actually, any set that incorporated a postcard view of the city would qualify. But here, we have a 1993 example. Fresh from his time with the Bruins, Andy made his way to Dallas. It looks like this photo was snapped at Maple Leaf Gardens. Looking through the schedule, their second game that season was in Toronto. So that would definitely fit for a mid-season entry into the card market.

And since I've shown the before, I might as well pair it with after shot.

From one Dallas mask to another, we have Mike Smith. Mike's current mask of Wile E. Coyote with a mouth filled with roadrunner feathers is my current favourite. Now, we go back to his previous jersey of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Over at card boarded, there's a card from the same set that featured Johan Holmqvist in Dallas, but still sporting Tampa Lightning coloured pads. Here's the other goalie part of the trade, with Mike Smith still sporting his Garth Brooks mask from Dallas while in a Tampa uniform.

And here's Mike in a more appropriate mask.

And here's the final one that I found. We are staying Florida for this one with yet another Tampa example. Since this is a Pinnacle set, the write-up on the back will give you the actual date of the photo. It is from January 4, 2011, 3 days after being traded from the Isles.

Dwayne would eventually get a mask in Lightning colours before he retired this past off-season.

Another Sunday, another Surpsise Box busting

As you know, $2.00 nets me four random small repacked packs. Let's dig in.

The 2010s pack was very red, white, blue and orange. At least I know someone who will appreciate the two cards on the bottom.

The other decade pack of the 90s was far better. A pair of great photos on the Roberts and Roy shot. I already had the Roy in my set binder, so this is a nice addition to my misc. binder. The Kypreos card is as miscut as it looks, but the back of the card is perfect.

The card in this pack that truly stumped me was the Bure card. A search through COMC and zistle produced no clues. Finally, my third choice of sportlots gave me this: "1997 Pacific Crown Collection Team Checklists #25 Pavel Bure". $3.00?! If you say so. It is a neat look with the white around the Canucks logo being see through. And the set itself seems to be pretty rare.

This was the pack with the guaranteed HOFer. That's Dino, and it is the dullest card of the pack, and the only one that won't end up in a binder. Draper's on his way to the mask binder. Kontos was probably the first hero in the early days of the Lightning franchise. I love the way the puck looks like it is coming right at you in the Andersson picture, and the beauty of the Lidstrom one speaks for itself.

And a Superstar Pack. Who's the superstar in question? Luc? Jason? Teemu? Can't say I know. The Teemu is my second card today with a transparent element. Another keeper there. I'd actually posted the Shaun Van Allen one previously as an example of "Uniforms of the Damned.". So that's that.

Definitely better than last week's entry. I got a little over a page worth of binder goodies, and a couple others that will find a nice home in Ann Arbor after the Expo.

Catching up with Sportlots cards - Part 2

Because something needs to take my mind off the fact I probably saw Jon Lackey's career come to an end today in Toronto. Let's finish off the sportlots cards I got and haven't posted about for weeks/months.

Even the dog seems embarrassed to be posing with Scott Stevens while the latter is wearing that sweater. Still, I did intentionally purchase this card. It'll look nice in the defenseman portion of my Kitchener Rangers alumni binder. A section that would include Stevens, Al MacInnis, Larry Robinson and Paul Coffey.

Staying with the animal theme, a classic picture of 'The Rat'. This is another card that qualified for my most wanted list, but not quite my Top 10 most wanted list.

And to wrap up this theme of three animal cards, some 1998 Metal returns to blog after way too long. I'm guessing some non-standard usage of Drain-o was involved when the design for this particular card was envisioned.

This is a card I saw show up on several blogs. I'm not sure where I first saw it, but wherever it was, it immediately put this card on my radar. For 18 cents, why not add it to one of my misc. binders?

How long ago did that Niekro card arrive? I saw this one appear back when that Goudey set was part of a Dimwit group break. For the brief moment the card was on the screen, I immediately placed the card on my mental wantlist. Plus, since one awesome knuckleball card deserves another, I added the Candiotti card as well. Even though I thought I already had it.

And to wrap the orders up, a new Carlos Delgado card for the binders.

Catching up with Sportlots cards - Part 1

Let's see. Some of these cards actually arrived in February, with a couple more arriving in March. I put these to the side thinking "I'll get around to these eventually". Eventually translates to today and tomorrow, evidently.

And I lead with an '89 Donruss? Huh?! It's simple, really. It's another card that mentions something I'd seen in person:

I was sitting down the right field line, watching that grand slam against Detroit clear the fence and bounce its way to the Argonauts end zone on a chilly September evening. While it definitely had a distinctive look in retrospect, I still miss Exhibition Stadium approximately not at all.

Another strange choice for me, but again, the answer is on the reverse.

The little write-up about Joe mentions his time in the Canadian Football League, specifically during the ill-fated US expansion with the Memphis Mad Dogs. The Mad Dogs might have my favourite football logo ever.

This one was a screw-up on my part. I wanted a new Jeff Graham for my 2/14 binder. Wrong Jeff Graham. It is still a neat card for a defunct league, though.

These caused a quartet of Blue Jays to disappear off of my alphabetical wantlist. While some might be struck my the Cognac-y goodness of the Shawn Camp card, it is probably not my favourite of the bunch. David Corrente's last name reminded me of one of my favourite wrestling loudmouth ranters, the great Jim Cornette. Click here to enjoy 7 minutes of Cornette talking about everything and anything.

As for Luis Leal, he looks like the guy in my high school that you could buy a fake ID from. Or so I heard that you could buy one from him. I never had a desire to call myself Brian McGee and stay up listening to Queen.

I didn't think John Gibbons had any Mets cards. I like this version far more than the standard hold the bat pose from his 1985 entry.

Best of the Rest: My favourite 9 from the Bowman set repack

As I wrote yesterday, there were 5 packs of cards that accompanied the Bowman set with that interesting miscut on the Brett Hull back. Strangely, that seemed to be the only one in there with anything close to that type of miscut.

Anyhow, 5 packs. 31 cards. Let's look at my 9 favourite among those. Why 9? The number I could fit on the scanner.

#9. 2008-09 Upper Deck #225 - Matt D'Agostini - Young Guns. A YG card of a player still in the league would be higher, but I already grabbed one of these in the Shoebox Legends draft a few months back.

#8. 2008-09 Upper Deck Super Skills insert #SS8. A Young Guns card and an insert in the same pack? That's enough to move this one into the Top 9.

#7. 2007-08 Ultra Mike Richards #50. Among my several binder projects, I'm also working on one of players who played for the Kitchener Rangers and made the NHL. Richards was a key part of the 2003 Memorial Cup winning team. If I didn't already have a bunch of Richards cards already, this could have moved higher.

#6. 2010-11 Donruss Jason Spezza #145.Woo-Hoo! A Sen!

#5. 2010-11 Donruss Marian Gaborik. Gaborik is the player that appears the most frequently in my 2/14 binder, but I didn't have this card yet.

#4. 2008-09 Upper Deck Daniel Alfredsson #62. If I didn't already have this card in both the set and my Alfredsson binder, this great celebratory photo would have been #1.

#3. 2010-11 O-Pee-Chee Nick Spaling #523. Another Rangers alum. This one, outside of sets, I didn't have any cards for. Binder-worthy indeed. At least once I get the binder going.

#2. 2007-08 Upper Deck Rostislav Klesla #22. Just a beautiful horizontal photo. Klesla looks more like a figure skater than a hockey player with the complete extension on the wristshot.

#1. 2010-11 Donruss Carey Price #72. Just a great photo of Price readying for a period of action in Pittsburgh. This is the type of photo that you could see in a magazine or on a poster in a Habs' fan's room. This actually made me say 'Wow!' in reaction to pulling it. What more of a reaction could someone want from a piece of cardboard?

Just a smidgen of a miscut on the back

I went through Target again yesterday. I probably shouldn't have bought what I did, but given my love for hockey repacks, I did. There was a Fairfield repack box for about $7 that promised 5 unopened packs, (turned out to be 08-09 UD S1, 07-08 UD S1, 10-11 Donruss, 10-11 OPC and 07-08 Ultra). But it also promised a complete set of 1990 Bowman. Since every 15 card repack I've ever picked up from Dollarama included 1 card from that set, I've often thought of it as the patron saint of hockey repack sets. How could I resist.

I expected the set to be a shrink-wrapped collation of cards. I was surprised to see an actual boxed set. I figured I could go through them and eventually post the Top 10 interesting photos from it.

However, one card really stood out from them all. Specifically, the cut on the back.

Upside down and everything. I don't really care about such things. If I did decide to binder these cards, they'd most certainly be 18 to a page, so it wouldn't matter in the long run. The best thing is that the card isn't a Hubie McDonough. It isn't a #95 Gary Roberts either. Take a guess who is on the front of this card before scrolling down.



No contest or anything, Just guess.




Here's a hint. He's in the Hall of Fame.




Here is one more for you: When this card was originally printed, the player would easily be considered a marquee superstar.





Give up?




Keep scrollling!




If you guessed:

Brett Hull, then you win my kudos!

Seriously, what would be my chutzpah level if I put this beauty up on ebay as Brett Hull 1/1?

Finally, my first 1/1

While everybody was posting new year's resolutions in relation to the hobby, I passed on doing so. Mainly because I only had one. I was going to acquire a 1/1 this year. But I had the condition of it not being too expensive to acquire (I set my spending limit at about $10), and it had to fit into one of my team or player collections.

So, when I saw this for $10.24 at COMC, I jumped on it.

It definitely fits into the team portion of it. Sure, he barely made the roster this season out of spring training, but is still a 1/1 printing plate for someone on my favourite team.

Masked Mondays - Week #12

Another three members of my beloved mask binder get showcased today. Firstly, one I shelled out $2.00 to add, and I was very happy to add this beauty into the binder.

A guy with a dog nickname, playing for the desert dogs? Combined with a great side shot of the mask? Worth every cent I paid for it.

I've mentioned Antero's Frank Nitty mask as one of my favourites. A dime was all that it cost to add this one to my binders.

And finally, with Wrestlemania this weekend, I might as well post another card with Jason LaBarbera's mask that originally highlighted Wrestlemania 26 taking place Phoenix. Not surprising that a Canadian player would make sure that Bret Hart was a part of the mask. I only hope that one of his cards from next season gives us a great photo of his CM Punk mask.