Spring Expo Goodies Post #20

Time to dig back into the COMC box for some more goodies.

Opening up with a Willie Stargell from 1981 Donruss. Not an oddball card in the strictest terms, but does feature a rather non-traditional cap sported by Pops. Star. Stargell. It's genius, I say! Genius!

And one appearance of a 1981 Donruss Willie Stargell deserves another.

We had Wrigley Field make an appearance on the Stargell card - time for an interesting pick up featuring a Hall of Famer that played in Wrigley. The yellow portion of the card is clear, and the image on the front appears in inverse on the back. Interesting concept.

Wally Moon might have the most impressive collection of looking hideous on his cards. At least this one doesn't feature a close-up of unibrow.

I mentioned the 13 for $5.00 box in some of my previous posts. I actually ended up pulling two relics out of the box. I'm not an O's fan. I'm not a Brian Roberts fan. But it is hard to turn down this bargain. And hey, maybe an Os fan would want to trade for it at some point.

To wrap up the baseball portion of this post, here's a SP Goodwin of baseball's original juicer! He's in the HOF. There's hope for today's generation!

Gah! Uniforms of the Damned time! I know they were throwbacks, but they're hideous.

And another relic pulled from the previously mentioned box. Gilbert Brule's claim to fame didn't come on the ice, but for the time he picked up a hitchhiker.

Ah surprise box, it's been too long

It's been a few weeks since Dollarama got a toonie from me in return for a random collection of cards. Time to try it again!

Opening up with a pack of 4 2010s cards. I already had the Matt Hackett card in the mask binder, so what should be the highlight of the pack isn't. I guess I'd vote for the Mason Raymond, since it is the glossy parallel. Still, pretty blah.

The 5 card pack with a guaranteed superstar was much better. I'll guess Eberle is the superstar, but for me the highlight is the Mike Smith card. That's the first Lake Superior State uniform in my binders!

And again, the guaranteed card (in this case, a Hall of Famer in Kurri) is overshadowed by an obscurity. The first Swedish Globe card in my collection. I can't say I know a whole lot about Mikael Johansson, but he'll be a welcome addition to my binders.

And to wrap it up, 8 cards with no connection between them. I don't have a lot of cards of Hawerchuk from his Blues run, so I guess that wins this portion of it.

Spring Expo Goodies Post #19

Meet the Mets! Meet the Mets!

Meet the new members of my Mets binder(s).

Let's open with the only Mets hit of the day I grabbed - coming out of a 6 for $10.00 hit box. This was only one of 2 that I kept from that box. The others have been sent off. The others were a pair of Wolverines alum relics that went to Too Many Manninghams, a David Ortiz that went to Swing & a Pop Up, and a Lupul that went the way of an Argyles Sweater.

A pair of Golden Age cards for the Mets. No logo, the pinstripes and colours are Mets enough for me.

And one member of the 69 Mets deserves another.

And a third.

There was 1986 Mets love in my purchases as well. As I added the Series MVP.

The guy who started the famous rally in Game 6.

And some Hojo.

To wrap it up, howzabout a sticker from 1986?

(Black) Diamonds are my Best Friend

After lucking into a nice, patriotic relic card on my last trip through Walmart, I decided to give the hanger packs another go for a second time. The first time through, I beat the 1:48 (or 1:16) odds on a three pack purchase. This time, I hit on even longer odds.

These fall at a 1:126 ratio. More importantly, the card is really beautiful, and worthy of the longer odds on the pull. The areas at the side of the card beside Mike and the ring are clear. If the card were any player other than Richards, it probably would have been placed on ebay. But Richards falls into my personal collection as a Kitchener Rangers alum, so this one is a keeper.

The only other "hit" I pulled was a triple diamond card of Guy Lafleur in the second pack. A wee bit of damage in the corner, but still a binder-worthy beauty.

The third and final pack in the hanger only contained single diamond base cards. But, when you pull the Crosby base, it is still a pretty good pack. I'll say that the bottom of the card where the name in does look a lot clearer in person that when scanned.

Still, my favourite card among the base set was this beauty of Phil Esposito, The darker colour scheme works nicely with the Bruins colours, and the goaltender couldn't be framed better in the background. I did set me off on a search as to who that was in the background. Given the time period, the #30, and the style of mask sported, it looks to be Bruce Gamble. You can then cross-reference it with wikipedia to learn that Campbell didn't start wearing a mask until the 1970-71 season, when he was traded on Feb 1st. If the Leafs wore white at home that season, the photo was taken on Sat, Nov 14, 1970.

I may have over-analyzed that card a smidgen.

Mail call!

A bunch of envelopes made their way to Chez buckstorecards over the past week. Time to dig in.

First up, and arriving last week, were the goodies from a 1983 Fleer Sticker break by GCRL. I grabbed the Jays and Mets, and got randomed the Twins & Padres.

Yup. Joey McLaughlin was the biggest nerd in the history of the Jays franchise. That's on a team with Rance Mulliniks and Tom Henke as alumni. There weren't a whole lot of game shots in the whole break, but the Barry Bonnell one does give a nice look at the early Jays uniforms.

Two of my favourites appeared in the Mets portion. Mookie and Le Gran Orange.

As for my randoms:

Sorry Mr. Davis, you aren't going to take the nerd title from Joey. The Eric Show was the only card in the Padres portion that didn't feature something very yellow.

To offset the cost of sending to Canada, I sent some double play cards stateside. There were a few Blue Jays cards in the return package.

Most notable was this:

John Bale! My list of Blue Jays needed for the Frankenset drops to 2 (both only seem to have 1 card, and they're both in my Top 10 list).

That's one envelope down.

Fortunately, the next two were of the PWE variety. One card apiece.

A smidgen over 300 credits at Listia gained me a new Spezza card. I'm not even sure what set this is from, but it does appear to me connected to when the All-Star Game was in the city. COMC says it is a Panini Redemption card. Whatever it is from, it is a nice, unique card of Spezza.

I sent a pile of 1991 Fleer to Uncle Doc. Only 1 card in return, but it is a nice one. A new Delgado swatch for my collection. I don't really care about the crease when the card is #d to 100. Even better, it fills a page in the binder with a 9th Delgado swatch. Perfect!

Finally, a zistle trade with Captain_Canuck. Since I had two Dave Justice autos from this year's Topps flagship, I decided to unload one of them.

On the surface, probably not an even trade. But getting a card that fits into my personal collections (Non Jays/Mets cards of players who played for both teams) it is a perfect addition. But, there was more.

Staying with GQ, it's hard not to like any Jackie Robinson card. As for Derek Norris, he's an honoured member of the 2/14 binder.

One of the worst Leafs free-agent signings ever?! A sure want for a Senators fan. I wonder if there was any truth to the rumour that they actually signed the wrong player.

A new Clemmensen card for the mask binder. Obviously inspired by the similar and classic mask of John Vanbiesbrouck.

And finally, my second card of a female netminder. The design on the side of her mask is her family crest, which is something I can't recall seeing on any other mask.

No matter what the source, thanks for all the goodies!

Wrapping up my Archives break

I forgot to post a few of the inserts I came across in my break. So, time to wrap up the box break and post the last of 'em.

Looking at the checklist for this, it seemed to be about an even split of current and retired players. So, of course I pull exclusively current players, although at a ratio slightly higher than advertised (1:5). While I'm not a fan of the quick turnaround from this past year's football. I really do like the Cabrera though, even if it is yet another re-used picture. In this case, it last year's Golden Moments. Also reruns: The Kershaw (2013 Heritage) and the Rizzo (2013 Flagship manupatch). I didn't see any of the others at COMC, but I'm guessing they'll show up with matching pairs as well.

The basketball inserts fall 1:24, and this was the one I pulled. Maybe if Reggie had two bats with him, he'd have  better luck with his attempt to Kill. The. Queen.

That's it for all the baseball inserts, but I did pick up a pack of football at the same time. Anything worthwhile?

A SP of "White Shoes" Johnson! Beautiful! It might not have been one of the Bills in the high numbers, but it is someone with ties to the 3-down game, having played one season with the Alouettes. And seriously, "White Shoes" is one of my favourite nicknames in football.

Masked Mondays - Week #21 or Spring Expo Goodies Post #18

I didn't realize until I got home that I grabbed quite the # of 2006-07 Upper Deck cards. This isn't even half the overall total from that set that was in the box.

Curtis Sanford. The Sandman! Or so the bottom of his mask would indicate. If I was promised a visit from the Sandman that adorns his mask, I'd probably never want to fall asleep.

Every time I do one of these, there always seems to be one that looks like it belongs on the cover of a heavy metal album. Miikka's flaming skull is this week's edition.

If it isn't a yeti on an Avs mask, it's an actual avalanche pictured. The worst thing about this card and all Peter Budaj cards is that despite the fact he has Ned Flanders on his masks, there isn't a single one (at least pictured at COMC) that shows Ned. It's a little more prominent this season, so maybe it will show up in next year's product.

Finally, another Andrew Raycroft appearance. I love when masks showcase the history of their franchise.

2013 Archives Box Break: The Goodies

Despite the main complaint yesterday about recycling of photographs, I did like the cards quite a bit, and was quite happy with the cards I pulled. As I said, there weren't any dupes in the whole box. Good thing for set building, but bad if I'm going to put anything up for trade. I'll certainly be making the attempt to complete the base set, but probably not the SPs aside from the Mets and Jays. Although I believe there are 7 Mets among the 45 SP cards.

Every did seem to come out at the odds on each pack. Another good thing. And since all some people want to see are the hits, I'll open with the autographs.

Not a Met or Jay, but I'm happy with an Rookie Cup Expo as a consolation prize, even if Delino is probably better known as being the guy they got when the Dodgers traded away some guy named Pedro Martinez. It appears that Dan Gladden's pen died in the process of signing his name. Interestingly, I noticed that these two cards were pretty much in alphabetical order when comes to card numbers. FFA-DD and FF-DG respectively. I was curious if this was the case, so I headed off to youtube to see if the pattern was unique to mine. It didn't seem to be, but I did see another box that had the exact same pairing of autos.

But, at least I've heard of both these guys. While I love hits, no matter who the player, it really takes the wind out of one's sails somewhat when the player doesn't even have a wikipedia entry.

While I do like they kept the original Gladden 1987 backs, they could have at least either decided on whether to use Dan or Danny on the card.

Now that's nit-picking.

Two more hits, this time with the /199 parallels. The border of the 1990 design really looks nice in shiny form. No Mets here either, but a Blue Jay and both players having ties to the franchise again works as a consolation prize.

Better Mets luck here with the 1983 All-Star inserts. I'll second Mark at This Way To The Clubhouse. That is a beautiful card of Darryl Strawberry.

More Mets love with the stickers as well.

Given the # of Mets in the SP portion of the set, the odds were in my favour of pulling at least one from them. I'd rather the Mookie, but the guy who threw the final pitch in 1986 is also welcome. I with they'd have used a different set for Hough, since you can't see his knuckleball grip. The Otis Nixon 1992 card was also a horizontal one, so it is nice to see that remaining so with his Archives hit. It's also probably my favourite photo of the bunch. The Vince Coleman one is pretty close, though.

Now, on to the base. I won't subject you to 160+ cards, just my favourites.

I'm a biased Mets fan , but this one of Doc is my favourite non SP base card. A bonus is that appears to be a picture from 1986 based on the patch.

I pulled two Reggie Jacksons from this box (the basketball insert), and neither one has him with the Yankees! YES! The Bryce Harper one is about as silly as any picture in this set is going to get.

Kudos, Topps for using the older Brewers and Orioles logos on these cards. How can anyone not like that smiling oriole? The other base cards for the Orioles (Bundy, Jones, Chen) and Brewers (Segura) used the current logos.

Some of the 1990 cards look to have actually made an effort to make the border colours match the team logos. While the purple works for the Rockies, there are some stranger choices. Unless the card featured the Phillie Phanatic, why would green be used for the Phillies?

And the borders and text are consistent for teams across this portion of the set. Another plus. This is also my first full-sized card for Scott Diamond, who is from just down the road in Guelph, Ontario.

My only real complaint is the re-used photos, and if that's my primary complaint, I'll be happy.

2013 Archives Box Busting - Good Thing/Bad Thing

My LCS finally got in Archives boxes yesterday evening, and I went down right away to get my pre-ordered box. I got right to ripping, and came up with some pretty nice cards once everything was opened. It was my favourite base set from last season, mainly because I liked the idea of "If I don't like one base design, wait 50 cards and it will change".

I'll probably get more into things later today or tomorrow by showing some of my favourite pulls, base, hit or otherwise. But this morning, in return for a tasty RAM chip, I'm going to say one good thing and one bad thing about the box.

Good Thing: Collation. It couldn't have been better. 24 packs. 8 cards per. Not a single duplicate in the box. What more could one ask for?

Bad Thing: Re-used photographs. The first one the jumped out at me was the Altuve. The retro uniform card was one of my favourites of the Series 1 flagship. It had to just be a coincidence the photos looked very similar, right?

Nope. Same shot. Just cropped differently.

Since the Blue Jays game was starting late out in San Diego, I decided to look to see if any others matched up.

Well...

Here's another one from the flagship.

And from the "This is ridiculous" files, here's one that goes back a few weeks to recycle a picture from an earlier set.

When considering only cards I had, and not counting retired players or posed shots, these were the ones I came up with that appear to be recycled photos from sets within the past year.

6 Adrian Gonzalez - Flagship
22 Alex Rios - Flagship
23 Jordan Zimmermann - GQ Relics
56 Josh Reddick - Bowman
89 Barry Zito - Flagship
93 Ian Desmond - Flagship
107 Kendrys Morales - Heritage
109 Sergio Romo - Flagship
116 Billy Butler - Topps Tribute Autos
132 Bronson Arroyo - Flagship
151 Jason Motte - GQ Relics
152 Craig Kimbrel - 1972 Minis
168 Pablo Sandoval - Museum
169 Pedro Alvarez - GQ Relics
176 Jose Altuve - Flagship
189 Homer Bailey - GQ

Ugh. Not good. And that chain link fence on the back of some of the Red Sox set looked awfully familiar from last years Heritage. In fact, the Jon Lester does appear to be the same photo as well.