A Raptor-riffic COMC purchase

The good thing about being one of about a dozen or so people on the planet that actively cheer for the Raptors, is that you can generally find their cards at a reasonable price. Since I've decided to chase down at least one card of anybody who played for the Raptors and got a card where they were listed as such, it isn't too hard since they've not had a long history, and the smaller rosters make it not too much of a challenge.

It also makes their hits not that expensive. So, limiting myself to only $15.00, what can I come up with in terms of building the Frankenset. Looking at my shipping list from COMC, the most expensive card came in at $1.97.

And this was the one for $1.97. With the Raptors team name acting as the window for the DeRozan relic, this one just seems like a perfect card for the front of the Raptors binder. Although it is really hard to tell from the scan, the name is a lot easier to read with the card in hand.

He only had a short career. Most of his COMC cards were not that costly. But, when for a whole dollar I can pick up a relic/auto of his, I'll gladly take it. I wish he'd stayed between the lines a little better with the signature, but what can you do? There was an even cheaper one for less than a dollar, but I figured I'd shell out a few cents more for a purple swatch.

Since his only year in Toronto was a rookie season, there are a lot of hits of his out there from that one season. I'm looking for a purple swatch of his. In fact, it is the only non-2/14 card on my hit wantlist, but this was a wee bit cheaper, and I wanted to stay within my $15.00 budget. At $1.75, it tied for the second costliest card.

This was the other $1.75 card. Pape didn't have a long career, with 76 games over 3 season, all with the Raptors. But, he does have a nice signature, and I'll always love getting a card where you can parse the autograph.

While I didn't get a purple relic of Charlie, I did get this one of MoPete, at an insane cost of 97 pennies. There's a great design on this one to, as they made the card a hit without completely obliterating the background.

I even grabbed a pair of refractors. Considering all the teams he's played for, it isn't surprising to find out James made a stop in Toronto.

The best thing about hunting down these cards is the "Oh yeah, he did play in Toronto" moments. In this case, Shawn Marion.

Why highlight Chris Garner? It was the only horizontal base card I picked up. Since I had 10 left to scan, and the others were all vertical cards, it became either the odd man out, or the lucky one that got posted solo. Your choice.

And these were the rest. The Alibi is /999 and the Johnsn is /299. The Adrenalyn card was the only where Wright was both pictured and listed as a Raptor.

And that's $15.00 worth of Raptors at COMC.

I can't walk out of a dollar store

Without buying at least one pack of cards. It doesn't matter if it is a repack, or your standard retail pack. It's an addiction. I suppose I could have far worse ones than this.

Anyhow, a huge trade package arrived from Scott Crawford on cards, and I have enough Buffalo Bills cards right now to migrate them from box to binder. So, the Dollarama beckoned and I picked up a binder, some pages, and a surprise box.

Actually, it wasn't a surprise. The box was the open. So, I knew what I was in for before I pulled it off the hanger.

I'd never seen one of those late 90s UD packs in one of these, so I decided on this.

Let's start with this.

Sergei is the obvious big name in this one, but I really do like the pre-game warmup shot on the Kamensky. The Fata is an insert card. Overall though, I'm kinda disappointed that all the vertical cards come off as quite dull photographically. That Brown is another beauty for the horizontal.

I might as well go most cards to fewest cards. Here's the 8 card pack, which usually means junk wax and maybe 1 or 2 outside that era. I get two keepers out of one of these, and I'm happy. The John Grahame for the mask binder, and the Kirk Muller for the misc binder is fine for me. The latter might be the best view of the fisherman Islanders logo ever commemorated on cardboard.

The Superstar pack. I guess Spezza is a superstar now. Yay for the Sens! The Donruss card is of the late Igor Korolev, another one of the Lokomotiv crash victims, where he was an assistant coach.

And the rookie pack. The O'Neill card was visible in the box, and it was the one that made me not care that the box was open. It was interesting enough to make me want to spring for the box. It was a neat looking card. I don't know if that was the supposed guaranteed rookie card, or if it was the Read, but either one is nice, either from an aesthetic sense or the "Hey, that guy actually played more than a couple games to warrant a card" sense.

Not sure if I got $2.00 worth in value, but certainly $2.00 worth of fun.

Still Can't Have Too Many Trades w/ Too Many Manninghams - Part 2

Yesterday, the hits. Today, the base.

3 cards vanished off my most wanted list. This was the first of the bunch. It was one I discovered simply looking through Al Leiter cards over at zistle,  and it immediately became a want. A great pitcher at the plate picture, combined with an interesting bunt picture, and a great view of part of the stadium in San Francisco.

The other two were members of the 2-14 club, as this Takashi Saito

and more importantly, one that's been on my want list for a good while - this Pro Debut card of Derek Norris. I love adding different uniforms to the binder, whether they are college or minor leagues. This is my 10th Derek Norris card for the project.

Also nicely, this trade wrapped up the base set of this year's Archives. I'm 15 SPs away from wrapping it up. Slowly but surely, I'll put the finishing touches on it. Probably in 1 or 2 card increments.

Here's another addition to my Ottawa Senators frankenset. I thought I was done, but then I cross-references with hockeydb, which added several more names to my list. As of now, I'm 4 cards out. Such luminaries as Mike Hoffman and Chris Herperger remain.

My Canadian content collection grew by a fistful of Larry Walkers. The Sportflics cards win this one easily.

There was a small selection of Mets cards in there. My favourite of them was this great card of Strawberry. I'm generally not a big fan of spring training shots, but this one is framed beautifully to place the name on his bat almost perfectly centered. This might very well become my favourite Strawberry card.

I kept waiting for one of these to come out of my repacks. Time to end that waiting.

And my favourite Blue Jays card among them is one of many I have that commemorate this classic moment. Although I didn't have this one.

Thanks again, and I hope my hockey-free mystery envelope arrives stateside shortly.

Still Can't Have Too Many Trades w/ Too Many Manninghams - Part 1

The mailbag came in from Dennis @ TMM again, bringing lots of goodies for my various personal collections. Today, nothing but the hits! Next time, lots of other goodies, including 3 cards that vanished off my top 10 list.

The usual question was asked. What's in your COMC cart? Well, there were a few things, a trio of hits for my 2/14 collection most notably. All 3 of which were about $2.00.

Opening up, the only hit of John Marzano from his playing career. There were a couple TriStar cut autographs of his that were released after his death, but this one is from 1996. It's also one of only a couple releases that feature him in a Seattle uniform.

Another baseball autograph - this one of Travis Banwart. He's still in the minor leagues in the Oakland system. He threw a respectable 10-5 record up this season, but with a 4.50 ERA. Still, that is in the PCL, so it isn't always accurate.

And finally, another Be a Player autograph for my collection, this one of Calle Johansson. Much like with Leaf signatures, this set brings the chance for autographs of players that I'd never expect to see one of in typical sets. I really need to add a Petr Svoboda auto as well to my set, although the cheapest ones are of the other Petr Svoboda, who had a cup of coffee with the Leafs.

And to wrap up the 2/14 additions, this one was a surprise. It's my second autograph and second hit overall for Norris. With this design, the lack of an license actually works.

And off to my PC guys.

I was a little worried when I saw this, thinking it would be a dupe of an auto I picked up a few weeks prior. Nope. That was 2001. This was 2002. It's the same jersey style though, so that's what threw me.

Vladdy relics are always welcome additions. I think I've picked all but one of them up in trades w/ TMM.

In the most recent trade, I sent a printing plate of John Madden stateside. That's not the football guy - it's the guy that spent almost 900 games in the NHL, most with the Devils. So, one came this way in return. Since you can't tell by reading, the card is of Russ Adams. He's one of several "shortstops of the future" in Toronto's recent history. It's the first 1/1 in my Blue Jays collection.

One post down, one to go, and one of many thank yous for the great cards, with more to come.

Getting ready for kick-off - Part 3

And now, the last of my Topps football busting. Combining these three packs, and a handful of rack packs, I'm more than halfway through the set (about 180 out), with only about 30 dupes in all. For now, I'll say that the collation fairy has been good to me.

Off to the final pack, which was a 72 card hanger pack. Unlike the first one, which guaranteed a relic, this one did not, but I still was happy with the contents.

Sure, they're not very low numbered, but I always love pulling parallels of guys on my favourite teams. Sure, his time in Buffalo hasn't set the world on fire, but that's gotta change. Right? Hopefully.?

This is my third of the four potential rookie cards for the Bills in the set that I've gotten. Kiko had a pretty good debut yesterday,  recovering a fumble on a 4th and goal play, and getting a little bit of extra yardage on the play to keep the Bills out of the shadow of the goalposts.

And here's a final trio of Bills to wrap up this packs' Western New York content. With the snow flying, the TJ Graham is easily my favourite.

Without busting a lot of packs, this is my second pink (sorry, BCA) parallel. I also pulled a camo (sorry, Military) parallel of Sidney Rice from a rack pack. I'm beating the odds with something.

And now, my non-Bills favourites from the base.

I'm amused by the fact that Tebow is #316 in the set. Coincidence, I'm sure.

Throwback uniforms are always welcome. This same pack also contained one of Jonathan Dwyer, but this one gets the nod for the better photo.

It's a nice card, but the size of the trophy makes it pale in comparison to Stanley Cup pictures on cards.

It isn't even close.

I'll always prefer Henry 'Gizmo' Williams' post-touchdown flip. But since that has never been commemorated on cardboard, this will have to do.

Another defensive-player-with-the-ball card. It's a nice follow-up to the auto of Thomas I pulled earlier.

And finally, my favourite photo in the pack. The card is cropped just perfectly to see the desperation tiptoe along the sidelines to stay in bounds, with the equally desperate stretch for the score.

That's it for this. When I work myself down to two digits worth of cards needed, I'll probably post a wantlist and insert trade bait.

Trade w/ Cardboard Conundrum

Why not mourn a Bills loss with a small trade post? I can't mourn too deeply, though, as it was poor clokc management and stupid penalties that cost them the game as opposed to just plain old ineptness. Although it there are 15 games left for the latter to take over.

Going stateside: Set completers for Rookie Anthology, a Jordan Staal relic and a Mikko Koivu relic. Heading my way:

This was the only card I really wanted. This is a beautiful /50 addition to my 2/14 collection. I've got autos of Hejduk. I've got relics. Now I've got two great tastes that taste great together!

I would have been happy with just the Hejduk, but there were two more cards for my Senators collection:

My second hit of Jared Cowen - both of which are red swatches. I'm going down the same route I did with Spezza where my only hits were red for about 5-6 hits worth. As the card implies, this subset features players known for their height.

Decisions. Decisions. Does this go in my mask binder or my Senators binder?

Thanks for the goodies!

Getting ready for kick-off - Part 2

And now, the jumbo pack.

I originally was determined to build this set solely through retail packs and singles, but a trip to the LCS with wax sitting out just waiting to be busted changed my plans. I elected on the jumbo because there was a better chance of a hit than just the regular hobby packs.

And believe it or nuts, I actually pulled an auto. A veteran one as well, or at least not a rookie that doesn't even have a wikipedia page to call his own. If it is one of a pro-bowler and a pretty darn good defensive player, all the better.

No gold parallel in the pack, but this one was. Again, the metallic pink really works as well with the football as it did with the baseball.

But the most important thing wasn't the auto. It wasn't the parallel. It is "How many, if any Bills did I pull?".

2 of them! At least for now.

Some of my favourite photos in the pack include these two of a pair of players taking to the air. Seeing these again this morning reminded me of CJ Gable's moves in yesterdays CFL game.

Now that's one way f adding to yards after catch.

Another one I really liked with this simple, but intense card of Brian Urlacher. A great cardboard send-off.

But my favourite might be this team card of the Colts. I loved all the celebration cards in Score's hockey release, and I'm loving the ones that have shown up in this years set.

And now, time to await the misery that is the Bills season opener.

Getting ready for kick-off - Part 1

Since the NFL season doesn't really officially start until your favourite team has played their first game, I'm awaiting the Bills starting tomorrow, and what I'm sure will be another season of misery and agony. But I'll keep my optimism up, at least until kickoff. Loyalty is a strange thing. It makes one keep watching a game where the winning quarterback ends up with a 15.1 rating. Of course, it wasn't a Bills QB that got the win in that classic game.

Getting back to the cards, I've been busting some Topps 2013 football this week. While the base set is the same size as Score's, I opted for Topps to build the set since there are more players in the latter, since they left the multiple appearances of various players to the insert cards. And the card packs/boxes seem more available at various blue and red sources.

Over the past week, I've picked up two hanger packs (one with a Walmart exclusive guaranteed relic), one without, and a jumbo pack at the LCS.

I'll start with the first.

If I'm going to pull a Bill, this is the one I want to see come out. At least until he implodes and makes me long for Trent Edwards. Or JP Losman. Or Rob Johnson.

Another Bill! I'm not sure what the rookie to non-rookie card ratio is for this set, but I ended up with 25 of them in this one pack, out of 72 cards. These, however, were the only two Bills cards I got in the box. No complaints, though.

My favourite photos in the bunch. An appropriate on for Tony Gonzalez and one of his claims to fame, 325 pounds of terror that has his eyes zooming in on some unfortunate Jet, and the football equivalent of the pitcher at the plate - a defensive player with the ball.

My favourite non-Bills player in this box is a Miami Dolphin? I prefer to think of him as a CFL alumni. Or is it now the Patriots we're supposed to really hate? I was raised on Dolphin hatred, so I'll keep saying that's the rivalry. At least until the owner goes off to that great luxury box in the sky, and the team moves to Los Angeles and I decide I'd rather just watch 3-down football.

Off to the inserts. I think I received one from each of the non-hit insert portion of the set. When I'm looking for a favourite from the bunch,  I'll do the same thing I did with the non-Bill pick - grab the CFL alum. Heck, the back of the card even mentions his years north of the border.

And my hit? I was expecting a manu-patch, so to get an actual relic was a pleasant surprise. It being a Cowboy, not so pleasant.